
At the beginning of the fourteenth century, anarchy in Italy led to the capital of the Christian world being moved from Romefor the first & only time in history. It was a critical moment, & it resulted in seven successive popes remaining in exile for the next seventy years. The city chosen to replace Rome was Avignon. & depending on where you stood at the time they were seventy years of heaven, or of hellopinions invariably ran to extremes, as did the behaviour of the popes themselves.