The popes at Avignon

In 1309 Pope Clement V, a Frenchman, settled at Avignon, and seven popes governed the Western Church from the city until 1377. They raised a fortress-palace in under twenty years and bought the town outright in 1348. After the papacy returned to Rome, rival popes elected in Avignon kept a second court here during the Great Schism, which divided Western Christendom until 1417.