clergy, especially their attacks on the privileges of the mendicants, with the interests of
the French crown. None of the proposals for subtraction of obedience moved Clement’s
successor, the Aragonese Benedict XIII (r. 1394–1417). Efforts to coerce him led only to
his flight from Avignon. When Benedict and the fourth Roman claimant Gregory XII (r.
1406–15) failed to meet and discuss the means of ending the Schism, the cardinals on
both sides agreed to summon the Council of Pisa (1409). Gregory sought refuge with the
Malatesta of Rimini, and Benedict fled to Peñiscola in Catalonia.
At Pisa, under the presidency of Simon de Cramaud, conciliarism emerged as the
dominant justification for the council’s efforts to reunify Christendom. Two strands of
conciliarism, canonistic and theological, met in the representatives of the Italian and
French universities. Canonistic conciliarism was represented among others by Francesco
de Zabarella, whose Tractatus de schismate, in its final form, made wide claims for both
cardinals and council. The heart of his argument was the comparison of the church with a
corporation, which was able to depose its rector, the pope, if he endangered its welfare.
This doctrine emerged from canonistic discussion of cathedral chapters, from
Augustine’s statement that Peter received the keys as the church’s representative, and
from precedents in Gratian’s Decretum describing past instances of popes falling into
error. The theological approach leaned more heavily on Scripture, especially on Paul’s
reprehending Peter for breaking off contact with the gentile converts. The chief
proponents of this viewpoint, Pierre d’Ailly and Jean Gerson, emphasized the visible
church as the Mystical Body of Christ. The council, representing that body, could remove
an erring pope. Corporation theory also can be found influencing this line of thought, and
these theologians made frequent use of texts from canon law. Both schools thought equity
justified holding a council even in the absence of a pope.
The Council of Pisa, identifying obstruction of reunification with heresy, declared
both claimants deposed; but their first pope of unity, Alexander V, died soon after his
election. His successor, the antipope John XXIII, could not win universal acceptance.
Gerson and d’Ailly became convinced that another council was needed; and they helped
persuade Sigismund of Luxembourg, King of the Romans, that John should be pressed to
summon one. Already driven from Rome by the Angevin king of Naples, John was
forced to acquiesce. When the Council of Constance began in 1414, the pope found
himself regarded as dispensable. His flight from Constance ended in imprisonment, but
the assembly had been forced to guarantee its own continuation. The decree Haec sancta
(1415) embodied the classic tenets of conciliarism—that the council represented the
church; that it had power from Christ to act for unity, defense of the faith, and reform;
and that even a true pope was bound to obey. The cardinals present were apprehensive
about the projected scope of reform and their role in electing the next pope; but the only
real dissenter, the Dominican general Leonardo Dati, was moved by fear that Gerson’s
episcopalist leanings would lead to an attack on the friars. Gerson, however, was too busy
trying to have Jean Petit condemned for his defense of the murder of Louis of Orléans as
tyrannicide to attack the privileges of the mendicants forcefully.
The council pressed on toward unity. John XXIII and Benedict XIII were deposed.
Gregory XII abdicated, after issuing a pro forma convocation of the council. The
assembly also condemned the errors of Wyclif, whose bones were unearthed for
cremation, and burned John Hus and Jerome of Prague as heretics. It nearly failed,
however, when arguing whether reform should precede or follow election of a pope. At
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