The Western Schism had separated the Catholic
Church in Europe for over thirty years.
As the Middle Ages began to come to a close, the worldly authority of
the Church was evident. With the
Crusades, the Pope had displayed his ability to exert power over the kings of
Europe, who in many ways were subordinate to papal will and arguably commanders
for Christendom's armies. Because it was
such an important seat of power, the Vatican became fraught with corruption and
factional infighting, much of which came from the wealthy families of
Italy. In an effort to escape these trappings,
the Pope moved to Avignon, France, in 1305.
There, however, the corruption grew to a new higher level, and the
papacy came under heavy influence from the French king Paul IV, who instigated the
destruction of the Knights Templar.
Europe was thrown into chaos as no one could agree
who was the real pope and what to do with the antipope. Royal families became divided, causing wars
in Portugal and Castile. When the town
of Bruges declared itself a supporter of Avignon, it became partially
depopulated as supporters for Rome simply left.
The division weighed on Europe even to the point that Charles VI of
France suggested that the Avignon pope, whom he supported, to step down. As the fifteenth century dawned, both popes
agreed to a meeting but later refused.
The cardinals gave up hope and determined to solve the matter.
They convened in the college town of Pisa at the
cathedral beside the leaning tower along with 80 bishops, representatives of
100 more, and ambassadors of the kings. Famous
universities such as those in Cologne, Paris, and Oxford sent over 300 doctors
of theology and cannon law to contribute.
Each morning for three days, the meetings opened with a call for the
popes to present themselves. The popes
did not, and so the testimonies began without them. A group of Germans in support of Rome did
appear in April, but their case only caused anger to rise up among those
gathered. Two months later,
representatives from Avignon appeared as well.
Their argument caused laughter to break out among the council, and when the
Avignon-supporting Chancellor of Aragon spoke, the Archbishop of Tarragona made
a declaration of war.
The people of Pisa heard the rumor of war and
misunderstood it to be a declaration of war by the Church against the antipope
rather than an ungrounded call-to-arms in Spain. They seized the ambassadors and hauled them
up the tower, throwing them to their deaths.
The council was shocked, but they determined to finish their
business. Antipope Benedict XIII in Avignon
took the declaration of war seriously and immediately called upon his
supporters to launch a crusade against the Pisans. Not to be outdone, Gregory XII in Rome did
the same. The council continued its
business with the Patriarch of Alexandria stating, "Benedict XIII
and Gregory XII are recognised as schismatics, the approvers and makers of schism,
notorious heretics, guilty of perjury and violation of solemn promises, and
openly scandalising the universal Church… to be driven out of the Church." They unanimously
elected a new pope, Alexander V, and sent letters to the kings of Europe
calling for a crusade to remove both former popes.
Europe became even more divided. War broke out between pro-Avignon Scotland
and pro-Rome England, in Portugal, and, especially, among the various cities of
the Holy Roman Empire. Emperor Charles IV
had died in 1378, and the electors had not yet met due to the Schism. With three popes willing to grant the title,
the electors began to tear into one another, backed by France for Pisa, Spain
for Avignon, and Poland for Rome. The war
became worse as Hussites in Bohemia rebelled after the Pisan pope issued a bull
condemning Wycliffism. Sigismund, King
of Hungary, worked to suppress the revolt, but his resources proved stretched
too thinly to snuff out the movement.
The Ottoman Empire, fresh from its own civil war, made great advances in
the Balkans while the Christians were divided.
After years of war, an armistice was pronounced,
and Europe formally divided. Spain led a
coalition of supporters of Avignon (who retreated to Madrid), Rome held Naples
and Poland, while the rest of Europe recognized Pisa. Pisa weakened to northern Italy as
Protestantism swept northern Europe, limiting Rome's influence to southern
Italy, which would never unify with the north again despite a series of small wars
attempting to do so in the nineteenth century.
In the sixteenth century, another war of religion
would be fought as the Protestants came to the aid of the Huguenots, eventually
turning France into a nation without a state-church. England, too, would fall to Protestantism as
Calvinists pushed out the influence of the Pisan Church. Eastern Europe, meanwhile, was increasingly
swallowed by the Ottomans up to Hussian Bohemia and Orthodox Russia. As the age of empires began, the many
different churches of the nations of Europe were spread throughout the world,
which became increasingly secular to survive religious disunity.
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In reality, the Council of Pisa confined its orders
to within the Church. While the
ambassadors from Avignon were insulted and threatened, they sneaked out of the
city safely. Ultimately, most of Europe
sympathized with Pisa, but little was done to back the new antipope. The groundwork was laid, however, for the
Council of Constance in 1414, which prompted the Pisan and Roman popes to step
down and excommunicated Benedict XIII, who fled to Spain. It also elected a new unifying pope, Martin V,
and condemned Hus, affirming Catholic rule in Europe.
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