 Born
in 1331, at the castle of Maumont in the Dioceses of
Limoges; died 27 March, 1378, at Rome. He was a nephew
of Pope Clement VI, who heaped numerous benefices upon
him and finally created him cardinal deacon in 1348,
when he was only eighteen years of age. As cardinal he
attended the University of Perugia, became a skilled
canonist and theologian, and gained the esteem of all by
his humility and purity of heart. After the death of
Urban V, the cardinals unanimously elected him pope at
Avignon, on December, 1370. He chose the name of Gregory
XI, had himself ordained priest on 4 January, 1371, and
was crowned pope on the following day. Immediately on
his accession he attempted to reconcile the Kings of
France and England, but failed. He succeeded, however,
in pacifying Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Sicily, and
Naples. He also made efforts towards the reunion of the
Greek and Latin Churches, the undertaking of a crusade,
and the reform of the clergy. Soon, however, he had to
give his entire attention to the turbulent affairs of
Italy. Duke Bernabo Visconti of Milan, an inveterate
enemy of the papacy, had in 1371 made himself master of
Reggio and other places that were feudatory to the Holy
See. When all other means to bring him to terms had
failed, Gregory XI placed him under the ban. Bernabo
compelled the legates that brought him the Bull of
excommunication to eat the parchment on which his
excommunication was written, and heaped many other
insults upon them.
Hereupon Gregory XI declared war upon him in 1372.
Success was at first on the side of Bernabo, but when
Gregory XI obtained the support of the emperor, the
Queen of Naples, the King of Hungary, and bought into
his service the English condottiere John Hawkwood,
Bernabo sued for peace. By bribing some of the papal
councillors he obtained a favourable truce on 6 June,
1374.
Like the preceding popes of Avignon, Gregory XI made
the fatal mistake of appointing Frenchmen, who did not
understand the Italians and whom the Italians hated, as
legates and governors of the ecclesiastical provinces in
Italy. The Florentines, however, feared that a
strengthening of the papal power in Italy would impair
their own prestige in Central Italy and allied
themselves with Bernabo in July, 1375. Both Bernabo and
the Florentines did their utmost to stir up an
insurrection in the pontifical territory among all those
that were dissatisfied with the papal legates in Italy.
They were so successful that within a short time the
entire Patrimony of St. Peter was up in arms against the
pope. Highly incensed at the seditious proceedings of
the Florentines, Gregory XI imposed an extremely severe
punishment upon them. He put Florence under interdict,
excommunicated its inhabitants, and outlawed them and
their possessions. The financial loss which the
Florentines sustained thereby was inestimable. They sent
St. Catherine of Siena to intercede for them with
Gregory XI, but frustrated her efforts by continuing
their hostilities against the pope. In the midst of
these disturbances Gregory XI, yielding to the urgent
prayers of St. Catherine, decided to remove the papal
see to Rome, despite the protests of the French King and
the majority of the cardinals. He left Avignon on 13
September, 1376, boarded the ship at Marsailles on 2
October, and came by way of Genoa to Corneto on 6
December. Here he remained until arrangements were made
in Rome concerning its future government. On 13 January,
1377, he left Corneto, landed at Ostia on the following
day, and sailed up the Tiber to the monastery of San
Paolo, from where he solemnly made his entrance into
Rome on 17 January. But his return to Rome did not put
an end to the hostilities. The notorious massacre of
Cesena, which was ordered by Cardinal Robert of Geneva
(afterwards antipope Clement VII), embittered the
Italians still more against the pope. The continuous
riots in Rome induced Gregory XI to remove to Anagui
towards the end of May, 1377. He gradually quelled the
commotion and returned to Rome on 7 Nov., 1377, where he
died while a congress of peace was in process at Sarzano.
Gregory XI was the last pope of French nationality. He
was learned and pious, though not free from nepotism. In
1374 he approved the Order of the Spanish Hermits of St.
Jerome, and on 22 May, 1377, he issued five Bulls in
which the errors of Wyclif were condemned. He was so
disgusted with the conditions at Rome that only death
prevented him from returning to Avignon. The Great
Schism began after his death.
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