6.6 The Great Schism

Context and Meaning of the Great Schism

The Great Schism of the late Middle Ages refers to a long period when there were two, and at one point three, rival popes who each claimed to be the true head of the Roman Catholic Church. This was not the earlier split between Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic churches in 1054, but a crisis inside Western Latin Christianity itself. It lasted from 1378 to 1417 and deeply shook the authority and prestige of the papacy.

To understand its impact, it is important to see that medieval Europeans usually imagined Christendom as a single religious community with one pope at its head. The Great Schism broke this unity in practice. Kings, nobles, clergy, and ordinary believers had to decide which pope to follow, and their choices often followed political loyalties rather than purely spiritual convictions. The result was confusion, divided obedience, and growing criticism of church leadership.

Background Tensions Before 1378

The Schism did not appear out of nowhere. In the decades before 1378 tensions had grown between the papacy and the kingdoms of Europe, especially France. One key development was the removal of the papal court from Rome to the city of Avignon in southern France. From 1309 to 1377 the popes resided in Avignon rather than in Rome, which later critics called the “Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy. Many Italians and others in Europe thought the papacy had become too dependent on French kings and French politics.

In Avignon the papal administration became more centralized and efficient. The Church developed detailed systems of taxation, appointment to church offices, and legal jurisdiction. While these systems made the papacy powerful as an institution, they also made it appear worldly and financial in character. Complaints about simony, the buying and selling of church offices, and complaints about absentee clergy, who did not reside in the places they were supposed to serve, were common.

Spiritual figures like Catherine of Siena urged the popes to return to Rome, and there was a growing desire to see the papacy restored to its old seat. When Pope Gregory XI finally returned to Rome in 1377, he brought the papal court back into an Italian city that had become unstable and heavily influenced by powerful Roman families. Gregory XI died in March 1378, and this death triggered a crisis inside the College of Cardinals.

The Election of Urban VI and the First Split

After Gregory XI’s death the College of Cardinals had to elect a new pope. Most of the cardinals were French and had lived in Avignon. They met in Rome under strong pressure from the Roman population, which feared that the cardinals might choose a French pope and then move the papacy back to Avignon again.

Reports from the time say that the Roman crowds surrounded the place of election and demanded an Italian pope. There was shouting, noise, and some fear of violence. In this tense atmosphere, the cardinals elected an Italian archbishop, Bartolomeo Prignano, who took the name Urban VI.

At first, many cardinals accepted Urban VI, but the relationship soon deteriorated. Urban quickly showed himself to be harsh and inflexible in his criticism of the cardinals and bishops. He attacked their luxury and privileges and tried to reform his curia in a very aggressive manner. Many cardinals felt insulted and afraid. Some later claimed that they had voted for Urban under duress because of the violent mood in Rome, and that therefore his election was not valid.

In the summer of 1378 a group of cardinals left Rome and gathered in the town of Fondi. There they declared Urban VI’s election invalid and proceeded to elect another pope, Robert of Geneva, who took the name Clement VII. This second election created the split. Urban VI remained in Rome and claimed to be the true pope. Clement VII moved to Avignon and created a rival papal court. The Great Schism had begun.

Competing Obediences and European Politics

Once there were two popes, all of Western Christendom had to choose between them. The choice often followed existing political alliances. Urban VI and the Roman line tended to be supported by England, the Holy Roman Empire, and some of the Italian states that opposed French influence. Clement VII and the Avignon line were supported by France, Scotland, many Spanish kingdoms, and some Italian allies of the French.

This division is sometimes described as competing obediences. Each obedience recognized one pope as legitimate and considered the other to be an antipope, that is, a falsely elected or illegitimate pope.

A simplified view of the situation around 1380 can be suggested in table form.

Both popes created their own colleges of cardinals, issued their own appointments, and collected their own taxes. A bishop in one kingdom might be appointed by Rome while a rival claimant to the same position might be appointed by Avignon. This double structure spread confusion into local churches. It could even produce double or triple lines of bishops in the same region, each with different legal and spiritual claims.

The Schism also affected international relations. When a ruler recognized one pope, that often meant rejecting the pope recognized by a hostile neighboring kingdom. The conflict in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France, for example, helped shape the way each kingdom chose its papal obedience. The Schism therefore became both a religious dispute and a tool in wider political rivalries.

Daily Religious Life During the Schism

For ordinary believers, the Great Schism raised troubling questions. Many wondered whether sacraments such as baptism, marriage, and confession performed under one obedience were fully valid if the pope at the top was not the true pope. Church doctrine taught that the effectiveness of the sacraments came from Christ, not from the personal holiness or legitimacy of individual priests, so daily worship continued. Still, the uncertainty about leadership troubled many devout people.

Monasteries, parish churches, and universities sometimes split internally, with some individuals supporting the Roman pope and others the Avignon pope. Religious orders such as the Dominicans and Franciscans had to decide which papal authority to obey. This sometimes caused internal conflict about loyalty and discipline.

Financial burdens grew heavier as each papal court needed income. Both popes expanded efforts to collect funds by using church taxes, fees, and the sale of certain privileges. This worsened the already negative image of the papacy as rich and distant from ordinary spiritual concerns. Criticism of moral failings in church leadership became more frequent, and calls grew for serious reform of the entire structure of the Church.

Intellectual Responses and Conciliarism

The Great Schism inspired a major debate about how the Church should be governed. Many theologians and canon lawyers concluded that if the papacy was deeply divided, the wider Church had to have some way to heal the division. This thought led to the rise of a movement known as conciliarism, the idea that a general council representing the Church as a whole held supreme authority, at least in times of crisis.

Key thinkers such as Jean Gerson and Pierre d’Ailly argued that the unity and welfare of the Church were more important than the claims of particular popes. Their reasoning supported the idea that a council could judge between rival popes or even depose them if necessary. This view did not deny that the pope had authority, but it placed that authority inside a larger community that included bishops and the faithful.

Conciliarism was not applied in a systematic way before the Schism. The crisis gave it urgency and made princes and scholars more willing to consider it. It also gave secular rulers a stronger voice in church affairs, since they often supported the idea of a council and hoped it would be held on their territory or under their influence.

The Great Schism therefore did not only split the papacy, it also prompted new theories of church government and questions about how divine authority worked in human institutions.

The Council of Pisa and the Problem of Three Popes

By the early fifteenth century, many leaders agreed that the Schism had to end. However, the two papal courts in Rome and Avignon were unwilling to give up their claims. Efforts at negotiation and compromise failed. As a result, cardinals and princes sympathetic to conciliar ideas took the initiative.

In 1409 they convened a council in the city of Pisa in northern Italy. The cardinals who met there declared that both existing popes, Gregory XII in Rome and Benedict XIII in Avignon, were deposed for causing scandal and for refusing unity. The council then elected a new pope, Alexander V. The hope was that everyone would accept him and the Schism would be healed.

Instead, the situation became more complex. Gregory XII and Benedict XIII refused to step down and considered themselves still legitimate. Alexander V and his successor John XXIII were recognized only by some of Christendom. The result was three rival papal claimants, not two. The Council of Pisa had failed in its central goal, although it had strengthened conciliar ideas and shown that cardinals and councils could act independently of stubborn popes.

The presence of three popes damaged the reputation of all of them and made the crisis look absurd to many observers. It also increased the desire among both rulers and scholars for a more decisive solution that all parties would recognize.

The Council of Constance and the End of the Schism

The final resolution of the Great Schism came through the Council of Constance, which met in the German city of Constance from 1414 to 1418. This council gathered bishops, theologians, representatives of princes, and other church figures from across Western Christendom. It was larger and more widely recognized than the earlier council at Pisa.

At Constance the participants voted by national groups, called “nations,” rather than simply as individuals. This gave the kingdoms of Europe a structured voice in church deliberations and ensured that decisions would have broad support.

The council took several crucial steps. One was the declaration called “Haec Sancta,” which stated that a general council held its authority directly from Christ and that everyone, including the pope, was bound to obey it in matters of faith and reform. This statement was a strong expression of conciliarism.

The council then worked to remove the rival popes. Gregory XII, the Roman pope, agreed to resign under certain conditions and did so, which helped restore some order. The other claimants, John XXIII from the Pisan line and Benedict XIII from the Avignon line, were deposed by the council after trials and deliberations.

In 1417, with the main obstacles removed, the Council of Constance elected a new pope, Martin V. His election was widely accepted across Europe, and the other claimants no longer had effective support. This brought the Great Schism to an end and restored a single papal line.

Consequences for Papal Authority and Church Reform

Although the Schism formally ended in 1417, its effects continued. The papacy was unified again, but its moral and political authority had been weakened. Many people remembered that for nearly forty years popes had quarreled, issued contradictory commands, and refused to resign for the sake of unity. This memory made later criticisms of papal behavior more persuasive.

The Schism had also strengthened secular rulers. Kings and princes had gained experience in influencing councils, organizing support for particular popes, and using church divisions for their political aims. The close involvement of lay powers in ending the Schism weakened older ideas of papal superiority over temporal rulers.

Conciliarism did not disappear after Constance. Another council was later convened at Basel, and the idea that councils held a certain authority alongside or above the pope remained attractive to some reformers. In practice, however, later popes worked to reduce the influence of councils and to restore strong papal control. This effort created ongoing tension between conciliar and papal principles.

Inside the Church, the Schism contributed to demands for serious reform. Critics argued that the root cause of the crisis had been greed, ambition, and corruption in the highest offices. They called for simpler, more spiritual leadership and for changes in how bishops were chosen and how church wealth was used. Some of these demands influenced later reform attempts inside Catholicism, while others would much later echo in more radical ways in the Protestant Reformation.

Cultural and Psychological Impact

Beyond institutional questions, the Great Schism affected the religious imagination of Europe. The spectacle of multiple popes excommunicating one another could seem scandalous or even absurd. Satirists and writers produced works that mocked the quarrels of church leaders or lamented the loss of unity. Confidence in the idea of the pope as a clear symbol of Christian unity suffered.

At the same time, the crisis gave some believers a stronger sense that truth and holiness could not depend solely on particular office holders. Many writers stressed the importance of Scripture, personal devotion, and the wider community of the faithful. Mystical and devotional movements that focused on inner piety and direct experience of God gained more attention alongside traditional sacramental life.

In universities, the Schism encouraged careful study of canon law and theology concerning church authority. Students confronted practical questions about obedience, legitimacy, and the relationship between spiritual and political power. This intellectual environment shaped later debates about sovereignty, representation, and the rights of communities in both religious and secular contexts.

The Great Schism in the Larger Late Medieval Picture

In the broader history of the Late Middle Ages, the Great Schism formed part of a pattern of crisis and transformation. Europe was already facing the demographic shock of the Black Death, long wars such as the Hundred Years’ War, social unrest, and economic difficulties. The Schism added a spiritual and institutional crisis on top of these problems.

The combination of suffering, war, and divided leadership encouraged many people to question old certainties and to search for new forms of stability. Some found this stability in stronger monarchies. Others looked to councils or to new religious movements. The end of the Schism did not remove every problem, but it did move Western Christendom into a new phase, where large councils and powerful monarchs played a major role in church affairs.

In later centuries, both critics and defenders of the papacy looked back to the Great Schism as a warning. For critics, it showed how far human ambition could distort spiritual offices. For defenders, it showed the danger of divided authority and the need to preserve unity. The memory of the Schism thus continued to shape debates long after the rival popes themselves had passed from the scene.