Papacy

Urban V, Pope 1362-1370

Muntoni 1; Berman 296, PCGS graded VF-25

Rome. VRBAnVS PP QVInTVS, Pope Urban V enthroned facing, raising hand in benediction and holding cruciform scepter. Reverse: + (crossed keys) FACTA (crossed keys) IN ROMA (crossed keys), crossed keys.

Following the death of Innocent VI, Guillaume de Grimoard as Pope Urban V on September 28, 1362. He ruled from Avignon, but made a real effort through diplomacy to return to Rome. Through the intervention of the Holy Roman Emperor and a negotiated peace with Italian rulers, on October 16, 1367, Pope Urban V returned to Rome, where he spent much of his time crowning emperors, kings, and queens, and accepting the confession of faith by the Byzantine Emperor John V Palaeologus, thereby technically ending the Great Schism that had divided the Eastern and Western Churches since 1054. Despite this symbolic triumph, Urban V felt his rightful power to be curtailed in Rome and the please of French cardinals embroiled in the Hundred Years’ War returned to Avignon in September of 1370. He died there three months later.