term applied to the 70 years (1307-1377) when the popes resided in Avignon, rather than in Rome. The phrase refers to the 70 years when the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzer held the ancient Hebrew people in captivity. (p. 393)
The Babylonian captivity, or Babylonian exile, is the name generally given to the deportation and exile of the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar.