The so-called “Babylonian Captivity” of the papacy in Avignon, France from 1316-1415 will likely always be remembered as an unusual and divisive time for the Catholic Church. However, the events that followed the return of the Holy See to Rome, known as the Great Schism, are perhaps even more strange and tumultuous, for it was during this time that the Catholic Church was divided between two, sometimes even three men, all who claimed to be the rightful holder of the chair of St. Peter.
The beginning of the Great Schism lies in the exile of the papacy to Avignon, a move inspired and directed by the avaricious King Philip IV, or “the fair”, of France. In moving the seat of the Church, Philip ensured himself a position of influence with the Holy See, beneficial for any earthly king of the day. He also redirected the immense flow of gold that came from the outlying Catholic churches to the papacy, allowing the city of Avignon to be blessed with the capital that had once bolstered the magnificence of the Vatican. Thus, for nearly 100 years, the pope and his cardinals called the luxurious gardens of Avignon home, and eventually became attached. Petrarch explained that, when asked why they would not return to Rome, the cardinals remarked, “Because Beaume (a local wine which did not travel well) is not there” (Gail). For the mostly-French cardinals of the Holy See, Avignon was an island of comfort which they had little desire to abandon.
However, outside of France, the Avignon papacy was much debated and disliked. Many European rulers resented the strong influence French rulers now had with the leaders of the church, the clergy disapproved of the large number of French cardinals and popes, and the city of Rome resented its loss of glory and position. By the time of Gregory XI’s coronation in 1371, the political situation in Italy had greatly degenerated, with the independence of the Italian papal states and Rome being threatened by ambitious ruling families (Coppa). Gregory knew that, in Coppa’s words, he would “eventually bring the papacy back to Italy”, and in 1376, despite outcry in France and disagreement among the cardinals, he returned to Rome amidst cheering crowds.
The pope’s stay in Rome was to be short-lived, however, and he died of exhaustion in 1378. Immediately the Roman people demanded that his successor be a Roman, or at least an Italian, thus signifying a true end to France’s stranglehold on the Holy See. As the cardinals convened in order to choose a new pope, the people rioted and gathered outside the conclave, shouting, “take heed, give us a Roman Pope, or we will turn your heads as red as your hats!” (Gail) They sacked the papal palace and made it known to the cardinals that any choice besides an Italian pope would mean the end of their lives. The Romans felt that gold that was rightfully theirs had been spent in France for too many years, and were now eager to have things done their way (Jordan).
It was under these tumultuous circumstances that the cardinals met, and unsurprisingly, elected the Italian Archbishop Bari as the next pope. The proceeding was anything but uneventful. Since Bari was not present at the election of the cardinals, they feared that the crowd would react violently, despite the fact that their desire for an Italian pope had been appeased. Instead, they placed the bewildered Cardinal Tebaldeschi on the papal throne, hoping to avoid violence from the crowd as they waited for the arrival of Bari. But when the elderly Cardinal informed the crowd whom the real pope actually was, they briefly rose up, in response both to disappointment that the new pope was not a Roman, and chagrin for being led astray (MacCarron). Finally, the people of Rome settled down and accepted the fact that, for the most part, their demands had been reached. The election of Archbishop Bari, now Urban VI, seemed to signal a new era of stability and peace for the Catholic church (Bunson).
By historical accounts, however, Urban VI did not have a personality suited to re-unifying the church. Binns describes Urban as having “an arbitrary and violent temper,” and explains how the pope displayed a severe lack of tact, ostracizing his cardinals both privately and in public. Also, his efforts to reform the excesses of the Holy See were not popular with the cardinals, who had grown accustomed to a lavish lifestyle in the more idyllic Avignon (La Due). Dissatisfied with their new Roman residence and resentful of the pope they had elected, the cardinals soon began to withdraw from Urban’s side (Smith).
The summer after Urban’s election, the cardinals began to trickle out of Rome, complaining that the heat of the city was too much for them to bear (Gail). Soon, all but one had gathered in the city of Fondi. There, the alienated and malcontented cardinals came to the conclusion that pope Urban’s claim to the throne was invalid, due to the fact that the cardinals had been under great duress during the electoral proceedings. In the tradition of the Catholic church, the Holy Spirit is thought to guide the cardinals in their decision for a new pope. The men who had once supported Urban IV now claimed that the shouts and threats from the writhing Roman mob made such divine direction impossible to receive. In addition, they declared their nemesis anathema, or completely separated from the church and the God whom it represented.
To this day, there is debate as to whether Urban IV was really the rightful pope, or an “anti-pope”, as unofficial pontiffs are termed. The official stance of the Catholic church maintains that the election of Urban was legitimate, despite the influence of the riotous Roman crowd on the voting ceremony. Indeed, the cardinals completed all the necessary actions in order to affirm someone as pope: records reveal that all the members of the Sacred College placed votes, letters were dispatched to kings and those members of the Holy See who had remained in Avignon, and the new pope was unanimously accepted by Catholic leaders and rulers. By all accounts, Urban IV was “canonically and unanimously” elected (Ullmann). Salembier points to evidence that many of the cardinals had made their minds up even before the crisis.
However, by alienating the cardinals who had paved the way for his ascent to power, Urban helped motivate the first major move of the Great Schism (Jordan). In Fondi, the curia, or assembly of cardinals, elected Robert of Geneva, or Clement VII, as pontiff, claiming him to be the rightful heir to the throne of St. Peter. Robert’s gentlemanly manners and non-Italian heritage made him the antithesis to Urban’s overbearing assertiveness and resentment towards the French. The cardinals hoped that this new pope, being one of their own, would not only treat them with greater respect, but allow them to return to the lifestyle of comfort they were used to and the city which they loved, Avignon.
Both Urban and Clement’s supporters acted quickly in order to legitimize their claims. They appealed for the support of kings and nations, even seeking a ruling from the scholars at the prestigious University of Paris as to whom was the real leader of the Catholic church. Smith reports that even France’s King Charles V, who eventually became one of Clement’s most steadfast supporters, was confused about the issue, withholding his judgment on the matter until a month after the council of the dissident cardinals met and announced their decision. Nations and churches were divided in their opinion of who was truly pope. While Urban retained a majority of support, Clement managed to secure the allegiance of countries like France, Scotland, Aragon, and even the Italian city of Naples. With each side having its own separate college of cardinals, military force, and bull of excommunication against the other side, pope and antipope began a long war with each other (Maxwell-Stuart).
For the next several years, the two claimants to the papal throne battled both for land and influence. Defense against uprisings in Naples and Rome had depleted Urban’s treasury, and the city of Naples had fallen to supporters of Clement VII, who had returned to Avignon due to his inability to cull much Italian support. Urban’s unpopularity began to mount as he continued to act violently and irrationally, even killing 4 of his own appointed cardinals at one time (Binns). Urban’s paranoid behavior also began to put him at odds with some of the ruling families of Italy, and his behavior only helped to widen the division in the Church (MacCarron).
Meanwhile, Clement felt that the capture of Rome was essential in cementing his claim to the throne, but his efforts to fund an army to take the city and his enemy Urban proved to be expensive and fruitless. He was forced to return to Avignon, to his great dismay, from where he continued to raise armies for his cause. Unfortunately for Clement, the French government soon became weary of his expenditures and began to pressure him to step down.
In 1390, Urban IV died, leaving a legacy of cruelty and malice that suggests near-insanity (Smith). Bunson suggests that the pope was likely poisoned, and it is quite likely that few mourned the volatile man’s passing. Four years later, Clement VII was asked by the French government to resign, a request that sent him into a fit of rage, during which he had a stroke. Clement died soon after, having done little but generate a giant burden of debt on the clergy and the French monarchy that supported him. Even though the original protagonists of the Great Schism were now dead, the division continued with the election of yet another pair of ambitious rivals.
Urban’s successor, Boniface IX, certainly had more tact and consideration than his erratic forebear. However, when it came to ending the schism, he was uncompromisingly aloof, unwilling to entertain any debate concerning his position, and unfriendly to the antipope Clement, who was living his last years in Avignon. Despite the fact that the man who was elected after Clement, Benedict XIII, sought to heal the breach and negotiate with Boniface, the Roman pope ignored his requests.
In France, Benedict was the victim of an ever-increasing withdrawal of support by the French, who were tired of ceaseless taxation in order to fund unproductive wars. Boniface and Benedict competed with each other in order to provide the greatest benefits to clergy who obeyed them as pope. One cardinal, disgusted with Urban, went to the court at Avignon, only to return later due to an offer by Urban’s successor Boniface. This endless cycle of spending and raising money made both popes unpopular with the cities and nations whom they taxed, especially considering the fact that the schism still remained unresolved.
The Great Schism between the popes remained after Boniface’s death, and through the term of the pope who came after him, Innocent VII. All talks between Benedict and the popes at Rome fell apart, and the masses of Europe began to become disillusioned with this evident lack of divine unity within the church. Mutterings among the clergy questioned inability of the church leadership to resolve its issues, and the upper hierarchy of the church started to lose its luster and sense of spiritual authority (Smith).
It was during this turbulent time that dissenters like Jan Hus of Bohemia and the English John Wycliffe began to make their ideas known. These radical preachers and theologians challenged the authority of the church and called into question the validity and ordainment of the authority in place. One must imagine that the turmoil of popes and antipopes fueled their conclusions, and made their messages appeal to a greater crowd.
This growing malcontent did little to speed the end of the confusion and crisis, however. Boniface and his successor Innocent VII managed to do little in the way of ending the split, despite Innocent’s vow to meet with the antipope Benedict and resign if necessary, to ensure peace. Meanwhile, support for the two opposing pontiffs shifted; France withdrew from Benedict’s side, leaving him virtually penniless, while nations such as England and the city of Florence quarreled with Innocent over the issues of indulgences and taxes. Finally, in 1406, the newly elected Roman pope Gregory XII announced that he desired to meet with his opponent Benedict, in order to fulfill the oath he had taken to heal the schism. However, even in the process to end the division, endless complications and personality clashes would make the road to restoration long and fraught with difficulty.
The meeting that was supposed to take place between Benedict and Gregory eventually dissolved into a storm of disagreements on place and time, finally degenerating into an outright refusal to negotiate. The University of Paris ruled Benedict to be invalid, but the antipope was determined to hold on to his position. A larger number of cardinals from each side arranged a council in the Italian city of Pisa in order to resolve the matter, but neither pope showed up. In their absence, the council declared both Benedict in Avignon and Gregory in Rome to be deposed, invalid, and heretic, and elected Alexander V to take their place as the true, unifying pope. Unsurprisingly, both popes continued business as usual, Gregory holding his own council of faithful cardinals in order to maintain his claim to the throne. Alexander V died suddenly, and the council of Pisa elected a John XXIII to take his place. Thus it came to place that, during 1410 to 1414, three men, all claiming to be pope, existed in Europe at the same time. Once a disagreement on where the location of the papacy was to be, the Great Schism had degenerated into a veritable free-for-all of confusion and discord within the Catholic church (Maxwell-Stuart).
Finally, in 1414, the major nations of Christendom, England, France, Italy, Germany, and Spain, met in the Council of Constance to end the matter once and for all. After three years of deliberation, 23 cardinals and 6 delegates from each of the participating nations entered a conclave to vote on the next, undisputed pontiff. Their choice was Martin V, an Italian who immediately put in place laws that ensured the complete superiority of the Roman pope to any other councils or dissidents. John XXIII fled from the council and was eventually captured and deposed, and Gregory XII willfully abdicated. Benedict XIII, still convinced of his papal legitimacy, exiled himself to Spain, and continued to act as if he were pope until his death in 1423. The four cardinals that remained by his side, despite lack of any support or recognized authority, chose Clement VIII as his antipope successor. Predictably, though, one cardinal disagreed, entered his own one-man conclave, and elected a Benedict XIV, to little consequence. Thus ended 39 of some of the most turbulent years of Catholic church history, a time that would leave the church irreversibly changed.
The Great Schism marked the beginning of the Catholic church’s decline in both spiritual authority and worldly influence, as well as the pope’s own personal power (Binns). The meeting of Urban’s dissident cardinals and the Council of Constance that later ended the war between the popes established that, in times of duress, a council could subvert the supreme authority of the pope. This precedent diminished the concept that the pope alone could make decisions for the church, and weakened the pontiff’s power to act in any way he pleased.
The Schism also sowed the seeds of dissent among the clergy and lay people of the church (MacCarron). The number of people demanding reform soon grew, and the bold ideas of Hus and Wycliffe spread and proliferated. And just as the church reached the apex of its worldly wealth during the 1500’s, the ideas of Zwingli and Luther were forming the basis for a bold new approach to Christianity. Within 150 years of the Great Schism, the call for church reform had culminated in the rise of Protestantism, a movement that would eventually divide Europe’s nations, people, and wealth, and remove from the Catholic cause much of the power that had sustained its glory years.
The Great Western Schism, as it has come to be called, was the first sign of weakness in an institution that would soon be stripped of much of its power and might, a key event during Europe’s slow emergence from the Medieval Age.