Avignon

The papal city on the Rhone where Ockham was summoned to answer charges of heresy and spent four years under investigation before fleeing by night.

For most of the fourteenth century the popes lived at Avignon rather than Rome, in a fortified palace above the river. Ockham was called there in 1324 to answer for propositions drawn from his commentary on the Sentences. While waiting he was asked to examine the dispute over apostolic poverty, concluded that the pope's position was the heretical one, and left in 1328 with the head of his order and a small group of Franciscans.