Pope Gregory XI

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Clement VI
Personal details
Born
Pierre Roger de Beaufort

c. 1329
Maumont, Limousin, Kingdom of France
Died27 March 1378(1378-03-27) (aged 48–49)
Rome, Papal States
Coat of armsGregory XI's coat of arms
Other popes named Gregory
Papal styles of
Pope Gregory XI
His Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Religious styleHoly Father
Posthumous styleNone

Pope Gregory XI (

French pope recognized by the modern Catholic Church. In 1377, Gregory XI returned the Papal court to Rome, ending nearly 70 years of papal residency in Avignon, France. His death was swiftly followed by the Western Schism involving two Avignon-based antipopes
.

Early life

Pierre Roger de Beaufort was born at

benefices upon his nephew and in 1348, created the eighteen-year-old a cardinal deacon. The young cardinal attended the University of Perugia, where he became a skilled canonist and theologian.[2]

Conclave 1370

Main article: 1370 papal conclave
Coronation of Gregory XI

After the death of

Notre Dame des Doms in Avignon.[4]

Papacy

Immediately on his accession he attempted to reconcile the Kings of France and England, but failed. Gregory confirmed a

language revival and to communicate with their flocks in the local vernacular, instead of allowing the Church to become a tool of linguistic imperialism and coercive language death.[6]

Gregory also tried to undertake a crusade due to pleas from Catherine of Siena in 1376[7] by continuing Pope Urban V's call for Christians to stop fighting other Christians, which Urban called for in November 1366.[8] Efforts were also made to reform corrupt practices in the various monastic orders, such as collecting fees from persons visiting holy sites and the exhibiting of faux relics of saints.[7]

Like the preceding popes of Avignon, Gregory XI made the mistake of appointing Frenchmen, who did not understand the Italians and whom the Italians hated, as legates and governors of the ecclesiastical provinces in Italy. Italian city states opposed the move of the papacy back to Rome and specifically Florence opposed to the move due to Gregory wanting to expand the Papal states upon the papal return to Rome.

Bernabo Visconti of Milan, had, in 1371, made himself master of Reggio and other places that were feudatory to the Holy See. Gregory XI excommunicated him and later declared war on him in 1372 against a Florentine led coalition of Italian city states, which later became known as the War of the Eight Saints (1375–1378). After war broke out, Gregory excommunicated the city and placed the city under interdict on 31 March 1376[10] in an attempt to quell the rebellion. Catherine of Siena tried to convince Gregory to stop the war on behalf of the Florentine state.[2] This proved to be futile as the war did not end until after Gregory's death. The war ended with a peace treaty concluded at Tivoli in July 1378, negotiated with Pope Urban VI following the death of Gregory XI.[9]

Return to Rome

A bolognino of Gregory XI

The return to Rome from Avignon had been an issue since Pope Clement V moved the papacy to Avignon in 1309.[11] From Popes Clement V to Urban V, the popes of the Avignon Papacy had their reasons to stay in France and not return to Rome. After 68 years of papal rule from France, Gregory XI moved the papacy back to its former seat of power of Rome in 1377.[12]

Gregory was constantly receiving pleas from Catherine of Siena through letters. In total, she wrote 14 letters between 1375 and 1378 until Gregory died. These letters dealt with different matters such as peace, church reform, and moving the papacy back to Rome. Catherine persuaded him by saying that it was easier to achieve Gregory's goal of peace among the city states in Italy by expanding the influence of the Papal states if the papacy were back in Rome.[7]

The return of the Curia to Rome began on 13 September 1376. Despite the protests of the French king and the majority of the cardinals, Gregory left Avignon on that day and made his way to

Corneto on 6 December, he decided to remain there until arrangements were made in Rome concerning its future government. On 13 January 1377, he left Corneto, landed at Ostia the next day, and from there sailed up the Tiber to the monastery of San Paolo. On 17 January he left the monastery to make a solemn entrance into Rome that same day.[13][14][15]

Death

Gregory XI did not survive much longer after his move to Rome. He died on 27 March 1378 aged 48–49.[16] Pope Urban VI, an Italian, was elected to the papacy after his death. However, his decision to move the papacy back to Rome led to the Western Schism and the rise of the Antipopes. Most of Europe supported Clement VII (now considered an antipope) as the true pope.[17]

Subsequently, the Western Schism created by the selection of rival popes forced Europe into a dilemma of papal allegiance. This schism was not resolved fully until the Council of Constance (1414–1418).[18]

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ McBrien, Richard P. (2000). Lives of the Popes. HarperCollins. p. 245.
  2. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Ott, Michael (1909). "Pope Gregory XI". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 6. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ G. Mollat The Popes at Avignon 1305–1378, London 1963, p. 59
  4. ^ S. Miranda Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort (Pope Gregory XI)
  5. ^ Hayez, Michel (2002). "Gregorio XI, papa". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Vol. 59. Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana.
  6. ^ Jelle Krol (2020), Minority Language Writers in the Wake of World War One: A Case Study of Four European Authors, Palgrave. Page 219.
  7. ^ a b c Villegas, D., 2021. Catherine of Siena's spirituality of political engagement. HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 77(2).
  8. ^ Clarke, Peter D. "BETWEEN AVIGNON AND ROME: MINOR PENITENTIARIES AT THE PAPAL CURIA IN THE THIRTEENTH AND FOURTEENTH CENTURIES." Rivista Di Storia Della Chiesa in Italia, vol. 63, no. 2, 2009, pp. 455–510
  9. ^ a b Peterson, David S. 2002. "The War of the Eight Saints in Florentine Memory and Oblivion." In Society and Individual in Renaissance Florence, Ed. William J. Connell.
  10. ^ Williman & Corsano 2002, pp. 427–481.
  11. ^ Rollo-Koster 2015.
  12. ^ "The Popes of the Avignon Papacy in Order".
  13. ^ Rollo-Koster 2008, p. 182.
  14. ^ Francis Thomas Luongo, The Saintly Politics of Catherine of Siena, xii.
  15. ^ Harvey, Margaret The English in Rome, 1362–1420: Portrait of an Expatriate Community, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 3.
  16. ^ Richardson, C., 2009. Reclaiming Rome: Cardinals in the Fifteenth Century. Leiden: Brill.
  17. ^ Walsh, M., 2011. The Cardinals: Thirteen Centuries of the Men Behind the Papal Throne. Grand Rapids, Mich.: William B. Eerdmans Pub.
  18. ISBN 978-1-59020-123-7
    .

References

Further reading

External links
Catholic Church titles
Preceded by
Urban V
 Pope
1370–1378 		Succeeded by
Urban VI
as Roman pope
Succeeded byas Avignon pope
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