had been
seduced by the holy father, John XXII. During all these years the Romans
had made repeated attempts to force back the papal court to their city.
With its departure all their profits had gone. But the fatal policy of
electing Frenchmen into the College of Cardinals seemed to shut out
every hope. [Sidenote: Rienzi.] The unscrupulous manner in which this
was done is illustrated by the fact that Clement made one of his
relatives, a lad of eighteen, a cardinal. For a time the brief glories
of Rienzi cast a flickering ray on Rome; but Rienzi was only a
demagogue--an impostor. It was the deep impression made upon Europe that
the residence at Avignon was an abandonment of the tomb of St. Peter,
that compelled Urban V. to return to Rome. This determination was
strengthened by a desire to escape out of the power of the kings of
France, and to avoid the free companies who had learned to extort bribes
for sparing Avignon from plunder. He left Avignon, A.D. 1367, amid the
reluctant grief of his cardinals, torn from that gay and dissipated
city, and in dread of the recollections and of the populace of Rome. And
well it might be so; for not only in Rome, but all over Italy, piety was
held in no respect, and the discipline of the Church in derision.
[Sidenote: Irreverence of Barnabas Visconti.] When Urban sent to
Barnabas Visconti, who was raising trouble in Tuscany, a bull of
excommunication by the hands of two legates, Barnabas actually compelled
them, in his presence, to eat the parchment on which the bull was
written, together with the leaden seal and the silken string, and,
telling them that he hoped it would sit as lightly on their stomachs as
it did on his, sent them back to their master! In a little time--it was
but two years--absence from France became insupportable; the pope
returned to Avignon, and there died. [Sidenote: The popes return to
Rome.] It was reserved for his successor, Gregory XI., finally to end
what was termed, from its seventy years' duration, the Babylonish
captivity, and restore the papacy to the Eternal City, A.D. 1376.

[Sidenote: Causes of the great schism.] But, though the popes had thus
returned to Rome, the effects of King Philip's policy still continued.
On the death of Gregory XI., the conclave, meeting at Rome--for the
conclave must meet where the pope dies--elected Urban VI., under
intimidation of the Roman populace, who were determined to retain the
papacy in their city; but, escaping to