396

THE GLORYOF CHRISTENDOM

SHADOWAND LIGHTNING
397
plague was clearly one of them ~

All in all, the impact upon Christendom of the greatest medical disaster in history was a good deal less
than might have been expected. The endurance and capacity for recovery even of a weakened Christendom
under such a blow is striking testimony to how deeply its foundations had been laid in the great days of the
thirteenth century in particular. Not so quickly and easily would the glorious edifice of Christendom be
destroyed. The Black Death, like the Muslims and the Vikings and the Mongols, was an external assault upon
Christendom. Ever since the conversion of Constantine, external assaults have always been less dangerous to
Christendom than betrayal from within.
On December 3, 1352 a tremendous thunderstorm struck Rome, abandoned for nearly half a century by
the Vicars of Christ who until the end of time will be bishops there. A lightning bolt struck St. Peter's and
melted some of its bells. In the city, the Swedish princess Birgitta (Bridget), who had come there for the jubilee
year of 1350 and remained in residence, living a holy life and receiving private revelations, believed that it had
been revealed to her that Pope Clement VI, whom she had condemned for worldliness, was dying. He did in
fact die three days later at Avignon ~
Ten days later a conclave of 25 cardinals assembled under relatively pleasant conditions, Clement VI
having lifted the tighter restrictions of the past. The name of the holy general of the Carthusians, Jean Birel,
was proposed to them as Pope. The Avignon cardinals were not-as they and their successors were amply to
demonstrate during the remainder of the fourteenth century-men who wanted to be very close to holiness. They
concluded that Birel was too lacking in worldly experience to be Pope (though any head of a substantial
religious order is hardly lacking in worldly experience) 2~
On December 17, before proceeding to elect one of their own number as the next Pope, the cardinals
jointly swore that in the future their number should be no more than 20 (they did not specify which five of
them would be removed); that new cardinals should be chosen only with the consent of two-thirds of the
existing cardinals; that no cardinal should be deposed or imprisoned by the Pope without the unanimous
approval of the rest of the College, nor excommunicated without the approval of two-thirds of the College; that
the Pope might not grant lands, towns or castles or appoint or dismiss officers of the
papal state without approval of two-thirds of the College; that they must approve the levying of tenths or
subsidies from kings and princes; and that the Pope was to give half his revenue to the College ~
No opposition to this barefaced power grab is reported; but one may hope and expect that one of the
College's newest members, Gil Albornoz, primate of Castile, one of the best servants of the papacy in all its
history, at least suffered some prodding from his conscience about it.
On December 18 the cardinals elected their colleague Stephen Aubert, who had been bishop of Noyon and
Clermont and a professor of law at the University of Toulouse, as Pope Innocent VI. He was seventy years old,
in relatively poor health and considered weak and vacillating. z9
He soon showed himself to be not nearly so weak and vacillating as they thought-or else, like so many of
his predecessors, he changed once seated in the chair of the fisherman. On June 30, 1353 he appointed
Cardinal Albornoz his legate and vicar in the Papal state in Italy, with the evident purpose of reconquering and
pacifying it for him so that he might be able to return there. In the Reconquest tradition of Spanish bishops,
Cardinal Albornoz had much military experience. He had fought at the Battle of the Rio Salado, saving the life
of Alfonso XI there; he had helped rally the Spanish Christians before Tarifa in 1340 and taken part in the
sieges of Algeciras in 1342 and of Gibraltar in 1349-50, the latter tragically ended with the death of Alfonso XI
in camp from plague. Albornoz had left Spain almost immediately after the succession of Alfonso's young son
Pedro, whose character he knew and whose dark destiny he may have foreseen. 3° Seven days later Innocent VI
rejected the oath he had taken at the conclave, citing the Decretals of Popes Gregory X and Clement V, who
had forbidden the cardinals to deal with any other business except the election of a Pope when the papal office
was vacant. No Pope can bargain away the powers of the office that Christ gave Peter, or be bound by a prior
promise to give them up. The cardinals grudgingly accepted Innocent VI's assertion of papal authority. 31
Losing no time, in the tradition of campaigners of the Reconquest, Cardinal Albornoz left for Rome in
August. He started with only a small force, but picked up 500 cavalry in long pro-papal Florence, 100 more in
Siena and 200 more in Perugia. At Orvieto in the Papal state he encountered a sample of Italy's predatory and
ruthless warlords in Giovanni di Vico, who at first tried to
~Gottfried, Black Death, pp. 145-155; Ziegler, Black Death, pp. 259-279. Ziegler's hostility to Christianity is
evident in his cited pages, but he does present substantial evidence showing that the faith of many was
maintained and strengthened despite the impact of the plague.
~Johannes Jorgensen, Saint Bridget of Sweden (London, 1954), II, 16-17, 75-78; Mollat, Popes atAvignon, p. 42.
z
~Mollat, Popes atAvignon, p. 44.
`Albid., PP. 44-45. z9lbid., p. 45.
3°
Ibid., p. 126; Juan Beneyto Perez, EI cardenal Albomoz; canciller de Castilla y caudillo de Italia (Madrid, 1950),
pp. 174, 186-188; Luis Suarez Fernandez and Juan Regla Campistol, Historia de Espana (ed. Ram6n Menendez
Pidal), Volume XIV: "Fs~aiia Cristiana: crisis de la Reconquista; luchas civiles" (Madrid, 1987), p. 10.
Mollat, Popes at Avignon, p. 46.