Urban VI

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Images

Urban VI, detail from the sarcophagus in his crypt, 1389; in the basilica of St. Peter's, Rome

At a Glance

Christ as Ruler, with the Apostles and Evangelists (represented by the beasts). The female figures are believed to be either Santa Pudenziana and Santa Praxedes or symbols of the Jewish and Gentile churches. Mosaic in the apse of Santa Pudenziana, Rome,A

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Urban VI: References & Edit History

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Christianity
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Additional Reading

An account of Urban’s fall and the turmoil of his time is in Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the Great Schism (1948, reprinted 1972). Another useful study is John Holland Smith, The Great Schism 1378 (1970).

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Article History

Type	Description	Contributor	Date
	Anniversary information added.		Oct 11, 2025
	First paragraph modernization.	Encyclopaedia Britannica	Apr 12, 2024
	Add new Web site: Catholic Online - Urban VI.	Aakanksha Gaur	Feb 13, 2022
	Bibliography revised.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Mar 16, 2007
	Article revised.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Mar 05, 1999
	Article added to new online database.	The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica	Feb 15, 1999