In the case of the Templars, the financial interests of pope and king coincided. But on most
occasions, in most parts of Christendom, they conflicted. In the time of Boniface VIII, Philip IV
had secured the support of the Estates (even the Estate of the Church) in his disputes with the
Pope as to taxation. When the popes became politically subservient to France, the sovereigns
hostile to the French king were necessarily hostile to the Pope. This led to the protection of
William of Occam and Marsiglio of Padua by the Emperor; at a slightly later date, it led to the
protection of Wycliffe by John of Gaunt.
Bishops, in general, were by this time completely in subjection to the Pope; in an increasing
proportion, they were actually appointed by him. The monastic orders and the Dominicans were
equally obedient, but the Franciscans still had a certain spirit of independence. This led to their
conflict with John XXII ( 1316-34), which we have already considered in connection with
William of Occam. During this conflict, Marsiglio persuaded the Emperor to march on Rome,
where the imperial crown was conferred on him by the populace, and a Franciscan antipope was
elected after the populace had declared John XXII deposed. However, nothing came of all this
beyond a general diminution of respect for the papacy.
The revolt against papal domination took different forms in different places. Sometimes it was
associated with monarchical nationalism, sometimes with a Puritan horror of the corruption and
worldliness of the papal court. In Rome itself, the revolt was associated with an archaistic
democracy. Under Clement VI ( 1342-52) Rome, for a time, sought to free itself from the absentee
pope under the leadership of a remarkable man, Cola di Rienzi. Rome suffered not only from the
rule of the popes, but also from the local aristocracy, which continued the turbulence that had
degraded the papacy in the tenth century. Indeed it was partly to escape from the lawless Roman
nobles that the popes had fled to Avignon. At first Rienzi, who was the son of a tavern-keeper,
rebelled only against the nobles, and in this he had the support of the Pope. He roused so much
popular enthusiasm that the nobles fled ( 1347). Petrarch, who admired him and wrote an ode to
him, urged him to continue his great and noble work. He took the title of tribune, and proclaimed
the sovereignty of the Roman people over the Empire. He seems to have