122 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
Sept. 20, 1378, the choice falling upon one of their number, Robert of Gene.^, the son of Amadeus, count of Geneva. iTe was one of those who, four months before, had pointed out Tebaldeschi to the Roman mob. The three Italian cardinals, though they did not actively participate in the election, offered no resistance. Urban is said to have received the news with tears, and to have expressed regret for^is untactful and self-willed course. Perhaps he recalled the fate of his fellow-Neapolitan, Peter of Murrhone, whose lack of worldly wisdom a hundred years before had lost him the papal crown. To establish himself on the papal throne, he appointed 29 cardinals. But it was too late to prevent the schism which Gregory XI. had feared and a wise ruler would have averted. Robert of Geneva, at the time of his election 36 years old, came to the papal honor with his hands red from the bloody massacre of Cesena. He had the reputation of being a politician and a fast livQj*. He was consecrated Oct. 31 under the name of Clement VII. It was a foregone conclusion that he would remove the papal seat back to Avignon. He first attempted to overthrow Urban on his own soil, but the attempt failed. Rome resisted, and the castle of St. Angelo, which was in the hands of his supporters, he lost, but not until its venerable walls were demolished, so that at a later time the very goats clambered over the stones. He secured the support of Joanna, and Louis of Anjou whom she had chosen as the heir of her kingdom, but the war which broke out between Urban and Naples fell out to Urban's advantage. The duke of Anjou was deposed, and Charles of Durazzo, of the royal house of Hungary, Joanna's natural heir, appointed as his successor. Joanna herself fell into Charles' hands and was executed, 1382, on the charge of having murdered her first husband. The duke of Brunswick was her fourth marital attempt. Clement VII. bestowed upon the duke of Anjou parts of the State of the Church and the high-sounding but empty title of duke of Adria. A portion of Urban's reward for crowning Charles, 1381, was the lordship over Capria, Amalfi, Fondi, and other localitiSfe, which he bestowed upon his unprincipled and worthless
§ 13. THE SCHISM BEGUN. 1378. 123
nephew, Francis Prignano. In the war over Naples, the pope liad made free use of the treasure of the Roman churches.
Clement's cause in Italy was lost, and there was nothing for him to do burtVrfalTback upon his supporter, Charles V. He ^urned to France by way of the sea and Marseilles.
Thus the schism was completed, and Western Europe had the spectacle of two popes elected by the same college of cardinals without a dissenting voice, and each making full claims to the prerogative of the supreme pontiff of the Christiari^5':orld. Each pope fulminated the severest judgments of heaven against the other. The nations of Europe and its universities were divided in their allegiance or, as it was called, their "obedience." The University of Paris, at first neutral, declared in favor of Robert of Geneva,^ as did Savoy, the kingdoms of Spain, Scotland, and parts of Germany. England, Sweden, and the larger part of Italy supported Urban. The German emperor, Charles IV., was about to take the same side when he died, Nov. 29, 1378. Urban also had the vigorous support of Catherine of Siena. Hearing of the election which had taken place at Fondi she wrote to Urban : " I have heard that those devils in human form have resorted to an election. They have chosen not a vicar of Christ, but an anti-christ. Never will I cease, dear father, to look upon you as Christ's true vicar on earth."
The papal schism which Pastor has called " the greatest misfortune that could be thought of for the Church"^ soon began to call forth indignant protests from the best men of the time. Western Christendom had never known such a scandal. The seamless coat of Christ was rent in twain, and Solomon's words could no longer be applied, " My dove is but
^ The full documentary accounts are given in the Chartidaritim, III. 561- 575. Valois gives a very detailed treatment of the allegiance rendered to the two popes, especially in vol. II. Even in Sweden and Ireland Clement had some support, but England, in part owing to her wars with France, gave undivided submission to Urban.
2 Pastor, p. 143 sqq., quotes a German poem which strikingly sets forth the evils of the schism, and Pastor himself says that nothing did so much as the schism to prepare the way for the defection from the papacy in the sixteenth, century.