Western Schism

For almost forty years, from 1378 to 1417, the Catholic Church in western Europe was divided between rival popes, one line based in Rome and another in Avignon, joined from 1409 by a third line chosen at Pisa. Kings and realms lined up behind one claimant or another according to their own alliances and rivalries. The split, known as the Western Schism, was finally ended by the Council of Constance, but it badly damaged the papacy's authority and fuelled the idea that a general council could stand above a pope.

Since 1309 the popes had lived not in Rome but at Avignon, a papal enclave surrounded by French territory, after pressure from King Philip IV of France. Under Pope Clement V and his successors this Avignon papacy gained a reputation for French influence, for extending its patronage and for raising money. In January 1377 Gregory XI returned the papal court to Rome, though he later said he meant to go back to Avignon. He died in Rome on 27 March 1378 before he could do so.

The people of Rome were determined to keep the papacy in their city and pressed the cardinals with threats and violence. The cardinals chose the Archbishop of Bari on 8 April 1378, who took the name Urban VI. Most of them soon regretted the choice. Withdrawing from Rome, they argued that the election was invalid because it had been made out of fear of the Roman crowds, and on 20 September 1378 thirteen cardinals meeting at Fondi chose Clement VII instead. After his forces were defeated, Clement left Italy and set up his court in Avignon.

Europe split along political lines. France, under Charles V, backed Clement, as did Scotland, Castile, Aragon and Navarre. England, most of the Holy Roman Empire, Flanders, Poland, the Scandinavian kingdoms, Venice and the Papal States recognised Rome, and Portugal moved to Rome's side in 1385. Feelings ran high: in 1382 the French carried their sacred battle banner against the Flemings because they supported the Roman pope.

The split outlived both founders. Rome elected Boniface IX in 1389, Innocent VII in 1404 and Gregory XII in 1406, while Avignon chose Benedict XIII in 1394. Efforts to persuade both men to step down failed. In 1406 Benedict and Gregory agreed in principle to abdicate, but negotiations over a meeting place collapsed. Scholars such as Jean Gerson and Pierre d'Ailly began to argue that the Church itself could summon a council to end the dispute, even though canon law reserved that right to the pope.

In 1409 cardinals from both sides met at Pisa. On 5 June the council declared Gregory and Benedict deposed as schismatics and heretics, and it then elected the Archbishop of Milan as Alexander V. Neither of the existing popes accepted this, so there were now three claimants. Alexander died in 1410 and was succeeded by Baldassare Cossa as John XXIII, whose support was limited.

Under pressure, John XXIII summoned a council at Constance in 1414, which Gregory XII also endorsed. In April 1415 it decreed that a general council held its authority directly from Christ. The council secured Gregory's resignation, deposed John, and excommunicated Benedict on 27 July 1417. Its election of Martin V on 11 November 1417 effectively ended the schism. Benedict, abandoned by nearly all his supporters, still refused to yield and died in 1423.

The schism gave strength to conciliarism, the idea that a general council was superior to the pope, until Pius II banned appeals from popes to councils in 1460. It also weakened respect for the Church, a decline that historians link to the later Protestant Reformation. The Catholic Church now treats the Roman popes as the legitimate line and calls the Avignon and Pisan claimants antipopes. It should not be confused with the East–West Schism of 1054.

Our 1400 map shows Europe in the middle of the schism, with the Kingdom of France, principal supporter of Avignon, and the Papal States in central Italy.