He comes originally from Grizac in the Cevennes, and from the Abbey of Saint Victor in Marseille. As a Benedictine, like Innocent VI, he leads a life of austerity. He tries to return the papacy to Rome.
Despite the insistence of the King of France, he leaves the city on April 30, 1367, entrusting the government of the city and the comtat to Philippe Cabassole. After a stop in Viterbes, he arrives in Rome on October 16, I367. But the hostilities between France and England incited him to return to Avignon (a more settled place than Rome) to negociate peace. He disembarks in Marseille on September 16, I370 and dies in Avignon on December 19. He will be the only beatified Pope (in 1870).
