The Council of Pisa was a 1409 church council in the Western Schism that tried to remove the rival popes and elect a single pope. In European History 1000 to 1500, it is remembered as a failed reform effort that made the papal crisis worse.
The Council of Pisa was a 1409 meeting of church leaders who tried to end the Western Schism by deposing both Pope Gregory XII and Pope Benedict XIII and choosing a new pope. In this course, it shows up as one of the clearest examples of how badly divided the late medieval Church had become.
The problem Pisa was trying to solve did not begin in 1409. The Avignon Papacy had already damaged confidence in the papacy by tying it closely to French politics, and then the Western Schism split Christian Europe between rival papal claimants. By the time the council met, many cardinals and church officials believed that neither Gregory XII nor Benedict XIII could be trusted to restore unity on their own.
The council was driven by frustration with deadlock. Instead of waiting for the rival popes to cooperate, the cardinals who supported Pisa acted on their own authority. They hoped that removing both claimants and electing a new pope would force the church back into a single line of leadership.
That plan backfired. The council elected Alexander V, but the other two popes did not step aside, so the church ended up with three claimants instead of two. That is why Pisa matters so much in the Western Schism timeline. It did not settle the crisis, but it showed just how weak papal authority had become and how difficult it was to repair unity once legitimacy was in question.
For European history, Pisa is less about one meeting and more about a bigger pattern. When institutions lose consensus, even a well-meant reform can deepen the split if the people involved do not agree on who has the right to decide. That problem set the stage for the later Council of Constance, which finally resolved the schism.
The Council of Pisa matters because it shows that the Western Schism was not just a quarrel over personalities. It was a crisis of authority, and Pisa makes that crisis visible. If you are tracing the late medieval Church, Pisa is the moment when reform-minded church leaders tried to solve division with a council, but instead exposed how hard it was to make anyone obey a ruling when legitimacy was already damaged.
It also helps you understand why calls for reform kept growing in the 14th and 15th centuries. When people saw three popes claiming authority at once, they had even more reason to question how the church was governed. That connects directly to larger course themes like the weakening of medieval unity, the political influence of monarchs and cardinals, and the push for reform before the Renaissance and Reformation.
In essays and discussion, Pisa is useful as evidence that the Church could not simply command unity from the top. It needed a decision that most of Europe would accept, and Pisa did not get that far. That failure makes the later success of the Council of Constance easier to explain.
Keep studying European History – 1000 to 1500 Unit 10
Visual cheatsheet
view galleryWestern Schism
The Council of Pisa is part of the Western Schism, not a separate story. The schism created the crisis of rival papal claimants, and Pisa was one attempt to end that crisis. If you know the schism first, Pisa makes sense as a failed solution to it.
Avignon Papacy
The Avignon Papacy helped weaken trust in the papacy by linking it to French influence. Pisa comes later, after that distrust had already built up. The council reflects how the earlier move to Avignon made Church politics more fragile and harder to repair.
Council of Constance
The Council of Constance succeeded where Pisa failed. Pisa tried to solve the schism by electing a new pope, but it did not get enough obedience from the rival claimants. Constance matters because it finally created a settlement that most of Europe accepted.
Urban VI
Urban VI is tied to the start of the schism because his election and later controversies helped split the papacy. Pisa belongs to the later stage of the conflict, when church leaders were trying to end the division that had grown out of earlier disputes over papal legitimacy.
A timeline question might ask you to place the Council of Pisa between the Avignon Papacy and the Council of Constance, or to explain why it did not end the schism. In an essay, use it as evidence that late medieval church reform was messy and contested, not smooth or automatic. If you get a prompt about papal authority, legitimacy, or church unity, Pisa is a strong example of failed institutional repair. You can also use it in comparison with Constance to show the difference between an attempted fix and a successful settlement.
These councils are easy to mix up because both tried to end the Western Schism. Pisa came first in 1409 and failed by creating a third pope, while Constance later resolved the crisis and restored unity.
The Council of Pisa was a 1409 attempt to end the Western Schism by removing rival popes and electing a new one.
It failed because the rival claimants did not both accept the decision, so the Church briefly had three popes instead of two.
Pisa shows how the Avignon Papacy and the Western Schism weakened trust in papal authority.
The council matters most as a sign of how hard it was to restore unity once legitimacy in the Church had broken down.
It sets up the Council of Constance, which eventually solved the schism after Pisa could not.
The Council of Pisa was a 1409 church council that tried to end the Western Schism by deposing the rival popes and electing a new pope. In the course, it is usually taught as a failed reform effort because it added another claimant instead of restoring unity.
It failed because the council did not have enough authority to force Gregory XII and Benedict XIII to step down. The result was a third pope, Alexander V, which made the Church’s division worse instead of better.
Pisa tried to solve the schism by declaring both rival popes deposed and choosing a replacement, but the plan did not work. Constance later succeeded by creating a broader settlement that most of Europe accepted, which finally ended the schism.
It shows that the late medieval Church was struggling with legitimacy, leadership, and reform. Even when church leaders wanted unity, the papacy had been weakened enough that a council could not simply command obedience.