CLEMENT
24
CLEMENT
pope's success in Roman affairs is evidenced by his
confirmation of the ephemeral but then unavoidable
rule of Cola di Rienzi (20 May to 15 Dec, 1347). His
later condemnation of this arrogant tribune was large-
ly instrimiental in bringing about his fall from power.
Shortly after these events the jubilee year of 1350
brought an extraordinarily large number of pilgrims
to the Eternal City. In his attempt to strengthen
the Guelph party in Italy the pope met with failure,
and was constrained to cede the city of Bologna to
the Archbishop of Milan for a period of twelve years.
Clement took up with ardour the long-standing
conflict between the Emperor Louis the Bavarian and
the papacy. The former had offended the religious
feelings of many of his adherents by arbitrarily
annulling the marriage of Marguerite Maultasch,
heiress of Tyrol, and John Henry, Prince of Bohemia.
The popular discontent was still further intensified
when the emperor authorized his own son to
marry the same princess. Louis consequently was
ready to make the greatest concessions to the pope.
In a writing of September, 1343, he acknowledged his
unlawful assumption of the imperial title, declared his
willingness to annul all his imperial acts and to sub-
mit to any papal penalty, but at the same time wished
to be recognized as King of the Romans. Clement de-
manded as further conditions that no law should be en-
acted in the empire without papal sanction, that the
binding-force of Louis's promulgated royal decrees
should be suspended until confirmation by the Holy
See, that he should depose all bishops and abbots
named by himself, and waive all claim to the sov-
ereignty of the Papal States, Sicily, Sardinia, and
Corsica. Louis submitted the pope's demands to the
consideration of the German princes, at a time when
anti-papal feeling ran very high in Germany, as a
result of the separation of the Archbishopric of Prague
from the ecclesiastical province of Mainz (30 April,
1344). The princes declared them unacceptable, but
also spoke of the necessity of electing a new king in
place of Louis, whose rule had been so disastrous to
the empire. The pope on 7 April, 1346, deposed
Henry of Virneburg, Archbishop of Mainz and an
ardent partisan of the reigning emperor, and named
the twenty-year-old Gerlach of Nassau to the see.
On 13 April of the same year he launched a severe
Bull against the emperor, in wloich he requested the
electors to give him a successor. Charles of Luxem-
burg, the pope's candidate and former pupil, was
elected King of Germany (11 July, 1346), by his
father, John of Bohemia.'by Rudolf of Saxony, and
thethree ecclesiastical electors. Charles IV (1346-78)
substantially accepted the papal demands, but his
authority was not immediately recognized through-
out Germany. The coimtry was on tTie verge of ci\'il
war, when Louis the Bavarian suddenly cUed while
engaged in a boar-hunt near Munich (1 1 October,
1347). The opposition of Gunther of Schwarzburg
(d. 14 June, 1349) to Charles was but of short dura-
tion. Left without a protector, through the death
of Louis, William of Occam and the schismatical Friars
Minor now made their submission to the pope. About
1344 Clement VI granted the sovereignty of the
Canary Islands to the Castilian Prince Louis de la
Cerda, on condition that no other Christian ruler had
acqiiired any right to their possession. The new
sovereigin, who was accorded the title of Prince of
Fortunia, agreed to introduce Christianity into the
islands and to pay tribute to the Holy See. He could
not, however, take effective possession of the terri-
tory, which was not iiermanently converted at this
time, even though a special bishop (the Carmelite
Bernard) was named for the islands in 1351. The
pope's attempts to reunite the Greeks and Armenians
with the Roman Church led to no definite results.
The East desired not so much a return to doctrinal
unity as assistance against the Turks. A crusade
against the latter, which was imdertaken in 1344,
ended in a barren truce.
More of a temporal prince than an ecclesiastical ruler, Clement was munificent to profusion, a patron of arts anil letters, a lover of good cheer, well-ap- pointed banquets, and brilliant receptions, to which ladies were freely admitted. The heavy expenses necessitated by such pomp soon exhausted the funds which the economy of Benedict XII had provided for his successor. To open up new sources of revenue, in the absence of the ordinary income from the States of the Church, fresh taxes were imposed and an ever- increasing number of appointments to bishoprics and benefices was reserved to the pope. Such arbitrary proceedings led to resistance in several countries. In 1343 the agents of two cardinals, whom Clement had appointed to offices in England, were driven from that coimtry. Edward III vehemently complained of the exactions of the Avignon Court, and in 1351 was passed the Statute of Provisors, according to which the king reserved the right of presentation in all cases of papal appointments to benefices. The memory of this pope is clouded by his open French partisanship and by the gross nepotism of his reign, t'lement VI was never- theless a protector of the oppressed and a helper of the needy. His courage and charity strikingly ap- peared at the time of the Great Pestilence, or Black Death, at Avignon (1348-49). While in many places, numerous Jews were massacred by the populace as being the cause of the pestilence, Clement issued Bulls for their protection and afforded them a refuge in his little State. He canonized St. Ivo of Trdguier, Brittany (d. 1303), the advocate of orphans (June, 1347), condemned the Flagellants, and in 1351 cour- ageously defended the Mendicant friars against he accusations of some secular prelates. Several sermons have been preserved of this admittedly learned pope and eloquent speaker. He died after a short illness, and, according to his desire, was inferred at La Chaise- Dieu. In 1562 liis grave was desecrated and his re- mains burned by some Huguenots.
B.4LUZE. VittB Paparum Avmion. (Paris, 1693), I, 243-322, 829-925; Christophe. Hist, de la papautr pendant le XIV^ siccle (Paris. 1853); Hofler, Die avignonensischen Papsle (Vienna, 1871): MiJSTZ, L'argejit et le luxe d la cour pemtif. in Rev.des quest. /ji'5^(Paris. 1879) , v. 378; Werunskt, Exeerpta ex registris Ctementi^ VI et Innocentii VI (Innshruck, 1885); Idem, Gescft. Karls IV. (Innsbruck, 1880-92'); Desprez. Lettres closes patentes et curiales des pape.-,- d'A vi^noji sf mpporlnnt d la France, Clement W (Paris, 1901); Bohmek, / . < '. . •« ofrmonKarum (Stutt- gart. 1843, 1868), I, I\'; Im: .! .. '•I.mumenla Vaticana res gestas Bohemicas illustrnti' . 1 . 1 ' irmentis VI: Gay, Le Pape Clement VI el les afjai,.. dO'uni (Paris, 1904); Kihsch, Die Verwaltung der Annatcn unttr Ktemens VI. in Romische Quartalschrift (1902). 125-51; Hefele-Knopfler, Concilien- gesch. (Freiburg, 1890). VI, 663-75, passim; Pastor, Gesch. der Pctpste (Freiburg, 1901\ T, 89-95, passim, tr. Antrobus (London, 1891), I. S5~92; fREionTf.N. His(. of the Papacy (London, 1892), I. 44- tS; Bf.hi.iihe. Suppliques de Clement VI (Paris, 1906): Tuevalier. Bin-BihI. ( Paris, 1905), I, 954-55. Hergenrother-Kikscu, Kirchcngc^ick. (4th ed., 1904), II, 735-37.
N. A. Weber.
Clement VII, Pope (Giulio de' Medici), b. 1478; d. 25 Septomlier, 1.534. Giulio de' Medici was born a few months after the death of his father, Giuliano, who was slain at Florence in the dis- turbances which followed the Pazzi conspiracy. Although his parents had not been properly married, they had, it was alleged, been betrothed per sponsalia de priBsenli, and Giidio, in virtue of a well-known principle of canon law, was subsequently de- clared legitimate. The youth was educated by his tmcle, Lorenzo the Arms or Clem- Magnificent. He was made a Knight '^'""^
of Rhodes and Grand Prior of Capua, and, upon the election of his cousin Giovanni de' Medici to the papacy as Leo X, he at once became a person of great consequence. On 23 September, 1513,