134 THE MIDDLE AGES, A.D. 1294-1517.
tion.i The institution of the papacy by Christ, he declared, did not involve the idea that the action of the pope was always necessary, either in originating or consenting to legislation. The Church might have instituted the papacy, even had Christ not appointed it. If the cardinals should elect a pontiff not agreeable to the Church, the Church might set their choice aside. The validity of a council did not depend upon the summons or the ratification of a pope. Secular princes might call such a synod. A general council, as the representative of the entire Church, is above the cardinals, yea, above the pope himself. Such a council cannot err, but the cardinals and the pope may err.
The views of Langenstein, vice-chancellor of the University of Paris, represented the views of the faculties of that institution. They were afterwards advocated by John Gerson, one of the most influential men of his century, and one of the most honored of all the centuries. Among those who took the opposite view was the English Dominican and confessor of Benedict XIII., John Hayton. The University of Paris he called "a daughter of Satan, mother of error, sower of sedition, and the pope's defamer," and declared the pope was to be forced by no human tribunal, but to follow God and his own conscience.
In 1394, the University of Paris ^proposed three methods ofTiealingthe schism ^ which became the platform over which £Iie issue^as afterwards discussed, namely, the via cessionisy or the abdication of both popes, the via compromissi, an adjudication of the claims of both by a commission, and the via synodic or the convention of a general council to which the settlement of the whole matter should be loft. No act in the whole history of this famous literary institution has given it wider fame than this proposal, coupled with the activity it displayed to bring the schism to a close. The method preferred by its faculties was the first, the abdication of both popes, which it regarded as the simplest remedy. It was
^ Consilhim, pads de unione et reformatione ecclesiae in concilio universali quaercnda. Van der Ilardt, II. 3-UO, and Du Pin, 0pp. Gerson, II. 810 sqq. -^ CImrUd. III. p. 008 sqq.
§ 14. FURTHER PROGRESS OF THE SCHISM. 135
suggested that the new election, after the popes had abdicated, should be consummated by the cardinals in office at the time of Gregory XL's decease, 1378, and still surviving, or by a union of the cardinals of both obediences.
The last method, settlement by a general council, which the university regarded as offering the most difficulty, it justified on the ground that the pope is subject to the Church as Christ was subject to his mother and Joseph. The authority of such a council lay in its constitution according to Christ's words, " where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." Its membership should consist of doctors of theology and the laws taken from the older universities, and deputies of the orders, as well as bishops, many of whom were uneducated, — illiterati.^
Clement VII. showed his displeasure with the univgj'sity by forbidding its further intermeddling, and by condemning his cardinals who, without his peTmission, had met and recommended him to adopt one of the three ways. At Clement's death the king of France called upon the Avignon college to postpone the election of a successor, but, surmising the contents of the letter, they prudently left it unopened untn_Jthey;_Jiad j)lio^^^ XUI. Beiiedict at once
manifested the warmest zeal in the healing of_ the scli^ai, and elaborated his plan for meeting with Boniface I^^., and coming to some agreement with him. These friendly propositions were offset by a summons from the king's delegates, calling upon the two pontiffs to abdicate, and all but two of the Avignon cardinals favored the measure. But Benedict declared that such a course would seem to imply constraint, and issued a bull against it.
The two parties continued to express deep concern for the healing of the schism, but neither would yield. Benedict gained the support of the University of Toulouse, and strengthened himself by the promotion of Peter d'Ailly, chancellor of the University of Paris, to the episcopate. The famous inquisitor, Nicolas Eymericus, also one of his cardinals, was a firm advocate of Benedict's divine claims. The difficulties
1 Chartul., I. 620.