Pope Benedict XII, born Jacques Fournier, was head of the Catholic Church from 30 December 1334 to his death, in April 1342. He was the third Avignon pope and reformed monastic orders and opposed nepotism. Unable to remove his capital to Rome or Bologna, Benedict started the great palace at Avignon. He settled the beatific vision controversy of Pope John XXII with the bull Benedictus Deus, which stated that souls may attain the "fullness of the beatific vision" before the Last Judgment. Despite many diplomatic attempts with Emperor Louis IV to resolve their differences, Benedict failed to bring the Holy Roman Empire back under papal dominance. He died 25 April 1342 and was buried in Avignon.
Pope Clement VI, born Pierre Roger, was head of the Catholic Church from 7 May 1342 to his death, in December 1352. He was the fourth Avignon pope. Clement reigned during the first visitation of the Black Death (1348–1350), during which he granted remission of sins to all who died of the plague.
The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1376 during which seven successive popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome. The situation arose from the conflict between the papacy and the French crown, culminating in the death of Pope Boniface VIII after his arrest and maltreatment by Philip IV of France. Following the subsequent death of Pope Benedict XI, Philip forced a deadlocked conclave to elect the French Clement V as pope in 1305. Clement refused to move to Rome, and in 1309 he moved his court to the papal enclave at Avignon, where it remained for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian captivity of the Papacy".
Guy de Malsec was a French bishop and cardinal. He was born at the family's fief at Malsec (Maillesec), in the diocese of Tulle. He had two sisters, Berauda and Agnes, who both became nuns at the Monastery of Pruliano (Pruilly) in the diocese of Carcassonne, and two nieces Heliota and Florence, who became nuns at the Monastery of S. Prassede in Avignon. He was a nephew of Pope Gregory XI, or perhaps a more distant relative. He was also a nephew of Pope Innocent VI. Guy was baptized in the church of S. Privatus, some 30 km southeast of Tulle. He played a part in the election of Benedict XIII of the Avignon Obedience in 1394, in his status as second most senior cardinal. He played an even more prominent role in Benedict's repudiation and deposition. Guy de Malsec was sometimes referred to as the 'Cardinal of Poitiers' (Pictavensis) or the 'Cardinal of Palestrina' (Penestrinus).
Pietro Colonna was an Italian cardinal.
The 1406 papal conclave, the papal conclave of the time of the Great Western Schism, convened after the death of Pope Innocent VII. It elected Cardinal Angelo Correr, who under the name of Gregory XII became the fourth pope of the Roman Obedience.
The papal conclave held from 16 to 18 December 1352 was convened after the death of Pope Clement VI and elected as his successor Cardinal Etienne Aubert. The fifth pope of the period of the Avignon Papacy, he took the name Innocent VI. This conclave is remarkable because during its celebration cardinals for the first time in history subscribed the electoral capitulation, which limited the power of elect.
Pierre Desprès (1288–1361) was a French Cardinal during the period of the Avignon Papacy.
In the papal conclave held on 29 and 30 December 1370, after the death of Pope Urban V, Cardinal Pierre Roger de Beaufort was elected pope under the name Gregory XI. He thus became seventh and the last pope of the period of Avignon Papacy.
Angel de Grimoard, also recorded as Angelic or Anglic, was a French canon regular and a Cardinal. He was the younger brother of Pope Urban V.
The papal conclave held from 1 May 1314 to 7 August 1316 in the apostolic palace of Carpentras and then the Dominican house in Lyon was one of the longest conclaves in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and the first conclave of the Avignon Papacy. The length of the conclave was due to the division of the cardinals into three factions: Italian, Gascon, and French/Provençal.
Rome was in disorder due to the ongoing conflict between the Colonna and the Orsini. As soon as Holy Week was over, to escape the violence, Benedict XI withdrew to Perugia, where he died that summer, probably of dysentery. The protracted papal conclave held from 10 or 17 July 1304 to 5 June 1305 in Perugia elected non-cardinal Raymond Bertrand de Got as Pope Clement V. At the time of his election de Got was Archbishop of Bordeaux, and thus a subject of Edward I, King of England, although he was a childhood friend of Philip IV of France. Clement V's decision to relocate the papacy to France was one of the most contested issues in the papal conclave, 1314–1316 following his death, during which the minority of Italian cardinals were unable to engineer the return of the papacy to Rome. This immediately preceded the beginning of the Avignon Papacy.
Bertrand du Pouget was a French papal diplomat and Cardinal.
Arnaud d'Aux was a relative of pope Clement V, who named him bishop of Poitiers, and then cardinal-bishop of Albano. He accompanied cardinal Arnaud Nouvel in England in 1312. He acted also as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1311 until 1319. He participated in the papal conclave, 1314-1316 and died at Avignon.
Gauscelin de Jean was a French cardinal.
Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni was an Italian Catholic Cardinal and Cardinal-Nephew to Pope Clement X.
Fabrizio Paolucci was an Italian cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, appointed by Pope Innocent XII.
Giovanni Colonna was a Roman Catholic cardinal during the Avignon papacy and was a scion of the famous Colonna family that played an important role in Italian history.
Bernard d'Albi was a French cardinal of the 14th century. He was born at Saverdun in the diocese of Pamiers in the foothills of the Pyrenees, south of Toulouse and died on 23 November 1350 at Avignon.
Bertrand de Déaulx was a French bishop, diplomat, and Cardinal. He was born, perhaps around 1290, in Castrum de Blandiaco in the diocese of Uzès; or in Déaulx. He died in Avignon in 1355. Trained as a lawyer and teacher of law, he practiced in the papal courts and became an arbitrator and diplomat for the Papacy. He had several assignments in Italy and one in Catalonia. He was responsible for the reorganization of the University of Montpellier and the granting of revised charters.
