Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/623

THE PAPACY AND ITS OPPONENTS 567 courts to be maintained and so the burden of papal taxation was felt more than during the Avignon period. T . . ° or- Injurious Also in many localities there were struggles for effect upon church positions and benefices between rival appointees of the two popes. These circumstances, and the unreadiness of the rival popes and cardinals to make sacrifices in order to restore church unity, caused great scandal and distress throughout Christendom and greatly damaged the prestige of the Papacy. The religious life of the people also suffered. As a result, many writers, especi- ally at the University of Paris, suggested methods for end- ing the schism and demanded accompanying reforms in the Church. At last the two colleges of cardinals came to an under- standing and in 1409 joined in summoning a general council at Pisa and ordered their respective popes to The Council appear before this assembly. When they failed of Plsa to appear, they were both deposed as notorious schismatics and heretics, and the cardinals combined to elect a new pope, Alexander V. But the Kingdom of Naples and a few other states of Italy and Germany persisted in supporting the cause of Gregory XII, the third successor of Urban VI, while the Spanish peninsula and Scotland still adhered to Benedict XIII of the Avignon line. Alexander V died the next year and was succeeded by a warlike cardinal who had been helping him to conquer the Papal States and who now took the title, John XXIII. Thus the Council of Pisa, in- stead of ending the schism, had made it a triple one. The Emperor Sigismund now succeeded in assembling at Constance, a German city where no one of the three popes would have much influence, a larger and more The Council generally representative council than that at healing of Pisa. It was, indeed, one of the most impressive the schism gatherings during the Middle Ages and lasted for three years. John XXIII came in person, bringing with him a throng of Italian supporters. But their numbers were ren- dered of no avail by the decision of the council that voting should not be by heads, but by four nations; namely, the