Avignon Papacy

and adventurers with an eager ambition to rise above their minor status. Alonso de Borgia, a man who’s greatest success came from when he helped end the Great Schism in Western Europe, in which two rival popes, one in Avignon and the other in Rome, disputed their claims to the papacy in Rome. Alonso was rewarded as the Bishop of Valencia, and was later made into a cardinal. Surprisingly, he led a strict pious and virtuous life,…

She was canonized on June 29th 1461, by Pope Pius the 2nd. Her mother had at least 25 children, of which she was the 25th (her mother was 40 when she was born). She was born into a middle-class family in Siena, Italy. She had visions of God throughout her life, and her first vision was Christ sitting on a throne when she was 5 or 6. She decided to devote her life to god when she was 7. When she was 16, her sister, Bonaventura, died, and her parents tried to have Catherine marry Bonaventura’s…

Boniface go, which they did. Not very long after, Pope Boniface VIII died, in the same year as his brief capture by the French. His death led to continued confusion and a lack of stability in the church, most notably with the beginning of the Avignon Papacy in 1305 that would last until 1378. This confusing period of Catholic history is admittedly fairly comical, at one point there were three accepted popes in power, all in different areas of Europe who, at one point, all excommunicated one…

But he was too young to govern, so Innocent III was able to take the power in his hands. Authority shifted once again from secular to the spiritual power. Innocent III papacy is truly a zenith of Churches influence. But as Frederick II was getting older, he started to object church’s control and secular vs spiritual issues started to arouse again. One of those issues took place because of the fifth crusade. Contrary to…

This was because of the confusion it caused. In 1376, the papacy moved from France back to Rome. The papacy is the office or authority of the Pope. Around the same time, French cardinals elected a new pope, Clement VII. Both popes, Urban VI and Clement VII, claimed to be the rightful pope, causing conflict and confusion among the…

end a war between the papacy and Florence and the other Italian states. Later in her life during her last days, she attempted to end the division that the election of two rival popes created. If this problem was left completely unattended to however, the outcome would most probably have been very different. She also joined the Third Order of St. Dominic at the age of 16. “Catherine devoted a great deal of her energy to religious reform…She also worked to end the war the papacy waged against…

church. Seen in the theology of reformist Zwingli in Zurich as well as in England with the creation of the Church of England, dismantling the Catholic view of two swords of spiritual and temporal authority held by the pope, both regions broke with the papacy, giving both swords to the local government. While nationalism and anticlerical views helped pushed the government towards Erastian rule, it is the leaders of both Zurich’s small magistrate councils and England’s monarchy who eventually…

church there is “neither salvation or remission of sins. (RMA p.425)” Boniface, making an indirect reference to Philip, states “there is one body and one head, --not two heads as if it were a monster. (RMA p.425)” These particular quotes from the papacy are attempting to convey to the clergy that worldly powers, such as King Philip IV, cannot promise one’s salvation and eternal life as this is an act that only the church can perform. These quotes also emphasize one of the church’s most basic…

leading to unrest and changes in thinking. The ultimate fall of medieval society in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was heavily influenced by conflicts created by the devastating famine and plague that swept Europe, the decline of the Christian papacy, and violence during and after the Hundred Years’ War. Starting in the…

the bravery, compassion and generosity that had Catherine endured. Raymond was involved with Catherine in some of the important undertakings such as to see the crusade against the Turks to be launched as well as the negotiation of peace between the papacy and Florence and the plea to make Pope Gregory XI, return to Rome from…