vignonnais, who had not enjoyed greater peace under their anointed
rulers than under worldling Counts, rose against Pierre de Luna, the
"Anti-pope" Benedict XIII, who fled. From that time no Pontiff entered
the gates, and the city was administered by papal legates. In later
days, in spite of the sacred character of its rulers and his own
undoubted orthodoxy, Louis XIV seized Avignon several times; and Louis
XV, in unfilial vengeance for the excommunication of the Duke of Parma,
took possession of the city. But it was not until after the beginning
of the French Revolution, in 1791, that the Avignonnais themselves
arose, chased the Vice-Legate of the Pope from the city, and appealed
for union with France; and it was at this period that the Chapel of
Sainte-Marthe, the Cloister, and the Chapter House were swept away. Thus
ended the temporal power of the Papacy in France, planned for worldly
profit and carried out with many sordid compromises;--a residency
unnoted for great deeds or noble intentions and whose close marked the
"Great Schism."

To-day papal Avignon is become French Avignon, a pleasant city where the
Provencal sun is hot and where the Mistral whistles merrily. Above the
banks of the Rhone the simple Cathedral stands, with its priests still
garbed in papal red, its Host still carried under the white papal
panoply. Here also is the great Palace of the Popes, "which is indeed,"
says Froissart, "the strongest and most magnificent house in the world."
And yet its grim walls suggest neither peace nor rest; and to him who
recalls, this great, impressive pile tells neither of glories nor of
triumphs. Bands of unbelieving Pastoureaux marched toward it; soldiers
of the "White Companies" and soldiers of du Guesclin gazed mockingly at
it; it was the prison of Rienzi, and the home of the harassed Popes who
had ever before them, just across the river, the menacing tower of that
"fair king" who had led them into "Babylonish captivity."

[Sidenote: Vaison.]

On the banks of a pleasant little river among the Provencal hills is
Vaison, one of the ancient Gallic towns which became entirely romanised;
and many illustrious families of the Empire had summer villas there as
at Arles and Orange. Barbarians of one epoch or another have devastated
Vaison of all her antique treasures, except the remains of an
Amphitheatre on the Puymin Hill. Germanic tribes who swooped down in
early centuries destroyed her villas and her greater bui