Why Gregory XII, the last pope to resign before Benedict XVI, left office 600 years ago

by

When Benedict XVI left the papacy in February 2013, his decision caused an uproar in the Catholic Church as it was the first time a pope had resigned in nearly 600 years.

But if Joseph Ratzinger justified his departure by citing the “rapid transformations” of the world and his “advanced age”, which deprived him of the strength to exercise the post to which the cardinals elected him in 2005, the previous pontiff to resign did so for reasons quite different. This is Gregory XII, who left the papacy in 1415.

The allegations of hundreds of cases of pedophilia within the Church or the conflicts with the Vatican Bank may seem like serious conflicts for one pope, but Gregory had to deal with the threats of two other popes, each with his own followers, his own College Cardinals and their own administrative offices.

The crisis went down in history under the names of Western Schism, Great Schism or Great Western Schism.

On November 30, 1406, Angelo Correr, a member of the Venetian aristocracy, was elected pope with the name Gregory XII. He succeeded Innocent VII, who had named him cardinal a year earlier.

Correr was Bishop of Castello in the Papal States (1380) and Latin Patriarch of Constantinople (1390). But while his ecclesiastical career brought him closer to the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, there was already another pope in another chair: Benedict XIII, whose papacy was based in the French city of Avignon.

The schism in the Catholic Church began in 1378, when a group of cardinals hostile to Pope Urban 6th elected another cardinal as pope, Robert de Guinevere, who settled in Avignon as Clement 7th. Benedict XIII succeeded Clement VII in that parallel papacy of France in 1394.

Before Gregory XII’s papal election, all the cardinals in Rome swore that, to end the schism, they would resign from the papacy if elected so long as their rival in Avignon did the same.

Gregory XII repeated his oath after being made pope, and on December 12, 1406, he notified Benedict III of his election and the conditions under which it had taken place, reiterating his willingness to resign if Benedict did the same.

After extensive negotiations, the two pontiffs agreed to meet in the city of Savona, but that meeting never took place and distrust between the two men of the Church grew, with cross-accusations between the French city and the Italian city.

The existence of two popes located in Rome and Avignon not only implied divisions in the religious temples, but also created political antagonisms and nationalist conflicts, with different kings supporting different popes.

When the situation became untenable, several proposals emerged to end the schism, and in 1409 the Council of Pisa was held with cardinals from both factions. Both Gregory 12 and Benedict 13 were invited, but neither attended.

The Council of Pisa deposed both popes and elected a new one: Alexander V. But neither Gregory nor Benedict resigned, so the Catholic Church, which was trying to unify itself again, now had not two popes but three.

Faced with such chaos, a new council was convened in 1414, the so-called Council of Constance, in Germany. At this meeting, Sigismund, the Holy Roman Emperor, played a key role.

The new council deposed John 23 (who had succeeded Alexander 5), rejected any kind of pretense by Benedict 13 to remain pope of Avignon, and finally accepted the resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory 12, thus ending one of the most serious crises in the history of the Church. Catholic.

Gregory XII resigned on 4 July 1415 and died on 18 October 1417, aged 90. That same year, Martin V was elected as the legitimate — and only — pope.

Angelo Correr died as Cardinal Bishop of Porto, a title conferred on him by the last council.

For historians of the Catholic Church, Urban VI and his successors (including Gregory XI) are the legitimate popes, which is why the Avignon popes are sometimes called antipopes.

This text was originally published here.

You May Also Like

Recommended for you