The Western Schism:
And Its Impact on the Catholic Church
Jacob Stickney
Western Civilization II
Professor Jennifer Fast
November 14, 2016
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. The Council of Constance was called in 1414 by the Anti-Pope John XXIII. It was called to resolve the conflict regarding the papacy and to identify the true successor of St. Peter. Between November 1414 and June 1415, the council had a total of 13 sessions, dealing with the papacy and how the pope was chosen. The council, "enacted Haec Sancta (fifth session, 15 April 1415),
Many issues that created the Great Schism between the East and West, both before 1054 and after 1054. It would appear from the documents that the Eastern Orthodox has more issues with how the West was conducting religion. Some documents would tell us that the Catholic had issues before and after 1054 C.E. Also the Eastern Orthodox had issues before and after 1054. Both religions had issues before and after the time of 1054 C.E., but the Eastern Orthodox had more issues. It would appear to us by the documents that the Catholic had issues before 1054 C.E. In 86 C.E we learned that the Pope had an problem because the jurisdiction of Rome should be restored as possible. We learn that the jurisdiction of Rome was necessary because it helped them
-Once the pope got authority over the whole Christian Church, there were problems with preachers in many eastern churches—which lead to a division of eastern and western churches.
In response to the how and why the papacy in Rome became the center of power as it did. Shortly after
During the late 14th century and the early 15th century there was a great division in the Catholic Church. The Papacy was becoming blurred. The center of the Roman Catholic Church had been moved from Rome to the city of Avignon during the reign of Pope Clement V; and there was now a movement to return the center of power back to Rome. This movement was first truly seen under Pope Gregory XI and his successor Pope Urban VI. Earlier Pope Urban V had moved the center to Rome but it had been proven to be no more than a temporary idea; he had gone back to Avignon to die and there his replacement, Pope Gregory XI was elected . This along with other political problems and circumstances created a split in the loyalty among
There were many issues that created the Great Schism between the east and west, both prior to 1054 and after. It would appear from the document that the east had more issues with how the west governed the church. The split could probably have been avoided as well as its consequences. The Great Schism had many consequences two of which were the Eastern Orthodox's trying to tell the Roman Catholic how to run the church and the Roman Catholics attacking the Eastern Orthodox church with religion. In document 1 the Roman Catholics forcing Greeks to become part of their religion. The event in this document occurred after the year 1054. Document 2 also occurred after the year 1054, but this document talks about the Orthodox Church. In this document
The idea of two popes destroyed the idea of unified church, which is The Great Schism. The two Popes were constant rivals and while the people were split, the French people obviously followed the Pope from Avignon, while the Roman people followed to Pope in Rome. (http://www.thenagain.info) To try and end the schism a third Pope was chosen John XXII, shortly after in 1414, the Council of Constance received the resignation of Pope Gregory XII and dismissed the claims of the Avignon Pope, Benedict XII. Finally the election of Pope Martin V, ended the schism, he reigned from 1417-1431.
Western Europe went through a lot changes through the 8th and 14th century it was the rise of the medieval culture.The Church started to gain power as Christianity started to gain popularity throughout all over Western Europe. Christianity had a lot of influence on the development of Romanesque and Gothic culture, as they took a lot of the ideas from Christianity and implemented it into theirs. As Western Europe went through all these different events the religious and political aspects started to change as well. The Church started to gain a lot of power as death was spreading all over Europe, people started to worry where their soul would go after their death. In the beginning of medieval Europe the aristocrats had a lot of the power while
The Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic, are two variations of the same religion, that due to some disagreements over certain ideas and religious teachings leads to the great Schism in 1054 AD. The great schism of 1054 refers to the final separation of the Eastern Orthodox church, led by the patriarch in Constantinople and the western church, led by Pope Leo IX. The estrangement between the Orthodox and Roman church, happened gradually over the course of the 5th and much of the 11th century. The reasons of the Schism are attributed to several differences between the two churches. The religious and doctrinal studies of the East, had roots in Greek philosophy, while the Western studies closely followed Roman law. Misunderstandings between the two churches then led to two separate ways of defining one doctrine, which would initiate the split. The doctrine in question, procession of the Holy Spirit, where without consulting the East the Roman churches added “and from the Son” to the Nicene Creed. This was not the only thing the two churches clashed on. The eastern church resented the forced clerical celibacy, political jealousies and interests only intensified the disputes. There had been schisms before but not ones that were permanent. While there may have been hopes for a reconciliation, the eastern Greeks were infuriated by the Latin capture of Constantinople in 1204 A.D. After this, any pleas from the west concerning reunion were rejected. (“Schism of 1054”)
It is believed that the Pope is in a direct line from St Peter who
To understand what caused The Great Schism of 1054, it is important to first have a background knowledge of who was involved. The divide occurred among the land, with a west side and an east side. The western side was inhabited by Romans and spanned from current Portugal over to Hungary, also including the more northern countries from Ireland to Sweden. These borders were frequently changed throughout history, although their principal area was always that of the German states. This area was referred to as the Holy Roman Empire. The Eastern area, on the other hand, were inhabited by Greeks and the area was often referred to as the Byzantium Empire. The empire included current Russia and Bulgaria. These countries together formed the Eastern Slavic Principalities, with their capital based out of Constantinople.
People faced the rise and the fall of the Catholic Church during the medieval time. The Popes used to hold the final authority for the church and over the state. Pope Gregory VII asserted the Pope had granted the divine power from God because Saint Peter was the first of getting this
There were popes that had a completely different view and really wanted to move foward in the Catholic Church. The Council of Trent was announced by Paul III he was pope from the years 1534-1549 and it was first called to order December 1545. It was dismissed in 1563 but
The Avignon cardinals did the same when Pope Clement died, when they elected Benedict XIII. Trying to find a solution the University of Paris suggested that the two Popes should resign with judgment by a summoning of a general council. Pope Boniface IX died and another Roman Pope was elected, Innocent VII, and after him Gregory XII, both who promised to resign simultaneously with the French Pope but they never went through with it. Eventually cardinals from both Rome and Avignon abandoned their Popes and agreed to summon a great council to end the schism On March 28, 1409. Neither Pope showed up at this council meeting where they were both deposed as Pope on Jane 5, 1409. The cardinals of the council elected a new Pope, named Alexander and after his death John XXIII, which didn’t work because both Rome and Avignon Pope would officially step down from their
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 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