With Equal Justice, The Council of Pisa Deposed the Popes of Rome and Avignon

Reading Passage Question

Question: With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome and Avignon; the conclave was unanimous in the choice of Alexander V, and his vacant seat was soon filled by a similar election of John XXIII, the most profligate of mankind. But instead of extinguishing the schism, the rashness of the French and Italians had given a third pretender to the chair of St. Peter.

Such new claims of the synod and conclave were disputed: three kings, of Germany, Hungary, and Naples, adhered to the cause of Gregory XII, and Benedict XIII, himself a Spaniard, was acknowledged by the devotion and patriotism of that powerful nation. The rash proceedings of Pisa were corrected by the council of Constance; the emperor Sigismond acted a conspicuous part as the advocate or protector of the Catholic Church, and the number and weight of civil and ecclesiastical members might seem to constitute the states-general of Europe. Of the three popes, John XXIII was the first victim: he fled and was brought back a prisoner: the most scandalous charges were suppressed; the vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest; and after subscribing his own condemnation, he expiated in prison the imprudence of trusting his person to a free city beyond the Alps.

Gregory XII, whose obedience was reduced to the narrow precincts of Rimini, descended with more honour from the throne; and his ambassador convened the session, in which he renounced the title and authority of lawful pope. To vanquish the obstinacy of Benedict XIII and his adherents, the emperor in person undertook a journey from Constance to Perpignan. The kings of Castile, Arragon, Navarre, and Scotland, obtained an equal and honourable treaty; with the concurrence of the Spaniards, Benedict was deposed by the council. The harmless old man was left in a solitary castle to excommunicate twice each day the rebel kingdoms which had deserted his cause and the synod of Constance proceeded with slow and cautious steps to elect the sovereign of Rome and the head of the church. On this momentous occasion, the college of twenty-three cardinals was fortified with thirty deputies, six of whom were chosen in each of the five great nations of Christendom, – the Italian, the German, the French, the Spanish, and the English: the interference of strangers was softened by their generous preference of an Italian and a Roman, and the hereditary, as well as personal, merit of Otho Colonna recommended him to the conclave. Rome accepted with joy and obedience the noblest of her sons; the ecclesiastical state was defended by his powerful family; and the elevation of Martin V is the era of the restoration and establishment of the popes in the Vatican.

“With equal justice, the council of Pisa deposed the popes of Rome and Avignon.”- is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.

This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 3 comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Solution and Explanation

1. For what purpose does the author distinguish between ―the most scandalous charges‖ against John XXIII, and the charges of which he was actually accused?

1. To demonstrate the leniency of the Council of Constance
2. To suggest how serious the suppressed charges must have been
3. To give an example of John XXIII‘s political influence
4. To show the importance of electing an Italian to the papacy
5. To demonstrate the frivolous nature of the actual charges

2. Reflecting on the various points brought up by the author in the passage, how did the Spanish contribute to the resolution of the division within the Catholic Church?

1. They encouraged the cardinals to revolt, and they deposed the two reigning popes.
2. They opposed the French and Italians, and they supported Benedict XIII.
3. They protected the Catholic Church, and they prosecuted John XXIII.
4. They agreed to the deposal of Benedict XIII, and they helped to elect Martin V.
5. They encouraged the French to attack Spain

3. It can be inferred that the author would agree with which of the following statements about Benedict XIII, Gregory XII, and John XXIII?

1. Benedict XIII was the best of the three.
2. Gregory XII was the best of the three.
3. None of the three deserved to be pope.
4. John XXIII had the best claim to having been legitimately elected.
5. At least one of these was a deserving candidate for papacy

Suggested GMAT Reading Comprehension Samples

• The United States Hospital Industry is an Unusual Market in that Nonprofit and For-Profit Producers Exist Simultaneously.
• Although the Industrial Union Organizations that Emerged Under the Banner of the Congress of Industrial Organizations
• According to P. F. Drucker, The Management Philosophy Known as Total Quality Management
• The Professionalization of the Study of History in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century
• Conventional Wisdom has it that Large Deficits in the United States Budget Cause Interest Rates to Rise.
• In a New Book About the Antiparty Feeling of the Early Political Leaders of the United States
• The System of Patent-Granting, Which Confers Temporary Monopolies for the Exploitation of New Technologies
• Traditional Social Science Models of Class Groups in the United States are Based on Economic Status
• Solar Ponds are Bodies of Water in Which Circulation is Incomplete and There is a Very High Salt Concentration that Increases with Depth
• Ethnohistoric Documents from Sixteenth-Century Mexico Suggesting that Weaving and Cooking were the Most Common Productive Activities for Aztec Women
• A Recent Study has Provided Clues to Predator-Prey Dynamics in the Late Pleistocene Era.
• The Black Death, a Severe Epidemic that Ravaged Fourteenth Century Europe
• Those Examples of Poetic Justice that Occur in Medieval
• The Delegates to the Constitutional Convention were Realists.
• When Literary Periods are Defined on the Basis of Men’s Writing, Women’s Writing Must be Forcibly Assimilated
• Barbara Strozzi was a Singer and Composer of Madrigals, Aria
• Many Readers Assume that, as a Neoclassical Literary Critic
• Within a Couple of Weeks After the Announcement of Superconductivity in MgB2
• Late Nineteenth-Century Books About the French Artist Watteau (1684-1721) Betray a Curious Blind Spot
• In the 1980's, Astronomer Bohdan Paczynski Proposed a Way of Determining Whether the Enormous Dark Halo Constituting the Outermost Part of the Milky Way Galaxy