Pope Gregory XII
Gregory XII is the only pope before the twentieth century to resign, and he did it to end a schism that had lasted thirty-nine years. The Western Schism had begun in 1378 when the cardinals who had elected one pope under Roman pressure elected another five months later and declared the first invalid. By 1406 there were two lines, Roman and Avignon, each with its own cardinals, its own revenues and its own obedient kingdoms, and each excommunicating the other. Gregory was elected in Rome having sworn, as every candidate had been made to swear, that he would abdicate if his rival did the same. Neither did. Negotiations for a joint resignation ran for two years and collapsed over the choice of meeting place, whereupon cardinals from both obediences abandoned their popes, met at Pisa in 1409, deposed both and elected a third. Since neither of the deposed accepted the verdict, the church now had three popes instead of two, which is the point at which the schism stopped being a quarrel and became an argument about whether a council could judge a pope at all. The Council of Constance settled it, and Gregory's part was the decisive one. He refused to attend a council he had not called, then authorised it himself through a legate - converting an assembly of doubtful standing into a legitimate one convoked by the Roman pope - and immediately resigned, in July 1415. The Pisan claimant was deposed and the Avignon one abandoned by his last supporters, and in 1417 the council elected a single pope whom everyone accepted. Gregory died months before that election, aged about ninety, as cardinal bishop of Porto and dean of the college he had just dissolved his own claim to lead.
- Lived: 1326 CE – 1417 CE
- Nationality: Papal
- Roles: head_of_state, religious_leader
