Avignon, a small university town and bishopric, under the Counts of Provence, became the residence of the Popes in 1309, which it was to remain for nearly seventy years. The change was not very startling. Two general councils had recently been held at Lyons, and four of the Popes had been French. The change, inspired by the hope of reconciling France and England for a crusade, by the over-attachment of Pope and Cardinals to their own country, and by the chaos in the Papal States, was not at firs…