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The Great Schism

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The Great Schism
Throughout history, kings and popes around the world have fought back and forth, both aiming to receive a majority of power from the people. Over the course of history, the Church has gone from being extremely powerful the point where famous world leaders are excommunicated by the Pope to being very powerless and unorganized to the point where the Church gets taken over by French leaders and moved to different locations. The pope is the most powerful leader amongst the people of the church. Therefore, kings can get out of hand when it comes to gaining power. Kings will do to get to the top even if it takes slapping a pope in the face! The Showdown at Canossa truly proved the how the Church’s power rose above the power of politicians and how …show more content…
One of these terrible events was known as The Great Schism. The Great Schism started when Pope Boniface VIII attempted to enforce papal authority on kings. King Philip did not agree with this request and enforced his own authority over all French bishops at this time. (The Great Schism notes, Grossi). This led Pope Boniface to write Unam Sanctum, which was a letter stating that the kings must obey the Pope. When King Philip received this letter he immediately requested his army to go search for Pope Boniface. King Philip had intentions of holding Pope Boniface prisoner for three days insisting he resigned as pope. When three passed and Pope Boniface denied King Philip’s command to step down, Sciarra Colonna, one of the leaders of the king’s army, slapped the pope in the face. Shortly after this event, Pope Boniface died from a fever. King Philip, now realizing how much power he has over the pope, convinces the College of Cardinals to select another French Archbishop to be the new pope. After his convinces them, Pope Clement V was selected in 1305. This settlement caused the Pope to be moved from Rome to Avignon, France. Because of the move, every Pope was required to live in Avignon for the next 69 years. The people of Rome were not very happy about this decision and it caused them slowly lose respect for the Pope. After almost 70 years of the Pope living in Avignon, a French archbishop named Pope Gregory XI, finally succeeded in bringing the papacy back to Rome. After finally having the papacy back in Rome, riots outside called for the new Pope to be Roman or Italian. An arrogant, Italian candidate with the name of Urban VI was elected. A few months after Pope Urban VI was elected, the cardinals met again and hired Clement VII at the same time that Pope Urban VI was still in his
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