West European Studies

a. Issues leading to division of the church during the schism of 1378   1415
The schism of 1378-1415 involved a division in the church due to existence of two popes. The italians elected a pope as St.Urban VI to succeed St.Peter. The French cardinals at the same time ailed to agree with the italians and elected their own pope called Clement VII. One of the issues leading to the churchs division was the fact that, the christedom couldnt agree on which pope to accept. The second issue was the fact that the two popes were in two different places, ssince St.Urban remained in Rome while Clement VII withdrew to Avignon according to Nelson (1999). In addition, Nelson also argues that there was growing corruption in both papacies,expansion  of heresy and the continuation of a cchurch without real leadership or discipline.

b. How the schism served to undermine the authority of the popes
The papal authority was undermined since financial decisions grew worse during avignon papacy, as there were two papal capitals as well as two administrations. Secular leaders also supported either one pope or the other causing lack of unified support to a single papacy. Furthermore, according to Nelson (1999), theological situation became difficult as the two papal organizations condemned the other.

c. New Religious ideas that emerged
A number of new religious ideas emerged as a result of the great Schism of 1378-1415. Such religious ideas were as an attempt to resolve the issue of dual papacy and try to regain a single papacy to the church. Some of these religious ideas according to Nelson (1999) included the following theological faculty of the university of Paris was asked to find a resolve to the problem, the popes were also asked to abdicste for the good of christedom, influential writers decided that monarchy was superior to the church. In addition, Priestly powers were placed in the hands of individuals which later formed the foundation for the refformation of the protestant churches. Furthermore, intellectuals and reformists decided that the churchs sovereighnity rested on its members (Nelson, 1999).This reformists supported their ideas by arguing on the basis of the scripture according to paul and the early church, History acoording to Constantin and the council of Nicaea among others.

d.How the need of the Church to re-establish authority manifested itself in the Fifteenth century.
Th e church had a need to re-establish its authority was manifested in the fifteenth century in the following ways The church formed the council of Pisa according to Nelson (1999) in an attempt to find a solution.This council cardinals decided to depose both pontifs and elected a third in 1408.All the cardinals were excommunicated by the two popes,making matters even worse by creating a third pope. By 14 15 the issues involving the three popes such as increased corruption and heresy led to the Holy Roman Emperor throwing his support behind concilliarists and arranged for another council meeting (Nelson,1999). These attempts were manifested by the church as a way of trying to resolve the issues. In this council,also reffered to as the council of constance, the three  phantom popes   were deposed in favour of a new pope by the name Martin V. This new pontiff was based at Rome and had a greater responsibility of re-establishing the position of the pope as Gods representative on earth (Nelson, 1999).