Joëlle Rollo-Koster. Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation of the Great
Western Schism (1378). Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2008. 288 S. $129.00 (cloth), ISBN
978-90-04-16560-1.
Reviewed by Volker Leppin (Theologische Fakultät, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena)
Published on H-German (July, 2008)
A New Look at the Great Schism
city was seen as a legitimate form of participation in negotiating the interregnum.
In this book, the author aims to contest the commonplace view of the elections that initiated the Great Schism
of western Christianity, initiated by a rivalry between a
Roman pope and a rival claimant at Avignon. While the
accepted narrative describes Roman powers struggling
against anti-Roman powers, which led to French domination of the papacy, Joëlle Rollo-Koster suggests that
the overt violence accompanying the election of Urban
VI was not related to this specific conflict, but rather an
extreme, but not singular, expression of violence as ritual component of papal elections. Without any question,
this provocative perspective reveals the analytic possibilities of the cultural turn in humanities when applied to a
crucial point of the medieval historical narrative. What
Rollo-Koster demonstrates is, indeed, that pillaging, robbery, and looting always figured in the rites of choosing
a new pope.
While chapter 1 overflows with source material that
the author handles quite carefully, the second chapter offers a more theoretical approach, applying anthropological theories about liminal phenomena. The location of the
book within the methodological framework of historical
anthropology is not altogether fruitful. Of course the definition of liminal phenomena fits what Rollo-Koster describes about papal interregna on a basic level, given that
interregna, like liminal phenomena, are “in-between” situations. But the advantages of employing this term
rather than resorting to a classical sociological analysis of
interregna remain unclear. This methodological chapter
is thus isolated from the other parts of the book. The third
chapter, which presents evidence that looting in the context of papal elections had a venerable history at Rome
Most parts of the book demonstrate this point explic- and thus should be seen as normal, presents mostly maitly. The first chapter describes the problem of the empty terial that the author published previously as an essay in
see. The death of a pope set into action a whole ensemble 2005. Many readers may find it easiest to begin the book
of administrative and also liturgical efforts to handle the by reading this strong chapter.
interregnum. Most of the choices involved in these efThe fourth and final chapter brings us then to proof
forts were organized clearly to add a degree of certainty
for
the book’s argument about its main topic: the vito the inherent instability of an interregnum. One eleolence
around the papal elections of 1378. Following
ment of these regular practices was the commission of
the thread of the work, Rollo-Koster shows that it, too,
acts of violence as a kind of robbery of something that,
was normal. It took on extreme forms, however, bein another stage of the rituals, could be given back as a
gift and expression of charity: the stationary possessions cause of the special situation–the long vacancy in Roman
of the deceased pope. From this perspective, looting both eyes that stemmed from the Avignon exile and the resultby members of the pope’s household and the poor of the ing need Romans felt to underline their traditional right
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of ritual participation in the selection of the successor.
In contrast to this mood, papal elections had gradually
developed a practice that involved decision-making behind closed doors, which deepened the boundaries between the papal electors and the people of the city. This
tension–and not so much the national tensions between
Italian and non-Italian cardinals–made violence a significant component of the concurrent election of Clement
VII shortly after that of Urban.
Rollo-Koster’s point about violence is both interesting and important, although her argument makes it hard
to explain why the non-Italians in the College of Cardinals saw this violence as illegitimate, while the Italians
found it normal. A full account of these allegiances has
been neglected in the entire historiography of the election, not just Rollo-Koster’s work. In any case, in light
of Rollo-Koster’s work, the historiography of the schism
may no longer ignore the ritual elements of the associated violence.
If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at:
https://networks.h-net.org/h-german
Citation: Volker Leppin. Review of Rollo-Koster, Joëlle, Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence, and the Initiation
of the Great Western Schism (1378). H-German, H-Net Reviews. July, 2008.
URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=14783
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