CHAPTER V
THE AGE OF THE REFORMING COUNCILS
The development of theories of papal power may next be traced in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Pursuing the method adopted hitherto, we will endeavour to describe the facts as objectively as possible, and then to relate the criticisms to which they have given rise within the Roman obedience.
1. With the fourteenth century (1305) the Popes transferred their residence from Rome to Avignon. There they continued for seventy years. It was to the papal prestige a period of unmixed calamity. The authority of the Church was subordinated to France. Rome made numerous overtures to secure the Popes' return. Europe at large was jealous of the French preponderating influence ; and France was naturally reluctant to lose its ascendancy.
But the "Babylonish Captivity of the Papacy," with its inevitable effect on theories of papal power, was to be followed by a worse disaster : the Great Schism of forty years (1378–1417). On the death of Gregory XI. in 1378 the Cardinals had before them a great alternative : either to elect an Italian and so secure residence in Rome, or to elect a Frenchman and so continue the residence at Avignon. The Conclave met in Rome, and was furiously beset by magistrates and people, demanding a Roman or at least an Italian Pope.
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