The Western Schism
- When
- 1378–1417 AD
- Where
- Avignon and Rome
- Kind
- Division
Two and then three men each claimed to be pope, with kingdoms and saints divided among them for forty years.
A disputed election in 1378 produced rival popes at Rome and Avignon, each with his own curia and cardinals, each excommunicating the other, and Europe split along the lines of its existing alliances. An attempt to settle it at Pisa in 1409 produced a third claimant rather than a resolution. Canonised saints ended up on opposing sides — Catherine of Siena for Rome, Vincent Ferrer for Avignon — which made the question of who was the true pope genuinely undecidable for contemporaries. It ended only when the Council of Constance deposed or accepted the resignation of all three. The episode is the origin of conciliarism, and it is why calls to reform the church "in head and members" carried force a century before Luther.
Bodies it bears on
Party to it
Who stands here
- Catherine of Siena
1347–1380
Backed the Roman claimant, and pressed Gregory XI to return the papacy to Rome
Either side of it
The whole timeline, from the apostolic communities to the present.