History of Avignon

The following is a history of Avignon, France.

Prehistory

The site of Avignon has been occupied since the Neolithic period as shown by excavations at ''Rocher des Doms'' and the ''Balance'' district.''Tell me about Avignon''
Towens and Country of Art and history, Ministry of Culture, consulted on 17 October 2011

In 1960 and 1961 excavations in the northern part of the ''Rocher des Doms'' directed by Sylvain Gagnière uncovered a small anthropomorphic stele (height: 20 cm), which was found in an area of land being reworked. Carved in Burdigalian sandstone, it has the shape of a "tombstone" with its face engraved with a highly stylized human figure with no mouth and whose eyes are marked by small cavities. On the bottom, shifted slightly to the right is a deep indentation with eight radiating lines forming a solar representation - a unique discovery for this type of stele.

Compared to other similar solar figures this stele representing the "first Avignonnais" and comes from the time period between the Copper Age and the Early Bronze Age which is called the ''southern Chalcolithic''.

This was confirmed by other findings made in this excavation near the large water reservoir on top of the rock where two polished greenstone axes were discovered, a lithic industry characteristic of "shepherds of the plateaux". There were also some Chalcolithic objects for adornment and an abundance of Hallstatt pottery shards which could have been native or imported ( Ionian or Phocaean).

Antiquity

The name of the city dates back to around the 6th century BC. The first citation of Avignon (''Aouen(n)ion'') was made by Artemidorus of Ephesus. Although his book, ''The Journey'', is lost it is known from the abstract by Marcian of Heraclea and ''The Ethnics'', a dictionary of names of cities by Stephanus of Byzantium based on that book. He said: "The City of Massalia (Marseille), near the Rhone, the ethnic name (name from the inhabitants) is Avenionsios (Avenionensis) according to the local name (in Latin) and Auenionitès according to the Greek expression". This name has two interpretations: "city of violent wind" or, more likely, "lord of the river". The Celtic tribes named it ''Auoention'' around the beginning of the Christian Era. Other sources trace its origin to the Gallic ''mignon'' ("marshes") and the Celtic definitive article.History of the origin of the name
Avignon official website, consulted on 17 October 2011

Avignon was a simple Greek Emporium founded by Phocaeans from Marseille around 539 BC. It was in the 4th century BC that the Massaliotes (people from Marseilles) began to sign treaties of alliance with some cities in the Rhone valley including Avignon and Cavaillon. A century later Avignon was part of the "region of Massaliotes" or "country of Massalia".

Fortified on its rock, the city later became and long remained the capital of the Cavares. With the arrival of the Roman legions in 120 BC. the Cavares, allies with the Massaliotes, became Roman. Under the domination of the Roman Empire, ''Aouenion'' became ''Avennio'' and was now part of Gallia Narbonensis (118 BC.), the first Transalpine province of the Roman Empire. Very little from this period remains (a few fragments of the forum near Rue Molière). It later became part of the ''2nd Viennoise''. Avignon remained a "federated city" with Marseille until the conquest of Marseille by Trebonius and Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus, Caesar's lieutenants. It became a city of Roman law in 49 BC.''The Origins of Avignon''
horizon-provence website, consulted on 17 October 2011 It acquired the status of Roman colony in 43 BC. Pomponius Mela placed it among the most flourishing cities of the province.

Over the years 121 and 122 the Emperor Hadrian stayed in the Province where he visited Vaison, Orange, Apt, and Avignon. He gave Avignon the status of a Roman colony: "Colonia Julia Hadriana Avenniensis" and its citizens were enrolled in the ''tribu''.

Following the passage of Maximian, who was fighting the Bagaudes, the Gallic peasants revolted. The first wooden bridge was built over the Rhone linking Avignon to the right bank. It has been dated by dendrochronology to the year 290. In the 3rd century there was a small Christian community outside the walls around what was to become the Abbey of Saint-Ruf.

Christianity

Although the date of the Christianization of the city is not known with certainty, it is known that the first evangelizers and prelates were within the hagiographic tradition which is attested by the participation of ''Nectarius'', the first historical Bishop of Avignon on 29 November 439, in the regional council in the Cathedral of Riez assisted by the 13 bishops of the three provinces of Arles.

The memory of St. Eucherius still clings to three vast caves near the village of Beaumont where, it is said, the people of Lyon had to go in search of him in 434 when they sought him to make him their archbishop.

In November 441 Nectarius of Avignon, accompanied by his deacon Fontidius, participated in the Council of Orange convened and chaired by Hilary of Arles where the Council Fathers defined the right of asylum. In the following year, together with his assistants Fonteius and Saturninus, he was at the first Council of Vaison with 17 bishops representing the Seven Provinces. He died in 455.

Early Middle Ages

Invasions began and during the inroads of the Goths it was heavily damaged. In 472 Avignon was sacked by the Burgundians and replenished by the Patiens, from the city of Lyon, who sent them wheat.

In 500 Clovis I, King of the Franks, attacked Gundobad, King of the Burgundians who was accused of the murder of the father of his wife Clotilde. Beaten, Gondebaud left Lyon and took refuge in Avignon with Clovis besieging it. Gregory of Tours reported that the Frankish king devastated the fields, cut down the vines and olive trees, and destroyed the orchards. The Burgundian was saved by the intervention of the Roman General Aredius. He had called him to his aid against the "Frankish barbarians" who ruined the countryside.

In 536 Avignon, following the fate of Provence, was ceded to the Merovingians by Vitiges, the new king of the Ostrogoths. Chlothar I annexed Avignon, Orange, Carpentras, and Gap; Childebert I took Arles and Marseilles; Theudebert I took Aix, Apt, Digne, and Glandevès. The Emperor Justinian I at Constantinople approved the division.

Despite all the invasions, intellectual life continued to flourish on the banks of the Rhône. Gregory of Tours noted that after the death of Bishop Antoninus in 561 the Parisian Father Dommole refused the bishopric of Avignon after Chlothar I convinced him that it would be ridiculous "in the middle of tired senators, sophists, and philosophical judges"

St. Magnus was a Gallo-Roman senator who became a monk and then bishop of the city. His son, St. Agricol (Agricolus), bishop between 650 and 700, is the patron saint of Avignon.

The 7th and 8th centuries were the darkest period in the history of Avignon. The city became the prey of the Franks under Theuderic II, King of Austrasia in 612. The Council of Chalon-sur-Saône in 650 was the last to indicate the Episcopal participation of the Provence dioceses. In Avignon there would be no bishop for 205 years with the last known holder being Agricola.

In 734 it fell into the hands of the Saracens, and it was destroyed in 737 by the Franks under Charles Martel for having sided with the Saracens against him.

A centralized government was put in place and, in 879, the bishop of Avignon, Ratfred, with other Provençal colleagues, went to the Synod of Mantaille in Viennois where Boso was elected King of Provence after the death of Louis the Stammerer.

The Rhône could again be crossed since in 890 part of the ancient bridge of Avignon was restored at the pier No. 14 near Villeneuve. In that same year Louis, the son of Boson, succeeded his father. His election took place in the Synod of Varennes near Macon. Thibert, who was his most effective supporter, became Count of Apt. In 896 Thibert acted as plenipotentiary of the king at Avignon, Arles, and Marseille with the title of "Governor-General of all the counties of Arles and Provence". Two years later, at his request, King Louis donated Bédarrides to the priest Rigmond d'Avignon.

On 19 October 907 King Louis the Blind became emperor and restored an island in the Rhone to Remigius, Bishop of Avignon. This charter is the first mention of a cathedral dedicated to Mary.

After the capture and the execution of his cousin, Louis III, who had been exiled to Italy in 905, Hugh of Arles became regent and personal advisor to King Louis. He exercised most of the powers of the king of Provence and in 911, when Louis III gave him the titles of Duke of Provence and Marquis of the Viennois, he left Vienne. On the same day Bishop Fulcherius attested in favour of his canons and for the two churches of Notre-Dame and Saint-Étienne to form a cathedral.

A political event of importance took place in 932 with the reunion of the kingdom of Provence with Upper Burgundy. This union formed the Kingdom of Burgundy in which Avignon was one of the largest cities.

At the end of the 9th century, Muslim Spain installed a military base in Fraxinet since they had led the plundering expeditions in the Alps throughout the 10th century.

During the night of 21 to 22 July 972 the Muslims took dom Mayeul, the Abbot of Cluny who was returning from Rome, prisoner. They asked for one livre for each of them which came to 1,000 livres, a huge sum, which was paid to them quickly. Maïeul was released in mid-August and returned to Cluny in September.

In September 973 William I of Provence and his brother Rotbold, sons of the Count of Avignon, Boso II, mobilized all the nobles of Provence on behalf of dom Maïeul. With the help of Ardouin, Marquis of Turin, and after two weeks of siege, Provençal troops chased the Saracens from their hideouts in Fraxinet and Ramatuelle as well as those at Peirimpi near Noyers in the Jabron valley. William and Roubaud earned their title of Counts of Provence. William had his seat at Avignon and Roubaud at Arles.

In 976 while Bermond, brother-in-law of Eyric was appointed Viscount of Avignon by King Conrad the Peaceful on 1 April, the Cartulary of Notre-Dame des Doms in Avignon says that Bishop Landry restored rights that had been unjustly appropriated to the canons of Saint-Étienne. He gave them a mill and two houses he built for them on the site of the current Trouillas Tower at the papal palace. In 980 these canons were constituted in a canonical chapter by Bishop Garnier.

In 994 Dom Maïeul arrived in Avignon where his friend William the Liberator was dying. He assisted in his last moments on the island facing the city (the Île de la Barthelasse) on the Rhone. The Count had as successor the son he had by his second wife Alix. He would reign jointly with his uncle Rotbold under the name William II. In the face of County and episcopal power, the town of Avignon organized itself. Towards the year 1000 there was already a proconsul Béranger with his wife Gilberte who are known to have founded an abbey at "Castrum Caneto".

In 1032 when Conrad II inherited the Kingdom of Burgundy, Avignon was attached to the Holy Roman Empire. The Rhone was now a border that could only be crossed on the old bridge at Avignon. Some Avignon people still use the term "Empire Land" to describe the Avignon side, and "Kingdom Land" to designate the Villeneuve side to the west which was in the possession of the King of France.

Late Middle Ages

After the division of the empire of Charlemagne, Avignon came within the Kingdom of Burgundy, and was owned jointly by the Count of Provence and the Count of Toulouse. From 1060, the Count of Forcalquier also had nominal overlordship, until these rights were resigned to the local Bishops and Consuls in 1135.

With the German rulers at a distance, Avignon set up an autonomous administration with the creation of a consulat in 1129, two years before its neighbour Arles.

In 1209 the Council of Avignon ordered a second excommunication for Raymond VI of Toulouse.Chronology of the cathars

At the end of the twelfth century, Avignon declared itself an independent republic, and sided with Raymond VII of Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusade. In 1226, the citizens refused to open the gates of Avignon to King Louis VIII of France and the papal legate. They besieged the city for three months (10 June-12 September). Avignon was captured and forced to pull down its city walls and fill up its moat.

At the end of September, a few days after the surrender of the city to the troops of King Louis VIII, Avignon experienced severe flooding.

In 1249 the city again declared itself a republic on the death of Raymond VII, his heirs being on a crusade.

On 7 May 1251, however, the city was forced to submit to two younger brothers of King Louis IX, Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou (Charles I of Naples). They were heirs through the female line of the Marquis and Count of Provence, and thus co-lords of the city. After the death of Alphonse in 1271, Philip III of France inherited his share of Avignon and passed it to his son Philip the Fair in 1285. It passed in turn in 1290 to Charles II of Naples, who thereafter remained the sole lord of the entire city.

The University of Avignon was founded by Pope Boniface VIII in 1303 and was famed as a seat of legal studies, flourishing until the French Revolution (1792).

Avignon papacy

In 1309 the city, still part of the Kingdom of Arles (as the Kingdom of Burgundy was known by then), was chosen by Pope Clement V as his residence at the time of the Council of Vienne and, from 9 March 1309 until 13 January 1377, Avignon, rather than Rome was the seat of the Papacy. At the time the city and its surroundings (the Comtat Venaissin) were ruled by the kings of Sicily of the House of Anjou. The French King Philip the Fair, who had inherited from his father all the rights of Alphonse de Poitiers (the last Count of Toulouse), made them over to Charles II, King of Naples and Count of Provence (1290). Nonetheless, Philip was a shrewd ruler. Inasmuch as the eastern banks of the Rhône marked the edge of his kingdom, when the river flooded up into the city of Avignon, Philip taxed the city since during periods of flood, the city technically lay within his domain.

Avignon became the Pontifical residence under Pope Clement V in 1309. His successor, John XXII, a former bishop of the diocese, made it the capital of Christianity and transformed his former episcopal palace into the primary Palace of the Popes. It was Benedict XII who built the '' Old Palace'' and his successor Clement VI the '' New Palace''. He bought the town on 9 June 1348 from Joanna I of Naples, the Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence for 80,000 florins. Innocent VI endowed the city walls.

Under their rule, the Court seethed and attracted many merchants, painters, sculptors and musicians. Their palace, the most remarkable building in the International Gothic style was the result, in its construction and ornamentation, of the joint work of the best French architects, Pierre Peysson and Jean du Louvres (called Loubières) and the larger frescoes from the School of Siena: Simone Martini and Matteo Giovanetti.

The papal library in Avignon was the largest in Europe in the 14th century with 2,000 volumes Around the library were a group of passionate clerics of letters who were pupils of Petrarch, the founder of Humanism. At the same time the Clementine Chapel, called the ''Grande Chapelle'', attracted composers, singers, and musicians including Philippe de Vitry, inventor of the Ars Nova, and Johannes Ciconia.

As Bishop of Cavaillon, Cardinal Philippe de Cabassoles, Lord of Vaucluse, was the great protector of the Renaissance poet Petrarch.

Urban V took the first decision to return to Rome, to the delight of Petrarch, but the chaotic situation there with different conflicts prevented him from staying there. He died shortly after his return to Avignon.

His successor, Gregory XI, also decided to return to Rome and this ended the first period of the Avignon Papacy. When Gregory XI brought the seat of the papacy to Rome in 1377, the city of Avignon was administered by a legate.

The early death of Gregory XI, however, caused the Great Schism. Clement VII and Benedict XIII reigned again in Avignon Overall therefore it was nine popes who succeeded in the papal palace and enriched themselves during their pontificate.

From then on until the French Revolution, Avignon and the Comtat were papal possessions: first under the schismatic popes of the Great Schism, then under the popes of Rome ruling via legates until 1542, and then by vice-legates. The Black Death appeared at Avignon in 1348 killing almost two-thirds of the city's population.

In all seven popes and two anti-popes resided in Avignon:
*Clement V: 1305–1314 (curia moved to Avignon March 9, 1309)
*John XXII: 1316–1334
* Benedict XII: 1334–1342
* Clement VI: 1342–1352
*Innocent VI: 1352–1362
* Urban V: 1362–1370 (in Rome 1367-1370; returned to Avignon 1370)
* Gregory XI: 1370–1378 (left Avignon to return to Rome on September 13, 1376)

;Anti-Popes
*Clement VII (1378-1394)
* Benedict XIII (1394-1403)

The walls that were built by the popes in the years immediately following the acquisition of Avignon as papal territory are well preserved. As they were not particularly strong fortifications, the Popes relied instead on the immensely strong fortifications of their palace, the "Palais des Papes". This immense Gothic building, with walls 17–18 feet thick, was built 1335–1364 on a natural spur of rock, rendering it all but impregnable to attack. After its capture following the French Revolution, it was used as a barracks and prison for many years but it is now a museum.

Avignon, which at the beginning of the 14th century was a town of no great importance, underwent extensive development during the time the seven Avignon popes and two anti-popes, Clement V to Benedict XIII, resided there. To the north and south of the rock of the Doms, partly on the site of the Bishop's Palace that had been enlarged by John XXII, was built the Palace of the Popes in the form of an imposing fortress consisting of towers linked to each other and named as follows: La Campane, Trouillas, La Glacière, Saint-Jean, Saints-Anges (Benedict XII), La Gâche, La Garde-Robe (Clement VI), Saint-Laurent (Innocent VI). The Palace of the Popes belongs, by virtue of its severe architecture, to the Gothic art of the South of France. Other noble examples can be seen in the churches of Saint-Didier, Saint-Pierre, and Saint Agricol as well as in the Clock Tower and in the fortifications built between 1349 and 1368 for a distance of some flanked by thirty-nine towers, all of which were erected or restored by the Roman Catholic Church.

The popes were followed to Avignon by agents (or factors) of the great Italian banking-houses who settled in the city as money-changers and as intermediaries between the Apostolic Camera and its debtors. They lived in the most prosperous quarter of the city which was known as ''the Exchange''. A crowd of traders of all kinds brought to market the produce necessary for maintaining the numerous courts and for the visitors who flocked to it: grain and wine from Provence, the south of France, Roussillon, and the country around Lyon. Fish was brought from places as distant as Brittany; rich cloth and tapestries came from Bruges and Tournai. The account-books of the Apostolic Camera, which are still kept in the Vatican archives, give an idea of the trade of which Avignon became the centre. The university founded by Boniface VIII in 1303 had many students under the French popes. They were drawn there by the generosity of the sovereign pontiffs who rewarded them with books or benefices.

Early modern period

After the restoration of the Papacy in Rome the spiritual and temporal government of Avignon was entrusted to a Legate, notably the Cardinal-nephew, who was replaced in his absence by a vice-legate (unlike the legate he was usually a commoner and not a cardinal). Pope Innocent XII abolished nepotism and the office of Legate in Avignon on 7 February 1693, handing over its temporal government in 1692 to the Congregation of Avignon (i.e. a department of the papal Curia which resided in Rome), with the Cardinal Secretary of State as presiding prefect, who exercised their jurisdiction through the vice-legate. This congregation, to which appeals were made from the decisions of the vice-legate, was linked to the Congregation of Loreto within the Roman Curia. In 1774 the vice-legate was made president thus depriving him of almost all authority. The office was done away with under Pope Pius VI on 12 June 1790.

The Public Council, composed of forty-eight councillors chosen by the people, four members of the clergy, and four doctors from the university, met under the presidency of the chief magistrate of the city: the ''viquier'' (Occitan) or representative of the papal Legate or Vice-legate who annually nominated a man for the post. The councillors' duty was to watch over the material and financial interests of the city but their resolutions had to be submitted to the vice-legate for approval before being put in force. Three consuls, chosen annually by the Council, had charge of the administration of the streets.

Avignon's survival as a papal enclave was, however, somewhat precarious, as the French crown maintained a large standing garrison at Villeneuve-lès-Avignon just across the river.

On the death of the Archbishop of Arles