Pope Gregory XI
The office of regent, the next office in the order of precedence of the "Cancellaria Apostolica" after that of the chancellor, was instituted in 1377, when Pope Gregory XI returned from Avignon, France to his see. Cardinal Pierre de Monteruc, the chancellor at that time, refused to follow the pope from Avignon to Rome; as it was necessary that someone should direct the office of the "Cancellaria", the pope, leaving the title of vice chancellor to Montéruc, appointed the archbishop of Ban, Bartolommeo Prignano, as regent. At the death of Pope Gregory XI in 1378, Prignano was elected pope, and he appointed a successor to himself in the office of regent, which was thereafter maintained, even when the vice chancellor re-established his residence in Rome.