Pope Clement VI

Born Pierre Roger in 1291, he rose through French ecclesiastical ranks to claim the papacy on 7 May 1342, the fourth pope to rule from Avignon rather than Rome. He defended the Church's jurisdiction against secular encroachment and deepened French control over Catholic hierarchy, spending lavishly to elevate papal ceremony and recruiting composers versed in the new Ars Nova style for his court. When the Black Death arrived in 1348, he issued remission of sins for all who succumbed to the plague as the pandemic raged across the continent for two years. He died 6 December 1352, his decade-long reign defined by splendor and catastrophe in equal measure.