In November 1408 Henry IV finally decided that England would support the Council of Pisa, called by the cardinals in defiance of the rival popes in the Great Schism. The decision seems to have met little opposition, but it must have involved at least some readjustment of ideas for Englishmen. There were of course good traditional arguments in favour of the Council, and we know now that the Government had not always taken a rigidly pro-Roman stand in moves to end the Schism, but Henry's English ecclesiastical contemporaries at least had been used to a policy which supported the Roman pope and which insisted that if a Council were called, only their pope (Gregory XII) could call it. In accepting Pisa they were accepting a Council which would proceed whether or not he supported it, and a policy knowingly designed to secure his removal, with or without his consent. How did they justify their action?

We know how the King justified himself (or rather we know what he said officially). He referred to information contained in the speech on behalf of the dissident cardinals delivered before him on 28 and 29 October 1408 by Cardinal Uguccione. In particular Henry insisted that Gregory had broken the oath he had made in the conclave and renewed at his coronation in 1406. Evidence and argument about this had formed a large part of Uguccione's case. Officially, therefore, the English thought Gregory at least suspect if not guilty of perjury, and of deliberately prolonging the Schism.