The Great Schism

The Great Schism

The year was 1378, and Pope Paul Gregory XI was in the process of returning the church’s home back to Rome.  It had spent the last 73 years as a “guest” in Avignon since 1305 when the king of France had applied influence to have the papacy transplanted to Southern France, thereby placing the church within the French king’s control.  The French king saw opportunity to use the Pope in his struggle for power against the English in his own war.  This 73 year time period became known as the Babylonian Captivity, resulting in the pope losing his tax revenue, thereby charging fees and dues for services provided.  The parishioners viewed him as “greedy and materialistic.” (mini-lecture, Paul Trela, 2013)

Though Gregory was unable to see the fruit of his labor and the end result of his efforts, he was successful in moving the church back to Rome in 1378, though this was the beginning of “The Great Schism” as it would come to be called.  Soon after the move back to Rome, Pope Gregory XI passed away.  At that time the Sacred School of Cardinals chose to elect an Italian or Roman pope, looking to towards the Archbishop of Bari to fulfill this role, in hopes that he would be what the populace was demanding.  Unfortunately, upon election the archbishop of Bari, or as he became to be more properly known Urban VI was overly hostile to those around him and was not as easily controllable as they had previously believed.  (Great Western Schism, Encyclopedia Britannica)

An election  was enacted in order to remove Urban VI and vote for a new pope, unfortunately Urban was not willing to step aside for a new pope and now the church found themselves with two popes, though technically Urban was the legitimate elected head.  The new pope Robert of Geneva, now known as Clement VII, was one of the Cardinals Urban has previously had issues with.  Clement and his new papacy would remove themselves to Avignon, making this their home base of power for their line.  (Encyclopedia Britannica, September 2014)

In 2014, the Conciliar Movement, “a theory that a general council of the church has a greater authority than the pope and may if necessary, depose him.” (Enc. Brit. Sept. 2014) This was not the first time such a movement had been put into practice as such an occurrences had taken place in the 12^th- and 13^th- centuries amongst the canonists, during the period of time when they attempted to set juridical limitations on the papacy.   With the 15^th- century and the Great Schism we have the Council of Constance in Sweden (1414-18)  in order to end the 73 year turbulence and disruption within the church. 

This finally came to an end with the election of Cardinal subdeacon Oddone to the esteemed highest seat within the church.  He would become known as Martin V, and upon his election the others would relinquish their claims to the papacy.  He refused the French their offer of Avignon, choosing instead to make Rome and Italy his home.  He also worked to mediate the Hundred Year War, attempting to bring peace between the English and the French.  He also worked to once more bring back to the Papal authority all matters ecclesiastics, and help to subvert the crown to that of the church.  Once more the church was back in power in the reign of Martin V, paving the way for the oncoming reformation and for men like Luther and Calvin.

References:

1.      Sectarianism and schism in Europe. [electronic resource(video)] : Christianity in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. (2007). New York, N.Y.: Films Media Group, [2007], c1999.

2.      Conciliarism. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

3.      Western Schism. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

4.      Martin V. (2014). Encyclopoedia Britannica,

5.      Oakley, F. (1990). The great papal schism. Christian History, 9(4), 23.

6.      Trela, P. (2013, July 17). Church in Crisis. Retrieved February 7, 2016, from https://moodle.esc.edu/mod/page/view.php?id=1218424