The man who claimed to be the only true pope until his dying day.

Science · Published 20 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Pedro de Luna, known as Benedict XIII, was a brilliant canon lawyer who became the central figure of the Western Schism. Despite being deposed by two separate church councils and abandoned by his own cardinals, he refused to step down, maintaining his papal claim from a remote castle until 1422.

Born in 1342 in Aragon, Pedro de Luna rose through the church hierarchy as a doctor of canon law and a cardinal deacon. In 1394, he was elected pope by the Avignon faction under the explicit condition that he would resign if it helped end the Great Schism. However, Benedict soon argued that his election was canonical and that abdication would be sinful. His refusal to step down triggered a massive political crisis, leading France to withdraw its obedience in 1398 and initiate a four-year siege of the papal palace in Avignon.

Benedict’s legalistic defense was rooted in his status as the last surviving cardinal appointed by Gregory XI, the final undisputed pope. He maintained that as the only cardinal whose appointment predated the schism, he was the only individual with the legitimate authority to hold the papacy. This rigid interpretation of canon law kept him in power long after his political support had evaporated. Even after the Council of Pisa deposed him in 1409 and the Council of Constance did so again in 1417, he remained defiant, retreating to his family castle at Peñíscola.

By the end of his life, Benedict was isolated, yet he continued to act as the supreme pontiff, even appointing four new cardinals in November 1422. While his influence waned, his legacy persisted in unexpected ways; in 1413, he issued the papal bulls that established the University of St Andrews in Scotland. His followers even elected a successor, Clement VIII, upon his death in 1422 or 1423. Though history remembers him as an antipope, Benedict XIII remains a singular example of how one man's unwavering conviction in legal legitimacy could paralyze the entire Western Church for decades.

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