WESTERN SCHISM

The period (1378–1417) in which Western Christendom was divided between two, and later three, papal obediences, and which was brought to an end by the Council of constance.

Origins. The death of gregory xi on March 27, 1378, in Rome made it necessary to proceed forthwith to the election of a new pontiff. Gregory was the last pope of the avignon papacy and had actually transferred the Curia from avignon to Rome, where no election of a pope had taken place for 75 years. Although it cannot be said that the situation in Rome was conducive to an orderly and quiet election, and although the election itself exhibited some irregular features, there can be no doubt that it was canonical. At any rate, the result was the election on April 8, 1378, of the archbishop of Bari as urban vi, the last pope chosen from outside the College of Cardinals. At the time he seemed a very intelligent choice. Neapolitan by birth and upbringing, French in cultural outlook, he had been a curialist at Avignon, highly efficient and hardworking. It was thought that he would overcome the tensions between Italians and Frenchmen within the College of Cardinals. The cardinals, however, soon came to realize that the man they had elected was far from suitable for his office. Urban developed a domineering personality, was impervious to all counsel and advice, and showed signs of insanity. Above all, he wished to restore the proper monarchic function of the pope vis-à-vis the cardinals. At Avignon the cardinals had assumed ever greater powers which, in their aggregate, approached the form of oligarchic government—the very thing Urban wished to abolish. When the cardinals came to realize the pope's intentions, they withdrew one by one to Anagni, and on Sept. 20, 1378 elected one of themselves, Cardinal Robert of Geneva, as clement vii (antipope), ostensibly claiming that the election of Urban had been forced upon them by the unruly Roman mob. Urban's election, despite some irregularities, cannot be called uncanonical. In fact, for several months the cardinals had acknowledged Urban as pope, and the thesis of an enforced election emerged only gradually as they came to experience Urban's type of government. But their assertion that they had been subjected to force, however little this contention was supported by facts, offered their only means of impugning the election and presenting it as uncanonical.

Soon after the election, Clement and all the cardinals took up residence at Avignon, so that Latin Christendom

now had one pope, Urban VI, reigning in Rome, with a new College of Cardinals, and another, Clement VII, ruling from Avignon. The election of Clement was significant in two ways: (1) one and the same College had elected two popes; (2) such action starkly demonstrated a serious defect in the law of the Church, which provided no constitutional means of dealing with an obviously unsuitable pope. Once elected, a pope who had become insane, imbecile, or for any other reason unfit to govern, could not be removed. The cardinals were thus forced to resort to the one canonical regulation which left some sort of loophole, viz, the allegation that the election of the pope had not been free. From the strictly legal point of view their subsequent election was uncanonical, though there has never been an official papal pronouncement on the question of legality or illegality of the Roman or Avignonese lines of popes.

Effects. The results of this double headship were disastrous. The followers of each pope grouped themselves along rather clearly defined national lines. Among the adherents of Urban were the Holy Roman Empire, England, Hungary, Scandinavia, and most of Italy; while France, Naples, Savoy, Scotland, Spain, and Sicily adhered to Clement. Each pope anathematized his rival and all his rival's followers, so that the whole of Western Christendom found itself, at least in theory, excommunicated. It is obvious that the spectacle of two popes attacking each other in a most unseemly manner produced doubt and confusion where there had been unquestioned certainty before. The division likewise entailed for the papacy a heavy loss of dignity and authority. Matters were made worse by the frequently occurring division among cathedral chapters and religious institutions where, in one body, both Urbanist and Clementine followers could be found, with the result that whole orders were split into two camps. This division affected even parishes, where Urbanist and Clementine parish priests contended. Moreover, the expenses of the two curial households, each with its own College of Cardinals and retainers, as well as the costs of the political designs entertained by them, had to be met with an increase in taxes levied upon the clergy. Heretical movements received a particular stimulus, and it is no exaggeration to say that the result was utter chaos during the period of the schism.

Proposals for Ending the Schism. The means to end this disaster presented themselves in the movement called conciliarism, according to which a general council was to decide the issue and henceforth was to be the supreme ecclesiastical authority, to which even the pope was to be subjected. Proposed primarily by the University of paris, this idea in course of time gained more and more adherents. The popes themselves were, of course, adamant in their opposition to conciliarism, and when Urban died, his College of Cardinals elected boniface ix, who did little to heal the division of Christendom. No more did Clement's successor benedict xiii (antipope), the fiery Peter de Luna, although discussions and negotiations between the two camps continued. In the same year in which Benedict was elected, the University of Paris put forward three concrete proposals for ending the Schism:(1) the via cessionis, that both popes should voluntarily resign; (2) the via compromissi, that an independent tribunal be empowered to decide which pope should resign;(3) the via concilii, that a decision be made by a general council. The university itself favored the first proposal. Benedict's stubbornness persuaded France and Spain to withdraw their obedience from him in 1398, resulting in the resignation of all but five cardinals. French troops besieged the papal palace at Avignon and kept Benedict a prisoner for four years. France had not, however, recognized Boniface, and the confusion became so great that a meeting of French lay and ecclesiastical princes in 1403 suggested resumption of relations with Benedict. Meanwhile, most universities proposed means of ending the schism, but every effort was nullified by the recalcitrancy of the popes. In the Roman line gregory xii succeeded Boniface in 1406 and initially was eager to terminate the conflict. However, when a meeting of the two popes was arranged for September 1407 at Savona near Genoa, Gregory changed his mind and refused to meet his rival. The scandal had reached such dimensions that a number of cardinals from both obediences arranged a council at Pisa, after France had declared its neutrality in the papal schism (1408). The Council of pisa began on March 25, 1409. It consisted of 24 cardinals, numerous archbishops and bishops, and doctors of theology and Canon Law, assisted by legations from many secular governments. It summoned both popes, but neither appeared, holding that the council was uncanonical; and on June 26, 1409, the council elected the third pope, alexander v, the former Peter of Candia, cardinal archbishop of Milan. On the death of Alexander in the following year the Pisan curia elected john xxiii (antipope), formerly Cardinal Balthasar Cossa. It was through the instrumentality and persuasive efforts of the Emperor sigismund that John convoked the Council of Constance for Nov. 1, 1414. Here he was formally deposed on March 29, 1415, while the nonagenarian Gregory resigned on July 4, 1415. Benedict, however, had fled to Perpignan, categorically refusing to entertain any thought of resignation; he remained "pope" until his death in 1423. With the election of martin v on Nov. 11, 1417, the schism formally ended.

List of Popes During the Schism.

1. Roman obedience:

Urban VI (April 8, 1378, to Oct. 15, 1389)
Boniface IX (Nov. 2, 1389, to Oct. 1, 1404)
Innocent VII (Oct. 17, 1404, to Nov. 6, 1406)
Gregory XII (Nov. 30, 1406, to July 4, 1415)

2. Avignonese obedience:

Clement VII (Sept. 20, 1378, to Sept. 16, 1394)
Benedict XIII (Sept. 28, 1394, to May 23, 1423)

3. Pisan obedience:

Alexander V (June 26, 1409, to May 3, 1410)
John XXIII (May 17, 1410, to March 29, 1415)

Bibliography: n. valois, La France et le grand schisme, 4v. (Paris 1896–1902). e. perroy, L'Angleterre et e grand schisme d'Occident (Paris 1934). m. de boÜard, La France et l'Italie au temps de grand schisme d'Occident (Paris 1936). m. seidlmayer, Die Anfänge des grossen abendländischen Schismas (Münster i.W. 1940). w. ullmann, The Origins of the Great Schism (London 1948; Reprint 1967); "The University of Cambridge and the Great Schism," Journal of Theological Studies 8 (1958) 53–77. j. b. villiger, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 1:21–26. o. pŘerovskÝ, L'elezione di Urbano VI e l'insorgere dello scisma d'Occidente (Rome 1960). e. delaruelle, e. r. labande, and p. ourliac, Histoire de l'Eglise depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours, ed. a. fliche and v. martin (Paris 1962) v. 14. h. kaminsky, Simon de Cramaud and the Great Schism (New Brunswick, NJ 1983). r. n. swanson, Universities, Academies and the Great Schism (Cambridge 1979). p. h. stump, The Reforms of the Council of Constance, 1414–1418 (Leiden and New York 1994).

[w. ullmann]