Council of Pisa Elects a Third Pope

1409

Attempting to end the Western Schism with its rival popes in Rome and Avignon, the cardinals at Pisa elected Alexander V. Neither existing pope resigned. Christendom now had three vicars of Christ excommunicating one another simultaneously. The council that was supposed to heal the Church had tripled the disease. Alexander V died within a year under suspicious circumstances, succeeded by the notorious antipope John XXIII.