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 resolved after 40 years by the Council of Constance. It is occasionally called the Great Schism, though this term is more often applied to the East-West Schism of 1054.

The schism in the Western church resulted from the untimely return of the Papacy from Avignon to Rome by Pope Gregory XI in 1378, ending the Avignon Papacy.

After Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure an Italian was elected; the cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected an Italian, Pope Urban VI, in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon; but once he was elected Pope, he became suspicious, overbearing, and subject to violent outbursts of temper. The Cardinals who had elected him soon came to repent of 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 established a second Papal court in Avignon.

The second election threw the Church into a turmoil; there had been antipopes, rival claimants to the papacy before, but most of them had been appointed by various rival factions. Here, the acknowledged and legitimate leaders of the Church themselves had created the two rival popes. European 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 followed the Roman claimant. Even people later recognized as saints were caught up in the dispute; St Catherine of Siena defended Urban's papacy, while St Vincent Ferrer was in Clement's camp.

The conflict soon stopped being a Church subject and became a diplomatic incident on the European continent, as seen by the vast support listed to both factions. For example, in the time of the schism, in the Iberian Peninsula there were the Fernandine wars (Guerras fernandinas) and the 1383-1385 Crisis, both opposing the kingdoms of Castille and Portugal for dynastic matters. Thus, in Fernando I of Portugal's time, his disastrous foreign policy took him to support the Pope of Avignon, which also had the support of Castille. After the crisis, Castille still supported Avignon's pope, so it isn't strange that João I of Portugal, to show his independecy, supported the Roman Pope.

Sustained by national and factional rivalries throughout Catholic Christendom, the schism survived the deaths of both initial claimants; Pope Boniface IX, crowned at Rome in 1389, and Antipope 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 resigned; his legates refused on his behalf, and the Roman party elected Pope Innocent VII.

A church council was held at Pisa in 1408 to try to solve the dispute, but only elected a third Pope, Antipope Alexander V. Alexander V reigned shortly from June 26, 1409 to his death in 1410, and was succeeded by Antipope John XXIII.

Finally, the Council of Constance in 1417 deposed John XXIII and the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII, received the resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII (who had abdicated in 1415), and elected Pope Martin V, thereby permanently ending the schism.

Thus the line of Roman popes was recognized as the legitimate line. Consistent with this outcome, from this time forward in the Catholic church it was decreed explicitly that no Council had power over the Popes, and 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.

The Great Schism of the Western Church occupied the energies of Jean Gerson, one of the great theologians of the age.

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

Western Schism

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References

External links