Clement VI
Pierre Roger · 1342 – 1352
Avignon pope who protected Jews during the Black Death, bought the city of Avignon, and lived lavishly.
Pierre Roger was a Benedictine monk who became one of the most brilliant preachers in France before being elected pope in 1342. He governed from Avignon and made no apologies for it. When the Black Death swept through Europe in 1348, killing a third of the population, Clement did two notable things. He issued a papal bull protecting Jews, whom mobs were massacring on the baseless charge of poisoning wells. He declared it was irrational and against Church teaching to blame them. He also hired physicians to study the plague and ordered the consecration of the Rhone so that corpses could be dumped in it when cemeteries overflowed. On the other hand, Clement was spectacularly extravagant. He bought the city of Avignon outright, spent lavishly on art and feasts, and was widely rumored to keep mistresses. He also declared the first Jubilee Year to occur every fifty years instead of every hundred.
Defending Jews Against the Mob
While much of Europe was murdering Jews in a panic over the plague, Clement stood against it. His bull explicitly said that Jews were dying of the plague too, which should be proof enough they weren't causing it. It was one of the clearest moments of moral courage in the Avignon papacy.
The Cost of Luxury
Clement lived like a king and spent accordingly. His court was magnificent, his banquets legendary, and his personal life the subject of gossip. He is a pope who got some important things right and plenty of other things wrong.