The Western Schism or Papal Schism was a split within the Roman Catholic Church
from 1378 to 1417. Several men simultaneously claimed to be the true
pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement, the schism was
ended by the Council of Constance. For a time these rival claims to the papal
throne damaged the reputation of the office. The affair is sometimes referred
to as the Great Schism, although this term is typically reserved for the
East–West Schism between the Western Churches answering to the See of Rome
and the Orthodox Churches of the East. Origin
The Schism in the Western Roman Church resulted from the return of the papacy
to Rome under Gregory XI on January 17, 1377, ending the Avignon Papacy, which
had developed a reputation for corruption that estranged major parts of
Western Christendom. This reputation can be attributed to perceptions of
predominant French influence and to the papal curia's efforts to extend its
powers of patronage and increase its revenues.
After Pope Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure the election of a Roman
for pope. On April 8, 1378 the cardinals elected a Neapolitan when no viable
Roman candidates presented themselves. Urban VI, born Bartolomeo Prignano, the
Archbishop of Bari, was elected. Urban had been a respected administrator in
the papal chancery at Avignon, but as pope he proved suspicious, reformist,
and prone to violent outbursts of temper. Many of the cardinals who had
elected him soon regretted their decision: the majority removed
themselves from Rome to Anagni, where, even though Urban was still reigning,
they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival pope on September 20 of the same year.
Robert took the name Clement VII and reestablished a papal court in Avignon.
The second election threw the Church into turmoil. There had been
antipopes—rival claimants to the papacy—before, but most of them had been
appointed by various rival factions; in this case, a single group of leaders of
the Church had created both the pope and the antipope.
The conflicts quickly escalated from a church problem to a diplomatic crisis
that divided Europe. Secular leaders had to choose which claimant they would
recognize: Avignon: France, Aragon, Castile and
León, Cyprus, Burgundy, Savoy, Naples, Scotland and Owain Glyndwr's rebellion
in Wales recognized the Avignon claimant;
Rome: Denmark, England, Flanders, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Ireland,
Norway, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Republic of Venice, and other City
States of northern Italy, recognized the Roman claimant.
In the Iberian Peninsula there were the Ferdinand Wars and the 1383–1385 Crisis
in Portugal, during which dynastic opponents supported rival claimants to
the papal office. Consequences
Sustained by such national and factional rivalries throughout Catholic
Christianity, the schism continued after the deaths of both initial claimants;
Boniface IX, crowned at Rome in 1389, and Benedict XIII, who reigned in
Avignon from 1394, maintained their rival courts. When Boniface died in
1404, the eight cardinals of the Roman conclave offered to refrain from
electing a new pope if Benedict would resign; but when his legates refused on
his behalf, the Roman party then proceeded to elect Innocent VII.
In the intense partisanship characteristic of the Middle Ages, the
schism engendered a fanatical hatred noted by Johan Huizinga: when the town
of Bruges went over to the "obedience" of Avignon, a great number of people
left to follow their trade in a city of Urbanist allegiance; in 1382, the
oriflamme, which might only be unfurled in a holy cause, was taken up against
the Flemings, because they were Urbanists, that is, schismatics.
Efforts were made to end the Schism through force or diplomacy. The French
crown even tried to coerce Benedict XIII, whom it nominally supported, into
resigning. None of these remedies worked. The suggestion that a church
council should resolve the Schism, first made in 1378, was not adopted at first
because canon law required that a pope call a council. Eventually theologians
like Pierre d'Ailly and Jean Gerson, as well as canon lawyers like Francesco
Zabarella, adopted arguments that equity permitted the Church to act for its own
welfare in defiance of the letter of the law.
Eventually the cardinals of both factions secured an agreement that
Benedict and Pope Gregory XII would meet at Savona. They balked at the last
moment, and both colleges of cardinals abandoned their popes. A church council
was held at Pisa in 1409 under the auspices of the cardinals to try solving
the dispute, but it added to the problem by electing another incumbent, Alexander
V. He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409, to his death in 1410, when he was
succeeded by John XXIII, who won some but not universal support.
Resolution Finally, a council was convened by Pisan
pope John XXIII in 1414 at Constance to resolve the issue. This was endorsed by
Gregory XII, Innocent VII's successor in Rome, thus ensuring the legitimacy of
any election. The council, advised by the theologian Jean Gerson, secured the
resignations of John XXIII and Gregory XII, who resigned in 1415, while
excommunicating the claimant who refused to step down, Benedict XIII. The Council
then elected Pope Martin V, essentially ending the schism. Nonetheless, the
Crown of Aragon did not recognize Martin V and continued to recognize Benedict
XIII. Archbishops loyal to Benedict XIII subsequently elected Antipope Benedict
XIV and three followers simultaneously elected Antipope Clement VIII, but the
Western Schism was by then practically over.
The line of Roman popes is now recognized as the legitimate line, but
confusion on this point continued until the 19th century. Pope Pius II decreed
that no appeal could be made from pope to council; this left no way to undo a
papal election by anyone but the elected pope. No such crisis has arisen since
the 15th century, and so there has been no need to revisit this decision. The
alternate papal claimants have become known in history as antipopes. Those of
Avignon were dismissed by Rome early on, but the Pisan popes were included in the
Annuario Pontificio as popes well into the 20th century. Thus the Borgia pope
Alexander VI took his regnal name in sequence after the Pisan Alexander V.
Gregory's resignation was the last time a pope would stand down from papacy
before death until the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI in early 2013.
Historiography According to Broderick:
Doubt still shrouds the validity of the three rival lines of pontiffs during the
four decades subsequent to the still disputed papal election of 1378. This
makes suspect the credentials of the cardinals created by the Roman, Avignon,
and Pisan claimants to the Apostolic See. Unity was finally restored without
a definitive solution to the question; for the Council of Constance succeeded
in terminating the Western Schism, not by declaring which of the three
claimants was the rightful one, but by eliminating all of them by forcing their
abdication or deposition, and then setting up a novel arrangement for
choosing a new pope acceptable to all sides. To this day the Church has never
made any official, authoritative pronouncement about the papal lines of
succession for this confusing period; nor has Martin V or any of his
successors. Modern scholars are not agreed in their solutions, although they
tend to favor the Roman line. Notes
References The Three Popes: An Account of the Great
Schism, by Marzieh Gail. The Great Schism: 1378, by John Holland
Smith. The Origins of the Great Schism: A study
in fourteenth century ecclesiastical history, by Walter Ullmann).
A Companion to the Great Western Schism, ed. Joëlle Rollo-Koster and Thomas M
Izbicki. External links
The Age of the Great Western Schism Catholic Encyclopedia article