POPE CLEMENT VI, DEFENDER OF AUTHORITY

by | Sep 20, 2023 | Popes

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

by | Sep 6, 2023 | Popes

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

by | Sep 6, 2023 | Popes

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

by | Sep 5, 2023 | Popes

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...

POPE BENEDICT XI

by | Jul 6, 2023 | Popes

Pope Benedict XI was born Nicolo Boccasinni in Trevisio, the Republic of Venice, around 1240. His father, a notary, died in 1246, leaving a wife and two children. Their lives became easier when a Dominican friar left them money. Half would go to Nicolo, if he became a...