 In 1378 some of the cardinals who had elected Pope Urban VI met again and elected another pope, claiming that their earlier choice had been coerced. This was the beginning of the Great Western Schism. Various possible solutions were debated. One proposal was to call a General Council of the Church to end the schism. To this it was objected that only a pope could call a council and that its decisions needed papal confirmation. The prominent French churchman and academic, Jean Gerson (1363–1429), argued that such requirements were a matter of human ecclesiastical law, which should be set aside if it impedes the reformation of the Church. The arguments of Gerson and others prevailed, and the schism was in the end healed by a council. The Council of Constance, 1414–1418, deposed two rival popes (by then there were three, one of whom resigned) and elected a new pope. The Council also passed the decrees Sacrosancta (otherwise called Haec Sancta), which claimed that a council has power over a pope in all matters pertaining to faith and the reformation of the Church and in particular the present  schism,[74]  and Frequens, which required the calling of a council every ten years (both in  Other Internet Resources).