The Avignon Papacy was the period from 1309 to 1378, during
which seven succeeding popes exist in in Avignon, in France, rather than in
Rome.
This situation ascended from the battle between the Papacy
and the French crown.
Following the strife
between Boniface VIII and Philip IV of France, and the death of his successor
Benedict XI after only eight months in office, a deadlocked gathering lastly
elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as Pope in 1305. Clement deteriorated to move
to Rome, remaining in France, and in 1309 moved his court to the papal enclave
at Avignon, where it continued for the next 67 years. This absence from Rome is
sometimes referred to as the "Babylonian Captivity of the Papacy
