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1378-1429 - Great Schism of the West

For about two centuries no Anti-Pope disturbed the Church's peace, but in 1378 the election of Urban VI occasioned a schism rightly called the great, since it was the most grievous ever known. Pope Gregory XI had left Avignon to return to Italy and had re-established the pontifical see in the Eternal City, where he died on 27 March, 1378. At once attention was directed to the choice of his successor. The question was most serious. Cardinals, priests, nobles, and the Romans in general were interested in it, because on the election to be made by the Conclave depended the residence of the future pope at Avignon or at Rome. Since the beginning of the century the pontiffs had fixed their abode beyond the Alps; the Romans, whose interests and claims had been so long slighted, wanted a Roman or at least an Italian pope.

After an interval of seventy-five years, a Conclave met in Rome, and on its decision depended the question whether or not the injurious predominance of France in the management of the affairs of the Church should continue. Severe struggles were to be expected, for no slight disunion existed in the Sacred College. Two parties had for a long time existed in the College of Cardinals, the French and the Italian. Hitherto the Italian party had been too small to count as an opposition in times of election, but since the Popes had begun to leave Avignon a split had shown itself in the French party. The last four Popes had been Limousins - natives, that is, of the part of France round about Avignon. There is a racial difference between northern and southern France, and this contributed to the jealousy which sprang up between the Limousine Cardinals and the so-called Gallicans. None of the three parties was strong enough to stand alone, and therefore a man of no party was elected.

The Cardinals were compelled to make haste, and as no one of the three parties was sufficiently powerful to carry the day, all united in favour of Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, a candidate who belonged to no party and seemed in many respects the individual best fitted to rule the Church in this period of peculiar difficulty. On the 8th April, 1378, he was elevated to the supreme dignity, taking the name of Urban VI. Given the undoubted validity of Urban VI's election, it therefore followed that Urban's successors, Boniface IX, Innocent VII, and Gregory XII, were the only lawful Popes.

The Neapolitan Archbishop of Bari, who took the name of Urban VI (1378-1389), was an unfortunate choice from every point of view, for it pleased no one, and the new Pope, though he was pious and austere, had a temperament which was fatal to the peace of Italy. Urban VI had one great fault, a fault fraught with evil consequences to himself, and yet more to the Church ; he lacked Christian gentleness and charity. He was naturally arbitrary and extremely violent and imprudent, and when he came to deal with the burning ecclesiastical question of the day, that of reform, the consequences were disastrous. Urban VI pursued his disastrous course, breaking rather than bending.

The Romans resented his Neapolitan origin, and a riot occurred which gave rise later to the theory that his election was the result of compulsion and so invalid. Urban soon showed his character, and hastened the catastrophe which had for so long been imminent. He was a keen reformer and he instantly published an unmeasured condemnation of those priests who, like most of the Cardinals, held several bishoprics or abbeys and served none of them.

Schism which had been impending ever since Clement V had fixed his seat in France, and which had almost broken out in the time of Urban V, and again in that of Gregory XI, now became a reality. After applying for leave of absence "for reasons of health," and failing to obtain it, the French Cardinals withdrew to Anagni. What had finally driven them away was the threat of Urban that he was going to create a large number of new Italian Cardinals to counteract the worldly influence of the French. The plans of reform entertained by Urban VI filled the French King, Charles V, with wrath. Were Urban now to succeed in creating an Italian majority in the Sacred College, the return of the Holy See to its dependence on France would be greatly deferred, if not indeed altogether prevented.

Thirteen Cardinals assembled at Anagni, on the 9th August, 1378, published a manifesto, declaring Urban's election to have been invalid, as resulting from the constraint exercised by the Roman populace, who had risen in insurrection, and proclaiming as a consequence the vacancy of the Holy See. On 20 September 1378 thirteen members of the Sacred College precipitated matters by going into conclave at Fondi and choosing as pope Robert of Geneva, who took the name of Clement VII. Clement VII was related to or allied with the principal royal families of Europe; he was influential, intellectual, and skilful in politics.

The great Papal Schism (1378-1417) thus burst upon Christendom, and the very center of its unity became the occasion of the division of the Church. Christendom was quickly divided into two almost equal parties. Everywhere the faithful faced the anxious problem: where is the true pope? The powers also took sides. The greater number of the Italian and German states, England, and Flanders supported the pope of Rome. On the other hand France, Spain, Scotland, and all the nations in the orbit of France were for the pope of Avignon.

Anti-popes, indeed, had already arisen on several occasions, but in most cases they had very soon passed away, for, owing their elevation to the secular power, it bore more or less clearly on its very face the stamp of violence and injustice. But in the present instance all was different: unlike the Schisms caused by the Hohenstaufens or Louis of Bavaria, that of 1378 was the work of the Cardinals, the highest of the clergy. And, moreover, the election of Urban VI had taken place under circumstances so peculiar that it was easy to call it in question. It is extremely difficult for those who study the question in the present day with countless documents before them, and the power of contemplating the further development of the Schism, to estimate the difficulties of contemporaries who sought to know which of the two Popes had a right to their obedience. The extreme confusion is evidenced by the fact that canonized Saints are found among the adherents of each of the rivals.

The obedience of Germany to Urban VI and that of France to Clement VII was far from complete, for individuals in both countries attached themselves to the Pope from whom they expected to gain most. The allegiance of the Holy Roman Empire to Urban was evidently of an unstable character, since ecclesiastics in Augsburg fearlessly, and without hindrance, accepted charges and benefices from the hands of the Antipope and his partisans, and itinerant preachers publicly asserted the validity of his claim. The question' really underlying the whole contest was, whether French influence, which had become dominant in Europe since the downfall of the Hohenstaufens, should still control the Papacy, or whether the Papacy should resume its normal universal position.

The outbreak of the schism was chiefly due to the worldly Cardinals, stirred up by France. This condition of things was a result of the disastrous Avignon epoch, which accordingly is ultimately responsible for the terrible calamity which fell upon Christendom. The attitude of England was determined by the enmity existing between that country and France. When the French King declared for Clement VII, England energetically espoused the cause of Urban VI. The Emperor, Charles IV, who had already looked with an unfavourable eye on the sojourn of the Popes at Avignon, was also a firm adherent of the Roman Pope. He was well aware that France aspired to dominion, not merely over the Papacy or the Empire, but over the whole world. Charles' example was followed by the greater portion of the Empire and by Louis of Anjou, King of Hungary and Poland, who was connected by marriage with the Princes of the House of Luxemburg, and was the inveterate enemy of Joanna of Naples.

This schism affected the whole of Christendom, and called the very existence of the Church in question. The discord touching its Head necessarily permeated the whole body of the Church; in many Dioceses two Bishops were in arms for the possession of the Episcopal throne, two Abbots in conflict for an abbey. The consequent confusion was indescribabe. The amount of evil wrought by the schism of 1378, the longest known in the history of the Papacy, can only be estimated, as it occurred at a moment when thorough reform in ecclesiastical affairs was a most urgent need.

By June 1379, Clement VII found that Italy was no longer a possible country for an anti-pope, and was obliged to escape to Avignon the schism was complete. Here he was on friendly ground. The King of France, Charles V., had stood at the back of the rebel Cardinals. He had naturally regretted the departure of the Popes from Avignon, and he had much to fear from Urban's zeal for reform. He was, therefore, ready to finance Clement in his resistance to Urban, to lend him the Breton band of mercenaries, and to give him and his Cardinals the protection of France. In return, Clement granted most of the states of the Church to Louis of Anjou, as a prospective reward for the expulsion of Urban. The schism was an accomplished fact, but the course of it depended on France.

Urban showed no wisdom in organising his forces. He chose to center all his attention on Naples, where his quarrel, first with Joanna and afterwards with Charles of Durazzo, gave him a pretext for an endeavour to acquire a Neapolitan lordship for his worthless nephew, Butillo. Urban was apt to concentrate with dogged futility on some one political object without recognising failure until it grew into catastrophe. In Naples, his humiliations came thick and fast. The schism may have been inevitable from the time when the Popes first left Avignon, but Urban had driven a wedge into the rift by his exuberant unwisdom. His pontificate is an example of the danger of electing a Pope untried in greatness: as a non-party Archbishop he had had very little influence, and when he was made Pope he meant to have his fling. Many other Popes were like him in this, but the real trouble was that his aims were unworthy, and he was too honest to disguise them.

Germany was disturbed by the Beghards, and also more especially by the Waldenses, whose doctrines had taken root in Bavaria and Austria during the latter half of the thirteenth century, and, notwithstanding constant repression, had become widely diffused. The movement reached its height in Germany in the last thirty years of the fourteenth century - the time of the Great Schism. It was not only in Southern Germany and the Rhine country, the two centers of Mediaeval heresy, that a great proportion of the population had embraced the Waldensian doctrine, it had also made its way into the north and the furthest east of the empire. The appearance of John Wyclif in England was a matter of far greater moment than heresies of this kind, which were forcibly repressed by the Inquisition. The errors of the Apocalyptics and the Waldenses, of Marsiglio, Occam, and others, were all concentrated in his sect, which prepared the transition to a new heretical system of a universal character, namely, Protestantism.

On the death of Urban VI (October 15, 1389), the fourteen Cardinals of his obedience assembled in Rome for the election of a new Pope. This was the first vacancy of the Holy See which had occurred since the outbreak of the Schism. The French Court endeavoured to prevent an election, but the Roman Cardinals, perceiving that Clement VII, with whom the Schism began, had no intention of retiring, did not consider it consistent with their duty to deliver the Church completely over to the Avignon AntiPope. Accordingly, on the 22nd November, 1389, a new Roman Pope, Boniface IX (1389-1404) was chosen.

Boniface IX (1389-1404) was first and foremost a man of peace, of affable ways, and a thorough Italian. Boniface IX was more successful than Clement, because his aims were definite, consistent, and limited. He wanted to restore the papal monarchy in Italy, and he wanted as much money as he could get. If "money was the origin of the schism" as contemporary chroniclers insist, it was also the chief difficulty of the schismatic popes, for the papal revenues which had been found insufficient for one Pope, now had to provide for two, and that in the teeth of the storm which had already gathered against papal exactions. Boniface showed the genius of an auctioneer in the sale of offices, and the wisdom of an extortioner in commuting advantages into money. He sold not only the offices themselves, but "preferences" to the offices, and if there were bidders enough, "pre-preferences".

On the death of Clement VII in 1394, the astute Pedro de Luna took the name of Benedict XIII. The relations of Benedict XIII with France underwent a considerable change over time. The conviction that this Pope, who before his election had professed the greatest zeal for union, had no real desire for the termination of the Schism was gaining ground, and on 12 January 1408, the King informed him that France would make a declaration of neutrality. A unity movement spread from Paris throughout Europe, and in 1397 embassies from England, France, and Castile were sent to Rome and Avignon to require the Popes to heal the schism before 1398. In 1398, Charles of France met Wenzel, King of Germany, at Rheims, and each undertook to make his own Pope resign. This was followed by the withdrawal of the allegiance of France from Benedict, and the siege of Avignon from September to April. Wenzel meanwhile insisted that Charles must act first - "When he has deposed his Pope, we will depose ours". The truth was that both Kings had promised more than they could fulfil. France was being torn by civil war, and the successes of the Orleanists had brought a reaction in favor of Benedict XIII, who was now released from Avignon, and successfully at work winning over the Burgundian faction. Boniface was playing much the same game in Germany.

When the envoys of Benedict reached Rome they found Boniface ill and in great pain, and in October, 1404, he died. His last reported words were: "If I had more money, I should be well enough".

On the death of Boniface IX the Roman Cardinals elected Cosimo dei Migliorati, a Neapolitan, aged sixty-five, henceforth known as Innocent VII. The Roman Cardinals followed the example of Avignon in the next election, and each promised to resign if elected. As at Avignon the promise was broken by the new Pope, Innocent VII (1404-1406), an old and blameless Neapolitan, who owed his election to the certainty that he would not live very long. Encouraged by the death of Innocent the Roman Cardinals elected another old Pope in November, 1406. Gregory XII. (1406-1417) was eighty years of age, and all his life he had been renowned for his sincerity. He was known to care for nothing but unity.

In the end of May 1408, France solemnly disowned the authority of Benedict, an example which was soon followed by Navarre, and also by Wenceslaus and Sigismund, the Kings of Bohemia and Hungary. The Council of Pisa was announced by the Cardinals for May 29, 1409. Their action was of course a revolution, but it was sanctioned by necessity, and Europe readily acquiesced. Gregory and Benedict were both equally discredited. The attitude of the Council of Pisa towards both Popes was summary and uncompromising. On their failure to appear in answer to summons, they were both pronounced contumacious, and after two months' delay a decree of deposition was issued against them. The Council's Pope, Alexander V. (1409-1410), lived only ten months.

The inevitable successor of Alexander was the man who had really carried through the Council of Pisa. Baldassare Cossa, who took the name of John XXIII. (1410-1415), cannot fairly be judged by ordinary ecclesiastical standards. He was first and foremost an able condottiere, who as legate had made himself lord of Bologna, and ruled it with firmness and care. He had risen through his success as an extortioner for Boniface IX, and his extraordinary efficiency in profit-making showed itself as much in politics as in finance. The first problem which confronted him as Pope was the schism which had infected the Empire. Of the three candidates to the Empire, John chose to ally himself with the Sigismund of Bohemia, whose allegiance was to cost him dear.

With the arrival of Sigismund in December, 1414, the Council of Constance opened in the full splendor of the pageantry in which he delighted. The Council of Constance had an ambitious program. Its aim was " to restore the unity of the Church; to reform it in head and members; and to purge it of erroneous doctrine ". John made a desperate and fruitless attempt to bribe Sigismund with the gift of the Golden Rose-the highest compliment which could pass between a Pope and his royal sons. John's real mistake was in allowing himself to be made Pope. He had been a successful soldier of fortune, but he was ludicrously out of place among theologians and moral reformers. After his deposition on May 29, 1415, he was kept in custody till the dissolution of the Council.

With the deposition of John XXIII, one of the aims of the Council was attained. The schism was practically over, for the rival Popes, Gregory and Benedict, were powerless in the face of the unanimity of the Council. The election of Oddo Colonna as Martin V (1417-1431) showed that the Cardinals were wise in their generation, for no one was better fitted to cope with the restoration of papal power. No one, either, was less likely to give trouble with projects of reform. By nominating a number of distinguished men to the Sacred College, and by effacing the last traces of the Schism, Martin V conferred great benefits on Christendom. The number of the Cardinals had greatly increased during the time of the Schism, for each one of the opposing Popes had formed a College of his own, and Popes and Anti-Popes alike had endeavoured to strengthen their positions by a liberal use of the hat. Urban VI., created sixty three Cardinals, the Anti-Pope Clement VII, thirty-eight. The three successors of Urban VI appointed thirty-three ; Benedict XIII, twenty-three; Alexander V and John XXIII, forty-four. Of all these there were but twenty-eight living at the time of the election of Martin V. This number, however, was in the opinion of the majority of the assembly at Constance, excessive; and with the view of increasing the power of the Sacred College so as tocounterbalance that of the Pope, the Synod decided that for the future it should consist of twenty-four members.

Gregory XII ended his days in peace and dignity as legate of Ancona in 1417. Benedict XIII still held out, indomitable to the last. A warrior to the last, he shut himself up with his two Cardinals on the rock of Peniscola, where he kept his solitary state, wearing the papal tiara and secretly supported by Alfonso of Aragon. Nothing in the career of Benedict XIII compels admiration so much as the sublime obstinacy of his thirty years' "contumacy".

Benedict XIII died in November 1424, worn out by extreme old age, still asserting his rights and insisting on the election of a successor to vindicate them after his death. In his retirement at Peniscola he had been powerless either for good or ill. Yet the existence of an anti-Pope was hurtful to the Papal dignity, and Alfonso's hostility to Martin V. threatened to give him troublesome importance. Benedict's death might seem to end the Schism, but one of the last acts of the obstinate old man was the creation of four new cardinals. In June, 1425, three of Benedict's cardinals elected a new Pope, Gil de Munion, canon of Barcelona, who took the title of Clement VIII. But schism when once it begins is contagious. Another of Benedict's cardinals,1 a Frenchman, Jean Carrer, who was absent at the time and received no notice, elected for himself another Pope, who took the title of Benedict XIV. Martin was desirous of getting rid of these pretenders. In July 1429, Munion laid aside his papal trappings, and submitted to Martin V. The good offices of Alfonso Borgia were warmly recognised both by Alfonso V and Martin V, and this ending of the Schism had for its abiding consequence in the future the introduction of the Borgia family to the Papal Court, where they were destined to play an important part. The Pope of Jean Carrer was of course a ridiculous phantom, and in 1432 the Count of Armagnac ordered Carrer, who was still obstinate, to be made prisoner and handed over to Martin V.

Amadeus, Count and afterwards first Duke of Savoy and Count of Geneva, was the last of the Anti-Popes. He was chosen by the Council of Baele, then schismatical, in 1439, and crowned at Basle in the following year. He submitted in 1449 to Pope Nicolas V, who made him cardinal and perpetual vicar of the Holy See in the territories of Savoy, Basle, Strasburg, &c. He died at Ripaille in 1451.