Aquileia
Aquileia is an ancient Roman city in Italy, at the head of the Adriatic at the edge of the lagoons, about 10 kilometres from the sea, on the river Natiso, the course of which has changed somewhat since Roman times. Today, the city is small, but it was large and prominent in Antiquity as one of the world's largest cities with a population of 100,000 in the 2nd century AD. and is one of the main archeological sites of Northern Italy. Aquileia was founded as a colony by the Romans in 180/181 BC along the Natiso River, on land south of the Julian Alps but about 13 kilometres north of the lagoons; the colony served as a strategic frontier fortress at the north-east corner of transpadane Italy and was intended to protect the Veneti, faithful allies of Rome during the invasion of Hannibal and the Illyrian Wars. The colony would serve as a citadel to check the advance into Cisalpine Gaul of other warlike peoples, such as the hostile Carni to the northeast in what is now Carnia and Histri tribes to the southeast in what is now Istria.
In fact, the site chosen for Aquileia was about 6 km from where an estimated 12,000 Celtic Taurisci nomads had attempted to settle in 183 BC. However, since the 13th century BC, the site, on the river and at the head of the Adriatic, had been of commercial importance as the end of the Baltic amber trade, it is, theoretically not unlikely that Aquileia had been a Gallic oppidum before the coming of the Romans. However, few Celtic artifacts have been discovered from 500 BC to the Roman arrival; the colony was established with Latin rights by the triumvirate of Publius Cornelius Scipio Nasica, Caius Flaminius, Lucius Manlius Acidinus, two of whom were of consular and one of praetorian rank. Each of the men had first hand knowledge of Cisalpine Gaul. Nasica had conquered the Boii in 191. Flaminius had overseen the construction of the road named after him from Bologna to Arezzo. Acidinus had conquered the Taurisci in 183; the triumvirate led 3,000 families to settle the area meaning Aquileia had a population of 20,000 soon after its founding.
Meanwhile, based on the evidence of names chiseled on stone, the majority of colonizing families came from Picenum and Campania, which explains why the colony was Latin and not Roman. Among these colonists, pedites received 50 iugera of land each, centuriones received 100 iugera each, equites received 140 iugera each. Either at the founding or not long afterward, colonists from the nearby Veneti supplemented these families. Roads soon connected Aquileia with the Roman colony of Bologna in 173 BC. In 148 BC, it was connected with Genua by the Via Postumia, which stretched across the Padanian plain from Aquileia through or near to Opitergium, Vicetia, Verona and the three Roman colonies of Cremona and Dertona; the construction of the Via Popilia from the Roman colony of Ariminium to Ad Portum near Altinum in 132 BC improved communications still further. In the 1st century AD, the Via Gemina would link Aquileia with Emona to the east of the Julian Alps, by 78 or 79 AD the Via Flavia would link Aquileia to Pula.
Meanwhile, in 169 BC, 1,500 more Latin colonists with their families, led by the triumvirate of Titus Annius Lucius, Publius Decius Subulo, Marcus Cornelius Cethegus, settled in the town as a reinforcement to the garrison. The discovery of the gold fields near the modern Klagenfurt in 130 BC brought the growing colony into further notice, it soon became a place of importance, not only owing to its strategic military position, but as a center of commerce in agricultural products and viticulture, it had, in times at least, considerable brickfields. In 90 BC, the original Latin colony became a municipium and its citizens were ascribed to the Roman tribe Velina; the customs boundary of Italy was close by in Cicero's day. Caesar visited the city on a number of occasions and pitched winter camp nearby in 59-58 BC. Although the Iapydes plundered Aquileia during the Augustan period, subsequent increased settlement and no lack of profitable work meant the city was able to develop its resources. Jewish artisans established a flourishing trade in glasswork.
Metal from Noricum was exported. The ancient Venetic trade in amber from the Baltic continued. Wine its famous Pucinum was exported. Oil was imported from Proconsular Africa. By sea, the port of Aquae Gradatae, modern Grado, Friuli-Venezia Giulia was developed. On land, Aquileia was the starting-point of several important roads leading outside Italy to the north-eastern portion of the empire — the road by Iulium Carnicum to Veldidena, from which branched off the road into Noricum, leading by Virunum to Laurieum on the Danube, the road leading via Emona into Pannonia and to Sirmium, the road to Tarsatica and Siscia, the road to Tergeste and the Istrian coast. Augustus was the first of a number of emperors to visit Aquileia, notably during the Pannonian wars in 12‑10 BC, it was the birthplace of Tiberius' son in the latter year. The Roman poet Martial praised Aquileia as his hoped for haven and resting place in his old age. In terms of religion, the populace adopted the Roman pantheon, although the Celtic sungod, had a large following.
Jews practiced their ancestral religion and it was some of these Jews who became the first Christians. Meanwhile, soldiers brought the martial cult of Mithras. In the wa
Papal States
The Papal States the State of the Church, were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the Pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th century until the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia unified the Italian Peninsula by conquest in a campaign concluded in 1861 and definitively in 1870. At their zenith, the Papal States covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche and Romagna, portions of Emilia; these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States' territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy. Only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Pope's temporal control. In 1870, the Pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, except the Basilica of St Peter and the papal residence and related buildings around the Vatican quarter of Rome, which the new Italian state did not occupy militarily.
In 1929 the head of the Italian government, at the time the Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Holy See by negotiating the Lateran Treaty, signed by the two parties. This recognized the sovereignty of the Holy See over a newly created international territorial entity, the Vatican City State, limited to a token territory; the Papal States were known as the Papal State. The territories were referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. To some extent the name used varied with the preferences and habits of the European languages in which it was expressed. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized, unable to hold or transfer property. Early congregations met in rooms set aside for that purpose in the homes of well-to-do individuals, a number of early churches, known as titular churches and located on the outskirts of Ancient Rome, were held as property by individuals, rather than by the Church itself.
Nonetheless, the properties held nominally or by individual members of the Roman churches would be considered as a common patrimony handed over successively to the legitimate "heir" of that property its senior deacons, who were, in turn, assistants to the local bishop. This common patrimony attached to the churches at Rome, thus under its ruling bishop, became quite considerable, including as it did not only houses etc. in Rome or nearby but landed estates, such as latifundias, whole or in part, across Italy and beyond. This system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, restoring to it any properties, confiscated; the Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, most a gift from Constantine himself. Other donations followed in mainland Italy but in the provinces of the Roman Empire, but the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, not as a sovereign entity. When in the 5th century the Italian peninsula passed under the control of Odoacer and the Ostrogoths, the Church organization in Italy, with the pope at its head, submitted of necessity to their sovereign authority while asserting its spiritual primacy over the whole Church.
The seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning in 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italy's political and economic structures. Just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. By the 7th century, Byzantine authority was limited to a diagonal band running from Ravenna, where the Emperor's representative, or Exarch, was located, to Rome and south to Naples, plus coastal enclaves. With effective Byzantine power weighted at the northeast end of this territory, the pope, as the largest landowner and most prestigious figure in Italy, began by default to take on much of the ruling authority that Byzantines were unable to project to the area around the city of Rome. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, an area equivalent to modern-day Latium, became an independent state ruled by the pope.
The Church's independence, combined with popular support for the papacy in Italy, enabled various popes to defy the will of the Byzantine emperor. The pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy; as Byzantine power weakened, the papacy took an ever-larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards through diplomacy. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on Ravenna. A climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprand's Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II; when the Exarchate of
Dean of the College of Cardinals
The Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals is the dean of the College of Cardinals in the Roman Catholic Church. The position was established in the early 12th century; the Dean presides over the College of Cardinals. He always holds the rank of cardinal bishop; the Dean of the College of Cardinals is assisted by the Vice-Dean. Both are elected by and from the Cardinal Bishops who are not Eastern Catholic patriarchs and subject to papal confirmation. Except for presiding, the Dean and Vice-Dean have no power over the other cardinals. In the order of precedence in the Catholic Church as the senior Cardinal Bishops, the Dean and Vice-Dean are placed second and third after the pope; the Dean is but not the longest-serving member of the whole College. It had been customary for centuries for the longest-serving of the six cardinal bishops of suburbicarian sees to be Dean; this was required by canon law from 1917 until 1965, when Pope Paul VI empowered the six to elect the Dean from among their number.
This election was a formality until the time of Pope John Paul II. The Dean holds the position until resignation, it is the Dean's responsibility to summon the conclave for the purposes of electing a new pope following a death or resignation. The Dean presides over the conclave. Additionally, the dean has the responsibility of communicating the "news of the Pope's death to the Diplomatic Corps accredited to the Holy See and to the Heads of the respective Nations" and is the public face of the Holy See during the sede vacante period, it is the Dean, unless he is impeded, who asks the Pope-elect if he accepts the election, asks the new Pope what name he wishes to use. According to Canon 355, if the newly elected Supreme Pontiff is not a bishop, it has always been the right of the Bishop of Ostia to ordain him; the Cardinal Dean has "the title of the diocese of Ostia, together with that of any other church to which he has a title," such as his suburbicarian diocese. This has been the case since 1914, by decree of Pope Pius X—previous deans had given up their prior suburbicarian see for the joint title of Ostia and Velletri, which were separated in that same 1914 decree.
Nine Deans have been elected pope: Anastasius IV, Lucius III, Gregory IX, Alexander IV, John XXI, Alexander VI, Paul III, Paul IV, Benedict XVI. The following is the list of Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, separated into three groups to account for the Western Schism, which ended after the Council of Constance; the earliest attested reference to the "College of Cardinals" is at the Council of Reims in 1148. Each name in the following list includes years of birth and death comma-separated years of cardinalate and deanship
Antipope Benedict XIII
Pedro Martínez de Luna y Pérez de Gotor, known as el Papa Luna in Spanish and Pope Luna in English, was an Aragonese nobleman, who as Benedict XIII, is considered an antipope by the Catholic Church. Pedro Martínez de Luna was born at Illueca, Kingdom of Aragon in 1328, he belonged to the de Luna family. He studied law at the University of Montpellier, where he obtained his doctorate and taught Canon law, his knowledge of canon law, noble lineage, austere way of life won him the approval of Pope Gregory XI, who appointed de Luna to the position of Cardinal Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin on 20 December 1375. In 1377 Pedro de Luna and the other cardinals returned to Rome with Pope Gregory, persuaded to leave his papal base at Avignon by Catherine of Siena. After Gregory's death on 27 March 1378, the people of Rome feared that the cardinals would elect a French Pope and return the papacy to Avignon, they rioted and laid siege to the cardinals, insisting on an Italian Pope. The conclave duly elected Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, as Urban VI on 9 April, but the new Pope proved to be intractably hostile to the cardinals.
Some of them reconvened at Fondi in September 1378, declared the earlier election invalid and elected Robert of Geneva as their new Pope, initiating the Western Schism. Robert moved back to Avignon. Clement VII sent de Luna as legate to Spain for the Kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and Portugal, in order to win them over to the obedience of the Avignon pope. Owing to his powerful relations, his influence in the Province of Aragon was great. In 1393 Clement VII appointed him legate to France, Flanders, Scotland and Ireland; as such he stayed principally in Paris, but he did not confine his activities to those countries that belonged to the Avignon obedience. Following Clement's death on 16 September 1394, the cardinals met at Avignon; the conclave consisted of 11 French cardinals, eight Italians, four Spaniards, one from Savoy, all proclaiming the ardent wish to reunite the church. The cardinals elected Luna as the new pope, on the condition that he should labor to quell the schism, should resign the papal dignity whenever the pope of Rome should do the same, or the college of cardinals demand it.
On the death of Urban VI in 1389 the Roman College of Cardinals had chosen Boniface IX. At the start of his term of office, de Luna was recognised as Pope by France, Sicily, Aragon and Portugal. In 1396 Benedict sent Sanchez Muñoz, one of the most loyal members of the Avignon curia, as an envoy to the Bishop of Valencia to bolster support for the Avignon papacy in the Crown of Aragon. In 1398 the Kingdom of France withdrew its recognition of the Avignon anti-popes. Benedict was abandoned with only five remaining faithful to him. Benedict's rationale for continuing the rivalry lay in the fact that he was the last living cardinal created by Gregory XI, the last undoubted Supreme Pontiff; as the only unquestioned cardinal, Benedict argued, he was, by right and by canon law, the only qualified candidate left who could validly claim the papacy. Following the Council of Constance Benedict's logic was not accepted. An army led by Geoffrey Boucicaut, brother of Jean Boucicaut, occupied Avignon and started a five-year siege of the papal palace which ended when Benedict managed to escape from Avignon on 12 March 1403, seek shelter in territory belonging to Louis II of Anjou.
Avignon submitted again to him, his cardinals recognized him, popular sentiment being again in his favor, he was recognized as the legitimate pope by France, Castile and Sicily. After the Roman Pope Innocent VII died in 1406, the newly elected Roman Pope, Gregory XII, started negotiations with Benedict, suggesting that they both resign so a new Pope could be elected to reunite the Catholic Church; when these talks ended in stalemate in 1408, the French king, Charles VI, declared that France was neutral to both papal contenders. Charles helped to organise the Council of Pisa in 1409; this council was supposed to arrange for both Gregory and Benedict to resign, so that a new universally recognised Pope could be elected. To oppose this, Benedict convoked the Council of Perpignan but with little success. Since both Benedict and Gregory refused to abdicate, the only thing in Pisa, achieved was that a third candidate to the Holy See was put forward: Peter Philarghi, who assumed the name Alexander V.
A group of Augustinian clergy, driven from the University of Paris by the Schism and from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge by the Anglo-Scottish Wars, formed a society of higher learning in St Andrews, Scotland in 1410. The Bishop of St Andrews, Henry Wardlaw successfully petitioned Benedict to grant the school university status by issuing a series of papal bulls, which followed on 28 August 1413. Having lost the support of France and driven out from Avignon, Benedict by had taken refuge in Perpignan, on the Catalan border of the Crown of Aragon, but Scotland was among the handful of supporters that remained loyal. Nowadays, the University of St Andrews's coat of arms/emblem still incorporates that of Benedict. In part to bolster faltering support for his papacy, Benedict initiated the year-long Disputation of Tortosa in 1413, which became the most prominent Christian–Jewish disputation of the Middle Ages. Two years Benedict issued the Papal bull Etsi doctoribus gentium, one of the most complete collections of anti-Jewish laws.
Synagoges were closed, Jewish goldsmiths we
Republic of Venice
The Republic of Venice or Venetian Republic, traditionally known as La Serenissima was a sovereign state and maritime republic in northeastern Italy, which existed for over a millennium between the 7th century and the 18th century from 697 AD until 1797 AD. It was based in the lagoon communities of the prosperous city of Venice, was a leading European economic and trading power during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance; the Venetian city state was founded as a safe haven for the people escaping persecution in mainland Europe after the decline of the Roman Empire. In its early years, it prospered on the salt trade. In subsequent centuries, the city state established a thalassocracy, it dominated trade on the Mediterranean Sea, including commerce between Europe and North Africa, as well as Asia. The Venetian navy was used in the Crusades, most notably in the Fourth Crusade. Venice achieved territorial conquests along the Adriatic Sea. Venice became home to an wealthy merchant class, who patronized renowned art and architecture along the city's lagoons.
Venetian merchants were influential financiers in Europe. The city was the birthplace of great European explorers, such as Marco Polo, as well as Baroque composers such as Vivaldi and Benedetto Marcello; the republic was ruled by the Doge, elected by members of the Great Council of Venice, the city-state's parliament. The ruling class was an oligarchy of aristocrats. Venice and other Italian maritime republics played a key role in fostering capitalism. Venetian citizens supported the system of governance; the city-state employed ruthless tactics in its prisons. The opening of new trade routes to the Americas and the East Indies via the Atlantic Ocean marked the beginning of Venice's decline as a powerful maritime republic; the city state suffered. In 1797, the republic was plundered by retreating Austrian and French forces, following an invasion by Napoleon Bonaparte, the Republic of Venice was split into the Austrian Venetian Province, the Cisalpine Republic, a French client state, the Ionian French departments of Greece.
Venice became part of a unified Italy in the 19th century. It was formally known as the Most Serene Republic of Venice and is referred to as La Serenissima, in reference to its title as one of the "Most Serene Republics". During the 5th century, North East Italy was devastated by the Germanic barbarian invasions. A large number of the inhabitants moved to the coastal lagoons. Here they established a collection of lagoon communities, stretching over about 130 km from Chioggia in the south to Grado in the north, who banded together for mutual defence from the Lombards and other invading peoples as the power of the Western Roman Empire dwindled in northern Italy; these communities were subjected to the authority of the Byzantine Empire. At some point in the first decades of the eighth century, the people of the Byzantine province of Venice elected their first leader Ursus, confirmed by Constantinople and given the titles of hypatus and dux, he was the first historical Doge of Venice. Tradition, first attested in the early 11th century, states that the Venetians first proclaimed one Anafestus Paulicius duke in 697, though this story dates to no earlier than the chronicle of John the Deacon.
Whichever the case, the first doges had their power base in Heraclea. Ursus's successor, moved his seat from Heraclea to Malamocco in the 740s, he represented the attempt of his father to establish a dynasty. Such attempts were more than commonplace among the doges of the first few centuries of Venetian history, but all were unsuccessful. During the reign of Deusdedit, Venice became the only remaining Byzantine possession in the north and the changing politics of the Frankish Empire began to change the factional divisions within Venetia. One faction was decidedly pro-Byzantine, they desired to remain well-connected to the Empire. Another faction, republican in nature, believed in continuing along a course towards practical independence; the other main faction was pro-Frankish. Supported by clergy, they looked towards the new Carolingian king of the Franks, Pepin the Short, as the best provider of defence against the Lombards. A minor, pro-Lombard faction was opposed to close ties with any of these further-off powers and interested in maintaining peace with the neighbouring Lombard kingdom.
The successors of Obelerio inherited a united Venice. By the Pax Nicephori, the two emperors had recognised that Venice belonged to the Byzantine sphere of influence. Many centuries the Venetians claimed that the treaty had recognised Venetian de facto independence, but the truth of this claim is doubted by modern scholars. A Byzantine fleet sailed to Venice in 807 and deposed the Doge, replacing him with a Byzantine governor. During the reign of the Participazio family, Venice grew into its modern form. Though Heraclean by birth, the first Participazio doge, was an early immigrant to Rialto and his dogeship was marked by the expansion of Venice towards the sea via the construction of bridges, bulwarks and stone buildings; the modern Venice, at one with the sea, was being bor
Ladislaus of Naples
Ladislaus the Magnanimous was King of Naples and titular King of Jerusalem and Sicily, titular Count of Provence and Forcalquier, titular King of Hungary and Croatia. He was the last male of the senior Angevin line, he was named in honor of the King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary, venerated by the Angevin Kings Charles I of Hungary and Louis I of Hungary, considered the model of the perfect King and Christian man in Central Europe during that time. Ladislaus of Naples became a skilled political and military leader and controller of Pope Innocent VII, he profited from disorder throughout Italy to expand his kingdom and his power, appropriating much of the Papal States to his own use. Moreover, he murdered many of his enemies, he was born in the son of Charles III and Margaret of Durazzo. He spent his early life with his family in the royal court of Naples, in 1381 he was created Duke of Calabria and heir by Charles III, he became King of Naples at the age of nine under his mother's regency. At the time the kingdom saw a rebellion of the barons, there was a risk of a French invasion, since in 1385 the pope had assigned the throne to Louis II of Anjou, Count of Provence head of the junior Angevin line.
Urban VI refused to recognize Ladislaus, in 1387 called a crusade against him. Margaret and her son at the time controlled not much more than its neighborhood. After turmoil broke out in the city, they fled to the fortress of Gaeta, while Naples was occupied by an Angevin army led by Otto of Brunswick, widower of Joanna I of Naples, who had named Louis' father as her heir. In 1389 the new Pope Boniface IX recognized Ladislaus as King of Naples, although he forbade him to unite it with his family lands in Germany and Italy. In Gaeta, he married Costanza Chiaramonte, the daughter of the powerful Sicilian Baron, Manfredi Chiaramonte. In 1390, the archbishop of Arles poisoned Ladislaus, though he survived, he subsequently stuttered and was forced to take repeated periods of rest. In 1390, Louis II invaded Naples, starting a war with Ladislaus lasting nine years. Ladislaus limited Louis' control to the city of the Terra d'Otranto. In 1399, while Louis was fighting against the Count of Lecce, Ladislaus regained the city of Naples with the support of several powerful barons of the Kingdom, including Raimondo Del Balzo Orsini.
The Angevins decided to return to Provence. Ladislaus spent the year 1400 subduing Onorato Caetani, count of Fondi, the last rebellions in Abruzzo and Apulia. In 1401 Ladislaus married Mary of daughter of the King of Cyprus, she arrived in Naples in 1402. In the same period, Ladislaus tried to restore Angevin rule in Hungary, where some of the nobles opposed King Sigismund, where, since 1390, he had a claim to the crown, the lordship of Croatia, his father, Charles III of Naples, grew up in Hungary governing Croatia as Viceroy, became king as Charles II of Hungary. Ladislaus ordered the painting of a cycle of Saint Ladislaus' legend in the church of Santa Maria dell'Incoronata in Naples between 1403 and 1414. There the Hungarian King is depicted receiving the royal crown fighting against the pagans, receiving the crown of Croatia. Considering himself as a descendant of the Holy Kings of Hungary, Ladislaus tried many times to obtain the crown of Hungary, he had himself crowned Duke of Slavonia, a title with no basis.
He first negotiated a treaty with the Republic of Venice. He thus obtained free passage in the Adriatic Sea and, with the partial support of the Pope, landed at Zadar on 19 July 1403. However, Ladislaus remained inactive, returned to Apulia; the following year, after the death of Boniface IX, he intervened in Rome in support of the Colonna family, two days after the election of the new pope, Innocent VII. Ladislaus endeavored to consolidate the royal power at the expense of the barons, brought about the murder of several members of the Sanseverino family for frustrating his ends. In 1405, he went again to Rome; when some nobles offered him the lordship of the city, the Pope responded by deposing him as King of Naples on 18 June 1406. The Pope had incited Raimondo Del Balzo Orsini to rebel, but he died in January 1406, his wife, Mary of Enghien, continued the rebellion and defended Taranto against a two months long siege by Ladislaus in the spring of 1406. She did not surrender after Ladislaus and the Pope signed a treaty of peace in July, by which Ladislaus became the protector of the Papal States.
He moved to Taranto again early in this time with diplomatic intentions. Since his first wife had died in 1404, Ladislaus solved the matter of Taranto by marrying Mary of Enghien on 23 April 1407. In 1407, trying to taking advantage of the feebler personality of the new pope, Gregory XII, Ladislaus invaded the Papal States and conquered Ascoli Piceno and Fermo. In 1408, he besieged Ostia to prevent a success of the French party in the schism between Gregory XII and Antipope Benedict XIII. After a short siege, he captured the city by bribing the Papal commander, Paolo Orsini, entered Rome on 25 April. Perugia fell into his hands. In 1409, Ladis
Council of Pisa
The Council of Pisa was a controversial ecumenical council of the Catholic Church held in 1409. It attempted to end the Western Schism by deposing Benedict XIII and Gregory XII for schism and manifest heresy; the College of Cardinals, composed of members of both the Avignon Obedience and the Roman Obedience, who were recognized by each other and by the Council elected a third papal claimant, Alexander V, who lived only a few months. He was succeeded by John XXIII. During in the Conclave of November 1406, Cardinal Angelo Correr had promised, along with all the other cardinals who signed the Electoral Capitulations, that if elected Pope, he would not create new cardinals except to keep the college of the Roman Obedience on a par with the Avignon Obedience; when he was elected Pope Gregory XII, he ratified those capitulations. But in May 1408, without need, he insisted on creating four new cardinals, two of whom were his nephews; the current cardinals objected loudly, citing the Electoral Capitulations, they refused to attend the Consistory to elevate the four new cardinals.
On May 11 one of the cardinals, Jean Gilles, left Lucca, where Pope Gregory was staying at the time, withdrew to Pisa. The Pope's nephew Paolo Correr was sent with troops to fetch him back by force; the papal action was so shocking that seven more cardinals deserted the same evening, another who had just arrived in Lucca followed along without delay. On 29 June 1408, thirteen cardinals met in the port city of Livorno, where they prepared a manifesto which looked toward the holding of a general council to bring the schism to an end. Four more cardinals joined in the agreement in writing on 30 August, another on 14 September, another on 5 October, yet another on 11 October. On 2 and 5 July 1408, the cardinals at Livorno addressed an encyclical letter to the princes and prelates of the Christian world, summoning them to a general council at Pisa, to begin on 25 March 1409. To oppose this project, Benedict XIII convoked the Council of Perpignan, but instead he fled from Lucca with his one remaining loyal cardinal in November 1408, ended up the guest of the Malatesta family in Rimini.
He never made it to Aquileia. The Universities of Paris and Cologne, many prelates, the most distinguished doctors, like d'Ailly and Gerson approved the action of the revolted cardinals, sent delegations to the Council; the princes on the other hand were divided, but most of them no longer relied on the good will of the rival popes and were determined to act without them, despite them, and, if needs were, against them. The cardinals of the reigning pontiffs being dissatisfied, both with the pusillanimity and nepotism of Gregory XII and the obstinacy and bad will of Benedict XIII, resolved to make use of a more efficacious means, namely a general council; the French king, Charles V, had recommended this, at the beginning of the schism, to the cardinals assembled at Anagni, who had anathematized Urban VI as an Intruder on the papal throne, elected Pope Clement VII instead, without dissent. King Charles, on his deathbed, again expressed the same wish, though he and France solidly supported Clement over Urban.
The idea of a general council had been upheld by several regional councils, by the cities of Ghent and Florence, by the University of Oxford and University of Paris, by some most prominent doctors of the time, for example: Henry of Langenstein. Encouraged by such men, by the known dispositions of King Charles VI and of the University of Paris, four members of the Sacred College of Avignon went to Leghorn where they arranged an interview with those of Rome, where they were soon joined by others; the two bodies thus united were resolved to seek the reunion of the Church in spite of everything, thenceforth to adhere to neither of the competitors. The cardinals considered it their indisputable right to convene a general council to put an end to the schism; the principle behind this was "salus populi suprema lex esto", i.e. that the safety of and unity of the church superseded any legal considerations. The behaviour of the two papal claimants seemed to justify the council, it was felt that the schism would not end while these two obstinate men were at the head of the opposing parties.
There was no undisputed pope who could summon a general council, therefore the Holy See must be considered vacant. There was a mandate to elect an undisputed pope. Famous universities upheld the cardinals' conclusion. However, it was argued that, if Gregory and Benedict were doubtful, so were the cardinals whom they had created. If the source of their authority was uncertain, so was their competence to convoke the universal church and to elect a pope. On 25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation, four patriarchs, 22 cardinals and 80 bishops assembled in the Cathedral of Pisa under the presidency of Cardinal Gui de Malesset, Bishop of Palestrina, the senior cardinal bishop in both Obediences, he had been named a cardinal by Pope Gregory XI on 20 December 1375, before the Schism had begun. Among the clergy were the representatives of 100 absent bishops, 87 abbots with the proxies of those who could not come to Pisa, 41 priors and gener
Baynes, T.S.; Smith, W.R., eds. (1880). . Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 178.
Baynes, T.S.; Smith, W.R., eds. (1880). 
