Avignon and reform What had, in previous centuries, been the steady rise of papal power, stopped rising in the fourteenth century. In 1309, Pope Clement V moved to Avignon in southern France in search of relief from Rome's factional politics. The Avignon Papacy consisted of seven popes whose residence there produced unintended consequences: the move away from the "seat of Peter" caused great indignation and diminished the prestige and power of the popes.
Avignon and reform What had, in previous centuries, been the steady rise of papal power, stopped rising in the fourteenth century. In 1309, Pope Clement V moved to Avignon in southern France in search of relief from Rome's factional politics. The Avignon Papacy consisted of seven popes whose residence there produced unintended consequences the move away from the "seat of Peter" caused great indignation and diminished the prestige and power of the popes