What Was The Western Schism

Map showing support for Avignon *(red)* and Rome *(blue)* during the Western Schism; this breakup is accurate until the Council of Pisa (1409), which created a third line of claimants.

The Nifty Schism of Western Christianity or Papal Schism (also known as the Western Schism) was a split within the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. By its end, three men simultaneously claimed to be the truthful pope. Driven by politics rather than whatsoever existent theological disagreement, the schism was concluded past the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The simultaneous claims to the papal chair of 4 unlike men hurt the reputation of the role. The Western Schism is occasionally called the Great Schism, though this term is more than 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 Gregory Xi in 1376, ending the Avignon Papacy, which had developed a reputation of abuse that estranged major parts of Western Christendom. This reputation tin exist attributed to perceptions of predominant French influence and to the papal curia'south efforts to extend its powers of patronage and increment its revenues.

Later Gregory XI died, the Romans rioted to ensure the election of a Roman for pope. The cardinals, fearing the crowds, elected a Neapolitan when no viable Roman candidates presented themselves. Pope Urban VI, born Bartolomeo Prignano, the Archbishop of Bari, was elected in 1378. Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, just as pope he proved suspicious, overbearing, and prone to violent outbursts of atmosphere. The cardinals who had elected him before long regretted their decision: the majority removed themselves from Rome to Anagni, where they elected Robert of Geneva equally 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--earlier, only most of them had been appointed by various rival factions; in this instance, a single grouping 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	Rome
French republic, Aragon, Castile and León, Cyprus, Burgundy, Savoy, Naples, and Scotland recognized the Avignon claimant;	Denmark, England, Flanders, the Holy Roman Empire, Republic of hungary, northern Italian republic, Ireland, Norway, Poland, and Sweden recognized 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 claimants to the papal part.

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 Bridegroom would resign; but when his legates refused on his behalf, the Roman party then proceeded to elect Pope Innocent VII.

Efforts were fabricated to terminate the Schism through force or diplomacy. The French crown fifty-fifty tried to coerce Benedict Xiii, whom it nominally supported, into resigning. None of these remedies worked. The suggestion that a church quango should resolve the Schism, first made in 1378, was not adopted at first because canon law required that a pope call a quango. Eventually theologians like Pierre d'Ailly and Jean Gerson, equally 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 Bridegroom and 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 nether the auspices of the cardinals to endeavor solving the dispute, simply information technology added to the trouble by electing another antipope, Alexander V. He reigned briefly from June 26, 1409, to his death in 1410, when he was succeeded past John XXIII, who won some just not universal support.

Resolution

Finally, the Council of Constance in 1414, advised by the theologian Jean Gerson, secured the resignations of John XXIII and the successor in Rome of Urban VI, Pope Gregory XII (who had abdicated in 1415, but non before formally empowering the Quango of Constance to elect the new pope, thus ensuring the legitimacy of the Roman line), and excommunicated the claimant who refused to step downwards, Avignon Pope Benedict Xiii. The Quango then elected Pope Martin Five, essentially catastrophe the schism. Nonetheless, the Kingdom of Aragon did not recognize Martin V and continued to recognize Benedict Xiii. A follower of Bridegroom Xiii subsequently elected Antipope Benedict Fourteen (Bernard Garnier) and three followers simultaneously elected Antipope Clement VIII, merely the Western Schism was past then practically over. (Clement Viii resigned in 1429 and evidently recognized Martin Five.)

The line of Roman popes is now recognized as the legitimate line, simply this was not truthful before the 19th century. Efforts to tidy up Church history led to the claim that Gregory XII had legitimized the Council of Constance. Consistent with this issue, Pope Pius II decreed that no appeal could exist fabricated from pope to council; this left no way to undo a papal election past anyone only the elected pope. No such crisis has arisen since the 15th century, then there has been no need to revisit this decision. The alternate papal claimants have become known in history every bit antipopes. Those of Avignon were dismissed by Rome early on on, simply the Pisan popes were included in the Annuario Pontificio well into the 20th century. Thus the Borgia pope Alexander VI took his regnal proper name in sequence after the Pisan Alexander V.

Historiography

According to Broderick:

"Uncertainty still shrouds the validity of the three rival lines of pontiffs during the 4 decades subsequent to the still disputed papal election of 1378. This makes suspect the credentials of the cardinals created past the Roman, Avignon, and Pisan claimants to the Apostolic Encounter. 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 3 claimants was the rightful ane, simply by eliminating all of them by forcing their abdication or deposition, and and so setting up a novel arrangement for chosing a new pope adequate to all sides. To this day the Church has never fabricated any official, authoritative pronouncement about the papal lines of succession for this confusing period; nor has Martin Five or whatever of his successors. Modern scholars are non agreed in their solutions; although they tend to favor the Roman line."^[1]

Popes of the Western Schism

Notes

↑ Broderick, J.F. 1987. "The Sacred College of Cardinals: Size and Geographical Composition (1099-1986)." Archivum historiae Pontificiae, 25: p. 14.

References

The Three Popes: An Business relationship of the Keen Schism, by Marzieh Gail.
The Great Schism: 1378, by John Holland Smith (New York 1970).
The Origins of the Corking Schism: A study in fourteenth century ecclesiastical history, by Walter Ullmann (Hamden, Conn: Archon Books, 1967 (rev. of 1948 original publication)).