Italy · Religion / Roman Catholic Church. Chronological records rendered directly from the World History Database.
The Schism in the Western Roman Church resulted from the return of the papacy to Rome under Gregory XI on January 17, 1377, ending the Avignon Papacy, which had developed a reputation for corruption that estranged major parts of Western Christendom
After Pope Gregory XI died the Romans rioted to ensure the election of a Roman for pope. On April 8, 1378 the cardinals elected a Neapolitan when no viable Roman candidates presented themselves. Urban VI the Archbishop of Bari, was elected.
Many of the cardinals who had elected removed themselves from Rome to Anagni, where, even though Urban was still reigning, they elected Robert of Geneva as a rival Pope. Robert took the name Clement VII and reestablished a papal court in Avignon.
The second election threw the Church into turmoil. There had been Popes before, but most of them had been appointed by rival factions; in this case, a single group of leaders of the Church had created both the Pope and the Pope
Urban had been a respected administrator in the papal chancery at Avignon, but as Pope he proved suspicious, reformist, and prone to violent outbursts of temper.
This factsheet is generated from stored World History Database records matching the country, broad category, detailed category and exact Event value shown above. Duplicate display records are collapsed; database wording is otherwise preserved. Source provenance varies by record, so formal academic citation should be checked against the relevant primary source, archive or specialist historical reference.