In 1309 Clement V moved to Avignon in SE France and so began the “[[Babylonian Captivity]]”* of the papacy. Considerations of security led the popes to prefer Avignon to Rome until 1377. Avignon was in a local political pressure area removed from the tensions of Italian politics and was geographically much more convenient than Rome. Its position made it suitable as a center of judicial affairs, and it became the base of a great bureaucratic organization efficient at raising funds for papal purposes. When the papal court returned to Rome, Avignon continued to be the seat, until 1408, of two antipopes, [[Clement VII]] and [[Benedict XIII]]. By the end of the eleventh century the nearby Abbey of St. Ruf had become famous as a pioneering community living under the rule of Augustine.