great schism

1. 1.

   the period from 1378 to 1417 during which there were two papacies in the Roman Catholic Church, one in Rome and one in Avignon

   Broadertime periodschism

   Roman Catholic

Questions about great schism

What does great schism mean?

great schism means "the period from 1378 to 1417 during which there were two papacies in the Roman Catholic Church, one in Rome and one in Avignon".

Is great schism a common word?

great schism is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.