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The second day's journey was not so bad, as during the night the river had fallen a foot, and they reached Avignon in safety. "But I am mortified," he writes, "to find that, though there are many Jews in this place, there is no Synagogue. No meat, prepared according to Jewish law, can be procured.
Though Avignon remained imperial soil, the removal of the Popes to this city on the verge of their dominions made them mere tools of the French kings. Much no doubt of the endless negotiation which the Papal court carried on with Edward the Third in his strife with Philip of Valois was an honest struggle for peace.
But now the people of England became very unwilling to pay so much money to the Pope, especially as at this time he was a Frenchman ruling, not from Rome, but from Avignon. It was folly, Englishmen said, to pay money into the hands of a Frenchman, the enemy of their country, who would use it against their country. And while many people were feeling like this, the Pope claimed still more.
The northern kingdoms were attacked by it in 1349; Sweden, indeed, not until November of that year, almost two years after its eruption in Avignon. Poland received the plague in 1349, probably from Germany, if not from the northern countries; but in Russia it did not make its appearance until 1351, more than three years after it had broken out in Constantinople.
"Seize them," shouted the leader of the French. "Seize them!" echoed those who poured up the stairs behind. But there the matter ended, since none could find stomach to face that axe and sword. So at length they took another counsel. "Bring bows and shoot them through the legs. Thus we shall bring them living to their trial," commanded the captain of the men of Avignon.
Gregory XI, the last of the "French Popes," returned to Rome, and at his death the "Great Schism" followed; Clement VII, in Avignon, was recognised by France, Spain, Scotland, Sicily, and Cyprus; Urban VI, in Rome, by Italy, Austria, and England. The County Venaissin was ravaged by wars and the pests that come in their train.
He knew the danger of neglecting such intimations, and since he thought the country after all preferable to the Bastille, he left Paris, and arrived at Avignon, surrounded by the halo of interest that naturally attends a handsome young persecuted nobleman. The virtue of Madame d'Urban was as much cried up at Avignon as the ill-behaviour of the chevalier had been reprobated in Paris.
A new gate, the Porte Petrarque, now the Porte de la Republique, was erected by Viollet-le-Duc when the walls were pierced for the new street; the Porte St. Dominique is also new. Luckily the intervention of a public-spirited Prefect of Vaucluse proved successful, and they were again rescued from the housewrecker's pick. No visitor to Avignon should omit to walk or drive round the famous ramparts.
If they try me openly, they dare not convict if they acquit me, they dare not but restore. Tomorrow, saidst thou, tomorrow?" "Tomorrow, Rienzi; be prepared!" "I am for triumph! But tell me what happy chance brought thee to Avignon?" "Chance, Cola!" said Nina, with reproachful tenderness. "Could I know that thou wert in the dungeons of the Pontiff, and linger in idle security at Prague?
The Papal Nuncio is flayed alive in the streets of Florence. The city is placed under an Interdict. Envoys are despatched to Avignon, who set forth eloquently, but to no avail, the grievances of the city. War is declared against Florence by the Pope, and Count Robert of Geneva, with an army of free-lances, is sent into Italy.
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