It Was Sold In The Fourteenth Century, By Queen Jane
I. Of Naples, To Pope Clement VI.
For the sum of eighty thousand
florins, and since that period has continued under the dominion
of the see of Rome.
Not but that when the duc de Crequi, the
French ambassador, was insulted at Rome in the year 1662, the
parliament of Provence passed an arret, declaring the city of
Avignon, and the county Venaiss in part of the ancient domain of
Provence; and therefore reunited it to the crown of France, which
accordingly took possession; though it was afterwards restored to
the Roman see at the peace of Pisa. The pope, however, holds it
by a precarious title, at the mercy of the French king, who may
one day be induced to resume it, upon payment of the original
purchase-money. As a succession of popes resided here for the
space of seventy years, the city could not fail to be adorned
with a great number of magnificent churches and convents, which
are richly embellished with painting, sculpture, shrines,
reliques, and tombs. Among the last, is that of the celebrated
Laura, whom Petrarch has immortalized by his poetry, and for whom
Francis I. of France took the trouble to write an epitaph.
Avignon is governed by a vice-legate from the pope, and the
police of the city is regulated by the consuls.
It is a large place, situated in a fruitful plain, surrounded by
high walls built of hewn stone, which on the west side are washed
by the Rhone.
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