2008 Woodie Awards
Professor's book shows mobs often pillaged after pope died
Robert Preliasco
Issue date: 4/9/08 Section: Campus
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Rollo-Koster said that rioting was common after the death of a pope or other high-ranking Catholic official in Medieval France and Italy. Crowds would steal everything they could, from the clothes of the deceased to gold ornaments to the floor tiles. The crowds would burn crop fields and cut down trees - essentially stealing or destroying any church property they could.
"They were really trying to prevent any usage of the goods of the church," Rollo-Koster said.
Rollo-Koster examined this phenomenon in her new book, "Raiding Saint Peter: Empty Sees, Violence and the Initiation of the Great Western Schism," which was published last month.
The author used cultural anthropology to examine historical events.
"I've been raised on events, dates and battles. Here we have a chance of knowing how humans behaved," she said about her research method.
Through this lens, Rollo-Koster said that the riots were a result of a phenomenon in anthropology and sociology known as liminal space. The time between the death of a cleric and the selection of a new one was a transition period, obviously without the supervision of the recently deceased official. She said that throughout history populations have behaved abnormally during liminal periods. This persists today with events like Carnival, which occurs just before Lent.
Rollo-Koster said the riots also had a political motive: to make sure that the needs of the peasants would be paid attention to by the replacement cleric, "a form of violent negotiating."
"What better way for the authorities to pay attention to you than to destroy?" Rollo-Koster asked. She pointed out that the French continue to hold frequent popular demonstrations, which occasionally become riots.
In her book, Rollo-Koster suggests that the tradition of rioting is involved in the Great Schism, a period in Catholic history when there were as many as three competing popes at the same time.