A Companion to the Great Western Schism (1378-1417) (review)

This collection contains the following chapters: Joëlle Rollo-Koster, "Civil Violence and the Initiation of the Schism"; Stefan Weiß, "Luxury and Extravagance at the Papal Court in Avignon and the Outbreak of the Great Western Schism"; Philip Daileader, "Local Experiences of the Great Western Schism"; Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, "The Conceptualization and Imagery of the Great Schism"; Michael Hanly, "Witness to the Schism: The Writings of Honorat Bovet"; Michael A. Ryan, "Byzantium, Islam, and the Great Western Schism"; Cathleen A. Fleck, "Seeking Legitimacy: Art and Manuscripts for the Popes in Avignon from 1378 to 1417"; Christopher M. Belitto, "The Reform Context of the Great Western Schism"; David Zachariah Flanagin, "Extra ecclesiam salus non est-sed quae ecclesia?: Ecclesiology and Authority in the Later Middle Ages"; Thomas M. Izbicki, "The Authority of Peter and Paul: The Use of Biblical Authority during the Great Schism"; Philip H. Stump, "The Council of Constance (1414-18) and the End of the Schism." The volume also includes an introduction, jointly authored by the editors, as well as a conclusion written by Izbicki, a bibliography, and indices.

This volume adds to an already large and impressive collection in Brill's series of companions to the Christian tradition, which cover mostly the medieval and Reformation periods, giving attention to such topics as quodlibetical disputations, prayer, penance, indulgences, and several important historical figures. This volume is a welcome addition to the series, gathering together as it does several intelligently written chapters by leading scholars engaging with the most up-to-date scholarship.

The volume aims to be introductory, and it achieves this aim admirably. For instance, Joe¨lle Rollo-Koster's piece, which opens the collection, lays out in a very accessible way the problems surrounding the events and historiography of the disputed papal elections of 1378 that precipitated the Schism. In particular, the piece gives us the impression that the violence that accompanied the election of Archbishop Prignano to the papal throne might not have been as alarming as the cardinals later led others to believe, but was, in fact, part of the traditional way in which the Romans celebrated the election of a new pope. Rollo-Koster is very thorough in her assessment of contemporary evidence and lays out her case carefully and convincingly, giving a novel and refreshing interpretation of events. Whereas the violence in Rome in the spring of 1378 is often depicted as having a detrimental effect on the electors—an impression that the dissenting cardinals themselves fostered—Rollo-Koster gives us every reason to believe that the crowds, although unruly and often drunken, were an expression of traditional Roman celebration at the election of a new pope, even when the crowds sacked one of the cardinals' palaces. This does not mean, however, that Rollo-Koster places the blame squarely on the cardinals; in the end she is much too even-handed to commit herself to blaming one party over another in so complicated a situation.

Another aim of the collection is to discuss the Schism under a wide variety of topics, and again this aim is achieved quite successfully. The chapters range freely across several historical disciplines, giving us a very good overall picture of the effects that the Schism produced, not just in Western Europe where thy were felt most closely, but also in Byzantium and among the followers of Islam. These last two are covered in Michael A. Ryan's chapter, which, while it is somewhat limited as a result of a general lack of scholarly attention to the topics that it covers, gives us interesting insights into inter-religious relations of the period through a discussion of the figure of Anselm Turmeda / 'Abdallah al-Taryuman, a Franciscan friar who converted to Islam. As well as casting their net across a broad geography, the authors do so across the different social classes of...