The quiet dignity of this relief from the sarcophagus of Pope Urban VI, showing Urban receiving the papal key from Saint Peter, belies the bitter divisions that split the Roman Catholic church during his reign. The roots of the crisis stretched back to 1309, when Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, transferred the papacy from Rome to Avignon, a papal fief adjoining French territory. His successors followed his example and gave consistent support to France during the war against England, but the luxury and corruption of their court and the increasing power of its cardinals incurred widespread criticism: The Italian poet Petrarch, visiting Avignon in the 1340s, described it as "the Babylon of the West."
Responding to censure. Pope Gregory XI moved back to Rome in 1377, but his death the next year triggered an even greater crisis. The archbishop of Bari, an uncompromising advocate of papal power, was elected Urban VI; when he tried to curb the influence of the cardinals, however, they declared his election void and elevated one of their own number as Clement VII. Clement promptly returned to Avignon, while Urban continued in office in Rome.
During the ensuing decades of the Great Schism, which severely damaged the prestige of the papacy, the two popes proceeded to anathematize each other and excommunicate their rival's supporters. Political conflict and popular confusion were further aggravated in 1409, when the cardinals, seeking to break the deadlock, succeeded only in electing a third pontiff. A solution was reached in 1414 at the Council of Constance, which deposed or accepted the resignations of all three popes. The schism came to an end three years later with the election of Martin V.
In February, an old man flanked by flitches of bacon shares Ihe warmth of a fire with his dog.
In March, a sower replenishes the bag of grain slung over his shoulder from sacks on the ground.
World History
