Brief Overview of the Great Schism of the Western Church (1378–1417)

APPENDIX

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE GREAT SCHISM OF THE WESTERN CHURCH (1378–1417)

Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski

List of Popes 1370–1417

Gregory XI (1370–78) (Pierre Roger de Beaufort)

Popes during the Great Schism

Avignon Line: Clement VII (1378–94) (Robert of Geneva) Benedict XIII (1394–1423) (Pedro de Luna)

Roman Line: Urban VI (1378–89) (Bartolomeo Prignano) Boniface IX (1389–1404) (Pietro Tomacelli) Innocent VII (1404–6) (Cosimo Gentile de’Migliorati) Gregory XII (1406–15) (Angelo Correr)

Pisan Line: Alexander V (1409–10) (Pietro Philargi) John XXIII (1410–15) (Baldassare Cossa)

Elected at the Council of Constance:

Martin V (1417–31) (Ottone Colonna)

The Great Schism of the Western Church divided Christian Europe into two and eventually three competing papacies. During most of the fourteenth century, the papacy had resided in Avignon, and all the popes from Clement V (1304–14) to Gregory XI (1370–78) were either French or Occitan. Spurred on by a growing number of saintly and 486 appendix prophetic voices, Pope Gregory XI finally decided to return the papacy to Rome in 1377.1 Gregory died before he could truly reestablish his authority in Rome and the election of a new pope that was called in April 1378 caused one of the greatest crises Western Christendom ever had to confront. The conclave consisted of sixteen cardinals who, as they later claimed, felt threatened by an armed mob clamoring for the election of an Italian pope. They eventually settled on Bartolomeo Prignano, the archbishop of Bari, who became pope under the name Urban VI. Instantly unpopular because of his autocratic behavior, he managed to antagonize the cardinals to such an extent that they left Rome, established themselves at Fondi, and proceeded to elect another pope: Robert of Geneva, a relative of the French king Charles V, who reigned as Clement VII. The cardinals claimed that they had elected Urban under duress and that therefore the election had been invalid. There had been many schisms with rival popes prior to 1378, but this was the first time that the same College of Cardinals elected two different popes within the space of five months. The cardinals had hoped that Urban VI would abdicate upon the election of Clement VII, but he had no intention of doing so. The claims of two different individuals to the papacy meant that every European ruler had to decide which pope to recognize as the legiti- mate one. Adding to the conflicts of the Hundred Years’ War, France, not surprisingly, opted for Clement VII while England immediately adhered to Urban VI. Scotland preferred Clement. The Spanish king- doms conducted a lengthy inquiry and finally chose the Avignon pope; the Empire and the many Italian states favored the Roman pope. Some areas, such as Flanders, remained divided and others (Naples, for example) switched sides repeatedly. If anyone had hoped that the death of one of the rival popes would lead to an end of the Schism, they were quickly disappointed. Despite strong diplomatic efforts of the French king Clement VII was succeeded by the tenacious Spaniard Pedro de Luna who as Pope Benedict XIII hung on the papacy until after the Council of Constance, which in 1417 finally put an end to the crisis of the Schism. Urban VI had three successors the last of whom was deposed at Constance. Even before Constance the Council

1 See Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Prophets, Saints, and Visionaries of the Great Schism (1378–1417) (University Park, 2006), 2–11 and Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the Great Schism (London, 1948) for a more detailed treatment of this topic.