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Papal witchcraft: the charges against Benedict XIII

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Margaret Harvey
Margaret Harvey*
Affiliation:
university of Durham
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Extract

The charges with which I shall deal in this paper were almost certainly a tissue of nonsense. Indeed a recent – hostile – account dismisses them as containing motifs presque folkloriques rappellant la legende de Sylvestre II. The folklore is itself interesting however, and so are the circumstances in which it could be delivered solemnly as fact to auditors at a general council by a powerful group including doctors of law and even a cardinal.

The circumstances in which the charges were brought were as follows: In 1409 popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII were tried by the council of Pisa, with the intention of deposing them to end the schism. First, 37 charges were brought against them, giving a fairly detailed and damning account of the recent behaviour of both in failing to keep their oaths to end the schism. Some members of die council must have felt that these charges were not adequate, however, because on 17 May 1409 the council gave permission for new charges to be added if necessary. Ten new charges were indeed prepared and heard from May 27–30, so we have the full account of the evidence of the witnesses. Among these charges are accusations of witchcraft against each pope.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 10: Sanctity and Secularity: The Church and the World , 1973 , pp. 109 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1973

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References

1 FM, XIV (1962) p 152.

2 Valois, [N.], [La France et le Grand Schisme d’ Occident] (Paris 1902 repr 1967) IV, pp 94–7 Google Scholar gives the charges with some comment. Puig, [S] y Puig, , [Pedro de Luna, ultimo Papa de Aviñon 1387-1430] (Barcelona 1920) pp 208-14Google Scholar repeats Valois with a few additions.

3 Vincke, [Q.], [‘Acta Concilii Pisani’], Römische Quartalschrift 46 (Rome 1938) pp 213-94Google Scholar.

4 Ibid p 163.

5 Ibid pp 185-208. Valois is worth consulting because in some cases his transcriptions are better than Vincke’s.

6 Ibid pp 183-5.

7 Ibid pp 192,205

8 DHCE III col 1420.

9 Vincke p 186. His evidence was suspect. He was litigating to obtain Fréjus and was probably relying on Pisa to ratify his title, Eubel, C., Hierarchia Catholka Medii Aevi (Münster 1913) 1, p. 263 Google Scholar. He was not disappointed. He was consecrated by Alexander V. Vincke pp 214, 216, 233 shows him active in Benedict’s service and speaking with pope and cardinals.

10 Valois III p 367. The death was on 27 April 1404. Philip was Benedict’s chief opponent.

11 Puig y Puig app no LXXXVI, p 534, a letter from Diego Navarro.

12 Vincke p 191.

13 Ibid p 196.

14 Ibid p 194.

15 Ibid p 204.

16 A convenient summary of information in DHGE XVI cols 252-5.

17 Vincke p 202. See also ibid p 154, Valois IV pp 45-6 and [Martin de] Alpartil, [Chronica actitatorum temporibus d. Benedicti pape XIII] ed Ehrle, F., Görres Gesellschaft (Paderborn 1906) pp 375 Google Scholar ff for his activity as a letter carrier. Valois IV p 309 shows him as notary for the French nation at Constance.

18 Reeves, [M.], [The influence of prophecy in the later Middle Ages. A study in Joachimism] (Oxford 1969) pp 222-3Google Scholar.

19 Jean Guiard refers to Eximenis, a béguin, a hermit and friar John Benedict de Bergerac (Vincke p 202).

20 Ibid p 197.

21 Ibid p 203.

22 Reeves, [M.]. ‘Some Popular Prophecies [from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries’], SCH 8, edd Cuming, G. J. and Baker, D. (Cambridge 1971) pp 107-34Google Scholar.

23 Reeves pp 203-7, 221-4.

24 Vincke p 204.

25 Ibid pp 187-9.

26 Benedict XIII was in Savona from 8 October 1405, Valois III p 415.

27 Vincke pp 202-3.

28 A Catalogue [of Incipits of Medieval Scientific writings in Latin], edd Thorndike, L. and Kibre, P., The Medieval Society of America, 29 (London 1963) pp 227, 458Google Scholar; Thorndike, [L]., [History of Magic and Experimental Science] (New York 1923) 11 pp 280-9Google Scholar.

29 A Catalogue p 449; Thorndike, L. ‘Traditional Medieval Tracts Concerning Engraved Images’, Mélanges Auguste Pelzer (Louvain 1947) p 255 Google Scholar; Thorndike II p 258.

30 Vincke p 200.

31 Valois III p 548, for the date of leaving Nice. Vincke p 191.

32 Pons Gaude, a minorite from Aubenas in the diocese of Viviers, ibid p 306.

33 Carmody, F. J., Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1956) pp 40 ffGoogle Scholar; Haskins, C. H., Studies in the History of Medieval Science (repr New York 1960) p 44 Google Scholar.

34 Valois IV p 95 n 3; Faucon, M., La Librairie des Papes d’Avignon, 2, Bibliothèque des Ecoles Françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, L (Paris 1887) pp 49. 51.141.Google Scholar The work by Ali Abenragel called De judiáis stellarum, is by a muslim astrologer Ibn-L-Rijal. It was a most popular book on horoscopes. Compare Sarton, G., Introduction to the History of Science, 1 (Washington 1948) pp 715-18Google Scholar.

35 Luc, P., ‘Un complot [contre Benoit XIII’], Mélanges d’archaeologie et d’histoire 55 (1938) pp 374–402 Google Scholar.

36 Gerson, J., Œuvres Complètes II, l’œuvre Epistolare, ed Glorieux, mgr (Paris 1960) p 222 Google Scholar, inter veram astronomiam et superstitiosam magicam.

37 Vincke pp 186, 207.

38 Ibid p 207.

39 Ibid p 199.

40 Ibid p 202.

41 Ibid p 191.

42 Ibid p 202.

43 Ibid pp 191-2.

115 44 Reeves, ‘Some Popular Prophecies’ p 117.

45 Valois IV, p 97, n 3, referring to Konigshofen, , Chroniken der deutschen städle, IX, p 613 Google Scholar.

46 Evidence of Jean de Brogny cardinal of Viviers, Dominic Petit, Pileo de Marini archbishop of Genoa, Regucius Symonis de Ancona (a writer of apostolic letters), Pierre Fabre, Jacobus Cabassolis chamberlain to cardinal Amadeo de Saluzzo, François de Chissé, Gilles le Jeune; Vincke pp 186,194,196, 197,199, 206.

47 See 35 above.

48 One of the items in the box left by the plotters was a letter from the cardinal of St Angelo, Pierre Blau, to cardinal Amadeo de Saluzzo about ending the schism. Poncet is mentioned in it as their go-between. Luc, ‘Un complot’ p 391.

49 Valois IV p 92.

50 Tierney, B., Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (Cambridge 1955) pp 8, 60–7, 214-15Google Scholar.

51 Causa XXVI q 2 c 9; q 5 passim and esp c 5. Pedro de Saluzzo (Vincke p 194) represented himself as saying to friar Alvarez ‘Since that art is forbidden to all and is especially shameful in a pope why is it used?’

52 Dupuy, P., Histoire du differend d’entre le pape Boniface VIII et Philippe le Bel, Roy de France (Paris 1655) pp 324 Google Scholar, 331 ff.

53 Myers, A. R., ‘Captivity of a Royal Witch’ BJRL 24 (1940) pp 263-84, esp 273-5Google Scholar.