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Rh 502 court at Avignon, described in graphic and scathing language by Petrarch, are assigned by other contemporary writers as conducing largely to the corruption of morals throughout the realm. Even among the religious orders themselves there began to be signs of insubordination, and the Fraticelli, or Spiritual Franciscans, who now took their rise, openly avowed that the principles which they professed were designed as a protest against the appalling degeneracy of the curia ; while great scholars in the uni versities, like William of Occam and Marsilio of Padua, brought the dialectics and new philosophical tenets of the schools in the universities to bear with no little effect on the whole system of the popedom. The The outbreak of the great schism struck no less deeply great at those sentiments of veneration and deference which sn!&amp;gt; had been wont to gather round the pontiff s chair. The majority in the college of cardinals were Frenchmen, and, on the death of Gregory XL in 1378, it seemed only too probable that another Frenchman would be elected his successor. The discontent of the citizens of Rome at the withdrawal of the curia from the capital had now, how ever, reached a culminating point. This feeling, it is to be noted, was by_ no means one of mere sentiment and attachment to tradition, for the diversion of appeals, pil grimages, deputations, and embassies, with their attend ant influx of travellers, and of large streams of wealth and business from Rome to Avignon, had materially affected the prosperity of the former city. On the occasion of the new election the prevailing dissatisfaction found vent in menacing demonstrations on the part of the population, and even in scenes of actual violence. In order to appease the city the terrified cardinals determined on the unani mous election of an Italian, Prignani, archbishop of Bari, who assumed the title of URBAN VI. The election was singularly unfortunate. The new pontiff, intoxicated by his sudden and unexpected fortune, assumed such arrogance of demeanour and showed himself so altogether wanting in moderation and self-control that the cardinals put forth the plea that they had discharged their function as electors under intimidation, and declared the election invalid. In proceeding to elect another pontiff, their choice fell upon one of their own number, Robert of Geneva, known as CLEMENT VII. (1378-94). For a period of thirty-eight years, Christian Europe was scandalized by the conten tions of two rival popes, the one holding his court at Rome, the other at Geneva, each hurling anathemas, excommunication, and the foulest accusations at the other, and compared by Wyclif to &quot;two dogs snarling over a bone &quot; a simile which in itself affords significant proof of the manner in which the popedom had fallen in the estimation of Christendom. The potentates of Europe, in declaring themselves &quot;in the obedience,&quot; as it was termed, of one or the other pontiff, were swayed almost entirely by political considerations, in which jealousy of France was the predominant sentiment. Italy, Germany, Bohemia, England, Flanders, Hungary, and Poland, all de clared themselves in the obedience of the pope at Rome ; Scotland, Savoy, Lorraine, declared themselves, along with France, in that of the pope at Avignon. The Spanish kingdoms, which at first stood aloof, ultimately also decided, though from somewhat different motives, in favour of the latter pontiff. At last, at the commence ment of the 15th century, an endeavour was made to prevail on both the reigning popes Gregory XII. at Rome, Benedict XIII. at Avignon to renounce their claims, with a view to the restoration of church union. The proposal was met by both popes with persistent and unscrupulous evasion. France, indignant at the subter fuges of Benedict, withdrew her support, and he accordingly retired to Perpignan. The cardinals attached to either court met together at Leghorn, and agreed to summon a general council, to meet at Pisa on the 25th March 1409. In the meantime isolated scholars and divines throughout Europe, among the regular and the secular clergy alike, were pondering deeply the lesson taught by the papal history of the last six centuries, and in the place of the traditional theories of appeals to popes, to councils, or to emperors there was growing up another conception, that of the essential falsity of the axioms on which the theory of the papal supremacy had been built up, and of Scrip tural authority as the only sure and final source of guid ance in deciding upon questions of doctrine and morality. But as yet, before ideas such as these had been sufil- The g ciently developed and events had prepared the popular coum mind for their reception, the remedy that most commended itself to the leading minds of Christendom was that of a true general council. Such was the idea which influential churchmen of the age men like Peter D Ailly, cardinal of Cambrai, and John Gerson, chancellor of the university of Paris, who, while they deplored the discipline, still assented to the doctrines of the church believed to be the best solution of the difficulties in which that church had become involved. The opinions of the doctors of the canon law and of theology at the universities had been taken, and at Oxford as in Paris it had been decided that a general council might be summoned even against the will of the pope, and that, when thus convened, its authority was superior to his. Such were the circum stances under which in 1409 the council of Pisa was Cour summoned. The council enunciated the dogma of its own of ** supremacy; it deposed the rival popes; it constituted the two separate bodies of cardinals a single conclave, and by this conclave a new pope, ALEXANDER V. (1409-10) was elected. Schemes of general ecclesiastical reform were dis cussed ; and then after a four months session the assembly adjourned, to resume, at an interval of three years, its yet more memorable deliberations at Constance. In the intervening time, Alexander V. died, not without strong suspicion of his having been removed by poison through the machinations of his successor, the notorious Balthasar Cossa, who assumed the title of JOHN XXIII. (1410-15), and took up his residence in Rome. It is with this pontiff that the gross abuse of indulgences is said to have first arisen. In the year 1416 the council of Constance met, Coir amid the most sanguine expectations on the part of re-f c ligious Europe, but it achieved practically nothing in the st! direction of church reform. It deposed John XXIII. , but MARTIN V. (1417-31), by whom he was succeeded, although in some respects an estimable pontiff, skilfully availed himself of the disturbances in Bohemia and the hostile inroads of the Turks to postpone all questions of reform to a future occasion. On the other hand, the actual results of its deliberations were reactionary in their tend ency. The council burned John Huss, one of the first to assert the rights of the individual conscience in opposition to the prevailing hierarchical system ; it crushed the party of reform in the university of Paris, and banished their great leader. The council of Basel (1431-49), although Cor it re-enunciated the principle of the superiority of aofJ general council over the pope, found, when it sought to proceed to the more practical reforms involved in placing restrictions on the abuses practised under the papal sanc tion, that it had assumed a task beyond its powers. Under the pretext of bringing about a reconciliation with the Eastern Church, and inviting its delegates to the delibera tions of the council, EUGENIUS IV. (1431-47) proposed to transfer the place of meeting from Basel to some Italian city. The council, well knowing that such a measure would be fatal to its independence, refused its assent ; Eugenius retaliated by dissolving the council ; the council, by