I am culling a principle
The point being, it was not strictly considered a profession of a particular man. It was merely implied that you wanted to be in union with the pope, whomever he is. The profession is the formal intention.
Agreed.
But, it is still a bad example, to use compared to now.
During these times one must decide if they believe the papal claimants since Vatican II are just bad dad Popes who are really really naughty and sin 'o' bunch, downplaying or flat out denying papal infallibility, and the necessary unity in faith among members.
Or, they are convicted with moral certitude that the men who claim to be Pope are actually quite manifestly and publicly heretical and therefore are the head of nothing and as a result hold no communion with true Catholics (and those same Catholics openly declare that they have no communion with the pretenders either).
If I have moral certitude that something done is an evil, I cannot participate in it without implicating myself in the crime, because I would be acting against my conscience. Now, maybe the thing I thought was an evil is actually no evil at all, but it would be a sin to against against the moral certainty I was convicted of.
According to the teaching of St. Thomas, If you have knowledge of the priest's unrepented lifestyle ( even other-less-serious sins compared to heresy - such as having a mistress) you cannot participate at his Masses without sin.
For sedes who have moral certitude about the manifest heresy of the post-conciliar claimants it is the same principle.
It is great that everyone agrees that having the formal intention to be united to the papacy as one in faith and subordination to legitimate authority is 100% Catholic.
we all agree that no one during the Western Schism concerned themselves with the debate simply because heresy was a non-issue.
Yet, It would be false to omit the critical distinction that when one has moral certitude that an evil is being committed that they are free to join themselves to those acts without sinning, and in this case, that evil would be to name a manifest, public, heretic as being one in eccelsisial faith and subordination before God, which would be to give public credence to what you believe is lie and it would be to scandalize all those who do not understand that a manifest, heretic cannot be Pope.
Again, the crucial distinction is,
does one have this moral certitude or not? Maybe some people don't have it because they haven't studied the issues,
maybe some people don't have it because they disagree,
maybe some people don't have it because they have something to lose,
maybe...etc.
If you have this moral certitude, you must follow your Catholic conscience.
If you don't, you must follow your Catholic conscience.
But, this is why it is an issue for some. It is based on Catholic principles. It is no mad thing to think twice before saying to God during the Holy Sacrifice that you are in communion with heretics and subordinate to them. It is very Catholic indeed to pause and do some searching on that.