Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism (1378) (review)

Joëlle Rollo-Koster has already looked into the ritual aspects of events that surrounded the Great Western Schism (1378–1417) in a number of admirable articles. In her latest book, she intends to demonstrate that there was a pillaging problem attached to ecclesiastical interregna, that the nature of the ecclesiastical institutions contributed to the pillaging problem, and that the problem in turn contributed to the Great Western Schism. She begins with the question of the interpretation given to the violence that took place around the conclave of 1378: Was it a real threat? To answer this question, the author has chosen to adopt a provocative perspective by taking up a methodology anchored in cultural anthropology, especially the notion of liminality.

In the first chapter, devoted to the problem of the Empty See, Rollo-Koster tries to show that the Church expected violence during papal vacancies. In her discussions of the different ways that popes were elected, she particularly undercores the institution of the conclave in 1274, established to avoid long vacancies of the papal throne. She also analyzes generously François de Conzié’s funerary ceremonial, written at the time of the Great Schism, which includes some precautionary measures against pillaging.

Although the author makes it clear in chapter 1 that, at that time, the usual pillaging tended to become a rite, chapter 2 offers a more methodological discussion where anthropological theories about liminal phenomena are applied to the analysis of papal interregna with the aim of showing that the death of a ruler and the subsequent situation demanded a recovery of the social order by replacing chaos with order. Two examples are used: the contentious Damasus/Ursinus episode in fourth-century Rome and Pope Gregory X’s bull Ubi periculum.

Chapter 3 proposes a canvassed study of the Empty See’s looting and pillaging. Relying on a substantial number of sources, Rollo-Kostner demonstrates that the transformation of looting into a ritual strengthened the perpetrators. A tolerated form of control, looting contributed to a process of negotiation of power and consensus.

Chapter 4 shows the role looting and pillaging played in the events surrounding the Great Western Schism. The violence surrounding the conclave of April 1378 took very severe forms because of the special situation—for the first time in a century, Romans felt they could participate in a papal election—but the author points out that this violence has to be included as part of the classical ritual violence previously described. However, it is not clear how cardinals presented their issues once they discovered that Pope Urban VI was not the kind of person they expected, nor why the non-Italian members of the College of Cardinals considered this violence unacceptable, while the Italians perceived it as normal.

Rollo-Koster’s study is undeniably exhaustive and fascinating. However, the reader wishes that the publisher had taken more care in the proofreading of the book, as the many typos can make the reading difficult.