Rienzi, the last of the tribunes, was a prisoner within the walls of this great papal stronghold, and Simone Memmi of Sienna was brought therefrom to decorate the walls of the popes' private chapel; Petrarch was _persona grata_ here, and many other notables were frequenters of its hospitality. The palace walls rise to a height of nearly ninety feet, and its battlemented towers add another fifty; from which one may infer that its stability was great; an effect which is still further sustained when the great thickness of its sustaining walls is remarked, and the infrequent piercings of windows and doorways. This vast edifice was commenced by Pope Clement V. in the early years of the thirteenth century, but nothing more than the foundations of his work were left, when Benedict XII., thirty years later, gave the work into the hands of Peter Obreri--who must have been the Viollet-le-Duc of his time. Revolution's destroying power played its part here, as generally throughout France, in defacing shrines, monuments, and edifices, civil and ecclesiastical, with little regard for sentiment and absolutely none for reason. The mob attacked the papal palace with results more disastrous than the accumulated debasement of preceding centuries. The later régime, which turned the magnificent halls of this fortress-like palace into a mere barracks--as it is to-day--was quite as iconoclastic in its temperament. One may realize here, to the full, just how far a great and noble achievement of the art and devotion of a past age may sink. The ancient papal palace at Avignon--the former seat of the power of the Roman Catholic religion--has become a mere barracks! To contemplate it is more sad even than to see a great church turned into a stable or an abattoir--as can yet be seen in France. In its plan this magnificent building preserves its outlines, but its splendour of embellishment has very nearly been eradicated, as may be observed if one will crave entrance of the military incumbent. [Illustration: VILLENEUVE-. _les-AVIGNON_] In 1376 Pope Gregory XI. left Avignon for Rome,--after him came the two anti-popes,--and thus ended what Petrarch has called "_L'Empia Babilonia_." The cathedral of Notre Dame des Doms pales perceptibly before the splendid dimensions of the papal palace, which formerly encompassed a church of its own of much more artistic worth. In one respect only does the cathedral lend a desirable note to the _ensemble_. This, by reason of its commanding situation--at the apex of the Rocher des Doms--and by the gilded statue of the Virgin which surmounts the tower, and supplies just the right quality of colour and life to a structure which would be otherwise far from brilliant.