Poets, Saints, and Visionaries of the Great Schism, 1378-1417

Church History, March, 2007 by Kathleen G. Cushing

Poets, Saints and Visionaries of the Great Schism, 1378-1417. By Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. xiv 243 pp. $45.00 cloth.

The Great Schism has been the topic of countless studies, and one might well question the necessity of another one. This new book by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, however, adopts a quite different perspective by investigating what she terms the imaginaire of the Great Schism. Thus, rather than focusing on the prolonged events per se, Blumenfeld-Kosinski looks to assess the broader impact on Christian society of what was clearly a devastating event that forced individuals in certain parts of Europe to choose not simply between rival popes, but also between rival bishops, clerics, and even abbots and abbesses as well as secular lords. She seeks to do this principally by asking how people conceptualized the problem of the schism by exploring the ideas, prejudices, and beliefs that informed the creation of texts and images which described their reactions to what was unfolding in the period 1378-1417. The author explores these reactions through the prism of a variety of texts and images from saints, poets, and visionaries, both renowned and more obscure.

The volume begins with an introduction outlining the conceptual approach of the imaginaire. Chapter 1 considers the impact of the mid-twelfth-century papal schism through the testimony and reactions of Hildegard of Bingen, Elisabeth of Schonau, and John of Salisbury to provide context for the much more intense reactions engendered by the events of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Chapter 2 addresses the reactions of saints and visionaries to the so-called Babylonian captivity and the call for a return of the papacy to Rome from the 1360s to the beginning of the schism through the writings of Pedro of Aragon, Birgitta of Sweden, and Catherine of Siena, the latter of whom reveals an intriguing protonationalistic view of the schism (51). Chapter 3 focuses on the period from the mid-1380s when the two rival obediences had been firmly established. Here Blumenfeld-Kosinski explores the quite noticeable lack of any acquiescence to the general situation via supporters both of Urban VI (Constance de Rabastens) and the pro Clementine camp: Pierre de Luxemburg, Vincent Ferrer, and Marie Racine, the latter two of whom became increasingly disillusioned. This chapter also includes the extraordinary case of Ursulina of Parma whose hagiography depicts her as a shuttle diplomat between the two papal courts, as well as two brief case studies of Ermine de Reims and Jeanne-Marie de Maille. Chapter 4 shifts the focus to the use of political allegory to discuss the schism through the texts and ballads of Philippe de Mezieres and Eustace Deschamps. Chapter 5 continues this exploration through varied texts of Honore Bovet and Christine de Pizan. Chapter 6 addresses the use of prophecy as an expression of popular opinion and propaganda about the schism through the textual and image tradition of the Vaticinia de summis pontificibus and the works of prophets including Jean de Roquetaillade and Telesphorus of Cosenza. The volume finishes with a conclusion assessing the diverse solutions proposed by the varied visionaries, poets, and prophets.

This is without doubt one of the more interesting books I have read in recent times. Blumenfeld-Kosinski's exploration of what she terms the subjectivity of people affected by the schism as revealed in texts, ballads, and images relies on a penetrating analysis of a wide range of visionary, allegorical, and hagiographic literature. Her careful attention to the significance and use of language is outstanding and she (and Penn State University Press) is to be commended for providing not just translations of the sources on which she relies but also the original languages, as this enables the reader to judge for him/herself the value of her interpretation. Furthermore, the use of such a wide range of testimony, including well-connected individuals such as Pedro of Aragon, Catherine of Siena, and so on, as well as more obscure visionaries--whose accounts suggest not simply their very real anguish at the events but also their concerted efforts at political action--bring to life the extent to which the Great Schism left diverse parts of Christian society in a real conundrum. All in all, Blumenfeld-Kosinski's argument and use of the imaginaire are very persuasive.

That said, one has to ask whether the reactions and testimony of individuals such as Catherine of Siena, Vincent Ferrer, Pedro of Aragon, Eustace Deschamps, Christine de Pizan, Jean de Roquetaillade, and so on are that representative of the understanding and reaction of Christian society as a whole. In other words, is it really possible to speak of one imaginaire? Then there is the problem of dissemination. Of course some texts and especially Deschamps's ballads may have had a wide transmission (for instance Honore Bovet's Arbre des batailles is extant in seventy-three manuscripts), but other cases are less clear cut. Though Blumenfeld-Kosinski does acknowledge that certain texts had an extremely restricted transmission, there is perhaps a tendency to assume an audience for this material whose existence really is not proved (for example, at 102, 103, 120, and 125). Moreover, which audience does she mean? The examples of Ermine de Reims and Jeanne-Marie de Maille, for instance, come to us through clerical mediation--a problem of which Blumenfeld-Kosinksi is of course aware. Although she very convincingly shows the interplay between scholastic debate and conciliar theories emanating from the University of Paris with more popular expositions, in the end there is a sense that we are left with a handful of fascinating testimonies and reactions to the schism in diverse genres, but ones that perhaps did not extend as broadly as is implied. Nevertheless, Poets, Saints and Visionaries remains a tremendous and lucid piece of scholarship that provides a vibrant insight into the socioreligious and political mentality of later medieval European society in crisis that will be the starting point for any further work.