Description
Book SynopsisThe Great Schism (13781417) divided Western Christendom into two groups: those who recognized a pope in Rome and those who recognized one in Avignon. It was a crisis of authority that brought with it spiritual anxiety and political uproar. This book presents the responses of two fascinating women whose experiences demonstrate the impact of the Schism on ordinary Christians. Constance de Rabastens (active 13841386), who lived in a village in rural Languedoc, had dramatic visions indicting the Avignon pope Clement VII, despite his being recognized in her region. Ursulina of Parma (13751408), a diminutive young woman from an urban milieu in Italy, believed that she was commanded by Christ to engage in shuttle diplomacy between the Roman and Avignon papacies in order to end the Schism.Two Women of the Great Schismtranslates an account of Constance's visionary experiences as recorded by her confessor Raymond de Sabanac and a posthumous biography of Ursulina by Simone Zanacchi, a pious abbot who wrote some sixty years after his subject's death. These texts bring to life the extraordinary spiritual and political engagement of two late medieval women who refused to be passive bystanders as rival papal factions tore Christendom apart.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix
Abbreviations xi
Editors’ Introduction 1
Translations
The Revelations of Constance de Rabastens by Raymond de Sabanac 35
Life of the Blessed Ursulina of Parma by Simone Zanacchi 75
Appendix: Papal Bulls Issued to Ursulina of Parma, 1396 120
Volume Editors’ Bibliography 123
Index 129
