Expert: Charles White - 9/14/2004

Question
Hi I was wondering if you knew anything about the early days of Pope John XIII when he went by the name Baldassare Cossa.  Before he was governor of Bologna it was said that he was an adventurer/pirate type person and I was hoping you would have a resource as to the name of the ship he sailed.  I realize its a bit obscure, but was just wondering if you knew anything about this, thank you very much.

paul Riermaier  

Answer
Hi Paul,

This is actually a very interesting Pope. As I'm sure you are aware, he was a schism pope. It is interesting that the charges leveled against Pope John XXIII are very similar to those against the Knights Templar. This could be indicative of an attempt to oust this cleric or could be true given his pirate/militaristic background.

I'm not able to find many details regarding his life before becoming a member of the church besides references to his connections to the Medici family and their support for him as pope.

Here is some good info from an entry that I found.
Baldassare Cossa, son of Giovanni, lord of the isleof Procida near Naples, was born into a family thatdrew more resources from the sea than from the land. Despite their reputation as pirates, the Cossa marriedin high society. Baldassarre's mother and his brotherMarino's wife were Barriles, and his other two broth-ers found wives in the Brancacci and Caraccioli fami-lies. By temperament, Baldassarre Cossa was notsuited to be a cleric.

His weaknesses were emphasized by his adversaries, more of whom left behind recordsthan did his supporters: one must use their witnesswith caution. They said, wrongly, that he had two nat-ural children, but his liaison with his sister-in-law, onthe other hand, was genuine. Because he was moresuited to business than to the life of the spirit, his risein the clerical ranks seemed suspicious. His father'smoney was probably responsible for his promotion tothe rank of doctor of canon law that the University of Bologna granted him a little before 1389. He owed his career to the Neapolitan popes who took over the Roman see during the GREATSCHISM.

Already a canon of Bologna in 1386, he was admitted as a simple “regular” to the entourage of BONIFACE IX, and then became CHAMBERLAIN in 1392. In 1396, the post of archdeacon of Bologna opened greater possibilities. With this title, he had the right to oversee the affairs of the university; even more, he could hope to follow in the footsteps of his predecessors, all promoted to cardinal. Boniface IX gave him the purple, with the TITLE of San Eustachio, in 1402.In the months that followed, the pope made Baldas-sare Cossa his LEGATE to Bologna, with the mission of recovering the city, then under Visconti domination.

The cardinal took control of an army and in September 1403,became master of the city. INNOCENT VII and then GREGORY XII confirmed his legation. In 1409, the humanistand curialist Antonio Loschi described Cossa's govern-ment in glowing terms, but the Council of Constance ac-cused him of behaving as a tyrant. Modern historiansnote that his personal account with the Medicis of Flo-rence grew at a regular pace, unlike the apostolic trea-sury.[JOHN XXIII]
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Having quickly joined his unionist colleagues whobroke with Gregory XII in May of 1408, CardinalCossa joined his voice to theirs to call all Christians tounite in a COUNCILat Pisa. The choice of this city, thendominated by Florence, had been delicate, and his in-tervention with the city's leaders eased the undertaking.To go to Pisa, he went to his bank and withdrew almostall his money; probably he contributed heavily to the fi-nancing of the assembly. After having deposed the tworival popes, the Pisan cardinals chose the cardinal ofMilan over Cossa to preside over the destinies of thePisan alliance.The new pope, ALEXANDERV, was followed by every-one who had participated in the Pisan Council, but hecould not go to Rome, which was controlled by Ladislasof Durazzo, who had sided with Gregory XII. To opposeLadislas, the Pisans had chosen to support the pretensionsof Louis II of Anjou to the throne of Naples. CardinalCossa again became a leader in battle; despite his familyties on Ladislas's side, he immersed himself totally in thewar and was first to enter Rome, in October 1409. Thenthe energetic legate went back to his home in Bologna,where Alexander V joined him. The pontiff died there—anatural death, no matter what rumor imputed to CardinalCossa.On 17 May 1410, after three days of CONCLAVE, Bal-dassarre Cossa was elected. He was ordained a priest be-fore being crowned. He suspended the BULLSof Alexan-der V in favor of the mendicants, but he continued hispolicy of benefices, and he tried to raise a TITHEto pay forthe Italian war. Meanwhile, Ladislas of Durazzo had re-taken Rome, and Louis II of Anjou was in great need ofsupport. The pontiff assumed direction of military opera-tions and, after his entry into Rome on 12 April 1411, avictory at Roccasecca seemed to consolidate his position.The prince of Anjou, however, went back to France withno intention to return.In order to remain in Rome, John XXIII chose to makepeace with Ladislas (June 1412). The time had come tokeep the promise made in Pisa to call a council again forthe reform of the Church. Recent promotions of cardi-nals seemed a good omen, for men like Pierre d'Aillyand Francesco Zabarella, known for their openminded-ness, had been chosen. But the Council of Rome drewfew participants; in March 1413, the pope decided to endit, without making any other commitment. In June Ladis-las entered Rome again, sacking it and driving the popenorth. In his retreat, the pope found himself confrontedwith pressing demands from Sigismund, king of Hun-gary, who had just been elected king of the Romansthanks to his clever religious politics. Confronted by thepartisans of Gregory XII, this candidate for the imperialthrone promised to guarantee the unity of the Churchrather than to uphold the Pisan legitimacy, and he pro-posed to recall the council to deal with all schismatics.This brought him the sympathy of the reformers. JohnXXIII was in no position to negotiate; he resigned him-self to accepting imperial hospitality and, even beforehe had released a bull of convocation, Sigismund issuedan edict announcing the opening of the next council atConstance on 1 November 1414.John XXIII arrived promptly for the meeting. Bythe first session he realized that even the most union-ist prelates were ready to sacrifice him to achievetheir own goals. In view of the experience of GregoryXII and BENEDICTXIII, he was urged to set an exam-ple and resign rather than be deposed. The partisansof this idea urged him, with the support of Sigis-mund, and the atmosphere grew tense. To avoid thetrap closing around him, John XXIII left Constancein disguise during the night of 20–21 March 1415 andfled to Schaffousen to stay with the duke of Austria.Some cardinals tried to intervene between the twocamps, but with Sigismund threatening him, Johnchose to take flight and tried to cross the Rhine. Thissucceeded in discrediting him in the eyes of the coun-cil: having proclaimed the supremacy of the councilover the pope, they sent out a summons for John toappear before them, which caught up with the fugi-tive at Freiburg. Sigismund induced the duke of Aus-tria to turn the city over to him, and he captured thepope.At that, Baldassare Cossa ceased all resistance. Thecouncil fathers held his trial and issued accusations ofambition,SIMONY, bad conduct, and tyranny. He was de-posed on 29 May. Imprisoned in the castle of Radolfzellon Lake Constance, he received his sentence humbly.His imprisonment did not end until June 1419. He soonmade an act of submission before MARTINV, who gavehim the title of cardinal of Frascati. Six months later, hedied. He was buried in the baptistry of Florence, wherehis tomb is ornamented with the work of Donatello andMichelozzo.Hélène MilletBibliographyBlumenthal, H. “Johan XXIII, seine Wahl und seine Per-sönlichkeit, ZKG, 21 (1901), 488–516.De Niem, T. “De vita . . . Johannis XXIII,” ed. H. VonDer Hardt, Magnum oecumenicum Constantiense con-cilium, vol. 2, Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1697, 335–460.Esch, A. “Das Papstum unter der Herrschaft desNeapolitaner,” Festschrift für H. Heimpel, 2, Göttin-gen, 1972, 713–800.Favier, J. Les Finances pontificales à l'époque du GrandSchisme d'Occident 1378–1409, Paris, 1966, 680–3.(BEFAR, 211).Girgensohn, D. “Antonio Loschi und Baldassarre Cossavor dem Pisaner Konzil von 1409,” Italia medioevale eumanistica, 30 (1987), 1–93.[JOHN XXIII]852