ABSTRACT
The Avignon Papacy can be summed up in two words: centralization and finance. A tremendous attack had been made upon the Papacy. Hence the Pope sought to strengthen his power in internal ecclesiastical affairs, which resulted in an unprecedented centralization. The curia took pains to interest itself in the smallest ecclesiastical trivialities all over Christendom and to have all cases settled in Avignon. To carry out these schemes money was absolutely necessary. Consequently the small and uncertain income from the Papal States no longer sufficed. The clergy were expected to collect the necessary funds and hence arose the servitia, Peter's Pence, the census, tithes, subsidies, reservations, annates, spolia, taxes, loans, gifts, and all sorts of fees. The political universality was behind the financial universality of the Papacy and it was the evident intention to carry both to the limit. It was the shrewd brain of John XXII that outlined and put into execution the most consummate financial plan yet devised.
