POPE INNOCENT VI, THE 199TH POPE

Pope Innocent VI Pope Innocent VI was the fifth pope to live at Avignon, France, rather than Rome, Italy. It all started when Pope Boniface was kidnapped and tortured at his summer home just outside Rome in 1303. The Roman citizens were wild and chaotic. The popes...

POPE CLEMENT VI, DEFENDER OF AUTHORITY

Ceiling Palace of the Popes, Avignon Born as Pierre Roger (Rogers, Rosiers) Pope Clement was the fourth pope at Avignon. Before that he was born about 1291 at Chateau de Maumont, in Limousin, half-way between Paris and the Pyranees. His father was the lord of...

POPE BENEDICT XII, DEFENDER OF ORTHODOXY

Palace of Popes, Avignon The third Avignon pope, Pope Benedict XII was born around 1280-1285 in the county of Foix, southern France near the Pyrenees Mountains. Nothing is known of his immediate family. His name was Jacques Fournier.  The first we know of him is...

POPE JOHN XXII, THE SECOND AVIGNON POPE

Pens and paper of the 14th century Pope John XXII was a most difficult man. His argumentative nature, his waffling decisions and his absolute desire to have ecclesiastical authority be supreme all made him hard to deal with. Born Jacques Dueze in 1244 at Cahors in...

POPE CLEMENT V AND THE DEMISE OF THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

Knights Templar Bertrand de Got was born in Aquitaine, now in France, but then in the Holy Roman Empire. At first, being from a wealthy family, he entertained himself with studying the arts in Toulouse and enjoying wine making. Later he studied canon and civil law at...