Pope Clement V (1264-20 April 1314), born Raymond Bertrand de Got, was Pope from 1305 to 1314, succeeding Pope Benedict XI and preceding Pope John XXII.
Biography[]
Raymond Bertrand de Got was born in 1264 in Villandraut, Gascony, in the Kingdom of France. In 1294 he became the Cardinal-Bishop of Albano, and in 1297 he became the Archbishop of Bordeaux. In 1305, he was elected to succeed Pope Benedict XI, and he chose the name "Clement V" as his papal name. During his reign, he helped King Philip VI of France in the annihilation of the Templar Order in 1307, condemning them as heretics and presiding over the burning at the stake of Templar Grand Master Jacques de Molay. In March 1309 the Papal court moved from Poitiers to Avignon, an imperial fief held by the Kingdom of Sicily, after Rome became too unsafe for the popes. Clement was the first pope of the Avignon Papacy, and he died in 1314, which began a two-year interregnum.