CHAPTER FOUR

LOOTING THE EMPTY SEE: THE GREAT WESTERN

As previously discussed, two authors have hinted at the pivotal situation of the Great Western Schism in the history of the electoral pillaging. Lucius Lector, in his history of the conclave, was fi rst to highlight—with- out discussion—the fundamental difference between raiding and sacking the property of the dead or , and raiding the property of the living with the pillaging of the conclave’s cells. For him, the defi - nite turning point between both practices occurred sometimes around the dates of the Schism. In his The Pope’s Body, Agostino Paravicini Bagliani identifi es several phases in the chronology of the custom: an early medieval practice of looting the episcopal palace of the dead bishop; and after 885, the looting of the Lateran Palace and at the death of the pope. After the death of Pope Leo IX (1049–1054), pillaging the goods of the dead pope, strictly speaking, disappears from documentation. Pillaging reappeared in altered form during the fi fteenth century and continued thereafter, focused this time not on the goods of the dead but of the living. Mobs sacked the cells of the elected pope and of other prelates, usually the cardinals. I argued earlier that the creation of the conclave might have been the initial point of separa- tion between pillaging the dead and the living. However, as evidence will soon demonstrate, the mutation was not instantaneous, and the era of the Schism offered a medley of procedures that evidenced its slow mutation. The aim of this chapter is to continue the chronology of pillag- ing by focusing on the initiation of Great Western Schism that lasted between 1378 and 1417. One of the greatest assets in analyzing this specifi c event is the abundance of documentation. For once, the laconic texts that recorded papal elections grew into a long list of testimonies that allows a dissection of the various facets of electoral narratives. Testimonies anchor this chapter, which engages and binds together the historiography of the Great Western Schism with the historiography of electoral pillaging. Both historiographies inform each other on the extent to which the more or less customary interregna pillaging or

ROLLO-KOSTER_F6_167-224.indd 167 12/17/2007 4:10:50 PM 168 chapter four

liminal violence affected the events that surrounded the initiation of the Schism. Eventually, the conclusion will trace the continuity of the practice in the early modern period. Evidence drawn directly from witnesses’ accounts permits investiga- tion of two central questions raised by the historiography: Was the somewhat traditional early modern sacking of the conclave cells related to the events of 1378? In other words, was the pillaging of the cells of the conclave a form of ritualized commemoration of the events sur- rounding the initiation of the Schism? Moreover, did the early-medieval tradition of pillaging papal goods at the death of a pope totally dis- appear in the late ?

1. 1378: Quick Historiography

When reviewing the Schism’s historiography, one element stands out.1 The historiography has avoided discussing the context of a papal inter- regnum—the Empty See. It is quite ironic that, when addressing the initiation of the double-headed papacy of 1378, the historiography has chosen to contextualize its early moments within issues of geography and nationality. The historiography emphasizes the recent papal return to Rome after a long absence and the general fear of an eventual return of the papacy to France if a non-Italian pope was elected. Needless to say, the issue of the pope’s nationality was present but must not be overstated. Non-Italian have been elected through- out the , and the issue of their nationality has not generally created such radical responses. The old adage urbi et orbi (for the city and for the world) should not be forgotten. The papacy is geographically all encompassing and universal, and always has been. In any case, even if national pride had motivated some of the action of April 1378, non-Roman and non-Italian popes had been allowed to rule the city before. French popes ruled from Rome before Avignon. During the thirteenth century, these French popes were considered

1 In general, the historiography associates schism and , and much ink has been dedicated to the conciliar movement; see Jacob, Essays in the Conciliar Epoch, p. 3; and Black, and Community, and Council and Commune; Landi, Il papa deposto; Burns and Izbicki, Conciliarisn and Papalism; Crowder, Unity, Heresy and Reform, 1378–1460; Oberman, Defensorium obedientiae apostolicae et alia documenta; Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought); Stump, The Reforms of the ; Wilks, The Problem of Sovereignty in the later Middle Ages; and Mundy, The Council of Constance.

ROLLO-KOSTER_F6_167-224.indd 168 12/17/2007 4:10:52 PM