In 1305, Bertrand de Got was elected Pope Clement V after a difficult conclave shaped by conflict between the papacy and the French crown. The political pressure and instability around Rome helped set the stage for a move of papal government away from Italy. This election is a key starting point for understanding why papal finance and administration soon concentrated at Avignon.
In 1309, Clement V transferred the papal court (the Curia) to Avignon, shifting the center of church administration and finance. Running a Europe-wide institution from southern France required reliable systems to collect taxes and fees, keep accounts, and move funds across borders. This move created strong, ongoing demand for professional banking and money-transfer services.
With Pope John XXII’s election in 1316, the Avignon papacy developed a more permanent administrative footprint. Building a stable fiscal administration meant strengthening the papal treasury’s routine collection and documentation of revenues (for example, payments tied to church offices). These changes made papal income more predictable but also increased the need for careful recordkeeping and financial intermediaries.
From 1316 to 1342, the papacy relied heavily on major Florentine banking houses—especially the Bardi, Peruzzi, and Acciaioli—to transfer money to Avignon. This dependence reflected a practical problem: papal revenues were collected in many currencies and locations, and needed conversion and safe long-distance movement. The arrangement tied papal fiscal stability to the health of large Italian firms.
During the early Avignon period, the papacy expanded use of annates—a tax that took the first year’s income from certain church benefices (income-producing offices). The policy helped finance the papal government but was controversial because it redirected local church income to the central treasury. In practice, these taxes increased the volume of funds that had to be collected across Europe and transmitted to Avignon.
After Benedict XII was elected in 1334, construction of the Palais des Papes began in Avignon in 1335. A permanent palace supported a more settled bureaucracy, including officials responsible for budgeting, accounting, and managing inflows of church revenue. The building program also signaled that Avignon was not a temporary stop but a functioning seat of government with major operating costs.
In 1342, the Bardi, Peruzzi, and Acciaioli banking houses failed, disrupting the main network used to transmit papal funds to Avignon. The collapse showed a structural vulnerability: the papal treasury depended on a small number of large, private firms for international payments. After this shock, the papacy had to patch together transfers through smaller and less capable companies.
Later in 1348, the Black Death struck Avignon and caused heavy loss of life. The epidemic disrupted commerce and staffing, increasing pressure on institutions that depended on regular cashflows and skilled clerical labor. For papal fiscal administration, this meant maintaining revenue collection and payments under crisis conditions.
On 9 June 1348, Pope Clement VI bought the town of Avignon from Joanna I of Naples for 80,000 florins, making the papal residence more secure in legal and political terms. Direct ownership strengthened the pope’s local control over administration and taxation in and around Avignon. It also reinforced Avignon’s role as a long-term fiscal headquarters for the papacy.
Between about 1355 and 1357, Pope Innocent VI initiated construction of new walls to protect an expanded Avignon. The decision was driven in part by insecurity in France, including threats from roaming mercenary bands. Physical security mattered for fiscal government: the papal treasury, archives, and financial agents needed protection in order to keep revenue and credit functioning.
In 1362, the papacy regained more reliable banking support by working with the Alberti antichi of Florence. Papal transfers used a distinctive notarized receipt procedure, the instrumentum cambii, to document the transaction and the promise to pay in Avignon. This was part of rebuilding trust and capacity after the earlier failures of major Florentine houses.
Pope Urban V moved to Rome in 1367 but returned to Avignon in 1370. The back-and-forth showed how political and security risks could disrupt the location of the papal administrative “center,” including its fiscal offices and payment networks. For bankers and local officials, these shifts affected where accounts were settled and where officials demanded payment.
On 13 September 1376, Pope Gregory XI left Avignon to move the papal court back to Italy, concluding the Avignon residence phase. He entered Rome on 17 January 1377, re-centering papal administration there. The move marked a major transition point for papal fiscal operations, because offices, archives, and financial routines had to shift away from the Avignon-based network.
After Gregory XI died in March 1378, rival papal claimants emerged, leading to the Great Western Schism. The split created competing administrative structures and rival demands for taxes and payments, undermining confidence in centralized papal finance. As a closing outcome for this timeline, the schism shows how the Avignon period’s political and fiscal tensions contributed to a major institutional crisis.
Papal banking and fiscal administration during the Avignon Papacy (1305–1378)