Robert was elected pope at
Fondi on 20 September 1378 by the
cardinals who opposed the return of the Papacy from
Avignon to
Rome, and the election of
Pope Urban VI in the latter town. He chose the regnal name of Clement VII, and became the first of the line of 'popes' (now counted as
antipopes) of the so-called
Western Schism, the second of the two periods referred to as the Great Schism, which lasted until
1417. Following a victory at
Marino by
Urban VI's troops, Clement, feeling vulnerable, fled
Anagni to
Sperlonga, then
Gaeta, finally landing at
Naples. Received with great respect by
Queen Joanna I of Naples, Clement found himself assailed by the local populace which chanted, "Viva Papa Urbano" and "Muoia l'
Anticristo". He deemed Naples unsafe and fled by
ship to
Avignon, France, being greeted by five cardinals.
King Charles V of France, who seems to have been sounded beforehand on the choice of the Roman pontiff, soon became his warmest protector. Clement eventually succeeded in winning to his cause
Castile,
Aragon,
Navarre, a great part of the Latin East, and
Flanders.
Scotland supported Clement because
England supported Urban. He had adherents, besides, scattered through
Germany, while
Portugal on two occasions acknowledged him, but afterwards forsook him.
Burgundy and
Savoy also acknowledged his authority. On 29 November 1378, Clement was
excommunicated by
Pope Urban VI. Coupled with the expectation of succeeding to Queen Joanna, Clement incited
Louis I, Duke of Anjou, the eldest of the brothers of Charles V, to take arms in his favour. These tempting offers gave rise to a series of expeditions into Italy carried out almost exclusively at Clement's expense, in the first of which Louis went to war with some 40,000 troops. The campaign was unsuccessful: Louis suddenly died at
Bisceglie on 20 September 1384. Still, these enterprises on several occasions planted Angevin domination in the south of the
Italian peninsula, and their most decisive result was the assuring of
Provence to the
Dukes of Anjou and afterwards to the
Kings of France. After the death of Louis, Clement hoped to find equally brave and interested champions in Louis' son and namesake
Louis II of Anjou, to whom he donated the larger part of the
Pontifical States. Clement then tried to ally with
Louis I, Duke of Orléans, the brother of
Charles VI; with Charles VI himself; and with
John III, Count of Armagnac. The prospect of his brilliant progress to
Rome was ever before Clement's eyes; and in his thoughts force of arms, of French arms, was to be the instrument of his glorious triumph over his competitor. There came a time, however, when Clement and more particularly his following had to acknowledge the vanity of these elusive dreams; and at the end of his life he realized the impossibility of overcoming by brute force an opposition which was founded on the convictions of the greater part of
Catholic Europe. Moreover, his ambitions and the financial needs of his court had resorted to
simony, the loss of land and extortion which discerned among his adherents the germs of disaffection. To solicit political support, he created nineteen of the thirty-three total cardinals, but he seems never to have sincerely desired the termination of the schism. He died at
Avignon on 16 September 1394. And his Avignon papacy was succeeded by the
Antipope Benedict XIII. Eventually it was determined that he would be recorded as an
antipope rather than as a
pope. Uncertainty over who the legitimate pope might be during the time of the
Western Schism gave rise to the legal theory called
Conciliarism, which claimed that a general council of the Church was superior to the pope and could therefore judge between rival claimants. ==See also==