History of Avignon
The
site of Avignon was settled very early on; the rocky outcrop
(le Rocher les Doms) at the north end of the town, overlooking
the Rhône, may have been the site of a Celtic oppidum or hill
fort. During the Roman Empire the city was a major center of
Gallia Narbonensis, but very little from this period remains
(a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière).
It was badly damaged by the barbarian invasions of the
5th century and was destroyed in 737 by the Franks under
Charles Martel, after it had sided with the Arabs against
him. Avignon passed successively to the kingdom of the
Burgundians and the Kingdom of Arles.
At the end of the 12th century, its commune declared
itself an independent republic, but independence was crushed
in 1226 when Avignon was taken and dismantled by forces of
Louis VIII and its fortification demolished as punishment
for its support of the Cathars. Avignon was given to the
counts of Provence and then the counts of Toulouse.
The town had significant religious status from ancient
times. It was the seat of a bishop as early as the year 70
AD, and became an archbishopric in 1476. Several synods of
minor importance were held there, and its university,
founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and famed as a seat of
legal studies, flourished until the French Revolution.
Popes in Avignon
The
Roman Avenio, a place of little importance, became
sufficiently strong in the 12th cent to constitute an
independent republic which held at bay the counts of Provence
and Toulouse and even the king of France. In 1229 it was
besieged by Louis VIII on account of its Albignsian
sympathies.
In 1309 when Pope Clement V, a native of Bordeaux was
driven Out Of Rome by sedition he established his court at
Avignon, influenced by the fact that the neighbouring Comtat
Venaissin had belonged to the popes since c. 1274.
His successor, John XXII (1316), a former bishop of
Avignon, converted the episcopal palace into the papal
headquarters.
In 1348 Pope Clement VI bought it from Queen Joanna I of
Sicily for 80,000 gold gulden, and the popes reigned here
until Gregory XI was persuaded by St. Catherine of Siena to
return to Rome in 1377.
This period from 1309–1377 was also called the Babylonian
Captivity, in reference to the Israelites' enslavement in
biblical times. The analogy fitted Avignon in another
sense—the venality of the papal court caused the city to
become infamously corrupt, much as Babylon had been accused
of being.
The poet Petrarch condemned the city's corruption,
contributing to the papacy's return to Rome out of sheer
embarrassment as much as anything else.
Seven
popes resided there:
Pope Clement V
Pope John XXII
Pope Benedict XII
Pope Clement VI
Pope Innocent VI
Pope Urban V
Pope Gregory XI
1378, saw the beginning of the Great Schism, and the
antipopes Clement VII and Benedict XIII returned to Avignon,
whence the latter was driven out, after a memorable siege,
by Geoffroy de Boucicaut (1398-1403).
With the departure of the popes passed the glory and
prosperity of Avignon, though city and Comtat continued to
be governed by papal legates until 1790. Rabelais called
Avignon 'la ville sonnante' on account of its numerous
church bells, and one-tbird of its inhabitants are said to
have been dedicated to the church before the Revolution.
The union with revolutionary France in Sept. 1791 was
followed almost immediately by the massacre of La Glacière
and in 1815 the populace, still Royalist in their
sympathies, assassinated Marshal Brune, one of Napoleon's
generals.
Credits
: Some of this article is licensed under the
GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from
the Wikipedia
article "Avignon".
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