What circumstance caused the second great schism within the roman catholic church?
a) the call for unification with the eastern orthodox church
b) the election of multiple popes by different fractions
c) the excommunication of powerful monarchs
d) the failure of the crusades to win back the holy land

Answer:

B) the election of multiple popes by different fractions caused the second great schism within the roman catholic church

Explanation:

Church has been unified for thousand of years and as the difference grew it led to emergence of great schism where the Roman Catholic Church or Roman Empire overall played a crucial rule because earlier it was the one which unites Christianity.

Due to the faction of the Roman Empire into east and west, it also affected the unified Christianity. The western schism leads to the crisis that two persons started claiming to be the Pope. One pope was centered in Rome, and another in the town of Avignon was centered in France. As a consequence, West european countries ' representatives had to swear allegiance to the Roman Pope or to the Avignon Pope.

Several other factors led to the emergence of second schism - the role of Pope wasn't a traditional role of patriarchy. In the west, the Pope was the ultimate authority while in the East there were doubts.