The Father, the Son and the party hosts
From 1309-1376, seven popes resided in Avignon instead of Rome. It was a period that saw the birth of a popular wine, a pope who ate only white foods and some very lavish banquets.
The city of Avignon, c.1700. Source: Mary Novik
The Popes in Avignon
In 1309, Pope Clement V relocated himself and his court from the Vatican, the traditional seat of the papacy, to the town of Avignon in Provence. Provence wasn’t actually a part of the French kingdom at the time, with the papacy owning large tracts of land in the region. Avignon itself was owned by Joanna I of Naples, who would later sell it to the papacy in 1348.
The move from Rome to Avignon happened for a number of reasons. Relations between the papacy and France had become strained during the reign of Benedict XI, so Clement, a skilled diplomat, wanted to establish a closer relationship with King Philip IV of France. Avignon was also located on the Rhône and not far from the Mediterranean, making it a convenient location for travelling around Europe. And Rome at the time was a dangerous place, subject to constant power struggles between its leading families, which put the pope at risk. A move to a safer Provincial town seemed sensible.
Drunk and devotional
As with any large group of lads going somewhere, a demand for booze followed. The pope’s party wanted wine, ‘not so much because of sacramental requirements’ writes Rod Phillips in French Wine: A History, but due to the ‘influx of a huge bureaucracy of prelates and officials, all of whom drank generous amounts of wine.’ In other words, the papal posse loved to party.
The area around Avignon, however, had a reputation for producing mediocre wines. Wine had been produced in the region since the Roman times, and more recently by the Templars, but the vineyards had fallen into disuse.
Luckily, Pope Clement had experience in the world of wine. He’d been gifted a vineyard when he’d been archbishop of Bordeaux (1297-1305), which he’d diligently cultivated and extended. (The wine, Château Pape Clément, is still made today, boasting one of the oldest viticultural legacies in the region.) When Clement arrived in Avignon at the start of the 14th century, he ordered the planting of a vineyard.
But it was Clement’s successor, John XXII, who’s credited with developing the blessed viticulture of the region.
John XXII
White food and witchcraft
While John XXII’s most well-known gastronomic legacy was his production of wine in the Rhône region, he had another, less-well known dietary quirk - he refused to eat any food that wasn’t white. John ate primarily white food stuffs, ‘such as milk, egg whites, white fish, chicken, and cheese.’ One speciality of Avignon, a kind of flan made with the pale flesh of aubergines called papeton d’aubergines, was purportedly invented during his reign.
John’s delight in white might have stemmed from a failed assassination attempt involving sorcery and poison that took place soon after he’d become pope. It’s possible he believed that it was harder to hide poison in white food and that its colour might lend it some supernatural protection.
John XXII was also so fond of mustard he created the post of papal mustard-maker and appointed his nephew to the position.
Divine wines
John, however, is more widely remembered for his booze than his food.
As pope, he established a summer residence about six miles north of Avignon where he brought in vintners from his hometown of Cahors, in the south-western France, to help restore the vineyards that had fallen into disuse there. Here he produced a wine, then called vin d’Avignon, but today known as the popular Châteauneuf-du-Pape (‘new palace of the pope’).
Over the next half a century or so, consecutive popes built Avignon into an important cultural centre, which saw an influx of scholars, artists and traders. This not only resulted in a growing popularity for the local wines of the Rhône region, such as Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but also those from Burgundy in east-central France. Burgundy wines were more easily transported to Avignon than to Paris or Rome and the elite began to acquire a taste for them. In fact, they became so popular, many members of the papal court were apparently reluctant to return to Rome for fear of being unable to get supplies there.
Immaculate receptions
The Avignon papacy represented a time of great luxury and decadence within the Church that extended far beyond their predilection for French wines. The popes regularly held grand banquets with dozens of guests from France, Italy, Spain and other European countries.
‘A thousand sheep might be roasted for a single meal, accompanied by thousands of gallons of wine’, write the authors of A Bite-Size History of France. Papal chefs ‘turned the dining tables into a riot of expensive color with spices such as saffron and even gold leaf’ and ‘guests ate off plates of silver and gold.’
In 1324, to celebrate the marriage of his great niece, John XXII held a banquet that included 4,012 loaves of bread, 3,000 eggs, 690 chickens, 270 rabbits, 55 sheep, 50 pigeons, 37 ducks, 9 oxen, 8 pigs, 4 wild boars, 4 cranes, 2 pheasants, 2 peacocks, nearly 350 lbs of cheese and 11 barrels of wine.
11 years later, in 1343, a feast was held for Pope Clement VI, consisting of nine courses of three dishes each. The third course was a giant castle filled with venison, goats, hares, rabbits and a wild boar. These animals were cooked, yet made to look as if they were still alive. There was even a fountain that spouted five types of wine. To top it all off, a fake bridge was constructed across the river which bordered the papal palace, so that when curious onlookers tried to join the festivities, they’d be thrown into the water below. By all accounts, this prank proved to be a success.
Pope Clement VI and his court lived such an indulgent lifestyle that St Bridget of Sweden advised the pope to curb his excesses and ‘take the hammer’ to any cardinals that refused to live more frugally.
The popes go home
In 1376, Pope Gregory XI moved back to Rome, ending the Avignon Papacy. Two antipopes would go on to reside in Avignon from 1378-1423, part of a period known as the Western Schism, but the glory days were gone.
An enduring legacy of the Avignon popes was Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a wine still popular today, alongside the development of viticulture in the Rhône region, as well as hazy memories of some lit af parties.
