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POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
AND MASTER JOHN HUS OF BOHEMIA
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POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
AND MASTER JOHN HUS OF BOHEMIA
BY
EUSTACE J. KITTS
AUTHOR OP ' IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS '
ILLUSTRATED
LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED
10 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE
1910
sx,
K5 1^1^
INTRODUCTION
In this book I have endeavoured to narrate the five years'* history of three men and a movement ; the men are Pope John the Twenty-third, John Hus, the patriot reformer of Bohemia, and Sigismund, King of the Romans ; and the movement is the conciliar movement up to the middle of the year 1415.
I have already, in my book entitled In the Days of the Councils, given the history of Baldassare Cossa, who became Pope John the Twenty-third, up to the death of Pope Alexander the Fifth. Baldassare Cossa was in no sense a hero ; there were indeed very few heroes in those days. One thing which makes history so much more interesting than fiction is that the characters have their human frailties as well as their human virtues. ' II n'y a pas,"* says M. Boissier, ' de gens parfaits que dans les romans.' Baldassare Cossa was simply a strong man placed in a position for which he had striven but for which he was eminently unfit, struggling with adversity. It is in the struggle that the interest of his story lies. Up till the battle of Rocca Secca all went well with him ; after that, Fate was consistently against him. He had the misfortune to have for an enemy one of the foremost literary men of his time ; and literary men then said all that they knew was true, all that they thought was true, and much that they hoped was true. They took rumour and scandal without investigation, and gave it currency as fact. Unhappily our own greatest historian accepted all that Dietrich von Niem wrote, and the glamour of Gibbon's great name has worked evil to the repute of Pope John the Twenty-third until in these last days the patient labour of German historians has succeeded in disen- tangling fact from fiction and in painting his character in the colours of verisimilitude.
vi POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
John Hus, it is necessary to remember, was a patriot as well as a reformer. Bohemia for the Bohemians was his leading thought when he got the Teutons expelled from the University of Prague, and when he went to clear his country of the imputation of heresy at the Council of Constance. It was his hatred of the German race that made him so popular with the nobles of Hungary ; it was his influence, no less as patriot than as reformer, that inspired the Hussite Wars. Personally he was a gentle and lovable man, a follower of Wyclif in philosophy and deeply imbued with the religious views of the English reformer. As to religion it is at first sight difficult to place him. He was not a Catholic, seeing that he was burned by the Council of Constance for heresy ; nor was he, in the ordinary modern acceptation of the term, a Protestant, seeing that he venerated the Virgin Mary, believed in transubstantiation, and knew nothing of justifica- tion by faith. But if we leave isolated doctrines and come to fundamental principles, then John Hus must be adjudged the equivalent of a Protestant, for it is clear that he took the Bible as being alone the true standard and rule of faith, that he practically rejected Tradition, and disowned Church authority. In his unconscious appeal to the liberty of the individual conscience, a conscience duly enlightened by the study of the Scripture and meditation on the Fathers, and to the letter of the written Word as an authority superior to Pope or Council, John Hus was a precursor of the Refor- mation.
The character of King Sigismund is a riddle to which different answers have been given. To some he has appeared sensual, impulsive, and wanting in perseverance, while others regard him as the embodiment of all that is grandest in the German monarchy. In the five years with which I deal he had undoubtedly sobered down from the light-hearted excesses of his youth, and the influence of three fixed ideas, can be clearly traced in his policy ; he believed in the majesty of the Holy Roman Empire, the unity of the Holy Roman Church, and the expulsion of the Turks from Europe ; and to these ideas he held true throughout.
In my previous book and in the present I have sketched the
INTRODUCTION vii
rise of that conciliar spirit which an'ogated to the councils the superiority over the papacy ; and I have told the story of the Councils of Pisa, of Cividale, of Perpignan, and of Rome. With the Council of Constance I am only concerned during the first eight months of its existence, during which time its proceedings were practically unanimous and amicable, whereas later on they became conflicting and at times turbulent. I have only attempted to give the history of the Council in detail so far as the burning of John Hus. This will account for, and I hope excuse, the sketchy characters of the last two chapters of this volume.
LIST OF CARDINALS
A. LIST OF CARDINALS IN THE CONCLAVE AT THE ELECTION OF POPE JOHN XXIII.
(1) Henricus Minultulus, Neapolitan ; created cardinal 18th December
1389 by Boniface ix. ; at first Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum, then of Sabina ; was made Papal Legate of Bologna in 1411 ; died at Bologna on 18th May 1412.
(2) NicoLAus Brancacius^ Neapolitan ; Cardinal Bishop of Albano ;
created cardinal by Clement vii. in January 1378 ; died 1412.
(3) Jean de BrognYj Frenchman ; born 1342 ; Cardinal Bishop of Ostia:
also called Cardinal deViviers; created cardinal by Benedict xiii. in 1394 ; was at Constance ; died 142G.
(4) Pierre Gerard^ Bishop du Puy ; Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum ;
ci-eated cardinal by Clement vii. in October 1390 ; died 1415.
(o) Angelus de Anna, Neapolitan ; Cardinal Priest of S. Pudenziana ; known as the Cardinal of Lodi ; created cardinal by Urban vi. ; was at Constance ; died 1428.
(G) Petrus Fernandi Frias, Spaniard ; Cardinal Priest of S. Prassede ; created cardinal by Clement vii. in 1394 ; was at Constance ; died at Florence in September 1420.
(7) Conrad Caracciolo, Neapolitan ; Cardinal Priest of S. Crisogono ;
created cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; died 1411.
(8) Francesco Ugoccione of Urbino, Italian ; Archbishop of Bordeaux ;
Cardinal Priest of SS. Quattro Coronati ; created cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; died 1412.
(9). Giordano Orsini, Roman; Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Damaso; created cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; was at Constance : died 1439.
(10) Giovanni de' Megliorati ; Cardinal Priest of S. Croce in Geru-
salemme ; known as the Cardinal of Ravenna ; created cardinal by his uncle, Innocent vii., in 1405 ; died 1410.
(11) Antonius Calvus, Roman; Cardinal Priest of S. Prassede; created
cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; known as the Cardinal of Mileto ; died 1411.
X POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
(12) Raynaldus Bbancacius, Neapolitan : Cardinal Deacon of SS. Vito
e Modesto ; created cardinal by Urban vi. in 1885 ; was at Con- stance ; died 1427.
(13) Landulfus Maramaur, Neapolitan ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Nicola in
Carcere TuUiano ; Legate in Spain ; created cardinal by Urban vi. in 1381 ; died at Constance in 1415.
(14) Baldassare Cossa^ Neapolitan ; Pope John xxiii.
(15) Oddo Colonnaj Roman ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro :
created cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; Pope Martin v.
(16) Petrus Stepanescus Hannibaldus^ Roman ; Cardinal Deacon of S.
Angelo in Pescheria ; created cardinal by Innocent vii. in 1405 ; was at Constance and died there in 1417-
(17) Antoine de ChalanTj Savoyard ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria in
Via Lata ; created cardinal by Benedict xiii. on 9th May 1404 ; was at Constance ; died 4th September 1418.
B. LIST OF CARDINALS OF THE SAME OBEDIENCE WHO WERE NOT IN THE CONCLAVE
(18) Guy de Maillesec (or Malesset) ; known as the Cardinal of Poitiers;
died 1411.
(19) Antonio Caetani^ Roman ; Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina ; created
cardinal by Boniface ix. in 1402 ; died January 1412.
(20) Pierre de Thury, Frenchman ; Cardinal Priest of S. Susanna ;
Legate in France ; created cardinal by Clement vii. in 1385 ; died September 1412.
(21) Jean Flandrin, Frenchman ; Cardinal D'Auch ; Cardinal Priest of
SS. Giovanni e Paolo ; created cardinal by Clement vii. in 1390 ; was not at Constance.
22) Louis de Bar, Frenchman ; Cardinal Priest of XII. Apostoli ; created cardinal by Benedict xiii. in 1397 ; not at Constance ; died 1430.
(23) Louis FiEscHi of Geneva ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Adriano in Foro
Romano ; created cardinal by Urban vi. in 1384 ; was at Con- stance ; died 1423.
(24) Amadeus de Saluzzo, Italian ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria Nova ;
created cardinal by Clement vii. in 1382 ; was at Constance ; died at Florence in July 1419.
LIST OF CARDINALS xi
C. LIST OF CARDINALS NOMINATED BY POPE JOHN XXIII. ON 6th JUNE 1411
(1) Francescus LanduSj Venetian ; Cardinal Priest of S. Croce in
Gerusalemme ; known as the Cardinal of Venice ; was at Con- stance ; died 1427.
(2) Antonius Pancera de Pobtogruario, Pati'iarch of Aquileia, nephew
of Cardinal Caetani ; Cardinal Priest of S. Susanna ; was at Con- stance ; died 1431.
(3) John op Portugal ; Cardinal Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli ; died
on 23rd January 1415.
(4) Alaman Adimar, Florentine^ Archbishop of Pisa ; Cardinal Priest
of S. Eusebio ; was at Constance ; died 27th September 1422.
(5) Pierre d'AillYj Frenchman ; born 1350 ; Cardinal Priest ef S.
Crisogono ; was at Constance ; died 8th August 1425.
6) George von Lichtenstein, Bishop of Trient; never came to Rome.
(7) Branda de Castellio, Milanese ; Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente ;
was at Constance ; died 5th February 1443.
(8) Thomas Brancacius^ nephew of John xxiii. ; Cardinal Priest of
SS. Giovanni e Paolo ; was at Constance ; died 8th September 1427.
(9) Thomas Langley, Bishop of Durham ; never came to Rome.
(10) Robert Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, never came to Rome.
(11) GiLLEs DES Champs^ Frenchman ; never came to Rome.
(12) Francesco Zabarella of Padua^ known as the Cardinal of Florence }
born 1339 ; Cardinal Deacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano ; died at Constance on 2Gth September 1417.
(13) Lucius AldebrandinuSj also called Lucio de Comitibus, Roman ;
Cardinal Deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin ; was at Constance ; died 1437.
(14) GuiLLAUMB FiLLASTRBj Frenchman; Cardinal Priest of S. Marco;
was at Constance ; died November 1428.
D. SECOND CREATION ON 13th APRIL 1413
(15) Simon de Cramaud^ Patriarch of Alexandria^ Frenchman ; Cardinal Priest of S. Lorenzo in Lucina ; was at Constance ; died 1429.
xii POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
THIRD CREATION IN OCTOBER 1413
(16) GiAcoMO IsoLANO OP BoLOGNA ; Cardinal Deacon of S. Eustachio ; Papal Legate and Governor of Genoa ; died 9th February 1431.
E. LIST OF CARDINALS CREATED BY POPE GREGORY XII. ON 12th JUNE 1408
(1) Giovanni Domenici ; born at Florence 1340 ; was Legate of Gregory
at Constance ; known as the Cardinal of Ragusa ; died 10th June 1419.
(2) Antonio Cobrario, nephew of Gregory xii. ; was at Constance ;
died 1445.
(3) Gabriel Gondulmer^ nephew of Gregory xii. ; was at Constance ;
became Pope Eugenius iv. ; died 1447.
(4) Jacobus Utinensis ; died 1412.
F. SECOND CREATION ON 19th SEPTEMBER 1408
(5) Angelus of Recate ; died 21st June 1412.
(6) Louis the Sicilian ; died L3th September 1413.
(7) Angelo Barbardico^ Venetian ; was at Constance ; died 1418.
(8) Banbellus be BanbblliSj Etrurian ; was at Constance ; died August
1417.
(9) Philip of Ripon, Bishop Lincoln ; was at Constance ; died 1417.
(10) Matthew of Cracow ; died 1410.
(11) Lucas Manzolius of Florence ; died 14th September 1411.
(12) Petrus Maurocenus, Venetian ; was at Constance ; died 1424.
(13) Vincentius, Spaniard ; died 1410.
G. LIST OF CARDINALS IN THE CONCLAVE AT THE ELECTION OF POPE MARTIN V.
Carbinal Bishops —
(1) Jean de Brogny.
(2) Angelus de Anna.
(3) Petrus Fernandi Frias.
(4) Giordano Orsini.
(5) Antonio Corrario
LIST OF CARDINALS
xm
Cardinal Priests —
(6) Francescus Landus.
(7) Giovanni Domenici.
(8) Antonio Pancerinus.
(9) Alaman Adimar.
(10) Gabriel Gondulmer.
(11) Pierre d'Ailly.
(12) Thomas Brancacius.
(13) Branda de Castellio.
(14) Angelo Barbardico.
(15) Guillaume Fillastre.
(16) Simon de Cramaud.
(17) Antoine de Chalant.
(18) Pierre de Foix.
Cardinal Deacons —
(19) Louis Fieschi.
(20) Amadeus de Saluzzo.
(21) Raynaldus Brancacius.
(22) Oddo Colonna, Pope
Martin v.
(23) Lucio de Comitibus.
MEMOKANDUM OF ABBREVIATIONS
N.B, — The following abbreviations have been used for authorities cited in the Notes and References.
A.D.B. A.F.
A.S.L Aen. Sylv. Altmann.
Anton.
Ammirato.
aschbach.
B.W.
Bader. Barante.
Berger.
Bess. Blumenthal.
Brandenburg.
Brandis.
Brieger.
Brown.
Burke.
C.E. Capper,
Capponi,
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. 1875-99.
Marmor : Alter Fuehrer durch die Stadt Konstams.
1864. Archivio Storico Italiano. 1843. Aeneae Sylvii Ojjera. Basileae. Eberhart Windeckes Denkwuerdigkeiten; ed. Altmann.
1893. Divi Antonini Archiepiscopi Florentini chronicorum
tertia pars. AmmiratOj Scipione : Istorie Fiorentine. 7 vols.,
1853. Aschbach, Joseph : Geschichte Kaiser Sigmunds.
4 vols., 1838. Beda Weber : Oswald von Wolkenstein und Friedrich
mit der leeren Tasche. 1850. Bader, J. : Freiburg. Barante, M. de : Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne de
la Maison de Valois. 14 vols., 1826. Bei'ger, Dr. Wilhelm : Johannes Hus und Koenig
Sigmund. 1871. Bess, Bernhard : Frankreichs Kirchenpolitik . 1891. Blumenthal, Hermaun : Die Vorgeschichte des Con-
stanzer Concils. 1897. Brandenburg, Erich : Koenig Sigmund und Kurfuerst
Friedrich I. von Brandenburg. 1891. Brandis, Clemens Grafen und Herrn zu Brandis :
Tirol unter Friedrich von Oesterreich. 1823. Brieger : Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengeschichte. Brown, Horatio F. : Ve^iice. 1895, Burke, Ulick Ralph : History of Spain. 2 vols.,
1895. The Catholic Encyclopedia: vols, i.-vi. Capper, Samuel James : The Shores and Cities of the
Boden See. 1881. Capponi, Gino : Storia delta Repuhblica di Firenze,
1875.
xvi POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Chastenet. Chastenet, Bourgeois de : Nouvelle Histoire du Con-
cile de Constance. 1718. Christophe. Christophe, L'Abbe J. B. : Histoire de la Papaute
pendant le XIV" siecle. 3 vols., 1853. CiACONius. Ciaconius, Alphonsus : V itae et res gestae Pontificum.
4 vols., 1677. Coeln. Die Chroniken der niederrheinischen Staedte. Coeln.
1876. CoviLLB. Coville, Alfred: Les Gabochiens et I'Ordonnance de
1413. 1888. Creigiiton. Creighton, Mandel : History of the Papacy. 6 vols.,
1897. Crivelli. Crivelli, Domenico : Delia prima e delta seconda
Giovanna, regine di Napoli. Padova, 1832. D.N.B. Dictionary of National Biography. 66 vols.
D.R. Deutsche Eeichstagsakten ; siebenter Band. 1878.
Daru. Daru, P. : Histoire de la Republique de Venise.
8 vols., 1827. Droysen. Droysen, Job. Gust. : Geschichte der preussischen
Politik ; Die Gruendung. 1868. Duchesne. Duchesne : Liber Pontijicalis. 2 vols., 1886-92.
Egger. Egger, Josef : Geschichte Tirols. 3 vols., 1872.
Eiselein. Eiselein, Josua : Geschichte und Beschreibung der
Stadt Konstanz. 1851. Ebdjuann. Erdmann, Johanu Eduard ; tr. Hough : History of
Philosophy. 3 vols., 1890. Erler. Erler, Georg : Dietrich von Nieheim. 1887.
Finke {Acta). Fiiike, Heinricb : Acta Concilii Constantiensis.
1896. Finke(5.). Finke, Heinrich : Bilder von Konstanzer Konzil.
1903. Finke {F.). Finke, Heinrich : Forschungen und Quellen zur
Geschichte des Konstanzer Konzils. 1889. FiNLAY. Finlay, George : History of Greece. 7 vols. ,
1877. Gascoigne. Gascoigne (Rogers) : Loci e Libro Veritatum. 1871.
Gerson. Gerson, J. Charlier de : Opera. 1706.
Ghjrar. Delia Historia di Bologna del R.P.M. Cherubino
Ghirardacci Bolognese. 2 vols., 1657. Gierke. Gierke, Dr. Otto (tr. Maitland) : Political Theories
of the Middle Age. 1900. GoEiXER. Goeller, Emil : Koenig Sigismunds Kirchenpolitik .
1902. GozzADiNi. Gozzadini, Giovanni : Nanne Gozzadini e Baldassare
Cossa. 1880. Gratius. Gratius, Ortwinus : Fasciculus rerum expetendarum
et fugiendarum. 1690.
ABBREVIATIONS
xvu
Hardt.
Haukeau.
Hazlitt.
Hepele.
Helfert.
Hist. Gen.
Hoepler,
Huber.
Huebler.
Hunger.
Juvenal.
Kaqelmacuer.
Lavisse. Lechler. Lechler (Lorimer).
Lenpant (C).
Lbnfant (p.). Lenz.
LlCHNOVVSKY.
Lindner (H.). Lindner (W.).
LOSERTH.
Luetzow. Mansi.
Marmor.
Martene {a. C).
Hardtj Hermann von dei* : Eerum Concilii Oecumenici
Constantiensis. 6 vols., 1697. HaureaUj B. : Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique.
1872. Hazlittj W. Carew : The Venetian Republic. 2 vols.,
1900. Hefele^ Dr. Carl Joseph : Conciliengeschichte. 1869.
7ter Band : Irste Abt. Helfert^ Josef Alexander : Eus und Eieronymus.
1853. Histoire Generate du iv^ siecle a nos Jours ; Lavisse et
Rambaud. 12 vols., 1893. Hoefler, Carl Adolf Constantin : Magister Johannes
Hus und der Ahzug. 1864. Huber, Alfous : Geschichte Oesterreichs. 5 vols..
1885. Huebler, Beruhard : Die Gonstanzer Reformation.
1867. Hunger, Carl : Zur Geschichte Papst Johanns XXIII.
1876. Juvenal des Ursins, Jean : Histoire dc Charles VI.
1653. Kagelmacher, Ernst : Filippo Maria Visconti und
Koenig Sigismund. 1885. Lavisse, Ernest : Histoire de France. 1905. Lechler, Gotthard Viktor : Johannes Hus. 1889. Lechler, Professor (tr. Lorimer) : John Wycliffe and
his English Precursors. 1 vol. Lenfant, Jaques : Histoire du Concile de Constance.
2 vols., 1727. Lenfant Jaques : Histoire du Concile de Pise. 1724. Lenz, Max : Koenig Sigismund und Heinrich der
Fuenfte. 1874. Lichnowsky, C. M. : Geschichte des Houses Habshurg.
1839. Lindner, Theodor : Deutsche Geschichte unter den
Habsburgen und Luxemhurgen. 2 vols., 1890. Lindner, Theodor : Geschichte des deutschen Reiches
unter Koenig Wenzel. 2 vols., 1875. Loserth, Dr. Johann (tr. Evans) : Wiclif and Hus. Luetzow, The Count : The Life and Times of Master
John Hus. 1909. Mansi, Joannes Dominicus : Sacrorum Conciliorum
nova et amplissima collectio. Marmor, J. : Das Konzil zu Konstanz. 1898. Martene and Durand : Veterum scriptorum et monu-
mentorum amplissima collectio. 1724-33. &
xviii POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Martene (r.). Marten e and Durand: Thesaurus novus anecdotorum.
1717. Maurice. Maurice^ Frederic Denison : Moral and Metaphysical
Philosophy. 1873. Mayhew. Mayhewj Henry : The Upper Rhine. 1860.
Mazella. Scipio Mazella Napolitano : Le Vite dei re di Napoli.
Menzel. Menzelj Wolfgang : History of Germany ; tr. Hor-
rocks. Michael. Michael, Emil : Geschichte des deutschen Volkes.
4 vols. MicHELET. Michelet, Jules : Histoire de France.
MiLMAN. Milman, Henry Hart : History of Latin Christianity,
1883. MoiiMENTi. Molmentij Pompeo ; tr. Brown : Venice in the Middle
Ages. 2 vols., 1906. MoNSTRELET. Monstrelet : Chronique de 1400 a 1444. 1848.
Mueller, Mueller, Jean de; tr. Monnard : Histoire de la Con-
federation Suisse. 1837. MuR. Muratorius, Ludovicus Antonius : Eerum Italicarum
Scriptores. MuR {A.). Muratorius, Ludovicus Antonius : Annali d' Italia.
Oman. Oman, C. : The History of England (from the acces-
sion of Richard ii. to the death of Richard iii.)
1906. Palacky. Palacky, Franz : Geschichte von Boehmen. 7 vols.
1836. Palacky (i)oc.). Palacky, Franz: Documenta Mag. Johannis Hus.
1869. Pastor. Pastor, Ludwig: History of the Popes. 8 vols.,
English translation, 1899 et seq. Platina. Platina, Baptista : Lives of the Popes ; tr. Rycaut.
1688. Poole. Poole, Reginald Lane : Illustrations of the History of
Mediceval Thought. 1884. Pulka. Petrus de Pulka, Abgesandter der Wiener Univer-
sitaet am Concilium zu Constauz : von Friedrich
Firnhaber : Archiv fuer Kuude oesterreichischer
Geschichtsquellen. Band xv. Wien, 1856. Quidde. Quidde, L. : Koenig Sigmund {Die Wahl Sigmunds).
Radford. Radford, Lewis Bostock : Henry Beaufort. 1908.
Ramsay. Sir James H. : Lancaster and York. 2 vols.,
1892. Rashdall. Rashdall, Hastings : The Universities of Europe in
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Dr. Georg : Florenz, Neapel und das paepstliche
Schisma.
ABBREVIATIONS
XIX
Raynaldus. RaynalduSj Ordericus : Annales Ecclesiastici.
Reinke. Reinke, Georg : Franhreich und Papst Johann XXIII.
1900. Religieux. Documents Inedits sur VHistoire de France : Chronique
du Religieux de Saint-Deny s, ed. Bellaguet. 6
vols., 1842. RiCHENTAL. Ricliental, Ulrich von : Chronik des Constanzer
Concils, ed. Buck. 1882. Robertson. Robertson, James Craigie : History of the Christian
Church. 4 vols., 1871. RossMANN. Rossmann : De externa Concilii Constantiensis ap-
paratu. 1856. Sauerbrei. Sauerbrei, Moritz : Die italienische Politik Koenig
Sigmunds. 1893. ScHMiD. Schmid, Georg : Itinerarium Johanns XXIII. sum
Concil von Konstanz 1414. Published in the
Festschrift zum elfhundertjaehrigen Jubilaeum
des deutschen Campo Santo in Rom. 1897. Schwab. Schwab, Johann Baptist : Johannes Gerson. 1858.
SiSMONDi. Sismondi Simonde de : Histoire des Republiques
Italiennes du Moyen Age. 10 vols., 1840. Tschackert. Tschackert, Paul : Peter von Ailli. 1877.
Tuetey. Tuetey, Alexandre : Journal d'un Bourgeois de Paris.
1881. Valois. Valois, Noel : La France et le Grand Schisme
d'Occident. 4 vols., 1884. Wessenberg. J. H. von Wessenberg : Die grossen Kirchcnversamm-
lungen des \6ten und \Qten Jahrhunderts. Constanz,
1840.
WoLKENSTEiN. Wolkenstein, Oswald von : Gedichte. 1866.
Wylie. Wylie, James Hamilton : History of England under
Henry the Fourth. 4 vols. Wylie (C). Wylie, James Hamilton : The Council of Constance to
the Death of John Hus. 1900.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
rAQE
The Introduction^ ...... v
List of Cardinals^ ...... ix
Memorandum of Abbreviations, ..... xv
List of Illustrations^ . . . . . . xxxi
CHAPTER I
THE NEW POPE
Death of Pope Alexander the Fifth. Political outlook. Merits and demerits of Baldassare Cossa. Proceeding's in the con- clave. Coronation of Pope John the Twenty-third. Felici- tations. Pippo Span of Ozora. His mission. Attitude of Sigismund of Hungary. Preliminary measures of Pope John. Destruction of the French fleet off Meloria. Duke of Anjou's march to Rome. King Ladislas and the Florentines. Use of the Bull in favour of the mendicant orders prohibited. Pope Gregory the Twelfth. Carlo Malatesta of Rimini. His correspondence with Pope John. With Venice and Pope Benedict. With King Sigismund. Pope John and France : his fii'st false move. Pope John and England. Bologna, . 1
CHAPTER II k/
JOHN HUS
Pope John the Twenty-third and Wyclifism. Bohemia and the Czechs. King John. Charles the Fourth. King Wenzel. Sigismund in Bohemia. The introduction of Wyclifism. The Dialogus and Trialogus brought to Bohemia. The early career of John Hus. The Bethlehem Chapel. Archbishop Zbynek and Hus. Wyclifism at the University of Prague.
xxii POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
p
The doctrine of the Sacrament. First breach between the Archbishop and Hus. Letter from the University of Oxford brought to Prague. Hus's doctrine on the Eucharist. His endeavours to improve the Czech language. The question of neutrality. Alteration of the constitution of the University of Prague. Feud between the Archbishop and Hus. The papal Bull. Appeal to the new Pope. Burning of Wyclif s works. Hus appeals to his congregation for support. Tumult. Decision of Cardinal Colonna. Sympathy from England. Decision of the Bologna doctors. Excommunica- tion of John Hus for contumacy^ ....
CHAPTER III
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS
Death of King Rupert. The new election. The candidates, Wenzel, Jost, and Sigismund. Pope John resolves to sup- port Sigismund. The Electors, Opposition to Wenzel.^ The Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne. The Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier. The other three lay electors. The imperial capitulation of the 5th August. Delay. Pro- posals of the Archbishop of Mainz. The Burggraf Friedrich of Nuernberg. The Count Palatine and Archbishop of Trier pronounce for Sigismund. They elect him on the 20th September. Jost elected on the 1st October. Negotiations between Sigismund and Jost. Death of Jost on 8th January. -Agreement between Sigismund and Wenzel. Settlement of the religious troubles in Hungary. Archbishop of Mainz conciliated. Second election of Sigismund on 21st July. The need for a strong ruler. Communications between Pope John and Sigismund. His more immediate work, .
CHAPTER IV
SIGISMUND
Sigismund. His birth. His childhood. Betrothal to Marie of Hungary. Loses Poland. Hedwig. Sigismund married to Marie. King of Hungary. The capture of Marie and her mother. Death of Marie. Invasion of Ladislas. Nature of Sigismund's training in warfare. Character of Sigismund.
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii
PAGE
His relations toward his cousins and his brother Johann. His ingratitude to Wenzel, Breach with Pope Boniface the Ninth. The Rumanian troops. Sigismund's fits of passion. His levity with women. His imprisonment. His release. The turning-point in his career. His good legislation. The lighter side of his character. His attitude to the clergy. His impecuuiosity. His peacemaking. His three '^ fixed ideas.' The majesty of the Empire. The unity of the Church. The expulsion of the Turk. The Order of the Dragon. Queen Barbara. Sigismund's attitude to Pope John. The Pope's second false move, . . . • .70
CHAPTER V
ROCCA SECCA
Spring of 1411. Unpropitious weather. The Pope marches from Bologna to Rome. The revolt of Bologna. Its suppression. The war with Naples. The Pope the only supporter of the Duke of Anjou. Louis of Anjou. Paolo Orsini. Sforza Attendolo. King Ladislas of Naples. The battle of Rocca Secca. Announcement of the victory at Rome. Failure to follow up the victory. The Duke of Anjou compelled to leave Italy. Fiscal measures of Pope John. Sforza leaves him, ........ 95
CHAPTER VI
A CREATION OF CARDINALS
Diminution of numbers in the College of Cardinals. The new cardinals ; the Pope's nephew. The Italian cardinals ; Francesco Zabarella. The English nominations. The French nominations. Guillaume Fillastre. Gilles des Champs. Pierre d'Ailly. The fourteen nominations. The crusade against King Ladislas. Its failure. Peace between Archbishop Zbynek and John Hus. Death of the Arch-, bishop. Clux and Stokes at Prague. Denunciation of ther^- crusade in Prague. The three martyrs. Attitude of John Hus, ... .... 110
xxiv POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER VII
THE COUNCIL AT ROME
PAGE
The outlook for the Pope. Peace with King Ladislas. Pope Gregory the Twelfth. The advantage of the Peace to the Pope. Rome appointed for the Council. The Pope and France. Opening of the Council at Rome. Arrival of Repre- sentatives. The Holy Ghost in the form of an Owl. The tone of France to the Pope. Concessions to France and the University of Paris. Vacillating nature of the French policy. The only general session. John Wyclif ; Nominal- ism and Realism. The realist theory. Ockham's philosophy as regards species and universals. Reason and Faith in watertight compartments. Wyclif 's philosophy. John Hus. Wyclif on transubstantiation. Decree of the Council against Wyclifism. Adjournment of the Council, . . 126
CHAPTER VIII
THE WAR WITH VENICE
Success of the Venetian Republic. Her aggrandisement. Her dealings with Hungary. Situation of Hungary. Relations with Poland. Sigismund resolves on war. Prosperity of Venice. Unsuccessful mediation of the Pope. Rumour as to the coronation. Hungarian successes. Retreat of Pippo Span. The first battle of Motta. Renewed interven- tion of the Pope. Second battle of Motta. Pippo Span unsuccessful in northern Italy. Sigismund appears in pei'son : third battle of Motta. Hermann of Cilly negotiates a truce. Articles of agreement. Sigismund at Belluno. End of the fratricidal war among the sons of Bajazet. Sigis- mund now comparatively free to deal with the Great Schism, 146
CHAPTER IX
THE FLIGHT FROM ROME
The peace with Ladislas and the rupture with Sforza. The rupture with Ladislas. Simon de Cramaud made Cardinal. Pope John and the Romans. The taking of Rome. The flight of the Pope. Pope John reaches Florence. King
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxv
PAQE
Ladislas in Rome. Todi and Rocca Contrada. Sigismund and Friedrich of the Tirol. The King and the Duke at Salzburg. The affair of the burgher's daughter at Innsbruck. The Tirol. sFriedrich and W^intler. Friedrich and Rotten- burg. Friedrich and Georg of Trient. The enmity between Sigismund and Friedrich. Attempt to poison Sigismund at Brixen. Sigismund at Meran. The Swiss and Milan. Sigismund's appeal to the Swiss. His inadequate forces. Filippo Maria at Milan. Colloquy between Sigismund and Filippo Maria. Pope John and Leonardo of Arezzo. Negotiations with Sigismund. The papal embassy to the King. Ladislas of Naples and Pope Benedict the Thirteenth, 161
CHAPTER X
THE CONVOCATION OF THE GREAT COUNCIL
Negotiations between the King and the Pope. The Pope's ambassadors. Action of the Venetians. Constance agreed upon. The King's proclamation announcing the Council. His position. Meeting of the Pope and the King. Oswald von Wolkenstein. The Pope and the King at Lodi. Their conference. Events at Lodi. Gregory the Twelfth. Bene- dict the Thirteenth. Cremona. The brilliant idea of Gabrino Fondulo. The Pope and tlie King as church reformers. The consultation with regard to John Hus. Prague placed under an interdict. John Hus in retirement. His writings at that time. Albert retires and Conrad becomes Archbishop of Prague. Sigismund communicates with John Hus, who resolves to go to Constance. Negotia- tions with Pope Gregory. Sigismund at Genoa : at Asti : at Pavia : at Turin. Pope John again at Bologna. King Ladislas marches from Rome and besieges Todi. Ladislas poisoned at Perugia and returns to Naples, where be dies. The Pope's hesitation on hearing the news, • . . 182
CHAPTER XI
PRELIMINARY NEGOTIATIONS
Preliminary negotiations necessary. Negotiation with France. Sigismund abandons the Duke of Burgundy. Burgundians and Armagnacs. Projected visit to Avignon. Treaty signed at Trino. Peace between the Burgundians and Armagnacs.
xxvi POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
PAGE
French arrangements for the Council. Burgundian arrange- ments. Negotiations with England. Negotiations with the kingdoms of Spain and Pope Benedict the Thirteenth. King Ferdinand and Pope Benedict at Morella. Embassies to King Sigismund. Project for reconciliation of the Greek and Latin Churches. Sigismund at Bern : at Cologne : at Strassburgj Speier^ and Mainz. Uncertainty about the coronation. Sigismund at Heilbronn. The coronation at Aachen, ....... 205
CHAPTER XII
THE JOURNEY TO CONSTANCE
The Pope's plan. Treaty with the magistrates of Constance. Three Cardinals sent on ahead. Richental the chronicler. Pope John leaves Bologna, passes through Trient. St. Michael on the Adige. The league with Duke Friedrich at Meran. Bozen. Brixen. Innsbruck. The accident in the pass. The Pope reaches Kreuzlingen. He enters Con- stance. The misconceptions of John Hus. The papal inquisitor declares that Hus is not a heretic. Hus leaves Prague. His reception in Germany. Hus at Nuernberg. He decides not to join King Sigismund. Hus reaches Con- stance. The safe-conduct. King Sigismund's journey from Aachen to Constance, ...... 223
CHAPTER XIII
CONSTANCE
Constance practically unaltered. Disappearance of the walls, towers, and gateways. Changes in some of the buildings. The streets the same. The foundation of the city. Exten- sion of the town. Later enlargements. The clergy. The laymen. Numbers present during the Council. The Board and the College of Auditors. Police arrangements. Prices of provisions. Official visitors. Traders, workmen, and players. Amusements. A motley scene. Literary activity in Constance. Poets. Oswald von Wolkenstein, . . 237
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxvii
CHAPTER XIV
THE COUNCIL BEFORE CHRISTMAS, 1414
FAOE
The nature of the Council. Celebration of Mass on 1st November 1414. The opening of the Council. Constance in winter. Early arrivals. John Hus at the house of the widow Fida. Division into nations. First general session. The arms of Pope Gregory the Twelfth. Arrival of Pierre d'Ailly. John Hus summoned by the Cardinals. Friar Didachus. Hus imprisoned. The weakening of the Pope. Hus taken to the Dominican Cloister. Commission appointed. Increasing influence of Pierre d'Ailly. Postponement of the second general session. Arrival of King Sigismund and Queen Barbara, ....... 252
CHAPTER XV
REX SUPER GRAMMATICAM
The Mass on Christmas Day. Pierre d'Ailly's sermon. Question • of the safe-conduct settled. The trial of John Hus. Gerson and Hus. The Legates of Pope Gregory : received in congregation. Canonisation of Saint Brigitta. The King throws over the Pope. Cardinal Fillastre proposes that the Pope do resign. Arrivals in Constance. Question as to who shall vote. Question as to how tlie vote shall be counted. Anonymous attack on Pope John. Rex super grammaticam , . 2G9
CHAPTER XVI
THE QUESTION OF RESIGNATION
Pope John promises to resign. Formulas of cession. Arrival of the French embassy. The embassy from the University of Paris. New formula of cession prepared : accepted by the Pope. Second general session. Difficulties as to proctors. Presentation of the Golden Rose. Breach between the Pope and the King. The parties in the Council. Cardinal Hannibaldus not allowed to leave Constance. The King's explanation and the Pope's promise. Dissension amid the nations. The King and the French nation. The King visits the Pope. The King and Duke Friedrich. The Duke's tournament. John Hus in prison, .... 285
xxviii POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER XVII
THE FLIGHT
PAGE
The tournament in tlie lists at Paradise, The flight of Pope John. The action of Duke Friedrich. Schaffhausen ; the Pope's letters. The relation of Friedrich to the Pope. The Pope's mistake. Constance after the flight. The attitude of the Cardinals. The King and the Duke. John Hus. The Pope at Schaffhausen. The sermon of Jean Gerson. The deputation of the three cardinals. The Pope's motives. The cardinals in opposition. Return of the deputation. Rejection of the Pope's proposal. Fourth general session. Measures against Friedrich. Pope John leaves Schaffhausen. His stay there^ ...... 299
CHAPTER XVIII
THROUGH THE BLACK FOREST
The Pope's Bull from Laufenburg. Fifth general session. Its proceedings. Commission of belief. Superiority of the Council over the Pope. War against Duke Friedrich. Affairs in France. The Pope flies to Freiburg. Freiburg. The Pope's hopes and professions. Pope and the Council at hopeless variance. Death of Chrysoloras. The Members of the University of Paris at Constance. Sixth general session. Jerome of Prague. Supervision of the commission of belief. The cardinals and the nations at variance. The embassy to Pope John. The attitude of the Duke of Burgundy. The Pope goes to Breisach. The embassy with the Pope. The day at Neuenburg. Pope John betrayed by Duke Friedrich. Appearance of Louis of Bavaria : his interview with the Duke. Pope John a prisoner at Freiburg, , . . 316
CHAPTER XIX
THE DEPOSITION OF POPE JOHN
Return of Duke Friedrich. Seventh general session. Eighth general session. Condemnation of the forty-five articles. Its importance to John Hus. Submission of Duke Friedrich. Possession taken of his lands. Pope John in captivity at Freiburg. Ninth general session. Tenth general session. Petitions on behalf of Hus from Bohemia and Moravia. ,
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxix
PAO£
Pope Gregory the Twelfth. The Duke of Burgundy. The matter of the Bohemian heresy. The indictment of Pope John. The Pope at Radolfzell. Eleventh general session. Deposition of the Pope. The end of his reign^ . . 331
CHAPTER XX
THE TRIAL OF JOHN HUS
News of the Pope's deposition received in France. Friedricli with the empty pockets. Baldassare Cossa at Gottlieben. Hus's physical condition. Hus removed to the Franciscan Cloister, First day of the trial. Hus's determination. Second day of the trial. Hus and d'Ailly. Hus and the Wyclifian heresies. Hus's appeal to Christ. Hus and the disturbances at Prague. Sigismund's warning. Hus refuses to take the advice. Last day of the ti'ial. Hus's doctrine on the Church and church government. Hus and ecclesias- tical censures. Hus explains why he did not condemn Wyclif. A Pope in mortal sin. John Stokes, . . 361
CHAPTER XXI
THE CONCLUSION OF THE TRIAL
Supposed submission of John Hus to the Council. Hus's argu- ment with King Sigismund. The matter of the students at Prague. The letter from the University of Oxford. Hus condemned by King Sigismund. Hus's heresy. His regard for the Scriptures as the supreme rule of faith. The inter- pretation of Scripture. The appeal to the individual con- science. The catholic doctrine on the Scripture. The punishment of heresy. After the final audience. Com- munion in both kinds. Attempt to induce Plus to recant. John of Chlum's exhortation. Hus's consistencyj . . 381
CHAPTER XXH
MARTYRDOM
The doctrine of political assassination. Hus's Protestantism. The cathedral square on the 6th July 1415. Condemnation. Sentence. Degradation. Hus taken to the stake. Hus is burned. The ashes thrown into the Rhine^ . . . 395
XXX POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER XXIII
THE BEADLE OF THE EMPIRE
PAGE
Baldassare Cossa at Mannheim and Heidelberg, The resignation of Pope Gregory the Twelfth. The firmness of Pope Benedict the Thirteenth. Preparations for the departure of King Sigismund. The King goes to Narbonne. The hopes of Pope Benedict. Sigismund reaches Perpignan. Failure of the negotiations. The Pope retires to Peniscola. The capitulation of Narbonne. The news received at Constance. The King at Avignon. The King at Chambery and at Paris. His failure in France. He goes to England. The Peace of Canterbury. Sigismund returns to Constance. Jean Gerson at Constance. The dispute regarding the doctrine of Jean Petit. Decision postponed. Disputes among the nations. The case of Jerome of Prague. The letter of Poggio Bracciolini. The burning of Jerome. Friedrich of the Tirol, 402
CHAPTER XXIV
THE LAST DAYS OF BALDASSARE COSSA
The Spanish nation at the Council. The deposition of Pope Benedict. The question of church reform. Discussions and recriminations. Compromise effected by the Bishop of Winchester. Arrangements for the election of a new Pope. The election of Oddo Colonna. The character of the new Pope, Martin the Fifth. His measures for reform. The reconciliation of King Sigismund with Duke Friedrich. The end of the Council of Constance. Baldassare Cossa becomes a prisoner of the Pope. Efforts for the release of Baldassare Cossa. His release. He enters Florence. He submits to Pope Martin the Fifth. His death and character. His tomb, ..... 421
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Upper Part of the Tomb of Pope John xxiii. in the Paptistery at Florence^ erected in 1407^ the figure of the pontiff being the work of Donatello^ ....... Frontispiece
AT PAGE
Sixteenth-century sketch of John Hus going to execution escorted by the Count Palatine's swordsman, and wearing the heretic's head-dress, as used at the Spanish autos da fe. (From the ms. in the archives of the Counts von Konigsegg in Aulendorf), ......... 50
Bird's-eye view of Constance and its Environs at the time of the Council. Reduced from the map published by Von der Hardt in his Rerum C'oncilii Oecumenici Constantiensis , 1697, . . 237
The Castle on the Rhine at Gottlieben, still standing, used by the Bishop of Constance for his prisoners. In this castle both Pope John the Twenty-third and John Hus were in- carcerated, .......... 306
Geometrical Plan showing the exact spot, now marked by a monument, where John Hus and Jerome of Prague were burned. Reduced from the plan published by Eiselein in his Begruendeter Aufweis des Plazes bei der Stadt Gonstanz, 1847, 400
The Kaufhaus or Merchants' Hall of Constance, still standing, built in 1388 by Master Arnold, and used on the eighth to the eleventh November 1417 for the Election of Pope Martin the Fifth toward the conclusion of the Council, . . . 424
POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
AND MASTER JOHN HUS OF BOHEMIA CHAPTER I
THE NEW POPE
In the early days of May, 1410, Pope Alexander the Fifth lay dying at Bologna. ' Let not your hearts be troubled,' said the old Franciscan Candiot, ' I ascend to your Father and to my Father.' Among the cardinals who clustered round the bed was Baldassare Cossa, who was reported by his enemies to have commenced life as a pirate, who in his youth had won renown as a student and was noted for his valour in the field, who in his manhood had proved to be a successful condottiere general and an able civil administrator, who as cardinal had engineered and defended the Council of Pisa. I have told the story of his early life in my book, hi the Days of the Councils^ and now I propose to give a sketch of his pontificate and his deposition ; for little more than half the rest of his life did he wear the triple crown ; five years he reigned as Pope ; then followed imprisonment, succeeded by a few peaceful months at Florence at the end of his varied career.
When Pope Alexander the Fifth died at Bologna on the 5th May 1410, the political outlook of the papacy was troubled and gloomy. France had hitherto taken the leading part in endeavouring to put an end to the Great Schism which troubled and divided Christendom ; but this country was now settling down to civil war between the Burgundians and the Armagnacs ; the former party was allying itself with the butchers of Paris, and the latter with the Gascon ' sons of the Devil ' ; i the energies and attentions of the nobles would therefore be absorbed at home, and there would be little or no material aid
^ Michelet, v. 269. A
2 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
to place at the service of the new Pope. At the same time the GaUican Church was eager in defence of its hberties, and the University of Paris was determined to preserve its privileges. Hence it followed that unless the new Pope were extremely politic and circumspect in his bearing, he might expect more trouble than help from France. In Italy the French had been ousted from Genoa ; but, on the other hand, the Duke of Anjou was on his way to prosecute his claim to the throne of Naples ; while Ladislas, the reigning king, whose banners bore the device Aut Ccesar aut nihil, aspired certainly to the over- lordship of Italy, and probably to the golden crown of the Empire. War in Italy was inevitable and close at hand. In Germany, seething with civil and ecclesiastical trouble, on the 18th May 1410 died Rupert, King of the Romans, and a new election was imminent ; the choice of the new King was fraught with the utmost importance to the papacy. Every- where there were murmurings and demands for the social and moral reform of the clergy, the reform of the Church in its head and its members, a reform which every one regarded as de- sirable, though the movement in its favour had not yet gained sufficient momentum of popular support to render it dangerous, so that it might possibly be neglected for a time by the Head of the Church with impunity. But, on the other hand, there was very serious discontent within the Church itself on account of the papal exactions ; and it remained to be seen whether the Pope of the Council, the Pope who owned the largest obedience of the three, would be able to appease the mutinous spirit, whether he would by timely concession be able to keep the greater part of Christendom true to himself and possibly to win somewhat from the obedience of his rivals, or whether his action, by not recognising grievances which undoubtedly existed, would tend to a further outbreak of revolt. It was a situation which demanded considerable political ability, which required a sympathetic appreciation of the feeling in the various churches of Europe. Most important of all was the fact that the Great Schism itself was not healed, that it was intensified rather than alleviated, seeing that the Council of Pisa had not brought unity, that there were now three Popes instead of two. The Schism called for immediate action ; there were three
THE NEW POPE 3
Popes now as there had been three hundred and sixty-five years before ; and as the Emperor then had stifled the Schism by deposing all three, might not a similar solution be possible in the present difficulty ?
In some respects the elevation to the papacy of Baldassare Cossa must have seemed to many to be of good omen. He was a man of action and resolution, who hitherto had succeeded in all that he had attempted. He was prompt and determined, and ready-witted as ever. An instance of this occurred in the wordy war between him and his friend, the Lord of Rimini, during the nine days of mourning for Alexander. Carlo Malatesta had always been the best of friends with Baldassare Cossa,^ but he did not wish to see him Pope, seeing that he himself was devoted to Gregory the Twelfth. Carlo wished to postpone the election, but Cossa made answer, among other points, that the cardinals wanted a head for their protection. To which the witty lord replied by asking him to consider the fowls of the air, how our Heavenly Father protecteth them, and certainly He would protect the cardinals also ; surely during the vacancy all urgent and necessary acts could be done and signed by a Cardinal- Vicar. ' Cardinal- Vicar is not Pope,' answered Cossa, ' the name makes all the difference ' (nomen Papal est illud quod totum operatur). Cossa was known to be a man of political genius, though it was of the opportunist Italian type. He had seen the necessity for a general council, and had understood its possibility ; he had, more than any other single man, brought about and carried through the great Council of Pisa. The man who had won back Bologna for the Church, who had beaten back King Ladislas and recovered Rome, who had defended and rendered possible the Council which had deposed two Popes, might surely be trusted to deal adequately with the existing situation. His first task would be to crush the overweening pretensions of the King of Naples, his next to make himself sole Pope in Christendom, and his third to deal with the demand for church reform. There must have been many who looked on Cossa as the ecclesiastic best qualified to deal with at least two, if not with all three, of these questions. But, besides the fact that the Popes had long been
^ Hardt, ii. 361.
4 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
men of peace, taking no active personal part in warfare, there were other considerations also which militated against this view. Baldassare Cossa at this time was about forty-three years of age ; a tall, spare, strongly built man, with handsome, clear- cut features, a prominent nose and chin, and grey eyes that gleamed out from beneath bushy eyebrows. His accession to the papacy meant to him a total change in his manner of life. He was above all things a soldier, fitter for the sword than the cassock, taking more delight in buckler and helmet than in pall or vestments, an able man in temporal matters but of no ac- count in affairs spiritual ; ^ he was a man who, as the Archbishop of Bordeaux said, would do better as king or emperor than as Pope. Hitherto much of his time had been spent in the tented field ; he had himself led the troops against Milan when he first became Cardinal Legate, and he was himself engaged in the siege of Forlimpopolo when recalled to the deathbed of Alex- ander the Fifth. Though a churchman and a cardinal, he was still only a deacon, a layman in all but name ; church routine had occupied but little of his time, church matters had neces- sarily entered little into his thoughts. There were those who said that he had never confessed nor taken the sacrament ; ^ there were others who alleged that he believed not in the resurrection of the dead.^ He was now to change the camp for the chapel, the council chamber of Bologna for the Consistory of cardinals, the local politics of northern Italy for those wide schemes of church reform which were agitating nearly the whole of civilised Europe. The mere transition from an outdoor existence to the wearisome seclusion of closet and chapel meant much. The change from the free life of the open air to one of ceremonial and seclusion, the passage from scenes of prompt activity to the tedium of religious service, to the hearing of lengthy reports, to the conduct of office business must itself have been irksome in the extreme to a man of Cossa's temperament. It is small wonder that he was gradually to lose his old force and de- termination of character, and that a fatalistic tendency was to become predominant. He was a Neapolitan ; and Naples, like other places in the earthquake zone, was noted for the fatalism
^ Ciaconius, ii. 790; Mur. xix. 41. ^ Finke (F.), i, note.
3 Idtd. (B.), 10.
THE NEW POPE 5
of its people ; the Neapolitans, from the time of Frederic the Second onward, had enjoyed the evil repute of being more Sarasin than Christian in religion. The change of life co-oper- ated with this native tendency to encourage habits of sloth and fatalism in the new Pope.
Not on the physical side only, but on the moral side also, was the new pontiff like to prove inadequate to the great task before him. The cry for church reform had gone abroad through England, through France, through Bohemia ; but it found but little echo in Italy. Morality was at a very low ebb, was indeed practically non-existent, in the greater part of that country ; there was in Italy a great love for strength and for the beauty that waits on strength, there was keen appreciation of art, of refinement, of literature, but there was very little ad- miration for the mere moral virtues. The need for the moral reform of the Church,^ so strongly felt elsewhere, was scarcely recognised by the Italian clergy ; and the new Pope had hither- to had little intercourse with members of the Holy Roman Church outside his own country. The cry for moral reform was therefore not likely to find any echo in the breast of Bald- assare Cossa. His own life and manners, as Platina said, were those of the camp.^ Again the demand for fiscal reform, the outcry against the exactions of the Curia, was strongest outside Italy ; the Popes got but little of their revenues from the poor sees of the peninsula ; they looked on England and France as their milch-kine. And John had been brought up and had served his apprenticeship in the Court of Boniface the Ninth, where papal exaction had become a fine art, where simony and corruption had reached a height hitherto unknown, where the
^ • During the latter part of the Middle Ages, the desire for reform of the Church was constant. It was strongest and most apparent among laymen, for a farnous monastic writer of the fourteenth century testified that the laity led better lives than the clergy. To the bulk of ordinary Christians reform meant morality in the priesthood. It became intolerable to them to see the sacrament administered habitually by sacrilegious hands, or to let their daughters go to confession to an unclean priest. The discontent was deepest where men were best. They felt that the organisation provided for the salvation of souls was serving for their destruction, and that the more people sought the means of grace in the manner provided, the greater risk they incurred of imbibing corruption.' — Acton, Lectures on Modern History, 90.
^ ' Militaris prope habebatur ejus vita, militares mores.' — Platina, i. 342.
6 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
spiritual side of the papacy had been systematically prostituted to its temporal needs. His aim would naturally be to restore the methods and regime of his patron and exemplar. He would be intent on the temporal interest of the papacy, and for her spiritual interest he would reck little. The hopes and aspira- tions of such orthodox churchmen as Jean Gerson, Pierre d'Ailly, and Nicolas de Clamanges found as little sympathy with him as did those of John Wyclif or John Hus ; he failed to appreciate how widespread and influential their feelings were, how momentous the question they involved had become. To deal adequately with the matters then before Christendom, it needed a Pope who fully appreciated the issues at stake and the momentum of popular feeling behind them ; it needed a Pope who was a profound statesman rather than an opportunist politician. In all questions of church reform John was like to be hopelessly conservative, bent on conceding as little and as grudgingly as possible. For the immediate present, however, this question did not call for solution or treatment ; the new Pope was bound by the resolution of the Council of Pisa to call another Council in three years' time, and he was a man to keep his word.
The greatest disadvantage under which the new Pope laboured was that, with the exception of a few months under his immediate predecessor, he had been living apart from the papal court, and was likely to know but little of the political situation of Europe. He had indeed sent an occasional envoy to Bohemia or to France ; but for seven years he had not seen Rome ; he had been Papal Legate at Bologna ; as a condottiere general and as Lord of Bologna he had been eminently success- ful ; he had regained the territories of the city and had en- larged its borders ; he had brought to it peace and welfare ; but his attention had necessarily been concentrated on the work under his hand and had been diverted from the troubled politics of Europe outside Italy. In the affairs of the peninsula he was an astute and consummate politician ; but the con- centration of his interest weakened his power of grasping the situation in France and in Germany. For the existing crisis a Pope was needed of wider experience and of deeper sympathy. Baldassare Cossa's experience had been in the main that of a condottiere general and Podesta of an Italian city ; even though
p. THE NEW POPE 7
he might be ' vir nobihs et expers in agendis,' ^ still he was, as the Venetian chronicler described liim, an ' uomo molto dedito air arme ' : ^ his sympathy was entirely with the temporal power of the Church ; he failed to appreciate the standpoint of those who desired its reform. But in other respects also Baldassare Cossa was unfitted for the high office of supreme pontiff. The activity of a soldier's life had rendered him impatient of forms and ceremonies, and he did not appreciate their effect on the generality of mankind, he saw no use in long audiences which led to nothing; the tedious Masses bored him and he cut tljem short ; ^ he was not exact in his pontifical dress ; and he was apt to indulge in unseemly levity.* These are points which in our day may appear of minor importance, but which at the begin- ning of the fifteenth century were certain to cause grave scandal.
It is interesting in this connection to notice the warnings which Dietrich von Niem gave the new Pope.^ The abbreviator knew the Pope well. He admonished him to be attentive to the offices of the Church, to be diligent at Mass and at Vespers, to read Mass at least three or four times in the week. He agreed with John as to the time wasted in unprofitable audiences, but he desired the time saved to be expended in reading the Bible and the histories of the Popes and the Kaisers. Still more remarkable is it that he exhorted the new Pope to withdraw his attention from the lands close at hand, and to direct his thoughts to foreign lands. It is clear that Niem knew the weak points in the harness of the new pontiff.
Baldassare Cossa was elected Pope on the 17th May 1410. Seventeen cardinals ^ entered into conclave at ten o'clock at night, on Wednesday, the 14th, in the Bishop's palace ; their beds were arranged in cubicles, divided by curtains of the finest silk, and adorned with flowers and sweet-smelling herbs, ' so that it seemed a Paradise,' and the arms of each cardinal were posted outside his apartment. The windows were walled up, little peepholes being left for light ; the entrance to the palace was secured under double lock, a small door being made
^ Religieux, iv. 324. ^ Mur. xxii. 853.
' Public opinion tolerated shortening the Mass in the case of huntsmen anxious to be off to their day's sport, but not in the case of a Pope who might have important business to transact. Every one will remember the sweet little church on the south bank of the Arno at Pisa, famed for its Huntsman's Masses.
^ Hardt, iv. 25. ^ Erler, 198. ^ For their names see the Introduction, p. ix.
8 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
to admit food and drink, and a strong guard of soldiers -was posted under the command of Malatesta of Pesaro and Nicolo Roberti of Ferrara.^ The choice of the new Pope was due to the influence of the Duke of Anjou, who was anxious that the most powerful and most friendly of the cardinals should be pontiff. But the tongue of scandal was not idle. Some alleged that Baldassare Cossa had bribed all the poorer members of the College ; others said that he had threatened the cardinals with his anger if they did not elect a Pope agreeable to him, and that the Pope most agreeable to him was himself. Philip of Bergamo told a slightly different story. There was discord, according to him, among the cardinals, and they asked Cossa who ought to be elected. ' Give me the mantle of Saint Peter,' said he, ' and I will give it to him who ought to be Pope.' As soon as he had the mantle in his hands, he threw it over his own shoulders saying, ' I am Pope.' But a similar story was told of John the Twenty-Second ; and no mention of any such incident was subsequently made at the Council of Constance, when all the iniquities which could be laid to the count of John were piled together in accusation against him.^ Cossa himself desired that Conrad Caracciolo, the Cardinal of Malta, should be Pope, and advised the cardinals to elect him. When they refused to elect the man whom he suggested, hoping still to remain the powerful cardinal behind the papal throne, the cardinals could hardly do other, having regard to the political necessities of the time, than elect Baldassare Cossa himself.^
At midday on the 17th the cross appeared outside the palace, signifying that the election had been made, and an hour later, the new Pope, wearing a scarlet mitre, bordered with white, issued from the conclave. Accompanied by all the cardinals, by the two patriarchs, the three archbishops, by twenty-seven abbots, by a large number of the clergy and a throng of the citizens. Pope John the Twenty-third proceeded to the church of San Pietro Maggiore ; and after the sacrament had been administered, he sat on a golden chair that all might kiss his feet. His dwelling was pillaged according to custom, even the doors and windows being carried off. As he was still a deacon, he was ordained priest on Saturday, the 23rd, by
^ Ghirar, ii. 582. ^ Robertson, iv. 250. ^ Christophe, iii. 346-7.
THE NEW POPE 9
Cardinal de Viviers, Bishop of Ostia, in the chapel of his predecessor, and he was consecrated Bishop in the church of San Petronio ; the Cardinal Chalant acted as deacon. On Sunday the new Pope celebrated High Mass in the Cathedral, the Marquess of Ferrara and Carlo Malatesta holding the basin for him to wash his hands ; the Marquess was attended by fifty-four cavaliers, dressed in crimson and azure, and by five trumpeters and eight fiddlers to discourse sweet music. A lofty platform, covered with cloth of gold, was erected on the piazza against the wall of the church ; the Pope was brought out and seated on a chair ; and here, in the presence of the cardinals and clergy and of a great multitude of doctors from his old University, Baldassare Cossa was crowned Pope by his fellow - countryman Cardinal Brancacius and by the Arch- deacon Modesto. The guns on the piazza were fired, and all the church bells in the city were rung ; and meanwhile, to remind him that he was but mortal, tufts of tow were tlirice lighted and thrice extingTiished before him by six cardinals, who warned him, as the fire went out, ' Holy Father, thus passeth away the glory of this world.' Then the newly crowned pontiff, clad in full canonicals, descended from the stage, mounted his horse, which was covered with scarlet trappings, and rode under a gold-embroidered canopy, held aloft by cavaliers and doctors, through the market-place to the Piazza of San Stefano ; he was accompanied by the cardinals and other prelates in their mitres and long robes, mounted on horses housed in white. Thus they rode through the streets of Bologna. In the Piazza the High Priest of the Rabbis met the Pope and presented him with the Book of the Law, to whom John answered that it was a good law, but that they understood it not aright. The Jews followed him, tearing the trappings from his horse ; the streets were so thronged that the Papal Treasurer had to scatter largess to the crowd in order to make way to the palace, while the two hundred men-at-arms who accompanied the Pope struck the Jews with their leather maces as they went along, ' so that it was great joy to behold.' The next day the Pope made another joyous procession, accompanied by prelates in their red cloaks and white mitres, by dukes, counts, and cavaliers of Italy, by thirty-six trumpeters, and twenty minstrels who sang motets
10 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
and virelais at the top of their voices. Having returned to his palace, the Pope blessed the people, and the cardinals kissed him on the hand, the foot, and the mouth ; then they dined together, and the Pope presented the cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops with many and divers gifts. There were grand feasts, music, and dancing ; for three days and three nights the rejoicings continued.^ Bologna now had a Pope who had lived in its midst for the best part of twenty years. ' Rarely,' says the historian, ' has such magnificence been displayed. The splendour, alas ! was far from intimating to him whom it surrounded with so much glory the incompre- hensible troubles which were later to accompany a dignity so ardently pursued and so sadly acquired.' ^
Felicitations flowed in on the new pontiff. The Signory of Florence lost no time in sending an embassy of congratulation. They knew Pope John the Twenty-third to be a man of the highest capacity, ' uomo capace del sommo grade ' ; ^ they placed their forces at his disposal, and begged him to go to Rome and to aid Louis of Anjou in his enterprise. War was inevitable, and it was in war that Baldassare Cossa had hitherto been conspicuously successful ; unfortunately the Popes no longer conducted their wars in person. The city of Rome received the news of the new Pope's accession with gladness ; the insignia of Gregory the Twelfth were everywhere removed ; the old form of government was re-established ; Nicolo and Giovanni Colonna were won over by Paolo Orsini to John's side ; traitors were rigorously punished ; the attempts of Ladislas of Naples were repulsed.
Of all the embassies of congratulation, probably the most welcome was the ambassador Pippo Span; Pippo, Count of Ozora, who passed through Ferrara on the 21st, and arrived at Bologna soon after, from King Sigismund of Hungary.* Pippo is the ordinary Italian diminutive for Filippo, and Span or Zupan is the designation which in Hungary was given to every captain of a district. Filippo Scolari was a Florentine, and belonged to the noble old family of the Buondelmonte ; ^ but his father Stefano and his mother Antonia were poor people,
^ Ghirar, ii. 583 ; Monstrelet, 169-70. 2 Christophe, iii. 347.
^ Capponi, i. 440. ^ Mur. xxiv. 177. ^ A.S.I. , iv. 163.
THE NEW POPE 11
and some said that Stefano was a shoemaker. Pippo was born in 1369 in Tizzano, seven miles from Florence, and when only thirteen years of age was taken by a trader, Luca Pecchia, to Buda. Here the boy attracted the notice of Sigismund's treasurer, brother of the Bishop of Strigonia, who took him under his protection. It so happened that Pippo went one day to Strigonia to the Bishop, in whose palace King Sigismund was then staying. After dinner a discussion arose about raising twelve thousand cavalry to guard the Danube against the Turks who had just taken Servia ; and no one present was able to calculate the expense. Pippo was called in, took pen and paper, and gave at once the necessary information. This was his introduction to Sigismund. The King was struck both with the ability and with the appearance of the young man ; for Pippo, though but of middle height and of a spare well-knit frame, had dark lustrous eyes, his face wore a perpetual smile, and he was as fond of smart clothes as Sigismund himself.^ The King took Pippo into his service and placed him in charge of the mines. His management of these secured him the royal favour ; and Pippo ingratiated himself with everybody. In his habits he was abstemious ; as an orator he became accom- plished, speaking the languages of Hungary, Poland, Germany, and Bohemia as fluently as he did Italian. On the fatal 28th April 1401, when Sigismund was seized in the Hall of Audience at Buda, Pippo Span was present and drew his sword in defence of his patron ; he would have been cut down and killed had it not been for the Bishop of Strigonia, who threw his robe over him and declared that Pippo was his prisoner.^ Pippo lost no time in raising troops to free his master ; he wrote to Sigismund in prison, and the King no sooner recovered his freedom than he gave Pippo a castle in gratitude for his services. Pippo interceded for the rebels, at first unsuccessfully ; he let drop the clasp he was wearing, a serpent with its tail in its mouth ; the King noticed the legend on the cross on the reverse, ' How art thou merciful, Just and good, oh God.' He determined to imitate the divine clemency and pardoned the rebels ; he used the motto afterwards for the Order of the Dragon. Pippo's influence in Hungary was immensely increased by his successful 1 Hazlitt, i. 777. ^ ^,^./,, iv, 167.
12 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
mediation. He accompanied the King in his war with Bosnia, and when on one occasion Sigismund, panic-stricken, took to flight, Pippo snatched his crown, placed it on his own head, ralhed the troops, and won a splendid victory. Pippo was a born general, and this timely service so^ endeared him to the King that Sigismund made Pippo general of twenty thousand horse, and loaded him with wealth ; henceforth Pippo Span was the right-hand man of King Sigismund of Hungary.^
Pippo had come to announce to the Pope the allegiance of the King of Hungary, to crave pardon for the malversation of the ecclesiastical revenues, and to set forth to the Pope the King's determination to restore the Church in Hungary to its former splendour.^ Pippo usually appeared in a long silk mantle, which he wore, like Duke Friedrich of Austria, trailing on the ground, and with a military hat with lappets falling on his shoulders. Sigismund had sent off his ambassador in the middle of May, before the death of King Rupert, though probably about the time that he heard that Pope Alexander was dead or dying, for his letter was not addressed to the Pope by name, but merely to the Pope as the Vicar of Christ.^ Pippo went on from Bologna to Florence and spent some time there ; the Florentines commended his mission to the Pope when the ambassador left their city on the 16th August 1410. They pointed out that the King of Hungary had been harshly treated by former pontiffs and they requested Pope John to confirm the appointments which the King had made and to remove prelates displeasing to him ; they pointed out, moreover, that the Pope ought to assist the King and to admonish his adversaries when the King was fighting for the commop weal of Christendom against the unbelievers, and that he should allow and sanction all exactions made by the King from the clergy of Hungary for this purpose.^ Sigismund had the war with Venice at this time in view, and the Venetians had Uttle doubt that Pippo's em- bassy had to do therewith.^
To Pope John the attitude of the King of Hungary was of immense importance. Sigismund had not acknowledged the Council of Pisa, but had stood aloof. Now he promised obedi-
1 Mur. xxiv. 177-8. 2 Raynaldus, viii. 325. * Goeller, 71, note.
■• Finke {Ada), 93 ei seg. s Goeller, 70, note.
THE NEW POPE 13
ence to the Pope of the Council ; but he promised this obedience only as King of Hungary ; he had not at this time become a candidate for the Empire, and he made no promise to Pope John in that capacity. The new Pope had already, on the 31st May, signed a letter to the Electors of the Empire, an- nouncing his election as Pope ; and this letter was afterward taken by his messengers, the knights Hugo of Hervorst and Nicolas of Altronandis, to Frankfurt. When Pippo arrived, Pope John knew of the death of Rupert and of the demise of the German crown ; he appreciated the importance of the forth- coming election and of the recognition by the new head of the Holy Roman Empire of himself as the only true Pope, the only head on earth of the Holy Roman Church. Benedict the Thirteenth could still count on the support of Spain and Scotland ; Gregory the Twelfth was still backed up by Ladislas of Naples and Carlo Malatesta, and was acknowledged by the German bishoprics of Trier, Speier, and Worms : ^ it was of infinite importance to Pope John that the future King of the Romans should undo the work of the late King Rupert, and should bring all Germany under the obedience of the Pope whose status depended on the Council of Pisa. This considera- tion determined the relation of Pope John the Twenty-third to King Sigismund of Hungary ; the support of Sigismund was absolutely necessary ; friendship with him was essential. The Pope accordingly was most gracious on all points of the em- bassy. He removed the sentence of closure on the churches of Hungary which had been passed on the 6th April 1404 ; ^ inter- course between the King and the Curia was renewed, the revolutionary acts of Sigismund were indirectly legalised. Bishop Branda of Piacenza was sent as Papal Legate to Hungary to arrange for the institution of a University, to correct certain abuses and abolish certain privileges which certain bishops had received from the rival Pope, and at the special desire of the King to take thought for the creation of new benefices on the borders of the kingdom. To King Sigismund Pope John was determined to be most conciliatory.
The first year of his pontificate was spent by the Pope at his beloved city, Bologna ; here the negotiations with Carlo
^ Palacky, iii. 244. 2 Goeller, 73.
14 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Malatesta were carried through ; hence the Legates were despatched to France and to Spain ; Bologna, moreover, was more convenient than Rome for watching the proceedings in connection with the election of the new King of the Romans. The new Pope lost no time in issuing, for the information of Christendom, an encyclical ^ in which he claimed the adhesion accorded to his predecessor, and in which he renewed against his adversaries and their adherents the sentences pronounced by the Council of Pisa. He gave them until the month of April to make their allegiance, and announced that he would then take thought for the time and place of the coming council.^ Pope Gregory was also stimulated to promulgate a Bull in which, referring to Baldassare Cossa's boyhood, he denounced all pirates and thieves.^ Pope John sent to Spain a Legate a latere. Cardinal Maramaur,* to try to persuade Pope Benedict to resign and to win the adhesion of the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon, and Navarre ; but the mission was a miserable failure. As soon as he was elected the Pope wrote to King Ladislas of Naples demanding the sixty thousand ducats which were due from him to the Church, but that red-haired libertine answered that he would not pay a single Tornese.^ John can have expected no other answer, considering the terms he was on with Louis, Duke of Anjou, the rival of King Ladislas. On the very first day of his pontificate the Pope had issued letters of recommendation to all lords, spiritual and temporal, beseeching them to aid the army of Louis ; ^ he had entrusted the Duke with a prefecture to give him facilities for the invasion of Naples,' and these measures were known to the King of Naples. The Duke of Anjou had now returned from France to try to win for himself the kingdom of Naples which Queen Joanna the First had bequeathed to his father. In his haste he had sailed on ahead with half his fleet, leaving behind him the other six galleys with his horses, arms, stores, and the larger part of his troops and treasure. This detachment, so fatally weakened, fell in with the fleets of Ladislas and the Genoese, and a fierce fight ensued near the Island of Meloria. At first the day
^ Raynaldus, viii. 320. ^ /^^'af. viii. 331. ^ Blumenthal, 27.
â– * Raynaldus, viii. 323. ^ Mur. xxii. 352. ^ Raynaldus, viii. 324.
"^ Blumenthal, 13.
THE NEW POPE 15
went in favour of the French ; one of their enemy's ships was taken and another was boarded, and the victors at once thought of securing their prize. But the alhes ralHed ; they reconquered their ship ; they renewed the fight with deadly vigour ; it continued for seven long hours. At the end of that time two of the French galleys had been sent to the bottom, three were taken, and their valuable cargoes fell to the Neapolitans ; one ship only, with fifteen hundred men aboard, escaped and rejoined the Duke at Piombino. This was on the 8th June 1410.1 The Island of Elba was also taken by the fleet of Ladislas, which then sailed off to Ischia and Procida, the possessions of the Pope's family, where they did more damage ; they finally made their way south to Policastro, which they took and sacked.
The unfortunate Duke was meantime at Piombino, where he received an embassy of condolence from Florence. Thence, mounted on a black horse, clad in black raiment, and accom- panied by an escort arrayed in the like mournful habiliments, he sorrowfully wended his way to Siena. Here John the Twenty- third had given orders for his cordial reception, and the Duke now donned a red uniform, and betook himself to Bologna. Outside the city, on the Wednesday after the Pope's coronation, the Duke was honourably met by the cardinals and citizens. He came to solicit aid in men and money, and presently went on to Florence on the same errand. Neither Pope nor Republic helped him with money ; probably they lacked confidence in him ; but troops were forthcoming. The Florentine contingent was commanded by Alberigo da Barbiano, who, however, died near Perugia, when his place was taken by Braccio da Montone. The Duke himself was able to engage the services of Sforza Attendolo — a better general could not be found — but he failed to keep him contented, because he did not pay him regularly. Regular pay for his men was the first consideration with a condottiere general, and this was precisely what Louis of Anjou was unable to ensure. The papal and ducal troops, together with two thousand five hundred men supplied by Florence and Siena, marched off toward Rome. At the same time the rest of the ducal fleet, seven large galleys and one small one, sailed
^ Ammirato, v. 14, note ; Valois, iv. 133, note.
16 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
off to Ostia under command of the Pope's brother, the Italian admiral Caspar Cossa ; from Ostia they sailed toward Naples, but soon returned. Ladislas attempted to surprise Ostia, but his troops were defeated in one or two insignificant skirmishes by Paolo Orsini, and Ostia and Tivoli acknowledged the sway of the Pope. Nothing of importance occurred in the field, but the wily King was gaining his ends elsewhere.^
Ladislas was quite aware of the impecuniosity of the Duke, caused by the sea-fight off Meloria, and he knew of the import- ance to him of his wealthy ally, the Republic of Florence. He accordingly opened communications with the Signory, and the Florentines, who had no wish to see France strongly established in Italy, listened to his overtures. The result was a peace between the King of Naples on the one side and Florence and Siena on the other ; it was concluded on the last day of the year.2 The Republic sent envoys to the Duke of Anjou and to the Pope, trying to get them also to make peace with the King. ' They might at least have waited until the term of our alliance was up,' was the Duke's remark ; the Pope also scouted the idea of peace. King Ladislas had promised the Florentines not to interfere in Rome ; he sold Cortona to them, and he promised to return all the Florentine goods captured by his fleet. This peace left the Duke of Anjou dependent on the Pope alone for aid against Naples. His army meantime was in a pitiable state. The French soldiers, whom he had left at Rome under the Count of Tagliacozzo, had received no pay for a twelve- month ; those who remained had neither horses nor arms. Louis left Rome in despair on the 31st December, and betook himself to the Pope. War was impracticable during the winter, so the Duke had to wait until the ensuing spring.
One of the first acts of John the Twenty-third related to that Bull of his predecessor regarding the mendicant orders which had caused such umbrage in France. On the 10th June 1410 he prohibited the use of this Bull. This measure, however, failed to satisfy the University of Paris,^ which desired that the Bull should be authoritatively annulled ; but the Pope, having granted the practical relief required, refused to go further and to dishonour the memory of his friend.
^ Mur. xxiv. 1017-8. 2 Raumer, 224. ^ Fiiike [Ac/a), 162.
THE NEW POPE 17
Soon after the death of King Rupert, Pope Gregory the Twelfth wrote a lengthy defence of himself and criticism of the proceedings at the Council of Pisa. He sent this to the courts of Europe, and among others to King Sigismund. He could, however, hope for little result from the King of Hungary, seeing that his own principal supporter was that monarch's hated rival, Ladislas of Naples, who was still recognised by Gregory and the Republic of Venice as rightful King of Hungary. The aged Pope desisted from further communications with King Sigis- mund until the summer of 1412, when he had himself been abandoned by the faithless Ladislas. ^
The most persevering opponent of Pope John the Twenty- third in the first year of his pontificate was his former friend. Carlo Malatesta who, like Pope Boniface the Ninth and many nobles of northern Italy, was a client of Baldassare Cossa's old enemies, the Gozzadini.^ The Lord of Rimini was an inde- fatigable advocate of a general Council ; from the very first he did more than any other man to bring it about, and to him, next to King Sigismund, the Council of Constance was due. After the papal election at the Council of Pisa, undeterred by his rebuff there, Malatesta had urged the plan of a Council on Alexander the Fifth and on Benedict the Thirteenth ; ^ and after the death of Pope Alexander he urged the scheme again on the cardinals before the election of Pope John. His endeavours had hitherto been ineffectual. Pope John, who was naturally anxious to strengthen his own position, now heard with some alarm that Carlo Malatesta was preparing to make war upon him in the interest of his rival Pope Gregory the Twelfth. An interesting correspondence ensued.
Carlo Malatesta reminded the new Pope of their friendship which had subsisted since the time when Cossa was a Chamber- lain to Pope Boniface. John answered that the friendship would last as long as life itself ; he added that he would hold the Council promised by Pope Alexander and would do all in his power, even if he had to remain a simple clerk, to bring back peace to the Church. Carlo replied that he had served Cossa faithfully as long as he was cardinal ; now that they were opposed, he still loved Pope John, for we are bidden to love our
^ Finke {Ada), 15. '^ Gozzadini, 25. ^ Blumenthal, 6.
B
18 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
enemies, but he could no longer serve him, for no man can serve two masters, and Carlo was the servant of his Holy Mother the Church and of her rightful Lord, Pope Gregory ; he could only recommend a general Council. The Pope sent a doctor to say that he was ready to convoke a Council and to propose that Carlo and his brother should be two of the protectors ; but he insisted that it was absurd to call in question his own undoubted right as Pope before his two rivals who had been condemned at the Council of Pisa ; he could not recognise any Council that they might call, nor would they abide by any decisions of his Council. Another person, writing from the papal court, pointed out to Malatesta that a general Council might depose Pope John (the idea of deposing all three Popes was already in the air), and dilated on the difficulty of fixing a fit and suitable place for the meeting. Carlo Malatesta wanted to go behind the Council of Pisa ; whereas Pope John took his stand on that Council. The Lord of Rimini declared that he was ready to resign his lordship if John would resign the papacy ; he again proposed that the rival Popes should appoint proctors to decide as to the time and place for the new Council. Pope John answered that he was ready to hold a Council at Bologna, that he would not invite his rivals, but had no objection to their attending, that he held himself to be the only legitimate Pope and would do nothing to prejudice his right, but that Malatesta was free to com- municate with the two antipopes.^ These negotiations con- tinued until the 15th July 14-10. There was no chance of the disputants coming to any agreement, for they were approaching the quarrel from different standpoints. Carlo Malatesta wanted a Council so constituted as to go behind that of Pisa, and to reconsider the conclusions there arrived at ; Pope John was determined to uphold that Council at all hazards.
The Pope then wrote to the Republic of Venice to use their influence to make Malatesta desist from his endeavours, and the Venetians accordingly advised Carlo that it was not honourable to attempt to withdraw Bologna from the Pope's allegiance, but at the same time they refused to interfere between the Lord of Rimini and the King of Naples.^ Malatesta again sent to Pope Benedict, who answered him most graciously and was 1 Martene {A. C), vii. 117 1 ei seq. 2 pinke {Acta), 24-5.
THE NEW POPE 19
willing to enter into communication with Pope Gregory but not with the Pope of the Council. ^ Carlo's efforts were de- feated at all points ; the only conclusion at which he could arrive, and it was the only sensible and practical conclusion, was that he himself was not the person to bring about a general Council, but that the King of the Romans, as the son, the advocate, the defender of the Church, was the fit and proper person to convoke it.^ The communications between the two old friends are interesting, because they show that not only was the Council of Pisa recognised as a failure, but that a fresh general Council was in contemplation at which it was quite possible that all three rival Popes might be deposed or be required to resign. Under these circumstances it obvi- ously was the policy of Pope John to uphold the authority of the Council of Pisa. His aim was to checkmate his two adversaries and to acquire for himself the entire obedience of Christendom. Carlo Malatesta was apparently the author of the proposal that all three Popes should abdicate or be deposed. Carlo Malatesta did not mean to let matters rest. He was appointed by Pope Gregory to be Rector of Romandiola and defender of the true faith, and was commanded to make war on that son of iniquity, Baldassare Cossa, who now presumed to style himself Pope John the Twenty-third.^ As soon as Sigis- mund was elected King of the Romans, Carlo Malatesta wrote to him, recounting all that he had done at the Council of Pisa and since, and calling upon him to convoke a general Council. The scheme for the settlement of the Great Schism by the ab- dication or deposition of all three Popes was now before the King of the Romans ; and Pope John knew thus early in his reign that this was the chief danger which threatened him on the papal throne. To counteract this scheme, it was necessary for him to conciliate those in power and to win them to his way of thinking. If he could induce the King of the Romans and the leading Courts of Europe to uphold the authority of the Council which had elected his predecessor, then he might flout Carlo Malatesta. He accordingly spared no pains, he over- looked no opportunity save one, to ingratiate himself with
^ Blumenthal, i8. ^ Martene (A. C), vii. 1 197-1202.
^ Raynaldus, viii. 329.
20 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
King Sigismund ; he was equally desirous to get the Kings of France and England on his side. The former would naturally uphold the Council of Pisa, but of the other he was not sure. Unfortunately Pope John was not a good judge of character, and was apt to choose his instruments amiss.
Like his predecessor. Pope John was anxious to get in all available arrears of taxes due to the Apostolic See. There was very little money in the papal treasury ; Alexander the Fifth, as he said, had been a beggar as Pope. John wished to levy a tenth on the clergy of France. The Archbishop of Pisa and two other legates whom he sent to announce his election were charged to obtain the consent of the French Court to the proposed tax. An audience was granted them in the King's Council on the 22nd November, and the legates were indiscreet enough to maintain that the Pope had an absolute right to levy tenths on the clergy at his pleasure, and that the KingV authority was only required for the form in which the imposition was to be made. The University of Paris was up in arms at once. The clergy of France, they affirmed, could not be taxed save with the consent of the King and of their own representa- tives ; the Pope's demand was an infringement of the rights of the Galilean Church. The legates found out their mistake ; they had raised a veritable hornets' nest about their ears ; they tried to appease the University, but only procured a fresh protestation that the clergy of France were not subject to any apostolic tax save with their own consent. The Pope, disgusted at the want of tact of his legates, had no intention of losing the material support of France on a mere matter of form ; above all else he wanted the money. He sent a diamond heart, set in a ring of gold, to the Duke of Berri ; he took Jean Juvenal des Ursins, the future historian and son of the King's advocate, into his service as secretary ; he addressed a Bull, full of compliments, to the all-powerful Duke of Burgundy ; he sent the King a Bull allowing him to levy a tenth on the clergy of France for the war with England, and another permitting him to levy aids from them for the next three years for the same purpose. He thus won over the Court, and was allowed to levy on the clergy a gratuitous gift, equivalent to a tenth ; the unfortunate clergy were not consulted, but were compelled to pay the gratuity.
THE NEW POPE 21
Nor was the Pope blind to the influence of the powerful Uni- versity of Paris ; he even went so far as to incur censure in his endeavours to conciliate that body. In 1410 it is true that they were told that those who refused to pay the tenth were no true Christians, and were checkmated in their assertion of the liberties of the Gallican Church, but the Pope subsequently tried to make it up to them. By his briefs of the 10th July 1411, and the 7th January 1412, he declared that members of the Uni- versity were not to be postponed in their claims to benefices even to those who held expectative briefs from the Pope, and that Masters of Philosophy, after seven years' study, were eligible for posts in cathedrals. These privileges were so much the more valuable to the hungry members of the University inasmuch as that body enjoyed no particular favour either with the French episcopacy or with other patrons of benefices. On the 1st April 1412 Pope John conferred on Jean Gerson, the Chancellor of the University, the right of absolving all scholars and masters from censure, even in cases specially reserved for the apostolic stool ; and on the same date he allowed the University the privilege for three years of bringing all their disputes for decision before the Bishop of Paris instead of taking them to the Curia at Rome. All these concessions, however, failed to conciliate the more ardent spirits or to win them over to his side in the coming struggle.
To our own country the Pope was equally complaisant. His great patron and master. Pope Boniface the Ninth, had granted to the University of Oxford a Bull making it subject to the King of England in civil matters and to the Court of Rome in matters spiritual. The University therefore claimed to be exempt from all jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, although its Chancellor had been warned that the King would refuse to recognise the validity of this Bull, seeing that he had vested all authority in the Archbishop. Archbishop Arundel was bent on suppressing Lollardy at Oxford, its headquarters, and appeared at Saint Mary's church only to find himself barred out by the Chancellor and the Proctors. The students were in the streets armed with bows and arrows, and quite ready to use them. The Archbishop put the church under an interdict, whereupon the Chancellor threatened to excom-
22 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
municate him. It was agreed to refer the matter to King Henry ; and before him at Lambeth the Archbishop, the Chancellor, and the Proctors accordingly appeared on the 9th September 1411. The King decided in favour of the Arch- bishop, who had meantime also appealed to Rome, On the 20th November 1411, Pope John issued a Bull which authorised the Archbishop of Canterbury to exercise full metropolitan jurisdiction over the University, thus throwing over his pre- decessor in order to ingratiate himself with the King and the Archbishop. The University in the same month unreservedly submitted itself to the Archbishop. The real object of the contest had been ' the suppression of Lollardy — in other words, the suppression of free speech and thought — in the schools and pulpits of Oxford.'^ These instances of John's opportunist policy have taken us beyond the first year of his reign, to which we must now return.
Trouble arose in the country around Bologna itself. Cardinal Conrad Caracciolo was sent to rase the Castello di Barbiano. Giorgio Ordelassi had conquered Forli, Forlimpopolo, and the castle of Oriolo. Gian Galeazzo, the son of Astor de' Manfredi, whom the Pope had beheaded five years earlier, surprised by night the city of Faenza, and became himself the Signor thereof as his father had been before him. Carlo Malatesta had instigated the enterprise, hoping that Manfredi would restore the city to Pope Gregory ; but the youth made terms with Pope John, and consented to hold Faenza as a fief under him. (1st August 1410.2)
Through the whole of the year 1410 Pope John the Twenty- third remained at Bologna, possibly because of the impending election in Germany. The first year of his pontificate brought him into close relationship with two men, with whom his fate five years later became mysteriously and inextricably involved. They were Sigismund, the stalwart King of Hungary, and John Hus, the patriot reformer of Bohemia. Trouble was brewing between the King of Hungary and Venice, and in the summer of 1410 Pope John sent to the Republic, offering to mediate be- tween them. They answered that they already had an embassy at Sigismund's Court, but suggested that the Pope should
* Rashdall, ii. 435. 2 ]y[yf_ ^xiv. 176; Ghirar, ii. 583.
THE NEW POPE 23
approach Count Pippo of Ozora on the subject, and should let them know the result of his conference ; they also informed their ambassadors of the possibility of the Pope's intervention. John subsequently renewed his offer through Cardinal Branda. Eventually the King and the Republic agreed to refer their differences to the Pope. The result will appear later.
Both King and Reformer, Sigismund and John Hus, merit a detailed description in order that we may appreciate aright the parts which they play in the history of Pope John the Twenty- third and his times.
24 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER II
JOHN HUS
It was one of the most serious deficiencies of Pope John the Twenty-third that, being so entirely a man of action, he had very hmited sympathy with the intellectual and religious move- ments of his time. The two movements were almost identical, for the greater part of the best intellect was in the service of religion. The Pope indeed delighted in the society and con- verse of learned and clever men,^ but this was because of his Italian virtu, of that love of strength, physical and intellectual, of strength and the beauty which waits on strength. But the appreciation of literature and art was, as Gian Galeazzo and others had shown, compatible with tyrannical and unscrupulous use of power. The intellect provided trifles for the lighter hours, not food for the serious thought, of the ruler. In this manner would the Pope have regarded the works of John Wyclif, if they came across his notice. Yet, as an original thinker, Wyclif was the greatest genius of his day. He had made his name as a realist philosopher and as a political writer before he was known as a theologian or a heretic. Paris was nominalist, and the University there was consequently safe from the fascination of the great realist ; but the Universities at Oxford and Prague were realist, and Wyclif was in high es- teem at both. Political circumstances in England were adverse to the spread of his religious views, and consequently Lollardy, except in a few holes and corners, almost died out before the Reformation ; but in Bohemia the political situation was propitious, and Wyclifism took deep root and flourished, and eventually produced long and fierce warfare. In order to understand how Wyclifism became so great a force in the land of its adojDtion, and to appreciate the part it played in the time ^ Duchesne, ii. 555.
JOHN HUS 25
of Pope John the Twenty- third, it will be necessary to glance at the political life of Bohemia and at the career of the patriot reformer, a Bohemian of the Bohemians, John Hus.
Bohemia, the lozenge-shaped country between the four ranges of hills, was a land divided against itself. It was held by a Czech nobility, a branch of the great Slavonian family, but it was peopled by two antagonistic and hopelessly discordant elements, the Czech and the Teuton. The Czech peasantry were unenterprising and inactive ; Teuton settlers had been invited and were granted special privileges ; a Teuton invasion was favoured by the Premsylides, themselves half Germans ; Teuton peasants cleared the forests and brought under cultiva- tion the lands once held by the wolf and the bear ; Teutons worked the silver mines of Kurtenberg and Deutschbrod and other mines also ; Teuton artisans and merchants founded the towns and brought prosperity to the cities by their industry and intelligence. The Czech peasants sank into the condition of serfs to the nobility, against whose power the Teutons acted as a counterpoise for the Kings. The country was exploited, civilised, and enriched by the Teutons ; but the two elements in the population never coalesced. The Czechs hated the Teutons worse than the Irish hated the English ; the Teutons were an object of national animosity alike to the Slavonic nobility above them and to the Slavonic peasantry below. Bohemia was a country occupied by two hostile peoples, differing in language, habits, and sympathies ; the two elements never fused, but remained in perpetual antagonism.^
The Czech dynasty of the Premsylides became extinct in 1306 ; four years later the crown was offered to John, son of the Emperor Henry the Seventh, and with him commenced the dynasty of the Luxemburgs, which lasted for a century and a quarter. The new King was a knight-errant, a ubiquitous man, to be found everywhere except in his own country ; nothing happened anywhere, men said, without God and King John. He added Upper Lusatia, Silesia, and Moravia to Bohemia, but he neglected and plundered the country, and when his son Charles succeeded him he could not find a single royal castle for his residence, but was obliged to live like a burgess in the
^ Hist. Gen., ii. 750-65 ; Hoefler, Buch i. passim.
26 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
town. The barons had become tyrants who feared not the King, for they had divided the kingdom amongst them. Charles's reign was one long struggle against this turbulent aristocracy, who were proud of their ancient history and determined to defend their nationality. They were sunk into an evil plight through their folly and sensual indulgence, but their struggle was not without its advantage. ' Bohemia, the centre of the Empire under Charles the Fourth, became the focus from which civilisation spread over Eastern Europe ; with Hus, it dealt the first blow to the religious and political system of the Middle Age ; with Ziska and Procopius, it victoriously defended the principle of independence in matters of faith.' 1
Charles the Fourth set himself to bring back peace, order, and prosperity to Bohemia. He was the father of the land ; he loved the country, he loved the people, he loved their language ; he could talk Czech as readily as German, French, Italian, or Latin. His aim was to concentrate the government in his own hands and to frame a strong and absolute monarchy. He succeeded, and under him both the cities and the Church in Bohemia attained a period of unexampled prosperity.^ The infiltration of the Teutons was slackening, but they had already covered a great part of Bohemia ; in the cities German was the language of administration, of justice, of the pulpit, of educa- tion. The King put himself at the head of the Slav movement ; he protected the mass of the people against the nobles, to whom he allowed their existing authority, but forbade its abuse or its extension. The peasantry obtained the ' German right ' and became attached to the King. Charles, who was fond of architecture, who commenced the Cathedral of Saint Vitus and constructed the Castle of Karlstein, built the new city of Prague for the Slavs, the old city being occupied by the Teutons. He was anxious to make Bohemia the corner-stone of the Empire, and to increase its importance in every way. Being regarded with a favourable eye by Pope Clement the Sixth, he persuaded that pontiff, on the ground of difference in language, to cut off the bishopric of Prague from the metropolitan see of Mainz and to raise it into an independent archbishopric. Hereby the 1 Hist, Gen., iii. 656. 2 Lechler, 5.
JOHN HUS 27
clergy of Bohemia, who were possessed of no independent standing in the State Mke those of Germany and France, fell entirely under the control of the crown, seeing that their possessions were by Bohemian custom not church lands but crown property. In 1347 Charles founded the University of Prague on the model of Paris and Bologna, intending it as a studium generale for Eastern Europe. It was originally com- posed of the faculties of arts, theology, medicine, and law, but the last faculty seceded and formed a distinct university in 1372. The Church in Bohemia was very wealthy and over officered ; but it was also extremely corrupt and licentious ; simony abounded ; and the clergy, who were mostly Teutons, were sunk in depravity and contempt. The King desired not only a more efficient control of the priesthood, but also an improvement in their lives and influence. His friend, the first Archbishop of Prague, Ernst of Pardubitz, a man of exemplary life and conduct, seconded the King's endeavours, and did much toward the reform of the clergy, but he was unable to contend with entire success against their entanglement in worldly pursuits, against the multiplication of benefices, and the intrusion of interlopers. The King's example made piety fashionable, but failed to make it earnest ; while his establish- ment in the Neustadt of Prague of the Emmaus convent for Benedictine monks who observed the Eastern ritual accentuated the antagonism between the Teutonic and Slavonic elements in the capital and provided a focus for agitation.^ At the same time education spread through the land ; it was the golden age of Bohemian literature, and grammar-schools abounded.^ The consequence of the education of the people and the abasement of the clergy was that numbers of the people became alienated from the Church, and that heresy and mysticism increased among them ; faulty translations of the Scriptures were made and circulated ; the writings of the Fathers were unknown or neglected, but the written word of the New Testament was held in high veneration. Charles the Fourth died as the Great Schism began and was succeeded by his son Wenzel.
The animosity between the two races increased under King Wenzel, as he gradually withdrew from interference in the affairs
1 Berger, 4 ef seq. ^ Rashdall, ii. 215.
28 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
of the Empire, and became more and more exclusively, until at last he became of necessity, the mere King of Bohemia. Under him the Czech language, in addition to Latin and German, was used in the royal chancery ; a Bohemian element began to creep into the towns and to acquire a share in their govern- ment ; some of the younger clergy copied the example of Milic of Kremsier and preached in Czech, and in this language Thomas of Stitny wrote his books, addressing them professedly to the common people.^ At the same time the Bohemian element in the University increased ; in the first twenty years of Wenzel's reign it was less than one-sixth, in the third ten years it reached a fifth of the whole number ; and whereas in the former period the Bohemians held only one-seventh of the deaneries, in the latter they held one-third.^ Wenzel had insti- tuted a cabinet ministry of the lower nobility, of ' grooms and kitchen-boys,' as the higher nobles termed them ; and being a man averse from hard work and independent resolve, he natur- ally soon fell entirely under their influence. These favourites of the King were clever and able men, but were hopelessly at variance with the higher nobles and with the higher clergy. They were bent on maintaining the absolute monarchy which the Emperor Charles had set up. Some of them were advocates of reform, and among the earliest and most strenuous friends of John Hus ; others were simply enemies of the Church and clergy, persecuting men whose shoe-latchets they were not worthy to unloose, and consorting with those against whom the reformer directed his warmest and best-deserved censure. The murder of the General Vicar Johann von Pomuk brought on a revolution in 1393 among the higher nobility, who were joined by the King's cousin Jost ; Wenzel was captured by them in the following year.
Sigismund, King of the neighbouring country of Hungary, meantime played his own game ; he was convinced that his own position in Hungary was dependent on peace and a firm rule in Bohemia, and he thought this object could best be secured if he himself became ruler of Bohemia. He would not join the nobles in their revolt, but made use of their discontent to ingratiate himself with his half-brother, and in 1896 he became his repre- 1 Helfert, 51. 2 /^^-^^ ^^^
JOHN HUS 29
sentative in the Empire. Then followed the campaign which ended in the disastrous defeat of Nicopolis ; this drew Sigis- mund away from Bohemia, and the favourites regained their power ; Wenzel went to Germany and to France to settle the Schism ; he appointed his cousin Prokop his representative in Bohemia, and Prokop, with an army formed of the scum of Europe, soon had the nobility and clergy of Bohemia against him. Sigismund again appeared with an army. Even the deposition of Wenzel and the elevation of Rupert to be King of the Romans failed, however, to reconcile the half-brothers. In 1401 Sigismund was in his turn imprisoned by his vassals ; as soon as he escaped the brothers became reconciled, and at Koenigingraetz on the 4th February Wenzel made over to Sigismund the rule of Bohemia and appointed him to be Vicar- General of the Empire. Sigismund had now attained his object, but the good understanding between the brothers was of short duration. When Wenzel became restive, Sigismund cast him into prison and ruled Bohemia with a rod of iron. Herein he over-reached himself. On the 11th November 1403 Wenzel escaped. Sigismund was checkmated. All parties were glad to get rid of him. The higher nobility, who had won something in the restriction of the royal power, were patriots enough to prefer the reign of King Log to King Stork. The favourites came back to power again.^
Meanwhile two movements had taken shape which contri- buted to accentuate and strengthen the patriotic feeling in Bohemia. One was religious and the other was rational. The religious agitation was commenced by the preaching of Conrad Waldhauser ; it was continued by the mystical teaching of Milic of Kremsier and Mathias of Janow ; it was fostered by Thomas of Stitny and Adalbert Ranco. All these reformers inveighed against the vice and immorality of the laity, against the superficiality and degeneracy of the clergy. They all alike claimed to be faithful sons of the Church, and were all alike ignorant of Wyclif's heresies. But their preaching had entered into the souls of thinking men and had penetrated the under- standing of the masses, and so had prepared the ground for the reception of Wyclif's teaching. ^ The rational agitation in
^ Berger, 33. 2 Helfert, 40.
80 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Bohemia was for the admission of Wychf's teaching into the circle of theological and philosophical studies. There were many points on which Wyclif's views appealed to the patriotic party in Bohemia. The refusal by England to send money out of the country to Avignon, to the material injury of the nation and to the material advantage of a Pope who was the partisan and tool of a hostile king, was an example actually followed. The recognition by Pope Boniface the Ninth of Rupert as King of the Romans and of Ladislas as King of Hungary placed these two countries in the same relation to him as was England to Pope Clement the Seventh, and was the reason why Sigismund, following the precedent set by the English parliament in 1366, interdicted all intercourse between those countries and the Roman Curia. The right of the nobility to resume church goods, another doctrine of Wyclif, was one which might have commended itself to the Emperor Charles the Fourth, for he had threatened the Bishop and Chapter of Constance with the deprivation of their temporalities, pending reference to the Pope, if they neglected to reform the clergy in their diocese. The attack on the possessions and on the political status of the clergy was as appropriate to Bohemia as to England. Wyclif's views had not merely an intellectual but also a political and eco- nomical aspect which ensured sympathy and appreciation ; and it was their practical political value which won for them accept- ance in the Court of King Wenzel. They were translated into the Czech language and were widely circulated among the Bohemian nobility. His political teaching thus ensured for his doctrinal system a ready entrance into Bohemia. In this way, both for political and for social reasons, on the grounds of economy and of morality, the country was ready to listen to the new doctrines and to give them a favourable hearing. And at this time the race feeling, the animosity and jealousy between Czech and Teuton, was at its height. It was believed that the innovations in Church and State, the introduction of celibacy of the clergy, of communion in one kind, the confirmation of bishops by Rome, had been coincident with the introduction of the German element into Bohemia ; the political and the religious deteriora- tion alike were ascribed by the Bohemians to the foreign element in their country. The Germans had ousted the old
JOHN HUS 31
nobility and had usurped the direction of affairs, they had by their commerce and industry acquired a great part of the wealth of the country, they had taken from the sons of the soil the Church livings and the good things of the new University ; patriotism and religious reform were certain therefore to go hand-in-hand in Bohemia, and religious reform became bound up with the name of John Wyclif.
Wyclif, who ' was famous as a philosopher before he became a theologian at all, and famous as a theologian before he became a heresiarch,'^ died on the last day of 1384 ; he was regarded in Bohemia as the fifth Evangelist.^ Some of his works were known in the country as early as 1391 ; Jerome of Prague, who visited England in 1399, copied out the Dialogus and Trialogus and brought them back with him ; ' it was the works of Wyclif which first called forth the deep religious feeling in Bohemia. '^ The movement, up to the time of the Council of Constance, was known almost exclusively by his name ; he was called the Arius of his time, and it was to the Wyclifites that King Sigismund referred when he said, ' Truly I was but a youth when this sect arose and spread in Bohemia, and behold to what strength it has already attained.' The foremost disciple and promul- gator of Wyclifism in Bohemia was John Hus.
John Hus, John the son of Michael as he was originally called, was born at the little market-town of Husinez, near Prachtice, in the south of Bohemia, close to the Bavarian frontier, where the Czech and German languages met, and where the racial strife was consequently fiercest. The year of his birth has generally been given as 1369, but it is not exactly known.'* He was one of several brothers, and was his mother's favourite son. His parents were peasants of but moderate means, and the boy received his early education at the parish school at
^ D.N.B., Ixiii. 219. ^ Loserth, xv.
^ Loserth, 70, 75, 77 ; for a different view see Helfert, 39 ; Luetzow, 18.
* Berger, 38, gives 1470 as the date. Luetzow, 64, says : ' We are unable to state positively in what year Hus was born. The oldest traditions stated that he was born on July 6, 1373. More recently such great authorities as Palacky and Tomek gave July 6, 1369, as the date of the birth of Hus. According to the latest researches the exact year of his birth cannot be affirmed, but it undoubtedly took place between 1373 and 1375. The day is quite uncertain. The tradition that Hus was born on the 6th July is merely founded on a fanciful analogy with the day of his death, which occurred on July 6th.'
32 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Husinez or at Prachtice.^ When he was still a mere boy he went to the University of Prague and became an inmate of the College founded in 1386 by King Wenzel in the fruit market.^ He was so poor that he was often obliged to beg in the streets and to sleep on the ground ; he earned a little money as singing boy and as ministrant at religious services in some of the many churches in Prague. ' When I was a hungry little student,' he says, ' I made a spoon out of bread till I had eaten the pease, and then ate the spoon also.' ^ He joined in the sports of his fellow-students, and was fond of chess ; his ambition was to become a priest, that he might have a good house and clothes, and be looked up to by his fellow-men. In 1393 he became Bachelor of Arts, in the following year Bachelor of Divinity, and in 1396 Master of Arts ; but he never became a Doctor of Divinity. As he was placed in the middle of the list of those who graduated with him, he does not appear to have been particularly distinguished at this time ; * but he was from the beginning fond of theological disputations, and was noted for his profound piety and religious zeal. He was always a singu- larly lovable man, whose absolute simplicity and blameless life won the respect of all, whose tenderness of heart extended even to his enemies, and whose indomitable faith and enthusiasm kindled the lasting devotion of his adherents. The University in his time reached the zenith of its popularity ; it was there that Hus met Stanislas of Znaim and Stephen Palec, at first his firm friends but afterwards his bitterest enemies, and there too that he was a fellow-student with Jerome of Prague and with Jacob of Stribro, or Jacobel, the originator of utraquism. In 1398 Hus became a public teacher and delivered lectures at the University ; in 1401 he preached at the church of St. Michael and was made Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, and in 1402 ' he became, at an unusually early age, for the first time Rector of the University.'^ In this same year the great fame which he had already acquired as a preacher led to another appointment which in great degree determined his future career as patriot and reformer.
On the 25th May 1391, Hans Milheim, one of the favourite
^ Berger, 38 ; Luetzow, 65. ^ Rashdall, ii. 219.
^ Luetzow, 69, note; Lechler, 27. '' Palacky, iii. 191. ^ Luetzow, 72.
JOHN HUS 33
courtiers of King Wenzel, connected through his wife with the old Bohemian nobihty, had founded in the present Bethlehem Square in Prague a chapel, a somewhat extensive building, roomy enough to contain over a thousand people, known as the Bethlehem Chapel.^ The foundation was an offshoot of Milie's reform movement. Associated with the founder was a wealthy tradesman, Kriz, ' the shopkeeper,' who gave the ground. Their object was that whereas Germans had hitherto been able to hear preaching in open churches, and Bohemians had been obliged to seek it in private houses and out-of-the-way corners, the Rector of the new foundation was to be a secular priest bound to preach in the Bohemian tongue on the morning and afternoon of every Sunday and Saint's Day.^ The priest's house, the door of which still remains, was erected close to the chapel. Johann Protiva of Neudorf was the first preacher ; Stephen of Kolin was the second ; they had both been renowned for their eloquence. On the 14th March 1402, Hus was appointed Rector and Preacher, being confirmed in the post bj^ the General Vicar of Prague.^ His eloquence and earnestness attracted crowds of listeners, and his fame speedily eclipsed that of his predecessors. The chapel, ' the scene of his triumphs, became to him in reality a home, to which he was ever fervently attached.'^ He had already studied Wyclif's philosophical works, now he began to immerse himself in the theological tractates of the Reformer. Pious Bohemian ladies, Anezka, daughter of Thomas of Stitny, and other noble dames, made their habitations close to the chapel. Queen Sophia, the second wife of the King, was a frequent visitor. The Queen made Hus her confessor, and through her influence he became Court chaplain. Wenzel's sister Anne, through her marriage with Richard the Second of England, and the intercourse between the two Courts which thus sprung up, had been the means of introducing the writings of John Wyclif into Bohemia ; Wen- zel's second wife, Sophia, made John Hus a Court favourite and secured his commanding influence with the King and the nobility. The heavy, good-natured King, when sufficiently sober, was fond of a theological argument, and delighted to pit Hus against a more orthodox opponent. But Hus's influence
1 Leutgcw, 73-5. 2 Helfert, 58. ^ Lechler, 33. * Loserth, 69.
C
34 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
rested not merely on the Court, but also on the people ; he was not only a reformer, but also a patriot. He spoke strongly against the German soldiers whom King Rupert had sent into Bohemia, he spoke equally strongly against the German members of the University who favoured that King. ' The Germans in Bohemia should go to King Wenzel,' said he, ' and swear to be faithful to him and to Bohemia, but this will only be when a serpent warms itself on the ice.' From this time forward Hus took the lead in Bohemia both as patriot and as reformer.
The Archbishop of Prague died in 1402, and in October 1403, a month before King Wenzel escaped from his imprison- ment in Vienna, a new Archbishop was elected. This was Zbynek Zajic of Hasenburg, a noble, nominally a priest, but really a distinguished soldier, with all a soldier's contempt for theological disputation, and with a good soldier's readiness to carry out all commands received from headquarters. He was a man with a clear head and of sound common-sense ; he saw that the chief danger to the Church lay in the evil lives of the clergy, that drastic measures of internal reform were necessary. He saw too that John Hus was not only powerful and popular, but that he was a man of clean life and of unimpeachable morality, one, moreover, who was filled with the zeal for reform. He took Hus into his favour and confidence ; he appointed him and his friend, Stanislas of Znaim, to be synodal preachers ; he required him, whenever he noticed any defect in the government of the Church, to bring the same, either personally or by letter, to his notice.^ For five years the two men worked together in unity. The Archbishop intrusted him with the supervision of the clergy. In 1405 Hus exposed the fraud of the bleeding wafer at Wilsnack. The experience which Hus during this time acquired of fraud and immorality rendered him still more bitter both in speech and in writing against the Bohemian priests, and brought upon him their hatred. They complained that he called them heretics because they took fees for confession, communion, baptism, and the like ecclesiastical functions ; his sermons, they said, had ' lacerated the minds of the pious, extinguished charity, and rendered the clergy odious to the people.' ^ There
^ Palacky (£>oc. ), 3. 2 Luetzow, 85.
JOHN HUS 35
would be no more loaves and fishes for them unless Hus were stopped. But it is very doubtful whether his diatribes against the clergy, which every one knew to be well merited, would have done Hus any harm. As Andrew of Brod had said : ' Ye may speak as ye list on the grievous irregularities of the clergy ; only be silent about the errors and books of Wyclif, of which ye are the protectors. I, poor child of man, say to you : If not for other things, merely because ye preach against the clergy, no one will put you under excommunication ; for even from ancient times have Conrad, Milic, Stekna, and very many others preached against the clergj?^ \^dthout any of them being placed under an interdict. '^
Wyclifism, however, had struck deep root in Bohemia ; and indeed, considering the intercourse between the two countries and the number of Bohemian students who frequented the University of Oxford, there was little wonder that it should be so. For Wyclif was the greatest schoolman since William of Ockham ; he was indeed the last of the great schoolmen, and the University of Oxford and the Bohemian Nation of the University of Prague had rallied to his modified realism just as the other three nations at Prague and the University of Paris had stuck to the thoroughgoing nominalism of the Doctor Invincibilis. The University of Prague was anxious that its alumni should be taught nothing but sound doctrine, and to that end the Faculty of Philosophy on the 20th April 1367 had formulated a rule that mere bachelors should not lecture on their own account, but should use the note-books of well-known masters of Prague, Paris, or Oxford, ' dummodo sint ab aliquo famoso de universitate Pragensi, Parisiensi vel Oxoniensi magistro compilata.'^ What more natural, there- fore, than that the note-books of Wyclif's philosophy should be taught at Prague, seeing that the University was realist like Oxford, and that Wyclif, though without an atom of poetry or humour in his nature, was noted for the depth of his reading, for the acuteness of his intellect, and for the uncompromising character of his logic. Even before his death his theological views had not escaped condemnation. Of twenty-four pro- positions based upon the doctrines maintained in his extant
^ Loserth, 77. 2 Loserth, 69 ; Helfert, 56.
36 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
writings, ten were described as heretical, and the others as erroneous and contrary to the determination of the Church. But the Earthquake Council, held at the Blackfriars' Convent in May 1382, which passed this condemnation had been a packed body,^ and Wyclif had not been condemned by the Pope. In the University of Prague in 1403 a German master of theology had brought to the notice of the chapter these twenty-four propositions and twenty-one others which he professed to have derived from the writings of Wyclif. A general meeting of the members of the University was presided over by its Rector, and a stormy debate was held in the great hall of the Carolinum College. The accuracy of the propositions was denied. Hus exclaimed that ' such falsifiers of books better deserved to be burnt than the two adulterators of saffron ' who had recently been executed. Stephen Palec threw one of Wyclif's books on the table, saying, ' Let who will stand up and speak against any word contained in this book ! I will defend it.' Stanislas of Znaim rose in his wrath and waxed furious on the same side.^ The forty-five articles were not declared to be heretical, but the majority of the meeting, probably the three foreign nations in opposition to the Bohemi- ans,^ passed a resolution that no one should teach, repeat, or affirm them either publicly or privately. But the discussion after all had been merely academical, and the prohibition had no effect.
Political circumstances also favoured the reformers. Sigis- mund had withdrawn the obedience of Bohemia from the Pope at Rome, and Wenzel, when he escaped from his imprisonment, was not inclined to restore it to the Pope who had favoured his rival Rupert. The King's long captivity had done him good. He showed himself more energetic and discriminating. He set to work to rid the land of robbers and freebooters. The warlike Archbishop captured Nicolas Zul of Ostredek, and John Hus accompanied him to the gallows, where the robber made an edifying end. The waning influence of King Rupert induced Wenzel to hope that the Pope might again recognise him as King of the Romans, but the refusal of Gregory the Twelfth
^ D.N.B., Ixiii. 213. ^ Loserth, 97 ; Luetzow, 80 ; Palacky, iii. 196.
'^ Helfert, 65.
JOHN HUS 37
to go back on the finding of his predecessor strengthened Wenzel's hostihty to Rome.
Until 1408 the influence of Hus with the Archbishop of Prague continued unabated. In 1405 Pope Innocent the Seventh, in response to a denunciation from Prague, ordered the Arch- bishop to stop the spread of WycKfism ; and next year at the summer synod the clergy were ordered to publish and preach the Church's doctrine of the sacrament. Tliis was a point in which Hus refused to follow the teaching of the English re- former ; and the order to the clergy, which was renewed the following year when Gregory the Twelfth renewed his pre- decessor's warning, was probably drafted by John Hus, for it did not mention the name of Wyclif.^ Hus preached the synodal sermons in 1406 and 1407, and was commended by the Archbishop. In 1407 some laymen and clerks were accused before the Archbishop of Wyclifite heresy, but they all either exculpated themselves or renounced their errors and were acquitted.
In 1408 the Cardinals of both papal obediences resolved to hold a general council the year follomng. In view of the coming council King Wenzel was anxious to clear his land of the imputation of heresy under which it lay. He accordingly issued orders to the end that Wyclifism and all who favoured it should be driven from the land. The Archbishop hereupon summoned the Bohemian Nation of the University, the only nation suspected of heresy, and sixty-four Doctors and Masters, a hundred Bachelors, and upwards of a thousand students appeared. They were told to condemn the forty-five articles. John Hus objected to an unqualified condemnation, and the resolution was passed that no member of the Bohemian Nation, under pain of excommunication, should teach or maintain any of those articles in an heretical, erroneous or offensive accepta- tion. Furthermore it was determined that no Bachelor should in the future hold any public lecture on Wyclif's Dialogus, Trialogus, or De Eucliaristia, or any public disputation on any proposition of Wyclif.^ This was on the 20th May, and on the 30th June several preachers were summoned to appear before the General Vicar. One of them, Nicolas of Welenowic,
1 Berger, 43 ; Palacky, iii. 214. ^ Palacky, iii. 222.
38 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
also called Abraham, was found guilty and delivered to the Inquisitor of Prague, who cast him into prison. Hus interceded for him with the Archbishop, who banished Abraham from his diocese. Hus took it ill ; the Archbishop, he said, got rid of the pious and good shepherds of the flock, and kept the foul and sinful. This was the first open breach between John Hus and Archbishop Zbynek. The high ecclesiastic had, however, carried out orders ; he was able, on the 17th July 1408, to assemble a synod of his clergy and to declare that after diligent search through the country he could find no unbeliever or heretic in Bohemia. In order that no heresy might arise in the future he ordered all who possessed any of Wyclif's books to bring them to him. This last order evoked more of ridicule than of compliance.
At this time ^ a curious incident happened. Two wandering students, Nicolas Faulfisch and George of Knyehnicz,^ both of them Bohemians, brought to Prague a letter which purported to issue from the University of Oxford and to be addressed to the reformers of Bohemia. Faulfisch also brought with him a piece of the gravestone of Wyclif, which was subsequently held in reverence in Bohemia as a holy relic.^ The letter set forth that the whole of England, with the exception of some false mendicant friars, was on the side of Wyclif.* Hus was naturally overjoyed at receiving this testimony to the orthodoxy of his spiritual master, and did not hesitate to read the letter and to exhibit the seal, which was perfectly genuine, from his pulpit in the Bethlehem Chapel ; he used it also in his discussions at the University.^ It has been suggested that the letter was ' passed by a snatch vote of congregation during the long vacation.' ^ But there is very little doubt that its substance was an impudent forgery, the work of one Peter Payne or Clerk, a Master of Arts at Oxford. This heretic was the son of an Englishman by a French wife ; he was born at Hough-on-the- Hill about the year 1380, and he had been introduced by Peter Partridge to the writings of Wychf,' which produced a great impression on him. It has been supposed that he stole the
^ Berger, 48, note. ^ Loserth, loi. ^ Palacky (Doc), 313.
* D.N.B., xliv. 114. s Berger, 48. « D,N.B., xliv. 114.
^ D.N.B., xliii. 431.
JOHN HUS 39
seal of the University and affixed it to the document which was afterwards presented to John Hus.^ A passage in the report of the Convocation held in December 1411, however, refers to this testimonial and ' seems to make it certain that the testimonial was actually sealed with the real University seal by the Uni- versity officials whether regularly or irregularly. As it was customary for the Regents to grant themselves a general leave to have what testimonials they required passed under the University seal, the testimonial was even less than most testimonials an indication of the dehberate opinion of the testimonialists.' ^ Of this Hus was naturally quite unaware. The forgery was not suspected in Bohemia ; it gave a great impetus to the Wyclifite movement ; Hus himself was greatly moved by it and expressed the wish that his soul might one day be where that of John Wychf now was.^
There was much truth, or at any rate plausibility, in the declaration of Archbishop Zbynek that there was no heretic in Bohemia. For the head and forefront of Wyclif's offending was his doctrine on the Eucharist, his rejection of the Catholic tenet of transubstantiation. Others of the propositions derived from his works were open to explanation or to argument. The theories on which Hus and Wyclif were agreed, says Dr. Luet- zow, ' were mainly common property of all mediaeval opponents of the Church of Rome, while the natures and characters of Hus and Wyclif were in most respects different, even antagon- istic. The somewhat pedantic and matter-of-fact nature of Wyclif, devoid of artistic instincts, contrasts absolutely with the enthusiastic and fanciful character of Hus.' ^ In his doctrine as to the Eucharist the English reformer was hopelessly at variance with the teaching of Rome. On this point, how- ever, Hus clearly and definitely separated himself from Wyclif. Both ahke were realists ; but Hus clave to the doctrine which had held the field among orthodox realists since the days of Lanfranc. ' The substances of the bread and wine were changed, it was held, by the act of the priest into the substance of the body and blood of Christ, while the accidents remained the same ' ; ^ the sensible properties remained the same, bufc
1 Gascoigne, 5-6, 20, 186-7. " Rashdall, ii. 433 note.
^ Palacky {Doc), 154. •* Luetzow, 299. ^ Rashdall, i. 47.
40 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
the substance itself had altered. Wyclif's logical mind denied that there could be an alteration of the substance without a corresponding alteration of the accidents. Hus was an independent thinker and found no difficulty in accepting the theory held by the Church. He and his friends claimed to be, and believed themselves to be, true sons of the Church, ready to acknowledge the rightful Pope as soon as they knew who he was. No thought of revolt from the Pope or of appeal to any higher power had at this time entered the mind of the foremost churchman in Bohemia. He believed the Archbishop to be amply justified in the declaration he made.
A friend hitherto of the Archbishop and powerful in the Church, a favourite of the King and confessor to the Queen, the idol of the Bohemian populace, on whose common speech he had formed his style, while he ennobled and raised it ' to the rank of a language adapted to the expression of theological and philosophical thought,' Hus was opposed at every turn by the German element in Bohemia. He was a patriot indignant at the manner in which the Germans had monopolised the majority of the offices of state and the benefices of the Church, reducing his countrymen to a humiliating and subordinate condition. He condemned mixed marriages between Bohemians and Germans. He endeavoured to improve the Czech orthography ; he introduced diacritical marks ; he tried to establish a uni- versally recognised written language ; he began to revise and correct the translations of the Bible ; he was indefatigable in his endeavours to improve and elevate his native tongue. Furthermore he encouraged the taste for sacred music. Before his time church song had been left almost entirely to the monks or the clerks in minor orders, who did their work in an irreverent, mechanical, and negligent manner. Sometimes they sang out of time, sometimes they roved about the church and scoffed at the congregation, they were always in an unseemly hurry. Hus believed in the importance of devotional music, and availed himself of the critical taste innate among Bohemians. He established a school for church song at the Bethlehem Chapel. Only four Bohemian hymns had hitherto been recognised by the Church of Rome. Ancient Bohemian hymns were now revived and sung ; new ones were composed ; trans-
JOHN HUS 41
lations were made from the Latin ; sacre'd songs, the work of unknown writers, suddenly appeared in the country ; singing became a marked feature in the services at the Beth- lehem Chapel. But the clergy were in opposition to Hus, and the majority of them were Germans.^ By the Germans in Bohemia Hus was regarded much as, in the first half of the nineteenth century, an ordinary Englishman would have regarded an Irish hero formed of Daniel O'Connell and Father Mathew rolled into one person.
The time for the Council of Pisa was now drawing nigh. King Wenzel desired to declare the neutrality of Bohemia between the rival Popes. He had sent an embassy to the Cardinals, and two of this embassy, Stanislas of Znaim and Stephen Palec, were, at the end of October 1408, arrested at Bologna by Baldassare Cossa on a suspicion of Wyclifism, but were subsequently released by order of the Cardinals at the King's intervention. Wenzel had already forbidden the Archbishop to recognise any appointment to a benefice made by Pope Gregory,^ and probably thought he could carry the Archbishop with him now ; he desired also to have the Uni- versity on his side. A meeting of the members of the Uni- versity was held late in the year ; Hus and the Bohemian nation were on the side of the King and of neutrality, but the three German nations remained true to Pope Gregory. No formal vote was taken ; but shortly afterwards Archbishop Zbynek declared Hus to be a disobedient son of the Church and forbade him the exercise of ecclesiastical functions. It was from this meeting that Hus dated the loss of the Archbishop's favour. As soon as the King returned from Silesia he sent for some of the more important members of the University. Hus and Jerome and two other Bohemians were among the deputation, as were the Rector and some German masters. The King turned first to the Rector, who seized the opportunity to complain of the scandal which the Wyclifite movement had brought on Prague and on Bohemia. The bait drew. The King was very gracious to the Rector, but turned in fury on Hus and Jerome ; he ac- cused them of fomenting disorder and threatened them with death. Plus was of a gentle and sensitive disposition and the
1 Luetzow, 293-303. ^ Palacky, iii. 212,
42 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
loss of the King's favour threw him into a violent fever so that he became seriously ill and was confined to his bed. When the King cooled down, he soon recognised that it was the Bohemian nation in the University which was on his side, and the three Teuton nations which were thwarting his wishes. The Arch- bishop also refused to throw off his allegiance to the Pope who had granted him his pallium. Then commenced the agitation as to the constitution of the University. The story has been already told, and need not be repeated here.^
On the 18th January 1409 King Wenzel arbitrarily altered the constitution of the University of Prague, giving three votes henceforth to the Bohemians and one vote to the three Teuton nations. The University had been originally Bohemian ; the masters had been Bohemians ; there had been no German among the earliest teachers,^ The King declared that his father had desired mainly to benefit his Bohemian subjects, and that though they had originally been inferior in learning to the Germans, they had now become stronger and superior in all arts and sciences.^ ' Let therefore those who had formerly been advantaged at the expense of the true owners of the land give way to them, and let these true owners rule the University for all centuries.' A copy of the decree was sent to Hus, who seized it with trembling hands as he lay on his sick- bed. Two of his friends came in. ' Would it be just,' he asked them, ' if we had three votes ? ' ' Would God but grant it,' answered they, ' we shall never have that power.' He gave them the decree to read, and they were transported with joy.* The German students shortly afterwards abandoned Prague ; Hus and the Bohemian nation remained masters of the situation. They and the Polish students obeyed the King, and the Uni- versity declared for neutrality. Hus was elected the new Rector. He was now, says his latest biographer, ' at the height of his political position. Wenzel was undoubtedly grateful to the man to whose action it was principally due that the Uni- versity of Prague had discarded Pope Gregory. The Queen and the Bohemian nobles treated him with greater favour than ever. He was the recognised leader of the University, and his
^ III the Days of the Councils, 295-7. ^ Luetzow, 67.
» Ibid. 109. ^ Ibid. 106.
JOHN HUS 43
popularity among the citizens of Prague was very great. '^ His sympathy and his influence extended beyond the Slavs of Bohemia ; he was in direct communication with the King of Poland, who later sent a special messenger to inform John Hus of his victory over the Teutonic Order at Tannenberg. He continued to preach in the Bethlehem Chapel ; he could afford to disregard the archiepiscopal prohibition, for Zbynek, through his adhesion to Pope Gregory, had incurred the dis- pleasure of the Cardinals at Pisa. Hus was on the side of the Cardinals and of the coming Pope, of that Pope who, so many then dreamed, was to restore unity to Christendom.
Archbishop Zbynek saw that his position in Bohemia, with the King and the Pope alike against him, was absolutely unten- able. Some of Hus's adherents had complained of him, and Pope Alexander had cited the Archbishop to appear and answer their charges. Zbynek on the 2nd September 1409 publicly recognised Alexander the Fifth as the only legitimate Pope. The summons for his appearance was annulled. ' The Pope preferred as an ally the mighty archbishop to the humble preacher.' Fortune had hitherto smiled upon Hus in his endeavours, but now the fickle goddess turned her wheel. The Archbishop, who had been his firm friend, now became his deadly enemy ; he was a good hater, and Hus found that the work of church reform was a very different matter when he had the Archbishop and the King at his back from what it became when he had the Archbishop and the Pope behind him to contend with. Zbynek summoned Hus to appear and answer certain charges. The first charge referred to Wyclif's doctrine that a priest in a state of mortal sin could not validly administer the sacraments. Hus answered that he did not so believe, seeing that the grace of God operated equally through a bad as through a good priest. It was next said that Hus did speak, and did not blush to speak, slightingly of Pope Gregory the Great ; this charge also he had no difficulty in refuting. It was further charged that he had said, and had not blushed to say, that it was absurd to suppose that the city of Prague should be placed under an interdict because of the death of Johann von Pomuk, to which Hus answered that he saw no reason why all should be deprived of
^ Luetzow, 114.
44 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
religious consolation because of the death of one man. Other similar charges were brought and met. The forefront of Hus's offence is to be found in the charge that he had stirred up strife between the Teutons and the Bohemians, and this he denied, adding that he loved a good Teuton better than a bad Bohemian even though the latter were his own brother. ^ What Hus had done, and this it was which raised such bitter enmity, was that he had preached, nor only in his synodal sermons in Latin, but in the Bethlehem Chapel in the common tongue, against the vices of the clergy, thereby setting the people in judgment over them and destroying their influence. Up to the beginning of the thirteenth century the clergy of Bohemia had been married men, but John Hus was a firm supporter of Hildebrand's reform which was then introduced. The rule of celibacy was too hard for most of the priests, and they kept concubines ; and for this Hus was never weary of upbraiding them. The parochial clergy were almost universally immoral, but they naturally objected to public denunciation. After hearing Hus the Arch- bishop sent an embassy to Alexander the Fifth, deploring the corruption which had been brought by the spread of Wyclifism, and suggesting that preaching should be prohibited except in cathedral, collegiate, parish, and cloister churches. The Pope issued a Bull on the 20th December adopting the Archbishop's suggestion as to the prohibition of preaching, instructing him to consult a council of four doctors of theology and two of canon law, and directing him to order all those who possessed any of Wyclif's writings to deliver them up in order that they might be removed from the sight of the faithful.^ Owing to the bad state of the roads this Bull did not reach Prague until about the 9th March 1410. On the 1st June Pope John the Twenty-third wrote to the Rector and University of Prague informing them of the death of Pope Alexander the Fifth and of his own succession.
The Papal Bull which the Archbishop had obtained was the first blow dealt by the Pope to John Hus and his followers ; it staggered and astonished them ; they could not believe it was genuine ; it had been obtained by bribery ; it was the forgery of an Olivetan monk.^ The Archbishop proceeded to action ;
1 Palacky [Doc), 164-9. ^ ^I'i'i- {Doc), 374-6. ^ Ibid. {Doc), 387 et seq.
JOHN HUS 45
he appointed his six councillors, men ready to back him up in carrying out the Pope's orders. On the 16th June, at the general synod of the clergy in Saint Vitus's Cathedral, the Papal Bull and the decree of the councillors were read ; seven- teen of Wyclif 's works were declared to be heretical ; all who possessed any copies of them were required to bring them to the Archbishop's palace within six days that they might be removed from the eyes of the faithful by a whirlpool of fire {per ignis voraginem). The prohibition of preaching, already mentioned, was renewed, and the Archbishop announced that in case of need he was ready to appeal for secular aid to the King. Henceforth all hope of a peaceful internal reformation of the Bohemian church was at an end.
The University was on the side of John Hus. A general meeting was held on the 15th, and on the 21st June a declara- tion was published dissenting from the condemnation of Wyclif's writings and protesting against their being burned ; they appealed to the King. Wenzel induced the Archbishop to postpone the cremation for the time, until the arrival of the Markgraf Jost, a learned man, a lover of books, to whom Hus had already presented a copy of his translation of Wyclif's Trialogus.^ On the 25th June Hus and his friends appealed to the new Pope against the Archbishop's order. They pointed out that the University was not under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop, that many of Wyclif's works did not deal with theology but with logic, mathematics, and other matters, that they had the right of reading these books which they had collected at much trouble and expense ; they relied particularly on the argument that the death of the late Pope annulled the Powers conferred on the Archbishop. John the Twenty-third allowed the force of this last argument.
As the Markgraf Jost delayed his coming, the Archbishop proceeded to action. Hus had brought his copies of Wyclif's works, and had asked the Archbishop to examine them and to point out the errors in them ; others had also obeyed the archiepiscopal order ; over two hundred volumes had been delivered at the palace. On the 16th July the court of the palace was barricaded ; an armed force was assembled ;
^ Palacky, iii. 250.
46 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
a stake was erected in the middle of the court ; the books were burned, the Archbishop himself lighting the pile, and all the assembled prelates and ecclesiastical dignitaries singing the Te Deum. This done, the Archbishop immediately escaped to his castle at Roudnice. On the 18th July he published a ban of excommunication against John Hus and his friends, forbid- ding him to officiate in any church in his diocese.
The result was a popular tumult, ' a great storm and much strife.' Brute force was used on both sides. The Court — the favourites had always been Hussites — and the people were mad with rage against the parochial clergy, whose immorality was patent to all. They wanted a reform of the Church ; they felt that the charges of heresy were a mere blind, a false trail meant to put the Pope off the scent. Hus himself lost his customary prudence and caution. He preached in the Bethlehem Chapel to an immense crowd. He told them how the late Pope had written to the Archbishop that the hearts of many were turned aside to heresy because of Wyclif's writings, whereas he had himself aflfirmed and thanked God that there was no Bohemian a heretic. The congregation burst out with a shout, ' He lies, he lies.' Hus went on : ' Now is fulfilled the prophecy of Jacob of Taramo that in the year 1409 one should arise to persecute the Gospel and the faith of Christ, for the late Pope, I know not whether he be in heaven or in hell, has written on his wretched parchments {in suis cutibus asininis) to the Archbishop to burn the books of Master John Wyclif, wherein are many good things,' Hus went on to say that he had appealed against the Archbishop's order, and he asked the congregation if they would stand by him ; to which the whole people with one voice made answer, ' We are ready to stand by you.' Hus continued his discourse : he must preach or be banished or die in prison ; popes might lie and did lie ; his people must not fear ex- communication, for they would be excommunicated together with him ; now was the time when they must gird on the sword and be ready to defend God's law.'^ The sermon is noteworthy ; it is the first occasion on which John Hus shows a disposition to rebel against the Pope ; but it was not an act of open rebellion, for he had appealed to the Pope and was ^ Palacky {Doc. ), 405.
JOHN HUS 47
awaiting his order. His party was the stronger in Prague ; they prevented the pubhcation of the Archbishop's ban in most of the churches ; they sang ribald songs ridicuHng Zbynek, one of which ran thus —
^Zbynek, Bishop A. B.C. Burnt the bookSj but ne'er knew he What was in them written.' ^
On the 22nd July, as the Archbishop was about to publish his ban in the Cathedral, an uproar arose, and he and forty of the clergy were obliged to withdraw. On the same day six armed men made a murderous attack on the officiating priest in Saint Stephen's church. There were reprisals on the other side. The choir boys who lived in the Castle sallied out to capture adherents of Hus, dragged them into the common room, and whipped them unmercifully. After these tumultuary outbursts it was comparatively a small thing that at the end of the month John Hus and his friends held a public disputation in defence of Wyclif's writings. The King had been absent from Prague during these scenes ; as soon as he returned, he stopped the disorder in the streets, and prohibited the singing of abusive songs. Wenzel was on the side of Hus, and ordered the Archbishop to suspend any measures on his ban and to make good to the owners the value of the books which he had burned. When the Archbishop delayed compliance, the King attached his revenues.^ Two Doctors from Bologna meantime arrived, sent by Pope John to settle certain Church questions. The King, the Queen, and many of the nobles besought these envoys to get the Bull of Pope Alexander annulled. When the Doctors left Prague on the 16th September, they carried with them letters to the Pope and to the College of Cardinals. The King's letter of the 12th set forth that the Bull had been obtained by false representations, and complained of the prohibition of preaching and the burning of Wj'^clif's books. ' How should the vineyard flourish when the vines are cut down by the roots ? ' ^ The Queen wrote on the same day interceding for the Bethlehem Chapel, which she had found most useful ' for hearing the word.' * She wrote again four days later
^ Luetzow, 126. ^ Berger, 69.
^ Palacky {Doc), 410. * I6zd. {Doc), 411.
48 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
protesting against the stopping of preaching and the burning of Wychf's works. The King and the Queen both wrote to the College of Cardinals asking that the obnoxious order might be rescinded. The two Barons of Krawar and the Baron of Potenstein and the Consuls and Seniors of the city of Prague likewise appealed to the new Pope.^ There had, as a matter of fact, been no alteration in the circumstances since the day when the Archbishop had officially declared that there was not a heretic in Bohemia, so that they were technically right in affirming that the late Pope's Bull had been obtained under false pretences. The Archbishop, on his side, forwarded the appeal of John Hus before the end of June to Bologna, and denounced the appellants as the authors of all the evil that had arisen. Pope John entrusted the conduct and decision of the process to Cardinal Oddo Colonna. The Cardinal made no independent examination nor local inquiry ; he proceeded hurriedly and ex parte ;^ and at once on the materials before him on the 25th August he upheld the action of the Archbishop and cited John Hus to appear in person at the papal court, there to answer the charges against him. The Archbishop was directed to proceed with the work intrusted to him by Alex- ander the Fifth, and to invoke the aid of the secular arm if necessary.^ When the Cardinal's letter was received in Prague does not appear, but the citation to Hus was made on the 20th September.*
The religious struggle in Bohemia had aroused attention and sympathy in England. Richard Wiche, a Lollard, wrote to Hus, rejoicing in the fact that the Bohemians were walking in the path of truth, and exhorting him not to be cast down by reason of tribulation or suffering. The letter was joyfully received and was read by Hus in the presence of, as he says, nearly ten thousand people.^ It was so comforting a letter, said Hus, that he would have risked his life for this message of Christ. The incident is chiefly noteworthy as a proof of the interest which Hus had excited outside Bohemia, and of the importance which the movement under him had attained. Had these facts been adequately realised by the Pope and the
^ Palacky [Doc), 412 et seq. ^ Ibid. [Doc), 190. ^ Ibid. [Doc), 407.
* Berger, 70. ^ Palacky [Doc), 12.
JOHN HUS 49
Cardinals they would probably have dealt more seriously with the whole matter. It was not until King Sigismund interfered that they realised its importance.
Hus had been summoned to appear at Bologna, but he had no desire to put his head into the lion's den, and he doubted whether he might not be kidnapped or murdered on the road. Notwithstanding this he probably would have gone had he not been dissuaded. He therefore sent three proctors to Bologna, and the King and Queen also wrote, begging that, because of dangers on the road, his personal attendance might be excused.^ They doubted whether his enemies would ever let the reformer reach Bologna alive. King Wenzel also, on the 30th September, wrote to the Cardinal, saying that he had sent a protonotary, one Johannes Nas, to him to ask that, for the King's honour and for the quietude and weal of the kingdom, John Hus might be absolved from personal appearance, that Hus was ready to appear before any tribunal in Bohemia, even before the Uni- versity of Prague ; finally Wenzel expressed the wish that Oddo Colonna would himself come to Prague.^ The King believed in John Hus ; he was also sincerely anxious to clear his country from the imputation of heresy which lay on it. Furthermore if Hus had started for Bologna, and had been captured by the Bishop of Passau or any other enemy on the way, there would have been such a revolution in Bohemia as it would have been difficult to quell. On the 2nd October Queen Sophia wrote a letter to the College of Cardinals asking for resumption of service in the Bethlehem Chapel and that her devout and beloved chaplain might be excused from personal appearance in Bologna, failing which the King and the barons would have to take measures to prevent further disturbances.^ Archbishop Zbynek also sent his messengers to Bologna. Pope John laid the question of the burning of Wyclif's books before the University, but did not otherwise interfere with the Cardinal's proceedings. A meeting of the Bologna doctors, some from Paris and Oxford also being present, was held in the church of Saint Dominic. A few of the masters approved the burning, but the great majority condemned it, and finally all agreed in this opinion. It was, they said, a scandal to the University of
1 Palacky [Doc), 190, 422-3. ^ Ibid. {Doc), 424. ^ Jdzd. (Doc), 425.
D
50 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Oxford, where Wyclif had been professor of theology; it created greater confusion in the University of Prague and greater schism in Bohemia ; and it was absurd that works on logic, philosophy, morals, and theology, containing much that was true, good, and useful should be removed from the students and scholars.^ A copy of this judgment was sent to Prague. ' Hus and his friends probably overrated the importance of this decision.' ^
This, however, did not settle the question whether Hus was to appear personally at Bologna. Wenzel had suggested that a papal legate should be sent to Bohemia at his expense. The Pope had committed the affair to Cardinal Colonna, who would hear of no excuse. As John Hus did not appear in person at Bologna within the time prescribed, the Cardinal, in February 1411, excommunicated him for contumacy. A copy of his order was sent to Prague, and the sentence was published in all the churches of the city, two alone excepted, on the 15th March. It was a lamentable decision, for it decided nothing and it satisfied nobody but the Archbishop, whose change of front had produced all the recent trouble in Bohemia. It has been suggested that the Cardinal was influenced by ' the rich gifts brought by the envoys of the Archbishop ' to display ' that hatred of Bohemia which was to be a prominent feature in his later life ' ; ^ but Oddo Colonna, who was afterwards Pope Martin the Fifth, was probably as good a man as there was then in the College. He, however, like Pope John, underrated the importance of the matter, and was anxious to get it off his hands before he returned to Rome. Except for the altered attitude of the Archbishop, the situation was the same as it had been when in 1408 the orthodoxy of Bohemia was certified. A very slight independent examination would have revealed this to the Cardinal. But he merely examined a few witnesses sent by the Archbishop ; the accused persons were not present nor repre- sented ; the whole inquiry was hurried and ex parte. The judgment did not decide whether Hus was a heretic, nor whether there was any heresy in Bohemia. It merely decided that Hus was contumacious for not appearing, and it decided this apparently without evidence, though the letters of the King
1 Palacky {Doc), 426-7. ^ Luetzow, 132, ^ Jbid. 130-2.
-il
/OOH^ ^a^jJfi'^A i^%f-
'%'i^^Sxci^^
Sixteenth-century Sketch op John Hus going to execution escorted by the Count Palatine's swordsman, and wearing the heretic's head-dress, as used at the Spanish aiitos da fe. (From the ms. in the archives of the Counts von Konigsegg in Aulendorf.)
JOHN HUS 51
and Queen and of at least three Bohemian nobles made out a strong prima facie case for the reformer. The whole process was almost farcical in its insufficiency, and this was felt to be so by Hus and his friends. The moral effect of the judgment was deplorable, for it confirmed Hus, who still accounted himself a faithful son of the Church, in the belief that he had no justice or right judgment to expect from the Curia of Rome.
The further development of the controversy becomes involved with the question of the choice of a new King of the Romans, and to this question it is now necessary to turn.
>»; ev" Jo ,
%. n ^ I ;^ i^ ^- -' "^â– â– .. ^.^ .^. - .
52 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER III
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS
Rupert, King of the Romans, died on the 18th May 1410, the day after Baldassare Cossa became Pope John the Twenty-third. In the well-meaning but ineffective King Pope Gregory the Twelfth lost his most considerable supporter. On the 7th July he wrote a letter of condolence to Louis, Count Palatine, saying that he could not contain himself in his grief for the loss of so distinguished and prominent a ruler who, as he had sincerely hoped, would have made an end of the unfortunate and lamentable state of Christendom. The son returned an appropriate answer. Louis was determined to follow his father's example and to remain true to Pope Gregory. There was no further correspondence between the Pope and the Count until the autumn of 1413.^
Now that King Rupert was dead, a fresh election to the dignity of King of the Romans became imminent, and it was practically certain that the new King would be of the House of Luxemburg. This was indeed a necessity if Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, and Brandenburg were not to be separated from the Empire.2 -j'jjg choice of the new sovereign was to Pope John a matter of the gravest importance. Not only was it eminently desirable that the temporal head of the Holy Roman Empire should acknowledge him as the spiritual head of that Empire ; there was the need also for material aid ; furthermore it behoved the new King of the Romans to draw into the obedience of the Pope of the Council that portion of Germany which still adhered to his rival. Pope Gregory the Twelfth. There was a party in Germany which held that Wenzel, King of Bohemia, had never ceased to be King of the Romans and that therefore no fresh election was necessary, and Wenzel was already ^ Finke (F.), 4. '^ Brandenburg, 11.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 53
pledged to acknowledge the Pope of the Council ; but, on the other hand, Wenzel's sloth and incapacity were so notorious that his support and countenance could be of very little practical value. Pope John needed a stronger ally than Wenzel for the troublous times which he saw ahead. He had no doubt that the candidate who would be of most value to him as friend and supporter was Sigismund, King of Hungary. It was true that Sigismund held the very meanest opinion of Italians generally ; he counted them to be the scum of the earth ; ^ but the Pope knew him to be a ' person very stout, and fit for all brave actions,' ^ and he determined to back up his candidature. He believed that Sigismund would support him. As early as the 10th June 1410 he told the envoj'^s of Carlo Malatesta that he had hope of obtaining the obedience of the whole of Germany, and that the King of Hungary and the Queen of Sweden had promised him their obedience.^ Pope John supported Sigismund throughout, because he felt that Sigismund's support was vital to himself.
There were three candidates in the field for the imperial crown. The first was Wenzel, King of Bohemia, who claimed to be still King of the Romans, never having been rightfully deposed ; he had been elected in the lifetime of his father, the Emperor Charles the Fourth, and his position as King had recently been acknowledged by the Council of Pisa. But Wenzel had drowned one high dignitary of the Church, and had insulted and threatened an Archbishop ; he had shot a monk in the forest, saying that monks ought to be in the cloister and not in the greenwood ; he had had his own cook cooked at his kitchen fire for spoiling the dinner ; he had, with his own hand, executed his own executioner for too complaisantly carrying out his orders ; he had acknowledged that if he were not already a second Nero he soon would be ; * he was cursed by sucn an intolerable thirst that it was popularly attributed to the effects of poison lurking in his system ; he exhibited all the helpless- ness, the indolence, the self-indulgence of a spoiled child ; he not only altogether neglected the affairs of the Empire, but he failed even to maintain obedience in his own country. On the
^ ' Faex mundi ' : Mur. xix. 828. * Martene {A. C), vii. 1176.
2 Platina, i. 343. * Aschbach, i. 267.
52 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER III
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS
Rupert, King of the Romans, died on the 18th May 1410, the day after Baldassare Cossa became Pope John the Twenty-third. In the well-meaning but ineffective King Pope Gregory the Twelfth lost his most considerable supporter. On the 7th July he wrote a letter of condolence to Louis, Count Palatine, sajang that he could not contain himself in his grief for the loss of so distinguished and prominent a ruler who, as he had sincerely hoped, would have made an end of the unfortunate and lamentable state of Christendom. The son returned an appropriate answer. Louis was determined to follow his father's example and to remain true to Pope Gregory. There was no further correspondence between the Pope and the Count untU the autumn of 1413.^
Now that King Rupert was dead, a fresh election to the dignity of King of the Romans became imminent, and it was practically certain that the new King would be of the House of Luxembiu-g. This was indeed a necessity if Bohemia, Moravia, SUesia, and Brandenburg were not to be separated from the Empire.^ The choice of the new sovereign was to Pope John a matter of the gravest importance. Not only was it eminently desirable that the temporal head of the Holy Roman Empire should acknowledge him as the spiritual head of that Empire ; there was the need also for material aid ; furthermore it behoved the new King of the Romans to draw into the obedience of the Pope of the Council that portion of (Germany which still adhered to his rival, Pope Gregory the Twelfth. There was a party in Germany which held that Wenzel, King of Bohemia, had never ceased to be King of the Romans and that therefore no fresh election was necessary, and Wenzel was already ^ Finke {F.), 4. ^ Brandenburg, 11.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 53
pledged to acknowledge the Pope of the Council ; but, on the other hand, Wenzel's sloth and incapacity "were so notorious that his support and countenance could be of very Kttle practical value. Pope John needed a stronger ally than Wenzel for the troublous times which he saw ahead. He had no doubt that the candidate who would be of most value to him as friend and supporter was Sigismund. Kjng of Hungar3^ It was true that Sigismund held the very meanest opinion of Itahans generally ; he counted them to be the scum of the earth ; ^ but the Pope knew him to be a ' person verj^ stout, and fit for all brave actions,' ^ and he determined to back up his candidature. He believed that Sigismimd would support him. As early as the 10th June 1410 he told the envoj'^s of Carlo Malatesta that he had hope of obtaining the obedience of the whole of German}', and that the King of Hungary and the Queen of Sweden had promised him their obedience. ^ Pope John supported Sigismund throughout, because he felt that Sigismund's support was \dtal to himself.
There were three candidates in the field for the imperial crown. The first was Wenzel, Eang of Bohemia, who claimed to be still King of the Romans, never having been rightfully deposed ; he had been elected in the lifetime of his father, the Emperor Charles the Fourth, and his position as King had recently been acknowledged by the Council of Pisa. But Wenzel had drowned one liigh dignitaiy of the Church, and had insulted and threatened an Archbishop ; he had shot a monk in the forest, sajang that monks ought to be in the cloister and not in the greenwood ; he had had Ms own cook cooked at his kitchen fire for spoiling the dirnier ; he had, mth his own hand, executed his ovm executioner for too complaisantly carrying out his orders ; he had acknowledged that if he were not already a second Nero he soon would be ; * he was cursed by sucn an intolerable thirst that it was popular!}^ attributed to the effects of poison lurking in his system ; he exhibited all the helpless- ness, the indolence, the self-indulgence of a spoiled child ; he not only altogether neglected the affairs of the Empire, but he failed even to maintain obedience in his o^-n country. On the
^ ' Faex mundi ' : Mur. xix. 828. "^ Platina, i. 343.
* Martene {A. C. ), vii. 1 1 76. * Aschbach, i. 267.
54 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
other hand his cause had lately been gaining ground ; he had been acknowledged at Li^ge and Rotenburg ; he had been recognised as King of the Romans by the Council of Pisa. On the 8th June 1409 he and the Council had entered into an agreement together ; he had promised to recognise the Council and its proceedings, to come to Italy within the year and to reconquer the States of the Church ; the Council had promised that the new Pope should recognise him as King. Accordingly on the 2nd September 1409 Zbynek, the Archbishop of Prague, had recognised Alexander the Fifth as Pope,^ and on the 10th December Alexander the Fifth had recognised Wenzel as King of the Romans. But although the Electors Rudolf of Saxony and Jost of Moravia were on his side, there was little chance that the rest of the Electors would recognise the claim of so hope- lessly incompetent a ruler. John of Nassau, the Archbishop- Elector of Mainz, and the Archbishop-Elector Frederic of Cologne, had both been at the Council of Pisa, but they ignored the agreement of that Council with Wenzel.^ The second candidate was the Markgraf Jost of Moravia himself, who aspired to the crown if Wenzel was not to wear it. He was first cousin of the King of Bohemia, being the eldest son of John Henry, brother of Charles the Fourth, the first husband of Margaret Maultasch. That lusty virago, ' pock-mouthed Meg ' of the Tirol, had, in 1339, divorced John of Bohemia's second son, saying she was sure she should get no children by him ; but John Henry subsequently gave her the lie by be- getting three sons, of whom Jost, the eldest, was born in 1340. Now the Markgraf, with his long, flowing, white beard, was nearly seventy years of age ; he was to the knowledge of all men the meanest and most miserly, the most shifty, intriguing, and untrustworthy, in every way the most despicable scion of the House of Luxemburg ; but he was learned, wealthy, and very cunning. The third candidate for Empire, belonging to the same house, was Sigismund, Wenzel's half-brother, six years his junior, of determined character and fixity of purpose, a man of war from his youth up ; he was King of Hungary, and by hard fighting he had compelled Bosnia, Servia, and part of Dalmatia to acknowledge his suzerainty.
' Palacky, iii. 83, 245. ^ Qoeller, 66.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 55
Pope John the Twenty-third had very Httle difficulty in making up his mind to support the candidature of Sigismund, a man after his own heart, an invaluable friend and supporter. If he could secure that Sigismund should be elected King of the Romans and that Sigismund should be his faithful adherent, they two would be able to face the world. He and the King of Hungary had a mortal enemy in common in the person of King Ladislas of Naples ; the embassy of Pippo Span gave John hope that Sigismund would support him against the rival Popes, and Sigismund was undoubtedly the strongest of the three candidates. The Pope therefore resolved to recommend his claims to the Electors. If by his support he could ensure the election, he would thereby earn a claim to Sigismund's future gratitude and lay the foundation for their future friendship and co-operation. His two envoys left Bologna on the 31st May 1410. Their mission was to announce the election of the new Pope, to bring back to the obedience of Pope John the adherents in Germany of Pope Gregory, and to express His Holiness's desire to restore unity to the Holy Church and Empire. To these same envoys, as soon as he heard of King Rupert's death, did Pope John by further instructions, deliver the task of persuading the Electors of the Empire to choose Sigismund to be King of the Romans. ^ From Frankfurt the two knights went to Mainz, Cologne, and Trier ; they visited other chiefs on the Rhine ; they journeyed as far as Guelders, and thence they returned with the Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne to Frankfurt.
The number and persons of the Electors had been definitely fixed by the Golden Bull framed in 1356 by the Emperor Charles the Fourth, the father of the half-brothers Wenzel and Sigis- mund. The number of the Electors was seven ; three were ecclesiastics and four were lay chiefs. The three spiritual Electors were the three Archbishops of the Rhine. The first of these was the Archbishop of Mainz, Chancellor of Germany, whose duty it was to summon the Electors for election when a vacancy occurred. The present Archbishop of Mainz was the energetic warrior-priest John of Nassau, who had first met Baldassare Cossa at Rome when he went there thirteen years
^ Hunger, 37.
56 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
earlier to procure his own election to the Archbishopric ; since then the two men had worked together in Germany for neutrahty and the Council, and they were firm friends. The Archbishop had already sunmioned the Electors to meet at Frankfurt on the first day of September. The second ecclesi- astical Elector was the Archbishop of Cologne, Chancellor of Italy, whose duty it was to crown the elected King at Aachen ; the present Archbishop was Friedrich of Mors, who acted together with his more youthful comrade of Mainz. The third was the Archbishop of Trier, Chancellor of Burgundy and Gaul : it was an Archbishop of Trier who, a hundred years earlier (1308), had secured the imperial crown for his own elder brother, Henry the Seventh, and who had lived to see that crown worn by Henry's grandson, Charles the Fourth. The present Arch- bishop of Trier, Werner, had been an adherent of the late King Rupert, and was now acting in concert with that King's son, Louis, the Count Palatine, himself one of the lay electors, the sword-bearer and grand Justiciar of the Empire. A second lay elector was the Duke of Saxony, hereditary Marshal of the Em- pire ; the present Duke was Rudolf, who was acting in concert with Jost, the cousin of the half-brothers. The King of Bohemia, the imperial cupbearer, had been recognised by the Golden Bull as an elector, and Wenzel, the present King, claimed to be still King of the Romans, refusing to recognise his deposi- tion ten years earlier. The seventh and last elector was the Markgraf of Brandenburg. The right to this vote was disputed ; it was claimed by both Sigismund and Jost. Sigismund had been Markgraf of Brandenburg, but in 1385 he had borrowed money from Jost, and had executed in his favour a simple mortgage of the Mark ; in 1397, as Sigismund was unable to repay the amount borrowed, the simple mortgage was changed into an usufructuary, and Jost was enfeoffed of the Mark. Jost was generally regarded as being the Markgraf, and was summoned in that capacity by the senior elector, ^ the Arch- bishop of Mainz, but King Sigismund still claimed to be owner of the Mark, with right of redemption ; he alleged that the vote for Brandenburg belonged to him as owner.
Never had an election been more beset with difficulties. One
^ Hunger, 32.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 57
point was abundantly clear, that no one but a Prince of the House of Luxemburg had any chance of being chosen. The Count Palatine saw this, and did not venture to become himself a candidate for the crown which his father had worn. Wenzel, King of Bohemia, claimed that, being still King of the Romans in virtue of the election held in 1376, the usurping King Rupert being dead, no new election was necessary. His cousin Jost. the Elector, and Duke Rudolf of Saxony took the same view and therefore declined to answer the summons issued to them by the Archbishop of Mainz. Inasmuch as the Council of Pisa had expressly recognised that Wenzel was still King of the Romans, and inasmuch as two of the three Archbishops had taken part in that Council and had approved its proceedings, it might have been expected that they would also recognise the claim of Wenzel's ; but they were little troubled on the score of consistency. The three Archbishops and the Count Palatine scouted the acknowledgment by the Council of Wenzel ; it was they who deposed him in 1410 ; it was they who had elected Rupert in his place ; and they declined to stultify their former action. But though they were agreed in their opposi- tion to King Wenzel, their agreement extended no further ; in their choice of a future king, they were divided, two against two.
The Archbishop of Mainz had opposed King Rupert in the matter of the Council ; he had stood firmly by the Cardinals at Pisa, and now he would support no candidate who was not ready outspokenly to acknowledge his old friend Baldassare Cossa, John the Twenty-third, the Pope of the Council, and no other to be the rightful Pope. The future King must acknow- ledge Pope John and be confirmed by him. On two other points also John of Nassau insisted. No new tolls should be levied on the Rhine without the assent of the Electors, nor should any Vicar of the Empire be appointed without their consent and approval. Already under King Wenzel the Electors had endeavoured to assert this right, and to Sigismund who foresaw that, if elected, his occasional absence from Germany would be necessary, who indeed foresaw a war with Venice looming in the immediate future, this innovation implied a serious circumscription of power and authority. Friedrich of
58 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Mors stood by John of Nassau ; the two Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne formed the first body among the Electors.
The Count Palatine, on the other hand, stuck to his father's opinion that Gregory the Twelfth was the true and only Pope, and with him concurred the Archbishop of Trier. Count Louis was anxious in the new King to find an ally against his political enemies, and Friedrich of Nuernberg, who had left the service of King Rupert only the year before for that of King Sigismund, acted as intermediary. The King of Hungary was ready to promise to the Count Palatine confirmation of all his privileges ; he bad not yet himself formally abandoned the obedience of Pope Gregory, but he was not ready to promise to recognise him as Pope ; he was already in communication with Pope John, and all that he would promise was, that if elected, he would proclaim toleration and would work for the suppression of the Schism. The King of Hungary became forthwith the accepted candidate of this, the second party among the Electors.^
The third party consisted of the three lay Electors of Bohemia, Saxony, and Brandenburg. King Wenzel himself and Duke Rudolf of Saxony were of opinion that no election was neces- sary, that Wenzel was, and from 1376 had been, King of the Romans. The Markgraf Josi was also of opinion that his cousin had never lost his dignity, though, if Wenzel were no longer King of the Romans, then Jost himself was a candidate for that dignity.
The proposals of the Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne reached King Sigismund at Wissegrad on the 25th July 1410; ^ he was already in communication with Pope John on the one side and with his cousin the Markgraf Jost on the other ; he did not desire to buy the crown of the Empire for gold, nor to inflict an open insult on his half-brother Wenzel ; furthermore he had no intention of alienating the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier ; ^ he therefore had no hesitation in rejecting the terms offered by the imperious Archbishop, John of Nassau. It was on the 5th August that he signed the imperial capitula- tion in which, though he no longer promised to support the Pope whose obedience he had hitherto acknowledged, he did
1 Quidde, 7. ^ /^^-^^ g . Hunger, 39. ^ Ibid. 39.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 59
solemnly engage to protect the adherents of Pope Gregory the Twelfth against all adverse exercise of power. With this modified promise of support the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier were content.
The day appointed by the Archbishop of Mainz for the election was drawing on, and as yet there was only one candidate in the field. The Markgraf Jost and the Elector of Saxony, in response to the Archbishop's invitation, wi'ote at first that there was no need for any election, seeing that Wenzel was already King of the Romans ; afterwards they wrote asking that the election might be postponed. The ambassadors of the Arch- bishops of Mainz and Cologne, after receiving no definite answer from King Sigismund, had gone on to the Markgraf and had been favourably received by him. Having won their votes, Jost had little difficulty in bringing Wenzel and Rudolf of Saxony round to his side. But this took time, causing a certain delay, and the consequence was that the representatives of these electors did not reach Frankfurt until the 28th September. Before this date arrived an important development had occurred.
When on the 1st September, the date fixed for the election, the Markgraf Jost had not expressed his readiness to take up the thorny crown of Rupert, the Electors of the Rhine were left in a state of indecision. Friedrich, the Burggraf of Nuernberg, had appeared, and they had admitted him, not as proxy for the Elector of Brandenburg, but as representative of the King of Hungary. The King and Jost both claimed the Brandenburg vote, and the question between them was as yet undecided. Duke Stephen of Bavaria also appeared as the head of the Wittelsbach family, but the Electors, acting on the authority of the Golden Bull, refused to acknowledge him as one of their number. The Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne were anxious that the question as to who was the rightful Pope should be decided before the election took place ; they wanted the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier to acknowledge Pope John the Twenty-third. If this could be secured, then John of Nassau thought that a circumscription of the powers of the King of the Romans could be brought about as effectually by an agreement between the four Electors of the Rhine as by a
60 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
rescript of the King himself. His great aim was to hmit the kingly authority and to increase that of the Electors. He was willing to enter into an agreement with the other two Electors to this effect, but they anticipated him. The Archbishop of Mainz decided to await the arrival of the other Electors or their representatives, but the Count Palatine and his ally determined on immediate action.
With them was acting Friedrich, the Burggraf of Nuernberg, the younger son of the old Burggraf Friedrich the Fifth. He was an able, energetic, and far-seeing man, popular, though generally short of cash. He was the devoted personal adherent of King Sigismund, at whose side he had fought at Nicoplois, and with whom he had had diplomatic relations on behalf of King Rupert in 1403.^ He had been the faithful servant of that ineffective King ; but when Rupert had been flouted by the city of Rotenburg, flouted by the League of Marbach, flouted and set at nought by the Diet at Frankfurt and the Archbishop of Mainz, Friedrich had recognised that no good thing was to be hoped for from the ineffective King, and that the Empire no less than the Church needed a reformation in its head and its members. With the permission and good will of King Rupert he had gone over to King Sigismund. He saw in him a man who had brought to his own kingdom welfare and security, who had reduced Bosnia to obedience, who had won back Dalmatia, who had compelled Servia to acknowledge his suzerainty ; he saw in him, moreover, the only hope of the House of Luxem- burg. Hence, at the death of Rupert, he recognised in Sigis- mund the man fit to be King of the Romans, and he worked steadfastly and loyally to win the crown for him,^ for he knew that he was the only man strong enough to make his authority felt.
Sigismund had openly announced that he had no desire to be King of the Romans ; it was a difficult and thankless office ; he wished his half-brother to retain the dignity but himself to have the power, for this was necessary to him ; he still, though he was a stranger to Germany, called himself and acted as the Vicar of the Empire. He and the Burggraf of Nuernberg rejected absolutely the advances of the Archbishops of Mainz ^ Brandenburg, 7, 9, 21. "^ Droysen, 185.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 61
and Cologne ; he also declined to say definitely that he acknow- ledged Pope John, for he would thereby have lost the votes of the other two Electors. He had, on the 25th August, as already mentioned, issued through the Burggraf an ambiguous pronouncement that, if he were elected, he would work for the unity of the Church, and would see that no harm came to Pope Gregory or his adherents. This obviously might mean that he would acknowledge any one, or more probably no one at all, of the three Popes. The influence of the Burggraf, the staunch and active supporter of Sigismund's claims, his most faithful and zealous adherent, prevailed with the honest Louis of the Palatine and the good-natured Werner of Trier, and they declared themselves satisfied with the capitulation and ready to vote for the King of Hungary. The other two Archbishops, on the contrary, declined to accept any assurance so ambiguous and unsatisfactory to them. John of Nassau declared that the defeat of the Teutonic Order at Tannenberg (15th July 1410) had caused the delay of Rudolf of Saxony and Jost of Moravia, and that it was necessary to await their arrival or that of their representatives. The two Archbishops packed their baggage on the boats and were ready to leave Frankfurt.
More than a fortnight had already passed since the day fixed for the election. Disgusted and discontented at the delay, Sigismund's supporters resolved on a cowp d'etat. One of the rules of the Golden Bull was that should any one of the Electors not appear in person or by representative on the day fixed, the other Electors then present were to proceed with the election according to rule. Acting on this authority the Archbishop of Trier and the Count Palatine, accompanied by the Burggraf of Nuernberg, appeared on the morning of the 20th September before the doors of the church of Saint Bartholomew, within which, after the Mass of the Holy Spirit had been sung, the election was by the Golden Bull appointed to be held. The church, however, lay under an interdict, and its doors were closed, so that it was impossible for the Mass to be sung or the election to be held therein. The Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne, getting wind of their opponents' scheme, had on the day previous declared that no election should take place, and the former had pronounced the interdict, and had caused the
62 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
church doors to be closed accordingly. Nothing daunted, the two Electors proceeded to the churchyard, acknowledged the Burggraf Friedrich as the accredited agent of the Elector of Brandenburg, and forthwith elected Sigismund to be King of the Romans. Having done this they left Frankfurt, and Friedrich, the Burggraf of Nuernberg, went back to report progress to King Sigismund.
Eight days later the representatives from King Wenzel, Markgraf Jost and Duke Rudolf of Saxony appeared. What it was that had induced this change of front in the King and the Duke, and had caused them to support the candidature of the Markgraf, we do not know. Wenzel's representatives were fully empowered, and in the subsequent announcement of the election it was stated that Wenzel had renounced the crown, although he himself still appeared and acted as King of the Romans.^ There is nothing to show that he and his cousin had come to any definite agreement on these points, and probably their relation- ship was still unsettled and undetermined. A second election was held on the 1st October, and Jost was declared to be King of the Romans. There were four votes in his favour ; counting the vote for Brandenburg as his, there were five ; in any case the majority of the Electors had pronounced for him. And if, as is probable, Wenzel had not as yet renounced the title which he still claimed to hold, there were now three Kings of the Romans even as there were three Popes. There were thus three heads of the temporal world, and three heads of the spiritual world, in Christendom. Those faithful souls who regarded the Pope as the sun, and the Emperor as the moon, must have been sore dismayed when they beheld three suns and three moons in the firmament at once. Once before, in 1046, there had been three Popes simultaneously ; once before, in 1347, there had been three who claimed to be Kings of the Romans ; but never before had there been three Popes and three Kings of the Romans at one and the same time, and the like was never to happen again.
Although Sigismund and Jost had both been elected King of the Romans, neither made any attempt to obtain actual possession of the state and dignity, nor was there any attempt
^ Quidde, ii.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 63
made by their partisans to prepare for a fight and to refer the decision to the God of Battles. Although on the 20th September the Burggraf Friedrich declared that Sigismund accepted the crown, the King himself made no declaration. The ostensible reason given was that the royal seal was not yet ready ; the real reason was that he and his cousin were arranging a meeting together. They were to have met on the 8th January 1411, but did not. Sigismund's briefs announcing his acceptance of the crown were dated the 12th and 21st January, but were probably prepared some time earlier. It appears beyond doubt that during the last three months of 1410 and the beginning of 1411 negotiations were proceeding between Sigismund on the one side and Jost and his Electors on the other, though it is impossible to say what was their trend or object.
Nor for long was the confusion in the temporal world to pre- vail. On the 26th December the Markgraf had executed an imperial capitulation confirming the rights and privileges of the Archbishop of Mainz, but he had made no preparations for the customary siege of Frankfurt.^ He was seventy years of age and of feeble health. On the 18th January 1411 the grey- bearded Markgraf Jost died. Some thought, as men in those days were prone to think, that he had been poisoned, but of this there was no proof whatever. His rival and cousin, Sigismund, was far off, fighting the rebels in Bosnia ; the Fates had been suspiciously kind to him, as they had been at the death of his brother, Johann of Goerlitz, and at the death of his cousin Prokop, Jost's brother. It was six days before his cousin's death that Sigismund had formally announced that he was willing to accept the election made in his favour nearly four months earlier ; it was three days after the death that he wrote to Frankfurt to the same effect. The death of Jost left the question of the succession to be fought out between Sigismund and his half-brother Wenzel.
Now that their own candidate was dead, John of Nassau and Friedrich of Mors had to bethink themselves of the course they should pursue. They had on the 1st October written to Sigismund's counsellors, and though they had asked that the King might be persuaded to decline the irregular election and to
1 Hunger, 45.
64 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
acknowledge Jost, still their letter had not been uncompromis- ing in tone. But inasmuch as Sigismund had not acknowledged Pope John, they now declined to recognise him as the only- possible King, and twice approached Wenzel with the offer of the crown. He declined, on the ground that he was already, without any election, King of the Romans, but at the same time he asked them to defer proceedings until his emissaries arrived at Frankfurt. The meaning of this was that, unknown to the two Archbishops, negotiations were already pending between him and his half-brother. On the 27th January the Burggraf Friedrich had hinted at such an arrangement in announcing that Sigismund was coming to Germany to be crowned. The Archbishop of Mainz fixed the 11th June for the new election, and on the 6th Wenzel wrote to him ; the definite agreement between the Kings of Bohemia and Hungary was, however, not reached until the 21st June. There was to be no truckling for Empire on the part of Sigismund. Wenzel was tenacious of the dignity, Sigismund wanted the reality, of power. Pope John sent repeated messages to the Electors urging them to elect Sigismund,^ and it was clear that he would be the future King. The two half-brothers arranged their differences over the heads of the Archbishops through the agency of Count Stibor of Transylvania: Sigismund was not to aspire to the imperial dignity while Wenzel lived, but was to help his half-brother to become Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ; he was to leave him the regalia and to share with him the revenues and possessions of the crown ; Wenzel was to give his vote for Sigismund, who in vain strove to avoid the formality of a new election ; Sigismund was to be King of the Romans and to rule as such. On the 30th June news of this agreement reached Frankfurt, where the Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne received it ; they would rather the half-brothers had remained at variance.^
These negotiations between the two royal half-brothers had the effect of bringing the religious troubles in Bohemia again before Pope John. The excommunication of John Hus for contumacy, however pleasing to the Archbishop, merely raised popular feeling in the city to fever heat. The King was on the * Hardt, ii. 260. "^ Quidde, 12-14; Brandenburg, 19.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 65
side of the reformer ; he ordered the magistrates of Prague to attach the lands and revenues of the Archbishop and other clergy ; the Archbishop retaliated by excommunicating those who carried out this order, and finally laid the entire city under an interdict. The King banished certain of the clergy ; others were pillaged ; on the 6th May Wenzel came to the Cathedral and had the treasures removed to the Karlstein to prevent the Archbishop taking them to his own castle.^ We have seen that logically it was the Archbishop who was in the wrong. Wenzel felt this, and what is more Sigismund felt it also. Wenzel was childless and Sigismund was his next heir, and for this reason, and also because of the propinquity of his own country, he took a deep interest in the affairs of Bohemia, and followed them closely. It was of great moment to him that Bohemia should be at peace within itself and respected without, and hence he desired that the imputation of heresy under which it lay should be cleared away, and that the country should once again be pronounced free of all taint. Pope John would do very little for a king of the kidney of Wenzel, but he would do anything for King Sigismund, whose favour and support were essential to him. Seeing that Sigismund was interested in Bohemia, Pope John removed the process against Hus from the hands of Cardinal Colonna and entrusted it to a commission of four cardinals presided over by Zarabella, the famous Florentine, noted alike for his knowledge of law, his careful judgment, and his eloquence. The commission set to work earnestly and deliberately to inquire into the matter in June 1411 ;2 but it was clear that their work would be lengthy, and the Pope desired to arrange the matter speedily to the satisfaction of King Sigis- mund. He therefore sent a hint to Archbishop Zbynek that he had better show himself more compliant, and the Archbishop was not the man to neglect such an intimation from such a qiiarter.^ It was at the end of June that the two royal half- brothers were fully reconciled ; it was on the 3rd July that the Archbishop and his clergy met John Hus and the masters of the University and agreed together with them. It was settled that the whole matter in dispute should be referred to arbitration. The King himself was to preside over the committee ; Duke
1 Palacky, iii. 265. ^ Berger, 74. ^ Palacky, iii. 267 and note.
E
66 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
Rudolf of Saxony, Count Stibor of Transylvania and Baron Lacek of Krawar were to assist him ; other laymen and priests were consulted. The committee met at once and pubUshed their decree on the 6th July. It was a lengthy document stipulating for the removal of excommunication and interdict, the restitution of revenues and annuities, of rights and privi- leges, the cessation of pending lawsuits, and a further inquiry by the Kjng as to the existence of vice and heresy. But the most important stipulations were that the Archbishop was to be reconciled to the King and was to write to the Pope that he knew of no heresy in the kingdom of Bohemia, but merely of a private quarrel between Hus and liimself which the King was endeavouring to settle. In other words, the Archbishop was to repeat his official declaration of 1408 that there was not a heretic in Bohemia. He also promised to write to the Pope interceding for Hus. Once more it seemed as if the religious strife in Bohemia was at an end. John Hus himself wrote to Pope John protesting that he was a true Catholic, who did not believe in Wyclif's doctrine of the Eucharist, and who never said that a sinful priest could not administer the sacraments validly. The letter was approved by the University and was sealed with their seal. Every one hoped that a peaceful settlement had now been reached.
To return to the question of the election of the King of the Romans. In the spring of 1411 the pugnacious John of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz, had nearly come to open war with the Count Palatine. The Archbishop, however, recognised that if he hoped to make good any of the pretensions of the Electors against Sigismund, he must agree with his adversaries quickly. He accordingly approached the Archbishop of Trier. The King of Hungary had made a negative pronouncement ; he had not promised that he would acknowledge Pope John, nor that he would seek approbation and confirmation of his election from him, if he were elected ; but he had promised that he would seek such approbation and confirmation from no one but Pope John or his successor. This precluded him from seeking con- firmation of his title from Pope Gregory, but it left him free to seek it or not to seek it, as he chose, from Pope John. With this negative assurance were the Archbishops of Mainz and
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 67
Cologne fain to content themselves when they approached their fellow- electors, and on this basis an understanding was reached. King Sigismund in his second imperial capitulation further promised to bring back to liis obedience and to restore to the Holy Roman Empire the lands which had fallen from it, and this stipulation had special reference to Milan. ^ His most important undertaking was to end the Great Schism and to restore unity to the Church. He made the customary promises to confirm to the Electors their existing privileges. On the 3rd May the Archbishop of Mainz and the Count Palatine agreed that the clergy on land belonging to the Palatinate in the diocese of Mainz should be free to acknowledge whichever Pope they pleased ; while the Archbishops of Mainz and Trier agreed together that they would not acknowledge any Vicar of the Empire, nor any Vicar for any part of the Empire, unless he were appointed with their knowledge and consent. Sigismund also agreed that he would not appoint any Vicar of the Empire without the knowledge and goodwill of the Electors (ane sinen wissen und gutten willen).^
The Archbishop had fixed the 11th June for the new election ; Sigismund had announced that he would appear on that date, and the Archbishop of Trier sent troops to uphold him. The King of Hungary, however, did not come ; the troops went home again ; and on the 10th July the accredited agents of the Kings of Bohemia and Hungary and of the Duke of Saxony appeared at Frankfurt. The customary ceremonies prior to the election began on the 17th, and the election itself was held on the 21st July. The Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier refused to stultify their former proceedings by appearing in person ; they sent their counsel, who declined to take the seats allotted for their Electors in the church, and who dis- appeared before the oath was administered. The remaining five Electors unanimously elected Sigismund, who was repre- sented at the altar by the Burggraf of Nuernberg. In France the election was attributed to the influence of Pope John the Twenty-third.^
Thus was Sigismund, King of Hungary, elected King of the
Romans on the 21st July 1411, though he himself always dated
1 D.R., vii. io8. ~ D.R., vii. io8; Droysen, 198. ^ ^hastenet, 138.
68 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
the year of his reign from his previous election on the 20th September 1410. He had not been in Germany for thirty-five years ; the Electors knew little of him, save that he was a strong man ; and in raising him to the throne, they had taken a veritable leap in the dark. But at that juncture a strong ruler was above all things necessary. Never had the power of the King of the Romans sunk so low as during the thirty years which had elapsed since the death of the Emperor Charles the Fourth. Private feuds in the Empire had been endless and unceasing ; the right of private warfare had been exercised wantonly and ruthlessly ; harvests, vineyards, and fruit-trees had been wasted ; cattle had been driven off ; the husbandmen were in despair ; whole villages had been blotted from the map, never to re-appear. For the internal welfare of Germany itself a strong rule was necessary ; while the rest of Christendom awaited a strong ruler of the Empire to put an end to the accursed Schism. Men felt that the Council of Pisa had been a failure, that the infamous duality had been replaced by an accursed trinity, and that the only hope lay in the interference of the head of the temporal world. ' So long as there shall not be a single lawful, strong, and universal Emperor or King of the Romans,' said Jean Gersori, ' so long will the Schism not only endure, but there is reason to fear that it mil wax worse.' ^
In his imperial capitulation Sigismund had promised the Archbishops of Mainz and Cologne to seek the ratification of his election from no other Pope than John the Twenty-third or his successor, but as to the question of the ending of the Great Schism he had kept a free hand ; his promise to these two Archbishops was therefore consistent with his promise to the Count Palatine and the Archbishop of Trier. Pope John had done his utmost to ensure the election of Sigismund ; the King had been elected, and had undertaken to put an end to the Schism ; but Pope John had nothing beyond the King's gratitude to count on ; he had no definite promise that Sigis- mund would recognise him as the only rightful Pope.^ The King and the Pope had indeed been for some time in communica- tion with each other. On the 1st August 1410 Bishop Branda of Piacenza had been nominated Papal Legate to Hungary,
^ Droysen, 177. ^ Hunger, 31 et seq.
THREE POPES AND THREE EMPERORS 69
and had been instructed to choose a site for the University, and also to reform certain abuses rife among the Hungarian clergy.^ On the 5th of the same month Pope John had written to King Sigismund transferring to him the dues and revenues accruing to the Church, a transfer which simply legalised what the King had been taking on his own authority since the days of Boniface the Ninth. On the 16th August Pope John had commissioned the Legate Branda to take precautionary measures in Hungary against King Ladislas of Naples ; and the Bishop was further ordered to restore the churches which had been laid waste by the unbelievers, to provide their congregations with worthy pastors, and to annul all privileges which had been granted by any anti-pope. The Pope professed to be ready, and clearly was ready, to do all that the King desired."^ In his dealings alike with Wenzel and with Sigismund, Pope John the Twenty- third omitted nothing that could conciliate and win over to his side the future King of the Romans. He wanted a strong man to be King of the Romans, and he wanted that strong man to be his own active supporter and ally. With Sigismund on his side he could face the rest of Europe.
But would King Sigismund be definitely on the side of Pope John ? He had no sooner become King of the Romans than Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, wrote to him detailing all his own endeavours for the unity of the Church, laying suspicion on the good faith of Pope John, and suggesting that he, as well as the other two Popes, should be required to abdicate or should be deposed by a General Council. Before, however, Sigismund could take up the question of the Church, he had his own differ- ences with Poland and Venice, and with the Dukes Ernest and Friedrich of Austria to settle.
The new King of the Romans plays such an important part in the history of the next few years that it will be well to study hi^ character in the light of his former history, in order to form a just appreciation of the manner of man he was, and of the part he was likely to play,
^ Raynaldus, viii. 325; Vid. sup., 18. ^ Hunger, 40, 49.
70 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
CHAPTER IV
SIGIS]MUND
The new King of the Romans was from head to foot a true king of men. He was now forty-three years of age, and his curly hair was turning grey, but he was still handsome in face. Uthe, strong, and well built ; ^ his noble presence, his accom- plishments and his knightly deportment, his love of splendour and magnificence were certain to ensure him popularity.^ He was to be the most powerful Emperor since the days of Frederic the Second.
Sigismund was the son of the Emperor Charles the Fourth by his fourth wife, Elisabeth of Pomerania, the granddaughter of Kasimir the Great of Poland. He was the son of both his parents ; for his character displayed the western blood and breeding, the astuteness and tenacity of purpose, of his father, no less than the daring and ferocity of his mother's house. He inherited also the comeliness and personal strength of his mother. Elisabeth of Pomerania-Stettin, renowned for her beauty, was a veritable daughter of Anak, who could bend a horseshoe with her fists or tear in shreds a shirt of mail. Of her was born on Saint Valentine's Day, 1368,^ a sturdy son of re- markable beauty, to whom no trace of his father's gout and palsy descended. The boy was named Sigismund, in memory of the Burgundian martyr-prince, whose bones Charles the Fourth had enshrined at Prague a few years earher.
As a child Sigismund had been betrothed to the daughter of Friedrich, Burggraf of Nuernberg ; but the engagement was soon broken off as brighter prospects promised. Louis the Great of Hungary was then at the zenith of his power ; he had united with his own kingdom the lands of Red Russia, Moldavia,
^ Mur. xix. 936. - Robertson, iv. 253.
' Aschbach, i. 5 ; Lindner ( iV.), i. 17 ; contradicting A.D.B., xxiv. 267.
SIGISMUND 71
Wallachia, Btilgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Dalmatia, and Poland, countries which his own power alone sufficed to keep together, which fell apart as soon as that bond of union was removed. Louis ruled from the Baltic to the Black Sea and Adriatic ; he was a mighty king both in war and in peace. He had no son, but three daughters ; the eldest, Katharine, died when she was young, and Louis offered his second daughter, Maria, in betrothal to young Sigismund. The children were related, for the mother of Louis of Hungary was sister to Kasimir of Poland. The prospect was too alluring to be rejected, but the betrothal was not completed when Charles the Fourth died. Charles left to Sigismund, a lively, beautiful, and talented boy of ten, the Mark of Brandenburg as his portion ; and the mdowed Queen Elisabeth took up the marriage negotiations with Hungary. Louis not only approved, but he was anxious that Poland as well as Hungary should fall to his daughter Maria ; so that when in 1380 Sigismmid was formally betrothed to his future bride, and was recognised by the bishops and nobles as entitled to the investiture of the crown, he was the prospective ruler of two vast kingdoms.
The death of Louis the Great of Hungary, however, brought a change in the boy's prospects. Sigismund was now fourteen years of age ; his mother-tongue was German ; he talked Bohemian, Hungarian, French, and Italian ; he knew Latin, though not as the grammarians and doctors ; he had picked up Polish since his betrothal. But he soon had to renounce the crown of Poland. Elisabeth, the Queen-Regent of Hungary, was by no means enamoured of the Luxemburg alliance ; she would have preferred to marry Maria to Louis, Duke of Orleans. The Pohsh nobles were as little favourable as was Elisabeth to the pretensions of Sigismund ; they were "tolling to receive a daughter of Louis as their queen, but they made it a condition that she and her husband should live in Poland. Hungary was not a country that could be ruled from mthout, so that this meant that the two kingdoms were to be separate. If the Poles could not have a queen on their ot\ti conditions, they were ready to elect a king of their own. To prevent the loss of the Polish crown altogether, Elisabeth, the Queen-Mother, an- nounced to the Polish nobles that they were not bound to do
72 POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD
homage to the boy Sigismund provided they would take one of her daughters as their queen. They answered that they were ready to accept the younger daughter Hedwig on their own conditions ; and by this decision Sigismund, before he obtained the crown of Hungary, lost all hope of that of Poland.
The Hungarians disdained the name of a queen, and conse- quently, when Maria was crowned on the 17th September 1382, she was crowned King of Hungary. The Queen-Mother thus hoped to keep the two crowns for her two daughters ; and though she had been so hostile to his prospects, she still retained her hold of Sigismund, who invaded Poland two years running, 1383-84, on her behalf. The reason for this hostility was that Elisabeth was unwilling that her beautiful daughter should be banished to that wild country, and she stood out against the condition on which the Poles insisted ; but eventually she had to give way, and on the 15th October 1385, Hedwig was crowned at Cracow. Hedwig's love-story was rather sad. As a child she had been brought up with Wilhelm, the eldest son of that Leopold of Austria who fell at Sempach. Wilhelm was the senior by two or three years, but the children had played together from infancy, had been in love with each other from childhood, and had been formally betrothed since 1375, when Wilhelm was but five years old. Now in 1385, three years after her father's death, Hedwig, a girl of extraordinary beauty, was to be separated from the young knight whom she loved, and was to be wedded for reasons of state to Jagello of Lithuania, whom she despised as a heathen and hated as a man. She sent to Wilhelm, who came to Cracow with a splendid retinue ; the youthful lovers met, but it was only to say farewell. The Austrian Duke remained true to his first love, and never married while she lived ; though after her death in 1400 he married Joanna, the sister of King Ladislas