No words could give an idea of the strangely disturbed condition of Avignon at this period.  Since Clement V had transported the seat of the papacy to Provence, there had sprung up, in this rival to Rome, squares, churches, cardinals’ palaces, of unparalleled splendour.  All the business of nations and kings was transacted at the castle of Avignon.  Ambassadors from every court, merchants of every nation, adventurers of all kinds, Italians, Spaniards, Hungarians, Arabs, Jews, soldiers, Bohemians, jesters, poets, monks, courtesans, swarmed and clustered here, and hustled one another in the streets.  There was confusion of tongues, customs, and costumes, an inextricable mixture of splendour and rags, riches and misery, debasement and grandeur.  The austere poets of the Middle Ages stigmatised the accursed city in their writings under the name of the New Babylon.

There is one curious monument of Joan’s sojourn at Avignon and the exercise of her authority as sovereign.  She was indignant at the effrontery of the women of the town, who elbowed everybody shamelessly in the streets, and published a notable edict, the first of its kind, which has since served as a model in like cases, to compel all unfortunate women who trafficked in their honour to live shut up together in a house, that was bound to be open every day in the year except the last three days of Holy Week, the entrance to be barred to Jews at all times.  An abbess, chosen once a year, had the supreme control over this strange convent.  Rules were established for the maintenance of order, and severe penalties inflicted for any infringement of discipline.  The lawyers of the period gained a great reputation by this salutary institution; the fair ladies of Avignon were eager in their defence of the queen in spite of the calumnious reports that strove to tarnish her reputation:  with one voice the wisdom of Andre’s widow was extolled.  The concert of praises was disturbed, however, by murmurs from the recluses themselves, who, in their own brutal language, declared that Joan of Naples was impeding their commerce so as to get a monopoly for herself.

Meanwhile Marie of Durazzo had joined her sister.  After her husband’s death she had found means to take refuge in the convent of Santa Croce with her two little daughters; and while Louis of Hungary was busy burning his victims, the unhappy Marie had contrived to make her escape in the frock of an old monk, and as by a miracle to get on board a ship that was setting sail for Provence.  She related to her sister the frightful details of the king’s cruelty.  And soon a new proof of his implacable hatred confirmed the tales of the poor princess.

Louis’s ambassadors appeared at the court of Avignon to demand formally the queen’s condemnation.