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Western and Central Europe (14th – mid-15th c.)Religion

Western Schism

Soon after the papacy’s return to Rome, most of the cardinals who had elected Urban VI in April 1378, under pressure from the Roman crowd, declared the election invalid and chose a rival pope, Clement VII, who settled at Avignon. For almost forty years two — and from 1409 three — popes claimed the obedience of Western Christendom, until the Council of Constance restored unity by electing Martin V in 1417.

Date
20 September 1378 – 11 November 1417exact date · duration: ≈ 39 yearsDate in the Julian calendar
Place
Rometoday: Rome, Italy · Western and Central Europe
Participants
Pope Urban VI, Antipope Clement VII, Papal States, Kingdom of France
Threads
Western and Central Europe (14th – mid-15th c.)
Also known as
Great Schism of the West; Papal Schism; Great Occidental Schism; Schism of 1378; Папский раскол; Западная схизма

Gregory XI died in Rome on 27 March 1378, and the Romans, determined to keep the papacy in their city, pressed the conclave with threats and violence to choose a Roman or at least an Italian. On 8 April the cardinals elected the archbishop of Bari, Bartolomeo Prignano, as Urban VI. His harshness soon estranged them; most withdrew to Anagni, and on 20 September 1378 thirteen cardinals meeting at Fondi elected Robert of Geneva as Clement VII, arguing that Urban had been chosen out of fear of the mob. After his troops were defeated at Marino, Clement went to Naples and then by sea to Avignon, where King Charles V of France became his chief protector.

Western Christendom split along political lines. France, Scotland, Castile, Aragon and Navarre and, for a time, Naples obeyed Avignon; England, Flanders, Denmark and Norway obeyed Rome; the Empire and Italy were divided. Both lines continued after the deaths of Urban (1389) and Clement (1394): in Rome Boniface IX, Innocent VII and Gregory XII, in Avignon Benedict XIII. In 1409 the Council of Pisa deposed both popes and elected Alexander V, but they refused to step down, and Christendom now had three popes.

The Council of Constance (1414–1418), convened by the Pisan pope John XXIII with the backing of King Sigismund, declared in the decree Haec sancta (1415) that a general council was the highest authority in the Church, with the power to depose popes. It obtained the resignation of Gregory XII, deposed John XXIII, excommunicated Benedict XIII in July 1417 and on 11 November 1417 elected Martin V, who was recognized almost everywhere; only Benedict XIII, isolated at Peñíscola, refused to submit until his death in 1423. The schism gave strong impetus to conciliarism, the doctrine that a council stands above the pope, and in the view of many historians it seriously undermined the authority of the papacy.

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Causes and preconditions

  • Avignon Papacy9 March 1309 – 17 January 1377 · Western and Central Europethe schism broke out a year after Gregory XI brought the papacy back from Avignon, and the rival line returned there

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The same period

14th century

Sources

  1. Wikipedia (English): Western Schism
  2. Wikipedia (English): 1378 conclave
  3. Wikipedia (English): Antipope Clement VII
  4. Wikipedia (Russian): Великий западный раскол
  5. Ullmann W. The Origins of the Great Schism: A Study in Fourteenth-Century Ecclesiastical History. — London: Burns, Oates & Washbourne, 1948.
  6. Wikidata: Q26189