Sophia Menache - Clement V

Cover

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Clement V led the Church during nine critical years, 130514. Elected two years after the outrage committed upon Boniface VIII at Anagni, Clement saw as his main goal the restoration of harmonious relations with the leading monarchs of Christendom. In achieving this aim, he paved the way for the Church in the modern period, when its authority was challenged less by the Holy Roman Empire than by the emerging national state. The notorious trial of the Templars was part of this difficult process of adaptation.

This book offers a complete analysis of Clements pontificate from the two complementary viewpoints provided by diplomatic documentation and by narrative sources. Their point of convergence validates a reevaluation of the Avignon period as the Babylonian captivity of the papacy. As a result, Clements pontificate no longer appears as a shameful surrender to Capetian interests. Rather, it demonstrates a consistent scale of priorities, among which the recovery of the Holy Land was accorded pre-eminence.

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Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought

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Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought
Fourth Series

General Editor:

D. E. LUSCOMBE
Leverhulme Personal Research Professor of Medieval History, University of Sheffield

Advisory Editors:

R. B. DOBSON
Professor of Medieval History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Christs College

ROSAMOND M c KITTERICK
Professor of Early Medieval European History, University of Cambridge, and Fellow of Newnham College

The series Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought was inaugurated by G. G. Coulton in 1921; Professor D. E. Luscombe now acts as General Editor of the Fourth Series, with Professors R. B. Dobson and Rosamond McKitterick as Advisory Editors. The series brings together outstanding work by medieval scholars over a wide range of human endeavour extending from political economy to the history of ideas.

For a list of titles in the series, see end of book.

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CLEMENT V

SOPHIA MENACHE

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PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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Sophia Menache 1998

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant
collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 1998

Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge

Typeset in 11/12 Monotype Bembo [ SE ]

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
Menache, Sophia.
Clement V / Sophia Menache.
p. cm.(Cambridge studies in medieval life and thought)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0 521 59219 4 hardback
1. Clement V, Pope, ca. 12601314. 2. PopesBiography.
3. PapacyHistory13091378. I. Title. II. Series.
BX 1275. M 46 1988
282.092dc21 97-27894 CIP

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To Rami

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My first meeting with Pope Clement V took place about thirty years ago, when as a young student I was studying the arrest of the Templars. My initial impression was that of a greedy, immoral pope, who fell easy prey to the endless ambition of Philip the Fair. As years went by and the excitement of my undergraduate years led to more meticulous research, I discovered that, notwithstanding the many studies on Clement V, uncertainty and ambiguity about his pontificate were still great and much work remained to be done. The present study was undertaken to meet the need for a reconsideration of prevailing premises in order to draw a more coherent picture of the pope and his pontificate.