The Great Schism was a split in the Church between the two factions of the Avignon popes and the Italian popes. Many events lead up to the schism. One of which was the fact that there was fighting going on in Italy when Clement V was selected as the new pope, so instead …show more content…
This duration of time was deemed the “Babylonian Captivity” by a poet called Petrach (Dijkstra1363). This split or schism started when Gregory moved the papacy back to Rome. After that he passed away. Shortly after, the people of Rome got scared that the papacy would eventually move back to Avignon so they insisted on an Italian pope as opposed to a French one. After succumbing to the demands of the masses they decided that Urban VI would be the next pope. Urban VI was a very harsh leader and had many absurd policies. This lead to the loss the support from the officials within the church. Then the cardinals stated that his election was declared null and void. After that a man by the name of Clement the VII was chosen to be pope. After Urban refused to step down Clement moved to Avignon. Then after much conflict, including the attempt of forcing the other two popes to step down, and making a new one did not work. At one point within the history of this even there were 3 popes. But none of the new popes could get a strong enough foundation in order to become the official pope. Eventually the Council of Constance, during 1417 got the old pope to resign and deposed of the other two. Then they had elected a final pope by the name of Martin V who managed to get enough support in order to become the undisputed pope of