At the beginning of the 14th century, in a context of tension between the King of France Philippe IV le Bel and Pope Boniface VIII, Avignon became the scene of a serious crisis in the Catholic Church. Pope Clement V (the former Archbishop of Bordeaux) elected in 1305 outside of the Sacred College of Cardinals refused to join Rome and settled in 1309 in Avignon, then the possession of the Count of Provence, placed under the Holy Roman Empire. A monumental palace-fortress, the seat of a century of papacy history, was built there. It housed the French popes Clement V, John XXII, Benedict XII, Clement VI, Innocent VI, Urbain V, and Gregory XI from 1309 to 1378. The city was again a papal residence until the beginning of the 15th century under Clement VII and Benedict XIII.