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D'ailly's Epistola Diaboli Leviathan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Irving W. Raymond
Irving W. Raymond
Affiliation:
Brooklyn College
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Extract

The morning of April 8, 1348, began on an ominous note. Milling and shouting thousands covered the area of St. Peter's and surrounded the palace where the cardinals had entered into conclave the day before to elect the successor of Gregory XI, who had chanced to die before returning to Avignon. The Romans were desperate. For nearly seventy years they had lost to Avignon the revenues that had handsomely supported Rome. The city was poverty-stricken; churches and monasteries were in ruins, papal properties dissipated, and rebellion was smoldering. During the customary nine days elapsing between the death of the former pope and election of a new one, citizens and municipal officials of Rome had visited individual cardinals to inform them that they must elect a pope who would reestablish the Holy See in Rome, making it clear that they could not answer for the safety of the cardinals if the latter acted contrary to their wishes.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 22 , Issue 3 , September 1953 , pp. 181 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1953

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References

1. The basic work on the Great Schism is Valois, Noël, La France et le grand schisme d'occident, 4 vols. (Paris, 1896–1902).Google Scholar The circumstances of the disputed election are described in Vol. I, 3–84. Other standard accounts are Salembier, L., The Great Schism of the West (New York, 1907)Google Scholar; Flick, A. C., The Decline of the Medieval Church, 2 vols. (New York, 1930)Google Scholar; Jordan, G. J., The Inner History of the Great Schism of the West (London, 1930)Google Scholar; Ullmann, W., The Origins of the Great Schism (London, 1948)Google Scholar. Shorter accounts are Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, article, “Schisme d'occident,” Vol. XIV, 1468–92:Google ScholarRealencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3rd edition, articleGoogle Scholar, “Schisma,” Vol. XVII, 575–80Google Scholar; and Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. VII, 288–304.Google Scholar See also the forthcoming Advocates of Reform, (M. Spinka, ed., Philadelphia, 1953)Google Scholar in which there are English translations of basic documents of the era of Conciliarism.

2. The standard biographies are Tschackert, P., Peter von Ailli (Gotha, 1877)Google Scholar and Salembier, L., Le cardinal Pierre D'Ailly (Tourcoing, 1932).Google Scholar The former does the article, “Ailly” in Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques, Vol. I, 1154–65Google Scholar, and in Dictionnaire de théologie catholique, Vol. I, 642–54;Google Scholar the latter is the author of the article “Ailly” in Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 3rd edition, Vol I, 274–80.Google ScholarBertola, Cesare has a short account in Enciclopedia Cattolica, Vol. I, 598–601.Google Scholar

3. Valois, N., La France et le grand schisme d'occident, Vol. I, 358.Google Scholar

4. Our text is that of Tschackert, P.. Peter von Ailli, Appendix V, pp. 15–21.Google Scholar It is based on a modern copy of an older manuscript. See N. Noël, op. cit., p. 358, footnote 2, and P. Tschackert, op. cit., pp. 15–16, Footnote 2. The Latin works of Pierre d'ailly are listed in Tschackert, op. cit., pp. 348–366; the French titles can be found in Salembier, L., Les oeuvres françaises du Cardinal Pierre d'ailly (Paris, 1907).Google Scholar So far, there are 174 known works. It may be that D'Ailly's wish, expressed in his last testament—that all his works be published—will be realized in our own day.

5. Read conglobatis instead of conglebatis.

6. A play on words: de concilio vobis dat consilium.