Prodinoscopus, you have been listening too much to your ravening wolves in the clothing of sheep. "Armchair theologians."
So does that mean that a person who learns chemistry on their own and not in a university is an armchair chemist? Or a person who learns fitness exercises on their own and not in a gym or from a personal trainer is an armchair fitness guy?
I am sure there are self taught chemists who are complete geniuses in their field and I personally know of a self taught fitness guy who can run circles around professional fitness trainers and outperform them in many feats of strength.
Come on man. You have gone from not condemning to condemning in a matter of less than a week. If you do not agree with someone's theology it is easy to call them an armchair theologian, rather than explain how their theology is false, if it is.
DeMaistre: St. Vincent Ferrer withdrew his support of the Avignon antipopes before he died. Furthermore, St. Vincent was a baptized Catholic who received the sacraments and believed all that the Church taught, and nobody had any way of knowing that Pedro De Luna was an antipope, since as Prodinoscopus mentioned, he was not heretical. Now you may ask, where is the excuse for this Saint that allows him to still attain salvation if he dies in this state?
Simple. Invincible ignorance. We know that invincible ignorance does not save a person who is outside of the Catholic Church, because they are still guilty of original sin, and they have no recourse to the forgiveness available to the children of God. But St. Vincent, as I have mentioned had already found the true faith, but knowingly following an antipope means that we are separated from the true faith, or even doing so unknowingly when it is in our power to know, since ALL have the responsibility to find the true faith.
And Pope Pius IX has told us how St. Vincenet Ferrer is off the hook for this, when he said the following:
Pope Pius IX, Singulari Quadem, December 9, 1854: "For it must be held by faith that outside the Apostolic Roman Church, no one can be saved; that this is the only ark of salvation; that he who shall not have entered therein will perish in the flood; but, on the other hand, it is necessary to hold for certain that they who labor in ignorance of the true religion, if this ignorance is invincible, are not stained by any guilt in this matter in the eyes of God."
So Ferrer, who was already in the true faith is able to be saved. Then he follows an antipope, but has no way to know he has done so. He was invincibly ignorant, and not stained by any guilt in the eyes of God. He still received valid sacraments, still held the Faith of a Catholic and still did the works of a Catholic.
Someone who never had come into the true faith, and who was invincibly ignorant of it, while not guilty of infidelity, would still be guilty of original sin and any actual sins they had committed, and would be condemned for those things, but not punished as severely as those who were guilty of infidelity.
People following the Vatican II antipopes have no such excuse, since as I said, ALL have the responsibility to find the true Faith, and just plain old ignorance does not excuse. Culpable ignorance and invincible ignorance are worlds apart.
I hope this helps.