Following the "Babylonian Captivity" came the "Great Schism." Shortly after the return of the papal court to Rome, an Italian was elected pope as Urban VI. The cardinals in the French interest refused to accept him, declared his election void, and named Clement VII as pope. Clement withdrew to Avignon, while Urban remained in Rome. Western Christendom could not decide which one to obey. Some countries declared for Urban, while other countries accepted Clement. The spectacle of two rival popes, each holding himself out as the only true successor of St. Peter, continued for about forty years and injured the Papacy more than anything else that had happened to it.
COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE, 1414-1418 A.D.
The schism in western Christendom was finally healed at the Council of Constance. There were three "phantom popes" at this time, but they were all deposed in favor of a new pontiff, Martin V. The Catholic world now had a single head, but it was not easy to revive the old, unquestioning loyalty to him as God's vicar on earth.
THE RENAISSANCE POPES
From the time of Martin V the Papacy became more and more an Italian power. The popes neglected European politics and gave their chief attention to the States of the Church. A number of the popes took much interest in the Renaissance movement and became its enthusiastic patrons. [6] They kept up splendid courts, collected manuscripts, paintings, and statues, and erected magnificent palaces and churches in Rome. Some European peoples, especially in Germany, looked askance at such luxury and begrudged the heavy taxes which were necessary to support it. This feeling against the papacy also helped to provoke the Reformation.
[Illustration: Map, THE GREAT SCHISM, 1378-1417 A.D.]
COMPLAINTS AGAINST THE CLERGY
The worldliness of some of the popes was too often reflected in the lives of the lesser clergy. Throughout the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries the Church encountered much criticism from reformers. Thus, the famous humanist, Erasmus, [7] wrote his Praise of Folly to expose the vices and temporal ambitions of bishops and monks, the foolish speculations of theologians, and the excessive reliance which common people had on pilgrimages, festivals, relics, and other aids to devotion. So great was the demand for this work that it went through twenty-seven large editions during the author's lifetime. Erasmus and others like him were loyal sons of the Church, but they believed they could best serve her interests by effecting her reform. Some men went further, however, and demanded wholesale changes in Catholic belief and worship. These men were the heretics.