Question: In which French city did the Popes reside during the 14th century?
Show answer
Avignon.
During the 14th century, the Popes resided in the French city of Avignon. This period, known as the Avignon Papacy, spanned from 1309 to 1377, during which seven successive popes made Avignon their home rather than Rome, fundamentally altering the religious and political landscape of Europe.
The shift from Rome to Avignon began with Pope Clement V in 1309. Originally from Bordeaux in France, Clement V was heavily influenced by the French King Philip IV, who played a significant role in his election. Political instability and the chaotic situation in Rome, including conflicts with powerful families and a lack of secure control over the Papal States, made the city unsafe for the papacy. As a result, Clement chose to establish the papal court in Avignon, a decision that would have lasting impacts.
Avignon, at that time, was not part of France but belonged to the Kingdom of Naples under the rule of the Angevin dynasty, which provided a relatively stable and secure environment. The city quickly transformed into a center of ecclesiastical power. Over the next 68 years, Avignon flourished as a center of art, culture, and learning, largely due to the papacy’s presence. The popes built the Palais des Papes, a formidable Gothic palace that symbolized the church’s wealth and authority.
The Avignon Papacy is often looked upon as a period of decline in the spiritual authority of the papacy, primarily because of the perceived undue influence of the French monarchy over the popes. Critics, including the writer Petrarch, who called Avignon the “Babylon of the West,” viewed the papacy’s absence from Rome as scandalous and a betrayal of the church’s independence.
The papacy eventually returned to Rome in 1377 under Pope Gregory XI, ending the Avignon Papacy. This return was prompted by various factors, including the pressing need to reassert the church’s authority and control over the Papal States and the rising sentiment among church leaders and the general populace for the Roman tradition. The period following the return to Rome was marked by further turmoil, leading to the Great Schism when multiple claimants to the papacy emerged, which lasted until the Council of Constance in 1417.
