Essay on The Great Schism

The Great Schism, a period in which two rival popes claimed the papacy, occurred from 1378-1417. The Great Schism traces back to 1309, when the French king moved the papacy from Rome to Avignon. This caused a large upheaval, as it is believed in the Christian faith that every pope was a success to the apostle Peter, and as such, was supposed to be based in Rome. In Avignon, the men of the papacy lived luxurious lifestyles, and in order to maintain their lives of opulence, the pope raised taxes. The people began to notice their lavish lifestyles, and came to see the papacy as

2. Pope Gregory XI brought the papacy back to Rome in 1377, but then Urban VI alienated

It is believed that the Pope is in a direct line from St Peter who

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

The Catholic Church's response to the Western Schism was vastly important to its respectability and authority in regards to the faithful of that time. "The Western Schism was only a temporary misunderstanding, even though it compelled the Church for forty years to seek its true head; it was fed by politics and passions, and was terminated by the assembling of the councils of Pisa and Constance."1 After the Avignon Papacy, the Catholic Church had three men claiming to be pope. One man elected in Rome, one in Avignon, France, and one elected by the Council of Pisa. This was very detrimental to the Catholic theology which states that it can trace every pope back to St. Peter, the first pope. The Catholic faithful were not sure which of the three men was the true pope and which, if any of them, they should listen to. It was a very confusing time for all the faithful living in this time, and a very annoying situation for the true pope who was now seen by many to be as questionable as the other two in regards to not being the true pope. The three men knew what a mess this situation was and two of them wanted to deal with the situation, so as to reduce confusion among the faithful. The anti-pope John XXIII called the Council of Constance to deal with this situation. He offered to resign from the papacy, that he was never in possession of, if the other two men would as well. The council met to depose of the two anti-popes, to deal with heretical teachings, and to protect the succession of the papacy. This council is one of the most important ecumenical councils, as it helped to affirm the succession of the pope and to help to resolve the confusion caused by these anti-popes.

He proclaimed a jubilee year, in which thousands of pilgrims came to Rome, leaving massive amounts of money behind. Then the papacy began to unravel; Pope Boniface VIII excommunicated Philip IV, King of France, who in turn kidnapped the Pope and held him hostage. As a result of his captivity, Pope Boniface VIII died miserably. His successor, Benedict XI, lived for only a short while, and after his death the papal election was deadlocked. The College of the Cardinals finally elected Clement V, a Frenchman, as pope. He then moved to Avignon, which was essentially in France. Seven successive popes ruled out of Avignon; their reigns lasting almost 70 years. Pope Gregory XI then moved to Rome, ending the Avignon papacy. The College of Cardinals then selected Pope Urban VI as pope, but then they regretted it and elected another pope, Pope Clement VII, who moved back to Avignon. The rival popes and their successors continued to rule separately until Pope Martin V was elected by an ecunemiel council. The events of the 14th century weakened the papacy, and some started to see its hypocrisy. The stage was set for an attack on papal power, but not merely its temporal power, as before. The spiritual authority of the Pope as the Vicar of Christ, was about to be under

For this reason, Pope Loe IX led other church officials in implementing reform efforts that would see ensure that the church could get back its lost power. For this reason, Pope Loe IX gave orders to the Roman Catholic clergy to dismiss the church officials that had taken part in selling church offices, and to renounce their wives (McKay et al., 2014). The orders were essential for ensuring that the church could control the corruption that was becoming rampant in the church. The measures were also essential for sending a message to the secular leaders, which was presumably an indication that they were working on regaining their lost power. After the death of Pope Leo, Gregory VII, Leo’s successor, continued with the reform work based on his ideological foundation (McKay et al., 2014). One of the reforms was the expelling of secular influence within church and the papal institution, which led to the expansion of the papal powers. such reforms solved the problems that the church was facing, which means that they were appropriate for the realization of the predetermined

After the 4th century when Constantinople emerged as a great capital and church center, tensions sometimes arose between its leaders and the bishop of Rome. After the fall of Rome to Germanic invaders in 476, the Roman pope was the only guardian of Christian universalism in the West. He began more explicitly to attribute his dominance to Rome's being the burial place of Saint Peter, whom Jesus had called the "rock" on which the church was to be built. The Eastern Christians respected that tradition and recognized the Roman patriarch to a measure of honorable authority. But they never believed that this authority allowed the papacy to overrule another church or that it made the pope into a universally reliable figure within the larger

In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after

The devastating effect of the Crusades coupled with the spread of the Black Plague launched a changing public view of papal authority. This resulted in a more analytical mindset creating a foothold for the Renaissance and Scientific Revolution . An overtly secular focus took precedence over religious matters and the moral decay of the Church was called into question. This obsession of secular control is most clearly exemplified by the Great Schism that took place from 1378 to 1417 . The Great Schism was the result of the Babylonian Captivity, in which the papacy was forced to relocate to Avignon . Soon after returning to Rome, conflict arose within the papacy resulting in three popes fighting for the title. “When the Council of Constance unified the papacy in 1417 with the election of Martin V, the pope’s political authority outside of the

(http://www.thenagain.info) During the time there were two Popes who both claimed full authority over the Catholic Church and he people were divided they didn’t know whom to follow. King Philip did not like the pope elected after Pope Gregory XI died, Pope Gregory XII. (http://www.britannica.com) He was an Italian pope, King Philip decided to elect a Pope who ruled from Avignon, Pope Benedict XIII. (http://www.britannica.com)

In 1054, the Great Schism occurred between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Christians, when the Pope first excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople. Not long after that, the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope, causing the split. There were many issues prior that created the Great Schism between the east and west both before and after 1054. It would appear from the documentation that the east had more issues with how the west conducted the church. The issues that caused the Schism between the two churches happened prior to 1054, but more issues occurred after the split.

Any long term change in the Catholic Church depended on the attitude of the pope in power at one particular time.

The decline of church power became even more apparent during the Babylonian Captivity (1309-1376). Pope Clement V’s agreement on King Philip’s request of settlement in Avignon in southwestern France first signified the Pope’s leadership and authority had been weakened. Furthermore, after Gregory XI’s death, Urban VI (1378-1389) had been planning on church reform, but his endorsement of opposition among the hierarchy had triggered a serious of disaster. As a result, Cardinal Robert of Geneva was elected to be Pope and took the name Clement VII. The situation became two popes in office: Urban at Rome and the anti-pope Clement VII at Avignon, hence marked the beginning of the Great Schism. France immediately recognized the antipope Clement while Aragon, Castile and Portugal follow suit. For England, they recognized Urban VI and the

Several men simultaneously claimed to be the true pope. Driven by politics rather than any theological disagreement) badly damaged the prestige of the church leaders. Papal tax collection methods were also attacked, and some criticized the papacy itself as an institution. Court records, written descriptions of bishop’s visitations of parishes and even popular songs and printed images show widespread anticlericalism, or opposition to the clergy.