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Council of Pisa
Roman Catholicism [1409]
The Western Schism and the Roman Catholic ChurchLearn about the Great Schism (Western Schism) and the Council of Constance.
See all videos for this articleCouncil of Pisa, (1409), a council of the Roman Catholic Church convened with the intention of ending the Western (or Great) Schism, during which rival popes, each with his own Curia (bureaucracy), were set up in Rome and Avignon. This meeting, which was the result of concerted action by cardinals of both obediences, was well attended. It deposed the two existing pontiffs, who refused to cooperate, and elected a third, Alexander V. Western Christendom was therefore divided into three parties until the Council of Constance (1414–18), which forced the three contending popes to resign and elected Oddone Colonna, a Pisan cardinal, as Pope Martin V. The Council of Pisa has never been regarded as valid by canonists or theologians.
The Editors of Encyclopaedia BritannicaThis article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Petruzzello.
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