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
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