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Crisis in the Late Medieval Church

The Papacy at Avignon

Every bit as important as the papal household was the College of Cardinals. The cardinals were viewed as the Senate of Christendom; they were the barons of the Church advising their lord. The pope consulted them in all important matters and used them to fill high administrative offices. And, of course, one of their most significant functions was to elect a new pope.

Each cardinal was was a prince of the Church, with scores or even hundreds in his household. There were twenty or thirty cardinals at Avignon, so the pope with his cardinals accounted for literally thousands of new residents in the city.

Papal Government

The government as a whole was referred to as the curia. As with royal governments, what had been the papal household grew into distinct divisions, and four main departments gradually became discernible.

Chancery: Its primary concern was correspondence. Here were drafted letters, proclamations, legal documents, judgments and bulls; also all routine administrative correspondence. The chancery received petitions, examined the qualifications of candidates for benefices, and had offical custody of the records of the curia (the Vatican Library had not yet been created).

The camera apostolica was the financial arm of the Church. Its treasurer was the head of the administration, but the chamberlain made financial policy. The chamberlain was effectively the papal prime minister, for he controlled the papal mint and most administrative officials reported to him. He was the judge in legal disputes concerning papal revenues and he supervised the tax collectors.

Datary: This area heard petitions that did not require a decision in law. It also held dispensations from canon law (like marriage problems).

judiciary: There were several offices in this area; papal justice was always a maze of overlapping jurisdictions. The Consistory was the highest court of appeals. Special courts could be assembled for specific cases. The Rota heard most of the routine cases. The Audientia determined technical legal points and investigated documentary evidence. And the Penitentiary administered canon law with respect to ecclesiastical penalties.

Papal finance

The papacy had numerous sources of revenue. Bishops and abbots paid an annate (first year's income). The spolia was the collection of the revenues until a new official was appointed. Popes could only collect from those whom they had appointed, so they tended to extend their powers of appointment, at the expense of local rulers. The papacy also sold "expectancies": a hopeful candidate would pay for the right to be considered for provision to benefices when they became vacant.