Antipope
Antipope. A person in Christianity who claims (or exercises) the office of pope illegitimately. The RC Church lists thirty-seven, from Hippolytus (d. c.235) to Felix V, who abdicated in 1449. The major and serious conflict over the papacy took place in the W. schism, 1378–1417. After the election of Urban VI in 1378, some cardinals, claiming that he was mentally unstable, elected Clement VII, who returned to Avignon as the centre of papal authority. Attempts to heal the schism included the election of a third pope, Alexander V, at Pisa. The attempt to locate continuing authority in these circumstances led directly into the conciliar controversy, raising the possibility that a general council, or the college of cardinals (with or without such additional figures as certain university professors), had the ultimate authority—a position condemned by Pius II in the Bull Exsecrabilis, and also by the First Vatican Council. The schism was ended by the elevation of Oddo at the Council of Constance (1414–18) to become Martin V.
More From encyclopedia.com
NEARBY TERMS
Antipope