SCHISM
534
SCHISM
for a time from the Apostolic See. The Lombard
invasion of Italv (568) favoured the resistance, but
from 570 the Milanese returned by degrees to the
communion of Rome; the portion of Aquilea subject
to the Byzantines returned in 607, after which date
the schism had but a few churches. It died out com-
pletely under Sergius I, about the end of the eighth
century. (13) The ninth century brought the
schism of Photius, which, though it was transi-
tory, prepared the way by nourishing a spirit of de-
fiance towards Rome for the final defection of Con-
stantinople. (14) This took place less than two cen-
turies later under Michael Cenilarius (q. v.) who at
one stroke (1053) closed all the churches of the Latms
at Constantinople and confiscated their convents.
The deplorable Greek schism (see Greek Church),
which still subsists, and is itself di%'ided into several
communions, was thus consummated. The^ two
agreements of reunion concluded at the Second Coun-
cil of Lvons in 1274, and at that of Florence in 1439,
unfortunately had no lasting results; they could not
have had them, because on the part of the Greeks at
least they were inspired by interested motives.
(15) The schism of Anacletus in the twelfth cen- tur>% Uke that of Felix V in the fifteenth, was due to the existence of an antipope side by side wath the legitimate pontiff. At the death of Hononus II (1130) Innocent II had been regularly elected, but a numerous and powerful faction set up in oppo.sition to him Cardinal Peter of the Pierleoni family. In- nocent was compelled to flee, lea\ang Rome in the hands of his adversaries. He found refuge in France. St. Bernard ardently defended his cause as did also St. Xorbert. Within a year nearly all Europe had declared in his favour, only Scotland, Southern Italy, and Sicily constituting the other party. The em- peror Lothaire brought Innocent II back to Rome, but, supported by Roger of Sicily, the antipope re- tained possession of the Leonine City, where he died in 1138. His successor Victor IV, two months after his election, sought and obtained pardon and rec- onciliation from the legitimate pontiff. The case of Felix V was more simple. Felix V was the name taken by Amadeus of Savoy, elected by the Council of Basle, when it went into open revolt against Eugenius IV, refused to disband and thus incurred ex- communication (1439). The antipope was not ac- cepted save in Savoy and Switzerland. He lasted for a .short time with the pseudo-council which had created him. Both submitted in 1449 to Nicholas V, who had succeeded Eugenius IV. (16) The Great Schism of the West is the subject of a special article (Schism, Western); see also Constance, Council of; Pisa, Council of.
(17) Everyone knows the shameful origins of the schism of Henry VIII, which was the prelude to the introduction of Protestantism into England. The voluptuous monarch was opposed by the pope in his projects for (Mvorce and remarriage, and he separated from the pope. He succeeded so well that in 1531 the general assembly of the clergy and the Parlia- ment proclaimed him head of the national Church. Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury, had at first causfid the axioption of a restrictive clause: "as far as Divine law permits". But this important res- ervation was not respected, for the nipture with the Roman Court followed almost immfdiately. In 1534 the Act of Supremacy was voted according to the tf;rm8 of which the king became the sole head of the Church of England and was to enjoy all the pre- rogatives which hafi hitherto belonged to the pope. Refusal U) recognize the new organization was pun- ished with death. Various changes followed: suppres- sion of convents, destruction of relics and of numerous pictures and statues. But dogma was not again at- tacked under Henry VIII, who pursued with eoual severity both attachment to the pope and the doc-
trines of the Reformers. (18) In the article Jan-
SEXius AND Jansenism are described the formation
and vicissitudes of the schism of Utrecht, the unhappy
consequence of Jansenism, but which never spread
beyond a handful of fanatics. Subsequent schisms
belong to the end of the eighteenth and the nine-
teenth century.
(19) The first was caused in France by the Civil Con.stitution of the clergy of 1790. By this law the national Constituent Assembly aimed at imposing on the Church a new organization which essentially modified its condition as regulated by pubUc ecclesi- astical law. The 134 bishops of the kingdom were reduced to 83, according to the territorial division into departments; the choice of cures fell to electors appointed by members of district assemblies; that of bishops to electors named by the assemblies of departments; and canonical institution devolved upon the metropolitan and the bishops of the province. All benefices without cure of souls were suppressed. A later ordinance made obedience to these articles a condition of admission to any ecclesiastical office. A large number of bishops and priests, in all, accord- ing to some sources, about a sixth of the clergy, and according to other documents nearly a third, were weak enough to take the oath. Thenceforth the French clergy was divided into two factions, the jurors and the non-jurors, and the schism was carried to the utmost extreme when intruders under the name of bishops claimed to occupy the departmental sees, dur- ing the Ufetime and even in defiance of the rights of the real titulars. The condemnation of the Civil Constitution by Pius VI in 1791 opened the eyes of some, but others persisted until their "Constitutional Church" declined shamefully and disappeared ir- revocably in the Revolutionary turmoil.
(20) A schism of another nature and of less impor- tance was that of the so-called Pelite Eglise or the Incommunicants, formed at the beginning of the nine- teenth century by groups who were dissatisfied with the Concordat and the concordatory clergy. In the prov- inces of the west of France the party acquired a cer- tain stability from 1801 to 1815; at the latter date it had become a distinct sect. It languished on till about 1830, and eventually became extinct for lack of priests to perpetuate it. In Belgium some of its members call them.selves Stevenists, thus abusing the name of a reputable ecclesiastic, Corneille Stevens, who was cajjitular vicar-general of the Diocese of Namur until 1802, who afterwards wrote against the Organic Articles, but accepted the Concordat and died in 1828, as he had lived, in submission to the Holy See.
(21) In 1831 the Abb6 Chatel founded the French Catholic Church, a small group which never acquired importance. The founder, who at first claimed to re- tain all the dogmas, had himself consecrated bishop by P'abre Palaprat, another self-styled bishop of the "Con.stitutionar' type; he soon rejected the infalli- bility of the teaching Church, celibacy of priests, and abstinence. He recognized no rule of faith except in- dividual evidence and he officiated in French. The sect was already on the point of being slain by ridicule when its meeting-places were closed by the Govern- ment in 1842.
(22) About the same time Germany was the scene of a somewhat similar schism. When in 1844 the Holy Coat was exi)Oscd at Trier for the veneration of the 'faithful, a susix'nded i)riest, Johannes Ronge, seized the oceasion to i)ublish a violent pamjjhlet against Arnoldi, Bishop of Trier. Some malcontents ranged themselves on his side. Almost simultane- ously John Cz(!rski, a dismissed vicar, founded in the Province of I'osen, a "Christian Catholic commu- nity". He had imitators. In 1845 the "German Catholics", as these schismatics called themselves, held a synod at Leipzig at which they rejected among other
