CLEMENT V, POPE. — Bertrand de Got, born in Gascony, was bishop of Comminges (1295–97), then archbishop of Bordeaux (1297–1305). His election, after the long conclave of Perugia, was closely tied to the Bonifacian question, which deeply divided the Sacred College. The majority wished to vindicate the memory of Boniface VIII, who had been insulted at Anagni, while a minority—who eventually prevailed—did not wish to offend Philip IV the Fair, king of France, the instigator of that attack, and supported the cause of the two cardinals Colonna. Thus, on 5 June 1305, the archbishop of Bordeaux was elected, a man who had shown deference toward Boniface VIII while maintaining good relations with Philip the Fair. The long-accepted account by G. Villani (VIII, 80; cf. L. A. Muratori, *Rerum Ital. script.*, XIII, pp. 417–419) of a prior secret meeting in a deep wood near St-Jean-d’Angély and a pact concluded there between the archbishop and the king of France is entirely fanciful and positively excluded by the respective itineraries of the two at the time of the conclave.
Although the newly elected pontiff initially manifested the intention of going to Italy as soon as a definitive peace between France and England was concluded, he in fact remained in France, thus inaugurating the Avignonese period with all its disastrous consequences for the Church. He was crowned at Lyon on 14 November 1305 in the presence of King Philip, who immediately began to exercise undue influence over the weak, indecisive, and often ailing pope. In his first creation of cardinals on 15 December 1305, Clement promoted nine Frenchmen and one Englishman and reinstated the two Colonna. The preponderance of French influence in the Sacred College was further increased by promotions in 1310–12.
At the insistent request of Philip the Fair—who was also interested in the canonization of St Celestine V, which took place in 1313—must be attributed the trial against the memory of Boniface VIII, which the pope barely managed to avert at the last moment, as well as the trial and subsequent suppression of the Templars, who were hated by the monarch and whose considerable wealth he coveted. French influence is also evident in political matters. The pope appointed French legates and rectors for Italy, favored the Angevins of Naples—who were allied with the Guelphs—and ensured that the coronation of Henry VII in St Peter’s did not take place in the usual manner but instead in the Lateran (1312). In Hungary, through the cardinal legate Gentile da Montefiore, the question of the succession to the throne of St Stephen was resolved with the general recognition of the Angevin Charles Robert, son of Charles II of Naples and Mary of Hungary (1308), and with the imposition of the crown of St Stephen (1310).
In 1311–12 the pope held the Council of Vienne, which issued many salutary decrees for the purity of the faith and ecclesiastical discipline; these decrees were later incorporated into the so-called Clementines (v. CORPUS IURIS CANONICI), published a few days before his death and then republished by his successor John XXII (1317). Clement also sought to end the now chronic dispute between the Spirituals and the community of the Franciscan Order with the decretal *Exivi*, the fruit of long discussions between the two parties before a cardinals’ commission (1309–12). Notable too was his zeal in promoting missions among the Tartars in China, appointing the Franciscan John of Montecorvino as the first archbishop of Peking and giving him six suffragan bishops (1307). Under the influence of Raymond Lull, Clement prescribed, for the benefit of the missions, the teaching of Eastern 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 20 April 1314. His testamentary dispositions, which greatly favored his extended family, provoked a trial at the behest of John XXII.
Monographs and studies: M. Rabanis, *Clément V et Philippe le Bel. Lettre à M. Charles Daremberg sur l’entrée de Philippe le Bel et Bertrand de Got à St-Jean-d’Angély*, Paris 1885; C. Wenck, *Clemens V. VIZI.*, 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 veneta nei registri di C. V.*, Venice 1887; W. Otte, *Der historische Wert der alten Biographie des Papstes Clemens V.* (*Kirchengeschichtliche Abhandlungen*, 1), Breslau 1902, pp. 3–73; H. Finke, *Papsttum und Untergang des Templerordens*, I, Münster in V. 1907, pp. 86–110; A. Eitel, *Der Kirchenstaat unter Clemens 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 extensive bibliography); Ewald Müller, *Das Konzil von Vienne 1311–12. Seine Quellen und seine Geschichte*, Münster in V. 1934; B. Hömann, *Gli Angioini di Napoli in Ungheria*, Rome 1938, pp. 107–115. Cf. also Fr. Zambrini, *Le opere volgari a stampa dei sec. XIII e XIV*, 4th ed., with appendix, Bologna 1884, col. 305 sq.; E. Casanova, *Visita di un papa avignonese ai suoi cardinali*, in *Archivio della R. Società romana di storia patria*, 22 (1899), pp. 371–81. Livario Oliger