The Healing of the Great Schism

The Last Time a Pope Resigned

(Excerpt from Light to the Nations I: The History of Christian Civilization, Catholic Textbook Project 2008)

he cardinals who met to decide who should be pope after Pope Gregory XIs death in 1378 could not agree on a candidate. Should they choose a Frenchman or an Italian? The people of Rome, however, were clear on what they wanted. They wanted a Roman, and they made it clear to the

cardinals that they would accept no one else but a Roman. Knowing that the Roman mob would tear them to pieces if they elected a Frenchman, the cardinals were forced to compromise. In the end, they chose an Italian who was not a cardinal. He was Bartholomew Prignano, the archbishop of Bari, who took on the name Urban VI. The leading cardinals had thought they would be able to control the new pope. But to everyones surprise, Urban turned out to be a strong pope who was determined to reform the Church and the College of Cardinals itself. Urban energetically began setting things to rights by correcting abuses starting with the cardinals, the papal court, and the bishops. The new pope, however, could be quite rude and so made many important enemies. The French cardinals, in particular, were none too happy with Urbanand they left Rome, claiming the Roman people had forced them to elect this pope. Since papal elections had to be free in order to be valid, the French cardinals declared that Urban was not a true pope. After leaving Rome, the French cardinals elected an antipope who called himself Clement VII and set up his court in Avignon. Pope Urban, of course, excommunicated Clement; and Clement excommunicated Urban. But this new schism did not end. For some 40 years afterward, two lines of men one at Rome and the other at Avignonclaimed to be pope. The split between the pope at Rome and his rival in Avignon spread to all of Christendom. During this Great Schism, as it has been called, no one could be completely certain who the legitimate pope was. Even those whom the Church acknowledges as saints were divided. St. Catherine of Siena, for instance, sided with Rome, while St. Vincent Ferrer went with Avignon. All over Christendom, bishop rose up against bishop, abbot against abbot, and priest against priest. France acknowledged the pope in Avignon. England, which was at war with France, sided with Rome. Scotland, often at odds with England, chose Avignonas did Spain and southern Italy, while central and northern Italy opted for Rome. But in
Urban VI receives the keys from St. Peter. A detail from the tomb of Urban VI, Rome.

deciding which pope to follow, kings and lords put their political and national interests before the welfare of Christendom as a whole. In the end, the real winners in the struggle between the rival popes were the temporal rulers. The Great Schism allowed kings, princes, and dukes to seize ever-increasing power over the Church in their domains.

Calls for a Council

How to heal the Great Schism was the most important question of the time, but no one could come up with a solution. Finally, in 1394, the theology faculty at the University of Paris came up with onehave both popes resign and a new pope elected in their place. The university actually demanded that both popes resign, and the clergy of France, Bohemia, Hungary, and Navarre said they would not obey the Avignon pope until the Church was reunited. These efforts, however, came to nothing, since neither pope was willing to step down. With the failure of the first attempt to heal the schism, churchmen throughout Europe came up with another solution. A general council should be called, they said, one that would if necessary depose both popes and replace them with a new pope. Just such a council met at Pisa in northern Italy in March 1409, and the 300 or so clergymen who met for the council voted to depose both popes and then elected Alexander V in their place.Alexander died the next year and was succeeded by the antipope John XXIII. Oh, happy choice! Peace has been restored! Oh, pacific union! So rejoiced the University of Paris. The problem was, however, that according to Church teaching, no onenot even a councilhas the au-thority to depose a pope. So it was that the pope in Rome and his rival in Avignon condemned the council and refused to step down. Instead of two contending popes, there were now three. The confusion of the time gave rise to a new theory about how the Church should be governed. The theory said that a general council, not the pope, is the highest authority in the Church. This theory,
A depiction of the Council of Constance, showing the antipope John XXIII (first panel, seated upper right) with bishops and cardinals. From the Chronik des Konzils von Konstanz of Ulrich Richental.

called the conciliar theory, became popular among many churchmen, who saw in it a

way to heal once and for all the schism and other ills affecting the Church. The conciliar theory had a great influence at another council, called by the German emperor Sigismund. In 1414, churchmen representing the three factions in the Church and coming from all parts of

Western Christendom streamed toward the little southern German town of Constance, where the council was to be held. Thousandsbishops, professors, royal ambassadors, and their staff and followerswere eventually crowded together in the little town, and each nobleman and prelate was escorted by a train of servants. Gathered in Constance, the council fathers heard a list of accusations against the pope of Pisa, John XXIII. John, who was present at the council, feared what might happen to him if the fathers decided he deserved punishment. He declared under oath that he would resign as pope; but then, in disguise, he fled from Constancethinking that without him, the council would disband. But instead of ending the council, the fathers deposed John XXIII on March 29, 1415. A few weeks later, John agreed to the councils action. One of the three popes was thus gotten out of the way. Upon learning that the pope in Rome, Gregory XII, had decided to abdicate, the councils next task was to deal with Benedict XIII, the pope in Avignon. Benedict acted as if he were willing to resign; but in the end, he refused. Abandoned by all his supporters (even by St. Vincent Ferrer, who had been one of his staunchest defenders), Benedict fled to an impregnable fortress on the coast of Valencia. There he died in 1423, still claiming to be pope. The council, however, after several months of deliberation, voted on July 26, 1417, to depose Benedict, saying he was guilty of perjury (for failing to abdicate when he claimed he would) as well as schism and heresy. With the three rival popes out of the way, the Council of Constance was free to elect a new pope. On November 11, 1417, the council fathers chose Cardinal Otto Colonna, who took the name of Martin V. The election of Pope Martin marked the end of the Great Schism.
Pope Gregory XII, the last pope to resign. Depiction from the Nuremburg Chronicle

The Church: United but Sick

The Council of Constance had reunited the Church. But the 19 years of schism, following nearly 75 years of the Babylonian Captivity of the popes in Avignon, had seriously damaged the unity of the Church and Christendom. With Martin V, the Church once again had a pope everyone recognizedand he did not go to live in Avignon, but reigned in his city of Rome. However, outside the papal states in Italy, the popes authority had been greatly weakened. During the nearly 100 years of confusion in the Church, kings and temporal lords had cut away at the power of the Church courts in their dominions, had seized the wealth of the clergy, and had taxed the Church. Temporal rulers became, for all practical purposes, the rulers of the Church in their lands. They were forming national churches that tore at the unity of the Catholic Church. Since the papacy had lost much of the respect Christians formerly had for it, the popes could not effectively work to reform the Church of the many abuses that had grown up in it during the Avignon years. Indeed, some popes who reigned after Martin V were not interested in reforming the Church. They

were more concerned with political power (to keep the Church independent from temporal lords) or in cultivating the arts. Temporal lords were too interested in power and wealth to concern themselves with the religious life of their subjects. The Church still had its reformers, but these reformers tended to stress individual or private devotion rather than the reform of Church and state, which the medieval reformers had wanted to achieve. In the 15th century, the Church entered an age in which reform was desperately needed but seemingly impossible to achieve. This state of things would make some Christians so desperate that, in a few decades, their descendents would willingly accept even revolutionary methods to reform and renew Christendom.