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Setting the scene
The papacy's move to Avignon resulted from conflict between Pope Boniface VIII and King Philip IV of France. Boniface's 1302 bull Unam Sanctam asserted papal supremacy over kings, leading Philip to send agents who assaulted Boniface at Anagni in 1303; the pope died weeks later. Philip then engineered the election of French archbishop Bertrand de Got as Clement V in 1305. Clement, never crowned in Rome, remained in France, dependent on Philip. He suppressed the Knights Templar (1307-1312) at Philip's urging and, in 1309, settled the papal court at Avignon, then part of the Kingdom of Arles but within French influence.
What happened
Clement V's successors—John XXII, Benedict XII, Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urban V, and Gregory XI—all French, remained in Avignon for 67 years (1309-1376). They built the Palais des Papes, a fortress-palace symbolizing papal power, and developed an efficient bureaucracy that centralized church administration and finances. The Avignon papacy was not initially intended as permanent, but French kings found it convenient to have the pope nearby. The period saw the Black Death (1348), the Hundred Years' War, and growing criticism of papal wealth and 'Babylonian Captivity.'
Why it still matters
Pope Gregory XI returned to Rome in January 1377 under pressure from St. Catherine of Siena and political necessity, but died in 1378. The subsequent disputed election produced the Western Schism (1378-1417), with rival popes in Rome and Avignon. The Avignon period weakened papal prestige, fostered national churches, and contributed to conciliarist theories that councils outrank popes—ideas that influenced the Reformation. Though often portrayed as corrupt exile, Avignon was a period of administrative reform and relative stability, but its French association damaged the papacy's universal claims.【7949538105071084533†L5-L7】
Background
The Babylonian Captivity strained papal independence. Even centuries later, this episode remains a reference point for how empires rise, fracture, and transform.