Joëlle Rollo-Koster

Failed Ritual? Medieval Papal Funerals and the Death of Clement VI (1352)

It is the purpose of this chapter to investigate if and how the arrival of the Black Death in 1348 influenced the burial practice and funerary ritual of the late medieval papacy using the case of Clement VI’s 1352 burial as a test. After reviewing summarily the recent historiography on the Black Death and burial practices, this essay will concentrate on papal death ritual, relying on Pierre Ameil’s ordo (ceremonial book). The chapter will detail the orchestration of funerary practice during the pope’s agony, embalming, exposition of the corpse, and transport to the funerary chapel. The 1352 funeral of Clement demonstrates that protocol was not followed raising the question of the plague’s influence on this ritual.

Looting The Empty See: The Great Western Schism

The aim of this chapter is to continue the chronology of pillaging by focusing on the initiation of Great Western Schism that lasted between 1378 and 1417. Testimonies anchor the 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 liminal violence affected the events that surrounded the initiation of the Schism. French popes ruled from Rome before Avignon. Much of the responsibility of April 1378 has been blamed on the return of the papacy to Rome. Liturgy, ritual, and space offer a way to gauge Romes appreciation of Gregory XIs return. Most historians have concluded that a general atmosphere of violence that marred the 1378 Empty See were a consequence of its special character.Keywords: Avignon; electoral pillaging; empty see looting; great western schism; liminal violence; liturgy; papal interregna; Pope Gregory XI; Rome 1378