Editing Saint Joan of Arc (Jeanne la Pucelle)/Saving Catholicism (section)

=== '''The Babylonian Captivity''' ===
Joan herself was born amidst an ongoing papal schism. When she was five years old, the "Western Schism"<ref>The Eastern Schism would be the earlier break with the Easter church at Byzantium.</ref> of 1378 was finally settled with a consensus selection at Rome of Pope Martin V, although two rival claims persisted.<ref>The Schism was ended by the Council of Constance (1414–1418) that was made possible by the 1415 resignation of the Roman Pope Gregory XII. The Council deposed the sitting Avignon (anti)Pope, Benedict XIII, and another (anti)Pope at Rome, John XXIII, and then elected in 1417 Martin V. Originally backed by certain French bishops and various regions in Italy and Germany, John XXIII left Rome but ended up surrendering and being tried for heresy. The Avignon (anti)Pope Benedict XIII fled to the protection of the King of Aragon, continuing his claim as Pope of Avignon. His successor under the Aragon King was Clement VIII (1423-1429) although a dissenting Cardinal (of four who selected Clement) from Rodiz, France, in 1424 made a one-man appointment of his sacristan as (anti)Pope Benedict XIV.</ref> However, the antipope from Avignon, Benedict XIII, refused to concede, and he moved to Spain under the protection of the King of Aragon who used his presence there for leverage on other issues with Rome. It was Benedict's successor, the antipope Clement VIII who twelve years later finally gave up on the project on July 26, 1429 when the King of Aragon withdrew his support for him.<ref>The Aragon King Alfonso V did not have the support of the Aragon bishop in his backing of Clement VIII, but he did so in his pursuit of Naples. When antipope Clement VIII abdicated, he and his supporting Bishops held a proforma election for Martin V (who was already Pope), thus affirming their loyalty, as well as to perform a penitential ''in forma'' submission to Martin.</ref> Note the date: Joan's triumph at Orléans was in May and the coronation of Charles VII at Rheims occurred on July 17. 
There is an interesting parallel to Joan in the Schism itself, precipitated by Pope Gregory XI's move from Avignon to Rome in 1377, ending the uncontested "Avignon Papacy" but prompting the schismatic, French-backed papacy back at Avignon. Known as the "Babylonian Captivity," the official Avignon papacy lasted through seven Popes across sixty-seven years. We see in these events an inversion of antagonists from that of Joan's day: Where the English provoked God's wrath in the Hundred Year's War, the French caught themselves up in less-than-holy entanglements during the Avignon period, which ended only after the intervention of another female Saint, Catherine of Sienna.

In 1289, Pope Pope Nicholas IV allowed the French King Philip IV to collect a one-time Crusades tithe from certain territories under Rudolf of Habsburg (who was not happy about it) in order to pay down Philip's war debts. With the costs of ongoing wars with Aragon, England and Flanders, Philip was up to his ears in financial gamesmanship, including debasement of the currency, bans on export of bullion, and seizure of the assets of Lombard merchants. In 1296, he imposed a severe tax upon Church lands and clergy in France, which didn't go over well with Rome. Pope Boniface VIII responded with the first of three Papal Bulls aimed at Philip denying his right to tax the Church without papal permission and generally asserting papal over secular authority. 
[[File:Palazzo_dei_papi,_Anagni.jpg|thumb|<small>The "Palace of the Popes" in Anagni, south of Rome, where Philip IV attacked Pope Boniface VIII (wikipedia)</small>]]
The Pope compromised by allowing such a tax for emergencies only, and Philip went ahead anyway with at least some. Things escalated from there, with Philip prosecuting clerical agents from Rome in royal courts and the Pope issuing a wonderfully named Bull, ''Ausculta Fili'' ("Listen, My Son"), which Philip not only ignored but had burned in public. Boniface called the French Bishops to Rome, the assembly of which Philip preempted by convening the first Estates General in France, a council with representatives from the nobility, clergy, and commons. Boniface issued another Bull asserting Papal authority and excommunicated anyone, ''ahem'', who prevented clerics from traveling to Rome. Philip did the obvious thing and sent a small army of sixty troops to arrest the Pope and force his abdication. The soldiers stormed the papal estate at Anagni, south of Rome, and held him for three days until residents retaliated and rescued the Pope from the French.<ref>When the expedition's military commander, Sciarra Colonna, demanded the Pope's abdication and was told that the Pope would "sooner die," Colonna slapped him. The incident is known as the ''schiaffo di Anagni'' ("Anagni slap").  Boniface had been caught up in a feud within the Colonna family which led to devastation of villages by one brother over the assurances from Boniface that they would be spared. Dante Alighieri avenged the incident by placing Boniface in the Eight Circle of Hell in The Inferno.</ref> Now Philip got an excommunication directed at him personally. Boniface, though, likely from injuries or trauma suffered from the attack, and possibly from poisoning by the French, died shortly after. 

Philip's excursion to Anagni put pressure on the subsequent Papal conclave to avoid further antagonism with him. The next Pope, Benedict XI, rescinded the excommunication but not that of Philip's minister who led the attack on Boniface<ref>Benedict XI, as Cardinal Niccolò of Treviso, was present at the attack on Boniface at Agnini.</ref>, thus leaving the conflict unsettled. Benedict, though, died within a year,<ref>Benedict XI was known for his holiness, and over the years his tomb came to be associated with numerous miracles. In 1736 he was beatified, so he is "Pope Blessed Benedict XI."</ref> and after a year-long impasse between French and Italian Cardinals at the ensuing Conclave, Philip had his way with selection of the Frenchman, Raymond Bertrand de Got, as Pope Clement V. Clement basically did Philip's will, which included effective rescindment of Boniface's Bulls, a posthumous inquisition into Boniface in order to discredit him (which failed), sanction of Philip's arrest of the Knights Templar, and, most importantly, move of the entire Papal court to Avignon in the south of France. This was 1309.

==== Return from exile: Gregory XI & Saint Catherine of Sienna ====
Philip's capture of the Papacy worked well for him but no so much for the Church, which, bound to French dominance, lost its legitimacy elsewhere. At first the old enemies of Philip, England and Aragon, found it convenient not to have to deal with the Italians in Rome so did not object. However, a succession crisis among Philip IV's heirs led to the English claims on the French throne and outbreak of the Hundred Years War, over which the Avignon Papacy, while maintaining neutrality and assisting in treaty settlements, leaned towards the French side. So when Gregory XI moved the papacy back to Rome in 1376, the French were furious while the English could sit on their hands and shrug, "oh well." No objection them. And no objection, either, from the Holy Roman Emperor, whose brand was quite literally diluted by the move from Rome to Avignon.   
[[File:Western_schism_1378-1417.svg|thumb|<small>Map showing support for Avignon (red) and Rome (blue) during the Western Schism (Wikipedia)</small>]]
Shortly after arriving at Rome, Gregory died. Under the threats from a Roman mob to appoint an Italian, i.e., not a French pope, and with disunity and among the French faction, as well as absence of some of the French Cardinals, the Conclave compromised on a bishop from Naples<ref>The Roman mobs disliked having a Neapolitan pope only slightly less than they disliked having a French pope.</ref>, who became Urban VI.   

Two years later, with Urban refusing to return to Avignon, the French Cardinals held their own conclave south of Rome at Anagni, at invitation of the Count thereof, Onorato Caetani, who was angry at Urban VI for removing him from lands appointed to him by Gregory XI.<ref>Urban IV was stepping on lots of toes as he tried to reel back clerical political entanglements. For the Count of Agnagi, see [[wikipedia:Onorato_Caetani_(died_1400)|Onorato Caetani (died 1400) - Wikipedia]]</ref> The French Bishops selected a rather complicated man, Robert of Geneva, son of the Count of Geneva, who had studied at the Sorbonne, held a rectory in England, and earned the nickname "Butcher of Cesena" for authorizing the massacre of three to eight thousand people for the town's participation in a 1377 rebellion against the Papal States (lands directly ruled by the Pope). Now Clement VII, Caetani tried to set up shop in Naples, but was chased out of town by a mob who supported the Roman Pope, shouting, "Death to the Antichrist!" King Charles V of France, who certainly had a say in Caetani's selection, welcomed him back to Avignon as Clement VII and gathered support from various regions and countries who, for whatever reason, preferred France over England, such as the Scottish who went with whatever the English did not.  

This time period crosses with that of Saint Bridget of Sweden (1303-1373) who was terribly upset at the Avignon papacy, but whose pleadings to the Church to return to Rome were ignored. In 1350, Bridget sought papal authorization for her order, the Bridgettines, but she refused to go to Avignon, and went to Rome instead where she awaited the Pope's return -- which occurred finally in 1367 when the Avignon Pope Urban V visited Rome as a symbolic gesture of a permanent return. In Rome, he ran the Holy See from the Vatican but ran into various problems with local lords who had gotten used to having things their way. Along with rebellions within the Papal States (taking advantage of the absence of Rome), Urban faced trouble with the bishops back at Avignon who demanded his return. He did grant Saint Bridget her order in 1370, but as he prepared that year to return to Avignon, Saint Bridget told him that if he left Rome he would die. He did, and three and a half months later he died.  

Urban's successor, Pierre Roger de Beaufort<ref>His uncle, the Bishop of Rouen, was the Avignon Pope Clement VI. Beaufort was a "Cardinal Deacon" and not a priest, and hesitated to accept the position. (See [https://cardinals.fiu.edu/conclave-xiv.htm#1370 The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church - Conclaves by century]) He was ordained the day before crowning as Gregory XI. For his biography, see [https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06799a.htm CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope Gregory XI]</ref>, who became Gregory XI, had witnessed in person Bridget's prophesy to Urban V<ref>See [[wikipedia:Pope_Urban_V#To_Rome_and_back|Pope Urban V - Wikipedia]]</ref>, which may have, one can imagine, at least been in the back of his mind when he privately vowed before God to return the papacy to Rome should he be selected as Pope. Whatever the intention, for the first years of his papacy there were plenty of fires to put out (or try) and reforms to institute, including, interestingly, his 1373 ''règle d'idiom'', which instructed clergy to speak the local vernacular to their flocks outside of the liturgy, came well before the proto-Protestant heretic John Wycliffe translated the Bible into English.<ref>Wycliffe's radicalism led to Gregory's five 1377 Bulls against Wycliff.</ref> Gregory's attempts to reconcile the kings of France and England failed.   

The Avignon papacy was not tenable. And no matter how you look at it, Saint Peter died at Rome and not Avignon. Gregory XI seemed to think so, anyway, but he only acted on the conviction at the insistence of Saint Catherine of Sienna (1347-1380). Saint Catherine had picked up where Saint Bridget had left off,<ref>From Urban V's return to Rome through to her death, Bridget remained in Rome but focused setting up and financing her order and on other spiritual matters.</ref> dictating a series of letters to the Pope commanding him, among things, to return to Rome and in language Gregory characterized as having an “intolerably dictatorial tone, a little sweetened with expressions of her perfect Christian deference.”<ref>[https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all-ages/saint-catherine-of-siena-1347-1380/ Saint Catherine of Siena, 1347-1380 | Loyola Press]</ref> Not sure if it's Catherine so much as Gregory not wanting to hear it.<ref>Saint Joan of Arc issued similar exhortations.

In what seems a reference to Catherine of Sienna, although she was not yet canonized, an English witness of Joan at the trial compared her to Catherine:

"Her incontestable victory in the argument with the masters of theology makes her like another Saint Catherine come down to earth."

Pernoud, Regine. Joan of Arc: By Herself and Her Witnesses (p. 131). Scarborough House. Kindle Edition. </ref> For example, she wrote,  <blockquote>

I have prayed, and shall pray, sweet and good Jesus that He free you from all servile fear, and that holy fear alone remain.  May ardor of charity be in you, in such wise as shall prevent you from hearing the voice of incarnate demons, and heeding the counsel of perverse counselors, settled in self-love, who, as I understand, want to alarm you, so as to prevent your return, saying, “You will die.”  Up, father, like a man!  For I tell you that you have no need to fear.<ref>[https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-st-catherine-brought-the-pope-back-to-rome How St. Catherine Brought the Pope Back to Rome | Catholic Answers Magazine] cites ''St. Catherine of Siena as Seen in Her Letters'', ed. Vida D. Scudder (London, 1911), 165-166. 

The webpage seems to conflate this letter with another from that source on p. 185.   << to cofirrm</ref>  </blockquote>

In 1376, Catherine traveled to Avignon on behalf of the Republic of Florence to negotiate a peace with the Papal States.<ref>As did the 19th century French historian Michelet, it's easy to forget that this is at the cusp of what Michelet termed the "Renaissance," which means this period and the "Renaissance" were actually one, not distinct periods. A lot was going on.</ref> She failed at the immediate mission<ref>Catherine became famous across Tuscany as a holy woman (''santa donna)'' for her acts of charity, especially for the sick, as well as her calls for clerical reform general repentance through "total love for God." Florence was in rebellion from the Papal States and under a papal interdict, so it was thought that Catherine, who called for reconciliation with the Vatican, could yield advantageous returns. However, both sides succumbed to distrustful elements who did not want to see her succeed. After Gregory XI moved to Rome, he sent her back to Florence, this time on his behalf. While she was there, Gregory died and street riots broke out, likely due to longstanding frustration with the papal interdict, the larger conflict which had disrupted the economy and led to increased taxes, and the general policies of the guilds that ran Florence. That July a more general rebellion arose, the Ciompi Revolt, led by discontented wool workers in which Saint Catherine was nearly killed. The shocked calm that followed the rebellion led to reconciliation with the new Pope Urban VI.</ref> but through a divine inspiration won a far more important one: when they met, she told him that she knew of his private vow to return the papacy to Rome.<ref>[https://www.catholic.com/magazine/online-edition/how-st-catherine-brought-the-pope-back-to-rome How St. Catherine Brought the Pope Back to Rome | Catholic Answers Magazine]</ref> He so decided, but wavered in face of strenuous French objections. When Catherine heard of the indecision, she wrote,  <blockquote>I beg of you, on behalf of Christ crucified, that you be not a timorous child but manly. Open your mouth and swallow down the bitter for the sweet.</blockquote>In January of 1377, Gregory moved the papacy back to Rome. He soon after died, and his successor Urban VI refused to return to Avignon, where the French bishops held their own conclave and selected Clement VII, the first antipope of the "Western Schism" that would last almost seventy years, and that would lay the ground for the Martin Luther and the protestant schisms that followed.