The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages
Papal Government
We are now at the turning point in our narrative, at the end of the so-called Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and at the beginning of the Great Schism, as it is somewhat confusingly known (confusing because there's another Great Schism, between the Roman Catholic and the Greek Orthodox churches). Before returning to the narrative, though, it is appropriate to take a moment to consider the formal organization and function of papal government. It's appropriate because the Avignonese Papacy contributed greatly to the form of that government and because some of its strengths and weaknesses will be relevant to the later narrative.
The French popes at Avignon were not the first to work for a centralization of power within the Church, but many of the trends of the preceeding century find culmination here, so this is a convenient place to talk about the formal structure of papal government. Working from many of the same motivations as lay lords, and facing many of the same sorts of obstacles, the 14th century popes worked hard to gather power into their own hands.
Centralization was, however, one of the hallmarks of the popes at Avignon. They had a number of capable administrators, especially Pope John XXII (1316-1334), who worked tirelessly to organize and exploit the bureaucracy.
The papal household itself grew tremendously and was the true center of power within the Church, even as a royal household was the true center of power within a kingdom. The papal court numbered three to four hundred people and included such interesting offices as the keeper of the papal plate and the keeper of the papal zoo.
The College of Cardinals
Every bit as important as the papal household was the College of Cardinals. The cardinals were viewed as the Senate of Christendom; they were the barons of the Church advising their lord. The pope consulted them in all important matters and used them to fill high administrative offices. And, of course, one of their most significant functions was to elect a new pope.
Their numbers varied. Under John XXII there were nineteen of them. Each was a great prince in his own right, with his own household: forty or fifty, though a few had seventy or eighty. They had their own palaces in Avignon and their own castles in the countryside. They had their own sources of revenue, but they also shared in some of the papal revenues. And they were always angling for a bigger share.
Each cardinal was was a prince of the Church, with scores or even hundreds in his household. There were twenty or thirty cardinals at Avignon, so even the pope with his cardinals accounted for literally thousands of new residents in the city.