Note 4 — INTRODUCTION
Reading edition
The Great Schism arose out of the Babylonian captivity at Avignon (1306–1376). Popes and anti-Popes contended for 40 years (1378–1418). France was on the side of the Avignon Popes, while the Empire and England supported the Popes in Rome. Philip the Fair, by arrangement with the Pope, changed the Papal chair to Avignon. During the seventy years of the captivity, when the Church was ruled by French Popes, France underwent the disasters of Crecy and Poitiers, and became almost a province of England.