412

THE GLORY OF CHRISTENDOM

SHADOWAND LIGHTNING 413
when he ordered major and costly repairs to the Vatican palace to make it habitable again.
5

By June 1366 he had made up his mind. He officially informed the cardinals, the Emperor, the King of
France, Bernaba Visconti, and the Romans that he had irrevocably decided to return to Rome. The Italians hailed
the decision; the French condemned it. But Urban V remained unshaken in his resolution. On April 30, 1367 he
left Avignon. At Marseilles on May 6 the cardinals made a last attempt to stop him, some going so far as to
threaten not to accompany him to Rome. In response he made young Guillaume d'Aigrefeuille, age 28, a cardinal
and told the others he would create still more new cardinals if they deserted him. On May 19 Urban sailed from
Marseilles with a large fleet, and on June 3 he landed on the beach before the town of Corneto in the papal state.'6
Johannes Jorgensen paints the dramatic scene:
Driven by a brisk north wind the papal fleet speedily approaches Corneto. The ship with sails of
silk, carrying Urban, can soon be distinguished. A short while yet and the first galleys glide past the
bridge head, but without coming alongside. With lowered sails and backing the oars with all their
might they bring to and form a path of honor for the Pope's ship. Up in Corneto all the bells begin to
ring. Along the shore men stand shoulder to shoulder and in towards the coast head can be seen by
head. The first row of spectators is pressed so far forward that the waves run over their feet.
And so galley after galley glides past and swerves aside. Four men come carrying the baldacchino
of gold-embroidered brocade under which the Pope is to walk. For now the Pope's ship is coming
alongside-a galley with three rows of oars. A gangway is put out from the high poop, and a silken
carpet is spread over it. Then the Pope's retinue begin to go ashore-the French noble guard, the officials
of the papal court, the French cardinals, easily distinguished by their surly and discontented looks (five
of them had stayed behind in Avignon).... And then, at last, comes the Pope, il nostro dolce Cristo in
terra as Caterina of Siena was to say later, the pious little Benedictine Guillaume Grimoard de Grisac,
who wears his common black habit beneath the gold and silk of the papal robe. 77
The Pope spent the summer in Viterbo, at last making his entry into Rome October 16, in a splendid
procession of thousands to St. Peter's. By then the Pope and the Church had already suffered a great loss:
Cardinal Albornoz, who had greeted the Pope whose coming he had done so much to make possible, as he
stepped off his ship at Corneto, was dead in Rome's dying month of August 78
7S
Mollat, Popes atAvignon, pp. 154-157. 76lbid., pp. 57-58, 157-158.
77
Jorgensen, St. Bridget of Sweden, II, 202-203.
7g
lbid., II, 205-206; Mollat, Popes at Avignon, pp. 146,158; Beneyto Perez, Albornoz,
The Pope had never sufficiently appreciated Albornoz; and even in Italy, he continued to show partiality
for French churchmen. The Italians were shocked and angry when in September 1368, more than a year after his
return to Italy, he appointed eight new cardinals of whom six were French, one English, and only one an Italian
and a Roman. The next month Emperor Charles IV, making his second visit to Italy, entered Rome with the Pope,
holding his mule according to the ancient custom for Emperors going back to Charlemagne. But much of Italy
was still dangerously turbulent. In January 1369 there was a riot in Siena from which the Emperor barely escaped
with his life; he returned at once to Germany and never came back to Italy. This alarming event very likely
increased the Pope's own fears and nostalgia for Avignon. The renewal of the Hundred Years War also distressed
him. In October 1369 he announced in Viterbo that he planned to leave Rome soon, giving as his reason that he
wanted to try to end the war between France and England and needed to be closer to it to do so.'9
He had one brilliant moment in Rome just before this sad announcement. In September 1369 Byzantine
Emperor John V Palaeologus arrived for the solemn ceremony of his reception into the Catholic Church. He made
his profession of faith, renounced his errors, and accepted the Pope's primacy. But John V's prestige at home was
low and the opposition to church reunion was still very strong in Constantinople. As John V himself realized, he
had little hope of bringing his church and people with him back into communion with Rome, at least without an
ecumenical council to settle their differences. And Pope Urban V explicitly refused to call a council for this
purpose; he never gave his reasons. °
The Pope did not hurry his departure; he did not sail for France until September 1370. In May he rejected a
moving appeal from the people of Rome to stay, responding only-and coldly-that "the Holy Spirit brought me to
this region; now He takes me to other regions for the honor of the Church."' , One night during the oppressive heat
of a Roman August, St. Bridget of Sweden believed that she received a message from the Blessed Virgin Mary
about Pope Urban V and his departure from Rome:
I will speak to you of the Pope whose name is Urbanus. To him the Holy Spirit gave the counsel that he
should come to Rome to work justice and strengthen the Christian faith and renew the Holy Church. As
a mother
pp. 252-253.
79
Mollat, Popes at Avignon, pp. 58, 159-160; Jarrett, Charles IV, p. 155; Jorgensen, St Bridget of Sweden, II, 211;
Jorgensen, St. Catherine of Siena, p. 89; Undset, Catherine of Siena, p. 86.
e°
Gill, Byzantium and the Papacy, pp. 219-221; Nicol, Last Centuries of Byzantium, pp. 281-282; Mollat, Popes at
Avignon, p. 58.
81
Mollat, Popes atAvignon, p. 160.