Avignon Palace of the Popes

Beginning with Pope Clement V in 1309 several popes of the fourteenth century resided at Avignon and exercised the papal office under the domination of the French kings. This French influence and the preoccupation of the Avignon popes with raising revenues for papal coffers brought the papacy into disrepute. In 1378 the people of Rome demanded the election of a Roman pope, and the college of cardinals elected Pope Urban VI. The cardinals later regretted this election and elected another as Pope Clement VII. This inaugurated the Great Schism within the western church (1378-1417).