Riccardo Caracciolo

This period was marked by the Great Western Schism when two popes were elected contemporaneously. Pope Urban VI, regarded as the legitimate pope, remained in Rome whilst Clement VII, who was the first anti-pope, took up residence in Avignon

France, Scotland, Castile, Aragon, Navarre, Portugal, Savoy, and some minor German states, Denmark, and Norway acknowledged the authority of Clement VII; the greater part of England, Ireland, and the English dominions in France, Germany, Flanders, and Italy (with exception of Naples) recognised Urban.

Urban VI, having deposed Juan Fernandez de Heredia, appointed Caracciolo Grandmaster in 1383. The Pope’s actions were never accepted or recognised by the knights in Rhodes who, seemingly unaffected by the schism, decided to assert their sovereignty by maintaining their loyalty to Heredia.

The schism however did influence the compilers of cartuleries and anthologies of the Order. The Cartulary of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem in England, loyal to Pope Urban, ignores Robert de Juillac and Juan Fernandez de Heredia. Caracciolo, on the other hand, is discounted in Archontologiae Cosmicae.

Anno MCCCLXXXII. alius conventus generalis Rhodifuit celebratus, in quo decretum fuit, ut magnus Magister in Galliam proficisceretur: qui cum venisset Avenionem, ipse et rotus Ordo S. Ioannis Papam Clementem VII. verum Domini nostri Iesu Christi Vicarium agnovit: et fuit habitum Capitulum generale Ordinis Valentiae ad Rhodanum. Ob hanc causam Papa Urbanus VI. illum magni Magistri dignitate prinavit, surrogato in ipsius locum fratre Richardo Caracciolo Neapolitano, anno MCCCLXXXIII. Verum Ordo hunc pro magno Magistro numquam habuit, qui vivente adhuc Herediano obiit Romae, anno MCCCXCV.

Avity, Pierre d’; Gottfried, Johann Ludwig: Archontologiae Cosmicae, Liber III: Origo Ordinum Militarium, tam Regularium, Frankfurt am Main, 1628