Crown and papacy

Further benefits stemmed from the long pontificate of Clement's successor, Pedro de Luna or Benedict XIII (1394-1417), during which Scotland was the only kingdom in Europe to remain single-mindedly loyal to the Avignon papacy. The most notable was the founding of Scotland's first university. The exclusion of Benedict XIII from France in 1408 and his exile at Peniscola in Aragon had resulted in the return to Scotland of a number of masters who had formerly taught in French universities. By 1412 they had founded a school at St Andrews which was granted a charter of incorporation by Henry Wardlaw, Bishop of St Andrews. A year later, Benedict granted the necessary six bulls of protection and privilege according it university status and the right to confer degrees.

There was little trace in Scotland of the popular and virulent criticism of the papacy so obvious in many other parts of Europe as insults were traded between rival popes and a war of appointments was waged. The Schism, nevertheless, had raised fundamental questions about the nature of papal authority, not least the role of general councils. It was, ironically, the infant University of St Andrews, whose arms included a crescent moon in commemoration of Pedro de Luna, which was the first institution in Scotland to challenge his authority. Its Faculty of Arts resolved in August 1418 that obedience should be withdrawn from Pedro de Luna 'once called Benedict' and transferred to Pope Martin V, who had been elected in 1417 as a result of the new consensus in western Christendom reached at the Council of Constance. It announced its decision at a general council of the three estates which met at Perth three months later. It was the first and probably the last time that the decision of a university faculty changed the course of Scottish history. The Great Schism was over.