Western Schism

The Western Schism or Papal Schism (also known as the Great Schism of Western Christianity) was a split within the Catholic church in 1378. Lacking any real theological or doctrinal underpinnings, being rather driven by politics, it was ended by the Council of Constance in 1417. It is occasionally called the Great Schism, though this term is more often applied to the East-West Schism of 1054.

Origin

The schism in the western church resulted from the return of the papacy to Rome under Pope Gregory XI in 1378, ending the Avignon Papacy.

After Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure a Roman was elected. The cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected a Neapolitan, when no viable Roman candidates presented themselves. Pope Urban VI, né Bartolomeo Prignani, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, but as pope he proved suspicious, overbearing, and prone to violent outbursts of temper. The cardinals who had elected him soon regretted their decision: the majority of them removed themselves from Rome to Fondi, where they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival pope on September 20 of the same year. Robert took the name Pope 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, the legitimate leaders of the church themselves had created both popes.

The conflict quickly escalated from a church problem to a diplomatic crisis that divided Europe. Secular leaders had to choose which pope they would recognize. France, Aragon, Castile and León, Cyprus, Burgundy, Savoy, Naples, and Scotland chose to recognize the Avignon claimant; Denmark, England, Flanders, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, northern Italy, Ireland, Norway, Poland, and Sweden recognised the Roman claimant. In the Iberian Peninsula there were the Fernandine wars (Guerras fernandinas) and the 1383-1385 crisis in Portugal, during which dynastic opponents supported rival popes. Even future saints were caught up in the schism: St Catherine of Siena defended Urban's papacy, while St Vincent Ferrer was in Clement's camp.

Consequences

Sustained by such national and factional rivalries throughout Catholic Christendom, 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 Pope Innocent VII.

A church council was held at Pisa in 1408 to try to solve the dispute but added to the problem by electing a third pope, Alexander V. He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409, to his death in 1410, when he was succeeded by John XXII.

End

Finally, the Council of Constance in 1417, advised by the theologian Jean Gerson, deposed John XXIII and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, secured the formal resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII (who had abdicated in 1415, but not before formally empowering the Council of Constance to elect the new pope, thus ensuring the legitimacy of the Roman line), and elected Pope Martin V, thereby permanently ending the schism.

The line of Roman popes was now recognized as the legitimate line. Consistent with this outcome, from this time forward the Catholic church decreed explicitly that no council had power over the popes; and so there is no way to undo a papal election by anyone but the pope.

The alternate papal claimants have become known in history as antipopes.

References

The Three Popes: An Account of the Great Schism, by Marzieh Gail;
The Great Schism: 1378, by John Holland Smith (New York 1970);
The Origins of the Great Schism: A study in fourteenth century ecclesiastical history, by Walter Ullmann.

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia article