Centuries later, Catherine would be rewarded by being made patron saint of Italy and Europe. But it would be years before Rome recovered from the Avignon Exile. Rome was in need of a strong ruler, but the papacy was now bizarrely weakened. The Pope may have been back in Rome, but at the end of the 14th century, the French king elected a rival pope, an antipope, over in Avignon. Kings and emperors now felt they could appoint their own popes to suit themselves. The situation got so ridiculous that, at times, there were three popes in three different cities all claiming to be supreme pontiff. This became known as the Western Schism. Rome would never reign supreme while the papacy was a laughing stock. I've come to the place where the schism ended and the resurgence began, where the Romans claimed back their papacy. This is the largest private palace in Rome, and it's still the home of the Colonna family.


几百年后，凯瑟琳将被奉为意大利乃至全欧洲的守护神。但罗马要从“阿维尼翁流亡”(Avignon Exile)缓过劲来，还得再过几个年头。罗马缺的是一位强有力的统治者，但是现在教皇的势力被离奇地削弱了。尽管教皇回到了罗马，但在14世纪末，法国国王在阿维尼翁选了一名“对立教皇”(antipope)同罗马教皇抗衡。这下君王们认为，他们可以随心所欲地指派自己的教皇了。整个局面荒谬到，有时候同时会有三个城市的三位教皇，各自宣称自己才是至高无上的主教。这一事件后被称为“西方教会大分裂”。教皇一职成了笑柄，在这种情况下，罗马再不可能高高在上，占据统治地位。 我现在来到的这个地方是分裂结束、中兴开始之处。罗马人在这重新树立了教皇的权威。这是罗马最大的私人宫殿，现在仍是科勒纳斯家族的宅邸。