108 - How some cardinals left Pope Urban and elected another Pope whom they called Clement VII

Summary

While Pope Urban was in Rome at ease with his cardinals, he wrote to the Christian kings and princes and sent his ambassadors to some of them, making them know how after the death of Pope Gregory he had been elected as the pastor of the Church and that he was informing them as was appropriate. Moreover, he made it known that his wish was to negotiate as much as he could to make peace among all the Christian kings, even if he had to work at it personally. Furthermore, it was his desire to require that he and the cardinals should follow a good and honest life in the manner which canon law ordains and which they are obliged to follow. Beyond this, he wanted all the Christian kings, queens and their eldest sons to appear each year dressed in his livery, which was coloured red. To initiate this, he immediately sent to some of them certain pieces of scarlet, saying in his letters that he did not send such a thing as a great gift but as a sign of great love and that his wish was to grant dignities and benefices to the natives of each kingdom rather than to foreigners.

Although these things that Pope Urban ordered were good and honest, they caused him great harm because he started to make them public and put them into motion so quickly. He started to be harsh and severe towards the cardinals, rebuking them at times for not living in the poor and honest way that they should. They feared, according to common rumour, that he would later act more strictly towards them than he had begun to do so far. Having been with him for more than four months, thirteen cardinals – whose names and dignities we do not care to tell – left him and went to a place called Anagni in the county of Fondi where they wrote a letter to him, the core of which was as follows: while in Rome, when Pope Gregory died they had entered into conclave in order to elect a successor, and an armed mob had come in on them, saying that they were to elect a Roman or Italian pope or they would be put to death at their hands.