CLEMENT V, Pope. - Bertrand de Got, b. in Gascony, was bishop of Comminges (1295-97), then archbishop of Bordeaux (1297-1305). His election, after the long Conclave of Perugia, is closely connected to the Bonifacian question, which deeply divided the Sacred College, whose majority wished to vindicate the memory of Boniface VIII outraged at Anagni, while a minority, which then triumphed, did not wish to clash with the instigator of that attack, Philip IV the Fair, king of France, and patronized the cause of the two cardinals Colonna. Thus on June 5, 1305 the archbishop of Bordeaux was elected, who had shown himself deferential toward Boniface VIII, while maintaining good relations with Philip the Fair. The account, long accepted, of G. Villani (VIII, 80; cf. L. A. Muratori, Rerum Ital. script., XIII, pp. 417-419) of a prior secret meeting deep in a wood near St-Jean-d'Angély and of a pact concluded there between the archbishop and the king of France, is entirely fanciful, positively excluded by the respective itineraries of the two at the time of the Conclave.
Although the newly elected Pontiff at first manifested the intention of going to Italy as soon as the definitive peace between France and England was concluded, he in fact remained in France, thus inaugurating the Avignon period with all its disastrous consequences for the Church. He was crowned at Lyon on Nov. 14, 1305, in the presence of King Philip, who immediately began to exercise an undue influence over the Pope, weak and irresolute in character and also often sickly. In the first creation of cardinals, on Dec. 15, 1305, C. promoted nine Frenchmen and one Englishman and reinstated the two Colonna. The French preponderance in the Sacred College was further increased with the promotions of 1310-12. To the insistent request of Philip the Fair, who also took an interest in the canonization of St. Celestine V, which then took place in 1313, must be attributed the trial against the memory of Boniface VIII, whose condemnation the Pope barely managed in the end to avert, as well as the trial with the consequent suppression of the Templars, hateful to the monarch, who longed to take possession of their conspicuous goods. Even in politics the French influence is easy to discern. The Pope appointed French legates and rectors for Italy, favored the Angevins of Naples, who sided with the Guelphs and knew how to prevent the coronation of Henry VII in St. Peter's; that ceremony in fact took place, contrary to custom, in St. John Lateran (1312). In Hungary, through the cardinal legate Gentile da Montefiore, the question of the succession to the throne of St. Stephen came to an end with the general recognition of the Angevin Carobert, son of Charles II of Naples and of Mary of Hungary (1308), and with the imposition of the crown of St. Stephen (1310). In 1311-12 the Pope celebrated the Council of Vienne, which issued many salutary decrees for the purity of the faith and for ecclesiastical discipline, decrees later incorporated into the so-called Clementines (v. CORPUS IURIS CANONICI), published a few days before his death and therefore republished by his successor John XXII (1317). C. also sought to close the now chronic dissension between the Spirituals and the community of the Franciscan Order, with the decretal Exivi, the fruit of long discussions of the two parties before a cardinalatial commission (1309-12). Noteworthy too is the fervor with which C. promoted the missions among the Tartars in China, appointing the Franciscan Giovanni da Montecorvino first archbishop of Beijing, and giving him six suffragan bishops (1307). Under the influence of Ramon Llull, C. prescribed, in the interest of the missions, the teaching of Oriental languages in the principal university centers such as Paris, Oxford, Bologna and Salamanca. He also founded the Universities of Perugia and Orléans. He died at Roquemaure (Gard) on Apr. 20, 1314. The testamentary dispositions, which greatly favored his extensive kin, provoked, by the will of John XXII, a trial.
Bibliography
Guidonia (two), Paolino da Venezia, Amalricio Augerii. The notes to the text of Baluzius and Mollat are in vol. II, ibid. 1928, pp. 31-175, documents and illustrative texts in vol. III, ibid. 1921, pp. 42-241, 491-561; Regesta Clementis papae V. euro et studio monachorum O. S. B., 9 vols., Rome 1885-92; Ch. V. Langlois, Documents relatifs à Bertrand de Got (Clément V), in Revue historique, 40 (1889), pp. 48-54; id., Notices et documents relatifs à l'histoire de France au temps de Philippe le Bel, documents italiens, ibid., 60 (1896), pp. 307-28; F. Ehrle, Der Nachlass Clemens V. und der in Betreff desselben von Johann XXII. (1318-21) gefüllte Process, in Archiv für Literaturund Kirchengeschichte des Mittelalters, 5 (1889), pp. 1-158 (with a genealogical tree of the Pope's family); H. Finke, Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII., Münster in W. 1902, pp. 279-96 and pp. LXI-LXVI; id., Acta Aragonesia, Berlin and Leipzig 1908, pp. 197-99, 263-302. Monographs and studies: M. Rabanis, Clément V et Philippe le Bel, Lettre à M. Charles Davenberg sur l'entrevue de Philippe le Bel et Bertrand de Got à St-Jean-d'Angély, Paris 1858; C. Wenck, Clemens V. und Heinrich VII., Halle 1882; id., Aus den Tagen der Zusammenkunft Papst Clemens V. und König Philipps des Schönen zu Lyon, in Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 27 (1906), pp. 189-203; F. Apollonio, Un capitolo di storia venuta nei registri di C. V., Venice 1887; W. Otte, Der historische Wert der alten Biographien des Papstes Clemens V. (Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen), 1, Breslau 1902, pp. 3-73; H. Finke, Papettum und Untergang des Templerordens, I, Münster in W. 1907, pp. 86-110; A. Eitel, Der Kirchenstaat unter Klemens V., Berlin 1907; G. Lizerand, Clément V et Philippe IV le Bel, Paris 1910; G. Mollat, Les papes d'Avignon, ibid. 1912 (6th ed. ibid. 1930, with rich bibliography); Ewald Müller, Das Kauszil von Vienna 1311-12, Seine Quellen und seine Geschichte, Münster in W. 1934; B. Homan, Gli Angioini di Napoli in Ungheria, Rome 1938, pp. 107-115. Cf. also Fr. Zambrini, Le opere volgari a stampa dei secc. XIII e XIV, 4th ed., with appendix, Bologna 1884, col. 305 ff.; E. Casanova, Visita di un pane avignonese ai suoi cardinali, in Archivio della R. Società romana di storia patria, 22 (1899), pp. 371-81.