Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/538

 502 Readings in European History transfigurid into aungelis [of] ligt. Ande, as this worthi clerk Grosthede proves, ande certis no man is verrey pope but in als myche as he sewis Crist ; and in so myche Cristen men wole do aftur hym, ande no more, for alle bulles and censuris, for no creature of God. IV. THE SOJOURN OF THE POPES AT AVIGNON. THE ORIGIN OF THE GREAT SCHISM The residence of the popes at Avignon (1316-1377) did much to undermine their prestige. Avignon was so near France that the English and Germans sus- pected that the French king really directed the papal policy. Besides, the pope maintained a very luxurious court, and an ever-increasing burden of taxation was necessary to maintain the splendor which Petrarch, long a resident of the city, describes in the letter given below. Petrarch's criticism is especially noteworthy, for, in the first place, he had ample opportunity for forming his opinions from personal observation ; in the second place, he was an ardent adherent of the papacy and a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church, unlike Mar- siglio and Wycliffe, who were openly heretical in their denial of some of the fundamental teachings of the mediaeval Church. This letter is undated, but was writ- ten probably between 1340 and 1353, when he left the detested Avignon forever, and removed to Italy. . . . Now I am living in France, in the Babylon of the West. The sun in its travels sees nothing more hideous than this place on the shores of the wild Rhone, which sug- gests the hellish streams of Cocytus and Acheron. Here reign the successors of the poor fishermen of Galilee ; they have strangely forgotten their origin. I am astounded, as