#36 The Avignon Popes – Part II

* After the death of Clement V, Dante wrote to the Italian cardinals and urged them to hold out for an Italian pope who would return the papacy to Rome. * But only six of the 23 cardinals were Italian. * And when they met just outside Avignon in their conclave to decide the new Pope, there were people outside shouting “Death to the Italian cardinals!” * And then the mob set fire to the building where the conclave was meeting. * So the cardinals made a run for out through a passage in a rear wall and there was no conclave for two years. * When they finally met again in Lyon, under the protection of French soldiers, they made Jacques Duèze the pope. * John XXII * He was already 72 years old and not expected to live long. * But he survived 18 years and had huge influence in affairs. * But he was French. * The son of a cobbler. * Had been the teacher of the children fo the French king of Naples, Robert. * And it was Robert who bribed the Italian cardinals to make John pope. * John XXII had a great skill for making money. * He sold benefices – a permanent Church appointment, typically that of a rector or vicar –  like his predecessors, but, like Trump telling a huge lie, he did it without blushing. * When he died, the papal treasury had 18 million gold florins, est $4.1 billion and 7 million florins value ($1.6 billion) in plate and jewellery. * The buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges – is called simony which comes from Simon Magus (Acts 8:18). * Who tried to buy the secret to conferring the Holy Ghost from Peter. * He is also remembered for being the guy who made witchcraft something that could be tried under the Inquisition. * Before then, witchcraft was either ignored as being an old, harmless pagan superstition – and bit like we think of Christianity. * Then John was apparently the victim of an assassination attempt using poison and magic and he suspected witchcraft, so he went after them. * The Inquisition started in 12th-century France to combat religious dissent, in particular the Cathars. * The Cathars believed there were two gods – the good one of the NT and the evil one of the OT. * They also didn’t believe in killing, so they were vegetarians. * And they were against war and capital punishment. * Which made them very unusual in the Middle Ages. * They were also against reproduction, because they believed that continued the suffering and the chain of reincarnation – makes them sound a lot like Buddhists. * And they allowed women to be leaders of their churches, so that didn’t go down well with the Catholics. * Pope Innocent III launched a crusade against them in 1208. * This is where the famous story comes from, where the Crusaders were laying siege to a city and a commander was asked how to tell Cathars from Catholics. * He replied “Kill them all, the Lord will recognise His own” * The doors of the church of St Mary Magdalene were broken down and the refugees dragged out and slaughtered. * Reportedly at least 7,000 innocent men, women and children were killed there by Catholic forces. * Elsewhere in the town, many more thousands were mutilated and killed. * Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses,