The Cook County herald. [volume] (Grand Marais, Minn.) 1893-1909, 1895-12-14

Benedict XII John XXI.
land Of the olive and vine and the
precious altar of roses.
1t was Nov. II, 1909, when the first
Of the Avignon popes, Clement ", en-
tered the town over St. Benzenet
bridge, a solid structure of stone
arches that spanned the broad, brown
river. Three arches are still standing
and one Of the buttresses supports
chapel. The town must have looked
much as it does today. It still pre-
serves its medieval character beneath
cracked and warped modernism that
overlays it. It forms a cobweb of mar
row, gloomy, winding lanes, walled in
and overshadowed by stone houses,
huge and tiled and TALL" and filed
with dim inches and recesses and
angles, recalling at first glance the
open-air catacombs which pass for
streets in Northern Italy.
All along one side Of the parade
ground rises vast, gloomy building Of
dark gray stone, wearying the eve
with the profusion Of Gothic arches,
massive towers, battlements, buttress-
es. turrets, carved gateways and
inches without end. There are mar
row Sits for windows and wrought
iron gratings, for the place is used as
a military prison as we'll as a bar
racks. 1t stretches for a mile in any
direction and vast areas are empty or
filled with army stores or refuse. In
majesty and air of permanence it
rivals the Roman theater at Orange
yet 1t served the use for which it was
built scarce a hundred years. The
titanic palace dwarfs and dominates
the town; and without the gates Vile
neuve stands guard like the castle of
San Angelo frowning on the fair dome
of St. Peters. The pope resident in
Avignon was glad to take refuge in
the kings fort, little as he liked the
kings favor, Wnen Bertrand de Cues
elm, freebooter, afterward constable
Of France, appeared at the papal pal
ace and demanded tribute
The whole story reads like the wild
est romance. The popes had suffered
many vicissitudes, and continuous res
idence In the eternal city was rather
the exception to the rule. For various
political reasons some six or eight out
of the thirty-three from the eighth to
the fourteenth century suffered exile
from Rome. But Philip lie Bel of
France conceived of the 1)an of con-
structing so luxurious and cunning a
prison palace that the pontiffs would
be content to remain in exile from
Rome.
This beautiful Philippe de Bourbon
was no submissive son of the church
He denied the temporal and even the
spiritual power Of the popes, and be-
hayed so badly that he was finally eX-
communicated by Benedict XII, who
died so soon after that Philips agency
In the affair was more than suspected.
The election of a successor was held
in France, and while the college of
cardinals was in session the king call
cd the archbishop of Bordeaux to him
to 4 wood near st. Jean dAngely and
offered to make him pope provided he
would make six promises. The story
runs that these were: His own res
toratl0n to the church and removal Of
the ban; the resignation of the French
tithes to the crown for five years;
thorough utilization of Boniface VIII;
the bestOwal Of the cardinals hat on
two Of the Colonnas, and, sixth, some
thing which he was not then ready to
divulse. The final power is supposed t.
be the removal of the papal see to
Avignon.
1t must be remembered that the age
was unspeakably corrupt The rigid
| rule of the middle ages was not yet
! in force, and the church was often in
| the power of INSCRIPTIONS princes
This Clement V. was elected at Lyons
in 1906, and four years after rode into
Avignon. Shortly afterward he con-
demned the Templars, all of which so
preyed on his mind that he died.
His Successor, John XXI, began
the building of the palace. He raised
the north facade and, the Tour. St.
lean. now detsohed, riding about on a
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