Council of Perpignan

The site of the council was the city of Perpignan, which belonged to the Crown of Aragon, which was still in the Avignon Obedience after the withdrawal of French support from Benedict XIII in 1408.

Before leaving Italy, Pope Benedict XIII issued the Bull Celestis altitudo on 15 June 1408, summoning a council, to meet on 1 November 1408 at Perpignan.

[3] Pressured by events, Pope Gregory XII of the Roman Obedience, who was in exile from Rome, announced that he too would hold a council, after Easter of 1409, and that it would be held somewhere in the province of Aquileia or in the Exarchate of Ravenna.

[9] On 15 November, the Pope descended from the fortress of Perpignan, where he lived, and made his way on foot to the Church of S. Maria de Regali, where the council fathers and a huge assembly of clergy and laity awaited him.

Cardinal Ludovico Fieschi read a message authorized by the Pope, stating that, since the agenda had not been completed, the second session was postponed until Saturday, 17 November.

[10] At the third session on 21 November, Benedict XIII noted in his speech that the Council had been summoned pro sedatione huius (h)orrendi scismatis et unione ac debita reformatione status ecclesiae, quantum nobis est possibile.

[11] Toward that end the Pope had prepared a narrative of all that had happened up to that point, which he had read to the assembly by Cardinal Antonio de Chalant, the former Chancellor of the Count of Savoy.

[19] Only three cardinals of the Avignon Obedience followed Benedict XIII to Perpignan: Jean Flandrin (Sabina), Ludovico Fieschi (S. Adriano), and Antoine de Chalant (S. Maria in Via Lata).

[21] To enhance the appearance of universality, the Pope also created three new Patriarchs on 13 November: Alfonso Exea of Constantinople, Jean of Antioch (who had been Sacristan in the Cathedral Chapter of Maguelone), and Francisco Ximenes of Jerusalem.