SCHISM, GREAT
. Between 1378 and 1417, western Christendom experienced almost four decades in
which there were two, and then three, simultaneous claimants to the papal throne, each of
whom could rightfully claim to have been elected by a legitimate authority. Earlier, there
had been periods in which there were two claimants, but never before had the same
electoral body (the College of Cardinals) repudiated one election and then proceeded to
elect another pope while the first claimant still exercised power. Moreover, with the
assertion of the right of a council to elect the pope (Council of Pisa, 1409–10) and the
continuation of the other claimants in office, there were suddenly three, not two, popes
claiming to be the legitimate leader of the one true church. The crisis was institutional,
sacramental, and moral. The struggle to resolve the crisis summoned the best efforts of
kings, emperors, ecclesiastics of all ranks, and university masters. Roman politics,
national rivalries, ecclesiastical and secular conflicts, and entrenched positions of power
within and without the church all contributed to the divisiveness of the crisis and the
difficulty of resolving it.
The schism arose in the aftermath of the return in 1377 of Gregory XI to Rome from
Avignon (thus ending the long [1309–77] residence of the bishop of Rome in another
city, with the exception of 1367–70, when Urban V returned briefly to Rome), his death
in the next year, and the election of Urban VI by the sixteen cardinals who were then in
Rome. The cardinals were actively threatened should they fail to elect an Italian, rather
than a French, pope; they elected Bartolomeo Prignano, archbishop of Bari. An
experienced member of the papal court, Prignano, as Urban VI (r. 1378–89), immediately
attacked the privileges, wealth, and moral failings of the cardinals. The French cardinals
especially took offense and left Rome. Others followed and in August, four months after
electing Urban, the College of Cardinals (less the three Italian cardinals) declared
Urban’s election invalid because it was carried out under threat of violence and elected
Robert of Geneva, who was related to the French king, as Pope Clement VII (r. 1378–
94).
While Clement, supported by the French king, the Spanish realms, Scotland, Sicily,
and some parts of the empire, sought to enter Rome with the support of French troops,
Urban began to consolidate power in Rome and Italy while the emperor, England,
Ireland, Poland, Hungary, Scandinavia, and most of Italy declared their loyalty to the
“Roman” as opposed to the “Avignon” pope. Clement, having failed to enter Rome by
force, took up residence in the papal palace in Avignon. Each pope claimed to have a
legitimate College of Cardinals (three Italian cardinals went with Urban, the rest with
Clement) and established parallel papal curias. With Europe divided into two distinct
“obediences,” attempts to end the schism began to materialize. Calling a council was
briefly entertained as a possibility, especially by the theologians and canon lawyers of the
University of Paris, particularly Henry of Langenstein and Conrad of Gelnhausen, but
early on in the schism the way of a council, which was finally to be the path to an
ultimate solution, proved unattractive.
After more than a decade with a divided church, a new “way” was proposed by French
leaders: the via cessionis, which called for both claimants to resign their positions,
followed by the election of a successor. King Charles VI, with his advisers the dukes of
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