Ted Talk 3

 Ted Talk 3

Name of the speaker - Joëlle Rollo-Koster

Ted talk is about Why were there three popes at the same time?

In the late 14th century, Catholics found themselves with not one, not two, but three popes. The origins of this papal predicament began in 1296, when France’s King Philip IV decided to raise taxes on the Church. Pope Boniface VIII wrote the “Unam Sanctam” to assert the Pope’s supremacy over earthly rulers. Pope Clement V was elected in 1305, a French diplomat seeking peace in the war between England and his homeland. In 1309, he moved the seat of the papacy to Avignon, a city close to France but owned by a vassal of the Church.

After seven popes, the reigning Pope returned to Italy in 1376, but suddenly died. This meant a new pope had to be elected immediately, and in Rome, where there hadn’t been a papal election in over 70 years. Local officials pressured cardinals to choose an Italian pope, while rowdy mobs raided the conclave and plundered the papal wine cellar. Amidst this chaos, the cardinals elected the Nea The most important details in this text are the events that led to the schism between Pope Urban and Pope Clement VII. In 1409, a group of cardinals from France and Rome took matters into their own hands and deposed the pretenders and elected a new Pope. However, both Avignon’s Pope and Rome’s Pope refused to recognize this council, so instead of solving the crisis, the number of popes rose to three.

In 1417, the popes from the Roman line and recently created third line resigned and agreed to unite the church under a new Pope, Martin V. Martin swiftly excommunicated the only person still against him, the Pope of Avignon, and finally ended the schism after 39 years. This schism showed that even those who are supposed to be pious are prone to petty power struggles.