ABSTRACT
From a purely organizational point of view, small travel groups doubtless had a number of advantages over larger ones. A journey to the papal court, the place where the distribution of benefices was organized, offered unique opportunities for profit, and the Registers of Supplications contain an abundance of information on petitions made by English diplomats for themselves or on behalf of relatives, friends and members of their households. A major trade route from the thirteenth century, it was also frequently used by northern French pilgrims to Rome. It acquired a more 'diplomatic', 'administrative' and 'political' character in the following century when the popes resided at Avignon. In the summer of 1361, the plague returned to ravage Avignon and its environs once more. The route to Avignon, or at least the larger part of it, was probably well known to English travellers by the time the papacy moved to southern France.
