The story of the Great Western Schism (1378–1417) is easily reduced to division of the Western church and efforts to restore unity. Joëlle Rollo-Koster looks wider, examining the social dramas of a church divided into two and then three obediences. This study looks at performance, whether of those claiming the papacy or those reacting to them. The author has studied these topics before, but only her study of violence during papal vacancies and her work on Avignon became full-length books. Rollo-Koster also compares how the Schism played out in Rome and Avignon.
The book opens with an Introduction covering the familiar ground of the conclaves of 1378. It includes reflections on the loaded language used before and during the Schism when writing about foes. A “Note on Primary Sources” discusses the materials the author used constructing the seven chapters of this book.
The first chapter treats the Schism as a social drama, following Victor Turner in discussing those years as a four-act drama. The first is Breach: The Election of 1378. The most interesting thing Rollo-Koster does with this familiar material involves emphasizing the role of the “communal government” of Rome in the events leading to the election of Urban VI, whom the cardinals rejected in favor of Clement VII. The next section is Crisis, showing how Christendom divided along political lines. An extensive section looks at Redressive Action, the efforts to end the Schism. A brief conclusion notes the Reintegration effected by the Council of Constance, which disposed of three claimants and elected a single pope, Martin V.
Before the Schism, the papacy expressed itself in two types of performances. The pontiff occasionally initiated one, represented here by conferring the golden rose on a chosen prince. More constant was the traffic in favors requested by petitioners. These petitions were requested, granted, and then recorded. All this required both money and knowledge of the arcane workings of the Roman curia. Rollo-Koster's second chapter shows the Roman and the Avignon claimants to the papacy asserting their legitimacy by performing large actions and small. The focus on the reciprocal actions of petition and award shows business being transacted even in a time of Schism.
The next chapter looks at visual responses to the Schism. Antonio Baldana's De magno schismate treats the papal claimants with little visible difference until Martin V is shown receiving the homage of the former Pisan claimant John XXIII. Ulrich Richenthal's Chronicle of the Council of Constance is more subtle in undermining John XXIII, showing how Sigismund, king of the Romans, performed the papacy better than he did. The Angers Apocalypse tapestry treated the Schism less directly in the context of the book of Revelation.
If Chapter 3 reflects on imagery, Chapter 4 treats texts and rhetoric. The Avignon obedience treated Urban VI as a usurper (intrusus), while the Roman obedience used both the terms “opponent” and “heretic.” The language of “tyranny” became common—not just in reflections on the Schism, but also in political controversies. The deposition of Richard II of England implied tyranny without direct accusation. However, John of Burgundy and his apologist, Jean Petit, claimed outright that the murder of Louis, duke of Orléans, was tyrannicide.
Chapter 5 emphasizes liturgy, especially the rites surrounding a papal vacancy. The cardinals tried to assert their power sede vacante. Two responses placed emphasis elsewhere. François de Conzié composed an ordo for a papal vacancy that gave power to the camerlengo, not the Sacred College. (This approach eventually succeeded.) Pierre Amiel argued instead for the survival of the papal dignity in the body of the deceased pope, an approach that Rollo-Koster treats in depth.
With the sixth chapter, the book shifts focus to the papal cities, Rome and Avignon. Rome sprawled, but most of the population lived in Campo Marzio. The papacy was focused symbolically on the Vatican, but the Commune on the Capitol. The Lateran, although the seat of the bishopric of Rome, had a more complex history. The Commune, as previously noted, played a role in the Schism. However, it ceded its power to Boniface IX in 1398. After the death of Boniface in 1404, Rome suffered upheavals until Martin V made his papal entry in 1420. The complexity of Rome in the period of Schism is illustrated by the efforts of both papacy and Commune to control the Veronica, the cloth on which the face of the suffering Christ was believed to be imprinted.
Avignon had its own complex history. Papal residence brought a large influx of population. The citizens had a government and taxes; but the papacy predominated, even while Gregory XI and Clement VII were absent in Italy. Clement, once back in Avignon, performed all papal rituals. The first French subtraction of obedience from Benedict XIII involved the citizens of Avignon, as well as the French dukes and the cardinals. A second subtraction (1408–1411) led to fortification of papal sites and violence in the city. The citizens were active in opposing Benedict's Catalan troops. By the time the Catalans left in 1411, Avignon had begun losing population. After 1411, Avignon gave allegiance to John XXIII and then to Martin V. However, the city had ceased being a major factor in the Schism.
Over all, the Schism gave many, not just dukes and kings but also urban nobles and communes, chances to assert themselves. However, as Rollo-Koster's book shows, the end of the Schism brought about a restoration of a unified papacy under Martin V, including increased control of Avignon and, eventually, of Rome itself.
