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Crisis in the Late Medieval Church

The Papacy at Avignon

The French popes at Avignon were not the first to work for a centralization of power within the Church, but many of the trends of the preceeding century find culmination here, so this is a convenient place to talk about the formal structure of papal government. Working from many of the same motivations as lay lords, and facing many of the same sorts of obstacles, the 14th century popes worked hard to gather power into their own hands.

Centralization was, however, one of the hallmarks of the popes at Avignon. They had a number of capable administrators, especially Pope John XXII (1316-1334), who worked tirelessly to organize and exploit the bureaucracy.

The papal household itself grew tremendously and was the true center of power within the Church, even as a royal household was the true center of power within a kingdom. The papal court numbered three to four hundred people and included such interesting offices as the keeper of the papal plate and the keeper of the papal zoo.