The papal schism that began in September 1378 lasted technically for fifty-one years (in practice for thirty-nine), and proved impossible to resolve by the normal processes of canon law. Unlike the schisms of the twelfth century, or even the brief antipapacy of Nicholas v (1328–30), it did not originate in the desire of temporal rulers to have a compliant pope, but in a largely personal quarrel in the Curia, which came to involve the whole of Christendom when the dissident party of the antipope Clement vii managed to achieve some support from the temporal rulers of France and the Iberian kingdoms. In this new study of reactions to the schism, Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski breaks new ground by focusing not on the many proposed resolutions of the conflict which were made by canon lawyers and theologians – on which there is a vast literature – but on emotional responses, largely from the laity, which might take the form of visions on the part of holy women, or, at the more metropolitan end of the spectrum, literary evocations by the poets and publicists of the French court. Visionaries were to be found in the obediences of both Urban vi and Clement vii; they came often from humble backgrounds like Constance de Rabastens or Marie Robine, both apparently from Pyrenean villages. It is evident from their experiences that the unease and disorientation brought about by the schism was not limited to churchmen, whose agonisings and perplexities were directly articulated and widely known, but affected uneducated people in remote communities. The disillusion of most of the French political world with the Avignonese popes seems to have been deeply rooted in provincial anxieties not easily perceptible outside the experiences of these visionaries. Popular sentiment about the schism in the two obediences was not however parallel. Catherine of Siena, Fr Pedro of Aragon and Ursuline of Parma were firm in their loyalty to the Roman papacy, as was, the more impressively for living in a generally Clementist region, Constance de Rabastens. But Vincent Ferrer, originally a loyal partisan of the Avignon popes, and Marie Robine had both become disillusioned with Benedict xiii by 1399, and Vincent eventually withdrew his allegiance. Other visionaries such as Ermine de Reins and Jean-Marie de Vaillé merely deplored the schism, as did the four publicists of the French court who gave literary expression to their disquiet, Philippe de Mezières, Honoré Bovet, Christine de Pizan and Eustache Deschamps. The Avignon obedience was, on this evidence, more a political construct than a focus of loyalty. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski has done a real service to the history of this difficult period with this attractive book.