Sale: CNG 66, Lot: 1943. Estimate $2500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 19 May 2004.  Sold For $2500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ITALY, Papal States. John XXIII, Antipope. 1410-1419. AR Grosso (2.10 gm). Rome mint. Pope seated facing, raising hand in benediction and holding cruciform sceptre / Crossed papal keys; leg above. CNI XV pg. 206, 4 var. (symbols); Muntoni IV pg. 148, 1 var. (same); Berman 256. Good VF. Very rare with the heraldic symbol. ($2500)

The Great Schism, which saw two or more Popes claiming the throne of St. Peter, was prompted by French and Italian interests seeking influence over the church. As the breach widened and involved the other nations of Catholic Europe, the contending popes hurled proclamations of anathema (denunciation of false doctrine) and excommunication (banishment from church sacraments) at each other's supporters, and declaring the other an anti-pope, or a pontiff set against the legitimate line of Peter. With John's election by the Council of Pisa in 1410, there were in fact three contending Popes: Benedict XIII (1394-1423) of the Avignon faction, Gregory XII (1406-1415), the "legitimate" pontiff in Rome and John, elected as a compromise candidate after the death of a previous anti-pope, Alexander V. Benedict lost almost all his support and died unnoticed in 1423, Gregory abdicated in 1415, and John, accused of corruption, fled to Freiburg in 1417 and was deposed in 1419. Martin V, elected in his place in 1417, finally united the various factions and healed the Schism. John, the twenty-third of that name in succession after Peter, was not considered by the Catholic church to be a legitimate Pope, so when Angelo Roncalli became Pope in 1958, he took the name John XXIII.