The Great Western Schism, 1378–1417
Performing Legitimacy, Performing Unity

A new history of the Great Western Schism, focusing on social drama and the performance of legitimacy and papacy.

Joëlle Rollo-Koster (Author)

9781107168947, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 April 2022

420 pages
26 x 18.3 x 2.7 cm, 0.91 kg

'The author moves with equal confidence in the delicate spheres of emotions, political intrigue, artistic subtleties, ethnology, performativity and complex sociological theories. The book offers a fundamental synthesis, and does so from a new, original and intelligent perspective. This stimulating and groundbreaking work thus shows the Great Western Schism as an ideal starting point for the historical consideration of the question of what constitutes a crisis.' Benedicte Sere, Rezensionen im Deutschen

The Great Schism divided Western Christianity between 1378 and 1417. Two popes and their courts occupied the see of St. Peter, one in Rome, and one in Avignon. Traditionally, this event has received attention from scholars of institutional history. In this book, by contrast, Joëlle Rollo-Koster investigates the event through the prism of social drama. Marshalling liturgical, cultural, artistic, literary and archival evidence, she explores the four phases of the Schism: the breach after the 1378 election, the subsequent division of the Church, redressive actions, and reintegration of the papacy in a single pope. Investigating how popes legitimized their respective positions and the reception of these efforts, Rollo-Koster shows how the Schism influenced political thought, how unity was achieved, and how the two capitals, Rome and Avignon, responded to events. Rollo-Koster's approach humanizes the Schism, enabling us to understand the event as it was experienced by contemporaries.

Introduction
1. The Great Western Schism: a social drama
2. Performing the papacy, performing the Schism
3. Image and responses: Antonio Baldana's de magno Schismate, Ulrich Richenthal's Chronicle, and The Apocalypse Tapestry of Angers
4. Conflicting legitimacy: the Schism and the rhetoric of tyrannicide
5. Finding unity in liturgy: papal funerals and the political theology of the pope's one body
6. Rome during the Schism
7. Avignon during the Schism
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Church history [HRCC2]