ABSTRACT
When the Schism began in 1378 the people of Europe quite generally believed that the methods and means of healing it rested in the hands of the rival Pontiffs and their immediate advisers, the cardinals. Many times had the Church witnessed the appearance of an anti-Pope, but no serious breach had ever resulted commensurate with this one. Many contemporaries deplored the condition of a divided Papacy, but at the outset no one suspected its seriousness, or thought that it would continue beyond the lifetime of Urban VI or of Clement VII. Had it been fully realized that the ugly and disastrous division would drag its weary course along for four decades, no doubt some action would have been taken to bring about an early and a speedy ending.
