332 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

consent, any revenue out of Church property to any king
or ruler. He also threatened rulers who should presume to
exact such tribute with excommunication. The King of
France, Philip the Fair, took up the challenge by bearding
the lion in his own den. Finally, in 1305, he got a Pope of
his own choke ("Clement V") appointed. These servile
Popes continued to be proclaimed until 1377 at Avignon on
the border of France.1 Ultimately, this led to rival Popes
being ordained in France and Italy, both claiming to be sole
head of the Church. In 1409 a great council was called
to Pisa to settle the dispute. Both the rivals at Avignon
and Rome were declared deposed and a new Pope was pro-
claimed. But this only increased the number of Popes to
three in place of two! The Great Schism was not " healed "
until the memorable Council of Constance, which met in
1414 and continued its sessions till 1427. Its two great
achievements were the burning of Huss (a Bohemian follow-
er of Wycliffe) as a heretic and the appointment of Pope
Martin V who displaced all the others.

Another great critic of the decadent Church was the
Dutch scholar Erasmus (c. 1469—1536). He was a very
learned man and keenly desired to improve the religious
conditions in the countries of Western Europe. Though born
in Holland he spent much of his life in France, England,
Italy, and Germany. As a boy he had been forced into a
monastery, much against -his will, but he lived to be an
earnest monk, greatly interested in Greek and Latin authors,
as well as in religious reform. " The essence of our religion,"
he said, " is peace and harmony. These can only exist where

1. This is known as the " Babylonian Captivity " as it recalled
the memory of the Jewish patriarchs taken to Babylon by
Nebuchadrezzar (see p. 88 ante).