Antipope Clement VII
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Antipope Clement VII |
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|---|---|
 |
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| Diocese | Avignon, France |
| Elected | 20 September 1378 |
| Papacy ended | 16 September 1394 |
| Successor | Benedict XIII |
| Opposed to | Roman claimants: Urban VI Boniface IX |
| Other posts | Count of Geneva |
| Orders | |
| Created Cardinal | 30 May 1371 |
| Rank | Cardinal |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Robert of Geneva |
| Born | 1342 Chateau d'Annecy, County of Savoy, Holy Roman Empire |
| Died |
16 September 1394 (aged 52) Avignon, Papal States |
| Occupation | Archbishop of Cambrai |
| Coat of arms | .svg){kind=small} |
Robert of Geneva (French: Robert de Genève) (1342 – 16 September 1394) was elected to the papacy as Clement VII (French: Clément VII) by the French cardinals who opposed Urban VI, and was the first antipope residing in Avignon, France.
He was the son of Amadeus III, Count of Geneva, and was born in chateau d'Annecy in 1342. He became Bishop of Thérouanne in 1361, Archbishop of Cambrai in 1368, and a cardinal on 30 May 1371. In 1375, he was appointed rector of Bishopwearmouth in County Durham, England, though it is unlikely that he ever visited there, but instead used the income from that highly prized living for his papal election expenses.
In 1377, while serving as papal legate in upper Italy (1376–78), in order to put down a rebellion in the Papal States, known as the War of the Eight Saints, he personally commanded troops lent to the papacy by the condottiere John Hawkwood to reduce the small city of Cesena in the territory of Forlì, which resisted being added to the Patrimony of Peter for the second time in a generation; there he authorized the massacre of 3,000 - 8,000 civilians, an atrocity even by the rules of war at the time, which earned him the nickname butcher of Cesena.
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