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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

IN THE DAYS
OF THE COUNCILS

A SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND TIMES OF

BALDASSAKE COSSA
(AFTERWARD POPE JOHN THE TWENTY-THIRD)

BY

EUSTACE J. KITTS

SOMETIME OF THE INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE

ILLUSTRATED

LONDON
ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO. LTD.
10 ORANGE STREET LEICESTER SQUARE
1908

INTRODUCTION
This work is an attempt to tell the story of the first part of
the life and times of one of the most picturesque and remark
able men of the Middle Ages, Baldassare Cossa, who on the
17th May 1410 became Pope John the Twenty-third. In
order accurately to appreciate the career and character of
this churchman, it is necessary to have in the first place a
clear perception of the state of the Church at the end of the
fourteenth century, and in the second to realise its position
with regard to the Empire. For the continued existence of
the Holy Roman Empire and its connection with the Holy
Roman Church ai-e the two cardinal points of mediaeval his
tory in Europe. In the days of Constantine the Great, and
for some centuries after, the Empire and the Church were
practically conterminous; they represented the same body
of people under different aspects; they were the civil and
religious sides of Christendom. Later on they were typified
as the Sun and the Moon in the heavens, as the Two Swords
delivered to Saint Peter ; but the theory of their interdepend
ence was not fully worked out until their connection was no
longer unchallenged as formerly. The connection of the Empire
and the Church gave rise to those two wonderful fictions
known as the Donation of Constantine and the Translation
of the Empire. When Constantine the Great moved the
seat of Empire to Byzantium (327), it was said that he gave
Italy, some even maintained that he made over all the nations
of Western Europe, to Pope Sylvester and his successors ; this
was the so-called Donation of Constantine. Again, when
nearly five hundred years later the Empire became vacant
on the death of Constantine the Sixth, who was succeeded
by the woman Irene, the Empire was transferred from the
Greeks to the Franks, when Charles the Great was crowned

vi IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Imperator Augustus at Rome on Christmas Day 800; this
was the Translation of the Empire. As the claims of the
Papacy widened, the former fiction was found to be rather
inconvenient ; but nevertheless a belief in the Donation and
in the Translation remained part of the faith of most orthodox
churchmen in the days of Baldassare Cossa. But the course
of history had gradually made the theory of the interdepend
ence of the Church and Empire no longer tenable in its
entirety; instead of mutual co-operation there had been
deadly feud; and the former relative position of the two
powers had become seriously altered. It is necessary there
fore to commence by giving a brief sketch of the status of
the Holy Roman Empire at the outbreak of the Great
Schism. It will then be advisable to describe the state of
the Church at this time, having regard to the efforts at
internal reform; for the life of Baldassare Cossa was spent
in the midst of these endeavours. They were unsuccessful ;
and their want of success paved the way for, and rendered
necessary, the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth cen
tury. The origin of the Great Schism will then be briefly
noticed, and a slight description given of the civil condition
of the more important nations of Europe at that time, as
introductory to the years when Baldassare Cossa first appeared
in the arena of political life ; after which the events of his
life and times will be treated more in detail. The story will
be one of Church History ; but it will be necessary to gather
up the threads of the history of other countries so far as they
are connected therewith, the history of the different states
of Italy, and of the kingdoms of Germany, Hungary, and
France ; in other words, as Carlyle says, ' We shall be obliged
(what is our grand difficulty in this History) to note, in their
order, the series of European occurrences ' in so far as they
are connected with the story of the life of Baldassare Cossa.
In the main the chronological sequence of events has been
observed ; but this has been impossible in every instance ; and
for a similar reason it has been impossible to avoid referring
to some few events twice over. I have finished the story,
for the present, at the death of Pope Alexander the Fifth;
and although with the advent of a new ruler of the Holy

INTRODUCTION vii
Roman Empire a great change comes over the spirit of
the action, still I am painfully aware that I have merely
reached a ' conclusion in which nothing is concluded.' It
is my hope in the future, if life and health are spared, to
complete the story of the Life and Times of Pope John the
Twenty-third ; but the material is abundant, and opportunity
intermittent. As regards what I have done, I may use the
words of one who wrote four hundred years ago : ' How be it,
I truste my symple reason hath ledde to the understandynge
of the true sentence of the mater . . . desyrynge all the
reders and herers therof to take this my rude " work " in gre,
and yf any faute be, to laye it to myn unconnynge and derke
ignoraunce, and to mynysshe, adde or augment as they shall
fynde cause requysyte. And in theyr so doynge I shall pray
to God that after this vayne and transytory lyfe he may
brynge them unto the perdurable joyeof heven. Amen.1

EUSTACE J. KITTS.

EvERSLEIGH, HeENE,
Worthing.

LISTS OF RULERS

THE POPES

Nicolas i.
Gregory vn.
Victor in. .
Urban n.
Paschal n. .
Gelasius u. .
Calixtus n. .
Honorius n.
Innocent n.
Celestine n.
Lucius n.
Eugenius m.
Hadrian iv. .
Alexander in.
Lucius m. .
Urban m. .
Gregory viii.
Clement in.
Celestine in.
Innocent in.
Honorius in.
Gregory ix.
Celestine iv.
Innocent iv.

858-867
1073-10851086-1087
1088-10991099-1118 1118-11191119-11241124-11301130-1143 1143-11441144-1145
1145-11531153-1159
1159-11811181-11851185-1187-
1187-11871187-1191' 1191-11981198-1216
1216-12271227-1241
1241-1241 1243-1254'

Alexander iv.
Urban iv.
Clement ix.
Gregory ix.
Innocent v'.
Hadrian v. .
John xix. .
Nicolas in. .
Martin iv. .
Honorius iv.
Nicolas iv. .
Celestine v.
Boniface vin.
Benedict x.
The Popes
Clement v. .
John xxii. .
Benedict xn.
Clement vi.
Innocent vi.
Urban v.
Gregory xi.

1254-1261
1261-1265
1265-1269
1271-12761276-12761276-1276
1276-1276 1277-12811281-12851285-1289
1289-1292 1294-1294
1294-1303 1303-1305

at Avignon. 1305-1314
1316-13341334-1342 1342-1352
1352-13621362-1370
1370-1378

N.B. — Anti-popes omitted in the above list.
THE POPES DURING THE SCHISM
The Popes at Rome.
April 18, 1378-Oct. 15, 1389

Urban vi.
Boniface ix.
Innocent vn.
Gregory xn.

Nov. 11, 1389-Oct. 1, 1404
Oct. 17, 1404-Nov. 5, 1406
Nov. 30, 1406-June 15, 1415

IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

Clement vn. .
Benedict xiii.

Alexander v.
John xxiii.

The Popes at Avignon.
. Sept. 20, 1378-Sept. 16, 1394
. Sept. 28, 1394-July 26, 1417
The Popes of the Council.
. June 26, 1409-May 4, 1410
. May 17, 1410-May 29, 1415

Kings op Germany.

Otto i.
Otto ii.
Otto in.
Henry n.
Conrad n.
Henry hi.
Henry iv.
Henry v.
Lothair ii.
Conrad in.
Frederic i.
Henry vi.
Otto iv.
Frederic n.
Rudolf (Habsburg)
Adolf (Nassau)
Albert i.
Henry vn. .
Louis (Bavaria)
Charles iv. .

936-973973-983983-1002
1002-1024
1024-1039 1039-10561056-1106
1106-11251125-11381138-11521162-1190
1190-1196 1196-12151215-1250
1275-1292
1292-1298 1298-1308
1308-1313 1313-1347
1346-1378

Kings of Naples.
Charles i. (of Anjou) . 1265-1285

Charles n. (the Lame)
Robert
Joanna i.
Charles in. (Durazzo)
Ladislas

1285-13091309-1343 1343-1382
1382-1386 1386-1414

Kings of Castile. 1350-1369 1369-1379

Peter (the Cruel)
Henry ii.
John i.
Henry in. .
John ii.

1379-1391 1391-1407 1407-1454

Kings of France.

Hugh Capet
Robert Henry i.
Philip i.
Louis vi.
Louis vn.
Philip Augustus .
Louis viii. .
Louis ix. (Saint) .
Philip in. .
Philip iv. (the Fair)
Louis x.
John i.
Philip v.
Charles iv. .
Philip vi.
John n.
Charles v. .
Charles vi. .

987-996 996-1031
1031-10601060-11081108-11371137-11801180-1225
1225-12261226-1270 1270-12851285-13141314-1316 1316-1316
1316-13221322-13281328-13501350-1364
1364-13801380-1422

Kings of Hungary.

Carobert Louis the Great .
Maria .
Charles (Durazzo)
Sigismund .

1310-1342
1342-13821382-1385 1385-1386 1387-1437

Kings of Aragon.
Peteriv. . . . 1336-1387
John i. 1387-1395
Martin . . . 1395-1412

GENEALOGICAL TREES

xi

GENEALOGICAL TREES
THE HOUSE OF LUXEMBURG
Henry vn., Emperor (1308-1313).
John of Bohemia, d. 1346.

I
Charles iv.
Emperor
(1346-1378).

Bona, m. John ii.
of France.

John Henry of Mor
avia, in. Margaret
Maultasch. I

Wenzel of Luxem
burg.

I

Wenzel. Sigismund. John of Goerlitz. Joat.
I
Elizabeth, in.
Anthony of
Brabant.

Prokop.

THE VALOIS LINE
John n. (1350-1364).

Charles v.
(1364-1380). I 

Charles vi.
(1380-1422),
m. Isabel of
Bavaria.

Louis i. of Anjou,
¦ d. 1384. I

Jean, D.
Berri.

Philip, D.
Burgundy.

Louis, D.
Orleans, m.
Valentine Visconti.

I

Isabella, m. Gian
Galeazzo.

Louis n. of Jean sans Peur,
Anjou. D. Burgundy.

Antony of Brabant,
m. Elizabeth of
Goerlitz.

KINGS OF NAPLES AND OF HUNGARY
Charles i. (brother of Louis rx. ) of Anjou (1265-1285).
Charles n. the Lame (1285-1309), m. Mary of Hungary.
(Hungary)  (Naples) (Tarentum) (Durazzo)

I
Charles Martel
(1290-1301).

Carobert
(1310-1342).

I
Robert i.
(1309-1343).

Charles of
Calabria.

Philip n.

Louis, m.
Joanna i.
of Naples.

Louis the Great Andrew, m. Joanna i. (1343-1382), m.
(1342-1382). (1) Andrew of Hungary.
(2) Louis of Tarentum.

(3) James of Majorca.
(4 -

Otto of Brunswick.

Maria, m. Hedwig, m.
Sigismund of Jagellon, alias
Hungary. Ladislas of Poland.

I
John.

Charles of
Durazzo.

Louis of
Gravina.

Margaret, m. Charles m.
(1381-1386).

I
Ladislas.

I
Joanna 11.

xii IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

MEMORANDUM OF ABBREVIATIONS

N.B, — The following abbreviations have been used for the authorities
more frequently cited in the notes and references.
A.S.I. Archivio Storico Italiano, 1843.
Ammirato. Ammirato, Scipione : Istorie Florentine. 7 vols.,
1853.
Aschbach. Aschbach, Joseph : Geschichte Kaiser Sigmunds.
4 vols., 1838.
Barante. Barante, M. de : Histoire des Dues de Bourgogne de
la Maison de Valois. 14 vols., 1826.
Bess. Bess, Bernhard : Frankreichs Kirchenpolitik, 1891.
Biog. Univ. Biographie Universelle, ancienne et moderne (Michaud).
Bonet-Maury. Bonet-Maury, G. : Gerard de Groote, 1878.
Boccicaut. Collection Universelle des Mimoires particuliers relatifs
a t histoire de France : tome vi. — Livre des / aits du
bon Messire Jean le Meingre, dit Boucicaut.
Brieger. Brieger : Zeitschrift fuer Kirchengeschichte, con
taining —
ix., x. Sauerland : Cardinal Johannes Dominici.
xxi. Blumenthal : Johann XXIII.
xxv. Bess : Frankreich und sein Papst von 1378
bis 1394.
xxviii. Sommerfeldt : Eine Invektive aus der Zeit des
Pisaner Konzils.
Burckhardt. Burckhardt, Jacob : The Civilisation of the Renais
sance in Italy ; tr. Middlemore. 1904.
Bryce. Bryce, James : The Holy Roman Empire. 1904.
Capes. Capes, W. W. : The English Church in the Four
teenth and Fifteenth Centuries. 1900.
Capponi. Capponi, Gino : Storia della Repubbliea di Firenze.
1875.
Chastenet. Chastenet, Bourgeois de : Nouvelle Histoire du Con-
cile de Constance. 1718.
Christophe. Christophe, L'Abbe' J.-B. : Histoire de la PapauU
pendant le xhf siecle. 3 vols., 1853.
Ciaconius. Ciaconius, Alphonsus : Vitae et res gestae Pontificum.
4 vols., 1677.
Coville. Coville, Alfred : Les Gabochiens et I'Ordonnance de
1413. 1888.

ABBREVIATIONS

xm
Creighton. Creighton, M. : History of the Papacy. 6 vols.,
1897.
Decameron. Boccaccio, Giovanni : The Decameron ; tr. Rigg.
2 vols., 1906.
De Schismate. Theodorici de Nyem de Schismate Libri tres ; ed.
Georgius Erler. Leipzig, 1890.
Duchesne. Duchesne : Liber Pontificalis. 2 vols., 1886-92.
Ehrle. Archiv fuer Litteratur- und Kirchen-Geschichte des
Mittelalters, 1889-1900, containing —
Ehrle : Aus den Aden des Afterconcils Perpignan,
1408 ; Neue Materialmen zur Geschichte Peters von
Luna ; and Die kirchenrechtlichen Schriften Peters
von Luna.
Erler. Erler, Georg : Dietrich von Nieheim. 1887.
Finke. Finke, Heinrich : Acta Concilii Constantiensis.
1896.
Frati. Frati, Lodovico : La Vita Privata di Bologna. 1900.
Freeman. Freeman, Edward A. : Historical Essays. 1886.
Froissart. Froissart, The Chronicles of; tr. Berners (Tudor
Translations). 6 vols., 1901.
Gardner. Gardner, Edmund G. : Saint Catherine of Siena.
1907.
Ghirar. Delia, Historia di Bologna del R. P. M. Cherubino
Ghirardacci Bolognese. Bologna, 1657-
Gibbon. Gibbon, Edward : Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire; ed. Smith. 8 vols., 1881.
Giesebrecht. Wilhelm von Giesebrecht : Geschichte der deutschen
Kaiserseit.
Goeller. Goeller, Emil : Koenig Sigismunds Kirchenpolitik.
1902.
Gratius. Gratius, Ortwinus : Fasciculus rerum escpetendarum
et fugiendarum, containing —
Nicolai de Clamangiis: de Oorrupto Ecclesiae Statu
Liber. 1690.
Gregorovius. Gregorovius, Ferdinand : History of the City of
Rome in the Middle Ages ; tr. Annie Hamilton.
8 vols.
Grube. Grube, Karl : Gerhard Groot und seine Stiftungen.
1883.
Hallam. Hallam, Henry : View of the State of Europe during
the Middle Ages. 3 vols., 1872.
Hardt. Hardt, Hermann von der: Rerum Concilii Oecu-
menici Constantiensis, 1697, containing —
Niem : De Vita,facinoribusetfatis Balthasaris, postea
Johannis XXIII.
Hazlitt. Hazlitt, W. Carew : The Venetian Republic. 2 vols.,
1900.

xiv IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Hefele.

Heroenroether.
Hist. Gin.
Hodgkin.Hoefler.
Huebner.Hunger.
Janus.
Jarry.Kehrmann.Lavisse.
Lea.Lenfant.
Lindner
(ff. and L.).
Lindner (W.).
Mansi.Martene.
Martin.Matthew Paris.
Michelet.MlLMAN.Monstrelet.
Mur.
Palacky.

Conciliengeschichte nach den Quellen bearbeitet von Carl
Joseph von Hefele; sechster Band, zweite Auflage,
besorgt von Dr. Alois Knoepfler. 1890.
Hergenroether's Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchen-
geschichte. 2 vols., 1902.
Histoire Generate du iv6 siecle a nos jours : Lavisse et
Rambaud. 12 vols., 1893.
Hodgkin, Thomas : Italy and her Invaders. 8 vols.,
1892.
Hoefler, Karl Adolf Konstantin : Ruprecht von der
Pfalz. Freiburg, 1861.
Huebner, Johann : Genealogische Tabellen. 1725.
Hunger, Carl : Zur Geschichte Papst Johanns XXIII.
1876.
Le Pope et le Concile. Par Janus (Doellinger) ; tr.
Giraud-Teulon. 1869.
Jarry, E. : La Vie politique de Louis de France, Due
d'OrUans. 1889.
Kehrmann, Carl : Frankreichs innere Kirchenpolitik.
1890.
Lavisse, Ernest : Histoire de France. 9 vols.,
1905.
Lea, Henry Charles : History of the Inquisition of the
Middle Ages ; 3 vols., 1906.
Lenfant, Jaques : Histoire du Concile de Pise. Am
sterdam, 1724.
Lindner, Theodor : Deutsche Geschichte unter
den Habsburgern und Luxemburgern. 2 vols.,
1890.
Lindner, Theodor : Geschichte des deutschen Reiches
unter Koenig Wenzel. 2 vols., 1875.
Mansi, Joannes Dominicus : Sacrorum Conciliorum
nova et amplissima collectio.
Martene and Durand : Thesaurus Norms Anecdotorum.
1717.
Martin, Henri : Histoire de France. 17 vols.,
1885.
Matthew Paris's English History ; tr. Giles. 3 vols.,
1852.
Michelet : Histoire de France. 19 vols.
Milman, Henry Hart : History of Latin Christianity.
9 vols., 1883.
Monstrelet: Chronique de 1400 a 1444. 1848.
Ludovicus Antonius Muratorius : Rerum Italicarum
Scriptores. Milan, 24 vols., 1738.
Palacky, Franz : Geschichte von Boehmen, 7 vols
1836.

ABBREVIATIONS

XV

Pastor. Pastor, Ludwig : History of the Popes ; ed. Antrobus.
6 vols., 1899.
Platina. Platina, Baptista : Lives of the Popes ; tr. Rycaut.
1688.
Poole. Poole, Reginald Lane : Illustrations of the History of
Mediaeval Thought. 1884.
Rashdall. Rashdall, Hastings : The Universities of Europe in
the Middle Ages. 2 vols., 1895.
Raumer. Historisches Taschenbuch, begruendet von Friedrich
von Raumer. Leipzig, 1889 : containing Erler,
Dr. Georg : Florenz, Neapel und das paepstliche
Schisma.
Raynaldus. Raynaldus, Ordericus : Annates Ecclesiastici. \1£l-
1756.
Reinke. Reinke, Georg : Frankreich und Papst Johann XXIII.
1900.
Religieux. Documents Inedits sur V Histoire de France: Chroni-
que du Religieux de Saint-Denys; ed. Bellaguet.
6 vols., 1842.
Renan. Renan, Ernest : Nouvelles Etudes d' Histoire religieuse.
1899.
Riezler. Riezler, Sigmund : Die Literarischen Widersacher der
Paepste. Leipzig, 1874.
Rocquain. Rocquain, Felix : La Papaute au Moyen Age.
1881.
Roem. Quart. Roemische Quartalschrift, 1894 : containing Schmitz,
L. : Die Quellen zur Geschichte des Konzils von
Cividale, 1409.
Sabatier. Sabatier, Paul : Vie de S. Francois d' Assise.
1905.
Salembier. Salembier, Ludovicus : Petrus ab Alliaco. 1886.
Sauerbrei. Sauerbrei, Moritz : Die italienische Politik Koenig
Sigmunds. 1893.
Schwab. Schwab, Johann Baptist : Johannes Gerson. 1858.
Sismondi (F.). Sismondi, Simonde de : Histoire des Francais. 33
vols.
Sismondi (I. R.). Sismondi, Simonde de : Histoire des Republiques
Italiennes du Moyen Age. 10 vols., 1840.
Stevenson. Stevenson, Francis Seymour : Robert Orosseteste,
1899.
Sybel. Sybel : Historische Zeitschrift, 1875 : containing
Sauerland, H. B. : Gregor XII. von seiner Wahl
bis zum Vertrage von Marseille.
Symonds. Symonds, John Addington : Renaissance in Italy :
The Age of the Despots. 1897.
Tartini. Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. Florence, 1770 : con
taining Cronica di Piero Minerbetti,

xvi IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Tschackert. Tschackert, Paul : Peter von Ailli. 1877.
Ullman. Ullman, C. : Reformers before the Reformation ; tr.
Menzies. 2 vols., 1860.
Valois. Valois, Noel : La France et le Grand Schisme d 'Occi
dent. 4 vols., 1896.
Wylie. Wylie, James Hamilton : History of England under
Henry the Fourth. 4 vols., 1884.
Yriarte. Yriarte, Charles: Un Condottiere au tW siecle.
1882.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE INTRODUCTION, containing the plan of the work,
LISTS OF RULERS
The Popes, ......
Kings of Germany,
Kings of France,
Kings of Naples, ...
Kings of Hungary,
Kings of Castile, .....
Kings of Aragon, .....

PAGE V

IX X X
XX
XX

GENEALOGICAL TREES
The House of Luxemburg, ..... xi
The Valois Line in France, ..... xi
Kings of Naples and of Hungary, .... xi
MEMORANDUM OF ABBREVIATIONS
The abbreviations used for the authorities more frequently cited
in the notes and references, . . . . .xii

CHAPTER I
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
Charles the Great. The Holy Roman Empire. The Donation
of Constantine and the False Decretals. Otto the Great.
The World-Empire and the World-Religion. The emblem
of the Soul and the Body. Rise of the Papacy. Hildebrand.
The humiliation of Canossa. The Donation of Charlemagne
and the strife as to the Investitures. Frederic Barbarossa.
Innocent the Third and the plenitude potestatis. Frederic
the Second and the Fall of the Hohenstaufen. The Great
Interregnum. The Bull Unam Sanctam. Pretensions of
b

XVU1

IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

the Papacy pushed to the uttermost. Boniface the Eighth
and Philip the Fair. Pierre du Bois and John of Paris.
Jordan of Osnabruck and Dante. Lupoid of Bebenburg.
The Babylonish Captivity. John the Twenty-second and
Louis of Bavaria. The sentiment of nationality. Marsiglio
of Padua and the Defensor Pacis. Louis of Bavaria at Rome.
William of Ockham. Death of Louis of Bavaria. The
Emperor Charles the Fourth. The Golden Bull, . 1
CHAPTER II
THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH
(I) Its Popular Side
The universal religion. The universal language. The Holy
Roman Church in the days of its greatest splendour and
glory. The Church as a temporal power. The Church
as landowner. Its power in Germany. Courts spiritual.
Employment of the clergy. Church festivals. Feast of
the Ass. German village festivals. The Church as School
master. The Church as Physician, . . . .35
(71) Seculars and Regulars
Effects of Hildebrand's reforms. The thirteenth century.
The Papacy at Avignon. Social and moral corruption.
Financial needs of the Pope. The Papal revenues. Moral
reputation of the Popes. Character of the Cardinals. The
Bishops. Worldly character of the Bishops. The necessity
for 'Caesarian clergy.' The Bishops in Germany. The
Archdeacons. The rural Deans. The spirit of insubordina
tion. The beneficed clergy. The parish priests. Parish
priests in England. The Monasteries. The Nunneries.
The Friars of the Four Orders, . . . .55
(III) Heresy and Reform
Heresy in the twelfth century. Albigenses, Paterines, or
Cathari. Waldenses or Poor Men of Lyons. The Franciscans.
Destruction of heresy in France. Heresy in Spain. Heresy
in Italy. John Wyclif. Heresy in Germany. The Flagel
lants, Dancers, Beghards, and others. The German mystics.
Reason and faith. Gerhard Groot. His teaching. The
Brethren of the Common Life. Florentius Radewin. The
Canons of the Common Life. Conrad Waldhauser. Milic.
Mathias of Janow. The University of Paris, . 82

TABLE OF CONTENTS xix

CHAPTER III
THE GREAT SCHISM
FAO«
Death of Gregory the Eleventh. Necessity for the return to
Rome. Peace conference. Election of the new Pope.
Urban the Sixth. The Great Schism. Its effect on the
political and ecclesiastical worlds. France and the Schism.
The Cardinals and the Schism. State of Western Europe.
Three young Kings. Insanity of the French King. Sloth
of King Wenzel. Civil schism in Germany. Social and
moral condition of Italy. Political development of Italy.
The Kingdom of Naples. ' Pax vobiscum.' Society in the
Middle Ages. Social condition of France, Germany, and
England. The Black Death and after. Duty of the Em
peror in reference to the Schism. Plan of General Council.
Difficulties. Scepticism and mistrust consequent , on the
Schism. Anti-papal spirit in the University of Paris. Theo
logy of Pierre d'Ailly, ...... 106

CHAPTER IV
BALDASSARE COSSA
Neapolitan nobility. Family of Baldassare Cossa : his birth.
Piracy in early life. Habit of late rising. Choice of the
Church as a profession. The ' way of fact.' The expedition
of the first Duke of Anjou. Urban the Sixth and Charles of
Durazzo. Death of Urban the Sixth. The University of
Bologna. Cossa at Bologna. His contemporaries. Election
of the new Pope. Boniface the Ninth. Expedition of the
second Duke of Anjou. Costliness of the fway of fact.'
Theological Faculty of the University of Paris. Overtures
of Boniface. Coffer in the Cloister of the Mathurins.
Death of Clement the Seventh. Election of the new Pope
at Avignon. Cossa, Archdeacon of the University of Bol
ogna. Politics of Bologna. Cossa in the field. Cossa
private chamberlain. The Jubilee. Cossa's work as private
chamberlain. John of Nassau. First black score against
King Ladislas. Character of Ladislas. Dietrich von Niem.
Cossa's simony and sensuality. His real character, . . 140

xx IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
CHAPTER V
THE WAY OF CESSION
PAOB
Three parties in Church politics in France. Benedict the Thir
teenth. Altered relations between France and the Pope.
' Way of cession.' Embassy of the royal dukes. Benedict
refuses to accept the ' way of cession.' Results of the em
bassy. Justification of the refusal of the ' way of cession.'
The ' way of convention.' French embassies to other
European courts. Want of continuity in French policy.
Robert the Hermit. Embassy of the three Kings. Diet of
Frankfurt. Meeting of Wenzel and Charles : embassy of
Pierre d'Ailly. D'Ailly at Rome. The subtraction of
obedience. Froissart's account of D'Ailly's mission to Avig
non. Palace of the Popes at Avignon. Siege of the Palace.
The siege raised. Cardinals in Paris. Effects of the subtrac
tion of obedience. The White Penitents. Deposition of
King Wenzel. Rupert, King of the Romans. The schism
in the Empire. Rupert's unsuccessful invasion of Milan.
Rupert's election confirmed by the Pope. The restitution of
obedience. Escape of Pope Benedict. Obedience restored.
Reconciliation with the Pope, ..... 171
CHAPTER VI
BOLOGNA
Appointment of Baldassare Cossa as Papal Legate at Bologna.
Gian Galeazzo sole Lord of Lombardy. Acquires Pisa and
other cities. Bentivoglio becomes Lord of Bologna. Gian
Galeazzo acquires Bologna. Death of the Duke of Milan.
The army of the allies before Bologna. Bologna restored to
the Church. Discontent of Florence. Description of Bologna.
Work and taxes. Games of chance. Women of pleasure.
Unpopularity of the Legate. The heirs of the Duke of
Milan. Treason in Bologna. Purchase of Faenza. Pope
Benedict after his imprisonment. ' Via conventionis.' Ger-
son's New Year's sermon. Benedict's embassy to Rome.
Death of Boniface the Ninth. Negotiations before the elec
tion of a new Pope. Cosmato de' Megliorati. Extension of
the obedience of Benedict. Benedict's journey to Genoa.
Papal exactions in France. Fourth council of the clergy at
Paris. Speech of Pierre d'Ailly. Renewal of the subtrac
tion of obedience. Reign of Pope Innocent the Seventh.
Cossa at Bologna. War' with the Constable. Rise of the
party of neutrality in Germany under John of Nassau.
Benedict in the Riviera, ..... 210

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi

CHAPTER VII
THE WAY OF CONVENTION
PAQE
The election of the new Pope at Rome. Angelo Corrario.
Gregory's initial resolution to resign. Bologna as a meeting-
place for the Popes. Gregory's letter to Benedict. The
embassy to Benedict. The Treaty of Marseilles. Probable
result of a convention. The embassy from Paris. Savona.
French embassy reaches Aix. Received by Benedict at
Marseilles. Public audience. Demand for a Bull. Am
bassadors in a quandary. Benedict's reason for refusing a
Bull. Departure of the embassy. Bull of excommunication
prepared. The nephews of Pope Gregory. French embassy
at Rome. Gregory's want of money. Negotiations with the
French embassy. Final reply of the Pope. Benedict ob
serves the Treaty of Marseilles. Attempt of Ladislas on
Rome. Gregory goes to Siena. His embassy at Savona.
Assassination of the Duke of Orleans. Porto Venere. Pope
Gregory at Lucca: negotiations. Rome taken by Ladislas.
The news reaches Lucca. Predominance of Ladislas. Gregory
creates new cardinals. The old cardinals desert Gregory.
Benedict and Boucicaut. Breach with France. Pope's Bull
torn to pieces. Benedict sends four cardinals to Leghorn.
Original proposal for a General Council. Misapprehension of
Benedict as to the proposal. Benedict leaves Porto Venere.
Gregory's cardinals withdraw their obedience. Gregory
leaves Lucca. 'Way of a Council.' Baldassare Cossa the
author of the Council of Pisa. Florence offers Pisa for the
Council, The rival Popes invited, .... 247

CHAPTER VIII
TWO MINOR COUNCILS
Attitude of the Popes. The ' conclusions ' of the University of
Bologna. Pierre d'Ailly and Jean Gerson on the proposed
Council. Opposition. Rupert, King of the Romans. The
Diet at Frankfurt. King Wenzel. The University of
Prague. Ladislas of Naples. Ladislas in league with Gregory.
League of Florence with Baldassare Cossa. Negotiations
with Ladislas. Cossa and Filargi at Florence. Gregory
excommunicates Cossa. Provincial Council at Florence.
Ladislas prepares to invade Tuscany. His banner. 'King
Waste-crop' in Tuscany. Exertions of Sigismund on be
half of Gregory. The right of convocation. Sigismund's

xxii IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
PAGE
negotiations. Carlo Malatesta, Sigismund, and the Venetian
Republic. Desertion of Pope Gregory. French support of
the Council of Pisa. Benedict declines to recognise the
Council of Pisa. Opening of the Council of Perpignan.
Proceedings of the Council. Proceedings of the Council
held by Gregory at Cividale. Gregory escapes to Ladislas.
Adherents of the rival Popes. Attitude of England. France
and the Council, ...... 289

CHAPTER IX
\ PISA
Pisa. Its situation. Transferred to Florence by Gabriel Maria
Visconti. Revolt of the Pisans. Surrender to Florence.
Occupied by Florentine troops. Importance of the Council
of Pisa. The city at the time of the Council. Assemblage
of representatives. Ecclesiastics at the Council. ' De auferi-
bilitate Papae ab Ecclesia.' Opening ceremony, . . 323
CHAPTER X
THE WAY OF A COUNCIL
First general Session. Second and Third Sessions. Easter. King
Rupert's embassy. Fourth Session : 'Pax Vobis.' Commis
sion to consider the German objections. Flight of the
German embassy. Carlo Malatesta at Pisa. His unsuccess
ful negotiation with the Council. Fifth general Session :
Commission appointed to investigate the charges against the
Popes. Arrival of French and English ecclesiastics. Sixth
Session : Bishop Hallam's sermon. Seventh Session : answer
to the German objections. Recognition of Wenzel as King
of the Romans. Approaching arrival of Benedict's ambassa
dors announced. Eighth Session : Announcement of the
oecumenical character of the Council. Ninth Session : with
drawal of obedience ; the importunate Englishman. Tenth,
Eleventh, and Twelfth Sessions : evidence read ; further evi
dence to be taken. Bulls from Pope Benedict. Evidence
as to heresy. Bishop of Novara's assembly and the Thir
teenth Session. Fourteenth Session : further evidence read.
Fifteenth Session : Deposition of the rival Popes. Spread of
the news. Preparations for the election of a new Pope. Arrival
of Cardinal de Chalant. Sixteenth and Seventeenth Sessions :
arrival of Cardinal Baldassare Cossa. Eighteenth Session :
arrival of Benedict's ambassadors. Commission at Saint
Martin's to hear the embassy. Last Session of the Popeless
^ Council. The election of the new Pope, . . . 342

TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii

CHAPTER XI
POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH
PAGE
News of his election. Effect of the election on the Council.
' Unum ovile et unus Pastor.' The coronation. Reckless
liberality of the new Pope. Twenty-first Session. Twenty-
second Session. The last Session. General results of the
Council of Pisa. Burgundians and Armagnacs. Germany
and the Council. King Rupert after the Council. Venice
recognises Pope Alexander. Sigismund recognises Alex
ander. Louis, the second Duke of Anjou. The League
against King Ladislas. The revolt of Genoa. The march of
the Allies. Capture of the Leonine City. The allies besiege
Rome. Pope Alexander goes to Prato. His Bull Regnans
in Excelsis. The capture of Rome. Bull against King
Ladislas. The Pope moves from Pistoja to Bologna. The
Pope at Bologna. The Golden Rose presented to the
Marquess of Este. The revolt of Forlimpopolo. Death of
Alexander the Fifth. The election of a new Pope. The
Conclave. Baldassare Cossa's demerits and qualifications.
His three great enemies. Death of King Rupert, . . 375
Index, ........ 411

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

'THE SINFUL CITY OF AVENON,'
PIERRE D'AILLY,
POPE BENEDICT THE THIRTEENTH,
CHATEAU RENARD,
JOHN, DUKE OF BURGUNDY, .
POPE GREGORY THE TWELFTH,
LOUIS, DUKE OF ORLEANS,
PORTO VENERE,
POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH,

Frontispiece AT PAGE 136

172
206 228 250 268 272 374

IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
CHAPTER I
THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
By our forefathers the whole world was divided into
Christendom and Heathenesse, and when Christianity he-
came the state religion of the Roman Empire, Christendom
practically meant the whole of that Empire as distinct from
the rest of the world. The Holy Roman Church and the
Holy Ro.man Empire were thus two different phrases,
signifying the same body of people, viewed from their
spiritual or their temporal side. In 327 Constantine the
Great moved the seat of Empire to Byzantium, which we
call Constantinople, but which was then called Rome, which
is still called Rome to this day by Musalmans all the world
over. The Rome on the Bosporus instead of the Rome on
the Tiber, the eastern Rome instead of the western Rome,
became the seat of Empire, and it remained the sole seat
until the death of Theodosius. Then the Empire was
divided ; Arcadius received the Eastern and Honorius the
Western provinces. In 476 the last Emperor of the
Western provinces, Romulus Augustulus, was deposed ; the
Senate sent the regalia to the Emperor Zeno at Rome on the
Bosporus, and informed him that they no longer required a
separate royalty, that Zeno himself would suffice as sole
Emperor for both ends of the earth. Thus the Western
provinces were reunited with the Eastern, and there was
again a single undivided Roman Empire. This continued
until the end of the eighth century, when a wonderful change
occurred. The Emperor Constantine the Sixth was in 797
blinded and deposed by his mother Irene, who aspired to seat
herself on the imperial throne. There had before this been
A

2 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
female regents who had ruled while their sons or wards were
minors, and even after : Theodora had been crowned Empress
when her husband, Justinian, was crowned Emperor ; but no
woman had ever reigned alone, and in her own right, as
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.1 In 799 Charles the
Great,2 Charlemagne, the Teuton King of the Franks, was
called upon to aid Pope Leo the Third, who had been
brutally assaulted in a procession, and had been left for dead
after his enemies had, as they thought, deprived him of sight
and speech. Charles had already delivered Italy from the
Lombards ; he now came to Rome for the fourth time, the
charges against the Pope were heard and his innocence
pronounced in full synod, and on Christmas Day Charles,
robed in the chlamys and sandals of a Roman patrician, heard
Mass in the Church of Saint Peter. ' After the celebration
of the holy mysteries, Leo suddenly placed a precious crown
on his head, and the dome resounded with the acclamations
of the people, " Long life and victory to Charles, the most
pious Augustus, crowned by God the great and pacific
Emperor of the Romans.1"3 'In that shout,' says Mr.
Bryce, 'echoed by the Franks without, was pronounced the
union, so long in preparation, so mighty in its consequences,
of the Roman and the Teuton, of the memories and the
civilisation of the South with the fresh energy of the North,
and from that moment modern history begins.'*
The throne at Constantinople was vacant through the
death of the Emperor without male successor ; Charles was
therefore regarded as sole Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire. His dominion was so wide, his conquests so
extensive, that in his day it was almost as it had been in the
earlier days of the Empire — to be a Roman was to be a
Christian, and to be a Christian was to be a Roman. The
successors of Constantine at the Rome on the Bosporus were
looked upon as nothing more than mere kings of Greece ;
1 * Irene was the second Athenian lady who married a Roman Emperor and
became an Augusta; the first was the famous Athenais (Eudocia).'— Bury,
History of the Later Roman Empire, ii. 480.
2 Charles had at one time thought of himself marrying Irene, and at another
he had betrothed his daughter to her son. Ibid. ii. 483, 490.
* Gibbon, vi. 169. * Bryce, 49,

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 3
and if the continued existence of the Eastern Empire be
granted, it virtually came to an end with the Fourth
Crusade, for the Palaeologi were feeble representatives even
of the Comneni, and their Byzantine Empire was a mere
shadow of the old Empire of the East. The Holy Roman
Empire, as a mighty all-embracing monarchy in which the
rule of one man was felt and acknowledged to the ends of
the civilised world, was the Empire of Charles and his
successors who were crowned at Rome. The terms of the
union between Pope Leo and the Emperor Charles were not
set forth in words, but they were well known ; they were
that the Pope should rule the souls, and the Emperor the
bodies, of their common subjects in righteousness, the rulers
acting together in harmony, to the end that all men might
inherit eternal life. It was a noble theory, but impossible of
realisation in practice. It required a complete accord of the
papal and imperial powers ; and this accord was attained under
Charles and Pope Leo the Third, under Otto the Third
and Popes Gregory the Fifth and Sylvester the Second, under
Henry the Third, but certainly never thenceforth.1
The Emperors came to Rome merely to be crowned with
the golden crown ; the Popes resided in Rome ; theirs was
the enduring power in Italy. At first simply the Bishop of
Rome, then the sole Patriarch of the West, the Pope had
gradually attained to be acknowledged as the spiritual head
of Christendom. The Emperor being the temporal head, it
was natural that the relation of the two powers should come
to be defined. About the middle of the eighth century 2
there appeared the document known as the Donation of
Constantine, which was probably composed by one of the
priests attached to the Church of the Lateran. This set
forth that Constantine, on being baptized by Pope Sylvester,
had in his gratitude conferred on the Pope and his successors
Rome, Italy, and the Western provinces — that is Lombardy,
Venice, and Istria — ' in order that the lamps of the Roman
churches might be supplied with oil.' After the death of
Charles the Great his dominions were divided among his
heirs, and their discord and wars speedily enfeebled the
1 Bryce, 107. * Janus, 148.

4 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
might of the Empire. The strength of the Church was
meantime growing owing to the fact that the bishops had
hitherto been the main supports of civil and orderly
government. A clerical tribunal, ' an irregular conven
tion of certain Bishops of the Gauls, assembled without
proper sanction,' l deposed Louis the Pious in 833; bishops
and clergy, convened in Council at Aix-la-Chapelle, pro
nounced that the throne of Lothair was vacant in 842.2
From 858 to 867 there reigned at Rome Pope Nicholas the
First, the greatest of the Popes since Gregory the Great.
He took up the work, afterwards consummated by Hilde-
brand, of welding the Church into one vast monarchy subject
to the Pope and independent of the civil powers. He
insisted on the right of appeal to Rome against the decrees
of metropolitans ; he put forward this claim, not only in the
interest of the clergy, but in order that those of every
condition might have recourse to the Roman Church as to
their universal Mother, seeking from her the safety of their
bodies and their souls.3 He upheld the primacy of the
Papacy against the Emperor and the Patriarch at Constan
tinople. He interfered on the ground of morality in the
divorce of Lothair. He insisted, in the matter of the Bishop
Rothade, that the rights of the Church could not be
invalidated by the decrees of Emperors. He corresponded
with the three sons of Louis the Pious in their separate
kingdoms, with Salomon of Brittany, with the King of the
Bulgarians, with the King of Denmark, with the Emperor at
Constantinople. He led the way to Pope Gregory the
Seventh. Shortly before his pontificate there burst forth on
Christendom that wonderful forgery known as the Decretals
of Isidore. It was an age of forgery,* but Nicholas himself
made no use of the false Decretals ; they were introduced at
Rome in the pontificate of John the Eighth (872-88S),5 and
thenceforward they formed the armoury from which the Popes
drew their arms to enforce the theory of the papal
sovereignty. This knavery, says Dollinger,6 brought about
1 Palgrave, History of Normandy and England, i. 295.
2 Ibid. i. 336. 3 Rocquain, 70, 4 md- „ et
6 Ibid. 48. « januS) ,07_ t

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 5
slowly and gradually the complete transformation of the
constitution and government of the Church.
The Carolingian line of Emperors ended with Charles the
Fat, who died in 888. Then followed certain phantom
Emperors in Italy, the last of whom was Berengar, who died
in 924. Meantime war and confusion reigned everywhere.
The Papacy was disgraced by the Reign of the Harlots ; it
had lost all authority within Italy; it had lost all respect
without ; it looked as if the Church Universal were about to
split up into a number of merely national churches. The
Empire was in suspense ; everything demanded its revival.
' In a time of disintegration, confusion, strife, all the longings
of every wiser and better soul for unity, for peace and law,
for some bond to bring Christian men and Christian states
together against the common enemy of the faith, were but so
many cries for the restoration of the Roman Empire.' x In
Germany, Henry the Fowler had been succeeded by his son
Otto the Great ; and the golden crown was now offered by
the Pope to Otto if he would revisit and pacify Italy. He
descended from the Alps with an immense army, marched to
Pavia, where he was acknowledged King of Italy, and on the
2nd February 962 was crowned Emperor in the Church of
Saint John Lateran by Pope John the Twelfth. His Empire
was not so vast as that of Charles the Great ; it included
Germany and two- thirds of Italy, Lorraine and Burgundy,
Bohemia and Moravia, Poland and Denmark, perhaps Hungary:
there were important differences in its inner structure and
character ; that kingdom of France, which had its centre at
Paris, no longer acknowledged its sway, nor did England.
Otto must therefore be considered, not as the successor of
Charlemagne, but as the second founder of the Empire,
of that Empire which denqtes the sovereignty of Germany
and Italy vested in a Germanic prince. During the century
which succeeded the coronation of Otto the Great the Empire
attained the zenith of its power, and held itself highest with
regard to Rome.
It was the Age of Feudalism. Before the second half of
the thirteenth century there was no political thought ; but
1 Hist. Gen. i. 538 ; Bryce, 84.

6 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Rome had taught men to believe in a World-Empire, and
Christianity had taught men to believe in a World-Religion ;
and these two being allied and conterminous, their alliance
and interdependence was assumed to be necessary and eternal.
The clergy and the realist philosophers alike believed in one
universal temporal State and one visible catholic Church.
The underlying notion of that ' portentous fabrication,' the
Donation of Constantine, is that the Pope must in every
point represent his prototype the Emperor; the spiritual
power was to imitate and rival the temporal, which was its
necessary complement ; ' hence the part which the Holy See
played in transferring the crown to Charles, the first sovereign
of the West capable of fulfilling its duties ; hence the grief
with which its weakness under his successors was seen, the
gladness when it descended to Otto as representative of the
Frankish kingdom.'1
''The relation of the papal and the imperial powers is
represented at this time under the emblem of the soul and
the body. Just as God ruled over blessed spirits, so did the
Pope rule over the souls of men ; just as God was Lord of
Earth as well as of Heaven, so was he represented in temporal
matters by the Emperor ; ' le Pape et VEmpereur, les deux
moities de Dieu? It was this belief in the necessary existence
of a conterminous world-empire and world-religion which made
the earlier crusades so popular and universal ; it was its decad
ence which rendered the later crusades so petty and abortivejf
When Otto the Great was crowned he promised to protect
the Church against all her enemies, and the Pope and the
people of Rome in their turn took an oath of allegiance to
him and covenanted not to elect any future pontiff without
his sanction. The Saxon and Franconian Emperors thence
forward either nominated the Popes or approved their elec
tion ; they exercised the right of deposition and of trial of
the Head of the Church. They did more ; they set to work
to cleanse the Augean stable : Pope John the Twelfth, ' the
apostate,' was deposed ; Pope Benedict the Ninth, who led a
life foul, shameful, and execrable, was degraded ; German
Popes were appointed. The Papacy was reformed. But the
1 Bryce, 101. 2 Brehier, L'Eglise et t Orient au Moyen Age, 212 8.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 7
reformed Papacy proved mightier than the Empire ; a change
in their relative positions ensued. If the might of the Empire
was at its zenith during the reigns of the Saxon and Franco-
nian Emperors, the moral glory and influence of the Papacy
were at their height during the reigns of the greatest and
grandest, the most high-minded and politic Popes, from
the days of Hildebrand to the pontificate of Innocent the
Third. Hildebrand himself has been well described as the man in
whom were summed up all the grandeur and audacity of the
Papacy. From his early days he was imbued with the notion
that on the Pope, as the successor of Saint Peter and the re
presentative of the Deity in this world, was conferred the
mission of directing humanity ; Christ had commanded Peter
to feed His sheep, and Gregory took the command to himself.
The clergy were sunk in moral degradation ; they were
stained with simony and concubinage ; the Church was in
the hands of the German Emperors. Gregory's life-work
was to elevate the clergy, to make them fit to be the guides
and rulers of mankind, and to free the Church entirely from
lay control. The task was so great that for long he shrank
from undertaking it himself. He had left Rome with
Gregory the Sixth in 1047, he returned two years later with
Leo the Ninth ; from the pontificate of Victor the Second
(1054-1057) onwards, his was the ruling spirit at Rome.
It was he who recommended Victor to the Emperor ; Victor's
successor, Stephen the Tenth, was elected at Rome without
the participation of Germany. When Stephen died, Hilde
brand assembled the cardinals and the principal Romans and
elected Nicholas the Second ; the election was notified to the
Empress, but one of the first acts of the new pontificate was
the Bull which provided that in future the Pope should be
elected by the College of Cardinals — a deadly blow to the
influence of the Emperors. The next Pope, Alexander the
Second, was elected without any reference to Germany. The
Emperors henceforth lost all authority in the election of
Popes. All this time Hildebrand had stood in the back
ground ; he was the man behind the papal throne : his
influence was universally acknowledged. When Alexander was

8 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Pope, Peter Damiani indited to Hildebrand the well-known
couplet —
' Papam rite colo, sed te prostratus adoro ;
Tu facis hunc Dominum, te facit ipse Deum.'
On the death of Alexander, Hildebrand in his own despite
was raised to the chair of Saint Peter ; two days later he was
prostrate with trouble and anguish at his elevation.
Pope Gregory the Seventh lost no time in rising to the
height of his great mission. Filled with a fiery zeal, he
waged unceasingly a holy war for papal supremacy. He
aimed to subdue the civil world to the clergy, the clergy to
the Papacy, to transform the whole of Europe into one vast
theocracy. The bishops were to be his faithful henchmen ;
he would have no bishop whom he did not knpw and trust ;
he did not abrogate the old custom that a bishop should be
chosen from the diocese by the clergy and people, but where a
fitting man could not be so found, he was ready to recommend
an outsider. Almost his first public act, in a synod at Rome,
was a declaration of war against simony and the marriage of
the clergy. In some countries, certainly in England, in
Germany, and in Italy, the majority of the clergy were then
married, and the clergy were as a consequence fast degen
erating into a closed caste. It was a choice of evils : on the
one side was the temptation to illicit connections ; on the
other, the hereditary succession and the degeneracy of the
order.1 Gregory's action stirred up strife in the Church and
widespread discontent ; but he was firm ; he stood on the
old ways, the weight of authority was on his side. Not that
this would have mattered, when once he was satisfied as to
his own righteousness ; if he unto himself was true, he
was ready to use forged decretal or papal letter to explain
and impress his meaning on others. He was persuaded
that the power of the Pope was ordained of God, that the
civil powers took their origin from evil ; that it was his
mission, therefore, to see that the kings of the earth ruled in
righteousness. He sent his legates into every country of
Europe ; he exacted passive obedience from them toward
1 Milman, iv. 1 8.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 9
himself, passive obedience from the clergy toward them.
Before he had been two years Pope he excommunicated
Italian dukes, he sent an embassy demanding unquestioning
obedience from the Emperor in Germany, he threatened to
excommunicate the King of France.1 His quarrel with
Henry the Fourth led that monarch to the Humiliation of
Canossa (1077); it brought about the long, weary strife of
the Investitures. At the synod of Rome, held in Lent 1075,
the Pope abrogated the right of the investiture of bishops
and abbots by the temporal sovereign ; their endowments
were to be withdrawn from the nation to the Church ; the
Pope was to become liege lord of one half the world.2 The
dispute was not settled until long after Pope Gregory had
closed his weary eyes, an exile from Rome at Salerno ; he had
fought valiantly for the Church, but was not conscious of
victory. ' I have loved justice and hated iniquity, and there
fore I die in exile,' were the last words of Hildebrand.
Nevertheless the Empire had been abased, the Papacy had
been exalted ; for three days in the snow had the supreme
Lord of the Holy Roman Empire awaited the beck of the
carpenter's son. Literary proofs to support the Pope's pre
tensions were now forthcoming ; not merely the False De
cretals, but the Dictatus Papas, the works of Anselm of
Lucca and of Cardinal Dieudonne, the Liber ad Amicum
of Bonizo,3 followed later by the Polycarpus of Gregory of
Pavia, all upheld the doctrine of papal supremacy. The
Donation of Constantine had been supplemented by the Dona
tion of Charlemagne. All these falsifications were sub
sequently (1142) adopted by Gratian and were embodied in
his Decretum, or more accurately the Concordantia discordan-
tium Canonum, which ' swept all its predecessors out of the
field and soon won something of the authority that belonged
to a definite codification of previous ecclesiastical jurispru
dence.' The Pope's claim to the supreme power over king
or emperor, power even to depose him if circumstances re
quired, could not, however, have been set forth in more
uncompromising terms than were used by Gregory himself
to Bishop Hermann of Metz. But Pope Gregory the Seventh,
1 Rocquain, 125. 2 Milman, iv. 58. 3 Janus, 115 et seq.

10 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
being a politic statesman, was careful how he practised what
he preached. The strife as to investitures continued after
both he and Henry were dead. The Emperor died excom
municated, and his successor proposed (1111) to resign the
right of investiture, provided the bishops and abbots resigned
their temporalities. The Pope, Paschal the Second, con
sented, but the prelates themselves would by no means agree
to such a course. Rome was besieged, the Pope yielded the
right of investiture, but the Lateran Council went back on his
concession, and the Council of Vienne excommunicated the
Emperor. Finally the dispute was settled in 1122 by the
Concordat of Worms : bishops and abbots were to be elected
freely in the presence of the Emperor or his commissioners ;
the right of investiture by the ring and pastoral staff was to
be performed by the Pope, but they were to, receive their
temporalities from the Emperor by the touch of the sceptre.
They were to obey the Pope in matters spiritual, and they
were faithfully to discharge to the Emperor all duties incident
to their principalities. The Pope had been constrained to
abandon his contention ' to make the Church absolutely in
dependent both as to election and as to the possession of vast
feudal rights without the obligations of feudal obedience to
the Empire.' l
In the second half of the twelfth century, with the advent
of the Hohenstaufen Emperors, the strife between the Empire
and the Papacy entered on a new phase. Frederic Barbarossa
was to the Empire what Hildebrand and Innocent were to
the popedom. He was assured that his temporal superiority
obtained over all other powers, even over that of the Pope.
' His power was of God alone ; to assert that it is bestowed
by the successor of Saint Peter was a lie, and directly con
trary to the doctrine of Saint Peter.' 2 To him, as Freeman
says,3 ' the rights of the Roman Empire were a sacred cause,
in whose behalf he was ready to spend and be spent.' For
thirty years out of the thirty-eight of his reign he was fight
ing to maintain his rights as King of Italy against the
municipalities of Lombardy, which were fast growing into
sovereign commonwealths. He was defeated at the battle
1 Milman, iv. 294. a Hid. iv. 409. ! Freeman, i. 278.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 11
of Legano (1176); he was obliged to make the peace of
Constance (1183), whereby, although the supremacy of the
Empire was nominally saved, still the Lombard republics
practically became self-governing city-states. In 1159 two
Popes had been elected, and the Emperor convened a council
at Pavia to decide between rival claims ; but Alexander the
Third declined to acknowledge the authority. ' No one,' said
he, ' has the right to judge me, since I am the supreme judge
of all the world.' Thus began the warfare between the
Hohenstaufen and the Papacy which, one way and another,
lasted for more than a century.
Frederic Barbarossa made his peace with the Pope at Venice
just one hundred years after the Humiliation of Canossa ; he
took the lead in the Third Crusade, and was drowned in a
little river in Cilicia. He was succeeded by his son Henry
the Sixth, whose overlordship Richard of the Lion Heart was
constrained to acknowledge as he lay a prisoner in the Castle
of Trifels. After his death the majority of the electors
chose his brother, Philip of Swabia, but the minority chose
Otto of Brunswick (1197). The next year was marked by
the advent to the papal throne of that Pope whose pontificate
marks the culminating point of theocratic power.1 Innocent
the Third, elected when he was thirty-eight years of age,
reigned for eighteen years : a consummate lawyer, both in the
civil and the canon law ; well read, and possessing an excellent
memory ; prudent and methodical, persevering and laborious,
he brought the Papacy to the apogee of absolute power. He
expected that the disputed election would be referred to him
for his decision : it was not referred. Innocent therefore
determined to interfere, and he pronounced for Otto of
Brunswick, but it was not until the dastardly assassination of
Philip of Swabia in 1208 that the Pope's nominee obtained
the throne, and then he soon quarrelled with the Pope. In
1212 Innocent accepted Frederic, the grandson of Barbarossa,
as Emperor ; two years later Otto was defeated at the battle
of Bouvines, and Frederic was thenceforth undisputed King
of the Romans. The Pope had triumphed for the moment.
But the turning-point had been reached. The King of
1 Rocquain, 139.

12 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
France drew a sharp line of distinction between matters
spiritual and matters temporal. Lin his relations to his
vassals, in his relations to other kings, he would admit no
superiority in the Holy See. The crusaders in the Fourth
Crusade were equally deaf to the instructions of the Pope ;
they turned their arms against a Christian city ; they be
sieged Constantinople itself for the benefit of the Venetians.
The Pope tried to start another crusade, but he preached to
deaf earsa His letters are measured and circumspect, never
imperioifs. ' Innocent III. hii-mime semble hesiter quand il
parte du droit du Saint-Siege sur les royaumes et represente
celui-ci "comme la source de la puissance" (plenitudo potestatisy1
In spite, however, of this divergence in political ideas,
in spite of the divergence in religious ideas which he tried
to combat in his crusade against the Albigenses, Innocent
pushed the doctrine of papal supremacy to its height.
The old symbol of the soul and the body, to exemplify
the relationship of the spiritual and temporal powers,
was replaced by that of the sun and the moon ; the Pope
was the greater orb, the Emperor was the less. Their
authority was exemplified by a reference to the two swords.
When the Son of God came down on earth to save sinful
man and to establish His own rule over the kingdoms of the
world, He entered, as the time for redemption drew nigh, the
garden which is beyond the brook Kedron, and told His
disciples that he among them who had not a sword should
sell his coat and buy one ; to which they answered that they
had already two swords. And the Lord answered that the
two swords were enough. These two swords are the emblems
of spiritual and temporal authority. Both alike belong to
the Pope as the successor of Saint Peter : he wields the one
sword himself; the second sword is wielded by the temporal
authorities for the Church and under the direction of the Pope.
Under Innocent the Third also the famous fiction of the
Translation of the Empire was put into authentic form by
the decree Venerabilem. It was alleged that the Empire
of Charles the Great was the continuation of that universal
Empire whose seat Constantine had established at Byzantium,
1 Rocquain, 190.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 18
which had become vacant by the succession of the woman
Irene, which had reverted therefore to its rightful seat, its
title devolving on Charles. The Empire had been trans
ferred from the Greeks to the Franks by the official act of
Pope Leo the Third, so that the event of the year 800 was
' nothing less than a supreme example of the power inherent in
the successor of Saint Peter to displace and create Empires.' 1
Frederic the Second, the most wonderful man of his own
or perhaps of any age, ' Stupor mundi et immutator mirabilis,''
as Matthew Paris styled him, the ' mightiest and most dan
gerous adversary that the Papacy ever had,' as he is described
by Freeman,2 was when eighteen years of age crowned King
of the Romans in 1212, and had taken the Cross; on the
22nd November 1220 he was crowned Emperor by Pope
Honorius the Third at Saint Peter's, and again received the
Cross from the hands of Cardinal Ugolino. By his father's
marriage with Constance of Sicily, Frederic was King of
Lower Italy and Sicily, but political affairs prevented him
from fulfilling his vow before the death of Honorius in
1227, (Then Cardinal Ugolino, eighty years of age, became
Pope, and took the style of Gregory the Ninth. The Papacy
was then at the height of its power ; it was, in the words of
Hallam, the 'noonday of papal dominion.' The Pope was backed
by the league of Lombardy, the Templars and Hospitallers
were his sworn champions in the battlefield, the Dominicans
and Franciscans were his powerful adherents in peace/ Gregory
had all the fire, the energy, the ambition of youth ; he was
a skilled canon lawyer ; he knew men and manners ; his
heart was set on recovering Jerusalem from the Musalman ;
he would abate none of the pretensions of Innocent the
Third. The Emperor was in character, in aim, in object
the exact opposite of his grandfather. Frederic Barbarossa
had ' exhibited the ordinary character of his time in its very
noblest shape ; but it was still only the ordinary character
of the time.'3 Frederic the Second was in every point
extraordinary. ' A sensualist, yet also a warrior and a
politician ; a profound lawgiver and an impassioned poet ;
in his youth fired by crusading fervour, in later life perse-
1 Poole, 251, 2. 2 Freeman, i. 295. s Ibid, i. 297,

14 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
cuting heretics while himself accused of blasphemy and
unbelief; of winning manners and ardently beloved by his
followers, but with the stain of more than one cruel deed
upon his name, he was the marvel of his own generation,
and succeeding ages looked back with awe, not unmingled
with pity, upon the inscrutable figure of the last Emperor
who had braved all the terrors of the Church and died
beneath her ban, the last who had ruled from the sands
of the ocean to the shores of the Ionian Sea.' 1 Between
such an Emperor and such a Pope there was bound to be
war to the knife. The fight was for supremacy. Like
Constantius, the son of Constantine the Great ; like Justinian,
like the Emperors of the East, the new Emperor would have
the Church obedient to the Empire. Frederic was deter
mined to have the Pope his inferior ; he was ready, if need
were, himself to ordain a much better rule of life and belief
to all the nations. He had the credit for being a free
thinker and a misbeliever ; his jests scandalised the world; he
described Moses, Christ, and Muhammed as the three great
impostors; he said that if God had seen fertile, smiling
Sicily, He would never have given the barren land of Judasa
to His chosen people. ^Pope Gregory excommunicated the
Emperor for not going on crusade ; he excommunicated him
again when he went, he excommunicated him again when he
returned^/ Frederic went ; he won Jerusalem for the Chris
tians, he was obliged himself to put the crown on his own
head in the Holy City, for no priest would officiate. His
offence was that he had won by diplomacy what others had
been unable to win by arms ; he had made terms with the
misbeliever, and was suspected of being a misbeliever him
self. After his return from the Holy Land he managed to
make terms with the Pope ; there was a hollow peace between
Gregory and Frederic for nine years (1230-1239). Then
war broke out again ; the Empire and the Papacy met in
implacable strife; the Pope excommunicated the Emperor;
the Emperor called on all the sovereigns of Christendom to
make a league against the oppression of the Pope and the
hierarchy. Pope Gregory the Ninth died iu 1241 ; and
1 Bryce, 204.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 15
Frederic addressed a circular letter to the sovereigns of
Europe, informing them that the Pope had been taken away
from this world, and had so escaped the vengeance of the
Emperor, of whom he was the implacable enemy.1 Innocent
the Fourth was obliged to flee to France, and held at Lyons,
1245, the Council at which the Emperor was declared deposed ;
but in spite of all attempts to raise Germany against him,
Frederic reigned on undisturbed until his death in 1250.
He was succeeded by his son Conrad in Germany, by his
illegitimate son Manfred in Sicily. Still the war between
the Papacy and the Hohenstaufen continued. At length
Pope Urban the Fourth conceived the idea of a league
between the Papacy, France, and Naples : he offered the
kingdom of Naples in the first instance to Louis the Ninth ;
it was accepted by the King's brother, Charles of Anjou.
The triple alliance succeeded ; Charles of Anjou came and
conquered ; Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, the
grandson of the Great Emperor, was defeated at Tagliacozzo,
and was executed in the market-place at Naples. Thus fell
the Hohenstaufen before the Popes. 'The Holy Roman
Empire might, and so far as its practical utility was con
cerned ought, now to have been suffered to expire ; nor
could it have ended more worthily than with the last of the
Hohenstaufen.' 2 But it was not so to be. ' After the fall
of the Hohenstaufens the prostrate Empire recognised in
principle the supremacy of the Pope ; the Habsburgers con
firmed the theory that the Pope was the light-giving sun, the
Emperor only the pallid moon or lesser light. As the Popes
had formerly sent their decrees of election for examination
to the Emperor, so the Emperors now sent their decrees of
election to the Popes, implored the latter to ratify them
and to award them the crown of Charles the Great, which
they patiently submitted to receive as a favour from the Pope
after he had examined them in person. The triumph of
the Church was consequently complete. The Imperial power
lay at the feet of the Popes, who, after a memorable trial of
more than two hundred years, had scored one of the greatest
victories known to history.'3
1 Milman, vi. 221. 8 Bryce, 208. ! Gregorovius, vi. 120.

16 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
After the ruin of the greatest of the German houses, there
came the Kaiserless time, the Great Interregnum, during
which there was no king in Germany, and the election was
disputed between Richard of Cornwall and Alfonso of Castile.
Anarchy everywhere prevailed ; the great lords, spiritual and
temporal, to whom Frederic had granted extensive charters,
made war openly to increase their domains ; the commercial
leagues and the cities, on whose rising fortune he had looked
coldly, were forced to protect themselves ; the rivers and
the highways were infested with robber-knights. With the
accession of Rudolf of Habsburg in 1 273 the Empire entered
on the third stage of its existence : it was shattered, crippled,
degraded ; but it still remained in the eyes of all a necessary
part of the world's order ; and it had furthermore become
indissolubly connected with the German kingdom.1 It had
been mighty as a fact, it was still mighty as an idea; it
was to inspire Dante and Petrarch ; kings were still to cross
the Alps to take the iron crown of Lombardy and the golden
crown of Empire. But the kingdom of Germany was hence
forth terribly overweighted by the burden of the Holy
Roman Empire.
The Papacy meantime enjoyed the noonday of its triumph.
Gregory the Ninth had affirmed that the Pope was sovereign
master of all in the world, and of all their possessions ;
whatever he might have delegated to emperor or king, his
proprietary right remained intact. Innocent the Fourth
pointed out that the Donation of Constantine was merely a
restitution of what had formerly been given him, that Christ
had transmitted to Saint Peter the empire of this world when
He bestowed on him the two massy keys of metals twain.
Boniface 'the Eighth, in the Bull Unam Sanctam (1302), again
derived the omnipotence of the Pope from the giving of the
two swords, one to be used by the Church, the other under
its orders, and declared that whosoever did not believe that
every human creature was subject to the Pope would be
damned everlastingly. It was this same Pope who showed
' himself to the crowding pilgrims at the jubilee of a.d. 1300,
seated on the throne of Constantine, arrayed with sword
1 Bryce, 210.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 17
and crown and sceptre, shouting aloud, " I am Caesar ! I am
Emperor ! " ' 1
These far-reaching claims to temporal overlordship at the
expense of the temporal powers were for the time successful.
Gregory the Seventh had claimed that the Church was
entirely free from all bonds of the State, and that the civil
power needed not only the assistance, but also the authority,
of the Church. Up to the end of the thirteenth century
this theory remained practically unquestioned. It was upheld
by John of Salisbury, by Saint Thomas Aquinas, 'tinder
Gregory*^ Inndcenfr^he Papacy had won for itself the
respect of mankind by its moral superiority, by the fair and
unimpassioned manner in which it decided disputes among
the lay powers of the earth, by its rectitude of purpose and
its nobility of principle. It had at this time no temporal
power to back its decisions ; it rested for the enforcement of
its orders on the moral approbation and support of mankind.
It was secure above all in the high character of the Popes,
in their political ability and discretion no less than in their
conscientiousness and virtue. When these qualities failed
the Popes the hour of danger came. The high claims of
the Papacy required the best, the most virtuous, the wisest
of men to enforce them successfully ; when lesser men came,
who failed to comprehend and to rise to the height of their
great mission, then the nature of their pretensions was
questioned and disputed/ Gregory and Innocent, though the
greatest of the Popes, had been alike politic and circumspect;
Gregory had given way to William the Conqueror ; the Kings
of France had been invariably treated with deference. Both
these Popes had required the obedience of kings, but they
sought not to abase them ; they upheld the royal dignity
against all save themselves. But it was otherwise with their
successors, Boniface the Eighth and John the Twenty-second ;
they were men of smaller political ability, who failed to read
the signs of the times ; they were intoxicated with the sense
of their own high position ; they inherited the pretensions of
their predecessors, and rashly and unwisely resolved to push
them to their very uttermost limits.
1 Bryce, 108.
B

18 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
*bn Christmas Eve, 1294, Benedict Gaetani became Pope
Boniface the Eighth ; fourteen months later he was at war
with the eldest son of the Church. Philip the Fair had
diverted to his war against England the tithes levied for the
crusade against Aragon. The Pope, on 24th February 1296,
fulminated the decretal Clericis Laicos, forbidding the clergy
to pay any taxes to the civil power without previous permis
sion of the Pope. Neither Philip of France nor Edward of
England paid the slightest attention to the decretal. Philip
retorted by forbidding the exportation of any money to
Rome. Boniface was at this time at strife with the Colonnas
in Rome and with the Aragonese in Sicily. He therefore
agreed with his adversary Philip quickly^ But in 1301 a
second cause of dispute arose, the matter of the Bishop • of
Pamiers. The Pope sent a fresh Bull, Ausculta Fill, to Philip,
which the King burned. Then the French clergy were
summoned to Rome for council. But the Popes had, by
their excessive centralisation and by their favouring the
regulars, utterly broken the power and cowed the spirit of
the secular clergy, and they with one accord began to excuse
themselves. Philip, beaten by the Flemish at the battle of
Courtrai, hesitated a little, but then plucked up spirit, and de
fended himself in his Responsiones. Boniface refused to accept
the King's excuses, declared them frivolous, and threatened
him with pains spiritual and temporal. The direction of
the matter was left by Philip to Nogaret. Boniface was at
his birthplace, Agnani. Nogaret proceeded there, and was
joined by Sciarra Colonna and others. Then followed the
Outrage of Agnani, two centuries and a quarter after the
Humiliation of Canossa. Boniface died shortly after (11th
October 1303). Thus it was that 'the conqueror of the
Empire fell beneath the defiance of the French King, Philip
the Fair, or more truly beneath the irresistible opposition of
a strong national spirit in the kingdoms of Europe.' 1 Boni-
. face was unable to see that the pretension to temporal lord
ship which he put forward had outlived its time, that a spirit
was born in the countries of Western Europe which would
no longer suffer the Pope's dominion in matters temporal.
1 Poole, 248.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 19
The Popes had pretended to spiritual and to temporal lord
ship ; the fourteenth century was to teach them that they
had no temporal dominion over the kingdoms of Europe ; it
was also to contest their spiritual claims. Nearly all the
literature hitherto had been on the side of the Papacy,
exalting its claims. Now the tide had turned. The claims
of the Papacy were to be brought low ; the claims of the
Empire were to be exalted.
The opposition to the temporal claims of the Papacy
naturally first became prominent in France during the strife
between Philip the Fair and Boniface the Eighth ; there had
been very few jurists or political philosophers able to take
up the cudgels in Germany for the Hohenstaufen. But in
the University of Paris intellectual life and discussion were
vigorous. Pierre du Bois, a royal advocate in the bailliage
of Coutances, published his treatise, the Quaestio de Potestate
Papae, and probably four other treatises also, about the year
1303 ; John of Paris published his Tractatus de Potestate
regia et papali at the same time. Both writers start with
the assumption that France forms no part of the Empire,
and hence they are able to treat their subjects in a philo
sophical spirit. Their arguments are derived from the Bible
and Aristotle, but passages from the Bible which had
previously been understood in a mystical sense are now taken
literally. In the 'Dispute between the Soldier and the
Clerk,' the former relies on Christ's words, ' My kingdom is
not of this world.' ' Christ,' he says, ' ordained Peter to be
priest and bishop, but never dubbed him knight nor crowned
him king ' ; he draws a sharp distinction between spiritual
and temporal matters ; it is for the Pope to punish sins, for
the king to punish crimes ; for the latter to enforce civil
rights, for the former spiritual ; the servants of the Lord
should take thought only for what is necessary, they should
devote their superfluities to good works ; since the King has
to take thought for the general safety, he can tax the clergy
as well as the laity; he can alter the laws, customs, and
privileges of his kingdom as necessity may require.1 Pierre
du Bois regarded the Papacy merely as a state, possessing no
1 Riezler, 147.

20 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
temporal authority over France, as a state with which the
French King could treat just as he treated with any other
state. John of Paris was no less outspoken. He admitted
that the Church might own property, but she held it not ' by
virtue of any vicarship of apostolical succession, but simply
by way of grant from princes or other persons, or by similar
titles of succession.' 1 He defines the temporal power as the
rule by one of many for the common good ; the spiritual
power he describes as that conferred on the Church by Christ
for the dispensation of the sacraments to the faithful. It is
necessary that there should be one spiritual authority over the
whole world, but it is not necessary that there should be one
temporal power. As Head of the Church the Pope has a
limited control over the goods of the clergy, but he has none
over the goods of the laity, for Christ had none ; if the
destruction of the swine be alleged, they were probably wild
pigs, and at any rate were not good for the Jews to eat.
Christ only gave spiritual power to Peter ; He gave him no
temporal power ; if so, what was the good of the Donation
of Constantine ? The Emperor possesses a temporal jurisdic
tion, the Pope a spiritual. If the former falls into sin or
unbelief, the Pope can warn him or excommunicate him ; if
the Pope, on the other hand, practises usury, or otherwise
breaks the temporal law of the Empire, the Emperor can
warn and punish him, as the examples of Constantine the
Second and John the Twelfth prove. The Pope possessed
no temporal overlordship ; the delivery of the two swords
to Peter, which the Papacy had always interpreted in a
literal sense, was taken by their opponents in a mystical or
figurative sense only, from which no argument could be
drawn. Rather earlier than these works is that of Jordan of
Osnabruck, probably about 1285, on the Holy Roman
Empire; rather later, about 1307-1310, is the work of the
Abbot of Admont ; then a year or two after this appeared
Dante's well-known De Monarchia. These writers believed
in a world-monarchy as essential for the welfare of the world ;
they held the existing Empire to be a continuation of that of
1 Riezler, 149.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 21
Rome, and traced it back through ^Eneas the Trojan to the
fourth great beast spoken of by Daniel the Prophet. The
Empire, therefore, dated from a time when Popes and Bishops
were unheard of ; it was universal ; other kingdoms — Spain,
France, Hungary, and the like — might be independent of it ;
but their position established no common law ; an Empire
was necessary to fight the unbeliever. After Charles the
Great had restored to the Church the temporalities rent away
by the Lombards, after he had bestowed on it the Duchies of
Benevento and Spoleto, Pope Hadrian, in a Council at Rome,
had formally acknowledged the King's right to choose the
Pope ; and Pope Leo the Third had adored Charles after he
had been crowned Augustus Imperator in 800. Christ's
promise to Peter, that whatsoever he bound on earth to be
bound in heaven, Dante refers entirely to the spiritual juris
diction of the Popes ; he rejects the simile of the sun and
the moon, and also that of the two swords.
Lupoid of Bebenburg took up the theory of Dante, and
pressed it to its limits. He began by showing that Charles
the Great was a Teuton, that France was one of the countries
subject to the Teuton Emperor, and that the translation in
the time of Otto was merely a renewal of that in the time of
Charles. The Empire had been transferred, not by the Pope,
but by the Roman people. The Donation of Constantine
was a fiction ; all that Constantine had done was to choose a
Pope, in order to be anointed by him, and to appoint Rome
for his dwelling, while he himself went to Byzantium ; but he
divided the Empire, east and west, between his sons. The
right to elect the Emperor had been derived, not from the
Church, but from the princes and people, who had transferred
it to the Electors in the time of Otto the Third. Their
election gave full right to the King ; the Pope's investigation,
prior to anointing and crowning, might in the case of a
King who had committed sin and refused to do penance,
result in excommunication, and even in his consequent
deposition by the Electors. The anointing and crowning by
the Pope was not indeed an empty form, for it invested the
Emperor with the rightful sway over lands which he had not
yet subdued; for the sway of the Emperor extended to the

22 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
whole world.1 It was unfortunate that these elaborate
theories as to the world-wide extension of the Empire should
only have been perfected when the Empire itself was in
decadence. Dante's book was ' an epitaph instead of a pro
phecy ' : 2 so, too, were the works of Lupoid of Bebenburg.
After the Outrage of Agnani, and the short pontificate of
Benedict the Eleventh, the new Pope, Clement the Fifth, was
elected on the 5th June 1305. He was a Frenchman,
Bertrand de Got, Archbishop of Bordeaux ; he was crowned
at Lyons, and never set foot in Italy. Now followed the
Babylonish Captivity at the 'sinful city of Avenon'; for
seventy years the Popes dwelt in the wide windy plain
between the Alps and Cevennes ; they steadily lost their
prestige in the eyes of Europe, and were regarded as the
obedient henchmen of the French King. Seven Popes in
succession were Frenchmen ; all, without exception, were more
or less dependent on France.3 Several of them were excellent
administrators ; they also pushed missionary effort in the
East, and endeavoured thus to enlarge the borders of
Christendom. But their situation damaged them in the eyes
of other countries ; the College of Cardinals became pre-
ponderatingly French ; the Curia was largely officered by
Frenchmen; the Pope was compromised in the eyes of the
world ; he was no longer regarded as the impartial judge, as
the supreme Father of Christendom, to whom kings and
litigants might look for arbitration and justice. There arose
a feeling of antagonism to the Papacy which had thus be
come of one nation. If the long strife between the Popes
and the Hohenstaufen had shaken the belief in the concord
and connection of the Empire and the Papacy, the feeling
was strengthened when men saw the Papacy become little
better than the mere ecclesiastical department of a kingdom
notoriously at variance with the Empire. And yet the
Popes at Avignon ' were much more independent in their
policy than they were popularly credited with being. The
most submissive Pope, Clement the Fifth, by his policy of
masterly inactivity, thwarted the wishes of the King of France
in the very matter of the Empire. Damaged and battered
1 Riezler, 180-192. 2 Bryce, 276. 3 Pastor, i. 58.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 23
as the imperial crown might be, the old belief in a world-
empire was still strong ; it was supported by the clerical
character of all culture and by the study of Roman Law.
The practical question was now not so much the mere exist
ence as the practical exercise of this empire ; was it necessary
that it should be always German ? If an Englishman and
a Castilian had been, might not a Frenchman be elected
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and with more power,
gain a wider and more real sway ? Albert of Austria, King
of the Romans, was assassinated on the 1st May 1308 ;
Charles of Valois, the French King's brother, was a candidate
for the Empire. Clement saw the overwhelming power
which such a choice would give France ; he prevaricated and
delayed ; he would not in so many words recommend Charles
to the Archbishops of the Rhine. The secular electors were
equally averse to the choice of a Frenchman. Baldwin, Arch
bishop of Trier, suggested a compromise : his brother, Henry
of Luxemburg, was elected, and France was checkmated (1 308).
He was crowned Emperor at Rome in 1312 ; he died in Italy
in 1313. Next year there was a double election in Germany.
Clement the Fifth died in 1314; his successor was not
elected until 1316. John the Twenty-second determined to
urge against the Empire the most extreme claims of the
Papacy. He pushed his pretensions further even than Boni
face the Eighth. Since Christ had invested Peter with the
temporal no less than with the spiritual kingdom of this
world, it followed that what the Pope had given, in the
Translation of the Empire, the Pope could also take away ;
and that when the Emperor died the jurisdiction of the
Empire reverted to the Pope, and that it was for him to
appoint the new Emperor. The Pope, says Augustinus
Triumphus, who dedicated his treatise Summa de Potestate
Ecclesiastka to Pope John between 1324 and 1328,1 may
choose an Emperor at his own discretion, depriving the
established Electors of their privilege, and thus altering the
constitution of the Empire.2 This was the contention of
Pope John, and this was the crux of the quarrel between the
Popes and Louis of Bavaria.3 The Germans contended that
1 Riezler, 301. 2 Poole, 254. 3 Riezler, 120.

24 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
it was for the Electors to choose the future Emperor, and
for the Pope to crown the object of their choice; that in the
event of a contested election, it was for the God of Battles
to decide between the rival candidates.1 Louis of Bavaria
had been elected by five Electors, Frederic of Austria by
two ; and the God of Battles at Miihldorf had decided in
favour of Louis. The claim of the Pope was not one which
the Electors could pass over in silence. They met at Rense
and at Frankfurt in 1338, and resolved that the prince
elected by them became King of the Romans without further
ceremony, without need for Papal confirmation. Eighteen
years later this position was upheld by that good Son of the
Church, Charles the Fourth ; the Golden Bull passed over in
complete silence the Papal claims to veto or confirm an
election, or to administer the Empire during a vacancy.
Pope John the Twenty-second, however, who even went so
far at one time as to determine to oust the Empire from all
claim to overlordship or concern in Italy,2 was firm to ob
stinacy in his quarrel with the Emperor, and demanded that
Louis should resign his crown. This advance in the Papal
pretensions took place at a critical time. The Empire had
lost its old prestige. France, England, Poland, Hungary,
Scandinavia, no longer acknowledged any German overlord
ship ; early in the fourteenth century French jurists had
denied in express terms that France formed any part of the
Empire. There were reasons, they said, which warranted the
Pope's interference in Germany, which were inapplicable to
France or to England, seeing that these countries had not
been included in the Donation of Constantine.3 The Ger-
mano- Roman Empire was already in the eyes of foreigners
dwindling into a mere German kingdom. It was at this
time, when the power of Germany was thus diminished, when
the Pope at Avignon was regarded as a virtual dependant of
the King of France, that these extraordinary claims were put
forward. So vast, so unlimited were the pretensions of John,
as of Boniface, that in the countries where a feeling of
nationality was gradually rising into existence, where the
modern consciousness of patriotism was then taking birth,
1 Riezler, loo. 2 Ibid. 87. s Ibid I43

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 25
these pretensions naturally caused revolt, and a serious
diminution of the actual power of the Pope necessarily
ensued. The gradual disappearance of the old feeling of citizenship
in a world-empire, which was a very different sentiment from
modern cosmopolitanism, had allowed room for the growth
of the new feeling of nationality. So long as the older and
wider sentiment existed, the newer and more local pride in
one's own country could not commence ; but with the gradual
disappearance of the former, the latter feeling, in countries
where the different parts and peoples cohered sufficiently,
gradually took its place. In such countries it began naturally
where they had been longest separated from the Empire.
England was the first country to become distinctly a nation
with an independent, self-centred life and policy ; Saxons and
Normans and Britons had coalesced into one people, and that
people had become a nation with a patriotism of its own.
The acquisition of the large kingdom of Toulouse toward the
close of the thirteenth century allowed a similar feeling to
develop in France, but Brittany, and to a lesser extent
Guyenne, was still a land apart ; and it was not until the
time of Joan of Arc that the sentiment of nationality be
came general. La Pucelle was the godmother of modern
France. In 1344 King Peter of Aragon told Pope Clement
the Sixth that in worldly matters he recognised no superior
save God ; and the same feeling prevailed in Scandinavia and
in Hungary. In Italy, however, although loyalty to the
Empire was cold and interested, no feeling of nationality
took its place ; it was supplanted by a narrower sentiment
of pride in one's own city or republic ; a man was proud of
being a citizen of Florence, Bologna, or Perugia, but he felt
no pride in being an Italian. In Germany disruption was
general : the man of Bremen had no sympathy with the man
of Frankfurt, the Westphalian had nothing in common with
the Saxon or the Bavarian. But although Louis of Bavaria
had no patriotism at his back to help him in his struggle with
the Papacy, he had other and very formidable allies.
The new quarrel between the Empire and the Papacy
began in 1323. A year or two later, between the summer

26 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of 1324 and the autumn of 1326,1 Marsiglio of Padua, with
the help of John of Jandun, published his Defensor Pacts, a
work startlingly modern in its thought and reasoning. So
utterly divergent is it from mediaeval sentiment that it is
small wonder that Pope Clement the Sixth, when he read it,
exclaimed that he had never come across a worse heretic than
this Marsiglio. The Italian physician, rector of the University
of Paris, was forty-five years of age at this time, a man imbued
with the Politics of Aristotle and with the arguments of the
French apologists for Philip the Fair ; he was in the Middle
Age but not of it ; a cold-blooded political philosopher, he
was of the eighteenth, or of the twentieth, century rather
than of the fourteenth. Some of his theories were realised at
the Reformation, some in the political revolutions, some are
still on the anvil of Time. His work is a defence of the
State against the Church. The State is a community to
ensure a good life in this world and in the next. The
sovereign body is the community of the citizens or the
majority of them ; and if it be alleged that most men are
fools, still a man often grasps an idea when it is put forth
by another, and thus understands what he himself could
neither have initiated nor discovered. One duty of the
sovereign body is to make the laws necessary for the enforce
ment of right ; a law is a rule, by whatever name known,
enforced by a sanction. All are entitled to participate in
the making of laws except minors, bondsmen, strangers, and
women. Laws are best prepared by the old and experienced
rather than by handicraftsmen ; by them they should be
presented to the assembly for discussion, before being passed,
amended, or rejected. Another duty of the sovereign body
is to appoint their ruler ; he should be one who will conduct
himself according to their will ; he must be clever and capable,
and supported by a sufficient body of troops to enforce
obedience but not to usurp authority ; it is for him to en
force the laws of which the sovereign body or their repre
sentatives declare the meaning ; his correction and his removal
rest with the sovereign body, but his slight deviations from
the law should be winked at. All this was fine theory, far
1 Riezler, 196.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 27
ahead of the times ; it would have been passed in silence by
the Church.
The head and front of Marsiglio's offending was when
he came to deal with the relations between Church and
State. It is to the interference of the Popes, of Clement the
Fifth with Henry the Seventh, of Boniface the Eighth with
Philip the Fair, of John the Twenty-second with Louis of
Bavaria, that he attributes the trouble and unrest in the
world. The Pope has assumed a primacy which Saint Peter
never possessed over the other apostles ; he bases his claim on
the Donation of Constantine, which is vague and obsolete and
restricted ; on the plenitudo potestatis, which is not warranted
by Scripture as pretended. The Emperors formerly regu
lated the election of Popes ; and if they allowed themselves
to be consecrated by the Pope, this gave him no more right
over them than the Archbishop of Rheims has over the King
of France. Christ bestowed on His apostles spiritual powers,
but no coercive jurisdiction enabling them to interfere in
temporal affairs ; His kingdom was not of this world ; He
ordained His followers to teach His gospel and to administer
the sacraments. The power of the keys, the power to loose
and to bind, refers only to the sacrament of penance ; and
here the forgiveness of sins belongs to God alone ; the priest
cannot forgive a hypocrite nor refuse absolution to a penitent ;
he is merely the turnkey carrying out the orders of the
Divine Judge. The Church is the community of all believers ;
the laity have as good a right as the priests to be styled
viri ecclesiastic! ; all alike are subject to the temporal law,
though bishops and priests ought to be punished more
severely than others because they are more enlightened. Sins
are to be admonished by the clergy, but their punishment
belongs to God, and is reserved for the next world ; even
heresy can only be punished on earth so far as it is contrary
to the temporal law. Excommunication, again, cannot be
pronounced by any single priest or bishop ; it is reserved for
the community or for a general council ; for Christ commanded
not, when thy brother sin against thee, to tell it to the bishop
or priest or the College of Cardinals, but to tell it to the
Church. Moreover, all priests should follow their Master in

28 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
apostolic poverty and in contempt of this world ; they should
possess no real property ; they should have no right to follow
personal property into the hands of others ; benefices belong
to the patrons, not to the Church. The Catholic Faith rests
on the Bible only, not on decrees or decretals of Popes or
Cardinals ; doubts as to the interpretation of the Scripture
should be settled by a general council, on which laity and
clergy alike sit ; the council is convoked by the sovereign body,
the Pope as Bishop of Rome presides, but has no coercive
jurisdiction beyond what is conferred by the council.
The pretensions of the Popes against the Empire are then
discussed. The shortsightedness of the Emperors in allowing
themselves to be crowned and anointed had engendered in the
Popes the pretension that their confirmation of the choice of
the Electors is necessary, thereby making the seven Electors
of as little account as if they were seven barbers or seven
blind men ; the authority of the King is derived from the
sovereign body or their proctors. As a matter of fact, such
papal confirmation is entirely unnecessary ; the right con
ferred by election is complete and needs no recognition or
confirmation by the Pope to supplement it.
' This remarkable work of Marsiglio,' says Creighton,1
' stands on the very threshold of modern history as a clear
forecast of the ideas which were to regulate the future
progress of Europe.' With this work in their hands the two
students appeared at the Court at Nuernberg. ' By God ! '
said King Louis, ' who can have induced you to leave that
land of peace and quiet for this warlike kingdom of uproar
and trouble ? ' They explained. There was a consultation.
Finally the King received them with open arms, appointed
Marsiglio his physician, and soon installed him as his coun
sellor. ' I am a man of war,' said Louis, ' and understand
nothing of sciences and learned subtleties.' In 1327 the
King entered Italy, and Marsiglio, who was allowed to preach
against the Pope, was soon in a position to carry his theories
into practice.
On the 17th January 1328, Louis was chosen to be
Emperor by the acclamation of the Roman people, and
1 Creighton, i. 46.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 29
Sciarra Colonna, who twenty-five years earlier had stood
' in the burning palace of Agnani, his sword pointed at
the Pope's breast,' placed the crown of Empire on his
head. It was the realisation of the theory of Marsiglio ; it
was also the first time a German King had ever received
the sacred diadem from the people of Rome.1 A public
parliament was held on the 18th April, and the Pope was
deposed ; Peter of Corbara, a Franciscan friar, was elected Pope
by the people of Rome on the 12th May, and the Emperor
set the crown on his head. Louis, however, was but a pinch
beck Emperor, a mere parody of Frederic the Second ; and
the proceedings at Rome must have appeared ridiculous in the
eyes of all sober Christians. Frederic the Second was a man
of moderation when compared with the rash revolutionary
Louis of Bavaria.2 The revulsion soon came. The King was
unable to make any headway against Robert of Naples. The
fickle Romans turned against him. Louis, the anti-Pope,
the anti-cardinals left Rome amid showers of stones, and the
dominion of the rightful Pope was at once restored. Disaster
dogged the Emperor's footsteps : his troops mutinied ; his
adversaries in Germany threatened to set up a new king ; he
was compelled to leave Italy ; his journey to Rome had been
utterly unsuccessful ; ' its actual result was the extinction
of the last shadow of respect enjoyed by the Empire, and the
entire destruction of the dream of Dante and the Ghibelines,
who had expected the salvation of Italy at the hands of the
Roman Emperor.' 3
Louis had failed disastrously in his Italian expedition, but
to his court at Munich there flocked all the most influential
thinkers and writers of the day. Michael of Cesena, the
General of the Franciscan Order, who counted Pope John a
heretic because he exposed the absurdity of their theory of
apostolic poverty, composed a ' Tractate against the errors of
the Pope.' Like Marsiglio, he upheld a general council as
superior in authority ; a Pope may err, as many have erred,
in faith and morals, but a council representing the Universal
Church is free from error. Bonagratia of Bergamo, Ubertino
of Casale, Francesco of Ascoli, and his namesake of Marca,
» Gregorovius, vi. 147- z Ibid- vi- »59- s Ibid- vi- x73-

30 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Heinrich of Thalheim, Parisian and Italian professors, Eng
lish and German Franciscans — all were found at the Bavarian
court. The most famous of all was the Englishman, William
of Ockham, the nominalist leader who had finally settled the
controversy of the schools. ' Defend me with your sword,
and I will defend you with my pen,' was his greeting to the
monarch — a greeting which was repeated three hundred years
later by a much smaller divine to our own King James the
First. Ockham took part in the active resistance to the
Pope, and his writings are his defence and justification. He
wrote as a mediasval philosopher, and hence his works,
though they lack the modern thought and brilliance of
Marsiglio, had much more influence with his contemporaries.
He 'handed down a light which was never suffered to be
extinguished, and which served as a beacon to pioneers of
reform like Wyclif and Hus.' J He also holds that the Pope
is fallible, but even a general council, to which women as well
as men should be admitted, may also err ; in which case,
' errante tota multitudine Christianorum . . . possunt salvari
promissianes Christi per pairvulos baptizatos.' 2 Like Mar
siglio, William of Ockham was not really in love with the
imperial idea ; ' all that is of importance to them is to erect
the estate into an organic, consolidated force independent of,
and in its own province superior to, that of the spirituality ;
and this done, they circumscribe even the spiritual part of
the papal authority by making it in all respects subject to
the general voice of Christendom.' 3
The writings of the refugees, the declarations of the
German Electors at Rense and the German Estates at Frank
furt, had shattered the Hildebrandine doctrine of the civil
supremacy of the Papacy. Not merely the religious dissidents
and the speculative philosophers, but those who were dissatis
fied with the moral conditions of the Curia and the clergy,
those who were shocked by the pomp and simony, the extor
tion and sensuality which disfigured the Church, were inclined
to group themselves under the aegis of the Empire, its former
associate but now its rival. The Empire was still the centre
a £°°Je' 277' 2 Goldasti Monarchiae S. Romani Imterii, ii. 506.
0 roole, 279.

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 31
of knighthood, the maker of kings ; it had been ruled uni
formly for four centuries, from Henry the Fowler to Charles
the Fourth, by men of character and energy, who spent
themselves freely in the service of the State.
John the Twenty-second died in 1334, just as he was to
be summoned before a council for a fresh heresy ; Benedict
the Twelfth, who would have given his soul to reconcile the
Emperor, if he had had another soul in addition to that which
was already pledged to the King of France, died in 1342 ; and
at this time Louis took a step which proved fatal to him.
Margaret Maultasch, of the Tirol, who had married a son of
King John of Bohemia, grew tired of her husband, discarded
him, and threw herself on the protection of the Emperor.
Louis pronounced her divorce, and according to the theories
of Marsiglio of Padua and William of Ockham, he was able
to justify this step ; but his glaring self-seeking was apparent
when he married 'pock-mouthed Meg' to his own son, Louis
of Brandenburg. The clergy were up in arms at his assump
tion of clerical powers, the lay princes were disgusted at the
addition of the Tirol to the House of Bavaria. Pope Clement
the Sixth was now able to raise an anti-imperial party in
Germany ; he deposed the Archbishop of Mainz, who adhered
to Louis, and appointed Gerlach of Nassau in his place ; the
three Archbishops, the King of Bohemia, and Rudolf of
Saxony then formally elected Charles of Bohemia as King of
the Romans. War between the rival monarchs was averted
by the death of Louis, while boar-hunting near Munich, on
the 11th October 1347.
Charles, the Pfaffen-Kaiser or parson's Emperor, was now
King of the Romans. His succession, however, was not
undisputed. The deposed Archbishop of Mainz, and three
others who claimed electoral votes, offered the crown to
Edward the Third, to Louis of Brandenburg, to Frederic of
Meissen, all of whom declined the honour. They finally elected
Gunther of Schwartzburg, who accepted it, but died on the
14th June 1350, leaving Charles undisputed King. The new
monarch was a man of rare diplomatic ability and of no
illusions. He had been with his father in Italy, and knew
that Italy was only a clog on Germany. Rudolf of Habsburg

32 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
had abandoned to the Pope the territories of Matilda of
Tuscany. Charles, when he went into Italy, appointed existing
rulers to be vicars of the Empire, in the hope that they
might thereby acknowledge its shadowy feudal superiority,
but he renounced all those territorial rights for which his
predecessors had fought. He had also lived in France, and
knew the danger of territorial encroachment on that side,
and got himself crowned King at Aries in consequence. But
his main endeavour was to build up a strong kingdom to
serve as a territorial basis for the Empire, which he hoped to
make hereditary in the House of Luxemburg ; he failed to
make the Empire hereditary, but his policy was later success
fully pursued by the House of Habsburg and was essentially
sound. He won over the imperial cities to his side by the
concession of privileges ; he won over the House of Habsburg
by the marriage of his eldest son Rudolf; he won over
the House of Wittelsbach by his own marriage with
the daughter of the Elector Palatine ; he won over the
House of Brandenburg by disowning the ' false Waldemar.'
He attempted to make Bohemia the corner-stone of the
Empire, transferring the sovereignty from the west to the
east ; he founded the University of Prague, the first uni
versity in Germany, and attracted there thousands of students
from all Christendom. He supported the claim of his
brother Wenzel to the Duchies of Brabant and Limburg
against the pretensions of the Count of Flanders ; he secured
the succession to the Duchy of Brandenburg and the reversion
of the Tirol. The great weakness of Germany was its utter
want of political union ; the princes had become independent;
the spiritual lords were ' more formidable from their posses
sions than those of any other European country, and enjoyed
far larger privileges'; the cities tended to become independent
republics, and were always ready to make leagues ^.rnong
themselves regardless of the imperial sanction or interest.
Little was now left of the crown lands ; the regalian rights
had been mostly seized or granted away ; the Emperor had
the mines in Bohemia and an ' inglorious traffic in honours
and exemptions" as his main fiscal resource. Yet with all
these disadvantages Charles the Fourth made the Empire

THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE 83
stronger and more respected, and he succeeded in leaving it
to his eldest and dearly loved son, Wenzel. The greatest
achievement of his reign was the Golden Bull.
It was patent to all that the disputed elections caused
continual disorder, and that one cause for the disputes was
the uncertainty as to the rules of election. This uncertainty
Charles rectified by the Golden Bull. Although he himself
had admitted the necessity for confirmation of the election
by the Pope before the King of the Romans could be
crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, yet the papal
claims were passed over in complete silence and the electoral
resolution of Rense became the law of the Empire ; on this
point the Pope showed his displeasure, but Charles remained
firm. The number of the Electors was to be seven. In the
first place were the three great Archbishops of the Rhine :
the Archbishop of Mainz, arch-chancellor of Germany ; the
Archbishop of Cologne, arch-chancellor of Italy ; and the
Archbishop of Trier, arch-chancellor of Burgundy, — these
three represented the German Church. Then came the
King of Bohemia, cupbearer of the Emperor ; the Count
Palatine, who was grand seneschal ; the Duke of Saxony,
who was grand marshal ; and the Markgraf of Brandenburg,
who was grand chamberlain. The territories of the Electors
were to be indivisible, and were to descend by the law of
primogeniture in lineal agnatic succession. The Habsburgs
and the Bavarian Wittelsbachs were weakened by the Bull,
as also were the cities, which were forbidden to form confedera
tions without the permission of their territorial lords or to
admit outsiders to their citizenship. There were defects and
omissions in the Golden Bull; there was little that was
new ; but it crystallised into a constitutional law of the
Empire much that was aforetime in part matter of custom,
in part matter of dispute. In transferring the balance of
power and of civilisation to the east of Germany, Charles
was influenced by his desire to unite the eastern Slavs with
Bohemia and to 'pave the way for a union between the
Latin and Greek Churches.' He was harshly described by
Maximilian the First as 'the father of Bohemia, but the
stepfather of the Empire ' ; but if his first thought was for

34 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Bohemia, he also did his duty by the Empire. ' He had
none of the romantic enthusiasm of his father or his grand
father, but he had what was far better — a strong sense of
the practical duties of government, and a strenuous business
capacity which enabled him to carry them out. It is true
that he failed to maintain the Ghibeline cause in Italy, but
he preferred the more solid and substantial aim of building
up a territorial monarchy in Germany. He was distinguished
among contemporary monarchs for his preference of dip
lomacy to force, for his strong legal sense and his love of
order. Like Edward the First of England and Philip the
Fourth of France, he marks the transition from mediaeval to
modern ideals and methods of government.' *
Two months before Charles died (1378) there commenced
the great Schism of the West.
1 Lodge, Close of the Middle Ages, 112.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 35

CHAPTER II
THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH
(1) Its Popular Side
' The two great ideas which expiring antiquity bequeathed to
the ages which followed,' says Mr. Bryce, ' were those of a
World-Monarchy and a World-Religion.' 1 These two ideas
were intimately connected. God had entrusted the care of
men's bodies to the Emperor, His vicar on earth in matters
temporal ; and the care of their souls to the Pope, His vicar
on earth in matters spiritual. The Holy Roman Empire
and the Holy Roman Church thus represent two aspects of
the same world-wide coextensive rule. In the preceding
chapter a brief survey of the Empire at the time of the com
mencement of the Great Schism has been given ; and we
have seen how it had shrunk and contracted until it was
now merely the Romano- Germanic Empire, with hardly a
foothold outside Germany, but with much of the glamour of
the old title still attaching to the person and the office of
the Emperor. Up to the time of the Schism the Church had
preserved its title as the world-religion ; Christians everywhere
were still united in one religion under one father, the Pope.
Another tie that bound all Christians together was the
fact that in their services and worship they all used one
language — the language of the Holy Roman Church, which
she used then and uses still to-day. Not only was Latin the
language of the Church, it was the language of all educated
people throughout Europe. The clergy everywhere talked
Latin and wrote Latin ; it was the one language of edura-
1 Bryce, 90.

36 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
tion. At Paris or at Prague, at Oxford or at Bologna, the
student heard lectures in Latin, took his notes in Latin, read
Latin, wrote Latin, spoke Latin. International intercourse
was immensely facilitated by this use of a common tongue.
A scholar went from one university to another ; he exchanged
kindly greetings with the clergy on the way ; he was wel
comed at the parsonages and monasteries ; the use of the
lingua franca paved the way for him everywhere. And it
was the outward mark of men's common belief; it enabled
the stranger to take his part in the church service ; even the
peasant might learn his Pater Noster and Ave Maria. The
nations grew up and gradually used their national tongues,
dropping the use of Latin ; but the Church remained one
and indivisible, using the language which had been her own
from the beginning.
From the days of the Ottos onwards, the Papacy had
been growing in influence and esteem until it reached its
zenith in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The greater
Popes had striven to realise their high calling as being set
in authority over princes and kings who were warring on
all sides ; they had kept themselves above the smoke and
stir of European strife and warfare ; they had endeavoured
to establish an authoritative council of unimpassioned aim
and high morality, aloof from the selfish plans and lustful
passions of secular princes. Such a tribunal was then sorely
wanted, and such a tribunal the Papacy did to some extent
supply, enforcing its decrees by spiritual sanctions. The
Church in the days of her greatest glory had no military
force to support her. The years that lie between the rise of
the monks of Cluni and the coming of the Friars, the years
from Hildebrand to Innocent the Third, form for the Holy
Roman Church an epoch of splendour and glory, an epoch
during which her power over the secular lords of the earth
was the mightiest, during which her influence for good was
most strikingly exercised. Her spiritual claims were justi
fied by the beneficial uses to which they were applied. It
was not orthodoxy alone that the Church represented ; it
asserted also the moral conscience of humanity. It waged
war not only with heretics such as the Patarines and the

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 37
Albigenses ; it waged war also with the tyrant, the adulterer,
the oppressor. The worst of our Plantagenet kings, the
only king thoroughly despicable and contemptible, was John
Lackland: Innocent the Third excommunicated him. The
most inhuman and barbarous of Italian tyrants was Eccelino
da Romano : Alexander the Fourth preached a crusade and
sent an army against him. When Philip Augustus deserted
his wife, Ingeburg of Denmark, for the beautiful Agnes of
Meran, Innocent the Third did not hesitate to excommunicate
him. But until the time of this pontiff the Church had no
temporal power. ' She was strong only in the moral force
which is given by public approbation. Her voice was
effectual only so far as it was re-echoed by public opinion.
Her penalties were enforced only where their justice was
recognised. With all its defects the Mediaeval Church
uttered the only possible protest against the tyranny of an
unruly oligarchy. . . . The authority of the Pope was a
useful refuge against the overweening power of the King and
lords.' 1 And if the Church was thus, for the mighty ones of
the earth, a court of equity and good conscience, a tribunal
whose decrees were usually respected and obeyed, to the
people at large she was a haven of shelter and peace. In
the age of feudal warfare, an age of unbridled tumult and
ferocity, the highest and holiest aspirations of all were for
peace and rest, for quietude and order; and it was because
the Church offered a haven of rest to the rich, a haven of
refuge to the poor, that she obtained such a firm hold on
the affection of the Middle Ages. The high-born lord or
lady did not disdain the shades of the cloister; King
Rudolfs daughter, Euphemia, became a nun ; his son-in-law,
Otto, became a monk. In Germany, where the right of
private war was universally exercised, many a warrior, weary
of strife, must have looked forward to end his days in the
peaceful seclusion of the convent walls —
' ' For if heven be on this erthe and ese to any soule,
It is in cloistere (says William Langland),
For in cloistere cometh no man to chide ne to fighte,
But all is buxomness there and bokes to rede and to lerne.' '

1 Creighton, Historical Lectures and Addresses, 14.

38 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
To the men of low estate the Church was their only efficient
protector. In dealing with the bulk of the peasantry, and to
some extent with the townfolk also, might was right, and the
power of the strongest was tempered only by custom. When
king or lord oppressed them, if they could not plead custom
in their favour, and sometimes if they could, they were bound
to submit; the Church alone could help them. While to
the man of learning and influence it opened a wide field for
ambition, to the poor man of intellect it was the only refuge,
the only home, in which he could hope to pursue his study
unmolested and to reap some reward of his labour. Eight at
least of our own Archbishops of Canterbury, in the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, were of humble parentage.1 The
Church was open to all alike ; any man of free birth could
become a clerk ; and there are numberless instances in which
serfs paid fine to their lords for permission to send their sons
to school in order that they might be admitted to the ranks
of the clergy. Once admitted all were theoretically equal ;
and although in Germany the higher posts in the Church were
closed against all who were not of noble birth, although in
England there was a prejudice against cobblers' brats
becoming priests and bishops —
' For shold no Clerk be crouned bote yf he ycome were
Of franklens and free men and of folke yweddede,'
says Langland, still there was a wide field practically open to
merit and ability. The highest offices and dignities of the
Church were open to all the sacred orders, to every Christian
clerk alike. Pope Gregory the Seventh was the son of a
carpenter, Benedict the Twelfth of a baker, Nicholas the
Fifth of a poor doctor, Celestine the Fifth of a peasant,
Urban the Fourth and John the Twenty-second of cobblers,
Benedict the Eleventh of a shepherd, and Alexander the
Fifth and Adrian the Fourth were beggars.2 In those iron
ages, when brutal force was everything, it was surely much,
as M. Sabatier has said,3 that the Church could point to
peasants and workmen receiving the humble homage of the
lords of the earth, simply because they were seated on the
chair of Saint Peter and represented the moral law. More-
1 Cutts, Parish Priests, 33. 2 Lea, i. 3. a Sabatier, 39.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 39
over, the influence of the Church over all Christian souls was
very thorough, very impressive, very far-reaching. In those
days, when in matters of faith all were of one belief, when in
matters of ceremony all were of one observance, the Church
breathed a spirit of common brotherhood which it is well-
nigh impossible for us nowadays to comprehend. We have
no horror of schism ; we live amid a thousand jarring sects ;
religious and political strife and variety are to us as the breath
of our nostrils ; but in the Middle Ages it was not so,
neither in politics nor in religion. The men of to-day,
therefore, find it difficult to sympathise with those who lived
then ; ' they cannot understand the fascination which the idea
of one all-embracing, all-pervading church exercised upon
their mediaeval forefathers. A life in the church, for the
church, through the church ; a life which she blessed in Mass
at morning and sent to peaceful rest by the vesper hymn ; a
life which she supported by the constantly recurring stimulus
of the sacraments, relieving it by confession, purifying it by
penance, admonishing it by the presentation of visible objects
for contemplation and worship — this was the life which they
of the Middle Ages conceived of as the rightful life for man ;
it was the actual life of many, the ideal of all.' J Thus, in
the days of its greatest splendour and glory, the influence of
the Holy Roman Church was beneficent, and was felt by all
to be so ; ' it represented what people wanted. There never
was a power which could claim more entirely to rest upon
public opinion than could the papal power at its best.' 2
But toward the end of the fourteenth century the papal
power was no longer at its best. It had formerly been a
purely spiritual power, enforcing its decrees by spiritual
sanctions alone; but since the beginning of the thirteenth
century it had altered its position, and had become a temporal
power also, having acquired the States of the Church. The
two great world-powers, the Empire and the Papacy, had
very little force of their own to back up and carry out their
decrees. They were dependent on public opinion, on the
might of others. The Emperor might issue his ban, the
Pope might issue his interdict, but the carrying into effect of
1 Bryce, 417. 2 Creighton, op. cit. 117.

40 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
these punishments depended on the will of the subordinate
powers on the spot. The might of the Empire rested on the
goodwill and obedience of its dignitaries, just as the might
of the Papacy rested on the goodwill and obedience of the
countries of Christendom. In proportion as the obedience of
its subordinates became more precarious, so each world-power
came to feel the need for some more constant and trustworthy
support; each Emperor, Salian or Swabian, Habsburg or
Luxemburg, tried to fashion for his family some secure
territorial basis on which its permanent power might be
indefeasibly grounded. Just in the same way, and for the
same reason, did the Popes seek to secure territorial
sovereignty by the acquisition of the States of the Church.
This, however, necessarily brought the Papacy down to a
lower moral level : a Pope fighting for his own territorial
sovereignty or aggrandisement was a different matter, and no
longer appealed to the imagination and sympathy of mankind
as did a Pope fighting for the higher policy, the liberal ideas,
the moral aims of the Church.1 In other respects it may
have been a matter of comparatively small moment at the
end of the fourteenth century that the Papacy had become a
temporal power, although later, in the sixteenth century, in
the storm and stress of the Reformation, it was the possession
of the Papal States which probably saved the Papacy from
being reduced once again to its original condition of a mere
Italian bishopric. For good and for ill the Papacy had taken
rank among the temporal powers of Europe, and had its
temporal as well as its spiritual aims to pursue.
While it had thus become a temporal power, the Church
had already become the greatest landowner in Christendom.
Religion, which had at first been a question of morals and
had then been a question of orthodoxy, had, from the seventh
century onwards, become in the main a matter of muni
ficence to convents. The early Kings of England, the
Merovingians and the Carlovingians in France, the Saxon
Emperors in Germany, the Kings of Leon, had all been
prodigal in their gifts of land ; the abbeys had profited even
more than the cathedrals. Men believed in Hell in those
1 Creighton, i. 25.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 41
days, in a Hell where the worm dieth not and the fire is not
quenched ; and many a dying man was ready to secure a better
chance after death, many a widow was ready to improve the
fate of her husband, by diverting part of his worldly wealth
into the coffers of the Church. Purgatory was the lot of all
true believers, and the fires of Purgatory, necessary though
they might be, were as bad as the fires of Hell. But the
pains of the dead could be shortened by the prayers and good
works of the living ; hence ' in all monasteries, whenever any
one belonging to it died, the death-knell was rung, and
though it were the depth of night, no sooner had they heard
that well-known bell swinging forth slowly and sadly its
mournful sounds, than all the inmates of that house arose
and knelt down by their bedsides, or hurried to the Church,
and prayed for the soul of the brother or sister that moment
gone.' J Kings founded monasteries for their ghostly weal ;
cathedrals and parish churches pledged themselves that a
certain number of Psalms should be sung and a certain
number of Masses be said ; chantries were endowed in
perpetuity or for a limited period for the offering up of the
Mass after the founder's death. Indeed, so universal did the
practice become of leaving a part of one's goods to the Church,
that mere intestacy was regarded by the clergy as a fraud,
and the Bishop of Lisbon and his subordinates in the days of
Saint Francis actually refused to perform the funeral services
for any one who had not left one-third of his wealth to the
Church.2 But for the fiefs which abbeys paid to their lay advocates
for protection, and but for the rapacious spoliations to which
they were subject at the hands of brutal and unprincipled
warriors, it seemed as if the Church would gradually engulf
all the lands of the kingdoms of Europe. As it was, the
proportion of lands held by the Church was in some countries
more than one-half, and in all not less than one-third. The end
of the twelfth century was the time of most profuse liberality ;
after that, as the mendicant friars rose in favour and the
monks gradually lost their popularity, the tide of generosity
fell lower and lower ; but at the close of the fourteenth
1 Rock, The Church of Our Fathers, ii. 244. 2 Sabatier, 313.

42 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
century the Church was still the greatest landowner in every
country of Christendom. The wealth of the Church in
Germany was conspicuously great. In 1111, King Henry
the Fifth had proposed to the Pope to end the strife about
investitures by taking from the German prelates their landed
estates, and leaving them only their tithes and offerings ; J
Paschal the Second had consented ; but the German clergy,
through their primate the Archbishop of Salzburg, declared
that anything was preferable to seeing the Church thus
spoiled of her inheritance. The proposal therefore came to
naught ; the prelates still continued to be feudal lords. The
three great Archbishops of the Rhine not only thus held their
vast estates, but were ever on the lookout to add to their
strength ; their position as Electors of the Empire enabled
them at the time of elections to drive unconscionable bargains
with the candidates for Empire. Perhaps the hardest
bargains of all were those which the Archbishops of Cologne
and Mainz made with Adolf of Nassau and his two successors.
The Bishops also, almost universally throughout the Empire,
donned coat of mail as readily as cassock ; they were ever
ready to enlarge their sees, their privileges, their immunities.
The position of an exalted ecclesiastic was eagerly sought for
by the German nobles ; and it was part of the policy of
successive Emperors to prevent two of the great archbishoprics
being held by members of the same noble family. They were
not always able to hinder such an accumulation of influence in
the hands of a single house : when Kuno of Falkenstein was
Archbishop of Trier in the days of King Wenzel, his nephew,
Frederic, was Archbishop of Cologne. The German prelates
again, unlike those of England and France, when once they
were in secure possession of their sees, frequently wavered in
their allegiance to their feudal lord paramount ; while their
obedience to their spiritual father, the Pope, was equally
precarious and uncertain. Innocent the Sixth failed to
procure any pecuniary assistance for his wars in Italy from
the three Archbishops of the Rhine or from the Archbishop
of Salzburg.2 When Pope Boniface the Ninth granted two-
tenths to King Rupert, he found it impossible to levy the
1 Hoefler, 4. » Lindner (H. and L.), ii. 58.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 43
tax. And the clergy of Germany were often as refractory to
their bishops as were the bishops to the Pope.
Before noticing the state of the Church at the end of the
fourteenth century, it will be well to form some idea of its
extent, and of the principal points in which it differed from
the Church of the present day. In extent, taking the term
in its widest signification, the Church coincided with the
Empire : it embraced the whole body of the faithful, the
whole Christian world considered on its spiritual side.
Taken in its narrower sense, as including the pastors and not
the people, the Church still embraced the whole body of
clerks or clergy, practically the whole of the population which
earned its bread by its brains rather than by the sweat of its
brow ; the whole body, with some exceptions, and those chiefly
in Italy, of what we now call the learned professions. ' In
the North of Europe,' writes Mr. Rashdall,1 ' the Church was
simply a synonym for the professions. Nearly all the civil
servants of the Crown, the diplomatists, the secretaries or
advisers of great nobles, the architects, at one time the
secular lawyers, all through the Middle Ages the then large
tribe of ecclesiastical lawyers, were ecclesiastics.' The distinc
tion meant much, for it corresponded to a cleavage in juris
diction. Every clerk was personally outside the jurisdiction
of the secular courts. In every country of Christendom
alongside the secular courts were the courts spiritual. The
jurisdiction of these courts extended to the persons of all
clerks, to every one who wore a tonsure ; it extended also to
all spiritual causes, not only to those strictly concerned with
matters of faith and discipline, but also to all cases in any
way connected with marriage, with church property, with
wills, or with perjury ; it extended also to crimes against
religion, to crimes committed in holy places, to violations of
the edicts against taking interest, and to breaches of the
Truce or Peace of God. The spiritual courts were far more
popular than the secular courts ; the judges were more
learned, the procedure was more reasonable, justice more
easily obtainable, and the punishments milder ; consequently
contracts were made binding by oath in order that their non-
1 Rashdall, ii. 696.

44 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
observance might be treated as a case of perjury, and laymen
got barbers to give them the ' clerks' crown ' in the hope of
coming within the jurisdiction of the spiritual rather than of
the secular court. The canon law was everywhere the personal
law of the clerk, and it had the advantage of being accom
panied by a procedure simpler, milder, and more rational.
Whether there was or was not much to choose between the
substantive law of the systems, the adjective law of the one
was civilised, while that of the other was semi-barbarous.
' We have to take ourselves back to a state of society in
which a judicial trial was a tournament and the ordeal an
approved substitute for evidence, to realise what civilization
owes to the Canon Law and their Canonists with their
elaborate system of written law, their judicial evidence, and
their written procedure.' 1 In those days, as in the civil
courts now, a man could not get justice without paying for
it ; and the battle between the rival jurisdictions was to some
extent a battle for fees and fines. Perhaps the most
important point in the great share which the Church
then took in the purely judicial work of a country was
that the ultimate appeal in all spiritual causes lay to the
Pope. ' Religious life in the Middle Ages,' writes M. Jusserand,2
' had not the definite visible boundaries which we see to-day ;
now a man either belongs to the Church or he does not ;
but there was nothing so sharply cut then. Religious life
stretched across society like an immense river without banks,
with numberless affluents, with underground streams, impreg
nating the soil even where it did not wash it.' ' In the
Middle Ages,' writes Mr. Trevelyan,3 ' the Church admin
istered whole sides of life which have since been put into the
hands of the secular government or left to the discretion of
the individual.' It was necessarily so when all the educated
classes of the country other than those engaged in war, in
commerce and industry, were practically confined to the ranks
of the clergy. Wherever the services of an educated man
were required, a clerk must be taken. The clergy were in
1 Rashdall, i. 143. a VEpopie Mystique, 86.
1 England in the Age of Wycliffe, 104.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 45
request in business houses as clerks and scriveners, and on
estates as stewards and accountants. The household of a
great noble, like John of Gaunt, included scores of their
number: his chancellor was the Bishop of Salisbury, his
chief physician was Appleton, a Franciscan Friar. There
were numbers of clerks everywhere in the royal service —
cBischopes and bachelors both e maistres and doctours, . . .
Some seruen the Kyng and his silver tellen,
In cheker and in chancerye chalengen his dettes . . .
And some seruen as seruants lordes and laydes,
And in stede of stuwardes sytten and demen.'
The Roman Catholic religion has always maintained a
close hold on the everyday life of its people ; but in the
Middle Ages, when the proportionate number of the clergy
was so very much greater, there was necessarily much more
intimate friendship and intercourse between the lower ranks
of the clergy and the mass of the people than is possible
now. Church festivals, and the village rejoicings connected
with them, were more numerous ; some of those which were
then of most significance, such as the feast of the Exaltation
of the Holy Cross (14th September), have now lost their first
importance. In the Middle Ages a religious feast was above
all else a representation, more or less faithful, of some Bible
story or some saintly legend ; x others were of half-pagan,
half-religious origin ; but into them all the sub-deacons and
deacons entered with boyish glee. Numerous are the in
stances in which they are reproved by their bishop or even
by the Pope for leading the van in some such ceremony which
tended to throw discredit on the Church, but which was dear
to the souls of the people and to the ranks of the lower
clergy. A short reference to some of those feasts which
have now fallen more or less into disuse will not be out
of place.

1 <

1 Pour le moyen age, une f^te religieuse etait avant tout une representation,
plus ou moins fidele, du souvenir qu'elle rappelait : de la les santons de la Pro
vence, les processions du Palmesel, les cenacles du Jeudi saint, les chemins de
croix du Vendredi saint, le drame de la Resurrection le jour de Paques, et les
e'toupes enflammees de la Pentec&te.' — Sabatier, 327.

46 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
In the first half of the fourteenth century, when the
peasantry everywhere were prosperous, there was much jollity
and happiness in their lives, so long as the piping days of
peace were on, for all religiously took part, and the children
often took a special part of their own, in the round of
festivals which marked the course of the year. Some of
these merry observances have altogether disappeared, others
have fallen more or less into disuse and forgetfulness. The
' Liberty of December ' was in France and other countries a
time of universal feasting and merriment, of dance and song.
Then were held the Feast of Fools, derived from the old
heathen festival of the Kalends of January ; and the Feast of
Asses, in which ' little brother Francis ' took such innocent
delight. At the Feast of Fools, songs not the most decorous
were sung; men dressed up as old women, or as calves or
stags, bishops and archbishops, joined in the Christmas games
in the monasteries ; a Pope of Fools and two cardinals were
elected and endued with the sacred robes, the matins were
travestied ; they danced in the choir, they diced on the
church-floor. This feast, which was sometimes called the
Feast of the Sub-deacons, was held on the Day of the Cir
cumcision.1 The Feast of the Ass was originally held on
Christmas Day. In this also masks predominated : Jews and
Gentiles, Moses, Aaron, and the Prophets, Vergil and Nebu
chadnezzar, but the most popular figure was Balaam on his
Ass. Nebuchadnezzar delivered over the three children to
be burned in a fire made of tow and linen in the nave of the
church. Balaam was met by a young man with a drawn
sword ; a man under the donkey called out ' Cur me calca-
ribus miseram sic laeditis ? ' and the angel bade Balaam
' Desine Regis Balac praeceptum perficere.' In the diocese of
Beauvais the feast was held on the 14th January. The
finest donkey that could be found was led in procession
through the town, superbly caparisoned ; a young girl, richly
dressed, with a child in her arms, was seated on it, to
symbolise the Flight into Egypt ; they were met by the clergy
and conducted to the door of the church or cathedral, and
1 Du Cange, Glossarium Manuale, iv. 298 ; La Croix, Sciences et Lettres au
Moyen Age, 266; Maitland, The Dark Ages, 156.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 47
High Mass was said with great pomp. A Latin hymn was
sung to announce the object of the festival —
' To-day is the day of gladness,
Away*all thoughts of sadness,
Envy and grandeur away ;
We will rejoice with heart and voice
For we keep the Ass's Feast to-day.'
The donkey was then led to the high altar, having been
taught to kneel at the proper place, and the precentor
chanted a Latin refrain —
' Orientibus partibus,
Adventavit Asinus,
Pulcher et fortissimus,
Sarcinis aptissimus,
Hee haw ! Sir Ass ! Hee haw !
Hie in collibus Sichen,
Enutritus sub Ruben,
Transiit per Jordanem,
Saliit in Bethleem,
Hee haw ! Sir Ass ! Hee haw ! '
Then the whole congregation joined in the chorus, very likely
the ass himself taking up the refrain —
' Hee haw ! Sir Ass ! Hee haw ! '
' When the ceremony was ended, the priest, instead of the
usual words with which he dismissed the people, brayed three
times like an ass, and the people, instead of the usual
response, " We bless the Lord," brayed three times in the
same manner.' 1
The Feast of the Ass has now entirely disappeared, and of
the Feast of Fools nothing but the Christmas-boxes and the
holly and ivy at Yule Tide now remain. The Christmas
rejoicings in German villages nowadays retain but a faint
reminiscence of the time when festivities began three days
before Christmas with the children going round from house
to house, singing and telling the glad tidings of the coming
birth of Our Lord, when the festivities continued day after
day, each with its appropriate festival, over Saint Stephen's
Day, over the Day of Saint John the Evangelist, until on the
1 Du Change, op. cit. iii. 323 ; Robertson, Charles the Fifth, i. 205 ; La
Croix, op, cit. 266 ; Maitland, op, cit. 142 et seq.

48 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Day of the Holy Innocents a troop of mock devils scampered
through the streets on the lookout for any pretty child or
maiden. On New Year's Eve boys sang in the streets, ring
ing bells and making merry all through the night, and collect
ing much money withal ; and on New Year's Day presents
were given to the female members of the family and to the
women servants and their children. During the twelve days
between Christmas and Epiphany the houses were fumigated
to scare away evil spirits, and the weather was carefully
noted as prognosticating that for the coming twelve months.1
The rejoicings peculiar to Christmas came to an end at
Epiphany, when the Feast of the Three Kings was kept with
great merriment throughout Germany : every house chose its
king by a pfennig dropped in the honey-cake after the
manner of the coins and thimbles dropped into our plum-
puddings ; a bean-feast was held at which every one drank
his fill at the expense of the king of the feast ; the school
boys carried lights to ward off misfortune of Saint Blasius's
Day. Another incident peculiar to our own Christmas was
then observed on Saint Nicolas's Day (December 6th), before
which the children used to invoke the Saint's favour by fast
ing so rigorously that their parents were often afraid lest
they should do themselves an injury ; for it was Saint Nicolas,
our own Santa Klaus, who put presents into their little shoes.
On this same day, too, was selected the Boy-Bishop, who
donned cope and mitre and collected his revenues until he
preached his sermon and gave up his crozier at the Feast of
Holy Innocents.
It was but natural that the times of chief observance
should be those of Our Lord's birth and of His death and
resurrection ; but there were many other seasons of joy
and mirth through the year. Of these the principal was
the Carnival, just before Lent. Italy was then, as now,
celebrated for the gorgeous pageantry of its processions ;
Germany was satisfied with an occasional sledge or a ' ship of
fools,' but there was no end to the masking and mumming.
Men dressed as women, women as men ; some disguised them
selves with red lead and ink as satyrs or devils ; every one
1 Schultz, Deutsches Leben im xiv. und xv. Jahrhundert (1892), 272 et seq.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 49
sought to invent some new device ; they feasted, they drank,
they danced, they held long processions, they bantered the
girls ; they played the good old game of the Blind Men and
the Pig. Twelve blind men, well primed with food and
drink, were introduced, armed in old armour, with helmets
awry and cudgels in their hands, into an enclosure, and a
sturdy pig was let loose among them ; they tried to belabour
the pig, which rushed hither and thither, knocking them
down and causing universal confusion ; then a bell was put
round its neck, and finally the porker, more tired out by
heat and exertion than by the blows, was captured and
killed. In some parts of Swabia on Ash Wednesday a
harrow was dragged through the Danube by the young men
and maidens. In Franconia the girls were yoked to a plough
by their swains, and a piper drove the team into the river, to
give them a salutary ducking for their levity during Carnival.
At Whitsuntide in Germany the custom, observed during the
Rogation Days in England, was kept up ; a procession, sing
ing the Litany, started from the church and proceeded round
the fields, the priest carrying the Host in front and praying
to God to ward off all danger from the crops. In England a
dragon with a formidable tail was carried the first two days
in front of the procession, and on the third day, without its
tail, in the rear. The eve of Saint John the Baptist's Day
was an occasion for bonfires, for singing and dancing ; young
men and maidens crowned their heads with mugwort and ver
bena, and carried larkspur in their hands ; pines were brought
from the forest and planted in the village green ; the girls
procured clay vessels, full of holes, filled them with rose-leaves,
put a light in them, and hung them at their gables. On
Corpus Christi Day there was another procession of the Host,
and mummery almost amounting to a miracle-play, in which
devils and saints, male and female, took part, and the streets
were strewn with roses and hung with may-blossom ; the whole
concluding with a procession round the corn-fields, headed by
the priest, who sang the gospel over the new corn. On the
Day of Saint Vitus hens were offered to ward off cramps and
poison ; on the Day of Our Lady's Ascension, fruits and herbs
to keep away sickness and plague ; on Saint Martin's Day it
D

50 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
was the custom to eat a goose. There were special observ
ances connected with the vintage. On Saint Urban's Day
(May 25th) the growers set a table in the market-place,
adorning it with leaves and sweet-smelling herbs and putting
a small statue of the Pope thereon. The weather on this day
was taken as a prognostic of the coming summer : if it was
fine, the statue was crowned with leaves and obeisance done to
it ; but if it was rainy, it was bedaubed with mud and soused
with water. Then, when the grapes were ready, not a hus
bandman thought of beginning his picking until he had been
authorised by the lord of the tithe, and due provision had
been made for the collection of God's tenth of the produce ;
the grapes then were picked, and finally the children came
with their torches to cleanse the fields and burn out the old
harvest. Every one was expected to taste the new wine — even
the poor had their share. When the agricultural operations
of the year were thus connected with religious observances,
when Churcli festivals constantly recurring called for the
participation of all the villagers, when the social and political
life of; the town or village centred in the Church, when there
was one form of devotion for all alike, when every man
attended the Church to which he belonged and was restricted
to that Church, it is evident that the Church must have been
much more constantly before men's minds and in their hearts,
that it must have been much more intimately bound up with
their daily lives, that its welfare must have formed a much
more important consideration to them and have meant much
more to them in the Middle Ages than it does to-day.
The Church: was emphatically the Schoolmaster of the
Middle Ages. During the Dark Ages, from the time of
Charles the Great to the eleventh century, education was in the
hands of the Benedictine monks, and every famous monastery
had two schools, one claustral, for the young religious, and
the other for outsiders. Then came the dawn of a brighter
time. Not only every abbey, but every cathedral also, and
many of the larger churches, had each its own school. The
famous cloisters of France, before the rise of the University
of Paris, were frequented by scholars from Germany, Den
mark, Italy, and England ; the University itself sprang from

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 51
the Cathedral School of Paris. The smaller schools taught
only reading, writing, and a little singing ; song-schools were
attached to every cathedral for the instruction of the choris
ters. The aim of instruction for the lower ranks of the clergy
was to enable them to read the Bible and the Fathers, and to
meditate thereon. But education at the larger, or Latin,
schools was more ambitious ; the course, which might in these
days be termed the first and the second Arts course, was
then known as the Trivium and the Quadrivium. The Tri-
vium comprised grammar, rhetoric, and logic ; the Quadri
vium comprised arithmetic and astronomy, necessary to the
clergy for the determination of Easter, music, ' a half-mystical
doctrine of numbers and the rules of plain-song,' and geometry,
' a selection of propositions from Euclid without the demon
strations.' Grammar included the study of the classics ;
under rhetoric certain treatises of Cicero were largely read ;
'but the heart and centre of the secular education of the
time in Northern Europe was the study of dialectic or logic,1
the science of right reasoning, which took a wide range and
introduced the student to the ever-engrossing controversy
between the Realists and the Nominalists. After the days of
Anselm the monasteries began to close their doors to lay
students, and to provide for their own people alone ; the care
for education was transferred from the regular to the secular
clergy, a change which was helped by the advent of the friars
and by the rise of the universities ; although even in the first
half of the fourteenth century every son of the soil in France,
who made his way to name and fame, had received his early
education at some monastic school. The cathedrals and
churches took up the work which the monks, in their selfish
ness, were dropping; the chancellor of a cathedral was re
sponsible for the appointment of the schoolmaster and for the
regulation of the studies. Priests were enjoined to establish
schools for gratuitous instruction in the villages ; in these the
children learned their catechism, reading, writing, a little
arithmetic and grammar ; such schools were in England often
held by chantry priests. In this way, up to the end of the
thirteenth century, the education of the people, save in Italy,
remained almost entirely in the hands of the clergy; boys

52 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
were sent to school, girls were sent to a nunnery, or had
private teachers. In Italy, however, although church schools
existed, the old race of lay teachers never died out, even in
the Dark Ages, and when the revival came, its effects were
most conspicuous in the schools of the independent lay
teachers. In Germany and Holland also, during the four
teenth century, lay masters established schools in many of the
cities, where the demand of the merchants and artisans for
education was greatest. But with such occasional exceptions
the Church did the whole work of education.
If the Church was the Schoolmaster of the Middle Ages,
she was, for the great majority of the population, the Physician
also, although in this good work they had for rivals the Jew and
Arab physicians at one end of the profession and the barber-
surgeons at the other. From the fourth century onward the
Church had taught and practised the art of healing : when
the temples of iEsculapius, Hygeia, and Serapis were closed,
Christianity opened its churches and monasteries to the sick.
The monks possessed a large number of traditional recipes;
they made use of medicinal herbs for wounds and bruises.
The competition with the Arabs and Jews compelled them to
further study ; they travelled to acquire practice and know
ledge ; they accompanied crusades and armies as doctors.
Hospitals were attached to the monasteries and large
churches ; hospitallers, brothers and sisters, were trained to
tend the sick ; a code of hygiene was formed. The Emperor
Henry the Second went to the monastery of Monte Casino to
be treated for stone. The eleventh century had seen a large
increase in the number of hospitals and lazar-houses ; it had
also seen the rise of different orders devoting themselves to
special diseases : the Brothers of Saint Antony applied them
selves to bowel complaints and cases of dysentery ; the Knights
of Saint John and the Brethren of the Holy Spirit treated
especially those who had fallen victims to pestilential epi
demics ; the Brethren of Saint Lazarus held sovereign specifics
against small-pox and leprosy ; the Templars tended warriors,
pilgrims, and travellers suffering from ophthalmia, scurvy,
or dangerous wounds. Surgeons, trained in the monastic
schools, were engaged in the Low Countries, in Italy and

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 53
Germany, by the richer and larger towns for the service of
charity. In France, in the thirteenth century, it was no
longer necessary for a student of medicine or surgery to be a
clerk ; the profession was opened, and the minor surgery fell
into the hands of the barber-surgeons. The barbers gradually
usurped the functions which had previously been reserved to
the clergy, and at the end of the fourteenth century there
were three recognised orders of practitioners in France ; the
physicians ' of the long robe,' the surgeons * of the short
robe,' and the barbers ; and the latter were allowed to wear
swords, and were excused all duty on the night-watch. The
medical schools of Montpellier and Paris were by this time
formidable rivals of Salerno and Bologna ; France and Italy
were far ahead of Germany and England in medical science.
John of Bohemia was so unskilfully treated that he flung his
physician into the river Oder, being righteously determined
that he should do no further harm to any man. Sigismund
of Hungary, like Albert of Austria and Wenzel of Bohemia
before him, and like another Albert of Austria his contem
porary, was hung by the heels for twenty-four hours to allow
poison to trickle out of him ; Edward the Third of England,
when a boy, was wrapped in red cloth to cure small-pox ; and
the court physician who treated him prescribed an ointment
made of crickets, beetles, and common oil to cure the stone.
Another recipe for the same complaint was to take gromel,
parsley, red nettle, violets, incense, and cherry-stone kernels,
to bray them together and to mix them with stale ale as a
healing draught. A third method of dissolving stone was to
take the white stones from the maw of a cock twelve months
old, to bray them in a mortar with an iron pestle, and to mix
them with wine. Some of the recipes were harmless enough,
and perhaps not the less efficacious : sore throats were steamed
with boiling cinquefoil water; excessive sweating was cured
by binding linseed and lettuce, stamped well together, on the
stomach ; while a sufferer from tertian ague was directed to
eat a hot barley-cake and to drink copiously of good wine
when the fit was coming on, then to drink a decoction made
of plantains brayed in wine and water, and to compose him
self to sleep. A hare's gall in pottage would make a man

54 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
sleep for three days ; southernwood brayed in wine would
stop him from talking in his sleep ; violet-water would cure
his broken bones ; centaury brayed and mixed with wine and
water would cure snake-bite ; while goats' claws burned to
powder in a new pot and eaten with pottage were a sovereign
remedy against incontinence of urine. Some of their recipes
were sufficiently fanciful : barley-bread and mustard-soup
eaten with sage fasting, were prescribed for palsy ; aloes and
opium, brayed and mixed with the milk of a woman who was
suckling a man child, formed an ointment for blindness ; pig's
fat, hen's fat, white of an egg, and darnel meal were the
ingredients for an ointment for white faces ; and any one who
had red eyes was recommended to take a large red snail, to
prick his back all over and rub salt in, to catch the liquor
which exuded, and to use it as a salve. Those who suffered
from worms were instructed to make a candle of virgin wax,
with which henbane, wild celery, and pimpernel had been
mixed, to light the candle and hold it in the mouth until the
teeth got hot, when the worms would surely drop out. A
costive man had a parlous time : mallows and mercury were
seethed under a gobbet of pork, and he was required to eat
the pottage made thereof, and to drink therewith white wine
or whey, ' and he shall be soluble.' x The foregoing examples
give some idea of the state of medical science and skill in
England at this time. Chaucer's Doctour of Physick, ' a very
parfit practisour,' clad in sangwin and in pers, worked by the
rules of natural magic and astrology. It was to the careful
tending and patient nursing that they bestowed, to the
hygienic treatment and simple drugs and herbs which they
used, that the monks owed most of their success in the
science of medicine.
Thus far we have noticed the Church of the Middle Ages
only in some of its wider aspects ; we have seen how largely
it bulked on the horizon, how intimately it was connected in
various ways with the life and welfare of the people. But
we have not yet considered the different orders, secular and
regular, of which it was composed, nor the abuses which had
gradually risen in its midst, impairing its efficiency, and
1 Henslow, Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century, passim.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 55
arousing a widespread feeling of unrest in the minds of its
most earnest followers. They recognised that the clergy
were the salt of the earth ; but if the salt were to lose its
savour, wherewith should the world be salted ?
(2) Seculars and Regulars
We have glanced at the position of the Holy Roman
Empire at the commencement of the Great Schism of the
West ; we have now to consider the state of the secular and
regular orders in the Holy Roman Church at the same time.
The most glorious years of the Papacy extended, as has
been said, from the days of Hildebrand to the pontificate of
Innocent the Third. These mighty pontiffs endeavoured to
establish the Church in the beauty of holiness, to make it a
guide and exemplar to all, a centre of purity bringing peace
and healing on its wings ; they sought to bring all the
kingdoms of the world in subjection to themselves in order
thereby to induce a universal reign of holiness. But they
had aimed too high ; they had not made sufficient allowance
for the frailty of human nature. They were able almost
everywhere to enforce a nominal rule of celibacy on the
clergy, but they were unable to procure their chastity ; it
was celibacy tempered with concubinage ; it was a common
thing for the priest to pay to his bishop the tribute
known as cullagium to be allowed to keep his concubine
in peace.1 The Pope was rightly the supreme judge in
matters of faith and doctrine, but in matters of discipline
they had centralised too strictly. They had rendered the
bishops so subservient, that they had lost all respect and
authority in their own dioceses ; the abbots also would decide
nothing for themselves. The veriest trifles of discipline were
submitted to Innocent the Third for decision : points of
grammar, the correct attitude in the choir, the refectory, the
dormitory, the shape and size of a bed coverlet — all such
matters the Pope willingly took upon himself to consider and
decide.2 The Popes, moreover, collated to all the more
important benefices, and decided all cases of contested elections.
Finally, when Innocent acquired the States of the Church,
1 Lea, i. 21. 2 Rocquain, 169.

56 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the work of practical government also fell to be executed ;
but this very acquisition, while it marked the summit of
Papal influence, marked also the commencement of its
decline. A firm territorial basis might be advantageous or
even necessary for the Papacy ; but a Pope fighting for his
temporal possessions no longer appealed to men's sympathies
as he did when, in the days of feudal oppression, he had
fought for his purely spiritual dignity and importance.
The thirteenth century, from the days of Innocent the Third
to those of Boniface the Eighth, has been styled the noonday
of papal dominion, the century during which Rome inspired
all the terror of her ancient name, during which she was once
more mistress of the world and kings were her vassals.1 It
was in many ways the most wonderful time since the birth
of Christ : the world had renewed its youth ; there was a re
naissance of learning and intellect which has made many
wonder why the Protestant Reformation did not come three
hundred years earlier than it actually did.2 It was an epoch
of ' great sovereigns, great statesmen, great lawyers, great
men of science, great philosophers and divines, great architects,
great poets and painters.' 3 It was a century marked by a
decline in the spiritual efficacy, but by an increase in the
temporal pretensions of the Papacy ; never had any Pope set
these so high as did Benedict Gaetani when he became Pope
Boniface the Eighth. But the glorious promise of the
thirteenth century was not fulfilled ; the renaissance came to
naught; no summer followed the wonderful spring; instead
thereof, a winter of corruption and decay set in. ' Persecu
tion, bribery (in the shape of patronage), the natural tendency
of any unusual stimulation of intellectual activity to wear
itself out, and above all the genius of the great orthodox
Schoolmen, prevailed.' It was the theological dictatorship
of the cosmopolitan University of Paris which more than
all else blasted the fair prospects of the twelfth-century
illumination, though at the same time it saved Northern
France from the ravages of the Holy Inquisition.4 The
University of Paris aspired to a theological dictatorship, and
1 Hallam, ii. 202. 2 Renan, 301.
3 Lightfoot's Essays, 94. * Rashdall, i. 526.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 57
hence ran counter to the Popes. For the Popes were not
theologians ; they were canon lawyers ; they had all the
lawyer's desire to stand on the ancient ways, they had all the
lawyer's dislike for radical reform. Clement the Fifth openly
professed his contempt for the theologians of Paris. Jean
Gerson, on the other hand, who tried to arrogate to the
Theological Faculty the control of negotiations during the
Great Schism, was never tired of reiterating that the Canon
Law must give way, when occasion demanded, to the Divine
Law and the welfare of Holy Church. From their education
and training the influence of the Popes was averse from all
radical reform of the Church and its members. The close of
the thirteenth century was marked by a fearful catastrophe
for the Church. The Popes had come victorious out of their
strife with the Hohenstaufen ; they were worsted in their
strife with France. Boniface fell before Philip ; he died
very shortly after the sacrilegious outrage at Agnani.
An immense change was marked by the transfer of the
Papacy to Avignon. It wrought woe in many ways. It
wrought woe to the Papacy itself, inasmuch as it deprived
the Pope of the consideration and respect which he had
hitherto enjoyed as the impartial, international arbitrator,
the supreme head of Christendom, the common Father of
all nations. It wrought woe to both England and France,
inasmuch as it rendered futile all the efforts of Benedict the
Twelfth to avert the Hundred Years' War, a conflict which
wasted the resources though it increased the glory of
England, which brought incalculable desolation and misery
on the fair realm of France. It wrought woe to Germany,
inasmuch as there ensued the long strife between Louis of
Bavaria and the Popes, which brought with it the revolt
of the Franciscan Friars and the consequent alienation of
much of the German peasantry. It wrought woe also
to Italy, which lapsed into anarchy as soon as the Pope
had departed from Rome, — the city fell into ruins, and
cattle grazed at the foot of the altars in St. Peter's and the
Vatican. It saw the rise of the Tribune Rienzi, ' the tragic
actor in the tattered purple of antiquity ' ; 1 the state of the
1 Gregorovius, vi. 374.

58 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
peninsula grew worse and worse, until Florence and Bologna
threw off their allegiance and declared war on the Papacy, a
war which was aggravated and stained by the bloody massacre
of Cesena under the orders of Cardinal Robert of Geneva.
Finally the Captivity rendered possible and probable the Great
Schism, which went far toward completing the baleful work
which the residence in the ' sinful city of Avenon ' had begun.
The transfer of the Papacy, moreover, initiated a period
of social decadence and gloom, during which the corruption
of morals everywhere made frightful progress. Through all
Europe save Italy, says Renan,1 the fourteenth and fifteenth
centuries were a stagnant time, during which thought existed
no longer, literature was dead, art was dying, and poetry was
mute. The description, though overcharged, is true in the
main outlines. Corruption seized on the body ecclesiastic
and spread through every part, from the head downward.
Simony was openly practised, and was excused in Rome on
the ground that everything belonged to the Pope, who was
only dealing with his own. Spiritual offices everywhere were
sold and bartered, for gold, for love, for gaming ; the Pope's
palace was a nest of money-changers and usurers. Men's
hearts failed them for the sins which they saw in high places.
Among the masses of the people superstition and ignorance
prevailed ; every one believed in omens and portents, in ghosts
and demons, in magic, sorcery, and witchcraft.2 Signs and
wonders were of daily occurrence. Sacred pictures exhibited
signs of life; drops of sacramental wine, Christ's blood, worked
marvels of healing; relics were purchased, even by hard-
headed mercantile men like the Venetians, for fabulous sums,
and were feared and venerated as if they were talismans ;
confession was equivalent to incantation ; the Devil inter
vened actively in everyday life; the sheeted dead sighed
plaintively at night along the streets when danger impended
in the city. Rustics held their Feast of Fools in churches
and cathedrals ; in Italy food was every year set out for the
dead during the four days before the Feast of the Chair of
Saint Peter ; in England the villagers peeped in from the
churchyard on Sundays to catch sight of the priest waving
the Host, and ran home delighted, exclaiming that they had
1 Renan, 300. a Burckhardt, 508.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 59
said their Mass, that they had seen their Lord ; while those
who partook of the Holy Communion saved bits of wafer to
rub their sick cattle withal, or watered their cabbages with
the crumbs to keep off' caterpillars. Of miracles there were
enough and to spare ; a temporary lack was set down to
want of piety, for sorry monks worked no wonders.1 There
was everywhere gross spiritual neglect ; parish priests were
admonished to teach their flocks once every three months all
the cardinal points of the Christian doctrine, but teaching
was scanty, and preaching, practically confined to the bishops,
was scantier still.
The temporal possessions and political wars of the Pope
had introduced, had indeed almost necessitated, the sale of
offices. Money was wanted ; and the Peter's Pence contri
buted by the northern nations of Europe, and the tribute
paid by the States of the Church and occasionally by other
countries, such as England and Portugal, were utterly insuffi
cient to provide the needful sums. The expense to which
the Pope was put for an establishment was enormous. In
addition to the determination of points of doctrine and dis
cipline, to the granting of dispensations, to the confirmations
and collations to benefices, to the manifold external relations
with foreign courts, there came an immense mass of work to
the Pope as to the spiritual court of ultimate appeal. This
facility of appeal had been made matter of reproach by
Hildebert of Tours and by Saint Bernard of Clairvaux,2 but
it had continued and increased ; and in the time of Gregory
the Twelfth cases came in for settlement at the rate of two
thousand a week.3 The huge amount of work with which
the Pope had to contend was far greater than that which
came before any other chancery in Christendom. Whenever
an order on any of these matters was given, a minute had to be
made, a Bull or other formal order engrossed, and an office
copy of it transcribed. It necessarily followed that the Pope
had to maintain an enormous staff of clerks and other officials
in the Curia, in addition to the officers of his own household,
and this implied the need for a correspondingly large revenue.
But while the expenses of the Curia were very large, its
1 Thierry, Rtcits des Temps Mtrovingiens, i. 21.
1 Hist. Gen. ii. 283. s Wylie, iii. 18.

60 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
revenue was fluctuating and precarious. Peter's Pence and
tribute have already been mentioned. When a crusade was
on foot, a tenth was levied on the clergy ; and the same tax
was imposed on other occasions resembling a war against the
unbeliever ; and although the proceeds were supposed to be
devoted to the crusade, for the help of those warriors who
could not pay their own way, it was commonly believed that
a certain part of the money never got beyond the papal
treasury ; there were all the expenses and the inevitable
peculation involved in the collecting. Then again the Pope
claimed, though he was not always successful in appropriating,
the revenues of all vacant benefices ; and benefices might be
vacated by transfer as well as by death ; the revenues might,
on the other hand, be annexed by the sovereign. The most
considerable source of revenue after this was the first-fruits,
or annates, levied on the confirmation of an appointment to
a benefice, whether vacated by death or by transfer ; the
Pope was entitled to the first year's income from all dignities
and benefices in his gift, and frequently a vacancy was ac
companied by three or four transfers, each bringing in its
crop of first-fruits. Letters of reversion and expectancies also
produced a goodly revenue ; and to these were added the
tithes from the clergy and the offerings of the faithful.1 Pope
John the Twenty-second drew up a regular tariff for collation
to different benefices : three thousand gulden were charged
for the Bishopric of Munster, thirty thousand for the archi-
episcopal pallium of Mainz, twenty thousand for that of Trier,
and the like.2 Absolution for a city, taking off the interdict,
reconsecrating the cemetery, cost forty, fifty, or sixty gulden.3
Every appointment, however humble, was sold. By these
means John, being a careful and thrifty man, one naturally
opposed to any such doctrine as that of Apostolic Poverty,
managed to amass the enormous sum of twenty-five millions
of gold florins, which his successor, Benedict the Twelfth,
another careful and thrifty Pope, managed to double ; 4 the
entire sum was most royally squandered by Benedict's suc
cessor, Clement the Sixth. The Popes after John the Twenty-
1 Riezler, 5. 2 Ullmann, i. 180.
3 Riezler, 80. « Lindner (H. and P.), i. 458.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 61
second usually adopted the simpler plan of taking all they
could get, preferring a higher bid to the lower. Archbishop
William of Cologne paid Clement the Sixth seventy thousand
florins; Archbishop Friedrich paid Urban the Fifth one
hundred and twenty thousand florins ; the Archbishopric of
Mainz cost John of Nassau fifty thousand ; and other German
prelates paid more than twice that sum.1 England was
esteemed a veritable gold-mine, and Englishmen had to pay
accordingly. De Grey paid ten thousand pounds for the
Archbishopric of York, and others the like or even larger
sums ; his bishopric cost Robert de Orford fifteen thousand
pounds. Every new prelate was bound to start within a
month of election on his journey to Rome for collation ; he
frequently returned crippled for years by his debt to the
Lombards or the Jews.2 Pope Clement the Sixth, while his
favourite the Countess of Turenne dispensed places and
preferments for a price, while he himself provided for his
nephews and his court by imposing taxes which irritated
Teutons and Italians alike, laughed, and said that none of
his predecessors had known how to be Popes.3 At the same
time, he was careful to keep in touch with the royal courts ;
he told his cardinal that if the King of England wanted to
give a bishopric to an ass, he must be humoured ; and in 1349
a donkey did make its way into the consistory with a petition
round its neck that he, too, might be made a bishop. The
Popes also exacted more direct patronage than formerly. In
1226 two prebends in each cathedral were demanded. In
1265 the Pope claimed to deal directly with all vacancies
occurring in benefices while the holders were in Rome ; and
as all bishops came to Rome for collation, and many prelates
of high degree came there to push their litigation, the number
of death vacancies thus arising was not small. When a
bishop was translated or made cardinal, the Pope dealt
directly with the vacancy thus caused, for he alone could
loose the tie which bound a bishop to his see. In the
fourteenth century the right of direct nomination of bishops
was claimed, and the system of reservation and provision was
extended to the episcopate. Many Italians were thus pro-
1 Lindner (H. and P.), ii. 48, 88, 330, 355. z Capes, 223. 3 Pastor, i. 91.

62 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
vided with livings both in England and in France ; and they
were usually non-residents and pluralists. At the beginning
of the Great Schism, Clement the Seventh leagued himself
with the Duke of Anjou to spoil the Gallican Church : he
doubled the tithes ; he reserved the collation of all benefices ;
his collectors seized the personal property and the cash left
by deceased bishops and abbes ; benefices were put up for
sale to the highest bidder. It is no wonder that churches
became deserted, that clerks were reduced to beggary, that
the revenues of colleges and hospitals were plundered, that
scholars were dispersed, that the University of Paris saw her
children abandoning her maternal breast, which had no longer
the wherewithal to nourish them.1 At Rome corruption
reached its climax under Pope Boniface the Ninth. Simony,
forbidden to others, was rampant at Rome itself; everything
could be bought at the papal court for money, and without
money no justice or redress was to be had ; full many a
devout ecclesiastic re-echoed the words of Grosseteste : ' Ah !
money, money, how infinite is thy power, most of all in the
court of Rome ! ' The Commons of England complained that
no king in Christendom had one-fourth of the revenue that
went from England alone to the Pope.2
Bad as was the reputation of the Curia for simony, the
moral repute of the Pope's court was not much better. The
majority of the Popes at Avignon were indeed themselves
men of pure livelihood ; but the court of Clement the Sixth
became renowned for its voluptuousness and sensual luxury,
and the ' sinful city of Avenon ' became a byword in Europe.
The ladies, the sisters and nieces of great prelates, held their
courts of the 'gaie science''; their salons were the recognised
avenues of promotion. Those who wanted rich benefices in
the time of Clement the Fifth laid their petitions on the
white bosom of the beautiful Brunisand de Foix ; in the time
of Innocent the Sixth they paid their court to Enemonde de
Bourbon. Great churchmen might be celibate, but many
of them were not chaste, and female honour was a thing of
little worth in their eyes. When Butillo, in the time of his
uncle, Urban the Sixth, broke into a convent and ravished a
1 Martin, v. 349. » Capes, IOO.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 63
beautiful high-born nun, the Pope excused his nephew, who
was more than forty years old, by ascribing his sin to the
fire of youth ; and when the nephew of Gerard de Puy,
Cardinal Legate at Perugia, committed the like offence
against a noble lady, whereby she in her haste to avoid his
brutality slipped, fell from her window, and died, the Cardinal
placidly inquired of the enraged Perugians whether they
thought that all the French were eunuchs ! x
The papal court, instead of being a model of virtue for
mankind, was under too many of the Popes a hotbed of vice.
The riotous licence of the younger cardinals, says Petrarch,
was matched by the senile debauchery of their elders.2
Every one has read the story of the Jew Abraham, who
visited the papal court. He ' began circumspectly to acquaint
himself with the ways of the Pope and the cardinals and the
other prelates and all the courtiers ; and from what he saw
for himself, being a man of great intelligence, or learned
from others, he discovered that without distinction of rank
they were all sunk in the most disgraceful lewdness, sinning
not only in the way of nature, but after the manner of the
men of Sodom, without any restraint of remorse or shame, in
such sort that, when any great favour was to be procured,
the influence of the courtesans and boys was of no small
moment. Moreover, he found one and all gluttonous, wine-
bibbers, and next after lewdness most addicted to the shame
ful service of the belly, like brute beasts.' 3 Saint Catherine
of Siena, as will be seen later on, is as scathing in her
denunciation as is Boccaccio in the Decameron.
The cardinals, says Nicolas de Clamanges, look down
upon primates and patriarchs ; they make themselves the
equals of kings. They were judged very unfavourably, how
ever, by the outside world ; 4 they stank in the nostrils of
Christendom for their avarice and corruption. Henry of
Hesse, vice-chancellor of the University of Paris, censured in
scathing terms their simony, pomp, and libertinage. They
were of all clerks the most noted pluralists. ' Not two or
three, nor ten or twenty, but one or two hundred benefices,
1 Sismondi (/. R.), iv. 412 ; v. 38. 2 Gardner, 28.
8 Decameron, i. 36. * Linder(#. andL.), i. 457.

64 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
sometimes even four or five hundred, do they accumulate,' says
Nicolas de Clamanges,1 ' and these, too, not mean or small
ones, but the best and fattest.' The Popes heaped on them
pluralities with unstinted hand, so that 'in 1385 Charles
the Sixth of France asserted in an ordinance that the
cardinals had absorbed all the preferments in the kingdom
— benefices, abbeys, orphanages, hospitals, etc. — exacting
revenue to the utmost and leaving the institutions disabled
and the fabric to fall into ruin.' 2 The Doctor already quoted
makes the same charge against them — nothing could equal
their overbearing pride and arrogance, but their private
lives were a scandal : ' I pass over their simoniacal inter
views with the Pope, I pass over their venal patronage, I
pass over the most disgraceful and damnable corruptions and
promotions almost entirely due to them ; I pass over the pay
and rewards they received from temporal powers for abetting
them in church matters wrongfully. Nor will I mention the
adulteries, the lewdness, the fornications with which they
now defile the Roman curia.' Their usury and trading and
many other more grievous sins are omitted by this dutiful
son of the Church. Pope Urban the Sixth had some grounds
for his public reproach ; he preached in open consistory on
the text, ' I am the Good Shepherd,' and descanted on the
manifold failings of the lord cardinals. It is small wonder
that they took it ill ; the truth was a bitter pill to swallow,
and in this instance this bit of bitter truth had its effect in
producing the Great Schism.3 When they were sent abroad
on affairs of State, they lived on the country to which they
were deputed at the rate of a hundred golden gulden a
day ; 4 and when complimentary visits were paid to them at
the papal court, it was useless for the visitor to come empty-
handed. William Langland spoke but the common con
viction when he declared that
'The country is the curseder that cardinals come in,
And where they lie and linger most, lechery there reigneth.'
Nicolas de Clamanges is no less severe in his strictures on
the French bishops : ' there are many of them,' he says,
1 Gratius, ii. 559. 2 Martene, i., 1613, 4.
3 De Schismate, 17. 4 Lindner (H. and L.), i. 443.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 65
' who have never visited their dioceses, who have never seen
the faces nor heard the voices nor felt the wounds of their
flocks : luxury, pomp, and avarice are the three Harpies who
rule their lives. The bishops delight in wine, banquet, and
games ; in lofty houses and wide palaces ; in heaping up
money; they are given up to drinking, fornication, and
gambling; they spend their days in hunting, fishing, and
tennis ; their nights in feasting, dancing, and debauchery.' 1
The German bishops were on their part 'wolves and hirelings,'
elected for the sake of their birth and breeding by worldly
chapters who drove hard bargains with them ; their sees
were liable to be taxed both by the temporal and the spiritual
powers ; the elections were all subject to the Pope's con
firmation, the donation of the regalia by the civil power
being but an empty form.
The bishops were the connecting link between the general
issimo and the rank and file of the Church, though some of
the bishoprics were of so wide an extent— that of Utrecht,
for example, which covered the whole of Holland — that it
was impossible for the bishop to become acquainted with the
whole of his diocese or the whole of his parish clergy. Nor
did they attempt the task, for, as a general rule, they were
absorbed in the temporal interests of their sees. They were
the spiritual landed nobility, corresponding to the dukes,
earls, and counts among the lay nobles. They were almost
invariably warriors and statesmen rather than mere ecclesiastics.
' The idea of making a man a bishop or an archdeacon on
account of his zeal, his energy, his success in the humble
round of parochial duty, is one which would hardly have
occurred to sensible men in mediaeval times.' Since land
alone gave social distinction, the wide possessions of the
Church were coveted by German princes and nobles as a
welcome means of procuring riches and honour for the
younger sons of their families. As early as 1139 Pope
Innocent the Second applied the feudal system to the Church
by declaring at the Lateran Council that all ecclesiastical
dignities were received and held of the Popes like fiefs ; 2 and
like fiefs, church dignities were too often conferred as a
1 Gratius, ii. 562. 2 Lea, i. 6.
E

66 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
reward for past services without thought of the attendant
duties. Bishops and abbots were, above all else, the spiritual
lords and princes of the Empire ; pious men might occa
sionally be inducted, but the possession and defence of land
was the leading motive in the strife after the higher church
dignities.1 Under these circumstances simony, notwithstanding the
efforts of Pope Gregory the Seventh and his successors,
became almost universal. Certain of the kings of France
were notorious as vendors of bishoprics, and where money
was not paid, promotion commonly went by favour or
relationship. The worthier bishops who occasionally appeared
could do little to enforce respect for religion and morality ;
in those days of violence the prizes were for those whose
martial prowess won respect for the rights of their churches
and vassals. ' All this was in some sort a necessity of the
incongruous union of feudal noble and Christian prelate, and
though more marked in Germany than elsewhere, it was to
be seen everywhere.'2 The bishops of Normandy fought
under Philip the Bold : the Bishop of Beauvais was captured
by Richard of the Lion Heart, and his coat of mail sent to
the Pope with the inquiry : ' Know now whether it be thy
son's coat or not ? ' The same question was asked bv the
Marquis of Montferrat when he captured Aymon, Bishop of
Vercelli. In 1265 the troops of Manfred of Sicily captured
the Bishop of Verona. Such was the worldly, turbulent
character of bishops generally that pious souls believed that
no bishop could enter the kingdom of heaven. The good
prior of Clairvaux, on being told that he was elected Bishop
of Tournay, cast himself on the ground, offering to become
a vagrant monk, but a bishop never. 'An ecclesiastic in
Paris declared that he could believe all things except that
any German bishop could be saved.' s Nor was the moral
character of certain of the French archbishops and bishops
above suspicion. Gerard de Rougemont, Archbishop of
Besancon, lived in incest with the Abbess of Remiremont
and other holy women; the Bishop of Toul, Maheu de
Lorraine, was abandoned to debauchery, his favourite concu-
1 Grube, 2. 2 Lea, i. io. 3 j6fa ; ^

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 67
bine being his own daughter by a nun ; Berenger was
eventually removed from the archbishopric of Narbonne
because of his scandalous life and character.
In England the archbishops and bishops were generally
educated and capable men. There were, of course, exceptions.
Walter Reynolds, Archbishop of Canterbury under Edward
the Second, was said to be so illiterate that he could not spell
his own name aright ; Lewis de Beaumont, Bishop of
Durham, who for days before his consecration tried to learn
the Latin formula which he had to repeat, finally stuck at
one long word and said, ' Let it be taken as said,' and
when he came to another troublesome phrase muttered, ' By
Saint Louis, he is an ill-mannered fellow who put in that
word here.'1 In England also it was held somewhat of
an anomaly for a bishop, such as Henry Despenser of Norwich,
to be a man of war ; but when Henry the Fourth sent to
Innocent the Seventh the armour of the traitor Bishop
Scrope, with the old request that he would know whether
this was his son's coat or not, the Pope innocently answered,
' An evil beast hath devoured him.' /The bishops generally
were able men, and the chief charge brought against them
was that they were the servants, not of God, but of the
King. The employment of bishops in the civil administration
of the State was no new system ; it had been adopted in
every country of Christendom for several hundreds of years,
and its effects have been aptly described in its inception in
words which are equally applicable to the close of the
fourteenth century : ' With power and great place came in
worldliness and corruption in increasing proportion as time
went on, and though as statesmen these great bishops were
probably not worse councillors, and often were more intelligent
ones, with a natural leaning to order and peace, than the
rough dukes and counts with whom they acted, yet the
meaning and consciousness of their religious office became
more and more lost in their secular greatness.' 2 Wyclif and
other reformers who held the impracticable Utopian doctrine
that the clergy should practise apostolic poverty were very
severe on 'Caesarean clergy ';/ they took no heed of the needs
J Capes, 51. a Church, The Beginning of the Middle Ages, 231,

68 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of the kingdom. For the civil administration the king
needed the services of a certain number of able, educated,
and trustworthy men, and he could find many more of the
class he wanted among the clergy than among the nobility.
These men must be recompensed. The King lived 'of his
own ' ; taxes were exceptional, and were levied for special
purposes. The ordinary mode of recompense was by giving a
man land on which he could live; and as the grant of baronies
in fee-simple was out of the question, the only resource was
the gift of ecclesiastical preferments, which were at best
merely estates for life. This was the attitude taken by such
able kings as Philip the Fair and Edward the First. In
Germany, Bishops Raban of Speier, Matthew of Worms,
and Conrad of Verden served King Rupert as diplomats.
' There was much to be said,' remarks the Rev. W. W.
Capes,1 ' for the King's desire to reward his ministers with
ecclesiastical preferment, and to relax the rules of discipline
in their behalf. Only in their order could he find, the
trained lawyers with the literary skill he needed for his work.
His own resources were too scanty to reward them fitly.'
The Chancellor and Treasurer were nearly always dignitaries
of the Church. Promotion to a bishopric could easily be
arranged with the Pope, and was a convenient reward for
services rendered. The system was advantageous for the
State, but disastrous for the Church. Many of the bishops
thus- became engrossed in civil pursuits ; they filled important
offices of State, and played a foremost part in diplomacy
and politics. But their episcopal duties suffered, and the
Courts Christian went by the board ; these things were
either left undone altogether, or were performed imperfectly
by deputy ; the Church was thus starved for the sake of
the State. Yet there were many bishops, after the fashion
of Bishop Grosseteste, who were engaged solely in their
episcopal duties. Many remained at their posts and did
their duty manfully during the Black Death. But their
sympathies again were with the beneficed clergy rather than
with the poorer parish priests, whom they were ready to
suspend if they received more than six marks a year, little
1 Capes, 42.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 69
more than a pittance absolutely needful for a yeoman's
family, while some ministers with cure of souls received less
than the pay of a common soldier. The unfeeling language
used by these bishops in their pastorals 'rankled in men's
minds, and from this time we may note the growing sense of
jarring interests and divided sympathies between the higher
and the lower clergy, as in the country at large between the
landowners and the peasants. ' 1 Like the bishops on the
Continent, the English bishops also were not ashamed to
increase their incomes by the levy of a tax from priests whom
they allowed to keep concubines.
In Germany the bishops were often not statesmen, much
less ecclesiastics ; they were warriors pure and simple, fighting
to defend or to increase the lands of the Church. When the
newly elected Bishop of Hildesheim inquired for the library
of his predecessors, he was taken to the armoury and was
shown the coats of mail and the arms hanging on the walls ;
these were the books, he was told, with which the rights of
the diocese had been won and by which they must be main
tained. Around the bishops' churches there had gradually
arisen, especially during the Kaiserless time of the Empire,
wealthy states with an industrial population, devoid of landed
property, but naturally desirous of political position. These
burghers were the natural enemies of the bishops, and with
them they were constantly at war. In Worms there was
strife between the bishop and the citizens : King Wenzel
declared for the latter, King Rupert for the former. In
Magdeburg the burghers fell upon the houses of the canons,
burned two of them, drove the clergy out of the city (1402) ;
they were brought back next year by the Count of Schwartz-
burg ; the old archbishop, Albert of Querfurt, known for
his greed, died, and the count's son, twenty-one years of age,
was elected archbishop, — he never read a Mass for the next
thirty-three years. In Brunswick there was war between the
clergy and the burghers, and the Mendicant orders backed up
the citizens. The Bishop of Halberstadt laid his city under
an interdict, but he himself died in 1404, and long lay
unburied since he was himself excommunicated for throttling
1 Capes, 8o.

70 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
a canon with his own hands. Bishop Gerhard of Hildesheim,
successor to the bishop mentioned above, fought with and
took prisoners the Duke of Brunswick, the Archbishop of
Magdeburg, and the Bishop of Halberstadt ; he spent their
ransoms in providing a golden ceiling to the tower of the
Church of the Virgin Mary.1 In Minden there were disputed
elections at the end of the century ; the citizens arose, turned
out the clergy, and burned the chapter-house. The Bishop
of Paderborn waged war against the association of knights.
The Bishop of Wuerzburg seized his own chapter in their
copes and hoods, imprisoned them, and held them to ransom.
Bishop Brunlow quarrelled with the citizens of Stralsund
because they had cut down the funeral-fees, robbed them of
their cattle, and hacked the hands and feet off their workmen ;
the burghers retaliated by binding three priests to ladders
and throwing them in the fire. The moral character of some
of the bishops was often sufficiently shocking. John of Liege,
like young Gunther of Schwartzburg, never got himself
ordained ; they were both lusty, wild warriors, who did their
work by deputy. Bishop Otto, appointed by the Pope to
Minden in 1404, was a man whom no one would believe on
his oath, a debaucher of nuns. In Augsburg clergy and
laity were alike addicted to unnatural offences ; the city
council visited the laity with severe punishment, but the
bishops delayed to do the like with the clergy, whereupon
three seculars and a Dominican were caught, stripped, bound
hand and foot and placed in a cage ; one was hanged, and the
other three starved to death. /^Vith such scenes disgracing
the whole Empire at the end of the fourteenth and the
beginning of the fifteenth century, it was little wonder that
when any man inquired who was at the bottom of any new
war or villainy, he was invariably told it was some bishop,
provost, dean, or priest.2 The real cause of the constant
strife was that Germany was then intent on winning back
from the clergy the rights and possessions which the clergy
had acquired from the laity/
The archdeacon was the delegate of the bishop in judicial
work ; he was a veritable Mr. Worldly Wiseman, learned in
1 Hoefler, 396. » Ibid. 382.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 71
the law and cunning to profit thereby ; it was his function
to suck the marrow from the bones of all bodies committed
to the spiritual charge of his lord the bishop. As soon as
he obtained his post, he usually got a dispensation, and
hurried off to Bologna to fit himself for his work. There he
became acquainted with all the intricacies of the canon law,
he fell in love with beauteous Italian ladies, he gambled and
got into debt, he learned the arts of poisoning and the other
faculties which went to make up the virtu of the average
Italian churchman. When they returned from Bologna, the
archdeacons began to exercise their abilities for the benefit
of one at the expense of the many. In England, as in
France, they hurried through their visitations, hurling excom
munications right and left, claiming from every parish a fixed
charge, known as the ' archdeacon's pig ' or the ' larder gift.'
Chaucer's Archdeacon was —
' a man of heigh degree,
That boldly dide execucioun
In punisshinge of fornicacioun,
Of wicchecraft, and eek of bauderye,
Of diffamacioun, and avoutrye,
Of chirche-reves, and of testaments,
Of contractes, and of lakke of sacraments,
And eek of many another maner cryme
Which nedeth nat rehercen at this tyme ;
Of usure, and of symonye also.
But certes, lechours dide he grettest wo ;
They sholde singen, if that they were hent ;
And smale tytheres weren foule y-shent . . .
For smale tythes and for smal offringe,
He made the people pitously to singe.
For er the bishop caughte hem with his hook,
They weren in the erchedeknes book.
Thanne hadde he, thurgh his Jurisdiccioun,
Power to doon on hem correccioun.'
It is little wonder that pious souls, accused of giving too
small tithes or offerings, should have puzzled themselves,
from the time of John of Salisbury onwards, as to whether it
were possible that an archdeacon could be saved.
Like the archdeacons, their subordinates, the rural deans,
1 Stubbs, Seventeen Lectures, 160.

72 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the archipretres of France, were accused of avarice and
rapacity ; the Bishop of Exeter complained, moreover, that
they gave their official seals to substitutes, ' men of low
character, who falsified official registers and by their fraudu
lent acts brought the office into disrepute.' J
Discipline within the Church was hard to maintain, not
only because of the frequent spirit of insubordination, but
also because of the right of freedom of control which was too
often purchased from Rome for a price. Grandisson, Bishop
of Exeter, drew up armed retainers in front of his cathedral
to prevent the visitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury ;
Antony de Bek, Bishop of Durham, threw into prison the
notaries and clerks who served on him the citation of the
Archbishop of York ; a rector of Bromley sent a chaplain in
full canonicals to excommunicate his own bishop for passing
sentence of deprivation against him. Cathedral chapters
quarrelled with their bishops, pleading ancient precedent,
raising technical points of law, and appealing to King or to
Pope to protect their vested rights. There was something
to be said for Wyclif 's contention that wealth had introduced
vice into the Church, that the clergy should follow their
master, Christ, ' who for our sakes became poor,' that ' it
belongeth not to Christ's vicar nor to priests of Holy Church
to have rents here on earth.'
Among the parish priests it is necessary to distinguish the
beneficed from the unbeneficed clergy. The rectors were
commonly men of good birth, enjoying the greater and the
lesser tithes, and possessing comfortable houses. The parson
ages usually had guest-chambers, for it was the recognised
duty of the beneficed clergy to be ' given to hospitality,' and
to entertain not only their own ecclesiastical superiors, who
were often more dreaded than welcome, but strangers of
every degree. The rector had a pewter platter and a horn
drinking-cup placed for any chance guest, and gave him a
bed of clean straw or perchance a flock mattress for the night.
When in 1240 the Papal Legate assembled the rectors of the
churches in Berkshire, one of the arguments of the rectors for
refusing to contribute as the Legate desired was that their
1 Capes, 240 ; Lavisse, III. ii. 359.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 73
churches had been endowed and enriched ' with lands and
revenues for the especial purpose that the rectors of them
should receive guests rich as well as poor, and show hospitality
to laity as well as clergy, according to their means, as the
custom of the place required.' 1
Rectors, however, were comparatively few in the land, and
vicars were many. Many churches were appropriated to
cathedrals, very many more to monasteries. The monks had
acquired a large number of advowsons; they scamped their
duties, getting as much and doing as little as possible. The
Benedictines had formerly been model landlords and had
restored agriculture ; the Cistercians had maintained model
farms and were successful sheep-breeders, but the Black Death
had brought them into difficulty ; they had been obliged to
let their farms on ' stock and land ' leases, and being in
straits they paid their vicars as low as possible. ' The
monks,' said Thomas Gascoigne, * do nothing for the poor
parishioners whose tithes they get, though they say they pray
for them, and provide an ill-paid vicar. Not content with
the tithes, they try to get the fees and offerings in the
churches, refuse even to allow parish churches to have fonts,
that they may force parents to bring their children to be
baptized within the abbey walls.' Wyclif also was very
severe on the worldly-rich bishops and abbots to whom parish
churches were appropriated, and not less severe on the monks
and Austin Canons who neglected their spiritual duties.
' They do not the office of curates neither in teaching nor
preaching, nor giving of sacraments, nor receiving of poor
men in the parish, but set an idiot for vicar or parish priest
that cannot do the office of a good curate, and yet the poor
parish maintains him.'2 Nicolas de Clamanges complains
that the Popes appointed parish priests who were not taken
from the schools or universities, but from the plough or from
the vilest callings, priests who knew no more Latin than they
did Arabic, who could not tell one letter of the alphabet
from another, who spent their time in indecency, debauch,
gambling, and quarrels. His tutor, Pierre d'Ailly, in one of
his earliest sermons, complains of the priests for the anxious
1 Matthew Paris, i. 285. 2 Capes, 117, 213.

74 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
thought they bestowed on their dress, on their boots, on
their hair, on their rings ; very many, he says, are stained with
indecency from head to foot; they are gluttonous in their
meals, drunken in their drink, luxurious in their unchastity,
wantonly following their lusts, fond of disreputable society,
frequenting taverns and keeping concubines ; they hurry from
the bed of fornication to the holy altar, and receive the body
of Christ with those lips which have just been kissing a harlot.1
Saint Catharine of Siena gives a picture of the Italian
priests and prelates, 'whose lives are founded in self-love,
and who perform the office of devils. Avarice, lust, and
pride are the masters that they serve. The table of the
Cross is deserted for the sake of the tavern ; the poor are left
destitute, while the substance of the Church is squandered on
harlots. Nay, more, the leprosy of unnatural vice, the sin
from which even the devils flee in horror because of their
angelical nature, has contaminated their minds and bodies.
The priests celebrate Mass after a night of sin, and often
their mistresses and children join the congregation ; others
use the Blessed Sacrament of the altar to make love-charms
to seduce the little sheep of their flock, or persuade them to
commit fornication under pretext of delivering them from
diabolical possession.'2 Jean Gerson is very fervent against
the unnatural vices of the clergy, as also against those priests
who threatened, if their concubines were taken from them, to
fall on the wives and daughters of their parishioners.3 So
scandalous were their lives that in some parts of France a
priest was held viler than a Jew.4 Marsiglio of Padua
complained of the parish priests as unlearned and ignorant
of grammar : they were generally men of humble birth, poor,
and uneducated ; but the majority probably knew some
Latin, for they could not have done their work otherwise.
They were usually underpaid, and in Germany some abandoned
their flocks and took to beggary as more lucrative. It is
small wonder that the parish priest, considering his wretched
lot, too often filled up his time with dice and drinking. The
cure of souls was commonly regarded as a mere source of
1 Tschackert, 12. 2 Gardner, 361.
3 Schwab, 690, 697. * Lavisse, in. ii. 360.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 75
income, and the temptation was strong to desert the dull
parish, with its houses far asunder, and to resort to some
large town, there to sing private masses or to act as chantry
priests. This tendency was increased by the distress conse
quent on the Black Death.
' Persones and Parisch prestes playneth to heore Bischop6,
That heore Parisch hath ben pore seththe the Pestilence tyme,
And asketh leue and lycence at Londun to dwelle,
To singe ther for Simonye for seluer is swete.'
In our own country it is clear that the parish priests were
both good and bad. Some were of holy thought and work,
like Chaucer's poor parson, whose business it was ' to drawen
folk to heven by fairnesse by good ensample.'
' He wayted after no pompe and reverence,
Ne maked him a spyced conscience,
But Cristes lore, and his apostles twelve,
He taughte, and first he folwed it himselve.'
On the other hand, there were many others who failed to give
example by their own cleanness how their sheep should live ;
who left their flock encumbered in the mire, while they ' ran
to London, unto seynt Poules,' to look for one of the
thirty-five chantries there established. There were full many
priests like Sloth in the Vision, who knew not his Paternoster
nor the history of Our Lord and Our Lady, but who knew
the rhymes of Robin Hood and of Randolf, Earl of Chester ;
who made forty vows to-day and forgot them all on the
morrow, who were never right sorry for their sins, but spent
each day at the ale, full seldom thinking of ' Goddes peyne
and his passioun.' This parson boasts of his dishonesty, his
drunkenness, his ingratitude, his lechery.
' "I lie," he says, "abedde in lenten an my leman in myn armes
Tyl matynes and masse be do, and thanne go to the freres ;
Come I to Ite, missa est I holde me yserued.
I nam noughte shryuen some tyme but if sekenesse it make.
Nought tweies in two yere and thanne up gesse I schryue me.
I have be prest and parsoun passynge thretti wynter,
Yete can I neither solfe ne synge ne seyntes lyues rede,
But I can fynde in a felde or in a fourlonge an hare." '
The parochial system in England on its religious side was
clearly in a parlous state. To us nowadays it is no less clear

76 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
that the whole secular side of the Church called for urgent
reform. To-day we attack systems, but are chary of attacking
individuals ; five hundred years ago the reverse was the case.
Men were never tired of exposing the vices, the sensuality, the
utter unworthiness of the clergy, but they dared not attack the
priesthood nor the papal system ; there was but one Church,
and the only hope of salvation lay through its portals.
The monasteries also by the end of the fourteenth century
had fallen on evil times ; they had outgrown their original
sphere of utility and had lost much of their original good
repute. Intended as a home of refuge from the murder,
rapine, and bloody war around, for those peaceful souls who
were content in choir, chapter, and cloister to observe the
vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, to live by the rule
of the order, to seek after righteousness and godliness, their
very success had been their bane. They had flourished, and
had manifestly come near attaining the ends for which they
were started ; whereupon kings had endowed them, nobles
had made over to them lands and churches, death-bed dona
tions and legacies had enriched them until they became
possessed of one-third or one-half of the vicarages in the
kingdom. The vow of poverty was lost sight of; that of
obedience followed suit. The monasteries everywhere got
themselves for a price emancipated from episcopal control
and put immediately under the aegis of the Pope ; before this
time Bishop Grosseteste had much trouble with the Gilber-
tines and the Austin Canons, the Cistercians having already
escaped from his jurisdiction.1 The vow of chastity might
be observed, although Saint Catharine complained that
prelates connived at infamous monks corrupting the nuns in
the monasteries under their charge.2 Even at the beginning
of the fifteenth century the monasteries were generally of good
moral repute ; but they had become social homes, and the
best monks were ' good clubbable men.' They had naturally
fallen in popular esteem, and the tide of popular benevolence
no longer flowed as formerly ; the time when they were noted
for their learning and influence, the days of Lanfranc and
Anselm, had long since passed ; no new endowments came in,
1 Stevenson, 150. 2 Gardner, 362.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 77
and gifts of money became scantier and scantier. Some of
the convents had overbuilt themselves, others had over
bought ; some had indulged too freely in litigation, others
complained that their hospitality cost them too dear. The
fact was that the monks themselves had fallen from their
former high estate ; the Carthusians, with their strict rule,
still maintained model monasteries, and the Austin Canons
came next to them ; 1 but the conventual life generally had
become more earthly and self-centred. The monks said
openly that the old Benedictine rule was no longer possible
of observance ; the Cluniac revival had degenerated into
laxity and outward splendour ; the Cistercians, formerly the
' sour Puritans of the cloister,' had long ago become high-
minded and purse-proud. In Germany the Benedictine
abbeys, ever the most popular, were largely used as resting-
places and harbours of refuge for those unfit for the war of
life. Merchants sent their paralytic or maimed children, the
idiots and the half-wits, the idle and the thriftless, those for
any reason unfit for marriage, to the convent, and supported
them while there ; nobles in similar fashion got rid of those
members of their households who were weak in body or in
mind.2 Indeed so thoroughly was the good old rule, of
making due provision for the fool of the family, observed,
that some of the convents became little better than lunatic
asylums, and there remained in them no one capable of
continuing the history of the abbey. The Cistercians and
the Austin Canons in Germany were, however, in better case.
In England married men, wearied of matrimony, occasionally
left their wives and betook themselves to monasteries to end
their days in peace.3 The monks still taught in their schools,
but their own younger members only ; they still maintained
their hospitals, but they received no sick folk from outside ;
they copied and illuminated manuscripts, but their interest in
history was dying out. Their lands were leased to tenant
farmers, and they no longer tried new methods of agriculture
or imported fresh products ; ' their hospitality was being
shifted on the shoulders of the neighbouring inns; their
almsgiving took the most wasteful and unwise forms of
1 Grube, 6, z Ibid. 6. s Stevenson, 153.

78 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
indiscriminate doles.' x The monks lived a thoroughly selfish
life, removed from the haunts of men ; they loved their ease
and preferred their own comfort even to the good name and
fame of their abbey. When the first Prior of Grammont
died and his body began to work miracles, his successor, who
could not abide the crowds of unmannerly louts attracted
round the quiet convent walls, threatened to dig him up and
throw his bones in the river, if he did not cease his idle
miracles ; the threat worked, the miracles ceased, the monks
lived in quiet peace again.2 The monks in France were
worse than those in Germany. Henry of Hesse alleges that
they were debauched, and that their monasteries were no
better than inns and brothels. Nicolas de Clamanges states
that so far from being examples to the secular clergy they
were in every way more worldly, more abandoned, more
immoral ; that there was nothing they hated so much as their
cloister and the rule of their Order.3 In England the abbot
loved hunting and kept hounds, he loved hawking and kept
falcons; the monks loved good cheer and good wine. The
monk among the Canterbury pilgrims, ' to been an abbot
able,' was ' full fat and in good point ' ; he loved venery —
' Grehoundes he hadde, as swifte as fowel in flight ;
Of priking and of hunting for the hare
Was al his lust, for no coste wolde he spare.'
The nunneries in Germany, although they shared many of
the faults of the monasteries, were generally superior to them
both in morality and intelligence. No attempt, however, was
made to keep up the vow of poverty; in most cloisters a
noble's or a citizen's daughter was only admitted on payment
of a fixed sum ; in others she brought her kitchen and table
with her; in others no vows were taken. There were,
however, many exceptions.4 The frivolity of the nuns of
Cologne shocked a French observer. The nunneries in some
parts had an evil reputation: their inmates wore costly
clothes, took part in all merriments, danced round dances in
the streets and at the drinking-houses : their doors stood
open, day and night, to clerk and layman alike.6 The nuns
1 Capes, 288. 2 Lea, i. 38. » Gratius, ii. 564.
' Grube, 7, 8, 6 Lindner {ff. and L.), ii, 249,

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 79
of Bologna were notoriously light of love ; they condescended
to rag-pickers and carders.1 Saint Brigitta complained that
the nunneries were rather brothels than holy retreats.2
Nicolas de Clamanges says that the truth forbids him to
speak, ' necnon de coetu virginum Deo dicatarum, sed magis
de lupanaribus, de dolis e$- procacia meretricum, de stupris
8? incestuosis operibus — nam quid obsecro aliud sunt hoc
tempore puellarum monasteria, nisi quaedam, non dico Dei
sanctuaria sed Veneris execranda prostibula, sed lascivorum
# impudicorum juvenum ad libidines explendas receptacula,
ut idem hodie sit puellam velare quod Sf publics ad scor-
landum exponere.''5
But the chief offenders were the friars of the Four Orders ;
Gerhard Groot and Wyclif alike condemned them : they had
been beautiful in their inception, they were baneful in their
decay. They afforded a marked example of the rule, which
has so often been exemplified in the history of the Church,
that ' it is the reforming organisations which have lost their
meaning that become the chief abuses in the world's history.' 4
Two hundred years had not elapsed since Dominic first sent
forth his preachers to teach the truth, since Francis sent forth
his disciples with messages of love to the poor and outcast,
the sick and leprous. They had dwelt among the poorest
and meanest in the towns, in a 'dense slough of stagnant
misery, squalor, famine, loathsome disease, and dull despair
such as the worst slums of London, Paris, or Liverpool know
nothing of';5 or outside the city walls in pestilential marshes
where the refugees from the country pitched their huts.6
They had lived with the lowliest ; they had won the hearts
of all. But as their influence increased, so did their
prosperity. Peckham and Bradwardine, Archbishops of
Canterbury, were Franciscan and Dominican ; the Franciscans,
nourished by Grosseteste, won over Simon de Montfort to
become an English patriot. The celebrated Doctor Albert
the Great was a Dominican ; Alexander of Hales was a Fran
ciscan ; Saint Thomas Aquinas, the greatest glory of the
1 Frati, 95. 2 Lea, i. 635. 3 Gratius, ii. 566.
4 Creighton, Historical Lectures and Addresses, 72.
5 Jessop, Coming of the Friars, 6, e Creighton, op. cit. 107,

80 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
schoolmen, was a Dominican. But the friars of the latter
part of the fourteenth century were not as those of the
thirteenth. In the early part of the century indeed they
maintained their hold over all classes. The marked contrast
which their renunciation and shabby dress exhibited to the
worldliness, the gambling, the hunting of the secular clergy,
the greater influence over the lives of the citizens which the
friaries amid their busy haunts of men exercised as compared
with the secluded convents of the Benedictines and Cistercians,
above all, their gospel of the holiness of poverty, endeared
them to the lower ranks of society. At the General Congre
gation of the Franciscans in Paris in 1329, whenever a bare
footed friar arose to preach the doctrine of Apostolic Poverty,
the common people heard him gladly. During the terrible
time of the Black Death in England, in Languedoc and else
where, the friars stuck to their work manfully, and thousands
of them died at their posts. They were the spiritual guides
of the Flemish artisans at Courtrai and Roosebeke, as they
were of the English peasantry who rose in the insurrection of
1381. But the majority of the friars gradually abandoned
their early ideals, they sank to a lower level of life and
morality. In Bohemia, where education was more widely
diffused than in most other countries, the popular feeling
against the Mendicants was probably more bitter than else
where.1 The Dominicans fell into disrepute with the ortho
dox because they denied the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin, the Franciscans because they set themselves
up against the Pope and ordinary Christians as the champions
of Apostolic Poverty. The Spiritual Franciscans throughout,
and the Observants from 1373, held to the stricter vow of
poverty and to the poorer and more squalid form of dress ;
but the great bulk of the Franciscan Friars made no difficulty
in accepting property ; while in dress, if their circumstances
allowed, they made no shame to assume a garb ' full and
double and resplendent and of the finest stuff, and of a fashion
goodly and pontifical.' 2 The lewd fellows of the baser sort
among them were always ready to brawl and quarrel, drawing
their knives with fatal results ; fourteen were thus killed in a
brawl at Assisi itself.3
1 Palacky, in. i. 158. 2 Decameron, i. 222. s Gardner, 112.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 81
With the secular clergy the regulars were everywhere in
hopeless conflict ; if the monks had tried to shift too much
work to the shoulders of the seculars, the friars tried to take
too much from them ; they encroached on their preserves,
and filched from them the offerings of the faithful. They
had obtained the right to carry about portable altars for the
celebration of the Mass, the right also to preach in parish
churches and to hear confessions. Their sermons often
contained little but spicy jests and humorous anecdotes ; and
their confessionals were the resort, as Wyclif complained, of
every accursed perjurer, extortioner, and adulterer who was
afraid to go to his own curate to be shriven. The temptation
to a wealthy man was great to forsake his own parish priest,
who knew too much of his livelihood, and to go to a wanton,
merry friar who would certainly have given him absolution
for a consideration ; for the friar
' Ful swetely herde confessioun,
And plesaunt was his absolucioun ;
He was an esy man to yeve penaunce
Ther as he wiste to han a good pitaunce.'
The friars owned no superior but the Pope, with whom their
Minister-General resided in close connection ; they were the
most powerful agents of the Papacy, its deftest, ubiquitous
agents. On their behalf it must be remembered that they
did not live in seclusion like the monks ; they dwelt amid
the hum and stress of men, within the towns and cities, or
close outside the walls, open to the censure of the municipal
fathers, exposed to the prying gaze of a thousand curious
eyes ; their vices, as their virtues, were seen and known of all
men. As they fell off from their primitive simplicity and
became engrossed in piling up money for the Pope and their
order, as the truth which they preached became gradually
mere dead words uttered by rote, so did their influence turn
to evil and increase until it became overpowering. The
Franciscans had always been the newsmongers in the village,
and welcome in every tavern ; they soon began to haunt the
inns and to leave the poor unheeded ; they
' Knew the tavernes wel in every toun,
And everich hostiler and tappestere
Bet than a lazar or a beggestere.'
F

82 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
By the close of the fourteenth century they had become
contemned and hated by all classes in all countries alike. In
Italy they were despised as cheats, thieves, fornicators, and
workers of sham miracles ; 1 everywhere they emptied the
parish churches and corrupted the holy Catholic religion.
They played on the follies and weaknesses of the rustic and
the ignorant ; their sale of spurious relics fostered supersti
tion, and the easy terms on which they granted absolution
encouraged crime. As a song-writer said —
' All wickedness that men can tell
Reigneth them among ;
There shall no soul have room in hell,
Of friars there is such throng.'
They had originally been the evangelists of truth and good
will ; they had sunk to be propagandists of superstition and
crime. (3) Heresy and Reform
Already in the twelfth century, although there was much
blind faith and superstition on the Continent, there was much
heresy, which was fostered, if it was not created, by the vices
of the clergy. It appeared not in the schools and among
the learned, but among men and women of humble origin
and of plain living and thinking. In almost every case it was
anti-sacerdotal ; the leading arguments of the heretics were
drawn from the pride, the avarice, the unclean lives of their
spiritual masters ; 2 they held the old Donatist tenet that
the sacraments are polluted in polluted hands ; they refused
to accept the decision of Pope Gregory the Ninth distin
guishing between the offices of the priest in mortal sin as
regards himself and as regards others. This article of their
creed had a long and stubborn life, for it was common to the
followers of Peter Waldo, of John Wyclif, and of John Hus.
There were scores of heretical sects in Italy. In the north
of Germany false Christs and false prophets appeared ; the
Publicani or Paulicians were sent over thence by King Henry
the Second to Oxford for examination. In Brittany arose
1 Burckhardt, 460, a Lea, i. 61.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 83
Eon of the Star, ' he who should come to judge the quick and
the dead,' who was worshipped by his followers as the Deity
incarnate ; he, however, was probably mad. Pierre de
Bruys preached in Vallonise and in Gascony; Henry, the
Monk of Lausanne, at Le Mans ; the influence of the Italian,
Gundulf, extended to Arras. Arnold of Brescia, like Wyclif
after him, preached the doctrine of apostolic poverty ; the
clergy should have no possessions, the Church should have
no civil jurisdiction, but should confine itself strictly to its
spiritual functionsy
'The Albigenses, known in Italy as the Patarines and
elsewhere as the Cathari, can hardly be called a Christian
sect ; they were the descendants of the Paulicians, and
were of Manichaean tendency. Paul of Samosata had lived
in the seventh century ; his followers had been established in
Armenia, Pontus, and Cappadocia. They had resisted the
persecution of Leo the Armenian and the 'sanguinary devotion
of Theodora ' ; in the middle of the ninth century they had
been transferred ' from the banks of the Euphrates to
Constantinople and Thrace,' where they were allowed to live
in peace and to serve in the armies of the Eastern Empire.
' In the beginning of the thirteenth century their Pope or
Primate resided on the confines of Bulgaria, Croatia, and
Dalmatia, and governed by his vicars the filial congregations
of Italy and France.' 1 1 They believed in the New Testament,
but disbelieved the Old ; Jehovah was Satan, and the
prophets and patriarchs were robbers. The spiritual world
and the mind of man were made by God, but Satan made
the temporal world and matter. The Albigenses therefore
refused to eat flesh ; they rejected the doctrine of the Mass ;
they held that baptism profited nothing ; and they disbelieved
utterly in carnal marriage. As regards the Saviour of man
kind, many of them reverted to the old heresy of the Docetes,
that Christ, the imperfections of matter being incompatible
with the purity of a celestial substance, had never issued
from the Virgin's womb ; that ' He had imposed on the senses
of His enemies and of His disciples ; and that the ministers
of Pilate had wasted their impotent rage on an airy phantom,
1 Gibbon, vii. 56,

84 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
who seemed to expire on the Cross and after three days to
arise from the dead.' x Catharism discarded all the machinery
of the Catholic Church, replacing it by a simple daily bene
diction of the bread and wine, by a monthly ceremony of
confession, and by the Baptism of the Holy Ghost, which
reunited the soul to God, absolved it from sin, and distin
guished the ' perfected ' from the ordinary Christian.2 This
ceremony consisted merely in the imposition of hands,
and, except in the case of those who proposed to become
ministers of the faith, it was usually postponed until death
drew very nighj/ The sick man then generally remained
without food for three days, and this ' privation ' was usually
equivalent to suicide. Through Provence and Lombardy
these latter-day Manichaeans abounded. It may seem strange
that so sad a creed should have won so many converts, should
have induced so many to lead lives of truth and purity ; but
the Cathari had rejected Catholicism because its precepts
and practice were to them irreconcilably at variance, while
their own simple dualistic creed fitted in with and explained
the facts of their own dull, hard lives. Not happiness, but
truth, they held, should make them free.
There were other heretics whose chief desire and aim it
was to remain faithful to the spirit of Christ and to revert to
the simplicity of the primitive Church. Chief among these
were the Waldenses, the followers of Peter Waldo, who were
known as the Poor Men of Lyons. Originally of no heretical
tendency, they were enamoured of the beauty of poverty
and of the simplicity of the Gospel. They translated several
books of the Old and New Testaments; they produced in
the Gallo-Roman language a text and a gloss on the Psalter.
Armed with these, two of the Waldenses presented them
selves in the Lateran Council before Pope Alexander the Third.
He, less wise than Innocent the Third after him, while he
approved of their poverty, refused them permission to preach
without the consent of their clergy, and condemned their
interference with the sacred functions of the priesthood.
They were thus driven into hostility and opposition to
the Church. They had formed the conviction that it was
1 Gibbon, iii. 49. 2 Lea, i. 93.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 85
the sanctity of a man's life, and not his mere spiritual office,
which gave validity to his administration of holy rites; a
virtuous layman, or even a virtuous woman, could officiate,
while the offering of a vicious priest was of no avail. Tran-
substantiation, they held, takes place only in the soul of the
believer. They rejected prayers for the dead, purgatory, and
indulgences.^ No fairer testimony to their moral worth
could be given than that of an inquisitor who knew them
well. ' Heretics,' he says, ' are recognisable by their customs
and speech, for they are modest and well regulated. They
take no pride in their garments, which are neither costly nor
vile. They do not engage in trade, to avoid lies and oaths
and frauds, but live by their labour as mechanics — their
teachers are cobblers. They do not accumulate wealth, but
are content with necessaries. They are chaste and temperate
in meat and drink. They do not frequent taverns or dances
or other vanities. They restrain themselves from anger.
They are always at work ; they teach and learn, and conse
quently pray but little. They are to be known by their
modesty and precision of speech, avoiding scurrility and
detraction and light words and lies and oaths.'1 The
modesty, frugality, honest industry, chastity, and temperance
of the Poor Men of Lyons were universally acknowledged.
It is very probable that some account of the teaching of
the Waldenses may have been transmitted to Saint Francis
of Assisi by his father, who was a travelling merchant of
considerable wealth and intelligence. The ' little brother '
Francis was perhaps the most saintly man who had trod this
earth since the death of his Elder Brother on the Cross. He
believed in absolute poverty and the love of Christ, and
through the whole of his short life — for he died in 1226 —
he carried his belief in the holiness of poverty to its logical
conclusion. He preached the love of God ; he did not
argue ; he detested polemics ; his life was his gospel. The
truth, says M. Sabatier,2 needs no proof ; it forces itself on
you. So it was with Saint Francis ; his life and example con
verted men from the error of their ways. For a time it
seemed as if heresy would disappear. But his gospel in its
1 Lea, i. 85. 2 Sabatier, 51.

86 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
purity did not retain the undisputed field long. When the
Little Brother presented his rule to Innocent the Third, the
Pope warned him that it would be too hard for those who
should come after him.1 The warning proved true. Scarcely
was the Saint dead than his followers divided into two sects—
the Spiritual Franciscans, who desired to adhere to the letter
of the rule as to utter poverty ; and the Conventuals, who saw
how much could be done with property rightly administered.
For more than a century the strife between these sects con
tinued. One general of the Order was a Spiritual, the next
was a Conventual ; the Popes now favoured one sect, now the
other. Nicholas the Third promulgated a Bull, Exiit qui
semmat, laying down that property should be vested in the
Roman Church, the usufruct remaining with the friars.
About the middle of th"e" thirteenth century the Spiritual
Franciscans adopted the mystical teachings of the Calabrian
prophet, Joachim of Flora. His three treatises were styled
The Everlasting Gospel, and to them the Franciscan, Gerard
of Borgo San Donnino, published an Introduction. Joachim's
speculative prophecies had been mystical and vague ; those
of Gerard were clear and precise. The reign of the Father
was over ; the reign of the Son was closing ; the reign of the
Holy Ghost was to begin in the year 1260. The Roman
Church, which was further from the truth than were the
Greeks, the Jews, or the Musalmans, would be swept away
in favour of an order of monks.2 This was rank heresy.
Persecution, spasmodic and intermittent, followed ; John of
Parma was disgraced, Gerard was imprisoned underground.
But the sect, with its mystical teachings, taken often from
works falsely attributed to Joachim of Flora, held its ground
throughout the fourteenth century up to the days of the
Calabrian hermit, Telesphoro of Cosenza, and of Thomas of
Apulia, and even later. The tertiary order of the Franciscans
continued to be the breeding-ground for all manner of strange
heresies, which lived their little day and died.3 Wilhelmina
of Bohemia appeared at Milan ; she was held to be an
incarnation of the Holy Ghost ; her followers believed that
she would reappear on earth at the year of Jubilee, 1300.
1 Sabatier, no. 2 Renan, 283 et seq. * Ibid. 310.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 87
She died in the odour of sanctity, but twenty years later
her bones were dug up and burned. <ln 1260, the year of
the new dispensation, was born Segarelli, who founded the
sect of the Apostolic Brethren, and who strove to surpass
Saint Francis himself in his imitation of Christ. He got
himself circumcised, was wrapped in swaddling-clothes, was
rocked in a cradle and suckled by a woman. When he had
perished at the stake, his work was taken up by Fra Dolcino
of Novara, who published his three epistles, and who declared
the Papacy to be the Scarlet Woman of the Revelation. He
had a spiritual sister, the beautiful Margarita of Tirol, with
whom he claimed to live in unblemished chastity^/ Clement
the Fifth issued a Bull against them ; Dolcino and his
followers took to the mountains ; four crusades in four
successive years were sent against them in Mount Saint
Bernard and the neighbouring Alps. At length, on Holy
Thursday of Passion Week, 1307, Fra Dolcino was cap
tured and was put to death with the most atrocious tortures.
But the sect of longest life which sprang from the Franciscans
was that of the Fraticelli, who wore the small hoods and the
short narrow gowns of the Spiritual Franciscans, and who,
like them, preached the doctrine of utter poverty. Pope
John the Twenty-second did his utmost to suppress them,
for, although his was the golden age of missions in the
East, the doctrine of the poverty of Christ and His apostles
was hateful in his nostrils.1 He contradicted the decisions
of his predecessors, and promulgated a Bull in which he
proved that the Franciscan doctrine of poverty was a per
version of Scripture, and in which it was denounced as
heretical. The Franciscan friars, headed by their general
Michael de Cesena, rose against him and ranged themselves
under the banner of his enemy, the Emperor Louis of
Bavaria. The narrow Franciscan dogma thus became of
imperial importance. John's successor, Benedict the Twelfth,
and Clement the Sixth after him, were unable to suppress
these Brethren of the Poor Life, as they called themselves ;
they swarmed through Italy. Cola di Rienzo, when he fled
from Rome, took shelter with the Fraticelli of Monte Maiella;
1 Lea, iii. 133.

88 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Luigi di Durazzo, when he rebelled, proclaimed his sym
pathy with them; the Archbishop of Seleucia in 1346
belonged to their order ; so too did the Bishop of Trivento
in 1362. The Fraticelli continued to be numerous in Italy
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
'"Meantime the merciless crusade of De Montfort, the
preaching of Saint Dominic and his followers, and the
pitiless persecution of the Inquisition during the thirteenth
century, practically annihilated the sect of the Albigenses
in Southern France. The country was impoverished, its
industry was shattered and its commerce ruined ; the estates
of the nobles and the goods of the wealthy were wrung from
them ; x but, with the exception of a few poverty-stricken
Waldenses, heresy was stamped out of France^ The subtle
ties of Abelard and the schoolmen were refuted by the
erudition and arguments of that noble Dominican, Thomas
Aquinas ; and thus it came about that, as Sismondi says,2
whether there were an honest man or not, there was certainly
at the end of the fourteenth century not a heretic in the
whole realm of France.
In the Spanish peninsula also there was very little heresy.
A few Cathari escaped from Languedoc and penetrated as
far as Leon ; a few Fraticelli and Waldenses troubled the
universal orthodoxy. The Inquisition was established in
Aragon, and worked in the early part of the thirteenth and
again in the opening years of the fourteenth century, but
was never really effective; and when, in 1401, Vincente de
Lisboa was appointed Inquisitor over all Spain, the only
heresy specifically mentioned in the Bull is the idolatrous
worship of plants, trees, stones, and altars 3 — a mere super
stitious relic of paganisn.
In Italy, however, Lombardy, with Milan as its centre,
continued throughout to be the home of heresy. Not only
did the heretical sects of the Franciscans flourish there, but
other heretics also. The Waldenses retreated to the Cottian
Alps. The Cathari, when they fled from persecution in
Languedoc, were able to find a shelter in any large town of
Northern Italy. Ezzelino da Romano would permit no
1 Lea, ii. 119. 2 Sismondi [F.), xi. 442. 3 Lea, ii. 185.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 89
persecution for heresy in his dominions, nor would his con
queror, Uberto Pallavicino, after him. Heresy spread to
Central Italy, but political faction and party spirit were
everywhere dominant ; and when Saint Peter Martyr won two
bloody battles in Florence for the Church in 1245, the
victories were as much those of Guelfs over Ghibelines as of
orthodoxy over heresy. After the victory of Charles of
Anjou at Benevento in 1268, and the consequent revival of
the papal power through Italy, the inquisitors were able to
set to work with more gusto, and by the end of the century
heretics were no longer able to live securely in Lombardy or
in Central Italy. But the Inquisition was ineffective in
Naples ; it was merely nominal in Sicily ; it never gained a
hold in Venetian territory. ' In Italy as in France,' says
Mr. Lea,1 ' the history of the Inquisition during the four
teenth and fifteenth centuries is one of decadence.' It had
in fact for the time done its work. The pessimistic doctrines
of Catharism gradually became extinct, although the simple
and hopeful creed of the Waldenses continued to flourish
amid the mountain fastnesses of Piedmont.
There was never a heretic in England before John Wyclif,
and it is not necessary to speak of him at length here, for
his writings before the Great Schism had mainly a political
character and tendency, and were thus utilised by John of
Gaunt. Other political philosophers had based their theories
on ' the Bible of the Christians or the Bible of the philo
sophers, the Scriptures of Aristotle.' Wyclif based his on
the feudal system. His treatises Of the Lordship of God and
Of Civil Lordship were published by 1372. Lordship and
service linked man to God ; God was the universal lord para
mount of every man ; and every individual man was dependent
on God alone, and was bound to do Him faithful service.
Lordship is founded in grace ; ' no one in mortal sin has
any right to any gift of God, while on the other hand, every
man standing in grace has not only a right to, but has in
fact, all the gifts of God ; ... the righteous has all things ;
the wicked has nothing, only occupies for the time that which
he has unrighteously usurped or stolen from the righteous.' 2
1 Lea, ii. 253. 2 Poole, 293-5.

90 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
If the righteous man has not all things in this present life, if
the wicked man has that which he should not, their recom
pense will come after death. WycliPs doctrine of Apostolic
Poverty was the result of his veneration for the spiritual
dignity of the Church, which led him to sever its sphere of
action entirely from that of the world.1 At this period of
his life he might indeed, like many another true son of the
Church, expose ' the political abuses of the hierarchy, but in
his dogmatic theology he was without blemish.' 2 He had not
broken loose from the Papacy when King Edward the Third
died ; it was the Great Schism which made him a notorious
heretic. Except by reason of their political influence, his
followers in England indeed were but a feeble folk ; the dawn
of Reformation here was but a false dawn. Wyclif 's great
work in the religious world was wrought through John Hus
of Bohemia ; and it is somewhat curious that, just as there
had been no heresy in England before the time of John
Wyclif, so John Hus boasted that there had never been a
heretic in Bohemia.3
If England, France, and Spain at the outbreak of the
Great Schism were free from heresy, very different was the
state of religious life in Germany, where speculation always
simmered, where the prelates resented papal interference,
where they and also the whole of the secular clergy hated the
Mendicant Orders, and resented anything like the introduc
tion of the Inquisition. All through the twelfth, thirteenth,
and fourteenth centuries pantheistic teachers arose, for
Northern Germany had no sympathy with the Catharism
which took its rise in the Slavic countries, in Servia and
Bosnia. The troublous times led to the predominance of
sentiment over intellect. Among the people associations
were formed, providing quiet retreats in which inmates, male
or female, might live secluded from the world, bound only
by the vows of chastity and obedience, enjoying the blessed
ness of inward peace. (David of Dinant, Amalric of Bena,
and Eckard of Cologne4 promulgated a pantheism which
became more and more removed from Deism and from the
historical foundation of Christianity. Hence arose the
1 Poole, 302. 2 Ibid. 284. 3 Hoefler, 419. * Ullmann, ii. 24.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 91
Brotherhoods and Sisterhoods of the Free Spirit. They held
that God is everywhere, that everything emanates from Him
and returns to Him ; that all souls return to Him at death,
and that there is neither purgatory nor hell ; that sacerdotal
observances and the sacraments are useless ; since the divine
and human spirits are in nature identical, every act of a
godly man is good ; perfection consists in absolute unity with
God, and thenceforth all outward actions are indifferent,
for ' that which God wills in man is that which man has the
strongest inclination to do, and to which he inwardly feels
himself most forcibly impelled, and hence man requires only
to follow the voice within to execute the divine will.' 1 The
Brethren of the Free Spirit claimed that being led by the
Spirit they were no longer under the Law, they were free
from its trammels ; they alleged that no man was perfect in
whom the sight of a naked man produced shame, or the sight
of a naked woman produced passion. Every kind of indul
gence and excess was permissible to the godly and pure in
heart — a doctrine most attractive to the ungodly and the
impure ; and there is little wonder that the carnal indulgence
and licence of many of the sectaries shocked the ordinary lay
mind^ One curious sect of pantheists, the Luciferans, main
tained that inasmuch as God was the essence of all things,
therefore Satan himself must be divine, and the devil and his
angels must ultimately be reunited with the Deity. Fearful
stories were told as to their hideous rites and initiatory
ceremonies. The Church was not idle. There was a most
cruel persecution of the Beguines at the beginning of the
fourteenth century : Archbishop Henry was very severe on
the Beghards of Cologne. On one occasion a jealous husband
tracked his wife to an earthly paradise, witnessed the sensual
orgies which were customary there, and gave information ;
many of the leaders were either burned or drowned in the
Rhine. This was about 1325 ; but through the whole of
this century these Antinomians, Beguines, Beghards, and
Lollards were in opposition to the Church, and the Church
was engaged in an exterminating war against them.
The strife between Pope John the Twenty- second and
1 Ullmann, ii. 28. 2 Ibid. i. 92.

92 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Louis of Bavaria was naturally favourable to the growth of
heresy ; and no sooner had his successor, Charles the Fourth,
' the priests' emperor,' been recognised, than/Chere appeared
that most fearful scourge of suffering humanity, the plague
known as the Black Death. Although it was not so virulent
in Germany as in many parts, still one-fourth of the popula
tion died ; and then in the midst of the universal misery
arose the sect of the Flagellants. They are said to have first
appeared in Perugia in 1260. It was, as it were, an extra
ordinary effort of propitiation to avert the destroying wrath
of God ; ' it responded so thoroughly to the vague longings
of the people, and it spread so rapidly, that it seemed to be
the result of a universal consentaneous impulse.'1 They
held that except by the shedding of their own blood there
was no remission of sin. Their leader displayed a mysterious
letter which had fallen from heaven and had been found in
the church of Saint Peter at Jerusalem ; in this Jesus Christ
had promised to be very gracious to all penitents in their
processions, because the blood of the Flagellants was mingled
with His own. Vast herds of them congregated together —
men, women, and children — with veiled faces, but the men
bare to the waists ; they marched in bands of moderate size,
each under a leader and two lieutenants ; they sang peni
tential songs as they entered the towns, weeping, groaning,
and lamenting ; they required every one who joined them to
remain with them for thirty-three days, one day for every
year of our Lord's life on earth ; they scourged one another
lustily with scourges knotted with four iron points until the
blood ran down their backs. From Poland to the Rhine
they spread, but they flourished mostly in Thuringia, where
Conrad Schmidt was their prophet Elias, and one of his
companions their prophet Enoch. They professed that the
blood with which they bathed themselves washed away their
sins and avoided all necessity for the mediation of Holy
Church ; they held that Pope and clergy had no power to
loose or to bind ; that churches were mere houses of stone
and dens of robbers ; that the Mass was a howling of dogs,
and the sacrament a vain babble of the priest ; that vows,
1 Lea, ii. 381.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 93
purgatory, the adoration of the Cross and of saints were
outworn, useless creedsy Clement the Sixth would have none
of them, and his severe measures repressed them for a
time.1 Charles the Fourth did little to aid the Church in its war
against heresy until his expedition into Italy in 1368, when,
however, he issued two edicts of unparalleled severity, in
tended for the support of Walter Kerlinger, the papal in
quisitor. The Waldenses swarmed all over Germany ; in
Thuringia, Misnia, Bohemia, Moravia, Austria, and in Hungary
they appeared in their thousands. They were poor folk,
viewed with no ill-will even by the local priesthood ; they
conformed outwardly in every way to the orthodox observ
ances. A sect closely akin to them were the Winkelers.
Another sect which sprang up in the lower Rhineland was
that of the Dancers : they also were poor and simple. They
danced and sang until they fell to the ground in convulsions ;
they were generally regarded as possessed by the devil ; they
had not been properly baptized, folk said, seeing that so
many of the priests kept concubines. The sect spread over
a large part of Germany and lasted for some years. But
the Inquisition directed its labours more especially to the
Brethren of the Free Spirit, to the Beghards and Beguines,
where there was spoil to be gathered. The Beghards begged
their bread to a monotonous cry of Brod durch Gott, but
they and the Beguines possessed property. The royal edicts
had ordered the confiscation of all their houses ; those of the
male recluses were to be handed over to the Inquisition to
serve as prisons ; those of the Beguines were to be sold, part
of the proceeds being devoted to public purposes, part being
handed over to the Inquisitors for pious uses. In Saxony,
Hesse, and Thuringia a rich harvest was reaped.2 Nicolas of
Basel, the ' Friend of God,' the invisible Pope of an invisible
Church, a wandering missionary who had for years propagated
the doctrines of the Brethren of the Free Spirit, and who had
deceived many by his visions and revelations, was tracked by
the Inquisition. He fled to Vienna with two of his disciples ;
they were discovered and seized; Henry of Langenstein
i Lindner (H. and L.), ii. 253. 2 /«* "• 2S4-

94 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
laboured to convert them and flattered himself that he had
succeeded, but they all three relapsed, and were burned.
Another disciple of Nicolas, Martin of Mainz, who had
formerly been a Benedictine monk, was burned at Cologne.
Other heretics there were who attacked auricular confession,
extreme unction, indulgences, the veneration of relics, and
masses for the dead. Heretics were to be found all over
Germany ; they were most thickly scattered over the Upper
Rhine, in Switzerland, and in Swabia, from Regensburg to
the Austrian frontier, throughout Franconia, Hesse, and the
Thuringian Forest. They were usually ready to seal their
faith with their blood ; hundreds were burned at the stake,
and the goods of the wealthy were confiscated. But with
the advent of the Great Schism and the reign of King
Wenzel, who, Gallio-like, cared for none of these things, per
secution in great measure subsided, and the heretics were left
free to believe and to propagate their heresy.
But while there was thus much pestiferous heresy and revolt
against the Papacy, there were also many devout men whose
sincere desire it was to remain within the obedience of the
Church, but whose pious aim at the same time was to bring
about an internal reform which should sweep away the worst
abuses which discredited and disgraced the present system.
Such were the German mystics. The chief of these, theistical
but not pantheistical, was John Ruysbroek (1293-1381), the
spiritual father of John Tauler, the foremost preacher of his
day, and of Gerard Groot. Ruysbroek was a priest for sixty-
four years of his life ; he lies interred in the church of his
monastery at Gruenthal. His system, of the ecstasy of con
templation, which has been criticised on the ground that it
has no distinct and necessary place for the general fact of
sin, is based on the principle that man has proceeded from
God, and returns to Him again. Man does not, however,
become in all points one with God, for God always remains
God, and the creature always remains a creature ; but when
man gives himself up with perfect love to God, he feels that
he is in union with God ; but when he acts he feels that
he is a separate being, distinct from God. Man attains to
this unity with God through the active, the inward, and the

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 95
contemplative life. The active life consists in God's service
in abstinence, penitence, morality, and holy action ; the
inward life consists of love toward God, oneness of heart
with Him, the conquest of the senses, the guidance of the
desires and senses to unity. The contemplative life consists
in free communion with God, a going out of ourselves and
becoming one spirit with God ; its peculiarity lies in its ever
satisfying, simple, but blessed repose. ' This — the eternal
repose — is the existence which has no mode, and which all
deep spirits have chosen above all things. It is the dark
silence, in which all loving hearts are lost.' J
The mystics were rebels against the system of scholastic
philosophy. They circumscribed the domain of reason to
enlarge that of faith. Reason, says Achard,2 is ignorant,
but faith begins by believing that which reason does not
conceive ; from the imperfection of reason proceeds the' per
fection of faith. By grace, faith knows that of which reason
can acquire no certitude by experience. It is the province of
reason to follow faith, not to precede her, to enable us to
understand what we believe. Man's business in this world
is not to reason, but to pray ; he ought to give himself
up wholly to God, who will make him perfect ; he ought to
set up the sublime ladder of contemplation, and, like the
eagle, taking flight from the things of earth, to soar into the
infinite. Intelligence guided by reason is no infallible guide ;
the true guide is conscience illuminated by grace. To attain
true knowledge, one must leave the study of these vain
things on which the mark of their celestial origin is scarce
apparent ; one must believe, one must love, one must in
toxicate oneself with that love which communicates to the
faithful soul a holy ecstasy, which transports it far away from
matter to the bosom of God.3 The mystics longed by serene
contemplation to lose themselves in God until they found
Him ; they sought to work out their own salvation by a
' closer walk with God,' by communion with the Infinite. In
this they resembled the early monks. ' The votaries of this
1 Ullmann, ii. 44. note.
3 Haureau, Histoire de la Philosophie Scolastique, i. 507.
» Ibid. i. 507-13.

96 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Divine Philosophy aspired to imitate a pure and perfect
model. They trod in the footsteps of the prophets who
had retired to the desert ; and they restored the devout and
contemplative life, which had been instituted by the Essenians
in Palestine and Egypt.1
Other reformers there were who more nearly resembled the
early friars. Filled with a like consuming love for God, with
a like disdain for vain philosophy, and with a like hatred for
polemics, they aspired rather to live for others than for them
selves ; they sought to tread in the footsteps of their master,
Jesus Christ, and of 'sweet Saint Francis,' who, like the
Master, went about doing good. A life of holy contempla
tion had been the ideal of John Ruysbroek ; a life- of holy
activity was the ideal of Gerhard Groot during his short
existence (1340-1384). He was the son of the burgomaster
of Deventer : born in a house upon the Brink ; weak and
feeble in body, but active of mind from his youth up. He
studied at the University of Paris from 1355 to 1358 under
Henry of Kalkar, who was distinguished for his works on
rhetoric and music and for a history of the Carthusian monks.
Gerhard obtained his master's degree in his eighteenth year,
and then went for further study to the University of Cologne,
where he first appeared as a professor. Being a man of good
family, he soon obtained, in those days of pluralities, several
prebends, and was made Canon of Utrecht and of Aix. He
was a young prelate of the world ; he ate and drank of the
daintiest, he clothed himself in fine raiment, he dressed his
hair with care, he enjoyed himself thoroughly in his own
way,2 he went to all the public amusements. As he was
looking on at some games in Cologne, some one said to him,
' Why standest thou here intent on these vanities ? Become
another man.' 3 His old tutor, Henry of Kalkar, now prior
of the Carthusian monastery at Monchhuysen, met him at
Utrecht ; he admonished him on the vanity of this world, on
death, on eternity. His words sank into Gerhard's heart ; he
was overcome with emotion ; he promised with God's help to
renounce the world and to lead a new life.
1 Gibbon, iv. 306.
2 ' Sub omni ligno frondoso et in omni colle sublimi fornicatus sum ' ; cf.
Grube, 10. 3 Ullmann, ii. 62.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 97
He began by retiring into his friend's monastery, where he
spent three years in seclusion and reflection, in penitential
exercises, and in the study of the Scriptures. Then he re
turned to active life. He became a deacon, but refused to
become a priest, saying that not for all the gold of Araby
would he undertake the care of souls for a single night; He
obtained from his friend Florentius, the Bishop of Utrecht, a
licence to preach. He preached in the language of the people,
in Low Dutch ; with an easy flow of eloquence, out of the
deep zeal of his love, with intense anxiety and concern for
their souls, he preached to them the repentance of sin and the
Gospel of Christ.1 Christ died for us ; we must live for
Christ. Christ as delineated in the Gospels, Christ the root
and the mirror of life, Chris.t the sole foundation of the
Church, was Gerhard's faith ; 2 the primitive apostolic Church
shone in his eyes as the model of perfection. Forsaking
scholastic disputations, the ' new apostle of Germany ' was a
revivalist of the modern type. Multitudes thronged to hear
him, so that the churches were not able to contain them ; he
was compelled to bring his hearers into the open air. Like
Saint Francis, he eschewed scholasticism and polemics ; his
erudition was not great ; his Latin was faulty and his Greek
a negligible quantity. But he was instant in season and out,
with his fellow travellers, with those who sat with him at
meat, with the scholars to whom he gave books to copy ; in
loving humility he called upon all alike, for their souls' sake,
to flee from the wrath to come. He preached against sin, by
whomsoever practised : when the Bishop of Utrecht wished to
suppress concubinage among the clergy, Gerhard Groot was
commissioned to preach the sermon in the General Synod in
the Cathedral at Utrecht.3 His Sermo de forcaristis,f actus
in domo capitulari Trqjectensi, has come down to us ; it was
delivered in the summer of 1383.4 He was no fautor of
heresy ; in fact, he was a malleus hcereticorum.5 Especially
inimical was he to the sect of the Free Spirit, who contemned
all the holy sacraments ; he pursued relentlessly the Austin
friar, Bartholomaeus of Dordrecht, whose sermons smacked of
1 Grube, 17. 2 Ullmann, ii. 75. * Grube, 21.
4 Bonet-Maury, 40. ' Ibid. 37.

98 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
this heresy. It was at this time that the strife between the
regular and the secular clergy was fiercest ; and Bartholo
maeus had influential friends among the magistrates of
Kampen. The Bishop of Utrecht was constrained to inter
fere ; to make the blow as light as possible for his friend, he
forbade all deacons to preach in his diocese. Gerhard refused
to appeal against the order ; until the last year of his life he
never preached again.1 His energy was not quenched ; it
was diverted into another channel.
Shortly before this, in 1378, Gerhard had visited John
Ruysbroek, the Prior of the Canons in the monastery at
Gruenthal ; he was deeply impressed by the edifying and
simple life of the mystic, and was no less impressed by the
brotherly spirit which pervaded the social life of the Canons
of Gruenthal ; they formed a true brotherhood. Gerhard
pushed on as far as Paris to purchase books important for
the instruction of youth. When he returned to Deventer
he set himself to the education of the young, and to the
transcribing of good books. He employed young men as
copyists ; and the circle of his young friends, his scholars, and
his copyists grew larger every day and soon became a regular
society. One of these was Florentius Radewin, then vicar of
Deventer. 'Dear master,' said Florentius one day, 'what
harm would it do were I and these copyists to put our weekly
earnings into a common fund and live together ? ' ' The men
dicant monks would never allow it,' answered Gerhard. ' But
what is to prevent us trying ? Perhaps God will grant us suc
cess.' ' Well, then,' said Gerhard, ' in God's name begin. I will
be your advocate and will faithfully defend you against them.' 2
Thus arose the first Society of the Common Lot, soon to be
followed by many other brotherhoods of the same description.
The Brethren of the Common Lot or of the Common
Life, or the Brethren of Goodwill, as they sometimes
styled themselves, shared their goods in common ; they
lived partly by their manual labour, they received but never
solicited voluntary donations. Their object was, by the
simplicity of their life and by religious exercises, to promote
the growth of practical Christianity. Even during the life-
» Grube, 78 et seq. s Ullmann, ii. 70.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 99
time of Gerhard these houses of the Brethren spread as far as
Saxony. Each house, as a general rule, consisted of about
twenty members, four priests, eight clerks, and the rest laymen
on probation. Only after a year of rigorous probation was
a layman admitted as a clerk ; even then no vow was taken
from him, and he was at liberty to leave at any time on
settling accounts. The brethren dressed in grey ; they had
fixed hours for devotional exercises and for labour ; they
dined together. A rector and a vice-rector presided over each
house ; and certain of the brethren were entrusted with the
offices of steward, of head copyist, of librarian, of master of
the novices, of keeper of the infirmary or hospital ; but no
hard and fast rule was established ; each house made its own
arrangements. The same was the case with the trades prac
tised ; the transcribing and dissemination of holy books was
the chief end for which the houses existed ; but the industry
of each house depended upon its special aptitude. The house
at Hildesheim was a manufactory of mass-books and of
clerical garments ; the Convent of St. Mary at Beverwijk
traded in parchment, honey, wax, and salt-fish ; the house at
Hattem practised only agriculture and weaving.1
The house of the Brethren at Deventer, being the earliest,
was regarded as the parent-house, and its rector was looked
upon as the common father of the Brethren. When Gerhard
Groot died of the plague in 1 384, he appointed Florentius
Radewin to be his successor ; and when Radewin died he
appointed iEmilius van Buren. Next to the dissemination of
the Scriptures, the education of the young was the principal
work of the brethren. Gerhard Groot's scheme was simplicity
itself : he aimed to teach a godly life ; he eschewed arith
metic, geometry, logic, rhetoric, grammar, and the like. First
he taught the Gospel, then the lives of the saints, then the
Epistles of Saint Paul and the Acts of the Apostles, then the
works of Bernard, Anselm, and Augustine. Reading, writ
ing, singing, Latin spoken and written, and religion were the
subjects taught at the schools of the Brethren. The teaching
was not so superficial as in the conventual schools ; it was not
confined only to those who could pay, as in the town-schools
1 Ullmann, ii. 93.

100 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of Holland at this time. The instruction was not generally
gratuitous, but poor students were given their subsistence
and the means of study. The schools of the Brethren
flourished exceedingly : that at Groeningen was frequented by
extraordinary numbers ; that at Herzogenbusch numbered
twelve hundred scholars. Wherever a large number of pupils
was assured, the services of more distinguished teachers were
permanently retained ; classics were put into the hands of
the scholars and improved grammars were introduced ; schol
astic Latin was superseded by Latin which Cicero could have
understood. Their preaching also was in the vulgar tongue,
so as to be understanded of the people. Some preached only
for a quarter of an hour, others for three or even six hours ;
the people listened eagerly. They also gave collations, ' a sort
of edifying private addresses.' Preaching, except in Latin, was
almost a lost art ; but now a succession of distinguished men
made their appearance in Holland. John Binkerink, John
Gronde, Wermbold, William Henrici, Henry Gronde, Hugo
Aurifaber, Giesebert Don, and Brother Paulus, all, there is
reason to believe, preached in the style and spirit of Gerhard
and Florentius.1 In the next century, from the monastery on
Mount Saint Agnes, came one Thomas a Kempis, ' the ablest
expounder and most successful propagator' of the Christian
mysticism of the Brethren, the author of that wonderful work
which has had more influence than any other book save the
Bible on the religious life of Christendom.
The communities of the Brethren and of the Sisters of the
Common Life gave latitude without coherence, and their
founder felt that something more was needed to perfect his
scheme. A backbone was wanted for the system, some cen
tral organism to which these outlying members would be
articulated, something which should provide a rule and
example for their life, and a safeguard for their wellbeing and
protection. Gerhard recognised that some central authority
was needed for counsel, support, and guidance ; he saw that if
this supreme power were centred in some well-ordered and
regularly sanctioned body, it would help to keep the Brethren
together, to protect them from external corrupting influences
1 Ullmann, ii. 96, 7.

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 101
to shelter them from the malicious machinations of the
mendicant orders, and from others who wished them ill.1
For some years Groot had to this end designed to establish an
order of Canons, but death came to him before he had carried
out his scheme. As he lay a-dying, he called Florentius and
others to him and charged them to form such a monastery as
he described. He did not wish his order to be of the severe
and secluded Carthusian or Cistercian pattern ; he desired a
monastery of Canons Regular of the Order of Saint Augus
tine. There was a waste piece of ground on the bank of the
Yssel, between Deventer and Zwolle, which he designated as
suitable for the purpose. Here, two years after the death of
Gerhard Groot, the monastery of Windesheim was founded.
The Duke of Guelders countenanced the undertaking. Bert-
holf ten Hove and Lambert Stuerman gave the land ; several
rich men endowed the institution ; the Bishop of Utrecht
sanctioned and approved. Six years later, in 1392, a second
monastery, the Fountain of the Blessed Mary, was founded at
Arnheim ; to be followed by the monastery of the New Light,
near Hoern, and by that of Mount Saint Agnes, the site of which
had been chosen by Gerhard long years before, though it was
not founded until 1398. Eventually the number of monas
teries in Germany, the Low Countries, and the north and
centre of France, increased to four score. The Canons took
the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience ; they provided
leaders for the brotherhoods ; they disseminated the know
ledge of the Gospel ; they enlarged the area and extended the
scope of popular education. But the greatest glory of the
Brotherhoods of the Common Life is to have produced such
humanists as Agricola and Hegius, Busch and Lange, Wessel
and Erasmus, and to have indirectly by their criticism of sacred
and secular works prepared the way for the Reformation.2
A spirit of reform, akin to that which animated the
Brothers of the Common Life, manifested itself in the four
teenth century in Bohemia, where the fostering care of the
Emperor Charles the Fourth had raised the clergy generally
in education and morality to a higher level than their
brethren in the rest of the Empire. Here also the quarrel
1 Kettlewell, Thomas a Kempis, 188. 2 Bonet-Maury, 8o.

102 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
was with the Friars. Conrad Waldhauser, an Augustine
Canon, was invited by the Emperor from Austria to Prague,
and began his ministrations in 1360. In his sermons he
scourged the arrogance, avarice, and sensual luxury of his
listeners ; the multitudes thronged to hear him, so that there
was no room for them in any church, and Conrad had to
preach in the open squares. Usurers ceased their usury and
offered to restore their ill-gotten gains ; men ceased to molest
merchants' daughters in the churches ; women sacrificed their
finery, their costly veils, their robes decked with gold and
pearls. Could the founders of the Friars return to the earth,
said Conrad, their present disciples would stone them. The
Augustinian Hermits and the Dominican Friars tried to con
vict him of heresy, but their efforts failed : Conrad's influence
in Prague remained unabated until his death in 1369.
Conrad preached in the German language, in a style noted
for simplicity, clearness, and accuracy ; Milic preached in
the Bohemian tongue, and his poetical rhapsodies appealed
to the emotions and passions of his hearers. He was Pre
bendary of the Prague Cathedral and Vice-Chancellor to the
Emperor, but in 1363 he gave up place and power in order
to follow Christ in poverty and to preach His word. The
' son and image of our Lord Jesus Christ,' he meditated on
the old prophecies and the Revelation until Antichrist
became an obsession to him ; he saw its influence in every
thing, in the clergy from the archbishops down to the friars ;
he discovered that Antichrist would appear in person in the
world in 1366. He went so far as on one occasion to attack
Charles the Fourth himself, and was thrown into prison by
the archbishop ; but the Emperor did not remove his favour
from him, and Milic appealed to Rome. He went to Rome
and there got again thrown into prison, but when Urban the
Fifth came back from Avignon, Milic was released and re
turned to Prague and his preaching again. Antichrist
retired into the background ; Milic attacked immorality with
such fervour and effect that the Venetian quarter in Prague,
where the women of evil fame lived, became deserted by its
inmates and was pulled down to build a penitentiary, known
as Jerusalem. Milic supported on a voluntary system both

THE HOLY ROMAN CHURCH 103
this institution and his house for converts, and was often hard
pressed for funds ; but he devoted to the work all the rich
gifts which came to him, for he was confessor and spiritual
director to hundreds. His influence was enormous. The
Mendicant Friars attacked him, and brought twelve charges
of heresy against him ; Milic set out for Avignon, cleared
himself of every suspicion of heresy, but fell ill and died in
1374, before judgment was pronounced.
What Waldhauser and Milic had endeavoured to effect by
the living voice, Mathias of Janow, the son of a Bohemian
knight, did by his writings. He had studied in Paris, had
lived in Rome and Nuernberg, and was appointed by Pope
Urban the Sixth to be Prebendary of Prague. His chief
work, on the Maxims of the Old and New Testaments,
exercised an immense influence in his own time, though
subsequent ages found it insufficient ; he deducted four funda
mental principles from the Old and eight from the New
Testament, troubling himself but little about the dogma but
much about the practice of Christianity, the love of God and
one's neighbour, meekness and self-sacrifice, the imitation of
Christ in all things. He was a great advocate for frequent
communion by the laity, as were others of the more learned
among his Bohemian contemporaries ; but he was always
an obedient son of the Church, and gave up his advocacy of
daily communion and of communion in both kinds at her
bidding, and also recanted his condemnation of the veneration
of shrines and relics. Janow died in 1394 ; but many
professors and preachers in Prague carried on the work begun
by Waldhauser, Milic, and Janow. They resembled the
school at Deventer in their efforts toward a reformation of
life and morals, in their teaching and preaching in the vulgar
tongue, in their promulgation of the Holy Scriptures ; but
they differed from that school in so far that they established
no brotherhoods nor monasteries, and so left no settled organ
isation to carry on the work of internal reformation. In
Western Germany and in Bohemia alike the reformers were
faithful children of the Church, and were bitterly opposed to
and opposed by the Friars.1 1 Palacky, iii. 161 et seq.

104 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
These efforts at internal reform, unlike the movements of
Wyclif and of Hus, which have largely a political character,
were free from all taint of heresy. The promoters were
indeed accused of heresy by the Friars, but they had no
difficulty in clearing themselves. They were always ready to
submit all points of doctrine to the arbitrament of the Pope,
and they desired nothing so much as to remain in the bosom
of the Holy Roman Church.
In the internal reform of the Church in matters of pure
theology a predominating influence was exercised by the
University of Paris, the ' eldest daughter of the King,' which
in the sphere of ecclesiastical politics had acquired a unique
position in Europe. Its scholars were citizens of the world :
' though almost all the greatest schoolmen from the time of
Abelard onwards taught in Paris at one period or another of
their lives, hardly one Parisian Scholastic of the very first
rank was a Frenchman by birth.' 1 The University owed its
importance, partly to its position in the capital city of France,
in which it differed from the English Universities, and partly
to its organisation, by which its judgment in matters theo
logical was ' backed by the weight of numbers — by its
hundreds of Masters of Arts and its thousands of students,'
wherein it differed from the Universities of Italy. It became
the tribunal of orthodoxy. In opposition to the Franciscans
it condemned their doctrine of Apostolic Poverty ; in opposi
tion to the Dominicans it upheld the Franciscan doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin ; in opposition to
the Franciscans and the Pope it condemned the doctrine
of the Retardation of the Beatific Vision, so that John the
Twenty-second apologised for expressing an opinion when he
was not a Doctor of Divinity ; in opposition to the Domini
cans and Franciscans alike it upheld the rights of the secular
clergy. It was abundantly clear that in the dissensions and
discussions consequent on the Great Schism the voice of the
University of Paris would be one of the clearest and most
authoritative. 1 Rashdall, i. 518.

THE GREAT SCHISM 105

CHAPTER III
THE GREAT SCHISM
The 'Seventy Years' Captivity' of the Popes at Avignon
came to an end in 1377. Urban the Fifth had returned to
Rome ten years earlier, but he had again deserted the
Eternal City for Avignon ; he died three months after his
return, and his death was regarded as the judgment of God
upon him in abandoning Romey It had been foretold by
Saint Brigitta of Sweden. 'If he should return,' she had
said, ' he will in a brief while receive such a stroke that his
teeth will gnash, his sight will be darkened and grow dim,
and all the limbs of his body will tremble, . . . and he will
render account before God of the things which he has done.' J
Gregory the Eleventh, stimulated by Saint Catharine of
Siena, the successor of the Swedish prophetess, returned to
Rome at the end of 1377; he meditated a like treachery
with Urban, but his return to Avignon was prevented by his
death (March 27, 1378).
^f he return of Gregory was indeed a political necessity if
the Papal States were to be saved to the Church. Gerard
du Puy had in 1372 succeeded Cardinal d'Estaing as Vicar
Apostolic of Perugia, and in 1374 Guillaume de Noellet
was appointed Papal Legate of Bologna. These two rulers
exasperated their subjects by their ruthless cruelty, and a
spirit of opposition to papal oppression blazed out and spread
through the surrounding country ; they excited the hatred
of their own people and the distrust of their neighbours.
Florence, suffering from pestilence and famine, expected the
usual convoys of grain from Bologna ; the Legate not only
stopped the export, but sent soldiers to ravage the Florentine
1 Gardner, 79.

106 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
fields in which the new grain was ripening. This was the
culminating outrage. Florence took the lead in a war of
Liberty, to free the people who were groaning under the
hated yoke of the French Legates. The movement spread
like wildfire. In ten days eighty towns and castles threw off
the yoke of the Church. The Pope put Florence under an
interdict, and procured the confiscation of Florentine goods
through France and England. In 1376 Bologna joined the
league against the Church. Cardinal Robert of Geneva was
sent as Legate of the Romagna and the March of Ancona ;
he took over charge of the Company of the Bretons, well
known for their savage and brutal ferocity, and made his way
to Ferrara. He tried to provoke the men of Bologna to
battle, but they refused to come forth from behind their
walls. Robert of Geneva announced his intention of not
leaving Bologna until he had washed his hands and his feet
in the blood of her citizens.1 He was constrained to go into
winter quarters, however, in the friendly town of Cesena. The
Bretons treated the town as if they had taken it by assault ;
they plundered the houses of the citizens, they ravished their
wives and daughters. On the 1st February 1377 some of
the townsfolk attacked the Bretons and killed three hundred
of them ; the Cardinal acknowledged that his soldiers were
in the wrong, and promised a complete amnesty to Cesena if
the citizens would again open their gates to him. They
believed him, and did so. The Cardinal thereupon ordered
a general massacre. He hounded on his troops, crying out
for Blood, Blood : ' Kill them all ! ' he shouted. The bloody
massacre of Cesena sent a thrill of horror through Italy : it
necessitated the return of the Pope to Rome^
Bologna, which had been the last to join, was the first to
abandon the league, and to return to her allegiance to the
Pope ; she was to have the right of free government, and con
sented to receive a Vicar Apostolic. Vico followed suit.
Florence, being abandoned by her most powerful allies,
herself opened negotiations with Gregory. A peace conference
was held at Sarzana, under the presidency of Bernabo Visconti.
Before the terms had been arranged, on the evening of March
1 Sismondi (/. /?.), iv. 421.

THE GREAT SCHISM 107
27, 1378, there came a knocking at the city gate, and a cry,
' Open quickly to the messenger of Peace.' The gate was
opened, but no one was there. Then a cry ran through
Sarzana, ' The Olive has come, the Peace is made.' It was at
this day and hour that Pope Gregory the Eleventh died.1
The election of the new Pope was everywhere expected
with the utmost anxiety ; it was universally recognised as a
momentous event. Gregory himself had been filled with the
gloomiest forebodings. From his death-bed he had issued a
Bull ordering the cardinals then in Rome to proceed at once
to the new election without awaiting the arrival of their
absent colleagues. There were sixteen cardinals then in the
city : ten of them were Frenchmen, four were Italians. Six
of the French cardinals were of the Limousin faction, con
nected by birth or otherwise with the families of the last
three Popes ; the other four French cardinals constituted the
Gallican faction, and were bitterly opposed to the Limousins.
With the Gallicans acted the two remaining cardinals, Pedro
de Luna, the favourite of Saint Catharine, and Robert of
Geneva, who only a year earlier (3rd February 1377) had
perpetrated the bloody massacre of Cesena. A majority of
two-thirds was necessary for election : the French or Gallican
party was resolved that there should be no fresh Limousin
Pope ; they would have preferred one of themselves, but
recognised that of this there was no chance. The young
Roman Cardinal, Jacopo Orsini, counting on the aid of the
nobles and the populace, dreamed that the tiara might fall to
him. The Gallicans would have preferred Pierre Flandrin or
Guillaume de Noellet.2
Rome itself was in a turmoil : the nobles and high officials of
the Church were expelled from the city;3 the Romans themselves
were in a state of frantic excitement. They were determined
that the divorce of the Papacy from their city should no longer
continue,4 that the profits which pilgrims and others brought
to the dwelling-place of the Pope should be theirs ; they were
decided that no Frenchman should be Pope ; they desired a
Roman, or at all events an Italian. Popular feeling ran to
fever-heat. Each division of the French cardinals was ready to
1 Gardner, 233. 2 Ibid. 255. 8 Hefele, vi. 731- 4 1°^- vi- 7&-

108 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
side with the Italians rather than vote for the candidate of the
opposite faction ; x and the hopes of Orsini began to run high.
In this state, on the 7th April, with dissensions in their own
body and with a violent tumult raging outside, the cardinals
entered the upper story in which the conclave was held.
Nature itself seemed to take part in the strife ; a storm of
thunder and lightning came on ; men said that the lightning
struck the cells of Robert of Geneva and Pedro de Luna, the
future anti-popes.2 The multitude howled without : * Romano,
Romano volemo lo Papa, o almanco Italiano ! ' 3 They swore
to make the heads of the cardinals as red as their hats ; they
piled with faggots the room over which the conclave was held ;
they threatened death to the cardinals if their wishes were
not consulted. Bartolommeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari,
said to a friend, ' He who is elected in such a tumult can
never be Pope; nobody will recognise him.'4 All through
the night the populace kept up the din ; peasants from the
hills broke into the Vatican cellars and drank up the good
papal wine ; men beat against the floor under the conclave
with their pikes and halberds ; they rang all the church bells
of the city and sounded the tocsin of the Capitol ; in the
morning they forced the doors of the conclave. Three
cardinals came out to parley with the ringleaders, who
threatened to tear them in pieces if they did not at once
elect a Roman or an Italian. It was necessary to do some
thing, and that speedily. The cardinals promised to satisfy
the wishes of the multitude, and consulted together. Divers
plans were suggested. Finally Jean de Cros, Cardinal of
Limoges, of the Limousin faction, proposed that no one of
the cardinals should be elected, but that one outside the
sacred college should be chosen, and he named the Archbishop
of Bari as future Pope : he was an Italian, a Neapolitan, and
his election would satisfy those who insisted on an Italian as
Pope. Moreover, the archbishop ' had lately bought himself
a house and a vineyard in Rome, in order to qualify as a
Roman citizen.'6 The Limousin faction also secretly com
forted themselves with the reflection that Bartolommeo Prignano
1 Hefele, vi. 772. a Lenfant, i. 8. ' Hefele, vi. 733.
* Lenfant, i. 10. • Gardner, 258.

THE GREAT SCHISM 109
had risen to his present position through the patronage of
the Cardinal of Pampeluna, who was a Limousin,1 so that if
elected they judged and hoped that he would be grateful to
the Limousin party. All the cardinals thought that they
would find in the Archbishop of Bari, who had lived for some
years at the court at Avignon, a ready and subservient tool.
Bartolommeo Prignano was accordingly elected Pope. The
name of ' Bari, Bari,' was called out to the Roman crowd ;
they mistook it for the name of the Limousin, Jean de Bar,
and rushed into the conclave, threatening death to the traitor
cardinals.2 Then old Tebaldeschi, the Cardinal of Saint
Peter's, was presented to the mob ; 3 but the aged prelate's
cries, protestations, and curses at length undeceived them.
The cardinals fled from the palace. Two days later, to the
intense joy of the populace, the Archbishop of Bari was
crowned Pope, and took the name of Urban the Sixth. The
cardinals wrote to those of their number who had remained
behind at Avignon, announcing to them that under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit they had unanimously elected the
Archbishop of Bari to be Pope, that he had duly taken his
seat on the apostolic throne, and that he had been crowned
on the day of Our Lord's Resurrection.
The new Pope was a short, fat man, a dark-faced Nea
politan,4 filled with a certain monkish piety, with a hatred of
pomp and of simony, but brusque and impetuous, utterly
devoid of tact and self-restraint, and without any knowledge
of the world. Had he known how to appreciate the circum
stances aright, he would have seen a great future opening
before him. There is no doubt that his election, though it
may have been tainted with irregularity, was canonically
valid.5 It had been held in the midst of a tumult, and the
cardinals had not been bricked up according to custom.0
But they had solemnly declared that they had elected him
freely and advisedly ; they had appeared at his coronation ;
nay, more, they stood by him, obeyed him, accepted and
solicited favours from him7 not only immediately after his
1 Hefele, vi. 740. 2 De Schismate, 12. * Hefele, vi. 736, 743.
* Di Schismate, 9. ' Tschackert, 4. s Hefele, vi. 733.
' Ibid. vi. 777-

110 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
election, but for the first three months of his reign. Their
conduct during this time confirmed, if any confirmation were
necessary, the canonicity and regularity of his election. The
new Pope was recognised by the cardinals, was recognised
through Christendom, as being the true and canonical Pope.
Up to the end of July not a breath of suspicion tainted the
validity of the election.1 But Urban himself knew as well
as any man the peculiar circumstances which had attended
his elevation. He was fully aware of the contentions which
divided the sacred college, of the motives which had led the
cardinals to give their suffrages to an outsider. Had he
been of politic mind, he would have given some thought to
the conciliation of the cardinals, at any rate during the first
months of his pontificate, in order to consolidate his position.2
Though not a cardinal, he had lived at Avignon, and was aware
of the weight and influence of the College ; he knew that the
cardinals considered themselves the equals of kings, and that
they were everywhere treated with the utmost respect and
ceremony. He knew also that many of them expected him
to return to Avignon.3 He was resolved not to return, and
herein he was right ; but he might have shown consideration
and sympathy for the lofty dignitaries whose wishes he was
thwarting, who had raised him to be the spiritual Lord of
Christendom. He showed none ; he was habitually rude and
insulting to the members . of the sacred College ; 4 he abused
and stormed at them ; he called them fools and liars ; he
sprang from his -seat, intending to attack one of them ; he
threatened to swamp their influence by creating new Italian
cardinals. They had thought that he would be their creature,
ready to do whatever they wished ; but he, on the other hand,
relying on the sympathy of the Romans, soon showed that
he had played a humble part long enough, that he was now
Pope and was determined to be absolute master. He was
brutally overbearing and insolent to the Cardinal of Amiens,
who had taken no part in the election, but who returned on
Low Sunday, April 25th, to report the result of the negotia
tions which he had conducted with Florence, after the war of
1 Hefele, vi. 788. 2 Erler, 46.
s Hefele, vi. 783. * De Schismate, 17, zo.

THE GREAT SCHISM ill
the republics against Holy Church. The Pope charged the
Cardinal with destroying the peace of the world by his
treacherous diplomacy ; the angry Cardinal retorted that had
it been merely the Archbishop of Bari who said so, he would
have told him that he lied in his throat.1 The insult to his
honour rankled in the proud Frenchman's breast ; it was he
who afterwards first suggested to his colleagues that the
election of Urban might be declared void.
Nevertheless, from April on to July the cardinals recognised
Urban as Pope,2 and breathed not a word of doubt as to the
validity of their choice. In electing him they had made a mis
take, and too late they discovered their error. To repair it,
they resolved wilfully to sacrifice the welfare of Christendom.
Under the pretext of escaping from the heat they obtained
permission to leave Rome, and betook themselves to Agnani.
The chamberlain, Pierre de Cros, who had charge of the tiara
and the papal ornaments, took them with him and accom
panied the cardinals. Pedro de Luna, who had backed up
Urban all through, was the last to go.3 From Agnani they
wrote to the four Italian cardinals who still remained at
Rome, pointing out that the recent election had been forced
and irregular, and was therefore void. Three of the four
joined them ; old Tebaldeschi died. Urban, utterly abandoned,
wept and recognised his own folly now that it was too late.4
All the cardinals who had elected him were now banded
together against him. He determined, if possible, to check
mate them, and on the 18th September he created twenty-
six new cardinals, several of whom refused the proffered
honour. Two days later the old cardinals, who had mean
time moved to Fondi for greater security — Urban having
quarrelled with the Count of Fondi — elected Robert of
Geneva, the perpetrator of the bloody massacre of Cesena, as
Pope. He took the style of Clement the Seventh. Thus
arose the Great Schism.
To us at the present day, as we read the history and
consider the circumstances of the time, it may not be surpris
ing that there should thus have arisen two rival Popes ; but
1 Hefele, vi. 782. 2 Ibid. vi. 746.
* Gardner, 72. * De Schismate, 28,

112 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
to the ordinary unlettered man of the Middle Ages it was
incomprehensible and inexplicable, a thing of wonder and
amazement. There had been anti-popes before, but never
before had there been two Popes elected by the same, or
practically the same, body of cardinals. The unity of the
Holy Roman Empire, considering the portions that had been
reft from it, considering also the growing rivalry of inde
pendent nations, might have become almost a lost idea ; but
the Unity of the Papacy had hitherto remained secure and
unshaken, a fixed rock on which the faith of Christendom
was founded. There could, men thought, be but one head
of the Church on earth, even as there was but one head in
Heaven. The clergy everywhere acknowledged the over-
lordship of one Pope. Bishops everywhere were collated,
many were directly appointed by him. Peter's Pence still
flowed in from the northern nations of Europe, the tribute of
the humblest Christians to their one Father. The regular
clergy acknowledged the one Pope as their head, and knew
no other superior outside their convent walls. Pardoners
traversed all countries selling indulgences which they claimed
to have obtained direct from the Pope. The wandering
friars brought his name home to the poorest and meanest.
Every man in Christendom knew that there was one Pope,
one supreme Father over the hearts of all true believers.
But now that the Schism had begun, now that there were
two Popes, the prospect to a lowly Christian soul must have
been awful in its perplexity. Each of the rival pontiffs
hurled his thunders of anathema against the other, each ex
communicated the other and all who adhered to him. That
the rightful Pope had the power of consigning the victims of
his denunciations to everlasting damnation no true Christian
ventured to doubt. But who held this power ? who was the
rightful Pope ? In the heart of a kingdom a man might be
content to follow without question the faith of his ruler ;
the German and the Englishman would believe in Urban,
the Frenchman and the Scot would believe in Clement, but
on the borders, where one village owned one obedience and
the next owned another, the doubt and dismay must at times
have been heartrending. Even where one Pope was generally

THE GREAT SCHISM 113
acknowledged, there was always x some town or community
which held for his rival ; often there was a division in the
same town or even in the same house ; so that no one could
find peace or rest on either side, and men's consciences were
troubled by doubt as to which was the true Head of the
Church, and on which side one could render to God real and
acceptable service.2
In the political and ecclesiastical worlds the Great Schism
introduced a new element of discord. France held for
Clement, England for Urban. Scotland precipitately, Castile,
Aragon, and Navarre more deliberately and independently,
followed the lead of France. Portugal, vacillating with the
event of war, eventually embraced the cause of Urban. In
the Levant the powerful influence of Venice and of Genoa
was exercised for the Pope at Rome ; but Clement was not
without followers in Corfu, in Albania, in Morea, in the
Island of Cyprus, and among the cavaliers of Saint John of
Jerusalem.3 Charles the Fifth had fondly hoped to gain the
adherence of Germany for Clement, but to King Wenzel and
to Germany generally the legitimacy of Pope Urban was as
clear as the sun at noonday : Prokop of Moravia, however,
thought otherwise ; so too did the Duke of Juliers, the Count
de la Marck, the Count of Cleves, possibly also Albert of
Bavaria. Flanders consulted the doctors of Bologna and
pronounced for Urban ; then followed the indecisive crusade
of Bishop Despenser of Norwich (1383), when the Urbanists
donned the white bonnet with the red cross ; this was suc
ceeded next year by the death of Louis de Male, Count of
Flanders, and the accession of the Duke of Burgundy : Philip
the Bold was a Clementist, and used his influence for Pope
Clement, but he left his new subjects free to follow their
own convictions.4 Duke Leopold of Austria sold himself for
a price to Pope Clement ; but the fatal day of Sempach (9th
July 1386) restored his dominions, Styria, Carinthia, the
Tirol, Austria, Switzerland, Swabia, and Alsace, to the
obedience of Pope Urban. Holland, Luxemburg, Brabant,
Hainault, Lorraine, and Savoy all acknowledged Clement as
the rightful Pope^ King Louis the Great of Hungary was
1 Lenfant, i. 50. 2 Schwab, 155. 3 Valois, ii. 218. 4 Ibid. ii. 252.
H

114 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
on the side of Urban ; his sister-in-law, Joanna of Naples,
soon took that of Clement. The Duke of Mecklenburg and
the King of Norway were contending for the crown of Sweden
and Denmark ; Norway adhered to Clement, his opponent to
Urban. In Naples, where the childless queen Joanna had
married her fourth husband, Pope Urban the Sixth, who had
no desire to see the country pass into German hands, refused
to crown Otto, Duke of Brunswick, and treated him with
studied insolence.1 This alienated the queen, who passed
over to the Clementine faction, and subsequently adopted the
Duke of Anjou. Urban favoured at first the party of her
rival, Charles of Durazzo, until he quarrelled with him and
excommunicated him ; in Naples the party of Ladislas, son
of Charles of Durazzo, became ultimately the Roman party,
while that of the Duke of Anjou remained throughout
Clementine. In ecclesiastical appointments the same division
occurred. Adolf of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz, declared
at first for Clement ; the Archbishops of Cologne and Trier
declared for Urban. Where an election was disputed, it
goes without saying that one candidate was on the side of
one Pope and his rival on the side of the other : this was
the case in Liege, in Basel, in Metz, in Constance, in Chur,
in Liibeck, and in other bishoprics.2
France, more than any other country, had bgen responsible
for the Schism. Urban the Sixth was crowned on Easter
Sunday 1378; before the end of May a sergeant-at-arms
and four of his secretaries brought the news to King Charles
the Fifth ; they were followed next month by four persons
attached to certain of the cardinals ; and shortly afterwards
the discontented cardinals themselves, and among them the
King's old counsellor, Jean de la Grange, Cardinal of Amiens,
who had been so grossly insulted by Urban, wrote to Charles
warning him to give no credence to the official account of
the Pope's election. Urban himself sent two messengers,
Francesco Tortello and Pierre de Murles ; but the latter was
a secret envoy of the cardinals.3 In August the cardinals
sent from Agnani a messenger, Jean de Guignicourt, to
announce officially to the King that the election of Urban
1 De Schismate, 19. 2 Lindner [IV.), i. 93. a Valois, i. 91.

THE GREAT SCHISM 115
had been null and void. Charles sent the sum of twenty
thousand francs for their assistance ; he wrote also to Queen
Joanna of Naples to offer them shelter in case of need ; he
assured the cardinals themselves of his goodwill, and his
letter reached them two days before they elected Robert of
Geneva. All this was done by the King before the clergy
of France were consulted, before any official declaration of
policy was made. For several months the entire kingdom of
France, like the rest of Europe, had recognised Urban the
Sixth as the true Pope ; and the subsequent recognition of
Clement the Seventh was not universal in France, and met
with special opposition in Normandy.1 If the King of
France did not exercise any direct pressure on the cardinals,
if independently of his action the Schism would certainly
have occurred, still he was undoubtedly an accessory after the
fact.2 There can be no doubt that Charles the Fifth, being
persuaded of the validity of Clement's election, hoped to get
him recognised not only by the Celtic nations, but by nearly
all the Christian nations of Europe, and that he counted in
particular on his good relations with the German Empire :
had he lived to continue his cautious, able, and persevering
policy, the result might possibly have been eventually other
than it was. But Charles died on the 16th September 1380,
and the Schism became established. In the eyes of the other
nations of Europe too, France was responsible for the Schism.
To them the captivity of the Popes at Avignon had rendered
the Pope the confederate, the willing servant, almost the
tool, of the King of France. The later Avignonese Popes
had indeed been much more independent than they had had
popular credit for ; but their position in the Provencal
country, within easy access of France, and far removed from
the influence of Italy and Germany, was fatal to their credit
as the impartial head of Christendom. When they removed
to Rome again, the French influence was necessarily and
visibly diminished ; and men generally believed that it was
to regain the lost influence that France had fostered the
Schism. The real authors of the Schism were the cardinals. To
1 Lavisse, iv. i. 261. 2 Valois, i. 144.

116 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
excuse themselves they accused themselves of a pitiful
cowardice which Cardinal Orsini, Pedro de Luna, and others
of their number certainly never felt. To attribute the elec
tion of Urban to coercion and intimidation was absurd, in
the cuse of fighting men like Robert of Geneva and Gerard
de Puy. The great majority of the cardinals were French
men, and the old pleasant days at Avignon beckoned them
back to the sinful city. The prospect of a life in Italy, in a
ruinous city, amid a turbulent populace, under the thumb of
an unmannerly, overbearing pontiff who might at any moment
treat any of them with the brutal harshness which he
manifested subsequently in the case of the six cardinals whom
he accused of conspiracy,1 was not alluring. There had been
enough violence and tumult to give colour to the plea that
the election was forced and not free, and they determined to
avail themselves of this plea. To their own greed and
welfare they sacrificed the interest of the Church, and brought
on her a grievous affliction of which no one could foresee the
issue. The cardinals were the real, France was the ostensible,
author of the Great Schism.
While the Great Schism, the greatest affliction which had
ever befallen her since the degenerate days of the Harlots,
was thus beginning to desolate the Church, there were every
where apparent through the countries of Western Europe
the signs of conflict and distress. The prosperity which had
attended the close of the thirteenth century had disappeared ;
much of the Continent was in a state of very slow recovery
from long-continued war — from war which meant the burning
of churches and homesteads, the destruction of crops, the
houghing and harrying of cattle, the murder of peasants and
burghers from whom no ransom could be expected. By the
end of the century England, France, Spain, and the Scandi
navian countries had all been troubled by wars of succession.
Black Margaret, the daughter of King Waldemar, in 1397
succeeded in uniting Norway, Sweden, and Denmark under
her single rule. In the Spanish peninsula the struggle was
of older date and of longer continuance. Alfonso the
Eleventh of Castile at his death left a legitimate son, Pedro
1 Lindner (IV.), i. 253.

THE GREAT SCHISM 117
the Cruel, by his wife Mary of Portugal, and an illegitimate
son, Henry of Trastamara, by his leman, the beautiful
Eleanor de Guzman. In Spain a bastard always stood a
better chance of recognition and succession than in the
Teutonic lands, and although Pedro won the crown of Castile
for his own lifetime, Henry of Trastamara succeeded him.
On his death, however, in 1379, a fresh war broke out, in
which the title of Henry's son, John, was contested by the
King of Portugal and by the Duke of Lancaster. One of
John of Gaunt's daughters was married to the King of Portu
gal, but the ambitious duke did not scruple to desert his son-
in-law, to marry another daughter to the son of the reigning
King of Castile, and to conclude peace (1387). Aragon was
spared for the present its war of succession ; it was soon to
come. Navarre was ruled by the French prince Charles the
Bad, a traitor to his own country, a friend to Edward the
Third ; he died in 1387. On the east of the Empire the
Teutonic Order of knights had by the force of the sword
converted to the true faith much of heathen Prussia; and
the Poles and Lithuanians had nominally embraced Christi
anity when their king, Jagello, christened Ladislas at his
baptism, had married the beautiful Hedwig, the youngest
daughter of the late mighty King of Hungary, Louis the
Great, who died in 1382.
The three most powerful kingdoms of Western Europe,
England, France, and Germany, had by the year 1380 fallen
to three boys, each of whom succeeded a firm and powerful
sovereign who had done much to win for his country the
position which it held and the respect which it inspired. In
1377 Richard the Second, 'born without a skin, and
nourished in the skins of goats,' had succeeded his grand
father at the age of ten ; in Germany, Wenzel had at the age
of sixteen, in 1378, succeeded his father Charles the Fourth ;
and in France, two years later, Charles the Sixth had
succeeded his father Charles the Fifth, deservedly known as
Charles le Sage. Edward the Third of England was a
warrior who had brought great gain and glory to his own
country, and who had wrought untold woe on France by
prosecuting his claim to the French crown ; but the war had

118 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
languished since the Peace of Bretigny (1360), and Charles
the Fifth, by his policy of masterly inactivity and his care
and economy, had done much toward the recovery of France.
Even after his death and up to the close of the century peace
continued for the most part unbroken ; and the untiring
industry and patient thrift, which then as now characterised
the French peasant, began to work an improvement ; agricul
ture and industry recovered, the barns which had been burned
down were rebuilt, the vines were replanted, the fields were
again covered with crops.1 But the improvement was not for
long ; the old reign of misery was to recommence with the
cruel civil war which broke out between the Orleanists and
the Armagnacs.
The three young kings had each a hard game to play.
Richard and Charles were left under the tutelage of their
uncles, and each of their uncles had his own separate selfish
policy. Each of the three boys was handsome and lovable ;
each at times displayed a kingly vigour ; but each was doomed
to give way to periods of inaction and to bouts of self-
indulgence. Richard the Second was beautiful and pleasure-
loving, like his mother, the Fair Maid of Kent. Charles the
Sixth loved his people, and was loved by them his whole life
through ; but he was ruined and maddened by sensuality and
voluptuousness, by the nights and days of feasting and
debauchery into which he was plunged by his uncles.
Marriage produced no improvement, but rather deepened the
evil. His wife's court was described by the Augustine monk,
Legrand, as the court of Venus, served by drunkenness and
debauchery, and where night was turned into day by the most
dissolute dances.2 The continued tax on his strength broke
him down. A melancholy madness seized the King in 1392,
which rendered him incapable of government for lengthened
intervals thereafter ; it was attributed by the people to
sorcery. It was recognised by all that the King of France
was but a madman with lucid intervals. He was betrayed
by his wife, the beautiful, but soon somewhat corpulent,
Isabel of Bavaria, but was so fairly entreated by his ' sweet
sister,' Valentine Visconti, that all men deemed that she by
1 Sismondi (F.), xii. 171 ; Martin, v. 469. ! Religieux, iii. 268.

THE GREAT SCHISM 119
sorcery had bereft him of reason. The King's madness not
only delivered the kingdom to the selfish intrigues of his
uncles, but also introduced to active life his younger brother,
the handsome Louis of Orleans, the inconstant husband of
the beauteous Milanese, a far more attractive and brilliant
figure than the Duke of Berri or the Duke of Burgundy, but
equally devoted to his own selfish aims, and equally regardless
of the welfare of France. From this time the kingdom was a
prey, in the intervals of Charles's insanity, to his uncles and
his brother, and the factions were already forming which were
to become notorious as the Burgundians and Armagnacs.
In Germany the astute Emperor Charles the Fourth had
been pre-eminently a peacemaker, and had succeeded in
establishing the imperial authority over the numberless
particles which made up the grand, but ill-assorted, Holy
Romano-Germanic Empire. When Charles died, his son
Wenzel reigned well and tolerably wisely for the first ten
years, although he sacrificed his own interest and the interest
of the Empire in helping his half-brother Sigismund, whom
he loved, but who repaid his love and sacrifice with the basest
ingratitude ; it was after the first ten years of his reign had
elapsed that Wenzel gave way to slothfulness and drink. It
was while he was thus inefficient that, at the further side of
Europe, the Osmanlis had entered the continent, and the
Greek Empire was tottering to its fall ; the Emperor Manuel
was a suppliant for aid at the courts of Venice, Paris, and
London. 'It was the recognised task of the Emperor of the
Holy Roman Empire to defend Christendom against the
Turk ; but the work now fell on the shoulders of the stalwart
young warrior, Sigismund of Hungary. He tried to make
headway against the misbelievers ; a crusade was preached,
and the King raised a mighty army ; he was joined by the
flower of the French chivalry under John of Nevers, eldest
son of the Duke of Burgundy ; by the Germans under Count
Rupert of the Palatine, Count Hermann of Cilly, John of
Nuernberg, and others ; by contingents from Poland and
Wallachia; by crusaders from England under their future
king ; by the fleets of Venice and the Chevaliers of Rhodes.
Through the impetuous folly and vanity of the French, who

120 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
set at nought the superior knowledge and advice of Sigismund,
the whole of this magnificent army was defeated at the battle
of Nicopolis (1396) with such overwhelming loss that Eastern
Europe appeared to lie at the mercy of the infideL
Four years later the succession to the Holy Roman Empire,
the highest temporal power then known to the civilised world,
was in dispute. The story will be told more in detail later
on. It is only necessary to refer to it here to complete a
brief sketch of the state of Europe at the end of the four
teenth century. Wenzel's apathy and disregard of the affairs
of the Empire had disgusted certain of the Electors ; he had
neglected imperial interests in Flanders, he had sold the duchy
of Milan for a price, he had not terminated the Great Schism
which afflicted the Church ; therefore the four Electors of
the Rhine, the other three holding aloof, called upon him to
appear and to answer these charges. It was true that Wenzel
had fallen wofully from his first estate. Originally of a good
disposition and most carefully educated by his father, he
had allowed himself to fall under the influence of low-born
favourites, and had given way to sloth and indecision ; he had
become a sot, plagued with a thirst which was popularly
attributed to the dregs of poison lurking in his system ; he
had sold the freedom of a city for four hundred tuns of wine
annually ; he had loved with an engrossing, inordinate love
Bohemian lasses and Bohemian beer ; he had proved himself,
and he was conscious that he was, utterly incapable of manag
ing the affairs of a great Empire. But he was tenacious of
his dignity, and he could appoint a regent to do the work.
The three archbishops of the Rhine and the Count Palatine
met at the little white chapel which still overlooks the con
fluence of the Lahn and the Rhine, and they solemnly
deposed Wenzel ; next day the three archbishops, one holding
the proxy of the Count Palatine, crossed the river to Rense,
and at the Koenigstuhl under the walnut-trees, on the left
bank of the Rhine — the platform which had been built by
Charles the Fourth as being within call of four electorates, the
platform which was used on this occasion and never again 
they proclaimed Rupert, Count Palatine, to be henceforth
King of the Romans and future Emperor of the Holy Roman

THE GREAT SCHISM 121
Empire. Wenzel refused to recognise the deposition or to
give up the regalia ; there were henceforth two kings in Ger
many, and a schism was produced which lasted through the
first ten years of the fifteenth century.
Italy was a land apart, utterly different from every other
country in Europe. In culture, in intellect, in imagination
she was far ahead of them all. The old classical authors
were read, loved, and imitated. Where other countries were
making puny, childlike efforts toward art and culture, the
endeavours of Italy were great, almost Titanic. Dante,
Petrarch, and Boccaccio, three names to resound for ages,
had appeared and had passed away, taking their seats among
the immortals. Cimabue and Giotto had founded the modern
school of Italian painting. Nicolo Pisano had carved the
famous pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa and had left a school
of sculptors behind him. In architecture, in which the pre
eminence of Italy was perhaps less marked, it is enough to
mention such buildings as the Duomo at Florence, the
Cathedral of Milan, the Doges' Palace at Venice, the Palazzo
Municipale of Piacenza. But if the upper classes of Italy
were far in advance of those of other countries in culture and
intellect, they fell far behind them in morality and their
conduct of life. Public and private morality alike were
utterly dissociated from religion among the upper classes,1
from superstition among the lower, and had practically ceased
to exist. Political assassination, which roused such horror
and called for such long-winded defence in France, whence it
was ultimately referred to the Council of Constance, was
taken as a matter of course in Italy ; if a man was in the
way, it was only natural, if it were possible, to remove him
by poison or the stiletto. Treachery was of common occur
rence, both in public and in private life ; loyalty was a plant
of slow growth in Italian soil. Female honour was lightly
esteemed in many nations, but nowhere more lightly than in
Italy ; rape was an ordinary incident of everyday life. The
Italian nobility unhappily lacked two motives which were
all-powerful in other nations, the point of honour and the
fear of God. Chivalry had never struck root in Italy, and
1 Symonds, i. 350.

122 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the chivalrous sense of honour was unknown.1 Nor did their
men of thought turn to religion ; art, scholarship, political
science, and philosophy occupied their minds, but towards
religious questions they evinced an intellectual apathy ; they
feared to sin against the law of culture more than against the
law of Christ. It is not wonderful that under these condi
tions vice was rampant. It was as easy to sin in Italy as to
put on your shoes or slippers in London. State officers main
tained brothels ; priests acted as panders and kept houses of
bad repute. The courtesans of Venice were noted through
Europe for their numbers, their beauty, their grace and
accomplishments, their manifold arts of dalliance. The
Italian required the ' fascination of the fancy to be added to
the allurement of the senses ' ; 2 he endeavoured to spiritualise
abominable vices. But while in all these points Italy was
the shame of Europe, in other points she was its exemplar.
The middle-classes believed before all things in money and in
money-making. They were shrewd men of business ; and the
nobles did not disdain to take their part in commerce, navi
gation, and industry. The merchants of Venice and Genoa
traded not only with the Levant, but also with South Germany
and other parts of inland Europe. Ancona and Rimini on
the eastern coast, Pisa and Amalfi on the western, were mer
chant ports of considerable importance. Milan and Florence
were noted for their banking-houses ; the Bardi, the Peruzzi,
and others financed Edward the Third of England and the
King of Sicily as the same houses had financed Charles of
Anjou. The commercial integrity of the Italian bankers
stood very high throughout Europe. It is unnecessary to do
more than mention the industrial guilds of Florence, the silk-
weavers of Lucca, the armourers of Milan, the workers in oil
and in wool, and the like. The Italian cities had succeeded in
doing what the German cities were striving hard to accom
plish : they had won a right of independent self-development,
but the right was marred by the despotisms and tyrannies
under which they had in many instances fallen ; it was also
distinguished by the fact that the Italian cities had absorbed
into their rule the surrounding country in a manner which
1 Symonds, i. 378. 2 Ibid. i. 372.

THE GREAT SCHISM 128
the German Free States never attempted. The people had
thus enjoyed centuries of wealth and civilisation in great
cities while the northern races had remained in a state of
comparative poverty and barbarism. With respect to the
lower classes, the dictum of a celebrated scholar may safely be
accepted, that if the artists of Italy, ' not few of whom were
born in cottages and educated in workshops, could feel and
think and fashion as they did, we cannot doubt that their
mothers and their friends were pure and pious, and that the
race which gave them to the world was not depraved. . . .
Italian art alone suffices to prove,' says Symonds,1 ' that the
immorality of the age descended from the upper stratum of
society downwards.' Italian soldiers and the lower classes
generally were not so ignorant and gross as those of England ;
they were less cruel and inhuman than those of Spain ; they
were not gluttons and drunkards as were those of Germany ;
they took no delight in brawls and bloodshed as did the
Switzers ; they were more sober and courteous than the
French.2 In its political development also Italy differed from the
rest of Europe. In the twelfth century the whole of Upper
and Central Italy was split up into a number of little repub
lics, somewhat resembling the cities of ancient Greece or the
free states of Germany. The passion for self-development
was everywhere the ruling motive. They were impatient of
control by Pope or Emperor ; they recognised that they
formed part of the Holy Roman Empire, and they sought no
other or closer bond of union. Each city desired to develop
its own particular industry or commerce, to organise itself on
its own social lines, to expand on its own political type ;
availing itself of its existing municipal machinery, it sought
to secure independence and to place the government in the
hands of its own citizens. But disturbing forces, factions
within and wars without, entered and played havoc, until
little by little ' each republic in turn became weaker, more
confused in policy, more mistrustful of itself and its own
citizens, more subdivided into petty but ineradicable fations,
until at last it fell a prey either to some foreign potentate
1 Symonds, i. 383. 2 Ibid. i. 382.

124 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
or to the Church, or else to an ambitious family among its
members.' 3
By the end of the fourteenth century the ruling powers in
Italy had become reduced to five in number. The Republic
of Genoa, through fear of the Visconti of Milan, had in 1396
surrendered its liberty to the King of France, and was no
longer independent ; the French Constable Boucicaut was
lord of Genoa and of the sea front from the Western Riviera
round to Livorno (Leghorn). The Duke of Milan and the
Republic of Venice divided between them the northern part
of Italy ; the Republic of Florence and the Papal States
occupied the centre ; the Kingdom of Naples formed the
south of the peninsula.
Naples also had been and still was the scene of a disputed
succession. Charles of Anjou had been called in by the Pope
nearly a century and a half earlier (1262) to expel the
Hohenstaufen ; he had won for himself the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies ; but his oppression and cruelty had driven the
Sicilians to revolt, and after the 'Vespers' (1282) Sicily was
lost and Naples alone remained to the House of Anjou. In
the city of Naples itself, Frederic the Second, the grandson
of Barbarossa, had built him a lordly palace, and here Charles
of Anjou, and his son and grandson after him, reigned in
undisputed succession. The grandson, Robert, left a grand
daughter, Joanna, who succeeded him. She married her
second cousin, Andrew ; but Andrew, not content with the
position of a prince-consort, claimed the crown in his own
right, on the ground that his grandfather, Charles Martel,
had been the elder brother of his wife's grandfather, Robert.
This unfortunate claim cost Andrew his life; and Joanna
married Louis of Tarentum, her father's first cousin, who was
suspected with Joanna herself of having murdered the luckless
Andrew. Sixteen years later Louis died, and Joanna married
again; and finally, in 1376, she married for the fourth
time, but she had no children by any of her husbands. Her
heir-presumptive was her second cousin, Charles of Durazzo ;
but the Papal Schism had now commenced, dividing Chris
tendom, and often royal families, into two contending
Symonds, i. 155-6.

THE GREAT SCHISM 125
families. This had happened in the case of the Anjou
family ; the opposition of Pope Urban to Queen Joanna had
caused an important change in Neapolitan politics. The
Queen, when the Pope insulted her husband, went over to
the French side ; whereas Charles of Durazzo was an adherent
of Urban. To spite Charles and to defeat his expectations,
Joanna, on the 29th June 1380, made a will, whereby she
adopted Louis, Duke of Anjou, brother of Charles the Fifth
of France, as her heir in Italy, in Sicily, and in France.
Clement the Seventh lost no time in confirming her dona
tion.1 The King's death prevented the Duke from starting
at once to take possession of his new kingdom ; he had first
of all to rob France of the necessary funds for the enterprise.
Pope Urban wrote to Louis of Hungary, urging him to
punish Joanna for the murder of her former husband ; the
aged monarch passed the task on to his nephew, Charles of
Durazzo. The adoption by Joanna, letting in the second
house of Anjou, provided abundant trouble for Italy both in
the near and in the distant future. Charles accepted his
task with alacrity ; he invaded Naples, defeated the Queen's
husband, captured Joanna herself — she was murdered shortly
afterwards — and was crowned King of Naples in 1382, to
the joy of the Neapolitans, who preferred their own country
man as Pope to the Butcher of Cesena. In the same year
Duke Louis of Anjou, having provided himself with money
and men, brought a formidable army to support his claim ;
but delay, disease, and starvation played havoc with his
troops, and in 1384 the Duke himself died. Charles of
Durazzo was now firmly established as King of Naples. Un
fortunately he was offered the crown of Hungary ; he went to
that country, gained the crown, but was assassinated in June
1386. This left the claim to the crown of Naples to be
fought out between two boys, Ladislas, the son of Charles,
who was ten years old when his father died, and Louis the
Second of Anjou, who was three years the junior of Ladislas.
Louis was represented by his mother, Marie de Bretagne, who
was unable to do anything for the time to advance her son's
claim, which remained in abeyance.
1 Hefele, vi. 8oo.

126 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
The foregoing sketch of the state of Europe at the time
of the Great Schism has shown that the predominant place
throughout was taken by war. War, bloodshed, and rapine,
violence and disorder, were the glaring evils of the time ; all
classes suffered, but the lowest suffered more terribly than
others. Peace and quietude was what they coveted, but
what they found it difficult to obtain. The clerical greeting,
' Pax Vobiscum,"1 whose full meaning we in this country find
it difficult to realise, sounded a mockery to those poor souls,
whose crops were pillaged, whose cattle were harried or
maimed, whose houses were burned over their heads. War
was the occupation and the sport of the knightly class ; when
real war was not to be had, they delighted in the mimic war
of the joust and the tournament. But the knights formed
only one class of the community.
Society in the Middle Ages was divided, roughly speaking,
into four main divisions or classes.1 There were the knights
and their retainers, who dwelt in castles and strongholds ;
there were the merchants and tradesmen, with their depen
dants, in the walled towns and cities ; there were the
agriculturists, with their labourers, who lived for the most
part in wattled huts, clustered around the church in walled
villages, or gathered together close under the protection of
their lord, spiritual or temporal ; and there were the clerks
(clerici) or clergy, who dwelt partly in clergy-houses, monas
teries, or other buildings, protected by their sanctity, and
partly also in the larger cities and towns. To this rough
classification there were many exceptions, such as the Jews,
the lay lawyers, the sea-going folk, the wayfarers, and others;
but for the population generally the division holds good.
Men were born into the first three classes and took their
places therein by right of birth. But with the clerks it was
otherwise. A man was sometimes called a clerk because he
was a scholar ; but the clergy, properly speaking, were men
who had received orders, minor or sacred. The ' minor
orders' were those conferred on acolytes, readers, door
keepers, and exorcists ; the greater or ' sacred orders ' began
with the sub-diaconate ; and upon all those who had received
1 Cf. Hist. Gen. ii. 2.

THE GREAT SCHISM 127
them the rule of celibacy was, from the time of Gregory
the Seventh, enforced. This rule was not of divine institu
tion, it was a rule of the Church, and it was bitterly opposed
at first ; but long before the end of the fourteenth century
it had ceased to be contested. The ranks of the clergy were
therefore recruited by voluntary enlistment from the other
three classes. Voluntary enlistment implies deliberate choice,
generally of the volunteer, sometimes of his forebears ; and
a deliberate choice implies a certain amount of intelligence.
For this reason, and because of their education and the
demands which their duties cast upon them, the clergy
formed everywhere the intelligent class in the State.
Among the population generally the grossest ignorance
abounded ; superstition trenched on idolatry ; the time might
almost be fitly called * the Devil's Reign.' x Men of light
and leading did things then which would be incomprehensible
now. Popes and condottieri generals consulted the stars ;
magicians baptized their books in the lake at the foot of
Mons Pilatus ; the learned and reverend doctors of the
University of Paris, when at their wits' end, hesitated not to
consult certain wise women, foolish simpletons who saw
visions and dreamed dreams.2 But although there was much
that was ignoble and debasing, there was much also of the
childlike and picturesque, much that found great joy in the
mystery plays and in that spirit of mimicry and imitation
necessary for the education of an unlettered people, much
that still lingers among the peasantry of Europe everywhere.
In the early part of the century there had been a considerable
amount of prosperity even among the peasantry. In France
the agriculturists had been exceptionally numerous and excep
tionally well off; they fared well and their farms were well
stocked ; the beggars had white bread given them, and the
peasantry spread clean napery for their friends and ate their
fowls larded.3 In Germany also, when there was no war in
his vicinity, the peasant was well-to-do ; he dressed respec
tably and had money in his pocket ; he became the laughing
stock of his city compeers because of his bearing and his
1 Michelet, iv. 102. 2 Ibid. v. 302.
3 Simeon Luce, Bertrand du Guesclin, 62-3.

128 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
independence. In England a little later the beggars were
no longer content with their former rations ; they demanded
bread of clean wheat and beer of the best and brownest;
the landless labourer despised 'penny-ale' or cabbage that
was a night old, and asked for fresh meat and for fish freshly
fried. And together with plenty of this rough comfort and
coarse enjoyment there was among all classes, in those days
when all the world was one religion, much good fellowship,
much cheery intercourse and camaraderie. Men crossed and
greeted one another at their daily avocations, they mingled
in friendly rivalry in their sports and games, they prayed
together in one church, they met in the evening at the
alehouse ; quite apart from guilds and fellowships, there
reigned a spirit of goodwill and brotherhood. Rudolf of
Habsburg would drink, mug in hand, to the burghers of
Thuringia ; Edward the Third would dance with the citizens'
wives at Guildhall ; Saint Louis of France would dispense
justice under an oak at Compiegne.
In the middle of the century came the Black Death, the
most terrible scourge which has ever desolated humanity in
historic times ; it swept through nearly every part of Europe,
and carried off here one-third, there one-half, in some places
two-thirds of the inhabitants. The fearful depopulation
went far to revolutionise society ; the Black Death shook the
bonds of custom and introduced the reign of contract. The
shortness of labourers after the calamity gave to every
workman, agricultural or other, a market value ; and he soon
learned no longer to be content with the old customary
valuation placed on his services. There was everywhere a
demand for labour, and he could leave his old home and
get work at better wages elsewhere. In England wages
doubled ; they were everywhere in excess of the statute rate,
but employers were willing to risk the liability and to go on
paying : the labourers worked only eight hours a day ; they
throve under their guilds and trades-unions ; the peasants
began gradually to acquire land. Very different was the
state of things in France. That country had sunk from
the height of prosperity to the depth of misery. The
Hundred Years' War had begun, and in the intervals of the

THE GREAT SCHISM 129
war the country suffered from the ravages of the Free Com
panies. The English and their allies among the Bretons
and the Navarrese had committed frightful atrocities, but
Frenchman and foreigner alike, clerk and layman, combined
to pillage the unhappy land of France. The grandes
compagnies were composed of miscreants of all nations,
bands with the discipline of an army and the instinct of
brigands, commanded by chiefs like Robert Knolles or Hugh
Calverley, like Olivier de Clisson or Eustache d'Auberchicourt,
or even by the priests like Jacques d'Aigregeuille, the cure
of Mesvres, or the Archpriest Arnaud de Cervolles. These
ruffians spared neither man, woman, nor child in their fury
and lust ; they burned and despoiled houses, sacred and
profane : indeed, after the castles, the buildings most capable
of fortification and defence were the cathedrals, churches,
and abbeys, and these were therefore invariably the object of
attack. King Charles the Fifth, by his wise economy and
his policy of masterly inactivity, had done much to restore
the credit of his country, but he could not recompense his
peasantry for the sufferings they had endured. After the in
surrection of the Jacques had been quelled, the country abode
in comparative peace. In Germany also the Emperor Charles
the Fourth did his best to keep the peace among the number
less heterogeneous elements of which the Empire was composed,
and for the most part he succeeded. But everywhere through
Western Europe toward the end of the fourteenth century a
spirit of popular discontent had been rising among the
people, and it gradually culminated in insurrections and
outbreaks. In 1378 the Ciompi or 'wooden shoes,' the
proletariat of Florence, rose in a half-revolution, half-strike,
to obtain reduction of taxes and better terms of employment :
they burned the palaces of the nobles and introduced a
reign of terror, during which the city was given over to
outrage and pillage. In Flanders the ' white bonnets,' the
democratic party, rallied in Ghent around the bourgeois
Philip van Artevelde ; they marched victoriously against
Bruges, but were mown down - in their thousands by the
French at Roosebeke (1382). In England the peasants
throughout the eastern counties, from Norfolk round to

130 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Sussex, revolted, thousands of them marched on London,
and demanded from their King the abolition of serfdom
(1381). At Rouen the coppersmiths and others rose; they
elected as their king a rich draper, a big man but poor of
spirit ; they opened the gaols, pillaged the houses of former
mayors, tore up charters (1382). In the same year the
Parisians rose against the tax-gatherers and the Jews ; they
seized twelve thousand leaden mallets from the Hotel de
Ville, and for three days the Maillotins were masters of the
city. In Auvergne the Tuchins, or dog-killers, appeared;
they were recruited from the poorest of the poor, and
nothing was safe from them. In Languedoc the peasants
and the men of the faubourgs, reduced to the utmost
misery by the war and taxation, rose in fury against the
nobles and the priests, killing all who had not hard and
horny hands like their own (1382). Something resembling
an international feeling of sympathy among the working
classes had sprung up ; for the first time, says Henri Martin,1
the populace in the different nations of the West experienced
the instinct of the identity of their cause, and an electric
movement of sympathy ran from the banks of the Seine and
the Scheldt to those of the Thames. In 1386 the Swiss
peasants defeated Leopold of Habsburg in the disastrous
battle of Sempach ; and next year the war, simmering
since 1379, broke out between the Swabian cities and
the Dukes of Bavaria, and between the towns on the Rhine
and the Count Palatine. Most sad were the results :
for miles round the cities and fortresses the villages were
utterly destroyed, and not a church nor a house remained
standing. There was at this time, as Michelet has said, the
profoundest trouble throughout Christendom ; it seemed as if
universal war were commencing between the low and the great.
It was in the middle of all this horror and misery that
the Great Schism had begun. Its existence was universally
admitted and universally deplored. It was everywhere felt
to be necessary in the interest of Christendom to put an
end to the disunion as speedily as possible. ' Divine
Providence,' Frederic Barbarossa had once said, ' has specially
1 Martin, v. 339.

THE GREAT SCHISM 131
appointed the Roman Empire to prevent the continuance of
schism in the Church.' 1 The Emperor, when he uttered this
axiom, was undoubtedly the most powerful monarch in
Europe. But when Charles the Fourth died there was no
Emperor ; the King of the Romans was a mere boy of
sixteen. Charles had recognised Urban ; he had commended
his cause to his son ; and all Europe expected, and the Pope
at Rome most anxiously hoped, that Wenzel would forthwith
proceed to Rome to be crowned Emperor, and that the
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire would thus proclaim to
all Christendom that Urban the Sixth was the rightful and
legitimate Pope and that Clement was a usurper. But there
were obstacles in the way. In 1381 indeed, Wenzel and
King Louis of Hungary sent an embassy to Paris to endeavour
to convert the French court to the Roman obedience ; but
the result was a foregone conclusion, as was that of the
counter-embassy sent two years later from Paris to Prague.
The journey to Rome was imperative in the interest of
Urban. Difficulties in the Empire, negotiations with
Hungary and Austria, the strife over the archbishopric of
Mainz and over the Swabian League, occupied Wenzel in
the earlier years of his reign ; and when in 1382 he
announced his intention of making the journey to Rome,
the death of Louis of Hungary and the consequent advance
ment of the claims of his half-brother Sigismund to the
crowns of Hungary and Poland delayed the project for some
years further. At this time in his reign Wenzel practically gave
up his chance of wearing the golden crown in order to further
the interests of Sigismund, and bitterly he was repaid for his
sacrifice. The coronation of Wenzel and his acknowledg
ment of Urban were not to be. An Emperor was not thus
to put an end to the Schism. Some other means must be
sought. From the very beginning the plan of a general council
had been broached. Before the election of Clement, the
Italian cardinals, with the assent of Urban, had proposed
that the question of the validity of his election should be
referred to a council ; 2 two of them repeated the suggestion
1 Gresebrecht, v. 236, 422. 2 Hefele, vi. 789 ; Schwab, 105.

132 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
afterward at Nice.1 The Florentines, when the Duke of
Anjou tried to win them to Clement, replied that they
had already recognised Urban as their Pope, and that they
must stand by their decision until a general council decided
that they were wrong.2 'King John of Castile, in his letter
of the 20th September 1379, advised Charles the Fifth of
France to refer the matter to a general council, this being
the plan, he said, which all Christendom approved. The
most eloquent and persuasive advocate at this time of a
general council was undoubtedly Henry of Langenstein, the
vice-chancellor of the University of Paris, who (1381) held
that God had in His mercy permitted the Schism in order
to bring about the much needed reform in the Church, for
which a general council was necessary.3 He was the first to
urge that the divine right of the Pope must itself be subor
dinate to the welfare of the Church ^his teaching fashioned
the thoughts of Jean Gerson, who when Pierre d'Ailly was
promoted to a bishopric, succeeded to the chancellorship of
the University in 1390. King Charles the Fifth was himself
in correspondence with the warmest adherents of the scheme
of a council ; but despite the embassy of the Duke of Luxem
burg, despite the arguments of Henry of Langenstein and
Conrad of Gelnhausen, the King of France died with the
assertion on his lips that he still believed Clement the
Seventh to be the true shepherd of the Church, although
he so far wavered as to admit that he would have obeyed
the finding of a general council had it gone against him.
But the chief argument against a council was that neither
Urban nor Clement nor the cardinals would hear of it.
There were indeed almost insuperable difficulties in the way
of its adoption at that time. There was the difficulty as to
the place of convocation amid the wars and jarring interests
of Europe. There was the difficulty as to the mode of
convocation : it was the duty of the Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire to convoke a council, but Wenzel had
not yet received the golden crown ; and if a council could
not meet without the consent of the Pope, then both Popes
and cardinals refused to act. There was the further difficulty
1 Lindner (IV.), i. in. 2 Valois, i. 155. 3 Schwab, 151.

THE GREAT SCHISM 133
of enforcing the decrees of the council when they had been
made. The project was, at the commencement of the Great
Schism, repeatedly made; it was as often, because of the
manifest difficulty and dilatoriness attending its execution,
deliberately discarded. The plan was especially favoured by
the Universities of Paris, Oxford, and Prague ; 1 and the year
after the death of King Charles the Fifth, the University of
Paris returned to their scheme. Pierre d'Ailly received a
respectful hearing, but when Jean Rousse, a Doctor of Abbe
ville, was commissioned by the University to lay the matter
formally before the royal council, the Duke of Anjou, who had
welcomed the election of Clement far more heartily than his
brother, and who looked to the new Pope to finance him in
his design on the crown of Naples, not only did not allow the
orator to speak, but sent armed men by night to seize him in
his bed, and consigned the Doctor to the blackest cachot of
the Chatelet.2 For several years the University was reduced
to ignominious silence. The ' way of fact,' the expulsion of
the opponent by brute force, was at this time the only solution
of the difficulty which found favour at any court of Europe.
On Christian Europe the Schism produced its natural result.
Scholars began to doubt and inquire ; divisions of opinion and
heresy speedily appeared. The spirit of scepticism as to the
Pope's authority and infallibility had indeed appeared in
Germany in the days of Louis of Bavaria, when Pope John
the Twenty- second, in his quarrel with the King, had laid the
land under interdict and had introduced strife into many
bishoprics, when he had fallen foul of the Franciscans because
of their doctrine of the poverty of Christ and had himself
come under suspicion because of his theory of the Beatific
Vision, when the sect of the Free Thinkers gained ground and
the Mystics taught personal communion with God — all these
things turned men's eyes toward the shortcomings of the
Church and opened their minds to inquiry and scepticism^
The critical spirit dated from the days of the Babylonish
Captivity at Avignon. Michael of Cesena had taught that
the Pope may err, but that a Council of the Universal Church
cannot err. William of Ockham believed that the Pope may
1 Palacky, iii. 9. 2 Religieux, i. 86.

134 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
err, that a general council may also fall into error, and that
infallibility is to be found only in the Scriptures and the
beliefs of the Universal Church. Marsiglio of Padua had
published the Defensor Pads, a work which in many points
might be accepted almost without reserve by a Protestant to
day : its teaching was, as has been already shown, that the
domains of the spiritual and civil powers were separate, that
the former had no coercive jurisdiction, that the Catholic
Faith rests on Holy Scripture alone, that when doubts arise as
to the meaning of the sacred Word, these can only be settled
by a general council of the faithful, on which clergy and laity
alike have seats. The Schism profoundly shocked John
Wyclif; he saw each rival Pope fulminating excommunications
against the other; and he speedily came to the conclusion
that the Papacy itself was the great evil, that it was the
poison of the Church. Like the Spiritual successors of Francis
of Assisi, he believed in the absolute poverty of the clergy ;
he believed also in ' dominion founded on grace.' These were
doctrines which, carried to their logical conclusions, might
have important political bearings; his opposition to the
Church was most clearly evinced by his theory as to transub-
stantiation ; he denied the orthodox doctrine, he refused to
believe that a priest could by a daily miracle transform the
wafer and wine into flesh and blood. Wyclif thus became
a heretic, and a dangerous heretic. But heresy, if not en
gendered, had been fostered and increased by the Schism. As
a German historian has put it, the Captivity at Avignon,
followed by the Schism, brought on the Reformation.1
Furthermore, it was the Schism which discredited the papal
dignity and tended to destroy all reverence for the supreme
head of the Church. ' In England it strengthened immensely
the reforming movement, and made entire distrust, defiance
even, of a Pope seem not merely a patriotic but a religious
duty.' Christ's vineyard in England had been beautiful and
fruitful, sang an old Latin poet, but now the Lord's vineyard
was laid waste ; ' O now, plague-stricken land, that didst team
with all sound learning free from the taint of heresy, stranger
to all error, exempt from all deception : now thou rankest as
1 Lindner ( IV.), ii. 307.

THE GREAT SCHISM 135
the chief in all schism, discord, madness.' x Wyclif had sown
the seed ; the fruit soon appeared. Oxford, London, Leicester,
and Bristol became centres of Wyclifite influence. Nicholas
of Hereford, Philip Repyngdon, and John Aston were sum
moned before the archbishop to answer for their advocacy of
the new doctrines. A few years later several fellows were
expelled from Queen's College, Oxford, because of their
sympathy with the teaching of the reformer. Even at court
the gentle Queen Anne, elder sister of Sigismund, was not
unfriendly to the new teaching ; she encouraged the use of the
open Bible. The Bohemian scholars who followed her to the
English Court took back with them afterwards to their native
land the books and teaching of John Wyclif.
Far more important to the Popes than any such downright
heresy, which could be met with and fought outright, was the
anti-papal, almost latitudinarian, spirit which had taken pos
session of that stronghold of orthodoxy, the University of
Paris. The sight of two Popes in Christendom raised the
question whether the Pope was after all the real head of the
Church, whether the real head was not Christ ; if the Pope
was merely His earthly representative, might there not be two
or three, or ten or twelve Popes, an independent Pope for
every different country,2 with its own independent Church ?
Such speculations indulged in by theologians were fatal to an
undivided papal supremacy, but luckily they found no response
in the civil powers. In the University of Paris itself, however,
they were rife, and she was the acknowledged champion of the
faith, to whose dictates kings, and even Popes, were wont to
defer. For the University of Paris was the first seminary of
theology in Europe, she was a cosmopolitan institution, with
scholars from all countries, speaking the cosmopolitan tongue,
Latin; and at this time she, the venerated mother of Saint
Thomas Aquinas and of William of Ockham, had in her midst
a crowd of eminent theologians. There was Henry of Hesse
of Langenstein, the great advocate of the scheme for a general
council, who left Paris in 1382 ; there was Matthias of Janow,
who was later Prebendary of Prague ; there was Pierre Plaoul,
who was sent on an embassy to Germany ; there was the cele-
1 Capes, 134, 153. 2 Schwab, 133.

136 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
brated Pierre d'Ailly, who regarded the person of neither
Pope, who was also an advocate for a general council, but who,
in his advocacy thereof, bided his time, waiting until 1407 for
a favourable opportunity ; there were the three noted disciples
of Pierre d'Ailly, Gilles des Champs, the sovereign Doctor of
Theology, Jean Charlier de Gerson, the Christlike teacher, and
Nicholas de Clamanges, the Cicero of his time.1 These were
men who would exert a profound influence on the progress
of negotiations during the Schism ; and it is important, there
fore, to grasp the nature of their thoughts and predilections.
Perhaps the most noteworthy phase was the revolt in the
bosom of the University itself of the despised and neglected
theologians against the canon and the civil law. This revolt
was necessarily anti-papal, for the Popes were almost invariably
lawyers, doctors of the canon or of both civil and canon law,
with a lawyer's liking for the clear-cut intelligible wording
of the decretals, with a lawyer's dislike for the subtle meta
physical distinctions of the mediaeval scholastic theology.
Moreover, Clement the Seventh, when he became Pope at
Avignon, took no thought for the Church but to suck the
marrow from her bones, and troubled not at all about the
professors at Paris. It is small wonder, then, that an anti-
papal spirit grew among them. Its position as the champion
of orthodoxy gave the University prominence, and lent to the
teaching of its professors an importance and a weight which
did not attach to those of Wyclif or of Hus. Hence arose
during the continuance of the Schism the preponderating
influence of men such as D'Ailly and Gerson, whose views it is
important to understand. The theology of D'Ailly may serve
as an example.
Born in 1350, the son of humble but honest parents, Colard
and Petronilla, a patriotic Frenchman all his life through,
Pierre d'Ailly went to the College of Navarre at the University
of Paris ; when he was twenty-two years of age, he was chosen
proctor for the French Nation at the University, and took his
degree as Doctor in 1380. It was then that he published his
theological tractate on the Church. He was a middle man,
standing cautiously between the two parties ; he had imbibed
1 Tschackert, 7, 66.

'"zzm&m^.M. _ . ...... , ,

Pierre d'Ailly.

THE GREAT SCHISM 137
the teaching of Pierre Dubois and John of Paris, of Marsiglio
of Padua and William of Ockham ; but he saw that the
Church had not been utterly overthrown by Philip the
Fair, and his liberalism was moderated. Above all, he
was a Frenchman and a Gallican, a Gallican before the
time of Bossuet, a Gallican before the Pragmatic Sanction of
Bourges. He was too conservative to belong to the party
directly opposed to the Church, and too close a follower of the
new philosophy to belong to the orthodox. In philosophy he
was a nominalist, and nominalism had the advantage of draw
ing a sharp line between matters of the faith and of the
intellect, of confining the reason to the things of which con
sciousness was taken, mediately or immediately, through the
senses and the intellect, and of relegating the higher truths of
religion to a supernatural mysticism. But through it all
D'Ailly was essentially anti-papal. The Church, in his view,
was built on Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith, inspired faith,
infusa fides, was the evidence of things not seen, the intel
lectual assent to the catholic verities; it provided the set
stones of the building, of which Hope raised the unsurmount-
able walls, and to which the Love of God and one's neighbour
formed the all-embracing roof: the truly spiritual were the
inner walls, the preachers and teachers were the windows of
the building, the portals were the truth of God's word, and
the pillars were the men of action, the shepherds and leaders.
Thus was Holy Church an organised whole, the fellowship of
Christians based on Holy Writ, perfect but not yet perfected,
for believers are still united with Christ in building up the
House of God. There is no mention of the Pope here ; it is
the Church which is all-important; she is the Holy Mother
who reconciles men with God; her priests administer the
sacraments which build up inspired faith ; and when the sinner
through fear dare not betake himself directly to Christ, he turns
trustfully to the arms of the merciful mediator, the Church.
D'Ailly set a high value on the written word of the Bible, he
was energetic in favour of a correct translation of the original ;
but he did not accept the written word as his criterion, he
regarded it as merely a sign or symbol of the true law, and as
a nominalist he looked through the word to find the under-

138 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
lying idea ; he found his touchstone in inspired faith, backed
by conclusive argument. ' The law of Christ,' he says, ' may
be most properly defined as inspired faith, or its action,
by which rational man assents to the truths of Christian
doctrine'; x the law may indeed be enunciated in words, but it
may also be known inwardly as the knowledge of good and
evil. Holy Church he takes to be the community of believers ;
its foundations are the words and promises of Christ, who is
the true Head of the Church. The Church is not founded on
timid, frightened Peter, but on Christ ; ' for other foundation
can no man lay than that is laid, which is Christ Jesus.'
There are pillars of the Church of the second order, among
which is Peter, the rock on which Christ built His Church, so
that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it. But Peter
obtained thereby no pre-eminence, seeing that all believers
rest equally on Christ's words ; nor was the promise that his
faith should not fail made to him personally, but to the
Church committed to him. So, too, Christ's promise to His
disciples to be with them to the end of the world is a promise
made to the Church of faith for believers. D'Ailly did not
believe in Saint Thomas Aquinas's doctrine of the infallibility
of the Pope, any more than did Saint Bernard of Clairvaux or
the Electors at Rense, or John the Twenty-second when he
claimed to correct the errors of his predecessors. He pointed
out how the Decretal of Gratian had been corrected by
Gregory the Ninth on the ground that some of the contents
were superfluous and others contradictory, and how Boniface
had made further additions, bolstering up some parts and
cutting down others ; he urged that the Canon Law was not
necessary to the Church's existence, for it had been said long
before decretals were known that Christ was the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth. In his view
as to a general council D'Ailly resembled William of Ockham ;
he avoided the recognition of its infallibility even in matters
of faith ; he thought it possible that such a council might err,
and that the knowledge of the truth might be restricted to a
few poor simple souls, as at the time of the Crucifixion it had
been restricted to the Virgin Mary. In practice, however,
1 Tschackert, 22.

THE GREAT SCHISM 139
D'Ailly was not troubled by these subtle distinctions ; he was
ready to refer the termination of the Schism to a select com
mittee chosen from both obediences — an impracticable scheme
which he soon abandoned. He was clear above all things on
the two points that neither the Church at Rome nor the Pope
was essential to salvation. Frenchmen who had embraced the
cause of Clement were unanimous on the former point ; and as
to the latter, D'Ailly, while admitting that a human body
without a head is dead, contended that the Church was the
mystical body of Christ, and that even without an earthly
head She would remain alive through faith and grace, seeing
that She had a high priest in heaven, even Christ, who was
head over all things to the Church. There is much that is
mystical in the reasoning, there is much that is apparently
capricious in the way in which a text is taken now literally
and now analogically, but the trend of the theology of D'Ailly
and also of Jean Gerson was distinctly anti-papal.

140 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

CHAPTER IV
BALDASSARE COSSA
' All men,' says the old Italian novelist Bandello,1 * whose
experience by travaile is a wytnes of the singularities of Italye
and Spaine, are of opinion that Naples is one of the moste
riche, pleasante, and populous cities in Europe,' and he
mentions the warlike garrison of gentlemen there ; he mentions
also the islands hard by : 'he that is desierous to be pertaker
of the merveiles of nature, hidden in th'intralles of the earthe,
let him take a boate and visit the ylandes.' It was in one of
these islands that dwelt the family from which sprang the
future Pope John the Twenty- third. In civilisation and en
lightenment, as already pointed out, Italy was far ahead of
the other nations of Europe ; noble and burgher dwelt peace
fully together within the city walls ; nor was the Italian
Church degraded by being overstocked with younger sons of
lofty families. But the Neapolitan nobility were less civilised
and enlightened than those in other parts of Italy ; they were
noted for their vanity and for their isolation from the common
herd. The nobles of Venice and Genoa were merchants and
sailors; part of the old nobility of Florence had devoted
themselves to trade; those of Rome, though they despised
trade, farmed their own lands; but the nobility of Naples
neither busied themselves with trade or commerce nor with
the care of their own estates.2 More backward and less
cultured than their fellows, they were naturally marked alike
by more of the antique faults and by more of the antique
virtues of their class.
Among the Neapolitan nobles who had remained consistently
1 Fenton's Bandello (Tudor Translations), i. 250. 2 Burckhardt, 362.

BALDASSARE COSSA 141
faithful to their old queen Joanna and to her proteges of the
second House of Anjou was Giovanni Cossa, the Signor of
Procida, the head of a noble but impoverished family. The
name was also spelt Coscia or Coxa, the word being the Italian
form of the French cuisse ; the family banner bore the canting
arms, ' a field divided per fess, in the upper half a gold thigh
on a red field, on the lower half three green bands on a silver
field, the whole enclosed in an indented circle of gold.' There
were some who pretended that the family had been founded by
the old Roman Cornelius Cossus, of the days of the war
against Veii; they said that the family was one of those
which Totila, after taking Rome in 547, had dragged in his
train and had settled in Campania : but this is mere mediaeval
legend. 'The family came from the island of Ischia; in the
days of King Charles the Lame (1285-1309) Stephano Cossa
was high in favour with that monarch, and at his death he left
to the king's care his three sons Marino, Giovanni, and Pietro./
When King Charles died he was succeeded by his son Rupert,
with whom Marino, the father of Giovanni Cossa, was as great
a favourite as his father had been with King Charles. Marino
became Chamberlain and Justiciar, and in 1340 he was wealthy
enough to purchase from its owner Adinolfo the island of
Procida, which lies between Ischia and the mainland. The
Cossa family were all of them men of war ; * they held four
baronies in the kingdom of Naples, besides the dukedom of
Santa Gata, and one of the minor secretaryships ; 2 they were
still of importance when Baldassare Cossa, one of several
brothers, was born.3 Gaspar, the future admiral, was a brother
1 Ammirato, iv. 345.
2 Scipio Mazella Napolitano, Descrittione del Regno di Napoli, 538.
a Christophe, in his Histoire de la Papauti (iii. 343), says : — ' Baltazar Cossa
ou Coscia, la Cuisse, avait recu le jour a Naples du Comte Jean de Troye,
seigneur de Procide. ' He gives as his authority Novaez. Giuseppe de Novaez,
in his Elementi delta Storia dei Pontifici (Siena, 1803), says : — ' Giovanni
xxiii., chiamato prima Baldassare Coscia o Cossa, nacque in Napoli. da
Giovanni Conte di Troja e Signore di Procida, come dice il Marchese nel
suo Libro de Protonotarii Partecipanti, o come altri vogliono di famiglia
mediocre.' He refers to Marchese Buonaccorsi (Giorgio Viviano) as his
authority. Marchese, in his Antichita ed Excellenze del Protonotariato Ap-
postolico (In Faenza pel Benedetti Impress. Vescovia, mdccl.), at p. 114,
says:— 'Baldassare Cossa Napolitano, figlio di Giovanni Conte di Troja e
Signore di Procida ' ; he then gives the details as to the family which I have

142 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of the future Pope. Cossa was born about, or possibly a year
or two before, 1368,1 the year in which was born the man who
was to be his ruin, Sigismund of Hungary, and the year before
the, Bohemian patriot and reformer, John Hus.
'Of the early life of Baldassare Cossa two accounts are given.
According to that generally current, in his early youth he,
like Martuccio in the story, took to the sea and became a
corsair or pirate. His family lived on an island, and the pro
fession was gentlemanly enough in those days^ The wreckage
thrown up by the sea was known as the strand-goods, and the
pious peasantry who dwelt near the coast prayed the Lord
without ceasing to increase the strand gut in their quarters.
The Hanseatic League had been formed two centuries earlier to
protect fishing smacks and merchant vessels from the lordly
pirates of the North Sea and the Baltic. Piracy prevailed
from the thirteenth century onwards on both sides of our own
narrow seas, and all along the coast from Germany round to
Aquitaine. The grand seigneurs of Normandy and Brittany
were wont to man boats at their own expense and to start
across the Channel in hope of booty,2 at times pushing as far
as Wales to give a helping hand to the rebels there. Nor
were we, on our side of the Channel, averse from the same
game. Every one remembers the Man from Dartmouth, the
Shipman among the immortal Canterbury Pilgrims, who
* If that he faught and hadde the hyer hond,
By water he sente hem hoom to every lond,'
thus getting rid of his victims by making them walk the plank.
The Scots raided the English vessels, the English raided those
of the Scots and French. Henry Pay of Poole, Philip Tailor
and John Wells of Bristol, and a score of other English gentle
men, committed acts of piracy time after time ; they were the
worthy forerunners of Drake, Frobisher, and Hawkins. Many
quoted, and refers to Mazella, Istoria del Regno di Napoli, p. 709, as his authority.
I have referred to both works of Mazella, and have given the gist of what he says ;
but I can discover no authority for the statement that the father of Baldassare
Cossa was Count of Troja, who was, as is well known, a trusted general of King
Ladislas of Naples, the bitter enemy of Baldassare Cossa.
1 Cf. Hunger, 31. 2 Barante, iii. 7.

BALDASSARE COSSA 143
a castle in Piedmont, where the hills sloped down to the coast,
was owned by a baron who divided his time between brigandage
on the land and piracy on the seas. To be a roving corsair on
the deep water was in those days almost as respectable a voca
tion as that of a knight-errant on land.1 There were scores of
such corsairs in and around the Bay of Naples; and a man
might be a pirate and yet find place and favour in the papal
court.2 Baldassare Cossa had been brought up by the sea, and
was ever a man of action. He joined his brothers, and was
the boy of the party. It is easy to picture them, with their
long low galleys, painted dark green, and manned with a
hundred oarsmen and fifty soldiers apiece, all of whom had
been sworn in on the Gospels, and also by bread, wine, and
salt.3 They would lurk toward evening in some creek off"
Ischia or Procida, on the watch for the round sailing-boats,
the nefs or coques or Genoese panzonos, which came coasting
along, two or three together for mutual protection. As the
sun went down and the twilight gathered over the rapidly
darkening waters, their prey would appear and the galleys
would dash out to board them. Often enough they would
find that they had caught a Tartar, for the merchantmen were
on the lookout for the ocean thieves. If the cargo was valu
able, the owner was probably on board, and to his advice the
captain would defer : men-at-arms filled the belly of the sailing-
ship ; a smart fight would ensue ; and if needful the retinue of
the poop, whose duty it was to defend the flag to the last
man, would be called into action. The stir and dash of the
fight would delight the warlike soul of young Cossa.
When in 1382 the Angevin troops came over from France
to Naples, the brothers joined them, and their piracy became
thus converted into legitimate warfare. This war lasted until
1384, and as that with the younger Louis of Anjou did not
begin until three years later, it is only in the former that
1 Even a century and a half later piracy was still ¦ an inseparable accident of
Mediterranean life, and the normal depredations of the Barbary syndicate or of
the Knights of St. John were no more regarded as acts of war entailing the
rupture of a peace than were cattle-lifting raids on the Anglo-Scottish frontier. ' —
Armstrong : The Emperor Charles V., ii. 238.
2 De Schismate, 83.
3 La Croix, Vie Militaire, 77 et seq.

144 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Baldassare Cossa can have taken part.1 He soon grew
tired of a corsair's life, though the habit of wakefulness at
night, which may have been thus acquired, never forsook him.
It was probably strengthened later on when he was in the
court of Boniface the Ninth, for that Pope used to sleep from
the hour of prime on to vespers, and to recite his office at
night.2 When Cossa was a Cardinal at Rome, his habit was
not to rise till midday, then to hear Mass, and then to get
shaved.3 The story of his having commenced life as a pirate
rests solely on the authority of his enemy Dietrich von Niem ;
no,other author makes mention of it.
Baldassare Cossa was at this time a young man, robust and
square-set, handsome of face, with dark penetrating eyes,4 and
rather high cheek-bones ; ready of wit and ready of speech ; a
Neapolitan with a vein of sardonic humour in him ; sufficiently
wealthy, active, intelligent, and ambitious. He was a man of
the world, neither better nor worse than his contemporaries ; 6
an Italian with all an Italian's love and admiration for virtu,
for force, courage, ability, virility. He also possessed the
Italian fault of judging men too exclusively by his own
standard, of taking his own good points for granted and attri
buting them to others. He now desired a nobler fortune and
a wider fame ; he was a born ruler of men, eloquent and per-
1 Niem says (Hardt, ii. 338) : — ' Dum autem simplex clericus, ac in adole-
scentia constitutus existeret, cum quibusdam fratribus suis piraticam in mari
Neapolitano, ut fertur, exercuit. Quis tunce inter quondam Ladislaum Regem
Siciliae, defunctum noviter, & Dn. Ludovicum, ducem Abdegavensem . . .
periculosa guerra . . . vigebat. . . . Sed cum postea, fortuna suadente, dictus
Ladislaus Rex regnum ipsum, expulsis inde dicto Domino Ludovico ejusque in
magna parte auxiliatoribus, & subactis ibidem aliis hostibus suis, qualitercunque
obtinuisset, & praeterea raptoribus & piratis . . . licentia subtracta fuisset :
Ipse Balthasar Cossa se transtulit.' The remark that it was not until after
Louis of Anjou had been expelled from Italy that Baldassare Cossa ceased piracy
and went to Bologna, shows that the war referred to by Niem must be the first
war (1382-1384) between the first Duke of Anjou and Charles of Durazzo, rather
than the second war between the second Duke of Anjou and Ladislas, in which
the Duke did not finally leave Italy until after the battle of Rocca Secca. This
is borne out by the next remark of Niem on- Baldassare Cossa's residence in
Bologna, ' ubi licet multis annis sub studentis figura stetisset ' ; for if Cossa after
many years as a student became Archdeacon of Bologna in 1392, it must have
been the first war between Naples and Anjou in which he took part.
2 De Schismate, 137. 3 Mur. xxiv. 1005.
4 Lindner (H. and L. ), ii. 284. 5 Erler, 341.

BALDASSARE COSSA 145
suasive ; he would have made a successful condottiere general,
or he might become a worthy follower of Cardinal Albornoz.
Time was to show that he lacked one characteristic necessary
for the highest success, for he was by no means an infallible
judge of men or of character/ A strong man, he delighted to
see himself surrounded by strong men ; he loved learning and
eloquence -,1 but he was apt to select his subordinates simply
for their worth and reputation, without regarding whether
their very virtue would permit them to render service and
fidelity to himself. This will be manifested more than once
in the story of his life. To such a man as Baldassare Cossa
there were then in Italy practically but two careers open :
unless he became a Doctor at some University, he must either
be a soldier of fortune, a leader of his own troops, or he must
be a churchman. He might, since Italy was then learning to
use the sons of her soil and to do without foreign mercenaries,2
like Alberigo de Barbiano, raise a band of Italian soldiery and
emulate the fame of Jacopo del Verme. To do this would
entail a training in the art of practical warfare, which required
time and opportunity ; it demanded the ability to deal with
and to enforce obedience from the roughest and most brutal
parts of humanity among Italians, or mayhap of still more
intractable troops among foreigners, and in this his experience
on the sea might have been of service had he been older and
his training more prolonged ; it would also have necessitated a
large preliminary outlay of capital to provide the very heavy
pay then offered to cavaliers, and this it was probably beyond
his means to procure. The calling of a condottiere general was
undoubtedly that for which Baldassare Cossa was most fitted ;
he was, as has been well said, ' homo callidus et astutus, sed
parum aptus religioni."1 3 But the Church offered the readier
and more promising career. More especially was this the case
when the Pope was himself a Neapolitan, eager to bestow
advancement on his fellow-countrymen. It was not many
years before this time that Urban the Sixth had raised in
a single day no less than thirty-two Neapolitans to be arch
bishops, bishops, and abbots, so that men said there was no
countryman of the Pope so wretched or stupid that he might
1 Duchesne, ii. 555. 2 Mur. xix. 919. 3 Duchesne, ii. 555.

146 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
not look for similar promotion.1 The Pope was ready to
promote a clerk to be cardinal, regardless of his character, if
he were of his party and a Neapolitan.2 Be the reason what
it may, Baldassare Cossa chose the older and more honourable
profession. In order rightly to appreciate his choice we must
remember that its object was not the ideal Church, nor the
Church as we know it to-day, but the Church at the end of
the fourteenth century as we have attempted to describe it,
and as it appeared to a man of the world and a man of action
at that time.
The time was the commencement of the Great Schism, when
the seamless robe of Christ was being rent in twain between
the rival claimants. In those early days of the disruption, the
idea of referring the matter to the decision of a general council
was scouted as being at once too difficult and too dilatory ;
the suggestion generally accepted was that the intruder should
be expelled by force, and that all Christendom should thus be
again brought into obedience to a single Pope. The idea that
there might be more than one Pope was merely academical,
and found no popular favour. The adherents of each Pope
claimed that he alone should be the sole Pope, and that all
countries should render obedience to him. To carry out this
idea Clement the Seventh pretended to create a Kingdom
of Adria in favour of the Duke of Anjou, and thus to enfeoff
him with the greater part of the States of the Church in
addition to the Kingdom of Naples.
/"The first serious attempt to end the Schism by the ' way of
fact ' was the expedition of the Duke of Anjou for the conquest
of Naples. The objects of that expedition were the reconquest
of the kingdom and the expulsion of the intruder, as Urban
the Sixth was called by the adherents of Clement. When he
first heard of the capture of Queen Joanna, his adoptive
mother, the Duke had seriously meditated the abandonment
of his claim ; subsequently he had reconsidered his decision
and had determined to drive out Charles of Durazzo. Having
pillaged France as much as he could, the Duke took his way to
Avignon, arriving there on the 22nd February 1382 ; on the
1st March he was recognised by Pope Clement as Duke of
1 De Schismate, 51. 2 /^# gTi

BALDASSARE COSSA 147
Calabria ; on the 30th May he received a banner bearing the
arms of Sicily and Jerusalem and did homage to Clement for
his future kingdom ; on the 13th June he set out with his
army. It had been necessary to wait until the snows melted.
The expedition was financed for the most part by Clement the
Seventh ; the Visconti of Milan also contributed considerable
sums. It was doomed to disastrous failure. The Duke tarried
a month at Turin on his way to Bologna; thence he marched
by the Adriatic to the borders of Ancona, where he broke up
his forces into three parts ; with one he marched past Rome,
left Urban in possession of the city without attempting to
oust him, and made for Aquila; here at last, on the 17th
September 1382, he was in the promised land. Had he
marched at once on Naples, had he occupied some port so
as to communicate with his fleet, the result of his enterprise
might have been different./^ Charles of Durazzo pursued with
Louis of Anjou that policy of masterly inactivity which Charles
the Fifth of France had so successfully pursued with England.
To begin with, he sent him a cartel of defiance ; and nearly
three months were wasted in vacant preliminaries. Then
pestilence carried off Amadeus of Savoy, the ' Green Count,'
and the Duke of Anjou regretfully saw the Savoyards wend
their way homeward.' He gained some slight advantages at
Pietracatella and Aquila ; his banner floated in Calabria and
Apulia, in Abruzzi and Basilicata, and in the Terra di Lavoroy
The quarrel between Pope Urban and Charles raised the
Duke's hopes ; but want of money kept him inactive for nine
months at Tarentum, until he was lured thence by the hope of
fighting a decisive engagement at Barletta. The two armies
were within a mile of each other ; for three days the Duke
expected an assault ; then the King marched away again, and
the Duke was fain to retrace his steps to Tarentum. The end
was near. J/The Duke caught a chill at Biseglia in trying
to stop his men from pillaging ; he took to his bed, and died
on the 21st September 1384/-^ His glorious army of nearly a
hundred thousand men had been wasted by disease, by privation,
and by the climate ; cavaliers who had left France richly
caparisoned, their purses full of gold, their garments sparkling
with precious stones, returned on foot, staff in hand, begging

148 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
their way. Charles of Durazzo was King of Naples; the
attempted conquest of the country, the attempt to end the
Schism by the ' way of fact,' had disastrously failed.
Even before the death of Duke Louis there had been mis
understandings between Pope Urban and Charles of Durazzo.
The Pope, who wished to enrich his worthless nephew Butillo
at the expense of the King, had come to Nocera, and claimed
to be Lord Paramount of the Kingdom of Naples. As a
practical retort Queen Marguerite stopped all imports to
Nocera and reduced the papal party to such straits that the
cardinals and the Curia fled to Naples. The Pope appeared
three or four times a day for five months at the windows of his
castle and cursed the King and Queen of Naples with bell
and candle. The cardinals thought he was mad, and decided
that he needed curators to be appointed; but one of them,
the Cardinal of Manupello, played the traitor and informed
Urban of the design. He convened a Consistory of the
cardinals, seized six of them, threw them into cramped and
noisome dungeons, tortured them, and finally sailed away with
them to Genoa. Here five of them mysteriously disappeared —
no one knew how they had been done to death ; the sixth,
Aston, an Englishman, was released at the intercession of
King Richard the Second.
Then followed, as has been already related, the ill-fated
attempt of Charles of Durazzo to secure the crown of Hungary.
His murder left the succession to the kingdom of Naples to be
fought out between two boys, his son Ladislas, aged ten, and
Louis the Second of Anjou, aged seven. Although Pope
Clement recognised Louis as King of Naples, the royal princes
who ruled France during the minority of Charles the Sixth
were cold or hostile to his claims. The death by poison of
Bernabo Visconti had also robbed the boy of a supporter and
of a bride, for Louis was to have married Bernabo's daughter
Lucie. In place of this alliance Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the
murderer of his uncle Bernabo, gave his daughter Valentine
on the 8th April 1387 to the French King's brother, Louis
of Touraine, afterwards Duke of Orleans. This retained for
Milan the French alliance, but did not help the cause of
Clement, for Gian Galeazzo managed to keep on terms with

BALDASSARE COSSA 149
both Popes. Clement and the French King also made over
tures to the Florentines, but those wary republicans declared
that the claims of the contending French houses in Naples
were matters too great for them, and that they could not
possibly renounce their obedience to Pope Urban until a
general council had decided against him.1 Viterbo and other
cities in Southern Italy were gradually won over to Urban,
who, however, had transferred to the young Ladislas the hatred
which he had borne to his father Charles of Durazzo, whom he
had excommunicated and damned to the third and fourth
generation. The rough and uncompromising demeanour of
the Pope had driven Tuscany, Romagna, and Lombardy into
a threatening league at the very time that the King of France,
throwing off the guidance of his uncles and calling the ' Mar-
mousets' to power, had espoused the cause of his young cousin,
Louis of Anjou. The King and the Duke came to Avignon,
on All Saints' Day, 1389 ; Louis of Anjou, in white samite, did
homage to Pope Clement for the kingdoms of Sicily, was
anointed with holy oil, and received from the pontiff the
sword, the globe, the sceptre, and the crown. The King and
the Pope had clearly determined to support his cause and
to try again the ' way of fact ' ; but before anything decisive
could follow, while the King was still in Languedoc, came the
news of the death of Pope Urban the Sixth. When this
happened Baldassare Cossa was still reading law, the indis
pensable study for any man who hoped to rise in the Church,
at the University.
In order to fit himself for an ecclesiastical career, Cossa had
gone to the University at Bologna. That ancient city on the
Aemilian Way lay ' at the intersection of four provinces —
Lombardy, the March of Verona, the Romandiola, and Tuscany.
To this day it is the point at which converge all the great
lines of communication between the northern entrances to
Italy and its centre ; in that age there was no place better
situated for a meeting-place between the students of Italy
and students from beyond the Alps.' 2 The school in Bologna
was the most famous in Italy ; its only respectable rivals at
this time outside the peninsula were the schools at Paris,
1 Tartini, ii. 140. 2 Rashdall, i. 118.

150 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Oxford, and Prague. But while the greatest of these, Paris,
was specially the school of theology, Bologna was pre-eminently
the school of law. This was but the natural result of pre-
existent conditions. ' The Scholastic Philosophy and Theology
of the later Middle Ages were the natural fruits of the seed
sown in Northern France, England, and Germany by the
Dialecticians of the Dark Ages. The revival of legal science
which is associated with the name of Irnerius was the natural
outcome of the educational traditions which the cities of
North Italy had inherited from that old Roman world to
which alike in spirit and in constitutional theory they had
never wholly ceased to belong.' x In Italy at the close of the
fourteenth century no one but the Mendicant Friars ever
thought of studying theology : the spiritual monarchy of the
Church of Rome was established not upon theology, but upon
the Canon Law ; the sacerdotal hierarchy was a hierarchy of
lawyers ; all through the Middle Ages the most important sees
in Christendom were filled by Canonists. Early in the twelfth
century the lectures of Irnerius on the Corpus Juris Civilis,
which were followed by the publication in 1151 by Gratian of
the Decretum, the authoritative text-book on the Canon Law,
had attracted students from all parts of Europe ; they came
in such numbers that Odofredus, writing in the middle of the
thirteenth century, was of opinion that at the end of the pre
ceding century there were not less than ten thousand students
in Bologna. Many of these came from across the Alps ; they
were men of mature years, already provided with livings, and
with dispensations for study. Barbarossa, in his day, had done
the foreign students a good turn.2 The pursuit of learning was
attended with difficulties in those turbulent times. Sometimes
the students would be robbed by armed bands as they ap
proached the city;3 occasionally a student would himself
' hold up ' the school with hired ruffians ; a rector had been
assassinated by a scholar in 1303, and another attempt of
the same kind was made while Baldassare Cossa was himself
at Bologna.4 The students from outside Bologna had, for the
purpose of self-protection, formed themselves into Universities,5
1 Rashdall, i. 94. 2 Giesebrecht, v. 42. 3 Frati, 109. ' Ibid. 107.
5 * Citizenship, which with us is little more than an accident of domicile, was

BALDASSARE COSSA 151
which at first were four, but were afterwards two in number,
the Universitas Citramontanorum and the Universitas Ultra-
montanorum. By the time Baldassare Cossa placed his name
on the list of members, these two Universities had become
practically fused into one. Many of the students were young,
many of the Italian freshmen were mere boys of thirteen ; but
others among the Ultramontanes were beneficed clergymen,
some being dignitaries or canons. Books were both bulky
and costly; the poorer students were apt to fall jnto the
hands of usurers, or even into those of their own readers who
were not ashamed to exact scandalous interest from them.
The nobles sat in the front row at lecture, wore the same black
gown as the other students, but lived with their own servants
in separate houses, the rent of which was fixed by the taxers
and city-arbitrators. In those days it was scarcely possible
for the students to return home for the shorter vacations, so
that the year lasted from 10th October until the end of the
following August.
Baldassare Cossa applied himself to the study of the Canon
Law, and of its indispensable preliminary the Civil Law. The
Bologna school, as already mentioned, was a practical law
school ; there was no Faculty of Theology until 1352, and
'the consequences of this constitutional peculiarity were of
the highest importance. From the schools of Bologna strictly
theological speculation was practically banished, and with it
all the heresy, all the religious thought, all the religious life
to which speculation gives rise.' 3 To this lack of early training
must in some degree be attributed the want of sympathy and
comprehension which marked Cossa when he entered into
relations and subsequently into conflicts with the churchmen
of France, to whom theological strife and controversy were as
in ancient Athens or mediaeval Bologna an hereditary possession of priceless
value. The citizens of one town had, in the absence of express agreement, no
civil rights in another. There was one law for the citizens ; another, and a
much harsher one, for the alien. Prolonged exile was a serious penalty to
which a body of young men of good position in their own cities, many of them
old enough to be entering upon political life, would naturally submit with reluct
ance. The Student-Universities represent an attempt on the part of such men
to create for themselves an artificial citizenship in place of the natural citizenship
which they had temporarily renounced in the pursuit of knowledge or advance
ment.'— Rashdall, i. 152. 1 Rashdall, i. 261.

152 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the breath of their nostrils. He was all through life a practical
man of action, never a man of speculation or thought; he
understood what was, he thought little of what should be.
His training at Bologna intensified this habit of mind. The
course of Civil Law and Canon Law lectures then took ten
years; and probably Cossa remained at Bologna the whole
ten years, for we know that he was there for many years —
' multis annis sub studentis figura^ says Niem 1 — attending
the lectures at the houses of the Doctors. The morning
lecture, which was the most important, began as soon as the
bell rang for Mass at nine in the morning in the Cathedral of
San Pietro, and it continued until the bell rang again for
tierce ; in the afternoon, from three to six of the clock, there
might be two further lectures. Cossa won renown for his
scholarship ; he satisfied the examiners of both Faculties, and
became a Doctor Utriusque Juris. The day of the public
examination, before which the candidate had already satisfied
his promoters as to his fitness, was an occasion for considerable
pageantry. The candidate, preceded by the bedels and escorted
by his fellow-students, marched on foot or on horseback to the
Cathedral, where he made a speech and read and defended a
thesis on some point of law, after which he was presented to
the Archdeacon. This dignitary then made a complimentary
oration and conferred on him the right to teach. The new
Doctor was then seated in the magisterial chair, the book of
the law was handed to him, the gold ring placed on his
finger, and the magisterial biretta on his head ; then he was
conducted in triumph through the town, escorted by a mounted
cavalcade of friends and students, preceded by the three
University pipers and the four University trumpeters.2 As
his fellow-students clustered round Baldassare Cossa and in
quired what he was going to do now, he answered them : ' To
be Pope.'3 It was a true word spoken in jest.
It would be interesting to know whether Baldassare Cossa
met at the University of Bologna any of those who were asso
ciated with him in after life. If he was indeed born in 1368,
then his friend Carlo Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, a well-read
man who delighted in literature, and his future general, Braccio
1 Hardt, ii. 338. 2 Rashdall, i. 230; Frati, 119. * Platina, 343.

BALDASSARE COSSA 153
da Montone, both of whom were born in that year, may have
been fellow-students with him at the University.
The pious, just, and incorruptible but headstrong, cruel, and
foolishly impolitic Pope Urban the Sixth died in the Vatican
Palace at Rome on the 15th October 1389. He had left Genoa
for Lucca at the end of 1386, and had come on to Perugia on
the 2nd October 1387. Here he had a fall from his horse, but
undaunted he tried to get together an army to conquer Naples.
Funds failed him, and he betook himself to Rome (Sept. 1388),
where he found the city in uproar. He tried to appease the
citizens by appointing 1390 as a year of Jubilee. As usual, when
a Pope died, there were rumours that he had been poisoned.
The cardinals entered forthwith into conclave, and on the 2nd
November announced that they had elected his successor.
This was Pietro Tomacelli, another Neapolitan, who took
the title of Boniface the Ninth, a name which augured no
friendly feelings to the French court. Noble, tall, handsome,
and but thirty years of age,1 of unimpeachable morality, not over
learned, but courteous and affable, the new Pope was in almost
every respect the opposite of his predecessor.2 Boniface rein
stated the cardinals whom Urban had ousted, and set to work
forthwith to win back the temporalities of the Church. He
was convinced that it was necessary that the Pope should be
able to live ' of his own ' without outside support, and the
difficulty of procuring revenue from distant lands supported this
view.3 He welcomed the overtures of Marguerite of Durazzo,
and sent a cardinal to Gaeta to anoint and crown her young
son Ladislas.* Thus the Pope at Rome became the recognised
supporter of the house of Durazzo on the throne of Naples,
and it became the policy of that house to support unquestion-
ingly the Pope at Rome.
Italy was at this time overrun by bands of English,
Italian, and German soldiers, sometimes taking part in the
petty wars between rival factions in town and city, some
times plundering the land on their own account; harvests
were burned, vineyards and olive-groves were hewn down.
There were also a number of strong places which held to the
1 Minerbetti indeed says twenty-four ; Tartini, ii. 190. 2 Mur. iii. 832.
3 Raumer, 183. * Tartini, ii. 206.

154 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
obedience of the Pope at Avignon, and so long as Urban
lived their number was not reduced ; hut with the new Pope
came a change. Boniface set to work to reduce some, to win
over others ; every year of his reign saw an improvement in
the state of Italy. He gained Viterbo, which had again
revolted, Montefiascone, Narni, Spoleto, Orvjeto, Bologna,
Ancona, Perugia, and other cities. Noble families, such as
the Este, Montefeltre, Malatesti, Alidosi, Manfredj, Ord.elaffi,
acknowledged his overlordship. Rome herself abandoned her
republican independence, and admitted the full dominium of
the Pope ; the Engelsburg was restored, the Capitol and the
Vatican were fortified,1 Thus Boniface the Ninth reinstated
the papal dominions in their former splendour, and so far he
was one of the most successful Popes who ever filled the chair
of Saint Peter. But these schemes demanded money, and the
Schism had reduced the ordinary revenues by one half. The
Pope did not hesitate to prostitute the spiritual to the temporal
interest of the Church. He reaped enormous wealth from the
Jubilees of 1390 and 1400 ; he increased the sale of indulgences ;
under him simony reached its climax. It was useless for a poor
man to appear in the papal court ; everything, even a signature,
had to be paid for; and if, after the first payment for a
benefice had been accepted, a better offer was made, this
second offer was accepted also, and the grant or order was
antedated. An utterly shameless system of repeated sales of
presentations became recognised. In every possible way money
was accumulated. Personally the hands of Boniface were
clean, for he spent every penny on the Church ; hut this
cannot excuse the system which he enforced.2
Meantime the young Duke of Anjou sailed for Naples and
entered the city under the banner of Clement the Seventh ; 3
he conquered divers castles and cities, and tried to tempt
Ladislas to a pitched battle at Aversa. War in Apulia was
continuous, much damage was done, and the peasants suffered
grievous hardships.4 The King of France had announced that
he was himself about to invade Italy, bringing Pope Clement
in his train; but his project was stopped by the English am-
1 Erler, 88. 2 Goeller, 2.
3 Tartini, ii. 226. * Ibid. ii. 242, 333.

BALDASSARE COSSA 155
bassadors, who required him to come and meet their King.
The meeting never took place, and a fresh violent attack of
madness caused the plan to be postponed indefinitely and
threw the kingdom again under the fitful guidance of the royal
princes. Clement the Seventh, who had spent nearly five
hundred thousand francs on the ' way of fact ' since the death
of the first Duke of Anjou, was destined to see one project
after another promise fair and then fade away before his eyes.
The ' way of fact ' was the only method of terminating the
Schism of which he dreamed; it was the method on which
he cheerfully spent his revenues, and it failed him utterly./
In ^addition^to its other disadvantages, the 'way of fact'
was undoubtedly the most costly method of ending the Schism.
It entailed on Pope Clement an enormous expenditure. He
had also the Conitat to defend against the rapacity of nobles
such as Raymond of Turenne ; he had to pay for his feasts to
the King and the royal princes, and he abated no whit of the
customary pomp of the papal court. He was lavish in his
gifts to the cardinals, who were allowed to seize on benefices
right and left. He granted permission to the King and
princes to taxThe^elergy to an extent hitherto unapproached,
so that instead of being^nown as ' the Servant of the servants
of God ' he was popularly caUed ' the Servant of the servants of
the French King.' The clergy were jsore— oppressed. In ad
dition to the aids which they were- obliged to pay<£p the King,
they had also to pay tenths to\the Pope ; they were galled on
for voluntary subsidies, for forced loans, for first-fruits, for
services, for procurations, and/ for spoils ; benefices, moreover,
were only granted to those wpo paid most highly for them.
The poverty-stricken Church of France was thus most cruelly
exploited, and it is small wonder that the clergy became luke
warm in their attachment to the greedy and rapacious pontiff
whom they still held for their legitimate Pope.1
Belief in the ' way of fact ' was indeed becoming cold in
France generally. The Theological Faculty of the University
was winning its way to power. Pierre d'Ailly, the eloquent
Rector of the College of Navarre, had thrice been chosen to
proceed on missions to the Pope. He had appeared first on
1 Valois, ii. 384.

156 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
behalf of the University in the matter of fees wrongfully
levied by the Chancellor ; then he had contended against the
Dominican John of Montson for the Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin ; and in 1887 he had advocated the canonisation
of Peter of Luxemburg. In 1389 he was appointed Confessor
to the King, and from this year onward he steadily made his
way as court preacher and as courtier, scourging the offences
of the Church on the one hand, and casting in his political
lot with the Duke of Orleans on the other, making full use of
his position both as Chancellor of the University and as King's
Almoner. He won the confidence of the King, but the Dukes
of Burgundy and Berri were against him. He was backed up
by his friends and pupils, by Gilles des Champs, who was now
the Rector of the College of Navarre, by Nicolas de Clamanges,
who was Rector of the University, and above all by Jean
Gerson, who had accompanied D'Ailly on one occasion to
Avignon. On the Feast of Epiphany 1391 Gerson preached
a long and eloquent sermon before the court ; he called on the
King to come to the aid of the Church ; he warned him that
Charles the Great, that Roland and other heroes of bygone
time would rather have died a thousand deaths than have
suffered the present evil to continue ; he invoked the help of
the royal dukes and the nobles then present and listening.1
With such a worldly pontiff as Clement it was natural that
there should arise in France a disposition to hear the other
side ; and at this time overtures were made from Rome. Pope
Boniface informed the father of the French Queen that, if
Clement would acknowledge that Urban had been rightful
Pope, he would appoint Clement to be his Legate and Vicar-
General everywhere save in Italy, England, and Portugal. In
1392 Boniface sent two Carthusian monks to the King, urging
him to work for the union of the Church, reminding him that
the Church had never undertaken any great work apart from
France, nor France any such apart from the Church. The two
monks were seized at Avignon by the Duke of Berri and were
cast into prison, but they were released as soon as the King
recovered his sanity, and were welcomed with acclamation at
Paris, where public prayers were offered for the termination
1 Schwab, 126.

BALDASSARE COSSA 157
of the Schism. Boniface in his next letter went so far as to
demand that Clement should be deposed ; 1 but meantime
public opinion had strikingly manifested itself.
In January 1394 the University of Paris plucked up courage
again to address the King, urging him to activity in the work
of restoring unity to the Church. Wonderful to relate, a
favourable answer was returned them by the Duke of Berri.
' The excessive duration of this execrable Schism,' said he, ' is
a shame to the King and the royal house. All the world is
tired of the Schism. If you can devise a remedy which the
Council can approve, we will at once adopt it.' Pierre d'Ailly
and Gilles des Champs had their plan ready.2 The University
took immediate action. They placed a large coffer in the
Cloister of the Mathurins, and requested every one who could
suggest any remedy for the Schism to drop therein a written
memorandum of his proposition. More than ten thousand
notes were dropped into the coffer; they were examined by
fifty-five professors, who reported that three principal methods
had been proposed. These three plans were — (1) the way of
cession, or the simultaneous abdication of both Popes ; (2) the
way of compromise, or an arbitration between the rival Popes ;
and (3) the way of a council in which the universal Church
should be represented and its opinion upheld. Now that the
University of Paris had pronounced against the ' way of fact '
and was in favour of a different method of ending the Schism,
now that the French King, who three years earlier had been
ready to carry fire and sword into Italy, was in communication
with Pope Boniface, Clement the Seventh recognised that he
had lost ground, and determined to counteract his enemies if
possible. He invited D'Ailly and Des Champs to Avignon to
help him in the control of the Church ; but they feared for
their lives and declined the invitation. He sent Cardinal
Pedro de Luna to Paris, where he sowed tares among the
wheat and won the ear of the weak-willed King. When the
University next endeavoured to approach the King, their
protector the Duke of Burgundy was absent from Paris, and
the Dukes of Berri and Orleans, both partisans of Clement,
were at the head of affairs. As soon as the former Duke
1 Religieux, ii. 46, 104. 2 Tschackert, 88.

158 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
understood that the University wanted to suggest the abdica
tion of his friend Pope Clement, his anger flared out, and he
threatened to put to death the authors of such an audacious
proposal or to throw them into the Seine.1 Even when the
Duke of Burgundy returned to Paris the University fared very
little better ; they were allowed to state their three proposals
at length, and to suggest a subtraction of obedience from the
Pope, who would not agree to the method selected ; but they
got no further. On the 10th August 1394 they were informed
that the King did not intend to trouble himself further about
the matter, and that they were not to trouble themselves
about it either. The University craftily wrote to Clement,
telling him what they had done, and begging him to co-operate
with their efforts to restore unity to the Church. Their letter
Was read publicly; when the reading was halfway through,
the Pope rose in anger and cried out that it was a defamatory
libel against the apostolic seat, full of poison and of calumny,
fit to be read neither in public nor in private. He shut
himself up for several days, and was then dismayed to hear
that the cardinals had met and were considering the letter.
Calling them to him, he reproached them bitterly ; he would
hear of no other way of ending the Schism than the forcible
expulsion of his rival. The knowledge that any other plan
was deemed feasible reduced him to such a state of chagrin
and weakness that, after a slight illness of three days, he com
plained after morning Mass of his heart failing him, called for
wine, was struck with apoplexy, and expired on the 16th
September 1394, in the fifty-second year of his age.2 ' And it'
came by hym as he has alwayes said before : when any man
spake of the peace and uhyon of the Church, he wolde say
alwayes, howe he wolde dye Pope, and so he dyd.'3
Six days after Clement the Seventh, the butcher of Cesena,
had expired, the news of his death reached the King of France.
He at once saw that there was a chance of ending the Schism
and realised that instant action was necessary. He forthwith
assembled his privy council, added to it some members of the
great council, and on the proposition of Simon de Cramaud,
Patriarch of Alexandria, wrote to the cardinals at Avignon
> Religieux, ii. 132. 2 Christophe, iii. 137. » Fro.issa.rt, vi, 121.

BALDASSARE COSSA 159
asking them to postpone the election of a new Pope until
they received an official communication to be despatched as
soon as possible. In Germany also the death of Pope Clement
was regarded as an opportunity for ending the Schism. The
Archbishops of Cologne and Mainz and the Count Palatine of
Bavaria x wrote to the French King, urging him to have the
new election deferred, and promising to use their influence with
King Wenzel to end the Schism. The letter of Charles to the
cardinals concluded with the assurance that he would leave them
absolutely free in their choice of the new Pontiff. The letter
was sent off the same evening and it was safely delivered into the
hands of the Cardinal of Florence on the morning of the 26th.
The cardinals were then ready to enter into conclave.
They could make a shrewd guess at the import of the King's
letter, and had no desire to defer the election. If the
Schism were to be ended by the recognition of the Pope at
Rome, then the cardinals of Clement's obedience expected but
little consideration ; their careers and prospects were hopelessly
blighted. At the same time, they were anxious to avoid the
shame and guilt of wilfully and needlessly protracting the
Schism. They therefore drew up a solemn engagement in
the form of a schedule which each of them was to sign before
proceeding to the election. It was to the effect that each one
promised on the Gospels to work with all his might for the
union, to do and to say nothing to hinder or retard it, to
follow loyally, if he became Pope, every profitable way conduc
ing to the union, including the way of cession, if the majority
of the actual cardinals judged this means to be desirable.
The concluding and important words of the Latin schedule
ran as follows : — ' Etiam usque ad cessionem inclusive per ipsum
de papatu faciendam, si dominis cardinalibus . . . vel mqjori
parti eorundem hoc pro bono ecclesiae et unionis praedictae
videatur expedire."1 2 Nothing was said as to how the opinion
of the cardinals was to be obtained. Pedro de Luna raised
objections to the schedule. ' He thinks he is already elected,'
said one. ' I do not desire a burden beyond my strength to
bear,' answered he, ' but to contradict such rumours, I will
take the oath.' He took it ; and all the other cardinals, save
1 Lindner (H. and L.), ii. 339. 2 Ehrle, v. 103.

160 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
three, subscribed the obligation. Having thus safeguarded
themselves from criticism, the cardinals decided to postpone
reading the royal letter until they should have issued from
conclave. On the 28th September, at nine o'clock in the
morning, they came forth and announced that they had chosen
Pedro de Luna, the Cardinal of Aragon, as Pope ; he took the
name of Benedict the Thirteenth. Perhaps he was influenced
in the choice of a title by the recollection of the Cistercian
monk, Benedict the Twelfth, who had been noted for his
freedom from nepotism and his hatred of simony. Now that
the two original Popes had both died and had been succeeded,
Urban by Boniface and Clement by Benedict, the Great
Schism had entered on a second and more inveterate phase.
At the death of Clement the Seventh the alliance between
France and the Pope at Avignon came to an end ; the new
Pope was of a different kidney to the old.
The first rung of the ladder of fame was mounted by
Baldassare Cossa when his fellow-countryman, Pope Boniface
the Ninth, sent him back in 1392 to Bologna as Archdeacon.1
He remained there four years. As Archdeacon, Baldassare
Cossa occupied the same relation to the University of Bologna
as did the Chancellor of the Cathedral to the University of
Paris ; no promotion to the Doctorate could take place without
his consent ; the candidates were presented to him, he presided
over their examination, he announced the decision of the
Doctors and conferred the licence which allowed them to teach
not only in Bologna but throughout the world. The position
brought with it both dignity and emoluments. Although the
Archdeacon was not necessarily an official of the Universitv,
but rather an external representative of the Church's authority
over the Studium, still, from the year 1270 onwards, the
relations between the Archdeacon on the one hand, and the
Doctors and the University on the other, had always been
most amicable ; and the position and influence which he thus
obtained account for the allegiance, almost amounting to
subservience, which the University of Bologna afterwards, and
especially at the time of the Council of Pisa, evinced towards
Baldassare Cossa. 1 Ciaconius, ii. 710, 785.

BALDASSARE COSSA 161
Alike as a student at the University of Bologna and as its
Archdeacon, Baldassare Cossa was able to follow and take a
keen interest in the local politics and fortunes of the State ;
his subsequent career shows the deep and permanent impres
sion which they made upon him. Bologna was the ally of
Florence, and Florence was at the head of the opposition to
Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord, and from 1395 Duke, of Milan.
Florence, moreover, on the 29th September 1396, entered into
alliance with the King of France.1 Baldassare Cossa was in
after years the ally of Florence ; with her aid he wrested
Bologna from the Visconti, and like her, he too looked for aid
to France. While he was a student, and again while he was
Archdeacon at Bologna, intermittent war between Milan and
Florence continued, and Bologna was throughout the faithful
ally of Florence. The Duke usually managed to maintain in
the cities of his enemies a party in his own pay and interest.
In 1389 a conspiracy was hatched in Bologna in his favour,
but it was discovered ; and in the same year came the Duke's
mortal enemy, Francesco of Carrara, to the city, and was so well
received that in 1390 Gian Galeazzo openly declared war
against both Florence and Bologna. It was possibly in this
war that Baldassare Cossa first took arms and made his name
as a soldier. A Florentine speaks thus of him : ' There was
much worth in him; for having from his boyhood applied
himself to letters, and having worked so that he became not
only a celebrated orator and poet, but a good philosopher
also, he then turned his mind to other matters, abandoned his
studies, and made himself a man at arms, and so comported
himself that he was soon esteemed one of the first soldiers of
Italy. Being made a captain, on the very first occasion he
came successfully out of the trial; and he was victorious in
more than one war. But after many expeditions, not being
contented with this life, he began to ponder on Church
dignities, and aspired to the Papacy.' 2
It was after Baldassare Cossa had been summoned to Rome
1 Tartini, ii. 363.
2 Abridged from Robbia's Vita di Bartolommeo Valori, A.S.I., iv. 261.
With reference to this extract Creighton (i. 385) says of Cossa that 'it is clear
that Florence did not accept the opinion of Constance, and I incline to think
that the opinion of Florence was less prejudiced.'

162 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
that the Milanese were so seyerely defeated at Governolo by
the troops of Florence under Carlo Malatesta and those of
Bologna under Giovanni di Barbiano,1 that men said that the
Florentine general might have brought Gian Galeazzo to his
knees had he marched straight on Milan from Mantua.2 Before
that day, it is clear that Baldassare Cossa won much distinc
tion on the field of battle, and that his military virtue and
valour were appreciated by his contemporaries. The Floren
tines more than others were conscious of his worth, for they
entreated Pope Boniface subsequently to send him as Papal
Legate to Bologna : how should they have been so keenly and
deeply impressed with his prowess as a soldier and his genius
as a general had these qualities not been exemplified in the
war which so nearly concerned them ? Be the truth as it
may, it is clear that Cossa was early known as a strenuous
man of action; as Platina, the librarian of Pope Sixtus
the Fourth, says of him, ' Virfuit bello et armis quam religioni
aptior.1 In 1396 Pope Boniface the Ninth summoned Baldassare
Cossa to Rome to be his private chamberlain.3 The seven
years were just closing during which Pope Boniface the Ninth,
for fear of the pious cardinals left him by his predecessor, had
been ashamed openly to practise simony.4 Seven of these had
now died, and since his first year Boniface had made no
additions to the sacred college. He was in no fear of a
general council, for in 1391 he had in his encyclical of the 1st
March rejected this scheme as sinful.6 His rival was in diffi
culty in France. Boniface had a free hand. He now embarked
on that course of shameless and unprincipled simony which
amassed money for the Church, but which made the Pope's
name a byword and a loathing among the nations. Into this,
the very worst school of Church government, Baldassare Cossa,
as private chamberlain, was initiated, and he, a thorough man
of the world, learned his lesson. The Pope would do nothing
without being paid for it ; he held that a little ready cash was
better than a big promise, or, as he phrased it, ' a sprat in the
hand was better than a dolphin in the sea.' a
1 Tartini, ii. 381. 2 Hoefler, 107. s Mur. iii. 854.
« De Schismate, 130. " Hefele, vi. 814. 6 De Schismate, 138.

BALDASSARE COSSA 163
There were three classes of chamberlains surrounding the
Pope, The first class were the honorary chamberlains, who
neither slept in the palace nor performed any special service.
The second were the ordinary chamberlains, who did not sleep
in the palace, but who attended the Pope at his retirement
and his uprising, who read prayers with him and assisted him
in the Mass and Church functions, and who received petitions
for him and drafted replies. The third class, who were two
or four in number, were the private chamberlains, to whom
were intrusted the keeping of the private records, the custody
of the treasure, the superintendence of the wardrobe and the
medicine chest. These lived in the palace and were naturally
more influential with the pontiff than were the others.1 In his
new position the young ecclesiastic soon became both useful and
profitable to the Pope, who, like Cossa himself, was a shrewd
man of the world and an able ruler of the Church.
The sale of indulgences was then in full vogue, In the year
1300 Boniface the Eighth had granted full remission of sin
(plenissirnam omnium suorum concedimus veniam peccatorum, so
ran the Bull) to every penitent man who had made his confes
sion and who visited the churches of Saint Peter and Saint Paul
in Rome. The number of pilgrims who flocked to the Eternal
City was so enormous, and their offerings so profitable, that
the period for a Jubilee was reduced from a hundred to fifty
years by Clement the Sixth in 1350 ; and the period was still
further reduced to thirty-three years, the length of the life of
Christ, by Urban the Sixth, who appointed 1390 to be a year
of Jubilee. Urban died, and Boniface, his successor, reaped
the fruits of the Jubilee, and Pope Boniface resolved to extend
these privileges in the year following to other penitents also.
Many had been deterred from the journey by the pestilence
which raged in Rome, others by the dangers of the road.
Bands of armed men lurked about the roads ready to rob the
male pilgrims, and to violate the women and maidens.2 Hence
the receipts were not so great as they might have been. ' If
they will not come to us for grace, we will take it to them for
payment,' said the avaricious Pope; and he ordained that
those who had been unable to travel to Rome, but who made
1 Schwab, 181. ' De Schismate, 170.

164 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
pilgrimages to certain shrines in Germany, should be admitted
to the same indulgences as those who had gone to the Eternal
City, provided that they paid into his coffers the expense
which the longer journey would have entailed. The scheme
met with universal approbation in Germany, and Pope Boni
face shared the proceeds of this pious economy with King
Wenzel and the Lords of Bavaria and Meissen. But a number
of unaccredited agents sprang up, men like Chaucer's Pardoner
with his * pigges-bones ' and his ' pilwe-beer,' who practised
frauds on the credulity of the ignorant rustic and burgher, and
who rendered no account of their gains to any man. It was
necessary to put some restraint on these impostors, some of
whom were caught and laid by the heels,1 and this work would
naturally fall to the private chamberlain : it was probably
Baldassare Cossa who organised the official machinery, thereby
putting an end in some degree to much plunder and scandal,
and at the same time securing greatly increased gains for the
papal treasury.
As the Pope's private chamberlain Baldassare Cossa also
kept a careful eye on the bishops scattered through Christen
dom, warning them when they were likely to be transferred
and a crop of first-fruits was to be expected, and also inter
vening on their behalf with the Pope to prevent changes of
dioceses which the incumbents deprecated. For these services
he naturally received gratification ; and he has been accused
by his inveterate enemy 2 of uttering the warning and pocket
ing the gratification when there was no other cause for appre
hension save in his own imagination. It is true that in later
life he was sufficiently wealthy ; but large fortunes were
habitually made in the Curia in those days, and what the
Italians earned they saved. The higher orders among the
German clergy had the reputation for liberality and for
keeping open house, whereas the Italians from the cardinals
downward were known to be parsimonious, penurious, and
thrifty. Baldassare Cossa personally spent his money freely
when occasion demanded, and could at no time be justly
accused of avarice.
Among the most important visitors to the court of Pope
1 De Schismate, 120. 2 Hardt, ii. 341.

BALDASSARE COSSA 165
Boniface the Ninth, soon after the arrival of Baldassare Cossa,
was John of Nassau, the great-grandson of the Emperor Adolf
of Nassau. On the 19th October 1396 Conrad, Archbishop
of Mainz, had died ; and John of Nassau was a candidate for
the post which his elder brother Adolf, the sturdy arch
bishop who could ' bite like a wolf,' had held until his death
in 1390. King Wenzel, however, favoured the claims of
Joffrid of Leiningen, whom he represented as able to do much
toward ending the Schism ; he was very urgent that his
nominee should meet with the papal support. Archbishop
Frederic of Cologne also favoured the claims of his nephew
Joffrid. On the other side was Rupert, surnamed the Clem,
the future king ; and also the Florentines. The chapter made
over the responsibility of the election to a committee of five,
who chose Joffrid. There was, however, more than a suspicion
of simony ; fifty or sixty thousand golden gulden are said to
have changed hands. John of Nassau understood that money
to be expended could be more profitably employed at the
fountain-head; simony was permissible to the Pope if to no
one else, for all the wealth of the Church was his, and he only
received his own ; John took over the debt of his two prede
cessors, and paid seventy thousand x golden gulden to the Pope
before he left Rome. He was appointed Archbishop of Mainz,
and so became senior Elector of the Empire, an electorship in
which he played a most important part in the history of
Germany. While at Rome he made the acquaintance of
Baldassare Cossa, and the two men remained close friends and
partisans ever after. There was much that was congenial in
their dispositions ; both were men of the world, both were
soldiers rather than churchmen, both were able and ambitious.
While Baldassare was at the court of Boniface at Rome,
there came the news one day that two of his brothers, who
had continued their old piratical life, had been captured by
the men of King Ladislas and had been condemned to death
and to confiscation of all their goods. Cossa, with much
difficulty, got the Pope to intervene, and Ladislas consented
to spare the lives of the two pirates, but he put them in
prison and kept them there : this was the first black score in
1 Lenfant, i. 302.

166 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the mutual account of Baldassare Cossa and King Ladislas of
Naples. In Naples the cause of the boy Ladislas had meantime been
taken up by his mother Marguerite, who had, with a woman's
presentiment, bitterly opposed her husband's departure for
Hungary, and who now fought manfully for her son. The
rebels of the Anjou party, to which the family of Baldassare
Cossa belonged, besieged the Queen in her capital ; the
Neapolitans threw off her yoke and proclaimed a council;
Marguerite, with her son and daughter, shut herself up in
Gaeta. On the 5th September she married young Ladislas
to Constance of Sicily for the sake of her dowry. In the
next year Pope Boniface recognised Ladislas as a 'true son
of the Church,' and sent a cardinal legate to Gaeta to crown
him King; but at the same time Louis of Anjou appeared,
took possession of Naples, and received from many of the
barons the oath of fidelity. War began. Marguerite with
tears and entreaty recommended her son's cause to the faith
ful adherents who remained to her, and a long period of storm
and stress ensued. Young Ladislas grew up in the midst of
civil war, in an atmosphere of intrigue and dissimulation ; his
trouble and humiliation taught him to be a consummate de
ceiver and a ferocious tyrant.1 Shrewd and clever, he was a
stranger to probity and honour. As soon as his father-in-law
lost his wealth and power, Ladislas divorced his wife, and
married Marie de Lusignan, daughter of the King of Cyprus.
But with all his faults he was not so alien to the people
as was Louis of Anjou ; Ladislas was indeed popular with Nea
politans ; 2 his talent and valour won him partisans ; and in
1399 the local barons of Orsini and San Severini passed under
his standard. He was a man full of ambitious projects, but
lacking in perseverance ; he pursued his plans for a time, and
then cast them aside. He was unboundedly sensual ; he would
quit the field of battle to indulge his brutish appetite. But,
spite of all, he gradually won his way to power. Louis of
Anjou, who was besieged at Tarento, was obliged to capitu
late. The like fate befell his brother Charles, who was
besieged in the Castello dell' Ovo, the ' Castel of the sorcerer
1 Raumer, 189. » Mur. xix. 921.

BALDASSARE COSSA 161
Vergil,' known aforetime as the Lucullanum, where the body of
Severinus was laid, ' that remarkable island or peninsula which
juts out from the shore of modern Naples between the Chiaja
and the Military Harbour.'1 Both brothers were compelled
to resign their fortresses to the troops of Ladislas and to
retire to Provence. Thus at the close of the century Ladislas
was undisputed King of Naples, although the claims of Louis,
Duke of Anjou, were not resigned but were merely in abey
ance. In person Ladislas was a tall, straight, well-built man,
solemn of aspect and not very beautiful to look upon ; with
light eyes and long red hair, arched eyebrows and a hooked
nose, his pale face flushed at times with anger or greed ; in
character he was faithless, cruel, and unchaste ; he was liberal
to his troops; he dressed like a sloven, ate ravenously, and
drank copiously of strong, undiluted wine ; he stammered some
what in his speech.2 He meant to be King of Rome ; later on
he aspired to the crown of all Italy, and dreamed of becoming
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.
While he was private chamberlain at the court of Boniface
the Ninth, the future Pope John the Twenty-third met the
man who has done more than any other to blacken his name
with posterity.3 Belonging to the town of Nieheim, in the
diocese of Paderborn, born somewhere between 1338 and 1348,
Dietrich of Niem had wandered to Naples and to Sicily before
he came to Avignon, where about the year 1370 he obtained
employment in the Curia as an auditor's clerk or notary.
Here he met the future Pope Urban, who, after they had made
the perilous voyage to Rome together on the return of Gregory
the Eleventh, became his fast friend, and who was able in 1878
to promote him to the post of Abbreviator and Scriptor. The
two offices were often held together. The Abbreviatores, who
at this time were more than a hundred in number, were the
clerks under the Vice-Chancellor of the Curia, who prepared
the minutes, while the Scriptores made the fair copies of
papal Bulls and briefs. The emoluments were large, and the
Scriptores had the picking of vacant benefices, of which they
were allowed to hold four apiece. Dietrich, however, had his
1 Hodgkin, iii. 191. 2 Mazella, Le Vite dei Re di Napoli, 194.
1 Erler, 340.

168 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
finger in no less than eleven,1 although he was obliged
under the rules to vacate them and his office in the Curia
while he held the bishopric of Verden (1395-1400). As a
bishop Dietrich was an utter failure, and he spent the last
two years, before he was removed by the Pope for his incom
petency, at the court of Rome, pushing his claims there.
Although under Pope Innocent the Seventh Dietrich again
obtained an appointment as Abbreviator, he thereafter re
ceived no important preferment, and was a soured and dis
appointed man. When; in describing his own personal part
in a quarrel between Urban the Sixth and his cardinals, he
found it impossible to be fair and to tell the whole truth,2
when he paints the characters of Boniface the Ninth and
Gregory the Twelfth in the darkest colours, concealing all
their virtues and magnifying their faults, it is little wonder
that his picture of Baldassare Cossa is disfigured by the
bitterest party spirit. It must have been gall and wormwood
to him, while vainly endeavouring to promote his own interest
and while he was himself passed over in the papal Curia,3 to
see the brilliant young Neapolitan, twenty or thirty years his
junior, promoted to a post of confidence and power ; and in
1415, when Pope John had fallen on evil times, when every
one was ready to believe anything, whether true or false, suffi
ciently bad about him, Dietrich von Niem had his revenge.
In the midst of his own disappointment and failure it soothed
him to describe the events of a troublous time in the most
lurid colours, blackening all the shadows and exaggerating all
the iniquities. He had a bad word for every one, but he was the
special enemy of Cossa.4 He adopted all the scandals told by
Johannes de Thomariis without investigation, and entered them
all to the count of Baldassare Cossa, and this although he had
five years earlier presented to him a tractate, De bono Romani
Pontiflcis regimine, in which he expressed his respect and
gratitude.6 He has blackened the character of Baldassare
Cossa so outrageously and falsely that his malice has defeated
his own ends, and the word of Dietrich von Niem against
John the Twenty-third is not now believed where it is not
1 Erler, 76. 2 Ibid. 76-7. * Hunger, 14.
4 Ciaconius, ii. 791. 5 Hunger, 12 ; Erler, 341.

BALDASSARE COSSA 169
corroborated by other evidence. German scholars of the
present day, with the exception of Blumenthal,1 scout the un
supported assertions of Dietrich von Niem.
Among other sins, Niem accused Baldassare Cossa of simony
and of gross unchastity . Simony is a very wide term ; and what
to an Observantine Franciscan would appear simony was to the
bishops, cardinals, and popes of mediaeval times matter of daily
usage. Pope John the Twenty-third did not introduce the
system, nor did he extend it ; he found it in practice and utilised
it for the needs of the Curia. Every one admitted that simony
existed in the Church, and that it was rampant at Rome ; and
every truly religious man desired a reformation in this respect.
As regards the charge of sensual immorality, it must be re
membered that chastity was not then a virtue greatly in
vogue, that the moral feeling in Italy was lower than in other
countries, and that most of the mighty ones of the earth
were monsters of immorality. That there was any ground
for such a scandal as that recounted by the atrabilious, vin
dictive Teuton 2 is so improbable, that even Gregorovius
laughs at it,3 and we have only the unsupported word of
Niem himself for its existence, and he mentions it merely as
rumour. He says : ' Et aliquando etiam publice dicebatur
Bononia, anno primo Pontificatus dieti Balthasaris tunc Papae,
postquam Bononienses sibi rebellarunt, quod ipse ducentas
maritatas, viduas Sf virgines, ac etiam quam plures moniales,
illic corruperat, ejus ibidem dominio perdurante."1 4 The
Bolognese were not men to put up with treatment of this
kind ; but seeing that there are contemporary histories of
Bologna, and not one of them knows aught of any such
scandal, the charge may be at once dismissed as an unfounded
calumny. One of Cossa's best friends, and one of his greatest
enemies, bear alike witness, though indirect, to the compara
tive purity of his life. Carlo Malatesta, an upright and
honourable man, was a friend of Baldassare Cossa; he re
spected him, and even when in later years at Constance he
bore witness against him, he never said anything tending to
accuse-him olhsensuality. Pope Gregory the Twelfth, on the
1 Brieger, xxi. 488 et seq. 2 Salembier, Le grand Schisme d 'Occident, 276.
3 Gregor. vi. 614. 4 Hardt, ii. 339.

170 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
other hand, was one of Cossa's worst and most inveterate
enemies; he fulminated a Bull against him, in which he
enumerated every charge known to him against Cossa, but
he also never accused him of immorality. The evidence of
these two men far outweighs that of Niem. Furthermore, all
the Popes for more than a century back, with the single
exception of Clement the Sixth, had been men of clean lives ;
and it is in the highest degree improbable that Cossa would
ever have worn the triple crown had he been the prodigy of
sensuality described by Dietrich von Niem.
The character of the future Pope was judged differently
and far more accurately by others of that time and of the age
succeeding. The Religieux de Saint Denys describes him as
( virum utique nobilem et experturn in agendis."1 1 Platina
says that Baldassare Cossa ' was a man to oppose usurpers or
such as encroached upon the church-revenues. Yet there
was more of rusticity, boldness, and worldliness in him than
his profession required. He led a military life, and his
manners were soldier-like, and he took the liberty of doing
many things not fit to be named.'2 The best-known verdict
on his character and the most truthful is that given by a
man who knew him well, Leonardo of Arezzo, who styled him
* vir in temporalibus quidem magnus in spiritualibus nullus
omnino atque ineptus?* An eminently sane modern historian
says of him that he was * not indeed the moral monster his
enemies afterwards endeavoured to represent him, but he was
utterly worldly-minded and completely engrossed by his
temporal interests, an astute politician and courtier, not
scrupulously conscientious, and more of a soldier than a
churchman.'* Pastor quotes Hergenroether, Reumont, and
Hefele in his support of this view ; Finke and others might
be added to the list. When he was at Bologna, Baldassare
Cossa was an orator, poet, and philosopher ; when he took up
the trade of war, he proved himself a man of intelligence,
courage, and energy ; and it was undoubtedly his virtue as a
man of war, as a man of resource and action, that marked him
out for promotion by Pope Boniface the Ninth.
1 Religieux, iv. 324. 2 Platina, 342.
3 Mur. xix. 927. * Pastor, i. 91.

THE WAY OF CESSION 171

CHAPTER V
THE WAY OF CESSION
' Heresies and Schisms,' says Francis Bacon, ' are of all others
the greatest scandals : yea, more than corruption of manners.'
Such was also the belief of the average Christian man at the
end of the fourteenth century. States and institutions might
regard the Schism merely as it affected their own private
interest ; but the universal consensus of popular opinion ran
that it was necessary in some way to put an end to the
accursed Schism. The French court and the University of
Paris alike rejoiced at the news of the election of Benedict
the Thirteenth; they believed that in matters of Church
government and taxation he would be as complaisatftas
Clement the Seventh, and that he would be willing to end
the disruption in the Church by abdication if required.
There were at that time in matters ecclesiastical three
distinct parties in France : x there was the / Court, which ¦
regarded the Church as an institution which, with the
sanction of the Pope, provided revenue for the King's expenses
and benefices for the King's servants ; there was the Gallican
Church, which desired to pay as little as possible either to
King or Pope in the way of taxation, and to pay nothing at
all except with its own consent ; which desired further that all
benefices when vacant should be filled by the ordinaries. In
the third place there was the University of Paris, the
theological school par excellence of Christendom, the guardian
of orthodoxy, which saw the need for internal reform in the
Church, although rather in matters financial than moral.
But the University depended on the Pope to provide benefices
for its Masters. The ordinaries, lay and clerical, had too
1 Reinke, 7 et seq.

172 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
many dependants and followers to allow of their presenting
a man to a benefice simply because he was the fittest man for
the work ; fitness, indeed, never entered their thoughts. The
system of promotion was the same to the higher as to the
lower posts in Holy Church. ' The idea of making a man a
bishop or archdeacon on account of his zeal, his energy, his
success in the humble round of parochial duty, is one which
would hardly have occurred to sensible men in mediaeval
times'; nor was the case different in the presentation to
benefices. Hence it came about that the most corrupt Popes
were better patrons of learning than were the Gallican bishops.
The fact that 'the carriere ouverte aux talens should have
been secured by the system of Provisions is a striking example
of the indirect utilities which were often bound up with the
most indefensible and most corruptly intended of papal
usurpations.' x Such were the three parties in Church politics
in France. Pope Benedict, on the other hand, by no means
looked on himself as Secretary of State in the ecclesiastical
department to the King of France ; he took a lofty and a
fitting view of his high position ; he regarded himself as
representing and entrusted with the interest of the Church
Universal ; and as this interest did not correspond in his view
with that of any of the three parties named, it followed that
if he were not willing to give way there must needs be
friction. Pope Benedict the Thirteenth is one of the most mysterious
and fascinating figures of the period with which we are
dealing. He was sixty-six years of age when elected ; a short,
neat, handsome little man, sprung from a noble family of
Aragon ; Roderigo de Luna was his brother, the Cardinal of
Pampeluna was a near relative. He had been Professor of
Canon Law in the University of Montpellier ; he had all the
logical instinct of a keen chancery lawyer ; he looked to the
letter of the law, and was careful of nice verbal distinctions.
He was an eloquent and successful diplomatist ; he had won
the obedience of Castile for his predecessor in 1380, that of
Aragon in 1387, that of Navarre in 1390; he had been
deputed to Portugal ; he had pleaded for Clement in Paris in
1 Rashdall, i. 534.

Pope Benedict the Thirteenth.

THE WAY OF CESSION 178
1394 ; twice had he bearded the dreaded Duke of Lancaster.
He had originally done much to secure the election of Pope
Urban the Sixth ; he had been reluctant to break with him ;
he had gone to Agnani with the intention of serving him,
but the arguments of the French cardinals, coupled with the
ingratitude and misconduct of Urban, had decided him, and
he became the most fervent supporter of Clement the Seventh.1
He was a man of blameless moral life ; Nicolas de Clamanges
speaks of his sanctity and love of contemplation; Froissart
says that he was 'an holy manne and of good lyfe.'2 He
possessed a powerful magnetic influence which worked on
those of vivid imagination and chivalrous devotion ; hence he
gained for himself the affection of characters so diverse in
other respects as Catharine of Siena and Louis of Orleans,
and of reforming churchmen such as Pierre d'Ailly and
Nicolas de Clamanges : these all believed in him and trusted
him. Had his lot been cast in quieter times, he would have
been esteemed for his Church governance, for he hated simony
and corruption; he was fully conscious of his own good
intentions, and was possessed of inflexible energy in attempt
ing to carry out his designs. He had his own pet scheme for
ending the Schism, and in judging him it is necessary to
remember that he was never allowed an opportunity of putting
it into practice. He was a man of great personal dignity, a
past master in the arts of diplomacy and persuasion, but he had
the defects of his virtues. His logic was apt to degenerate into
fine-drawn craft, his pride and firmness into perverse obstinacy.
Pope Benedict was too shrewd to break off at once without
further warning the policy of his predecessor ; he allowed the
existing fiscal arrangements to continue for the time ; he
sent ambassadors to speak comfortably to the royal princes.
But it was inevitable that a struggle should come. Benedict
represented the old spirit of the Church universal, France
represented the modern spirit of the national or Gallican
Church; the French court represented that of a Church
prostituted to the uses of the State. All the leading church
men of France were Gallicans. The Gallican Church had
taken root in the time of Saint Louis and Philip the Fair;
J Gardner, 272. 2 Froissart, vi. 121,

174 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
it had begun to flourish and grow strong in the time of the
captivity at Avignon ; it was now a living, though not a
recognised, institution, protected more especially by the Duke
of Burgundy.1 The threat of Urban the Sixth to swamp the
French cardinals with Italians, and so to alter or reform the
sacred college, had doubtless not been without influence on
Charles the Fifth when he embraced the cause of the rival
Pope. Clement the Seventh, in his government of the French
Church, had been more subservient to the French court than
Were any of the Popes during the Captivity. He had regularly
exploited the Church for the benefit of himself, of his cardinals,
and of the court. In his collation to bishoprics he regarded
only the fact whether the incumbent was, or was not, likely
to be pleasing to the French King ; if he were a persona grata
at court, then any disqualification of age or capacity or worth
was overlooked. The Pope even went so far as to place
several bishoprics and 750 benefices at the King's absolute
disposal. The Doctors of the University of Paris he naturally
held in the utmost contempt; theologians, he said, were
merely dreamers. He did his best to ruin the Church
of France.2 The policy of Clement was hateful to Pope
Benedict, who had the interest of the Church at heart ; and
this explains his conflict with the French court; it explains
also his conflict with his own cardinals, most of whom
were Frenchmen and steeped in simony. The very virtues of
the new Pope were fatal to smooth working between him and
the court or the college.
The royal princes soon discovered that Benedict meant to be
absolute ruler of the Church within his obedience. Although he
was personally hostile to Simon de Cramaud, whom he had
balked of the cardinal's hat which Clement the Seventh desired
to send to the Duke of Berri's chancellor, still the new Pope was
universally believed to be in favour of the ' way of cession.' To
a deputation of the University of Paris, sent to congratulate
him on his accession, he remarked, using a simile of his prede
cessor, that he could abdicate as easily as he doffed his cope.3
On the day of his coronation he wrote to King Charles
announcing his intention to work with him for the unity of the
1 Kehrmann, 5, 23. 2 Religieux, i. 694. » Ibid. ii. 206.

THE WAY OF CESSION 175
Church. The King was delighted. He consulted the
Carthusians and the Celestines as to the best way of ending
the Schism ; he held a council of the French clergy ; he
addressed himself to the saintly Jean de Varennes, who was
emulating the fame of Peter of Luxemburg. It was agreed
upon that the ' way of cession ' was the best and readiest
method of solving the difficulty. Meantime Charles sent
Pierre d'Ailly to Benedict with his congratulations; the
reformer had an interview with the Pope, and remained his
devoted adherent from that day.
Shortly after this the Pope sent two ambassadors to King
Charles, desiring his counsel ; he followed this up by sending
two further envoys, asking that no plan might be definitely
concluded, but that that which was proposed might be sent to
him for final determination. He did not want to have any
' way ' forced upon him ; he desired , in conj unction with the King
of France, to concert some plan for the termination of the
Schism. This was the attitude which the Pope assumed
towards the French court; it was frank and reasonable.
Even if Charles believed Benedict to be in favour of the
' way of cession,' it was clear that the Pope did not mean to
waive his right to discuss the plan first, if necessary ; and it
is plain that whatever plan might be proposed, there were
numberless details to be decided before it could be finally
adopted.1 The Pope, in fine, merely asked the King for a
pious opinion ; but Charles gave him more than he asked for :
he sent him a cut-and-dried scheme. The affairs of the
Church were apparently to be managed not by the Pope, but
by the French court. The King had convoked a council of
the national Church on Candlemas Day, 1395; and the
great majority had been in favour of the ' way of cession.'
The same plan for ending the Schism had been approved by
the University of Paris, which had, moreover, especially dis
couraged the ' way of a council.' The learned Doctors had
no desire that measures of importance should be referred for
decision to the little Italian bishops, ignorant of law, but
infinite in number, of whom, it was feared, the majority of a
general council would be composed. Thus began the strife
1 Ehrle, v. 407 ; Jarry, 129.

176 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
between the Pope at Avignon and the University of Paris;
the Pope tried to deprive members of the University of their
benefices, and the University in 1396 appealed to the ' next
sole, true, orthodox, and universal Pope.'
Benedict the Thirteenth was a Spaniard, and the French
court made common cause against him with the canon lawyers
of the University of Paris. King Charles determined to send
to Avignon an imposing embassy. He despatched his two
uncles, the Dukes of Berri and Burgundy, and his brother,
the Duke of Orleans, with a large train of councillors, prelates,
and delegates, as ambassadors to Pope Benedict. It was
indeed a grand embassy, reflecting the greatest honour on
the potentate to whom it was sent. The Duke of Burgundy
had long been known as an advocate for the union of the
two obediences; his Flemish subjects had taught Philip the
Bold to regard Urbanists with impartiality and without
disfavour. Jean, Duke of Berri, the eldest of the King's
uncles, born in 1340, had been a personal friend of Pope
Clement, but had veered round to his brother's opinions;
a dilettante grand seigneur rather than a politician, a collector
of curiosities, a lover of sumptuous edifices and fine frescoes, a
lover also of truffles and of the hounds and bears of Auvergne,1
Jean, Duke of Berri, had proved himself ruthlessly cruel and
exacting as an administrator and hopelessly incapable as a
statesman. The Duke of Orleans had his own private dream
of a kingdom in Northern Italy to which Pope Benedict
might help him; he soon became an open adherent of the
new pontiff. The delegates of the University of Paris
were members of the more violent party led by Simon de
Cramaud, Patriarch of Alexandria and Chancellor to the Duke
of Berri, who coveted the tiara for himself; the more moderate
party of D'Ailly and Gerson were comparatively powerless.
The embassy reached Avignon on the 22nd May. The
Pope had already taken counsel with his cardinals, and had
decided that the way of discussion was the better and more
reasonable. He took an early opportunity, in the presence
of the cardinals, of informing the King's ambassadors of his
plan, known as the ' way of convention,' whereby he and his
1 Simeon Luce, La France pendant la Guerre de cent ans, i. 212 et seq.

THE WAY OF CESSION 177
sacred college were to meet the rival Pope and his cardinals
in some secure place under the protection of the King of
France, in order to discuss the matter and to find some
means of ending the Schism. On the 1st June a great meet
ing of the embassy with the Pope and his cardinals was held.
Gilles des Champs discoursed on the manifest advantages of
the ' way of cession,' and the Duke of Berri formally announced
that this was the scheme to which the King of France had
given his adherence. The Pope's advice was not asked ; he
was simply told that he, a Spaniard, was to abdicate at the
bidding of the French King. Benedict the Thirteenth was
not a man to be driven against his will; he asked to be
favoured with a written memoir showing the reasons which
had induced His Grace to come to this conclusion, and the
method which he proposed to adopt to secure its fulfilment.
To this the royal dukes replied that there was no need for
a written memoir, since the whole could be summed up in
the one word Abdication. It was the grossest mistake on
their part to adopt this bullying tone with Pope Benedict.
He did not believe in the ' way of cession ~" ; it had never
been adopted heretofore; it was impossible to procure the
simultaneous abdication of the rival Popes. He informed
the royal dukes that so important a matter, affecting the
interest of the universal Church, could not be settled in that
brusque fashion, and that he personally would do nothing
under compulsion.
That same evening the dukes assembled the cardinals at Ville-
neuve and required of them forthwith their real opinions. This
tampering with the sacred college might, and indeed did, procure
an overwhelming majority in favour of the ' way of cession,' but
it was not a majority obtained in this questionable manner that
Benedict had contemplated in the oath which he had taken both
before and after he was elected pontiff. He refused to recognise
the opinion so obtained. He held private conferences with the
dukes ; he reproached the cardinals with their feebleness and
treachery, telling them that he was their master, responsible
to God alone ; but all his efforts were in vain ; the embassy
and the majority of the cardinals were alike in favour of the
' way of cession.' The proposal of the ' way of convention '

M

178 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
was scouted, and not even discussed ; nor was the suggestion,
known as the ' way of compromise,' that each Pope should
appoint the same number of arbitrators and be bound by the
votes of a two-thirds majority. Pope Benedict was ready to
be burned alive rather than accept the ' way of cession.'
When the negotiations had reached this unsatisfactory stage
the wooden bridge between Avignon and Villeneuve caught fire.
The Pope was at once suspected of the arson. He declared his
innocence, and provided a bridge of boats ; but the wind made
the passage precarious, and the dukes were obliged to cross the
Rhone from Villeneuve to Avignon, and to content themselves
with the houses which the cardinals placed at their disposal.
For seven weeks did the negotiations continue ; at the end of
that time the three royal princes returned baffled to Paris.
Their mission had been a total failure, and the King's uncles
never forgave Pope Benedict the humiliation they had
endured. The advantages of the conflict lay with the Pope. He had
gained over Duke Louis of Orleans to his side, and had made
an agreement with him in August. The Duke, like his uncles,
had been in favour of the policy of abdication ; he still remained
in favour of it, but was determined that Benedict should
abdicate of his own free will, and should not be forced into
abdication. Henceforth there was bitter enmity between the
King's brother of Orleans and his uncle of Burgundy; and
there was a split in the University. The Picards and the
Normans followed the lead of Burgundy ; the French nation
exhibited warm sympathy with the Duke of Orleans.1 Bene
dict made Nicolas de Clamanges his secretary and librarian ;
he promoted Pierre d'Ailly to the bishopric of Du Puy. The
future Bishop of Cambrai, to which see he was promoted soon
after, was succeeded as Chancellor of Notre Dame by Jean
Gerson, a protege of the House of Burgundy,2 thirteen years
the junior in age of D'Ailly, but already one of the most
influential and at the same time one of the most moderate
ecclesiastics of France. The Duke wanted Gerson to take
also the post of King's confessor, which D'Ailly had vacated,
but being anxious to avoid court intrigues he declined, and
1 Bess, 30-31. 2 Schwab, 267.

THE WAY OF CESSION 179
it was bestowed on Jean Courtecuisse, an out and out
advocate of the Burgundian policy of subtraction of obedi
ence. Gerson's view of the situation was eminently politic
and far-seeing. He represented the Faculty of Theology in
opposition to the Faculty of Canon Law, at the head of
which stood Simon de Cramaud. He held that it was better
to postpone all consideration of the way of cession until the
other nations of Europe had been consulted, that it was
unwise to enforce the way of cession in France alone, that
the plan lost all its advantages unless it was adopted by
the countries of both obediences simultaneously.1 The
opposition to him in the University was so great that he
determined to leave Paris, and for four years he remained
at Bruges as Dean, although the Duke of Burgundy, unwill
ing to lose altogether the services of so eminent a divine,
persuaded him to retain the Chancellorship of the University.
Gerson complied, but remained an opponent of the extremist
party. There were other manifestations also in favour of Pope
Benedict. While the royal embassy was still at Avignon,
the Dominican friar Azo published a tractate in defence of
the Pope, in which he styled the University of Paris a
daughter of the devil, a mother of error, an enemy of the
Holy Roman Church. The University of Toulouse was
energetic on the side of Benedict ; the University of Oxford
had condemned the proposed ' way of cession.' But although
the Pope had gained adherents among those churchmen who
were not prepared at once to proceed to extremities, he must
have known that it would be open war henceforth between
himself and the French court, or at any rate between himself
and that part of it which was represented by the powerful
Dukes of Burgundy and Berri. • Their tactics had undergone
a complete change since they had a stiff-necked Spaniard to
deal with instead of the complaisant Clement. Benedict, as
the Archbishop, of Reims said, 'came from the country that
the good mules came from ' ; he was tenacious of purpose and
inflexible. Nor was he to blame. He had other countries
besides France in his obedience, and must take thought also
1 Schwab, 140.

180 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
for their spiritual interest. He had no guarantee that the King
of France would be able to procure the abdication of the Pope
at Rome. If Benedict resigned and Boniface did not follow
his example, even then the Schism would not terminate with
the universal acceptance of Boniface as the true and only
Pope, for there was very little doubt that after a decent
interval of time the French court would procure the election
of another Pope more subservient than Benedict. This was
his belief; he made no secret of it ; on the contrary, he
published it in various courts.1 The use of compulsion to
wards the two claimants of a disputed succession, says Bishop
Creighton,2 was at the best merely a clumsy attempt to cut
the knot instead of untying it.
In the year after the failure of the embassy of the royal
princes there were two embassies from Rome to Avignon, two
also from Avignon to Rome. Boniface was very suspicious :
the first envoys from Benedict got no further than Fondi ;
they were not allowed to enter Rome, being suspected of
conspiracy. The second ambassador was the Bishop of
Tarazona; he was allowed to enter, but was not permitted
to go outside the Vatican. Boniface wished to persuade his
rival to efface himself entirely ; he knew that France had
fallen out with its Pope. Benedict urged that he had been
present at the election of Urban, and knew, as did all the
other cardinals, that it was null and void ; and even if he
were to resign, the kingdoms of Aragon, Castile, and France
would never obey the Pope at Rome; whereas if the Pope
at Rome resigned neither the King of the Romans nor the
King of Hungary would raise the slightest objection. The
embassies were fruitless; but their interest lies in the fact
that Pope Benedict now for the first time proposed that he
and his rival should meet and discuss matters and should so
find a solution of the difficulty. This plan, the ' way of
convention,' was Benedict's favourite scheme; it forms the
key to the policy of his pontificate. He was persuaded that
if he could meet his rival and could discuss the state of the
Church with him, then his own right and his eloquence, either
or both, would ensure him the victory.3 He preferred this
1 Schwab, 139. 2 Creighton, i. 150. * Ehrle, vi. 186.

THE WAY OF CESSION 181
plan to the ' way of cession,' which was one-sided, or the
' way of a council,' which was dilatory. The plan was
certainly plausible. It was far easier to arrange a meeting
of the rival Popes, from which probably one would emerge
as sole Pope and the other as the first and richest cardinal,
than to arrange for a simultaneous abdication to the detriment
of both and to the advantage of some third party. A further
advantage of this plan was that it would bring the principals
face to face and enable them to arrange most matters in dispute
speedily and finally. Benedict the Thirteenth had been an
ambassador, and knew how much can be effected by a good
case and a ready tongue. All through the first fourteen years
of his pontificate he endeavoured to inculcate the virtues of the
' way of convention,' but he was never able to put the method
to a decisive test.
Charles the Sixth, on learning the failure of the mission,
resolved to address the other courts of Europe, and de
spatched embassies accordingly. He received varied answers.
The King of Castile was affronted because action had been
taken without consulting him ; he was inclined to attribute
the change in policy to the fact that the new Pope was a
Spaniard.1 At first he approved the ' way of convention ' ; 2
eventually, however, he became an ardent adherent of the
' way of cession.' Martin, the new King of Aragon, on the
other hand, was and remained one of the warmest partisans of
his fellow-countryman. In England, despite the King, the
University of Oxford and the clergy generally were opposed
to the ' way of cession ' and in favour of the ' way of a
council ' : so, too, was an assembly held at Aachen. Both
England and Germany, however, contemplated a council which
should be called and presided over by Pope Boniface, and
whose business should be the extrusion of Pope Benedict.
Indeed, if a general council were to be convoked, and if it
were to consist, as it ordinarily would, of bishops and abbots,
then the representatives of the numberless small sees and
convents in Italy would swamp those of the much larger but
less numerous holdings in the north. The Elector Arch
bishops, King Sigismund of Hungary, the Dukes of Austria
1 Hergenroether, ii. 822. 2 Hefele, vi. 847.

182 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
and Bavaria, approved the method of simultaneous abdication,
but no decisive action could be taken until a conference
had been held with the King of the Romans; and Wenzel
vacillated, trying to keep in with both Popes. The Germans,
said the envoy Pierre Plaoul, could not refute the French
arguments, and had nothing better of their own to propose.
The paroxysms of madness to which Charles the Sixth was
liable, are the chief cause of that distressing want of con
tinuity which characterises the foreign and ecclesiastical policy
of the realm from the year 1392 onwards. The King himself
was much more alive to the welfare of France and the welfare
of Christendom than were his uncles or his brother, into whose
hands his temporary madness threw the conduct of affairs.
Each of them had his own private interest to follow. This
want of continuity was exemplified when the fresh convocation
met. The King himself was mad ; the Duke of Burgundy
was absent; consequently the conduct of affairs was in the
hands of the Duke of Orleans. He was a partisan of Pope
Benedict, and was resolved not to push him to extremity.
Hence it followed that all that the convocation decided was
that another embassy should be sent to Pope Benedict urging
him to abdicate. On this occasion, however, France was not
to act alone ; England and Castile were to unite with her, and
the joint embassy was to visit both Popes and to urge each
to abdicate.
The Kings of England and France entrusted the letters
announcing their embassies to the two Popes to the hands of
a Norman squire, Robert le Mennot, commonly known, from
his travels in the Holy Land and his visions, as Robert the
Hermit. He came to Avignon, and was by Benedict himself
entrusted with letters for the rival Pope Boniface. At Rome
Robert proposed that both Popes should unite to bring about
the peace of the Church, failing which obedience should be
subtracted from them. The Roman cardinals suggested that,
inasmuch as the French King and cardinals were opposed to
Benedict and seemed to be on the point of choosing a new Pope,
Boniface should make overtures to them. The Pope, however,
would do nothing more than promise to think over and take
counsel on the matter. The Hermit offered him a pension of a

THE WAY OF CESSION 183
hundred thousand ducats a year if he would resign. But the
Pope's last words were : — ' Robert, I will never cede my rights
to any one ; you may tell your King so. I would rather never
eat or drink more, nay, I would give up my part in heaven.'1
The only practical result of Robert's mission was that it
inclined people, especially when the result of the joint embassy
was known, to believe that there had been collusion between
the two Popes.
The embassy from the three Kings came to Avignon, and
on the 16th June 1397, Gilles des Champs, speaking for the
Kings of England, France, and Castile, begged Pope Benedict
to adopt the ' way of cession.' The Pope consulted with the
cardinals, the majority of whom backed up the request made
by the embassy. Benedict, however, replied that the matter
had not been properly considered, and that he must take
further thought and counsel. He was threatened that, were
the union of the Church not accomplished by next Candlemas
(2nd February), the obedience of his spiritual subjects would
be withdrawn from him. The Pope remained firm ; threats
were of no avail to make him accept the ' way ' of which he
disapproved. The embassy went on to Rome, arriving there
in September 1397. Here they were milder in their language,
but not more successful. Boniface answered them much as
Benedict had done ; he would promise nothing ; he would do
nothing without more thought and further counsel. The
joint embassy of the three Kings was a failure.
Moreover, at this time Pope Boniface appointed John of
Nassau to be Archbishop of Mainz, and while he thus gained
a sturdy adherent in the first Elector of the Empire, at the
same time he counter-worked the efforts of the French King,
who had sent his own representatives and also the delegates of
the University of Paris to attend the important Diet which
was to be held at Frankfurt. A new move was now in con
templation ; the method of neutrality was to be tried ; it was
deemed that if allegiance were rendered to neither Pope, if the
spiritual obedience of their subjects were subtracted from
both rivals, and if they were thus threatened with loss of
revenue, each would be ready to descend from his throne, to
1 Hefele, vi. 848; Valois, iii. 122.

184 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
accept a rich cardinalship, to prefer a lucrative abdication
rather than a pauper reign. It was not an entirely new
scheme ; it had been proposed and adopted by Henry of
Castile x at the beginning of the Schism ; but now it was to
be tried on a grand scale, and with greater hope of success.
Jean Courtecuisse pointed out that it was the enjoyment of
the loaves and fishes which prevented the Pope from agreeing
to the 'way of cession.'2 The Popes must be reduced to
beggary ; and beggars could not be choosers.
""The Diet of Frankfurt, the importance of which was re
cognised by every one except the King of the Romans, was
convened by the Electors of the Empire and was held on the
13th May 1397. Representatives from both Popes, from the
Kings of England, France, Aragon, and Castile, from the
Dukes of Burgundy and Brittany and the Duchess of Brabant,
were present, beside more than thirty princes, a large number
of counts, and envoys from cities and universities. It was
agreed to send ambassadors to the rival Popes, recommending
them to abdicate. The Electors, on their part, not recog
nising the Pope at Avignon, sent only to Pope Boniface ;
their ambassadors were accompanied by those of the Kings
of England, France, Castile, Navarre, and Aragon. They
humbly requested the Pope to take thought for the union of
the Church. Boniface in reply required them to contemplate
the termination of the Schism only through the universal
recognition of the Pope at Rome ; he asked them to impress
on King Wenzel the necessity for his journey to the Eternal
City and his coronation there. Furthermore, he pointed out
the extension of the French power in Italy to the detriment
of the Empire ; Genoa had already submitted to France, and
Florence was making a treaty with her; while the Electors,
by their ambiguous and irresolute conduct, were really aiding
the French King and the French Popey 'I alone am the
true Pope,' said Boniface, ' and I will never abdicate.' 3 The
Florentines, in an embassy which they sent to the Electors,
corroborated what Pope Boniface had said. The new Arch
bishop of Mainz, and the new Elector Palatine, both ardent
1 Lindner ( W.), i. 90 ; Religieux, i. 73, note. 2 Religieux, ii. 526,
» Tartini, ii. 380.

THE WAY OF CESSION 185
partisans of Boniface, took up the same parable against King
Wenzel : he was the only man who could oppose France
effectually, and he had abetted French designs; he had
created Gian Galeazzo, father-in-law of the Duke of Orleans,
Duke of Milan ; he had neglected the interest of the Empire
in Savoy, in Flanders, and in Brabant.
The Diet at Frankfurt, although it failed in inducing the
rival Popes to do anything toward ending the Schism, had,
however, another indirect effect. King Wenzel was at length
aroused from his sloth by the revolutionary proceedings of the
Electors. He recognised that, whether he would appoint a
regent for the Empire or not, he must at any rate do some
thing toward ending the Schism. The Duke of Orleans was
in communication with him, desirous of securing for his son
the hand of the fair and wealthy Elizabeth of Goerlitz ; and
Wenzel promised the Duke to meet the French King at Reims.
Having made up his mind, neither Pope nor Elector could
dissuade him ; and on the 28th March 1398 the two Kings
met in the old cathedral town. They were a curious couple
to settle the affairs of Christendom ; both well-intentioned
men, but the one a sot, the other a madman. The Dukes of
Berri and Bourbon were sent to invite Wenzel to dinner, but
they were too late ; he was already dead drunk for the day
and was sleeping off the effects of his wine. The next day the
two Kings met and dined together ; with them were the King
of Navarre and the Patriarch of Alexandiia. The subject of
the Schism was broached. The argument of the French was
that the plans of a compromise by arbitration or of a general
council were uncertain in their operation ; that it would not
redound to the honour of France to admit a mistake in
adhering to Clement nor to the honour of Germany to admit
a similar error in her obedience to Urban ; that, therefore, the
only honourable course for both countries, and the only sure
way of ending the Schism, was for France to procure the
abdication of Benedict and for Wenzel to procure that of
Boniface. The cession of both Popes could be practically
enforced by the subtraction of their obedience from them of
the countries concerned. On the following day Charles was
hurried off to Paris, as a fresh fit of madness was threatening.

186 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Colloquies were continued for three weeks between King
Wenzel and the Duke of Orleans; and the Canons of Toul
alleged that it was agreed that no person was to be molested for
adhering to one Pope rather than the other.1 Pierre d'Ailly, the
new Bishop of Cambrai, was sent from the French and German
Kings as joint ambassador to Avignon. He was accompanied
by the secretary and the confessor to the King of the Romans.
In addressing the Pope, Pierre d'Ailly was diplomatic to
the verge of inconsistency : he said not a word of abdica
tion ; he rather continued his discourse of four years earlier,
when he had congratulated the Pope on his accession, as if
nothing had happened meantime. When he had finished,
the two Germans asked Pope Benedict if he would abdicate,
and the Pope answered that under existing circumstances it
would be a mortal sin.2 This was the second, but not the
last, time that Pope Benedict was pressed by the French
court to abdicate without any efficient means being simul
taneously taken to procure the abdication of his rival. If he
had abdicated, what would have happened ? There can be no
doubt that Boniface the Ninth, finding himself sole Pope, and
with the Jubilee in view, would have refused to lay down his
triple crown. What would the French court then have done ?
Two courses were open to them : they might either have
recognised Boniface as sole Pope, or they might, and they
probably would, have elected a new Pope ; and in this case
they would have taken care to get a man elected more after
the pattern of Clement the Seventh than was Benedict the
Thirteenth. What they wanted was a Pope who would tax
the clergy for them, who would ' shear the sheep ' closely, and
give them most of the wool. Benedict hated simony and
would not do this; under him the French clergy were pro
tected from the exorbitant demands of the French court, and
this explains why the French King found it so difficult to get
the rank and file of the French clergy to follow him in the
harsher measures which were proposed from time to time
against Pope Benedict, The French court and the canon
lawyers who, under Simon de Cramaud, ruled the University
of Paris, were of one mind; but the majority of the clergy
1 Valois, iii. 132. 2 Ibid. iii. 135; Tschackert, 102.

THE WAY OF CESSION 187
and the University of Toulouse were of the opposite. To
abdicate would have been to deliver the Church within his
obedience up to the ruthless exactions of the French court or
to the shameless simony of Pope Boniface. It is small wonder,
therefore, that Pope Benedict declared that abdication under
the existing circumstances would be a deadly sin. This Pope
has been described by a recent writer as ' a man of blameless
life, vast learning, great charity, and apparently sincere piety ;
insensible to moral or physical fear, there was, nevertheless,
something mysterious and inscrutable in his bearing and
character — a man of upright life and lofty ideals, zealously
striving to find where the hidden jewel of truth lay concealed,
and to follow where he deemed that the light led.' x Whether
this description be true in all its details or not, it is certain
that the Pope had to contend throughout against the court
which should have been his protector, that he had to contend
against the majority of his cardinals, whose benefices lay
within the territory of that court, and this life of contention
naturally hardened his obstinacy and increased his self-conceit.
He saw that his opponents were in the wrong, and he came to
persuade himself that he alone was, and that he alone could
be, in the right.
From Avignon Pierre d'Ailly went to Fondi, where he
found Pope Boniface, and thence on to Rome for a Consistory
of the cardinals before whom the question of cession was
propounded. The cardinals determined that Boniface should
not abdicate unless Benedict had previously abdicated. The
unsuccessful bishop, who probably had expected no other
result from his mission, returned and brought the news to
King Wenzel at Coblenz and then to King Charles at Paris.2
Such is the story as usually told. It is, however, very doubtful
whether Pierre d'Ailly went on to Rome from Avignon ; the
time allowed for the journey certainly seems very inadequate.
The probability is that he abandoned his original intention
and returned to Coblenz and Paris from Avignon.8
Before the Bishop of Cambrai returned to Paris the King
of France had already set to work in decided fashion. He
1 Gardner, 256-7. 2 Tschackert, 102 ; Salembier, 44 ; Sehwab, 144.
8 Lindner (W.), ii. 511 ; Valois, iii. 135.

188 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
convoked a grand assembly of the clergy of France, to be
presided over by the King, the royal princes, and the barons,
who thus transformed an ecclesiastical into a national council ;
and the question for discussion was the policy to be pursued
toward the Pope. The council was to deliver itself of a pious
opinion which the King could adopt or not as he chose. It
was acknowledged by all that a Pope could be deposed for
heresy ; but the practical question now was whether a Pope
who refused or neglected to take measures to heal the Schism,
whether a Pope who, in other words, was a persistent Schismatic,
was ipso facto a heretic, and to be treated as such. This was
the point for decision. This was the third council held on
the Schism ; it was more fully attended than the former two
had been. Forty-four archbishops and bishops were present ;
monasteries, chapters, and universities were represented ; up
wards of three hundred clerks in all appeared under the
presidency of Charles of Navarre, as representing the lunatic
King, and in the presence of the Dukes of Berri, Burgundy,
Orleans, and Bourbon. The debate was opened by a violent
diatribe from Simon de Cramaud, who described the ' way of
cession ' as being demanded not only by France, but also by
the Kings of Hungary, Bohemia, England, Aragon, Castile,
Navarre, and Sicily ; he accused Pope Benedict of perjury, and
demanded the subtraction of obedience from him. Other
harangues on each side followed. Gilles des Champs alone
ventured to doubt whether they could subtract their obedience
unless and until the Pope had been condemned by an
oecumenical council. After a week of stormy argument, the
debate was closed by another harangue from the Patriarch of
Alexandria. He described how Benedict had been false to his
coronation oath ; how he had repulsed his cardinals when they
begged him on their knees, with tears in their eyes, to resign ;
he cited scores of passages from the canon law to show that
such obstinacy justified a subtraction of obedience; he cited
other passages to prove that such schism was idolatry, that it
was equivalent to heresy, that in the time of Alexander the
Third it had been adjudged to be heresy. The heated argu
ments of the orator, who would be the first ecclesiastic in
France when the papal authority was removed, the show of

THE WAY OF CESSION 189
learning and of patriotism of Simon de Cramaud, had their
effect. There was no doubt as to the general sense of the
council. A majority, nominally of 247 against 53, possibly of
not more than forty or fifty,1 were in favour of the total
subtraction of obedience. The royal dukes and the University
of Paris approved the more drastic measure of total subtrac
tion, although to this extreme policy a large number of the
clergy were hostile or indifferent. It was a serious blow to
the papal power in France, an immense strengthening of the
Gallican spirit.2 The King meantime, owing to his illness,
had been unable to consider the matter personally; but
advantage was taken of his pretended recovery of health to
get him to sign, on the 27th July, the decree for the total
subtraction of obedience. The clergy then proceeded to
arrange for the supplementary details connected with Church
governance during the subtraction.
Boucicaut, Marshal of France, and Pierre d'Ailly, Bishop
of Cambrai, were sent to carry intimation of these things to
Pope Benedict. They rode together to Lyons, where the
marshal tarried while the bishop went on. He met the Pope,
' and whan the bysshoppe came to the utteraunce of the
mater, howe the Pope shulde resygne and depose hymselfe fro
the papall dygnyte, and that he that was at Rome shulde do
likewyse, with those wordes the Pope beganne to chaunge
colour, and lyfte up his voyce and sayd : " I have endured
great payne and traveyle for the churche, and by good
election I was created Pope, and nowe to depose myselfe, that
shall I never do during my lyfe ; and I will that the Frenche
Kynge know that for all his ordynaunce I wyll do nothing
thereafter, but I will keep my name and papalyte tyll I dye." '
The next day there was a Consistory. The cardinals agreed
that they could do well enough with the King of Germany if
the French King would but take their part ; ' but it is other-
wyse, for he commaundeth us to obey, or els he wyll stoppe
fro us the fruites of our benefyces, without the whiche we can
nat lyve.' They therefore counselled abdication. But the
Pope was firm. 'The unyon of the Churche I desyre,' he told
them, * and I have taken great payne therin, but syth God of
1 Valois, iii. 172 et seq. 2 Kehrmann, 78.

190 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
his devyne grace hathe provyded for me the papalyte, and
that ye have chosen me therto, as longe as I lyve I wyll be
Pope, and I wyll nat depose myselfe nouthre for kyng, duke,
erle, nor other treatie, nor by no processe nor means, but that
I will abyde Pope.' This is the story told by the old
chronicler who, in the later years of his life, lived near
Cambrai, and may often have conversed with the bishop;1
but it has been subjected to destructive criticism by Ehrle,2
and the probability is that the second visit of Pierre d'Ailly
in 1398 is a myth. The Marshal's own Memoirs know nothing
of it. The messengers who brought the resolutions of the
third French council to Pope Benedict were Robert Cordelier
and Tristan de Bosc.
The ordonnance, signed by the King of France on the 27th
July, was published at Avignon on the first day of September
1898. The example of Charles was followed by Besancon on
the 30th October, by the Duke of Anjou on the 30th
November, by the King of Castile on the 12th December, and
by Charles of Navarre on the 14th January. Eighteen of the
French cardinals, fearing for their benefices, immediately
deserted the Pope and crossed the Rhone into French territory,
proclaiming war : ' Long life to the College of Cardinals and
the People, Death to Pedro de Luna and his adherents.'
From Villeneuve they wrote to the French King, informing
him of their submission. Five cardinals remained faithful to
Benedict, who was ready to die rather than submit. They
were to be besieged in the gloomy papal palace, surrounded
by a strong palissade, of which the cardinals kept the keys,
but within which the Pope maintained two hundred armed
men.3 There, in the wide, windy plain country on the left
bank of the Rhone, where the cypress-trees are planted thick
along the hedgerows as a screen from the stormy Mistral, in
the Comtat Venaissin, west of Mont Ventoux with its frequent
cap of snow and east of the lower spurs of the southern
Cevennes, in the city which they had purchased from Queen
Joanna the First of Naples, Popes Benedict the Twelfth and
Clement the Sixth had built themselves a palace the like of
1 Froissart, vi. 326-7 ; Tschackert, 103, note. 2 Ehrle, v. 465 et seq.
8 Ibid. vii. 193.

THE WAY OF CESSION 191
which has never been seen before or since. Founded on a
rock, and almost joining the cathedral, the walls rise sheer up,
without scroll or fretwork, without buttress or battlement, in
unbroken severity to a height of one hundred feet. The
building within was ornamented with frescoes, many of which
still retain their undiminished beauty, executed by artists of
the school of Siena and others; but without, the sombre
Gothic architecture gives the palace the appearance rather of
a fortress or a prison. It was to serve Pope Benedict in both
these capacities. The city walls, begun when the Archpriest
was threatening the city,1 are some miles in circumference ;
they still remain, with their machicolated battlements, their
two score towers, and some of their gates, although the moat
which once encircled them has disappeared.
The publication of the ordonnance subtracting the obedience
of France from the Pope decided eighteen of his cardinals to
break from him. They had been disaffected since 1395 ; they
had won over the city of Avignon to their side ; they were in
communication with Geoffroi ' le Meingre dit Boucicaut,' the
brother of Jean the Marshal, who had been besieging the
Count of Perigord. The cardinals were in fear of King
Martin of Aragon, the stalwart partisan of his countryman ;
and when he sent to remonstrate with them, they feared to
tell the truth, and set down their proceedings to Benedict's
alleged high-handed conduct toward the men of Avignon. The
subterfuge profited them nothing, for King Martin sent a
fleet which got as far as Aries, and some part of it further
still up the river, to the support of Pope Benedict.2 The
galleys were, however, not able to reach Avignon, and the
cardinals were in February relieved from this fear. Their
hopes were centred in the troops of Geoffroy Boucicaut. On
the 22nd September 1398 he occupied the city of Avignon
and began the siege of the papal palace. He promised the
citizens' wives that they should dance in the palace, but he
knew not Benedict the Thirteenth. The Pope had taken his
precautions: he had stocked his fortress with provisions, he
had furnished it with engines of war, he had defended it with
artillery and cross-bowmen ; of wood alone he had an insuffi-
1 Chevrest, L' Archiprltre, 49. 2 Ehrle, vii. 22 et seq.

192 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
cient supply. The besiegers seized the bishop's palace and
the other buildings near; they occupied the belfry of the
cathedral immediately north of the papal palace ; they fired
the wood which had not been taken inside, but left stacked by
the wall of the northern tower.
On one occasion the Pope was wounded in the shoulder by
a stone from a bombard. On the 24th October Boucicaut
treacherously took prisoners two of the Pope's faithful five
cardinals who were holding a conference with three of their
hostile colleagues; on the 26th he made an attempt to get
into the palace by a drain, but the assailants were themselves
surprised in the papal kitchen, and more than fifty of them
were taken prisoners. Mines and counter-mines were tried,
but Boucicaut was defeated by Pope Benedict. At length, on
the 24th November, a truce was agreed to. The attack was
not renewed, but the state of siege continued: provisions
began to run short ; the garrison were reduced to salt meat,
to dry vegetables, to vinegar and water ; cats and rats were
greedily devoured, but sparrows were reserved for the Pope's
table. It was agreed that the quarrel should be referred, to
Paris. It was felt to be a public scandal that the Head of
the Church should be thus treated. At the end of April
1399 the siege was raised and provisions were once more intro
duced into the papal palace.
Things had been going very unfavourably for Pope Benedict.
The Duke of Orleans had given way ; he had in the presence
of his uncles and of the prelates declared that after profound
reflection he agreed to the view of the council and with the
policy of subtraction ; that he was ready to use his influence
with the King of the Romans and the Duke of Milan.1 Simon
de Cramaud, in a transport of joy, had forwarded this news to
the Cardinal of Jerusalem.2 Cardinal de Thury, the head of
the opposition in the Sacred College to the Pope, with two
other members, had come to Paris full of threatenings against
Benedict. They were ready to declare him heretic ; they were
ready to convoke a council of their own obedience to depose
him, or to take part in a general council of both obediences to
proceed against both pontiffs alike.3 Neither the court nor
1 Jany. 439- 2 Ehrle, vi. 287. ' Ibid. vi. 288 et seq.

THE WAY OF CESSION 193
the Parisians were ready to go so fast. The King's chancellor
told them that it was the cardinals, and not the King, who
were holding their Pope a prisoner for heresy. The three
cardinals were insulted in the streets of Paris.
Negotiations commenced between Benedict and the French
court. The Pope, after the manner of his time,1 guarded
himself beforehand by a protestation before a notary against
any unfavourable concessions which he might be compelled to
make ; dire necessity was the only excuse for this piece of
prudence or duplicity. Benedict was anxious that the Duke
of Orleans should be appointed as his protector, and the
Duke insisted on knowing the amount of submission which
the Pope was ready to guarantee. Ambassadors went to and
fro. At length, on the 30th March 1391, it was agreed that
Benedict should accept the ' way of cession,' agreeing to abdi
cate if his rival abdicated, died, or was deposed, ' quod eligatur
tertius unicus verus pastor et vicarius Jhesu Christi.'' 2 From the
spring of 1399 onward, therefore, Pope Benedict was a prisoner
in his own palace ; he was not allowed to leave it ; for six
months it had been his fortress, henceforth it was to be
his prison. France at this time was without a pope; the
Lord Jesus was their Pope, said the pious, and the Blessed
Virgin was their Popess. The city of Liege and the kingdom
of France had adopted the policy of subtracting their obedi
ence ; with the exception of this solitary city the policy had
not been adopted in a single country of the Urbanist obedi
ence ; so that the policy of Kings Wenzel and Charles had
failed altogether of the desired effect of inducing both Popes
to choose a lucrative abdication rather than a pauper reign.
The subtraction of obedience Jhad not been adopted in any
other country of the Clementine obedience except Castile, so
that it had merely produced a schism within the Schism.
Moreover, it had failed of its effect in France itself, produc
ing an internal schism in the only country in which it was
thoroughly tried. The clergy of Brittany refused to obey
their bishops on the ground that the bishops had ceased to
obey their Pope. The weary negotiations continued; but
time was in favour of the Pope. The charge of the Pope's
1 Ehrle, vi. 303. 2 Ibid. v. 435.

194 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
imprisonment was taken from the man of war Boucicaut, and
was on the 18th October 1401 made over to Louis, Duke of
Orleans, the King's brother, bound in honour to maintain the
custody, but known to be well disposed toward his holy
captive. He had already, at the beginning of September,
sent Guillaume de Meulhon and Robert de Bracquemont to
Avignon for this purpose.1 They were to try to reconcile the
Pope and the recalcitrant cardinals. The endeavours of the
former at Villeneuve were repulsed ; those of the former at
Avignon later took a different and more practical turn. The
Pope was left with his five faithful cardinals, chief among
them being his relative, the Cardinal of Pampeluna ; he had
very little to count on in the way of outside help at this time :
Gerson was at Bruges from 1398 to 1401 ; Pierre d'Ailly was
at Cambrai from 1400 to 1403.
'The close of the fourteenth century was marked by one of
those outbursts of popular fanaticism which occasionally occur
in times of great sorrow or peril. In the middle of the
century the Black Death had seen the revival of the sect of
the Flagellants ; at the end of the century (1399) appeared the
bands of the White Penitents. They swarmed over the Alps
into Italy; no one knew precisely whence they came. Five
thousand men, women, and children, hooded and clothed in
white, many of them bearing the red cross of Saint Andrew on
their backs, marched, two and two. to Genoa ; they were pre
ceded by an Ultramontane priest, who carried before him a
sweating crucifix. The aged Archbishop of Genoa put himself
at the head of the band, and for nine days the penitents
visited the adjacent shrines, chanting the mournful dirge,
Stabat Mater Dolorosa, and calling on all to be reconciled
with their enemies. Processions formed at Genoa went to
Lucca and Pisa; thence others passed to Pistoja, to Prato,
and to Florence, where the magistrates lodged and fed them
at the public expense. From Tuscany the penitents flocked
to the Papal States and to Naples ; by the year of the Jubilee
they had overrun Italy and arrived in Rome. They heard
Mass fasting, they ate in public ; they disdained the shelter
of houses or roofs, but lay down to sleep in cemeteries or
1 Ehrle, vii, 170,

THE WAY OF CESSION 195
under the open sky, men and maidens together, with results
which were natural but only too sad. These fanatics were
regarded with mistrust by spiritual and temporal authorities
alike. The Dominican Giovanni, afterwards to be a cardinal,
led them to the Church of the Dominicans in Venice, sang the
Mass from Jeremiah, and headed the procession to the Church
of Saints John and Paul. But the head of the Council of Ten
met him with his guards ; the cross was torn from the hands
of the leader, and the penitents were dispersed ; Giovanni was
banished from the Republic for five years, and his two help
meets, Leonardo Pisani and Antonia Sozzano, for a year each.1
Nor did the White Penitents fare better at Rome: Pope
Boniface would have none of them ; he condemned their pro
cessions, imprisoned their leader, and put an end to the sect^2/
Thus in universal sorrow, in the midst of profound trouble
both in Church and State, closed the fourteenth century.
It was, as Frederic Barbarossa had said, the special function
of the Emperor to put an end to the Schism ; but now, to
complete the confusion in Christendom, the Schism in the
Holy Roman Church was followed by a Schism in the Holy
Roman Empire. During the first eleven years of his reign
King Wenzel had conducted himself not without energy ; but
from the year 1389 onwards he had neglected the interests of
the Empire, had shut himself up in Bohemia with low-born
favourites, and had excited universal discontent and distrust.
Schemes for his abdication were discussed ; he himself talked
of placing a regent over the Empire. His quarrel with the
Archbishop of Prague, his disgraceful treatment of that digni
tary, his murder of the General Vicar Johann von Pomuk
(1393), sent a thrill of horror through the Empire ; his
creation of Milan into a Duchy, and his raising Gian Galeazzo
to be hereditary Duke of Milan and a Prince of the Empire,
offended the Electors, who were not consulted, and who
received no part of the 200,000 golden gulden paid by the wily
Italian (1395). The subservient approach of King Wenzel to
the French court, and his dallying with their proposal for the
abdication of both Popes, further aroused the utmost opposi
tion in West Germany. Rupert the Second, the father of
1 Brieger, ix. 244, 2 Mur. xix. 919 ; Tartini, ii. 408, 424.

196 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Clem, wrote a long letter of expostulation1 to dissuade the
King from his projected journey ; but he died on the 6th
January 1398, before the meeting at Reims. Rupert the
First and Rupert the Third (Clem) both bound themselves to
King Richard of England and became his liegemen and pen
sioners: so, too, did Frederic, Archbishop of Cologne; and
their example was followed by many other lesser nobles.
These were acts of undisguised hostility to King Wenzel.
John of Nassau, the new Archbishop of Mainz, was also his
open and bitter foe, and tookthe opportunity to knit himself in
alliance with the Count Palatine, with the Bishops of Bamberg
and Eichstadt, with the Burggraf of Nuernberg, the Markgraf
of Meissen, the Count of Henneberg, and also with the cities of
Nuernberg, Rotenburg, Windesheim, and Weissenburg.2
The clouds were gathering thick over Wenzel's head,
and his projects to strengthen his own party came invari
ably to disastrous issue. His attempts to exact an excessive
grant from Rotenburg, to back up the citizens of Wuerzburg
against their bishop, to increase the number of the imperial
cities in Franconia to the prejudice of the nobility, were all
alike failures. The four Electors of West Germany and the
Elector of Saxony resolved to take action. They proceeded
warily, but they had chosen the time for their conspiracy
badly. Wenzel was in one of his moods of comparative
political activity. He had sent messengers to the Kings of
Poland, Hungary, and the Scandinavian kingdoms to meet him
in order to discuss the state of Christendom ; he intended to
assemble a great congress of kings and princes from Germany
and other countries, in order, if possible, to put an end to the
Schism in the Church.3 Notwithstanding his meeting with
the French King at Reims, there is no reason to believe that
Wenzel had abandoned the side of the Pope at Rome. The
cardinals there had informed the Pope of the machinations
of the Electors, and Boniface had declared himself ready to
shed his blood for Wenzel, whom he urged again to undertake
the journey to Rome: the King of the Romans was still, to
all appearances, on the side of the Pope at Rome. Such was
the state of affairs when the Electors met in conference at
1 Hoefler, 133. 2 ibid. 139. a ibid, 160.

THE WAY OF CESSION 197
Frankfurt on the 26th May 1400. At this point the Elector
of Saxony parted company from the others ; he was not pre
pared to give his vote for the new King whom they desired.
The other four Electors summoned King Wenzel to appear at
Oberlahnstein on the 11th August, there to make answer for
his nonfeasances and his misfeasances ; they sent copies of this
summons to the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg (Jost of
Moravia) ; the latter sent no answer ; the former replied that if
he did not personally appear, the other Electors were to proceed
in his absence, observing their oath to the Holy Roman Empire.
The ostensible reasons which the Electors alleged for King
Wenzel's deposition will hardly bear close examination. He
was accused of doing nothing to end the Schism, and it
was true that he had never gone to Rome to be crowned,
and had omitted thereby thus to strengthen the hands of
Pope Boniface, but he had met the King of France and
had taken measures for a general congress of kings and
princes. He was accused of betraying the interests of the
Empire in his dealings with Milan and Brabant; but in
raising Gian Galeazzo to the Dukedom of Milan he had
only followed the precedent set by Louis of Bavaria with
Castruccio Castraccani at Lucca, he had recognised an
existing fact, and his real sin was that he had not shared
with the Electors the bribe paid by the Duke; while in
Brabant, the resolution of its Duchess Joanna to leave her
lands to her niece Margaret, and her husband Duke Anthony
of Burgundy, affected King Wenzel and the house of Luxem
burg rather than the Empire. Wenzel was further charged
with failing to stop the grievous robberies and the internal
war which desolated Germany, an accusation which came with
singularly bad grace from the Archbishop of Mainz, who had
failed to prevent the imprisonment of an Elector and the
slaughter of a Duke by his own people, immediately after
the Conference at Frankfurt. Other allegations were made
against Wenzel, which affected him only as King of Bohemia
and gave no ground for interference with him, or for criticism of
him as head of the Empire. His real cause of offence was the
attempt to create among the great cities a party favourable
to himself and hostile to the Electors and nobles of Germany.

198 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
The four Electors of West Germany had, in fact, already
prejudged and precondemned Wenzel ; their calling on him
to appear and answer at Oberlahnstein was a mere solemn
farce; the choice of a new King might indeed have been
made earlier, had it not been for the Elector of Saxony,
who acted to a certain point with the other four, but who
favoured the candidature of Frederic of Brunswick. As this
Elector, with Frederic and others, were on their way home after
the Conference at Frankfurt, they were suddenly attacked near
Fritzlar by an armed band under Count Henry of Waldeck,
and Frederic and several of his companions were killed, while
the Elector and others were taken prisoners. This foul
murder inaugurated the choice of a new King. The Arch
bishop of Mainz solemnly denied all complicity in the bloody
deed, but Henry of Waldeck was the husband of the arch
bishop's sister, Joanna of Nassau,1 and the assassins were the
archbishop's men. On the 20th August 1400, the four
Electors at Oberlahnstein declared King Wenzel deposed ; on
the next day the three archbishops, John of Nassau of Mainz,
to whom the Count Palatine had entrusted his vote, the half-
idiotic Archbishop of Trier, and Frederic of Cologne, crossed
the Rhine, and at the Koenigstuhl at Rense they proclaimed
the Count Palatine Rupert the Third (nicknamed Clem) to
be henceforth King of the Romans. They had previously
communicated with Pope Boniface, but he had returned no
decisive answer; he knew, and was justifiably angry with
Wenzel for entertaining the proposition of his deposition, but
he did not dare to take a step which would infallibly lose to
his obedience the three large kingdoms of Hungary, Poland,
and Bohemia. The action of the archbishops produced the
Schism of the Holy Roman Empire; and with this Schism an
accomplished fact, with the rival Popes refusing to meet or to
entertain seriously any project for ending the disunion of the
Church, with the two bodies of their cardinals similarly each
profoundly distrustful of the other, there seemed but little
hope of a speedy end to the Great Schism.
Rupert, who had thus been proclaimed King of the Romans
by the three Archbishops of the Rhine and by his own vote ,
1 Huebner, tab. 255.

THE WAY OF CESSION 199
was one of the best intentioned and most ineffective kings who
had ever been called to rule that troublous Empire. From
the date of his election it was at once his fault and his fate
never to accomplish thoroughly any great project which he
undertook. The first task which lay before him was to make
himself undisputably the sole King in Germany. He could
not get himself crowned at Aachen ; the ceremony was per
formed at Cologne. In 1401 he started to subdue Wenzel ;
all appearances favoured his success, but he allowed a war of
weapons to degenerate into a war of parchments ; he entered
into negotiations with his adversary, frittered away the time
uselessly, failed to gain his end, and left Wenzel to be a thorn
in his side and the centre of discontent for the rest of his
reign. This fatal mistake, this neglect to appeal in ancient
fashion to the God of Battle, meant that Rupert was acknow
ledged as King only over the western half of the Empire, and
that there was henceforth to be a Schism in the State in addi
tion to the Schism in the Church. The one Schism intensified
the other ; it was the duty of the Emperor of the Holy Roman
Empire to heal the Schism in the Church; but so long as
there were two Kings of the Romans, it was impossible that
the Schism could be healed in orthodox fashion. Some feeble
attempts he did make in the first year of his reign. A Diet
was held at Metz, at which it was proposed that Pope Boni
face should be universally recognised, and should then hold a
council ; failing which, the King of the Romans was to call a
council.1 A Diet was also held at Nuernberg, at which,
according to Simon de Cramaud, it was proposed that a third
Pope should be elected by the cardinals of both obediences, a
suggestion which was not very likely to find favour with the
new King of the Romans.2 As a matter of fact, Rupert was
unable to do anything towards healing the Schism in the
Church until he had first made his own position secure. It
was a case of ' Physician, heal thyself.'
The Schism in the Empire naturally marked, if it did not
intensify, the divergence of parties through Europe. The
upstart King Rupert at once allied himself with the upstart
King of England, Henry of Lancaster, and sought the hand of
1 Hoefler, 204. 9 Ehrle, vii. 156.

200 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Henry's daughter Blanche, for his son Louis. In France, the
side of the new King was naturally embraced by the Queen,
Isabel of Bavaria, daughter of Duke Stephen of Bavaria,
belonging to the younger branch of the Wittelsbach family ;
the Dukes of Burgundy and Berri sided with the Queen, and
the Dukes of Orleans and Bourbon were against them; the
sympathies of Charles, when he was sane, were probably with
his brother.1 In Spain the King of Castile remained faithful
to Wenzel, but the King of Aragon sided with Rupert. The
Dukes of Austria embraced the cause of the new King. In
Italy the divergence was very marked. Florence and Lucca
lost no time in proclaiming their allegiance to Rupert ; so, too,
did the Lord of Padua; but Francesco of Gonzaga and
Nicolas of Este remained true to Wenzel. Everything in
Northern Italy was preparing for the forthcoming duel
between Rupert, King of the Romans, and Gian Galeazzo,
Duke of Milan.
It was with some reason that Rupert deemed the conquest
of Milan and the journey to Rome to be more important than
the mere defeat of Wenzel. If he were recognised in Italy, if
he ousted Gian Galeazzo from Milan, and thus established the
supremacy of the Empire over Lombardy, if he returned home
from Rome crowned with the golden crown of empire, re
cognised through Christendom as the Emperor of the Holy
Roman Empire, then the validity of his election would never
more be questioned, a fatal blow would be dealt to the house
of Luxemburg, the indolent and apathetic Wenzel would be
quashed, and Rupert would be free to undertake the reforma
tion of the Church.2 Italy, that country so fatal to German
Emperors, beckoned him onward. He arranged for an army
of 20,000 cavaliers, with their attendant squires and with foot
soldiers, to meet him at Augsburg on the Virgin's Birthday
(8th September 1401). Unfortunately, it was always easier
for a German King to get men than to provide money ; and
for a King who meant to reign righteously, for a King who
already had an army in the field under his son on the Bohemian
frontier, for a King whose patrimony was relatively small, the
difficulty was overwhelming. The Florentines did not provide
1 Jarry, 246. 2 Hoefler, 232.

THE WAY OF CESSION 201
all the funds expected, and the King was obliged to disband
one-quarter of his army forthwith. With the remainder he
marched in the late autumn days to Trient, and thence his
troops pressed on to Brescia ; by this time, however, the army
was less than one-third its original strength. A party in
Brescia, traitors to the Duke of Milan, had promised to
surrender the town to the King, but their treachery was
discovered. The Duke meantime had taken into his pay
the most famous condottiere generals in Italy, Alberigo da
Barbiano, Jacopo del Verme, and others. King Rupert, who
had scarcely marched a single march with his army, was
still behind in Trient. Francesco of Carrara was in command
of the Imperial troops ; he divided his army into four parts,
under the Count Palatine Louis, Duke Leopold of Austria, the
Burggraf of Nuernberg, and his own son Jacopo : the entire
army, horse and foot, was only 32,000 strong. The ducal
troops were commanded by Facino Cane. The fight outside
Brescia, on the 21st October 1401, was soon decided : the
German horse were heavily bitted, fit only for the heavy,
lumbering charge ; while the Italians were much lighter in
hand, easy to turn and wheel, and deft at manoeuvre. The
Burggraf of Nuernberg charged the Markgraf of Montferrat,
who dragged him from his saddle; and when the Germans
dismounted to help their leader, the Markgraf, who had broken
his lance, charged among them sword in hand. They fell into
confusion, and Carrara ordered the Austrians to their assist
ance. Carlo Malatesta, however, charged Leopold of Austria,
and tore him from his saddle ; the Duke was surrounded and
hurried off to Brescia. The Germans, now bereft of their
leaders, would have fled from the field had not Jacopo of
Carrara come to their aid : he saved the remnant, but the day
was lost. Three days later, Leopold of Austria, with the German
prisoners, appeared in Rupert's camp, and by every one except
the King his release was attributed to his treachery ; Francesco
of Carrara declared that he had received a written warning
that the Duke meant to deliver him and his son into the
hands of Gian Galeazzo. Leopold and the Archbishop of
Cologne declined to fight further against the Italians and
marched home with their troops.

202 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
The campaign was indeed at an end. Rupert was no general,
he was no warrior; men said that he was timid; he loved negotia
tion better than fighting; he was more at home with men of learn
ing than in the tented field. His army had wellnigh dwindled
away ; its commander-in-chief had escaped to Padua, and thither
the King followed him. At Padua Rupert was welcomed with
all the honour due to the Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire ;
but when he went on to Venice, the Doge seated himself close
to the King's throne. Rupert was loth to give up his schemes
to humble the Duke of Milan and to be crowned at Rome ; he
tarried on through the weary winter months, bargaining and
negotiating ; Gian Galeazzo laughed him to scorn ; the Pope
was afraid to crown him and proposed impossible conditions ;
the Florentines complained that he had not fulfilled his
contract, and haggled with him like merchants with a corporal
of mercenaries. Finally the King lost heart and temper,
borrowed 12,000 ducats from the Venetians, and in April 1402
betook himself back to Germany again, dishonoured, poverty-
stricken, and without the golden crown which he had set out
to win. He was the laughing-stock of Germany and Italy ;
men joked him for his empty pockets as they joked his son-in-
law years later ; they sang : —
' Der Goggelman ist komen an,
Er hat eine leere Tasche an.'
His expedition to Italy was a still more dismal failure than
had been the expedition against Bohemia. He reached
Munich on the 2nd May 1402.
The next eighteen months, however, witnessed a striking
revolution in Fortune's wheel. The dreaded Duke of Milan
died, and his dominions were divided; all unity of purpose
ceased ; Gian Galeazzo and the power of Milan were no longer
an object of dread to King and to Pope. Then again the
relation of Bohemia and Hungary to the papacy had altered.
Wenzel was in prison, guarded by the Archdukes of Austria ;
Sigismund, ruler of both Bohemia and Hungary, was threatened
by Ladislas of Naples, who was crowned King of Hungary in
Zara, and whose expedition Pope Boniface had blessed and
promoted. King Sigismund, in revenge, withdrew the kingdoms

THE WAY OF CESSION 203
of Hungary and Bohemia from their obedience to the Pope at
Rome, and forbade the sending of any revenues thenCe to the
papal treasury. The Pope had thus lost the obedience of
these large and important kingdoms. There was still another
consideration which weighed with him. Rupert, the rival
King of the Romans, was himself endeavouring to contract a
matrimonial alliance with King Martin of Aragon, the most
devoted adherent of Pope Benedict ; and this same King was
moreover in communication with the court of France, the
determined advocates of the union. It seemed as if King
Rupert were also likely to slip away from obedience to Rome,
and Pope Boniface resolved to lose no further time in binding
him to his cause. On the 1st October 1403 he held a Con
sistory, confirmed the election of Rupert as King of the
Romans, and pronounced Wenzel to be deposed. The decision,
thus irrevocably taken, had the effect of riveting Rupert, as
Ladislas had already been bound, to the side of the Pope at
Rome, and of setting in opposition Wenzel of Bohemia and
Sigismund of Hungary. For good or for evil the die was now
cast. Meantime in France the feeling in favour of restitution of
obedience to Pope Benedict the Thirteenth had been steadily
gathering strength. It was desired on all hands that a
general council of his obedience should be held. The one
party held that, before this could be done, it was necessary to
restore the spiritual allegiance of the kingdom to the Pope in
order that he might himself convoke the council ; the opposite
party held that this was not necessary, that the King and
not the Pope was the protector of the Gallican Church.
The University of Orleans, then that of Toulouse, then those
of Angers and Montpellier, expressed themselves in favour
of the restitution of obedience. The Provencals in May
1401 followed the example of the Bretons in returning to
their spiritual allegiance. On the 4th March 1402 the
Bishop of Saint-Pons, on the 15th April the Bishop of
Zamorra, spoke long and earnestly in presence of the King
and the royal princes in defence of the Pope at Avignon.
Early in 1403 the King of Castile declared that to avoid
insurrection he had restored the obedience of his country to

204 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Pope. The Duke of Orleans sustained the cause of the
captive Pope at every opportunity ; his threats to interfere
forcibly for his release brought him and the Duke of Berri
into violent altercation and defiance. King Charles himself
declared his readiness to succour and aid ' our Holy Father.'
The University of Toulouse had addressed a letter to the
King. They had never agreed to the subtraction of obedience ;
and if their communication did not contain much that was
new in the way of argument, it put the case for Benedict
very forcibly and plainly. Unfortunately, they allowed their
animosity and jealousy toward their elder sister, the University
of Paris, to appear too clearly. This set the extreme
members against them ; but the more moderate party in the
University adopted a more temperate tone. The Chancellor,
Jean Gerson, had lived for four years in Flanders, as Dean of
Bruges, under the Duke of Burgundy, and had there been
brought into personal contact with the men of both obediences.
A man of an eminently politic and moderate mind, he had
recognised that there was good faith on both sides, that a
man might acknowledge the obedience of Pope Boniface and
might yet sincerely desire the welfare and unity of the Church.
Gerson pointed out that it was unreasonable to dub as heretics
every one who was of a different mind on a question as to
which there might clearly be two contradictory conscientious
opinions, and that the preferable method was for the men of
both obediences to work together for the cession of both
Popes and the unity of the Church ; men on both sides desired
to render their obedience to the one true Pope if they
could only be assured who was the real head of the Church ;
and it was only through the united working of both
parties that doubt could be resolved and concord assured.1
Nicolas de Clamanges and the tutor of the Dauphin also
wrote in favour of the restitution of obedience to Pope
Benedict. Louis, Duke of Anjou, who, after losing Naples
and Tarentum, had returned to France in 1399, formally
replaced Provence and his other dominions, on the 30th
August 1402, under the obedience of Benedict, and was paid
for the restitution, much to the anger and disgust of the
1 Schwab, 155.

THE WAY OF CESSION 205
Dukes of Berri and Burgundy. The Carthusian monks
returned to their spiritual allegiance.
The first-fruits of the subtraction of obedience had been to
expose the Church to the power of the secular arm.1 It reduced
the consenting cardinals to sue to the princes for support ; it de
prived the lower ranks of the clergy of their right of appeal
against the exactions of their superiors ; the Gallican Church
found that the King's yoke was heavier on them than that of the
Pope ; the University of Paris was dissatisfied, for the ordinaries
used their rights of collation not to provide for its candidates,
but to promote their own servants and friends. The University
called for a council of the Clementine obedience, part demand
ing that Benedict should again be recognised and should
preside, part desirous that he should appear before it as an
accused person, Gerson and his followers steering a middle
course. The subtraction of obedience had caused a schism in
every province, in every diocese, in every convent, almost in
every family of the kingdom. It was recognised as a fruitless
and selfish policy.
Pope Benedict determined to escape from his fortress
prison. Some coping-stones were removed from a bricked-up
wall on the north of the palace. Passing through the
aperture, with his doctor and two others, the Pope found the
Constable of Aragon and three men awaiting him ; they had
no difficulty in eluding the sentries, and conducted the Pope
for the night to the house where lodged the Aragonese embassy.
In the early morning, as soon as the gates of the city were
opened, Benedict, muffled in the cloak of a servant of a Norman
cavalier, Robert de Braquemont,2 made his way to the river
bank where a boat, sent by the Cardinal of Pampeluna, and
manned by fourteen strong oarsmen, awaited him. The
Pope had collected four hundred men-at-arms who, posted
outside Avignon, awaited his escape. The boat was pulled
down the Rhone to the confluence of the Durance, then up
the tributary river until they were opposite Chateau Renard.
Here Benedict got out, mounted a horse, and made for the
little castle which, with its two round towers, stands on a
clump of rock cropping up from the flat fields around. The
» Religieux, ii. 688. 2 Ibid. iii. 70.

206 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Pope reached the castle about nine in the morning of the
12th March, the Feast of Saint Gregory, and here on the soil
of Provence he was a free man again. During his captivity
he had let his beard grow until it was two palm-widths in
length and he looked like the patriarch Abraham ; he now
had it taken off by the Duke's barber, a Picard. Benedict
laughed heartily when he was again beardless as a Roman
priest should be : 'I see,' said he, ' that the Normans are
alway liars, for they swore they would shave my beard for
me, and now it has been done by a Picard.' On the 29th
April the College of Cardinals, five of those who had
originally revolted from him being dead and three absent at
Paris, knelt before him with tears in their eyes and promised
him faithful obedience for the rest of their lives;1 and a
treaty was made at the Chateau. In this treaty Benedict
said not a word of abdication ; he did not confirm the promise
which he had made during his captivity, to abdicate if his
rival died, abdicated, or was ejected ; he merely adopted a
suggestion, which had been supported by his friend Pierre
d'Ailly in 1401 and by the Cardinal of Palestrina in 1402, to
convoke a council of his obedience, without pledging himself
to the time or place of convocation, in order to take measures
in concert with the cardinals, prelates, and other notable and
faithful men for the union and good governance of Holy
Mother Church.2 It was clear that he regarded everything
done during his captivity as done under duress and as void,
that he looked upon himself as being by his escape placed on
the same footing as he was on before the siege of Avignon
began. For the Head of the Church to be kept in confine
ment was inconsistent with his right and his duty. Benedict
regarded himself as having fought a hard fight and having
won it, and as being entitled therefore to take advantage of
his victorious, position. The cardinals sent two of their
number to the King of France to acquaint him with what
had happened, and to urge him to restore to Benedict the
obedience of the kingdom.
The news of the escape of Pope Benedict was received at
Paris by the populace with joy ; the King and the Dukes were
1 Religieux, iii. 84. 2 Ehrle, v. 451 ; vii. 161, 202.

Chateau Renard.

THE WAY OF CESSION 207
glad of any solution of a situation which had become
embarrassing. Jean Gerson declared that it was the part of
wise men to accept the situation ; he compared the escape of
the Pope to Jonah issuing from the belly of the whale. The
implacable Norman Doctors of the University of Paris were
alone dissatisfied.1 Pierre d'Ailly published a work advising
that a council of the obedience of Benedict be called, that the
honours due to the Pope as the Head of the Church be
restored to him, but not those recent privileges and abuses
which Saint Peter and his followers had never known. The
Duke of Orleans, in the absence of the King and of the Dukes
of Berri and Burgundy, took matters into his own hands. He
ordered the Archbishops then in Paris secretly to collect the
votes of their subordinates, and then he called together to the
Hotel of Saint Paul, on the 28th May 1403, all the prelates
then in the capital. As soon as he was assured that those
in favour of the restitution of obedience were in the majority,
he communicated the result to the King. Charles, who was
now in his sound senses again, was rejoiced ; on that same day,
with his hands on the crucifix, the King of France restored to
Pope Benedict the spiritual allegiance of his kingdom, and
personally promised him henceforth obedience inviolate as to
the Vicar of Jesus Christ. Pierre d'Ailly announced that the
Pope had made certain concessions to the Duke which were to
be subsequently ratified by a papal Bull ; he would resign if
his rival died, abdicated, or were deposed ; and he would call
a council of his own obedience within a year. On this under
standing obedience was restored to Pope Benedict. The
Dukes of Berri and Burgundy, who returned four days later,
were disgusted ; but victory lay for the time with the Duke
of Orleans. The royal dukes, no less than the extreme
members of the University of Paris, were obliged to agree to
the restitution of obedience. The country was overwhelmed
with joy at the escape of the Pope, and re-entered into its
spiritual allegiance amid universal contentment.
The conditions for which the Duke of Orleans had made him
self responsible had still to be published by papal Bull. He met
Pope Benedict on the 8th December at Tarascon. The result
1 Bess, 39.

208 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of their conference was made known by the five Bulls
promulgated on the 8th January 1404. In the first the Pope
annulled all that he had written against the ' way of cession,'
and invited the King of France and all other Christian kings
and princes to work for the union of the Church, while at the
same time he reserved to himself the right of choosing that
method which might appear to him to be the most useful and
expedient for that end.1 The second Bull confirmed the treaty
which he had made with the cardinals at Chateau Renard.
The third renews the promise to convoke a council of his
obedience, without naming time or place for the meeting.2
The fourth annulled censures incurred during the subtraction
of obedience. The fifth provided that in the coming council
there should be no renewed question as to subtraction. The
Pope was therefore free to abdicate or not, according as he
considered the measure appropriate to secure the union of the
Church ; and the council which he had promised to call was in
no way to attack his honour, his rights, or his liberty. He
had won the victory all along the line. Nevertheless the
King and the Duke professed themselves fully satisfied with
the concessions which he had made. He lost no time in
showing that he regarded as invalid all appointments or
promotions made during his five years' captivity at Avignon.
The attempt to end the Schism by the subtraction of obedience
had been made, and it had proved a total failure. Pope
Benedict had been averse from the ' way of cession,' and had
made no secret of his aversion, ever since it had first been
proposed, and nothing had since happened to make him
change his opinion. If, therefore, France was determined still
to pursue this method, she knew that she must count on her
own Pope as its most sturdy opponent.
In June 1404 the full and formal reconciliation of France
with Pope Benedict was effected. In February the King had
written expressing his sorrow for all the hardships that the
Pope had suffered, and explaining that he himself had been
guiltless in the matter ; it had indeed been the work of the
recalcitrant cardinals, backed up by the Dukes of Berri and
Burgundy and the extreme party in the University of Paris.
1 Ehrle, vii. 288. 2 Jarry, 449.

THE WAY OF CESSION 209
Benedict acknowledged this, and on the 13th June 1404
promised that he would be 'his good, true, and faithful
spiritual father and friend.' But there was further trouble
in the near future. A new crisis was at hand. The unholy
alliance between Pope and King, which had subsisted during
the pontificate of Clement the Seventh to the detriment of
the Church, had been broken by the reluctance of Benedict to
adopt the ' way of cession ' ; the King had thrown over the
Pope and had united himself with the Church ; the Gallican
Church had gained its freedom from the Pope, but only to
fall under the more intolerable yoke of the crown. Disunion
and jealousy among the clergy, the want of any consistent
leadership at court, the noble endurance by Benedict of the
tribulation to which he had been subjected, had brought about
a revulsion of feeling and a restitution of obedience. The Duke
of Orleans had guaranteed more than he was in a position to
fulfil; but the demand for a general council, to which the
Pope had promised to accede, had gained strength and was
becoming imperative among all classes in France.1 Pope
Benedict the Thirteenth, however, still believed in the * way
of convention' as the sovereign cure for the disruption of
the Church. 1 Kehrmann, ioi.

210 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

CHAPTER VI
BOLOGNA
In his government of the Church, Pope Boniface the Ninth
was eminently a strong man who had no liking for being
hampered by a too numerous college of cardinals. Cardinals,
moreover, were costly luxuries ; it was easier not to have to
provide for them than to refuse them their share of the
Church revenues ; and the courteous simoniac may have been
influenced by the reflection that the fewer cardinals there
were, the more spoils would accrue to his brothers and to
that omnium mulierum avarissima, his mother.1 Be the
reason what it may, he reversed the policy of his predecessor
in the creation of cardinals. Of the thirteen who had
elected him in 1389, only five remained alive at the Jubilee
of 1400. To replace the eight who had died, Boniface only
raised four new priests to the college, although he had to
give hats to two cardinals who deserted from Urban. The
four cardinals, raised to the purple at the first creation by
Boniface, were all men of mark. They were Henricus
Minultulus, who was constantly employed as Papal Legate ;
Bartholomasus de Uliarius, who was especially deputed to
Ladislas of Naples ; Cosmato de' Megliorati, afterwards Pope
Innocent the Seventh, who was employed as ambassador
between Gian Galeazzo of Milan and the Republics of Florence
and Bologna; and Christophorus Maro, who was appointed
umpire between Boniface and Paolo Savelli in the matter of
certain towns the possession of which was in dispute.2 Of
these four the second died in 1396, but no new creation of
cardinals was made until the 27th February 1402. The Pope
had a keen eye for a man of action, and could hence appre-
1 De Schismate, 140. 2 Ciaconius, ii. 705 et seq.

BOLOGNA 211
ciate the worth of his young fellow-countryman, Baldassare
Cossa. He had approved himself a brave soldier, a skilful
general, and a shrewd man of affairs. He was a man after
Boniface's own heart; there were indeed many points of
resemblance in their characters. In the new creation, there
fore, Baldassare Cossa became cardinal-deacon, being made
Cardinal of Saint Eustachius. In January of the next year
the Pope determined to utilise his military virtue by deputing
him to recover Bologna; he made him Papal Legate of
Bologna. Niem, more suo, has his own private bit of scandal.
He says that one reason for the appointment was iut sic
cessaret infamia, quam, detinendo in concubinam dictam
Catharinam, in Curia prefata contraxit, ipsaque maritum
suum, tunc morantem Neapoli, sequeretur."1 1 But, then, Niem
himself kept a concubine.2 That Baldassare Cossa was a man
of intelligence, energy, and courage is certain; and it was
undoubtedly his worth as a man of war, as a man of resource
and action, that induced Pope Boniface the Ninth to appoint
him on the 19th January 1403 to the important post of
Papal Legate at Bologna.
When Cossa, a cardinal of not yet a year's standing, was
thus appointed by Pope Boniface to be Legate a latere at
Bologna, that city had fallen before the might of Milan, and
the Duke's general, Facino Cane, was within the walls. In
proceeding northward therefore to take command of the
papal troops, the first task of the new Legate was to win
back by force of arms the city and territory of Bologna to
the allegiance of the Pope. Matters there had fallen out on
this wise.
The Visconti had been the rulers of Milan since the end of
the thirteenth century. Their power was so firmly established,
and their reputation was so great, that they had been able to
intermarry with the royal houses of France and England and
with the princes of Germany. When Duke Galeazzo the
Second died in 1378, he left his dominions to be divided
between his brother Bernabo and his son Gian Galeazzo.
Bernabo tried to get rid of his nephew; he entered into
several plots against his life and his property; but Gian
1 Hardt, ii. 346- a Etler> 34-

212 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Galeazzo always managed to detect and defeat them, although
he uniformly simulated ignorance of these attempts. In per
fidy and dissimulation the nephew was more than a match
for the uncle. Gian suddenly became devout, surrounded
himself with priests, visited churches, rosary in hand, spent
hours in devotion before the images of the saints ; and being
by nature a coward, doubled his bodyguard. In May 1385 he
announced that he was going to pay his devotion at the
shrine of the Madonna del Monte near Varese, a town not far
from the Lago Maggiore and therefore lying within the
domain of his uncle Bernabo. Gian Galeazzo, with his
strong bodyguard under the command of Jacopo del Verme
and Antonio Porro, approached Milan on the 6th May, and
was met by Bernabo and his two sons. The uncle and nephew
embraced with effusion, clasping each other tenderly; but
Gian gave an order in German to his two captains, and the
soldiers promptly seized their three noble prisoners. The
farce was now played out : Milan opened its gates to Gian ;
Bernabo and his two sons were imprisoned ; and on the 18th
December 1385 Bernabo died, leaving his nephew, Gian
Galeazzo, sole Lord of Lombardy.
Gian Galeazzo now set himself to win the overlordship of
all Italy. Though an utter stranger to courage and to
honour, his ambition was unbounded and his wealth exceeded
that of the Emperor. When he made war, he took into his
pay the best condottiere generals of the time; when he made
peace, he nominally dismissed the generals but kept them
privately on half-pay, on condition that they ravaged only
the lands of his enemies and left his own untouched. Both
peace and war were thus equally advantageous to him and
disastrous to his foes. He speedily reduced nearly all
Lombardy to his sway. Montferrat and Savoy on the west
maintained their independence only by subservient obedience
to his behests and by passively following his standards. He
conquered the states of Padua and Verona, so that in 1386
the vipers on his blazonry were hoisted on the Adriatic and
his standards floated before the belfries of Venice.1 Subse
quently indeed Franceso of Carrara, the young Lord of Padua,
after a series of adventures more various and romantic than
1 Sismondi (I. R.), v. 57.

BOLOGNA 213
ever befell a hero of fiction, succeeded in recovering the city of
Padua, but his power remained crippled, while that of Gian
Galeazzo was practically undiminished. The Lord of Milan
then turned his attention to the centre of Italy. Here
Florence barred his way ; but Perugia and Siena surrendered,
Pisa was betrayed to him, and Mantua made terms. Beside
Florence, Bologna only remained hostile.
Renowned alike for her wealth, her commerce, and her
university, on which at times she spent half her income,1
Bologna in the thirteenth century ranked second only to
Florence as a free Guelf republic ; but in the former half of
the fourteenth century she had sunk under the dominion of
the Pepoli, one of her own families, and the Pepoli had sold
her to the Visconti. Pope Clement the Sixth in 1352 had
confirmed the bargain by conceding to the Dukes of Milan
the sovereignty of Bologna for ten years. The Duke put in
Giovanni Visconti of Ollegio to govern the State ; he revolted
and reigned as an independent tyrant until he was forced by
the exigencies of war to sell Bologna to Cardinal Albornoz ;
and in this way the Bolognese, to their own great joy, in 1360
became vassals of Holy Church. Sixteen years later, however,
when Florence by reason of papal misgovernment raised the
standard of revolt, Bologna joined the league and shook off
the papal yoke.
The Visconti meantime had not forgotten their own claim
or design on the State. Bologna was now again a free re
public ; and in those days a free republic in Italy generally
meant government by faction. Each contending faction
might be patriotic, as at Florence ; but not uncommonly
one faction was ready to barter its patriotism for gold.
These internal squabbles formed muddy political waters, in
fishing which no one was more skilful than Gian Galeazzo.
He fomented party disputes, helping one side against the
other, until the victor was himself too enfeebled to resist
the might of Milan. This was what now happened at
Bologna. It had always been a fickle and turbulent city.
In 1380 the people expelled the officers of Pope Urban,
engraved on their coins the standard of liberty, and received
from Pope Clement an offer of political independence condi-
1 Burckhardt, 210.

214 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
tional on their recognising him as legitimate Pope. Bologna
would not go so far as that. In 1386 Clement renewed his
offer. Three years later Bologna again revolted from Urban,
declaring herself the ally of France and planting the fieur de
Us on her walls. A group of scholars made their way to
Avignon and promised obedience to Clement.1 The French
Pope recognised the political independence of the city and
her rights over four towns adjoining. But it was the aid of
the French King, not that of the French Pope, that the
Bolognese wanted, for they feared the might of Milan. They
agreed with their adversary quickly.2
Fresh plots next year again sent Florence and Bologna as
suppliants to Charles of France, who promised to protect
them against Gian Galeazzo if they would recognise Clement ;
but with the advent of Boniface the Ninth a new spirit had
come over papal politics ; the new Pope was courteous and
conciliatory, and Bologna and Florence stood fast in their
alliance with the Pope at Rome. In 1399 Nanne Gozzadini
was at the head of the ruling faction, that of the 'Chess
men,' the old faction of the Pepoli; on the 22nd April he
was overpowered and exiled by the opposite faction of the
Maltraversi ; in November he and his ally, Giovanni Benti-
voglio, were recalled to power, the plague having swept
away their rivals. Shortly after this Gozzadini and Benti-
voglio quarrelled; the former associated himself with the
lower classes, the latter with the higher and with the
remnant of the Maltraversi. Throughout the whole of
1400 they were at daggers drawn, but did not venture on
open hostilities. Early in 1401 Giovanni Bentivoglio, who
had entered into alliance with Gian Galeazzo, succeeded in
expelling his adversaries and in getting himself, on the 28th
March, proclaimed Lord of Bologna. He had promised to
sell the signiory of the city to the Duke of Milan, but now
that the time was come for him to fulfil his bargain, he found
himself too enamoured of his new dignity to resign it willingly.
The Duke had been overreached for once, and his only plan
now was to enter into terms with the exiled Nanne Gozzadini.
The alliance was made accordingly.
1 Religieux, i. 516. 2 See ante, p. 106.

BOLOGNA 215
The Duke was determined to make himself master of the
city which had so long defied his power. He sent against
Bologna a force of twelve thousand horse and a large body of
foot under Jacopo del Verme, Alberigo da Barbiano, Facino
Cane, Carlo Malatesta, and other condottiere generals. The
troops of Mantua were on his side ; those of Florence and
Padua helped Giovanni Bentivoglio and the men of Bologna,
and Sforza, still young in his career of arms, also fought on
their side. The forces of Bologna were on the east bank of
the river Reno, with the city in their rear ; those of Milan
were on the opposite side of the stream. Bernadone di
Guascogna was in command of one army, the veteran Jacopo
del Verme of the other. The signal for attack was given ; the
horse advanced rapidly in a cloud of dust to the steep bank ;
the fight became general. The Florentine brigade, known as
the Company of the Rose, was in charge of the Bridge of
Caselecchio ; into them charged Alberigo ; the Florentines
gave way and fled before the Constable ; the men of Bologna
saw that the day had gone against them and Bentivoglio, and
at once raised the cry, ' Death to Signor Giovanni ; long live the
People ! ' The fight of Caselecchio was won for the Duke. The
Captain of Bologna, the two sons of the Lord of Padua, Sforza,
and others were taken prisoners ; the Milanese troops entered the
city, crying ' Long live the People and the Arts ! ' (27th June
1402). The Duke had promised Nanne Gozzadini to restore
to the Bolognese their independence ; the signiory was offered
to him, and he refused it, hoping for a popular government.
A pretence was made of fulfilling the promise: magistrates
were elected and orders issued in the name of the free
republic; but next day Gian Galeazzo's cavalry took posses
sion of the city, and a noble of Bologna, suborned for the
purpose, proposed at a council held at the Palazzo del Commune
on the 14th July 1402, to confer the signiory on the Duke of
Milan. The infant republic was thus strangled in its birth;
Nanne Gozzadini had been tricked, and Bologna had passed
under the sway of Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan. Giovanni
Bentivoglio had fled for refuge to the house of his aged
nurse, but was tracked and brought before the Constable.
His appeal brought tears to the eyes of his former friend but

216 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
recent enemy, Nanne Gozzadini ; but he was led out, delivered
over to the fickle populace, who killed him in cold blood
(30th June).1
Nanne Gozzadini, disappointed and angry, went to Milan
and complained of the turn things had taken; the Duke
spoke him fair and then shut him up in the Rocca di Milano ;
Nanne escaped, went to Ferrara, and implored the aid of its
Signor to establish a Commune at Bologna under the protection
of the Church.
Heaven favoured the Pope. The Duke of Milan was now
forty-five years of age ; he had all the best generals of Italy
in his pay ; he had subdued nearly all Lombardy and a large
part of Central Italy ; he had not, indeed, succeeded in getting
the Pope to make an alliance with him against the new King
of the Romans, but he had defeated that King at Brescia and
had forced him to quit Italy, a laughing-stock to gods and
men. Gian Galeazzo with Pisa, Bologna, Perugia, and Siena
in his hands, had completely encircled Florence, which lay at
his mercy ; he was now so secure that, as he himself said, God
alone could hurt him.2 He might reasonably look forward to
waging war on favourable terms with Venice, and thereafter
marching through Italy to the gates of Rome. But the one
power which the Duke feared took up arms against him.
Plague broke out in Lombardy, and Gian Galeazzo decided to
leave Pavia for a safer place. Like many other long-headed
men of his time, he was under the influence of astrologers ; he
consulted them, and at the hour which they pronounced
propitious he retired to his castle at Marignano. But it was
too late ; he had no sooner reached the town than the dreaded
fever seized him. As he lay a-dying, five hours after sundown,
a huge comet appeared in the sky. ' I thank God,' said the
Duke, ' that the sign of my recall appears in the heavens, plain
for all men to see.'3 The news of his death threw the people
of Florence into transports of delight ; they held festivals and
games to celebrate their deliverance, and at once sent an
embassy to the Pope to persuade him to send Baldassare Cossa
with an army to recapture Bologna. In that city also the
true feelings of the people appeared : they broke out into
' Mur, xviii. 209, 210 ; 572-4. 2 Tartini, ii. 435, 443. » Mur. xxi. 88.

BOLOGNA 217
tilting, dancing, and song ; although for decency's sake they
sent two citizens, dressed in brown, to Milan to condole.1
Pope Boniface the Ninth, now delivered from the fear of
his powerful enemy, had created Baldassare Cossa Cardinal of
Saint Eustachius shortly before, and lost no time in granting
the request of the Florentines.2 Gian Galeazzo had by his
will left Bologna, with other places, to his eldest son Giovanni
Maria ; and Lionardo Malaspina came from Milan to govern
the city, with Facino Cane as his general. Lionardo belonged
to a good old Milanese family which had taken part in the war
with Barbarossa.3 He found the city seething with discontent,
imprisoned many of the leading men, but was quite unable
to stop the continual plots which were formed. Dissensions
had already broken out in Milan among the followers of the
late Duke. Carlo Malatesta, who had been envoy to the Pope
in 1401, joined the Florentines ; the Constable Alberigo da
Barbiano, second to none in experience and skill, entered the
service of the Pope in April 1403. Baldassare Cossa took over
the supreme command from Nicolas of Este, Marquess of
Ferrara, on the 2nd June.
Cossa found in the army several condottiere generals of note :
among them were the two Malatesti, Carlo and Malatesta;
Braccio dal Montone, one of the most skilful commanders of the
time ; Paolo Orsini, hereafter to be trusted beyond his merits ;
Manfredo Barbiani and others. Here, too, were Nanne Gozza
dini and his brother Bonifacio, anxious by means of the Pope
to secure the lordship of Bologna.4 The Papal Legate arrived
before the city on the 9th July. On the 13th, Lionardo
Malaspina the Milanese governor died, and Facino Cane took
supreme command, for the minor Duke. Malaspina, who was
highly esteemed by all, was accorded a magnificent funeral;
while the Bolognese soon found his successor to be an unjust,
avaricious, and bestial ruler, an enemy of all reason.6 Their
spirits soon rose in revolt against him. He was a very
capable general, however. On the 17th July he closed the city
gates, and sent out foraging parties to bring in hay and corn.
The troops of the allies took a large number of small places
1 Mur. xviii. 576. 2 Ibid. xx. 291. * Giesebricht, v. 570,
* Ghirar, ii. 542 ; Mur. xviii. 578 ; xxi. 90. " Ghirar, ii. 544.

218 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
round the city, and one night they made their way within the
walls, only to be turned out by Facino Cane in the morning.
Skirmishes between the enemies were frequent ; but neither
side was willing to risk a decisive engagement.
The Papal Legate and Carlo Malatesta therefore decided to
carry the war into the enemy's country. They marched by Reggio
and Parma towards Milan ; the people of Brescia, Cremona,
Lodi, Placentia, and Bergamo revolted from the new Duke of
Milan, and proclaimed their independence. Ugolino, the new
ruler of Cremona, welcomed the cardinal and his troops, and put
everything at their disposal for the passage of the Po. In Milan
itself dissensions were rife in the council which Gian Galeazzo
had by his will appointed for the guidance of the State :
Francesco Barvavara, its head, had been deposed and a more
popular assembly constituted ; the Duchess and her son had
been forced to seek shelter in the citadel. Giovanni Maria was
consequently glad to come to terms with his adversaries. This
was not difficult. Francesco of Gonzaga, Lord of Mantua and one
of the ducal council, was faithful to the Dowager Duchess and
her son : he was married to a daughter of Bernabo Visconti.
Carlo Malatesta had married another daughter. Both wives
were therefore sisters to the Duchess, who, though married to
her father's murderer, was herself the sixth of the ten daughters
of old Bernabo.1 Gonzaga came over to the camp of the Papal
Legate, and without the knowledge of the Florentine allies a
treaty was soon concluded between the Pope's representative
and the Duke of Milan. On the 23rd August 1403 peace was
publicly announced : the Duke of Milan restored to the Church
Bologna, Perugia, and other towns which his father had taken.
The news reached Bologna on the 28th ; the citizens grew mad
with joy, and raised the cry ' Viva la Chiesa ! ' They became so
tumultuous that they attacked Facino Cane and his men, who
retaliated ; there was fighting in the streets ; three hundred
houses were burned, but the general was forced to retire.2 The
populace were delighted to escape from the harsh rule and the
taxes of the Visconti and to get back again under the milder
sway of the Church ; they sent out on the 2nd September
inviting the cardinal to enter the city. On the 3rd September,
1 Huebner, tab. 298, 2 Mur. xviii. 581.

BOLOGNA 219
between the hours of seven and eight p.m., Baldassare Cossa
made his triumphal entry into Bologna.
The Florentines complained to the Pope of the treaty made
behind their backs, which gave no assurance for the independ
ence of Tuscany ; but Boniface was too delighted with what
he had regained, and put the Florentines off with fair words.
He tried to persuade them that the Legate, considering the
influence of Carlo Malatesta and the fact that the Milanese
had not been conquered, had done the best he could. This
was probably the fact ; for Carlo Malatesta, though the best
and most loyal of his race,1 had formerly been in the pay of
Florence, and was very wroth with the men of the republic.
They were a pigeon-house of rustics, he said, who wanted to
ruin all the gentlemen of Italy, and would like to get the
Duke of Milan to hand over Pisa to them ; but the wrathful
Carlo was not inclined to see the Guelfs always lording it over
the Ghibelines.2 The Florentines apparently accepted the
Pope's view, for they never betrayed any rancour against the
Legate, and were ready to enter into fresh alliance with him
when the time came. But they naturally considered that
they had very little to show for the eighty-eight thousand florins
which they had expended; and to humour them the Pope,
before ratifying the treaty, urged the Duke of Milan to include
Florence in the peace. But when the Duke declined and the
Florentines asked the Pope to continue the war against him,
Boniface pleaded poverty, ratified the treaty, and left the
Florentines to fight the Duke single-handed.
Baldassare Cossa, Cardinal of Saint Eustachius, had won
back for the Church the strange old city with the arcaded
streets, and was now acknowledged Lord of Bologna. The
Signor of Imola arrived with congratulations ; on the day
following came the Marquess of Ferrara, and on the 10th
September the Signor of Ravenna. Cossa's position, however,
was not universally accepted even in Bologna itself. Plots in
favour of Nanne Gozzadini, who had entered the city with the
Legate, were discovered ; Nanne's son and brother were im
prisoned, and the latter confessed and was executed. Having
thus strengthened his position, and obtained possession of the
1 Yriarte, 46. 2 Tartini, ii. 486,

220 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
citadel, Cossa determined to make his ' pontifical entry ' after
the manner of Papal Legates. The ceremony was fixed for the
11th November, and was naturally the occasion for much pomp
and circumstance. On the night of the 10th the Legate slept
at the Monastery of the Crociari outside the walls, and in the
morning he entered the city by the Porta San Mammolo. All
the streets .through which he was to pass to the cathedral
were adorned with coloured cloths and silks, and were em
bellished with the arms of the Church, the City, and the
Legate. All the nobles and chief citizens came forth to meet
him ; the people ran to greet him with cries of Viva la Chiesa !
In the midst of them was the carroccio, drawn by four bulls,
with scarlet trappings fringed with gold ; above the car floated
the banner of the Church, and on it stood eight Doctors of
the Law and as many cavaliers, to all of whom the Legate had
presented scarlet robes. Then came the City Ancients, one
of whom bore the banner of the Church, a second that of the
City, and a third that of the new Legate. Then followed the
magistrates and their attendants with music of divers kinds.
Cossa entered the city on horseback, a scarlet canopy richly
fringed and lined held over his head, four young nobles of
Bologna acting as his grooms. At the city gates, to the
sound of trumpets and drums, the keys were handed to him
on a golden salver, and orations and verses in Latin and the
vulgar were recited. Thence, all along the road, boys dressed
as angels escorted him to the cathedral, where he was welcomed
by the bishop and the clergy.1 Thus did Baldassare Cossa
take possession of Bologna. fa
The city of Bologna, situate^where the long line of the
Upper Apennines at length ceases to dominate the wearisome
'waveless plain' of Southern Lombardy, was at once the*key
and the capital of the province JEmilia. In those days the
city was skirted by a wood, and was famous for its square
towers even more than for its arcaded streets. These towers,
nine hundred and fifty in number at one time, were for the
most part built of wood, often one within five feet of its
neighbour ; they rose at times out of the meanest houses.2 The
porticoes forming the arcades were never less than seven yards
1 Ghirar, ii. 549; Frati, 171. » Frati, 3.

BOLOGNA 221
high, and sometimes rose above the first two storeys of the
building ; they served the purpose of keeping out the sun in
summer and the snow in winter. The houses were nearly all
of timber cut from the neighbouring wood ; the upper storeys
projected over the crooked narrow streets, excluding light and
air. The more pretentious buildings were made of brick, and
were ornamented with terra cotta ; there was no marble. The
ordinary private houses had neither cellars, drains, nor wells ;
but there were public wells, and near these no one was allowed
to deposit refuse, nor were barbers permitted to shave or
bleed any one in the vicinity. Ordure of every kind was
thrown into the open drains to be washed away by the rains ;
the only scavengers were the sows and gelded hogs which roamed
the streets. A commencement toward order and sanitation
had, however, already been made. Every traveller who entered
the city at one gate was required to procure a ticket before
he could leave it at another.1 Here and there the crowded
houses had been cleared away and open squares made ; one of
the earliest clearances had been effected in anticipation of the
visit of Pope John the Twenty-second. The Piazza of Raveg-
nana around the well-known leaning towers of Asinelli and
Garisendi, the Piazza Maggiore, now called the Piazza Vit-
torio Emmanuele, the squares before the churches of San
Stefano and San Michele de' Leprosetti, had all been formed
before the time of the Legate's entry, and all but the last-
mentioned before the time when he first came as a student to
Bologna. The cathedral of San Pietro had been rebuilt and
again repaired after an earthquake. The church of Saint
Dominic had been constructed by Nicola Pisano in the
thirteenth century ; so, too, had the church of Saint Francis,
the first Italian church with three naves, the most beautiful and
picturesque of the churches of Bologna, although its bell-tower
was built and its wonderful altar finished later while Cossa was
at Rome ; the church of Saint James the Greater had been begun
and been enlarged. The palaces of the Commune and the
Podesta were both in existence at the end of the thirteenth
century ; the old palace of the Pepoli was built in the middle
of the fourteenth century ; the College of Spain, with its
1 Burckhardt, 50.

222 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
peaceful garden reminding one of an Oxford quadrangle, was
commenced by Cardinal Albornoz in 1365.
Baldassare Cossa had been a student at the University when
the walls of the city were rebuilt, when the Palazzo Publico was
restored, when the Society of Notaries erected their palace, when
Andrea Manfredi built the Portico and the Church dei Servi,
and when the monumental basilica of San Petronio was com
menced. He must often have witnessed the fetes and fairs held
in connection with the building of the sacred edifice. The first
mass was said in it in the year when he became archdeacon ;
the first interment was made in it in the year when he entered
as Papal Legate. This wonderful church, which in the perfec
tion of its interior proportion and in its exquisite upper
lighting surpasses the Duomo at Florence, would, if it had
been completed on the lines laid down by its architect, Antonio
de Vincenzo, have been the largest and most glorious church
of Christendom ; but, like so many of the churches of Upper
Italy, it was destined to remain a magnificent torso. The
Foro or Loggia dei Mercanti, the tribunal of the twelve com
panies of the ' Arts ' of Bologna, situate near the two leaning
towers, a building which is no less remarkable for its perfect
ogival architecture than for its beautiful terra-cotta ornamenta
tion, was also begun and finished while the Legate was a
student at Bologna. The city which he was to capture and
to rule was one which might well fill any man's heart with
pride to hold under his sway. It still retains many of its old
features, its ancient palaces, its arcaded and frescoed streets,
its towered churches. The water is still brought into the town
by the Canale di Reno, as it was in the days when Giovanni
Bentivoglio defended the water supply at Caselecchio against
the forces of Milan. John Garzon of Bologna, writing about
sixty years later, gives a most enthusiastic description of his
native city, in terms which must have been applicable for the
most part at the time when Baldassare Cossa became Legate.
Garzon sketches its history from the earliest times : ' Aeneas
had not crossed into Italy, Ascanius had not built Alba, nor
Romulus Rome, when Bologna . . . was already the noblest
town of Tuscany, the chief city in Etruria.' He enumerates
its warriors, its literary men, its jurists, its physicians, its

BOLOGNA 223
philosophers, its theologians, nor does he omit the Friars,
Dominicans, Franciscans, Carmelites, Augustinians, and Ser-
vites who had dwelt within its borders ; finally he concludes
with a description of the town itself. It extends, he says, as
far as the foot of the Apennines, a most flourishing and
fruitful spot, abounding in holy temples, in vineyards, and in
olive groves ; the excellence of the climate and the purity of the
air are polluted by no marshy vapours ; the soil is of extra
ordinary fertility, producing crops sufficient for the citizens and
for export; wood, honey, oil, flax, everything useful grows
here. The city is adorned with handsome and famous edifices ;
it has large underground drains ; it possesses towers from
which the approach of an enemy or the existence of a fire can
be at once discerned. The Savena skirts it on the east ; the
Reno enters on the west, and avails for the turning of mills,
for the stamping of iron, for the making of paper from
papyrus, for the grinding of saffron, pepper, ginger, and the
like. There is also a very deep ditch, called Cavadizus,
running into the Reno, and on both sides of it are small
houses belonging to citizens or to aliens of small substance.
On the Savena, where it enters the city, live the dyers in
vermilion and the workers in leather. Nor, said he in con
clusion, must I forget to mention the grace of the women, the
handsomeness of the men, the culture of the citizens, the
elegance and majesty of their demeanour.1
Garzon's concluding words recall the apostrophe in the De
cameron to Bologna, ' that most famous city of Lombardy,' 2
which show that Boccaccio deemed the ladies to be most sweet,
winsome, and debonair : ' Ah ! Bologna ! how sweetly mixed are
the elements in thy women ! How commendable are they all !
No delight have they in sighs and tears, but are ever inclinable
to prayers, and ready to yield to the solicitations of love. Had
I but words apt to praise them as they deserve, my eloquence
were inexhaustible.'3 Such was Bologna, the city over which
Baldassare Cossa was to rule firmly and justly for nine years,
increasing its fame and extending its dominion.* It was the
city which he loved, the city whose memory he cherished with
1 Mur. xxi. 1 143. 2 Decameron, ii. 328.
3 Decameron, ii. 147. * Ciaconius, ii. 785 ; Christophe, iii. 343.

224 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
pride and regret. When in 1415 he was being hunted and
harassed at Constance, it is piteous to read his continued pro
testations that, if he were only allowed to go back to Bologna
as Papal Legate again, he would desire nothing better and ask
nothing more.
Now that Baldassare Cossa was Lord of Bologna, there was
much in the city for him to do ; the walls and fortresses to
strengthen, the buildings to repair, the roads to mend. In
1404 he dismantled the citadel at the San Felice Gate and
erected a castle at the Galiera Gate ; he built a large covered
drain; he raised the flooring of the Piazza, and paved the
entrance to San Petronio.1 It was a simple matter to impress
the poor people and the peasantry from the surrounding
villages, and by forced labour to get logs and timber carted
into the city, and the rougher work performed. But this
did not provide material nor skilled labour. To this end
taxes were necessary. The Papal Legate introduced a strict
system of octroi and excise, the taxes which, with the land-
tax, were the usual sources of revenue in Italian cities.2 A
tax of fifty per cent, was imposed on wine, which could only be
bought from licensed retailers. These taxes were no more
popular in Bologna than in Rome : excise is an eminently fair
tax, but it is also universally unpopu ^.r. Millers were taxed,
and bread could only be purchased at certain appointed shops.
Money-lenders, jugglers, and acrobats were obliged to contri
bute to the town exchequer.
The men of Bologna, like those of other Italian cities, were
very fond of games of chance. There were games with dice,
with draughts, and with chequers ; there were knuckle-bones,
skittles, hazard, and other games. Most of them were played
with dice or with tables. It was an age of gambling; the
Florentine diplomatist, Buonaccorso Pitti, gamed so high
that none but princes and dukes could play with him. In
Bologna as elsewhere cheating frequently occurred: certain
vagabonds and swindlers were convicted in 1402, the year
before Cossa came as Legate, of cheating two hog-merchants
from Milan. It was easier to regulate than to suppress such
games ; accordingly certain appointed gaming-houses, known
1 Mur. xviii. 586. 2 Burckhardt, 8.

BOLOGNA 225
as Baratterie, after the Lombard engineer who saved Venice
in the twelfth century, were established and were farmed out
to the highest bidder. A number of these Baratterie were
scattered through the city,1 and on all games played with
dice Baldassare Cossa levied a tax.
Nor were the women of pleasure exempt. The loose-zoned
Cyprians, with eyes dark as the roe and mouths sweeter than
honey, those vacuae personae to whom alone among women,
if men must needs go wrong, Jean Gerson desired that they
should confine their amorous attentions,2 were naturally very
numerous in the large University town, where they might
hope to 'catch nightingales' with students from far and
near. They lived in Castelletto Street, being expressly for
bidden to dwell anywhere near churches or monasteries. A
special dress was prescribed for these ladies, but they preferred
the spotless white raiment of virgins. They were ordered
to wear a cowl over their heads, with a little bell, which
tinkled as they walked.3 Many of them had been converted
from the error of their ways in 1402 by the preaching of
the Franciscan Friar, Antonio da Ritonto ; but those who
still pursued their old trade had to pay tribute to the Papal
Legate. All these taxes brought in money, but they made the
Legate unpopular; and what made Baldassare Cossa's taxa
tion peculiarly obnoxious, and gained him a reputation for
tyranny and harshness, was that he taxed all alike, rich and
poor, those who could make their discontent heard and those
who could not. He even refused to exempt those who came
into the city with safe-conducts furnished by some potentate
outside ; every one paid his share. It was perfectly just, but
it was not customary, and hence it was unpopular.4 Caesar
Borgia, a century later, incurred a similar unpopularity from
a similar reason. Under the firm rule of Baldassare Cossa,
however, the city was at peace and flourished exceedingly, for
he governed it strongly and well.6
The years which followed the loss of Bologna were full of
disaster for the heirs of Gian Galeazzo, Duke of Milan. His
1 Frati, 128-9. 2 Schwab, 388. 3 Frati, 102-5.
* Hardt, ii. 348-50. 6 Mur. iii. 854; Duchesne, ii. 512.

226 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
widowed Duchess Catharine, who had alienated her other
co-executors and co-regents by her excessive fondness for
Barbavara, was in 1404 seized by her son Giovanni Maria,
was imprisoned in the Castle of Milan, and was finally
poisoned. The younger brother, Filippo Maria, was also
imprisoned at Pavia. The natural son, Gabriel, lost his city,
Pisa, which in 1406 became subject to Florence, as will be
hereafter narrated. Divided and weakened, the two brothers,
Giovanni and Filippo, lacking the astuteness and ability of
their father, gradually lost their possessions; town after
town revolted from them and won its independence. Finally
in 1408 they quarrelled with their faithful and able general
Facino Cane, and put themselves under the protection of Carlo
Malatesta. During these years Baldassare Cossa occupied himself in
consolidating his sway in Bologna and in recovering its
territories. At first, before the strength and firmness of his
rule were known and appreciated, he had to contend with
treason inside the city. He got possession of the citadel in
1403.1 During that year the plots in favour of Nanne
Gozzadini, who was ever intriguing for the lordship of the
city, began ; and after Bonifacio Gozzadini had been put to
death, a plot was discovered, at the head of which was Cossa's
trusted captain, Vanello da Montefalco. Its success was marred
by a timely storm, and the leading traitors were executed.2
Nanne Gozzadini had possessed himself of Massumatico and
other strong places belonging to the Church, and refused to
restore them. Corrado da Matelica and Paolo Orsini were
sent against Massumatico, but in the assault Corrado was
killed ; he received honourable sepulture, and at the funeral
there was present no less a person than Cosmato de' Megliorati,
who had formerly been Bishop of Bologna (1386-7), and was
now Archbishop of Ravenna, a cardinal, and on the eve of
still higher promotion. Nanne's son Gabbione, who was
godson to the Legate, had meantime confessed that he had
set about to kill Carlo Malatesta and to drive the officials of
Holy Church out of Bologna ; he was tried and condemned,
and was on the point of being executed when the ambassadors
1 Mur. xviii. 584. 2 Ghirar, ii. 551.

BOLOGNA 227
from Venice and Florence intervened. They suggested that
he should be employed to treat with his father. The Legate
assented. Gabbione wrote to his father, but without effect.
He was even taken outside the fort of Cento, which Nanne was
holding, and saw his father ; but Nanne continued obdurate.
Gabbione was executed. The ambassadors tried to persuade
Nanne, who saw that his case was hopeless, to deliver his
fortresses to the Legate on payment often thousand ducats ; and
an agreement was drawn up ; but before it was executed the
fighting between Baldassare Cossa and Nanne Gozzadini broke
out afresh. This time the papal troops were successful ;
Massumatico and Rocca di Cento were taken ; Nanne abandoned
Pieve and fled to Ferrara. The leading traitors of his party
were captured and put to death ; the populace sacked his
palaces, and the city at last had peace.
In this same year (1404) the Papal Legate obtained the city
of Faenza. The lord thereof was at deadly feud with the
Constable Alberigo da Barbiano, who pressed him so hard
that he was fain to sell his city. He offered it first to the
Florentines, and when they declined he sold it to Baldassare
Cossa for twenty-five thousand golden florins which the city
advanced. With tears in his eyes Astorre de' Manfredi retired
to Forli to the protection of Carlo Malatesta ; he went thence
to Urbino, complaining that the Legate had swindled him.
In 1405 he was detected plotting to regain possession of
the city which he had sold; the Legate captured him and
gave him short shrift, for on the 25th November he had him
executed.1 Meantime there had been a change in the Papacy at Rome,
and it is necessary again to take up the story of the rival
Popes. The Great Schism continued. Benedict the Thirteenth
had regained the spiritual allegiance of the kingdoms within
his obedience on terms which practically left him with a free
hand, but still on the distinct understanding that he would
do all that in him lay to put an end to the accursed Schism.
After his long imprisonment he seemed inclined to rest on
his oars awhile, contenting himself with gathering into his
hands the reins of papal power, and making his rule firmly
1 Tartini, ii. 540 ; Mur. xviii. 589.

228 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
felt in the countries which acknowledged it. He was very
chary of acknowledging promotions which had been made
during the subtraction; he effected numerous changes and
reversions among the French bishops;1 he gathered in all
outstanding tithes, spoils, and annates, insisting on being
paid in a certain currency.2 He might, indeed, during this
time have redeemed his promise of holding a general council
of his obedience; but the French and Castilian prelates, of
whom the majority of that council would have been composed,
had been too lately in open revolt to allow him the hope
that their proceedings would be decorous or respectful. He
therefore, not having pledged himself to any fixed time or
place for the meeting of the council, postponed it for the
present. It is necessary at this point to understand his position in
order to grasp the trend of his future policy. His hands
were practically free. He had from the beginning declared
his preference for the method of terminating the Schism by
the method known as the via conventionis or via justiciae
declarandae. He was to meet his rival and to discuss the
situation with him; and he had so great confidence in the
legality and superiority of his own position, that he made no
doubt of conquest in the argument and of thereby restoring
to the Church the unity of which it had so long been deprived.
For this end he was now to work. France had extended her
sway over Genoa, Savona, and Leghorn ; so would he extend
his sway by argument, by diplomacy, if necessary by force.
He soon saw Genoa and Savona won to his obedience ; he
determined to send embassies to Rome to work for the via
conventionis. He was ready to feel his way to a coup de
main ; he was ready himself to go to Genoa or even further.3
The one method which he was not ready to embrace, which
he regarded as a dereliction of duty and as fatal to the hope
of unity in the Church, was the via cessionis. He was clear
that in the via conventionis, not in the via cessionis, was
the welfare of the Church to be sought ; and there is no reason
to doubt that this was, apart from all self-seeking, his deliberate
conscientious opinion.
1 Kehrmann, 109. 2 Martene, ii. 1302-3. 3 Ehrle, vii. 579.

John, Duke of Burgundy.

BOLOGNA 229
Very soon he was forcibly reminded that, although obedience
had been restored to him, France expected him without delay
to do his utmost to restore unity to the Church. On the 27th
April 1404, in the sixty-third year of his age, died Philip of
Burgundy. He was succeeded by his son John the Fearless, a
more impetuous and determined but a less intelligent man
than his father, who inherited to the full all his animosity
against the Duke of Orleans and against the Pope. On New
Year's Day 1404, Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the University
of Paris, who had flattered the Pope only two months before,
preached at Tarascon a sermon before Benedict and his
cardinals, which must have opened their eyes, if that were
necessary, to the state of public feeling. Gerson was at the
head of the moderate party in the University : he had been
opposed to the subtraction of obedience; he had welcomed
its restitution. But he was above all a patriotic Frenchman ;
he hated the tyranny and financial oppression of the Duke of
Orleans, from whom the poor everywhere prayed to be
delivered ; x his fatherland was dearer to him than the mere
idea of a universal Church ; 2 he was a disciple of Henry of
Langenstein, and was of opinion that if the best way of
ending the Schism, the ' way of cession,' was impracticable, then
recourse must be had to the 'way of a council.' In his
sermon he insisted that the welfare of the Church was the
paramount object, superior even to that of obedience to him
whom they might deem to be rightful Pope ; that to this end
all were bound to work, even the Pope himself. He reminded
Benedict that Christ had said, ' Whosoever will be great
among you, let him be your minister,' and ' The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep.' The independent, straight
forward orator insisted that for extraordinary situations
extraordinary remedies were necessary, that the boon of
peace to the Church was so great, so insistent, that nothing
should stand to hinder it ; that it were better to abandon the
rightful Pope and for a time to have no Pope, if so the
Church might win unity and peace. Even if the canon law
were against them, the divine law gave no uncertain sound.
The welfare of the Church was the paramount object ; it were
1 Religieux, iii. 232. 2 Bess, 40.

230 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
better for the Church even to do without a Pope for a time
if so they might win peace ; salvation was possible without a
Pope. Therefore the plan of an oecumenical council was
not to be rejected even though it might decide against them ;
although such a council might be fallible in matters of fact,
yet they were to believe that, under the present circumstances,
in which the wit of man could find no better expedient, the
Holy Ghost would in its own wondrous way guide the council
to a right conclusion.1 This outspoken discourse created no
small stir. It angered the Duke of Orleans, with whom
Pierre d'Ailly spoke for the orator. Pope Benedict hastened
to thank the University for their good counsel ; he assured
them that it was unnecessary, seeing that anxiety for the
unity of the Church was never absent from his mind, and
that he was ready to lay down his life for the Church.
It clearly behoved the Pope to do something, and he accord
ingly determined to send an embassy to his rival ; he would
convert him to the 'way of convention.' He selected two
bishops and two Franciscan friars. They took their way to
Florence, and the prior of that city procured a safe-conduct
from Rome for them, and sent an ambassador of his own with
them ; two Roman bishops met them outside Rome and con
ducted them to their inn. Boniface at first refused to see
them unless they would do him the customary honours as
Pope ; but they answered that they could not kneel to him
nor kiss his foot nor do anything in derogation of their own
master. It was represented to the Pope that his own envoys
would have made the same answer to Benedict ; he was nettled,
but gave way. The object of the embassy was to bring about
a convention, a meeting of the Popes, with a view to ending
the Schism. But Boniface had made no promise to resign
conditionally, as had Benedict ; he was the canonically elected
Pope; he had been spending freely from the vast wealth
he had amassed in order to win back the papal estates.
Now when the might of Milan was crumbling in the north,
when the might of Naples was quiescent in the south,
when Bologna, Perugia, and Assisi, the centre of Italy, had
been won back to his obedience, there arrived this embassy
1 Schwab, 1 71-8.

\ BOLOGNA 231
suggesting abdication. It was more than he could bear with
equanimity. He would not hear of the proposed meeting ; it
was impossible for him to make the journey, for he was suffer
ing from gout, from stone, and from gravel. Benedict's
bishops then suggested that the cardinals of both obediences
should meet and confer together ; but neither would Boniface
agree to this. Their third proposition was that an equal
number of arbitrators should be appointed by each side ; but
Boniface rejected this proposal also, and asked if they had
anything further to suggest.1 They admitted that they had
not, but reproached him with going back on his former
good resolutions ; they dwelt in glowing terms on the horrors
of the Schism, and insinuated that he was the cause of its con
tinuance. Boniface, hardly able to stand from the pain he
was suffering, fired up ; he told them in his anger that he was
the true Pope, that Benedict was an Anti-Pope, schismatic, a
heretic, and no Christian. The ambassadors quietly answered
that at any rate their master was not a simoniac. This
repartee was too much for the Pope ; he ordered them at once
to quit the city ; they answered that they had a safe-conduct
from him and from the Roman people and that they meant
to avail themselves thereof. The heated interview, which
occurred on the 29th September 1404, threw the Pope into a
fever ; a stone in the neck of the bladder caused him excruciat
ing agony ; on the 1st October he received the extreme unction.
Pope Boniface was dead. He had just passed his fiftieth
year: he was a strong Pope ; handsome, stalwart, and courteous ;
a born ruler of men. But he was utterly simoniacal ; he exacted
the first-fruits before making a promotion ; he was not ashamed
to sell benefices twice or thrice over ; he introduced grants of
'preference' and of ' pre-preference ' ; he sold exemptions from
canonical restrictions, rights to hold pluralities, permissions to
monks to exchange from one order to another, or from a men
dicant to a non-mendicant order. He would not even sign an
order on a petition without receiving a ducat.2 On the other
hand, he spent the greater part of his wealth on the Church,
although he also gave liberally to his mother, his brothers,
and his nephews. Whatever manner of life he may have lived
1 Tartini, ii. 513. 2 Mur. iii. 831 ; Creighton,!. 132, 182.

232 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
in his earlier years, he changed it entirely as soon as he
assumed the tiara ; thenceforward no one could cast an asper
sion on his moral character. He relied but little on the
advice of his cardinals. His successor was his chief man of
confidence ; and whereas Urban the Sixth in his eleven years
of office had created between sixty and seventy new cardinals,
Boniface the Ninth in the thirteen years which elapsed before
he raised Baldassare Cossa to the purple created but four.
Two of his cardinals, however, themselves became Popes.
The death of Boniface, now that his firm hand and rule were
no more, threw his rival's ambassadors into a quandary as to
their own safety. They consulted the cardinals, who advised
them to remain where they were. They, however, determined
to escape from Rome if possible, but they were captured by the
Commandant of the Castle as they were leaving by the Bridge
of Sant Angelo. They were in prison for ten days, and had to
pay a ransom of. five thousand florins to regain their freedom.
Then began negotiations between them and the Roman car
dinals as to the election of a new Pope. The French ambas
sadors suggested that the election should be deferred; Pope
Benedict was willing to do anything, they said, to put an end
to the Schism. The Roman cardinals wanted to know if he
would abdicate. The ambassadors of Benedict had no orders
as to that; it would be useless to send for orders, seeing
Benedict would not consent to the way of cession, which was
neither j ust nor reasonable.1 This announcement was received
in Paris with great chagrin, and alienated many of the nobles
from the cause of their Pope. The nine cardinals who were
then in Rome decided on the 12th October to enter into con
clave; on the 17th they elected Cosmato de' Megliorati as
Pope, who took the name and title of Innocent the Seventh.
The new Pope was a man of middle stature, born of a
rather humble family of Sulmona. He was a Doctor of the
canon and the civil law, a mild, benign man, who had been
fully trusted by his predecessor, but who was notwithstand
ing utterly averse from pomp and simony. Like the other
cardinals, he had taken oath that, if elected, he would do all
that in him lay to end the Schism ; but he never ceased to
1 Religieux, iii. 246, 254.

BOLOGNA 233
reproach Pope Benedict with his failure to resign at the death
of Boniface the Ninth. He lost no time himself in attempting
to keep his word, for on the 24th December he issued invita
tions to all the bishops and princes of his obedience, and
among others he invited King Sigismund of Hungary to
appear on the next Feast of All Saints (1st November 1405),
to confer with him as to the most convenient way of ending
the Schism.1 His troubles with the turbulent populace of
Rome, and the influence of King Ladislas of Naples, were,
however, too much for Pope Innocent. Ladislas, whose astute
ness and craft the Visconti might have envied, had come to
Rome, not in time to coerce the cardinals, but immediately
after the election. He had patched up a peace in his own
interest, the Colonnas and the Savelli being on his side,
between the Pope and the people of Rome; he had got
himself made Rector of the Campania and Maritima for five
years ; and he had also induced the Pope to promise not to
agree to any plan for the union of the Church which did not
include the recognition of King Ladislas in the peaceful pos
session and title of all his present possessions.2 This scouting
the pretensions of the Duke of Orleans to the crown of Naples
was a fatal bar to any accommodation with France, and con
sequently there was very little hope of any agreement with the
Pope at Avignon.
The French had induced Genoa3 and Pisa4 to acknowledge
the obedience of Benedict. They had made overtures to
Florence, but the wary republicans made answer that, although
there was nothing they would more gladly see than the termi
nation of the Schism, yet the matter was too high for their
interference. Over Pisa the French and Florentines had been
like to come to disagreement, for the Duke of Orleans had
pretensions to the city. Gabriel Maria, despairing of resisting
the attacks of Florence, had thrown himself on the protection
of the King of France, declaring that he held his lands as a fief
from Charles the Sixth ; and the Duke of Orleans had on the
24th May 1404 obtained the Signiory of Pisa. In the end,
however, as will be seen, the republic had its way.
1 Goeller, 12. 2 Ibid. 12.
3 Boucicaut, 314. 4 Capponi, i. 412.

234 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Benedict's ambassadors, as they journeyed homeward, re
ceived at Florence a letter from the Cardinal of Aquileia,
suggesting that they should return to Rome to renew the
negotiations broken off by the death of Boniface. They were
willing, and asked for a safe-conduct, which the new Pope for
some reason refused to grant.1 On this Benedict determined
himself to go to Italy in person ; he thought that when once
he was on Italian soil, his rival might agree to meet him and
to discuss the situation. This determination to put the ' way
of convention ' into practice met with the warm approval of the
King of France, and it was resolved to levy a tenth from the
clergy for the expenses of the j ourney. The tithe was to be paid
not only by the secular clergy, but also by the monks and the
universities. The attempt to tax them, however, at once
aroused the wrath of the University of Paris, and set them in
renewed opposition to Pope Benedict. The recent freedom
of the Gallican Church from papal taxation and control
was a lesson which had been learned and would not soon
be forgotten. The University was eager to put it in force
again. Pope Benedict meantime having received 120,000 francs, on
the 7th May 1405 set sail with six galleys from Nice, five or six
of his cardinals remaining behind through fear. He called at
Monaco, Albenga, and Savona, and on the 16th May made a
triumphal entry into the port of Genoa. Genoa, said one of
the official orators, was to be for Benedict the janua ad
tollendum Schisma, the gate by which he was to enter Italy in
order to suppress the Schism. He renewed his proposition
for a conference with Pope Innocent ; but his rival refused to
believe in his good faith and declined to listen to his pro
posals. Benedict denounced Innocent and his cardinals for
their discreditable conduct, and would have been ready to
adopt the ' way of fact,' could he have obtained the necessary
physical force.2 No king, not even the King of France, would
help him ; war broke out in Tuscany and forbade his further
advance ; a plague of dysentery made its appearance in Genoa,
and Pope Benedict was obliged on the 8th October to retrace
his steps to Savona, where he remained till June 1406.3 He
1 Ehrle, vii. 587. 2 Valois, iii. 4°5"7- * Ehrle, vii. 589.

BOLOGNA 235
was forced to await events ; for the present the ' way of con
vention ' was closed to him.
As might have been expected, the exactions of the Pope
from the Church since the restitution of obedience had caused
great discontent through France. Jean Petit complained that
when a clerk was appointed to a benefice, the Pope took the
first year's revenue, the heirs of the deceased incumbent took
the second, the Church itself took the third, and the new priest
had to wait four or five years before he drew a penny from his
living. Bishops and abbes were obliged to sell or mortgage
their palaces or convents to satisfy the papal demands ; services
and spoils had been increased; the Pope had drawn from
France since 1403 no less than 1,200,000 francs, nearly a
king's ransom. Three weeks later, Pierre Plaoul attacked the
letter from the University of Toulouse defending Pope Bene
dict, and demanded the criminal trial of its writers. The
doctors of the Norman nation, Simon de Cramaud, Jean
Petit, Gilles des Champs, Jean Courtecuisse, with the whole
Faculty of Canon Law at their backs, were hot for the
Burgundian policy of subtraction of obedience, in opposition
to the Faculty of Theology and the Orleanist party. The
dispute was referred to Parliament, which naturally sided with
the lawyers. Juvenal des Ursins,the King's advocate, announced
that the memorial from the University of Toulouse was to be
burned, and that the King was justified in opposing the Pope's
frequent demands for money. As to the subtraction of obedi
ence, the question was referred to the Council of the Clergy to
be held at the close of the year. The dissatisfaction with
Benedict was not confined to France, for the King of Castile
had at the end of 1405 sent an embassy proposing that both
Popes be required to abdicate, and that the one who refused
be condemned as schismatic.
The fourth Council of the Clergy was held at Paris, sixty-
four prelates and doctors assembling at the palace on the 18th
November 1406. Although not so numerously attended as
the Council of 1398, it lasted for five weeks and was marked
by much heated argument, Three orators defended the cause
of the University ; the same number pleaded that of the Pope.
Mass was celebrated by the Archbishop of Rouen, and then

236 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the divines betook themselves to the small hall of the palace
on the Seine, where in the presence of the Dauphin and of
the Dukes of Berri and Anjou the Doctors of the University
undertook to prove that, inasmuch as Benedict had refused to
abdicate, it was necessary again to subtract the obedience of
France from him. The discussion was opened by Pierre-les-
Boeufs, followed by Jean Petit. The irascible Norman char
acterised both Popes as schismatic and suspected of heresy;
the restitution of obedience to Benedict had been conditional,
and the conditions had not been fulfilled, so that France ought
once again to secede from the Pope who had broken his word.
Then followed Simon de Cramaud, the Patriarch of Alexandria.
His speech contained much heat but very little argument.
He had been on the council of Popes, kings, dukes, and princes ;
he had been ten years Chancellor to the Duke of Berri ; yet
had he never heard better or more wholesome reasoning than
that of the University. He called the rival Popes foxes and
schismatics, and cited a gloss from the Decretal to prove that
when a Pope makes a schism, he should be condemned without
mercy. He saw no need for appeal to Rome ; French causes
should be tried in France. His speech contained a premonition
of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges. He advocated the
renewed subtraction of obedience, after which they could
endeavour to bring about a joint council of both obediences,
in order to procure the cession of both Popes.1 The advocates
for Pope Benedict replied on Monday the 3rd December.
Guillaume Filastre expressed his astonishment that the
council should take upon itself to judge the Pope; he re
minded them how King Uzziah had been smitten with leprosy
when he interfered with the High Priest ; and this unfortunate
reference to a royal malady got the orator into trouble. The
Dean of Reims was followed next day by the Archbishop of
Tours, who pointed out that never had any schism been cured
by the ' way of cession ' but rather by the ' way of a council.'
The next session was fixed for the 11th, on which day Pierre
d'Ailly was to speak. The Bishop of Cambrai spoke temper
ately and calmly, although at considerable length. He referred
to the time when the King had supported him at the College
of Navarre, to the time when he was the King's Almoner, to
1 Chastenet, Preuves, 118-24.

BOLOGNA 237
the time he had spent at his dearly beloved University, on
behalf of whose Faculty of Theology he was then speaking.
He claimed to represent twenty-seven doctors of that Faculty,
one of whom was the Chancellor of Notre Dame, ' and what a
man and what a clerk he is, every one knows.' D'Ailly would
indeed have preferred that the whole matter should have been
laid before the Faculty of Theology for a pious opinion to be
referred to a general council. He deprecated the 'way of
cession,' for they had no assurance that the rival Pope would
abdicate ; he preferred the convocation of a general council of
their own obedience, which would certainly be inspired by the
Holy Spirit. He then proceeded to deal with the charges of
heresy and schismatic conduct brought so lightly against Bene
dict ; the Patriarch of Alexandria had even called him a
heresiarch, or prince of heretics. At this uprose in wrath
Simond de Cramaud, and pointed out that he had not spoken
of himself but on authority ; that it was written that those
who divide the Church are heretics and sin against the article
of unity, and that those who damnably hold the Church in
schism are heresiarchs ; so said the holy doctors. The Bishop
meekly remarked that the words of the doctors were to be
read with the understanding also ; to which the Patriarch
rejoined that they would settle their difference at the next
general council. Pierre d'Ailly, after this interruption, pro
ceeded to examine the charges brought against Pope Benedict
of heresy and schismatic conduct. It was well known that
both he and Jean Gerson declined to hold any man a heretic
simply because he was of the opposite obedience ; if a man
honestly strove for the reunion of the disrupted Church, he
was entitled to receive the right hand of fellowship. The
question whether the Pope was heretic and schismatic, said
D'Ailly, was a matter of faith, which should in the first place
have been referred to the Faculty of Theology; and in no
case could the Pope be condemned in his absence, nor until
found guilty by a general council. No one could be held to
be schismatic who did not pertinaciously refuse to work for
the union of the Church ; whereas Benedict had sent to Rome
and to Florence, had sent ambassadors to Boniface, had ex
pressed his readiness to abdicate although on conditions which

238 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
were not acceptable to those in authority, had confirmed his
willingness to do all that he had promised to do, and was per
fectly ready to call a general council of his obedience. How,
then, could they call a Pope schismatic who had worked and
was ready still to work for the union ? Then as to the chargfe
of heresy. A heretic was one who persistently doubts or errs
in the Catholic faith. A man is not a heretic who honestly
desires to know the truth. There were seven different descrip
tions of heretics, but under none of them did Benedict fall. It
was safer for the King and the kingdom, concluded the speaker,
to refer and remit these matters to a general council, than to
determine themselves or again to subtract the spiritual allegi
ance of France from Pope Benedict. The oration of the Bishop
of Cambrai was universally admitted to have been a master
piece. The University in wrath disclaimed him. His oppo
nents claimed a right of reply.
One of them, the Abbe of Saint Michel, pointed out that
Christ had given a command simply to feed His sheep, not to
shear them; to which the witty Dean of Reims, the future
cardinal, replied that in his part of the country it was the
duty of the good shepherd to shear his sheep as well as to feed
them, from which he concluded that the Pope had a right to
do both. The argument waxed hot ; in vain did D'Ailly play
the moderator ; in vain he urged that a subtraction of obedi
ence had already been tried and had already failed ; it was
clear that the majority was in favour of such a measure. On
the 3rd January 1407 the Chancellor closed the debate ; the
votes were to be given in writing ; they were delivered, not to
the Dauphin or any royal Duke, but to Simon de Cramaud,
Patriarch of Alexandria, much to the disgust of the clergy.
The University obstinately declared in favour of a total sub
traction of obedience, but the great majority were in favour
of a partial measure, taking from the Pope the temporalities,
but leaving him the spiritualities,1 the measure which D'Ailly
himself had counselled about a year before. The Patriarch
himself agreed to this compromise (4th January), as did also
the royal Dukes, and the King formally approved it on the
11th February. Before, however, the King had signed the
1 Christophe, iii. 224.

BOLOGNA 239
ordinances for the renewed subtraction of obedience, there
arrived at Paris the news of the death of Pope Innocent the
Seventh ; and there were many, and Jean Gerson was among
the number, who hoped that the Roman cardinals would
abstain from a new election, and that the Great Schism would
now be terminated by the universal acceptance of Benedict as
sole Pope of Christendom.1 Their fond expectations were
doomed to speedy disappointment.
The days of Pope Innocent the Seventh had not been long
in the land. As Bishop and as Archbishop he had been known
and loved by the people of Bologna, and his coronation was
welcomed with a grand joust, in which Paolo Orsini, soon to
be called to the new Pope's service, took part. The reign of
Innocent was chiefly spent in contention with the turbulent
people of Rome, who had risen in revolt as soon as the strong
hand of Boniface was removed by death. The party of the
Ghibelines, under Nicolo and Giovanni Colonna and Baptista
Savelli, demanded the ancient freedom and rights of the city.
Ladislas of Naples, anxious that the lordship of Rome should
belong neither to the Pope nor the people, but to himself,
appeared with an army, made peace between the citizens and
the Pope, and was recognised as Protector of the Holy Roman
Church. His present design was to gain the rule over all those
States of the Church which the Pope at Avignon had given
to his rival, the Duke of Anjou. But the people of Rome
were very fickle ; quarrels broke out again between the Colonnas
and the Pope; Ladislas sent his troops to aid the Colonna
party ; but the Romans turned against his general, the Count
of Troja, and against the Colonnas. Certain heads of the
populace went one day in August to hold an amicable parley
with Innocent, and as they were riding homeward eleven of
them were treacherously seized by the Pope's nephew, Ludovico
de' Megliorati, and were slain in cold blood. Horrified at the
outrage, the aged pontiff escaped to Viterbo from the wrath of
the citizens. Baldassare Cossa and the men of Bologna heard
what had happened, and sent asking Innocent to take refuge
with them, offering him a sum of money for his expenses.2
The Pope thanked them for their kindness and courtesy,
1 Schwab, 190. 2 Raumer, 186.

240 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
assured them that if he had to leave Viterbo he would come to
Bologna, but bided his time. He sent for Paolo Orsini to
join his two generals, Mustarda of Forli and his nephew
Ludovico. Innocent saw that Ladislas had been playing
entirely for his own hand, and in June 1406 he issued Bulls
against him from Viterbo ; but a peace was arranged between
Paolo Orsini and the Pope's nephew on the one side and the
Counts of Troja and Carrara on the other. The Romans saw
that it was a choice for them of being ruled by the Pope or
by King Ladislas, and they therefore sent to Viterbo, begging
Innocent to return to Rome, and offering him full dominium
over the city as it had been held by Boniface. Their message
reached the Pope just after he had been afflicted with a stroke
of paralysis — a judgment of God, said the pious, meant to
quicken the Pope to work for the union of the Church.
Innocent was delighted, and returned triumphantly to Rome.
He had been unable to bring off the council which he had
proposed ; he had postponed it in the first instance to the 1st
May, and had invited the German prelates to take part
therein, but they were too engrossed in what was happening at
Marbach to respond. The Pope himself was not at Rome at
that time, and had been absolutely unable to hold the council
as he had designed. Even if it had been held, it could have
effected little, regard being had to the binding nature of the
Pope's agreement with King Ladislas. King Henry of Castile
sent ambassadors to him and to his rival, urging them to
abdicate ; but Innocent had called his council, and the ambas
sadors declined to disclose his reply to Pope Benedict. The
King then sent ambassadors to his own Pope to persuade him
to call a council ; Benedict issued Bulls for a council in Mar
seilles, if practicable ; if not, the council was to be held at
Perpignan.1 Before the Bulls were published, however, there
came the news of his rival's death. Innocent did not live long
after his return to Rome : he died on the 6th November 1406
from a third attack of apoplexy, his mouth being twisted over
his shoulder — a sure sign, according to the clergy, of God's
judgment on him for not ending the Schism.
Baldassare Cossa meantime had not been idle at Bologna.
1 Ehrle, vii. 593.

BOLOGNA 241
Beside other works of public utility, he had pushed on the
erection of the new fortress at the Porta Galliera, which he
had commenced as soon as Pope Boniface, shortly before his
death, had ordered the destruction of the three-year-old
fortress of the Visconti. He had also, as already mentioned,
finally settled the account with the Lord of Faenza. He had
discovered a new plot to assassinate himself and to hand over
Bologna to Nanne Gozzadini. The traitors, as the historian
remarks, never learned to work secretly ; 1 and they had
suffered the necessary reward for their crime. The arch con
spirator, Nanne himself, did not venture as far as Bologna, but
remained at Ferrara, where he died in the arms of the Marquess
on the 29th July 1407, bitterly regretting the day when he
had refused the Signiory of his native city. Forli also fell
before the arms of the cardinal, who built a citadel there ; and
in May of the same year (1406) he drove back and dispersed
the exiles from Perugia, who had assembled in the marches
with a view to machinations on that papal city.2 But his
hardest bit of warfare had been that waged with the Constable
Alberigo da Barbiano.
Bologna was dependent for its supply of grain on the country
round, and was subject to scarcity or famine with the variation
of the seasons. There was such a time of scarcity in the
spring of 1405. On a previous occasion Baldassare Cossa had
taken an inventory of all the grain in the town, and had con
fiscated all that was found and had not been declared, selling
the corn thus obtained, and returning the price to the owners.
This rough-and-ready method had tided over the former
difficulty without inflicting too great hardship on the Bolognese.
On the present occasion he had arranged for a large convoy of
grain to be brought from the Romagna. It was intercepted
by the Constable. The Legate sent messengers to demand
the grain, but they returned empty-handed. The Constable
on his side demanded Faenza and the Castle of San Pietro,
and presented a long bill for arrears of pay due, as he said, to
him for his services to Bologna. These services related to the
war with Milan, when Bologna was captured by the Duke
Gian Galeazzo.3 This was before the Legate's time, and he
1 Ghirar, ii. 570. 2 Tartini, ii. 566. 3 Ibid. ii. 563.

242 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
accordingly referred the claim to the Council of the city.
The councillors rejected the claim, and voted for war with the
Constable. To secure a present supply of grain, the Legate
ceded to Florence a certain place, named Piancaldolo, famous
for the mill-stones made there. The war with the Constable
was short and satisfactory. He had rejected the mediation of
the Marquess of Ferrara, of Carlo Malatesta, and others. He
was defeated, and the Castle of Lojano and other places fell
into the hands of the masterful cardinal before peace was
made. By thus capturing the villages of the Constable,
Baldassare Cossa still further incurred the wrath of King
Ladislas of Naples, who announced that Alberigo da Barbiano
was under his special protection.1 As soon as peace was made
the Legate put to death one of his own generals who had
refused to follow him when ordered. The Castle of Crevalcore
was also recovered for the Church from the Marquess of Ferrara.
(In the species of guerilla warfare which was then so common
over Northern Italy, the Papal Legate could hold his own with
the best condottiere generals. He met force with force ; he
was ready with a word and a blow, and the blow first ; he
detected treason before it was ripe, punished the traitors
ruthlessly, and pardoned the innocent liberally.2 The tur
bulence of the men of Bologna, and the need for a strong arm
over them, may be gauged by the fact that the Castello di
Galliera founded by Baldassare Cossa, was five times built, and
five times destroyed by popular tumult. In a time of restless
warfare and intrigue, the Papal Legate was a match for his
enemies. He ruled with an iron hand, but his rule brought
peace and prosperity to Bologna, and the citizens were well
pleased with his government.? When he heard of the death
of Pope Innocent the Seventh, he started for Rome to take
part in the conclave, but on the road he was met by the news
that the cardinals had already met, so that, knowing that his
presence would be useless, he returned to Bologna.
All Europe was at this time most desirous that the disruption
in the Church should be healed. It was the manifest duty of
the Emperor to convoke a Council for that purpose ; but the
sloth and incapacity of King Wenzel, who had neglected even
1 Mur. xx. 310. 2 Qhirar, ii. 571. > Raumer, 186.

BOLOGNA 243
to get himself crowned Emperor, had proved a fatal hindrance
in the fourteenth century, and from the close of that century
onwards the country which should have been foremost in the
work of healing, was itself suffering not only from the religious
but also from a civil schism. Nor was there apparently more
hope from Wenzel's rival. Very gradually had the virtuous
and well-intentioned King Rupert strengthened his position
in the western half of Germany, until in 1405 he there reached
the zenith of his power. Unfortunately for him, his virtues
were as fatal to him as his weakness. He endeavoured to do
the work of an Emperor by maintaining the public peace and
order ; and to that end he destroyed nine castles in the Wet-
terau, whence had been wont to sally bands of freebooters,
murdering and pillaging the merchants of Swabia, Thuringia,
Hesse, and the Wetterau. The work of destruction was good
and necessary ; it was accomplished in the interest of the
welfare of the Empire ; but the castles were, as it happened,
within the boundaries and jurisdiction of the Archbishopric
of Mainz. Rupert had forgotten that ' no man can enter
into a strong man's house and spoil his goods, except he will
first bind the strong man.' The King had neglected to bind
that very strong man, John of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz.
Henceforth it was to be a duel between Rupert, King of the
Romans, and the First Elector of the Empire, and the Elector
was to prove the better man. John of Nassau lost no time.
On the 14th September the League of Marbach was made
between him, the Count of Wuerttemberg, the Markgraf of
Baden, the citizens of Strasburg, and seventeen imperial cities
of Swabia. Its ostensible purpose was the mutual defence and
protection of the parties thereto ; but the confederacy was
really directed against King Rupert, and he knew it. He
resolved, if possible, to checkmate his opponents. He as
sembled a diet at Mainz on the 6th January, its express object
being to dissolve this confederation which had been made
without his authority and without the permission of the
Empire; he harangued the confederates, pointing out how
false they were to the principles of the Empire ; he even sup
plicated them to abandon their league ; but they obstinately
stood their ground. The fight was really as to whether

244 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Germany should be an Empire of a Confederation, whether
the kingly principle or that of confederacies should govern
the Empire and mould its future. King Rupert was obliged
to give way, and on the 19th December 1406 he formally
admitted that confederacies to secure the public peace might
lawfully be made without his permission. The spirit of
confederacy, whereby cities, nobles, or knights, regardless of
the royal authority and disregarding the wider interest of the
kingdom, bound themselves for short terms of years to act
together for their common defence or advancement, waxed
stronger and stronger throughout the Empire; and at the
same time the position of the King of the Romans became
more ineffective and superfluous. The Empire was in danger
of losing its unity and of splitting up into a number of tem
porary confederations, with little continuity of purpose, and
with no settled central force for guidance or preservation
amid the vortex of European politics.
With the death about this time (6th November 1406) of
Pope Innocent the Seventh, and the rise to supreme politico-
ecclesiastical power in Italy of the Papal Legate, Baldassare
Cossa, the friend of John of Nassau* there appeared in the
Empire a third party in the Church, ostensibly headed by the
Elector of Saxony, and aiming at neutrality between the rival
Popes. Henceforth the strife lay between this party under John
of Nassau, Archbishop of Mainz, and the old orthodox Roman
party, under King Rupert. But the King's power and influ
ence were visibly diminishing ; he was obliged in more than
one instance to go back on his former virtuous resolutions in
the matters of tolls and of hypothecations. Certain of the
nobles and cities, hitherto loyal to him, were making terms
with King Wenzel ; his only effective ally in Italy, Francesco
of Carrara, had been imprisoned and executed by the Venetians;
and the Burgundian dukes, John and Anthony, were drawing
nearer to King Wenzel, thus making good to that King the
loss of influence he sustained through the murder (1407) of
the Duke of Orleans.
As soon as Pope Innocent the Seventh died, Baldassare Cossa
attempted to go to Rome for the new election, but, as already
mentioned, had returned to Bologna. Next year (1407), at the

BOLOGNA 245
desire of the new Pope Gregory the Twelfth, a council was held
in the city to consider the best means of ending the Schism.
The citizens offered Bologna for the meeting of the two Popes,
and agreed to give hostages for the safety of Benedict. To
this end the Papal Legate sent two ambassadors to Avignon
on the 9th March, but they returned on the 6th May, having
effected nothing. The Spaniard was not the man to trust
himself in the hands of Baldassare Cossa. The ' way of
cession ' had been tried against him ; the University of Paris.
no less than the French court, had insisted on this plan ; the
more moderate party, headed by Pierre d'Ailly and Jean
Gerson, had deemed this to be the most efficacious remedy.
But the plan had failed. Pope Benedict the Thirteenth had
from the beginning declared himself against it ; he had pointed
out its inherent weakness ; on grounds which were certainly
plausible he had refused to agree to abdicate ; and the attempt
to bring about or force his abdication by a subtraction of
obedience from him had been made, and it had utterly failed.
His representations had been scouted, and the proposals which
he had made had never been fairly considered. He still
professed himself to be as anxious as ever to end the Schism ;
but he was in favour of a different plan ; he was in favour,
and had always been in favour, of the ' way of convention.'
The slightly built, handsome little Pope was a man of great
fixity of purpose and determination of character; his ad
versaries had tried their ' way of cession ' with him and had
failed; he desired now to try the method which he had
advocated from the commencement : he wanted to meet his
adversary in the way and to confer with him.
Benedict was now, after his escape from captivity, in a much
stronger position than before. France had returned to its
obedience ; Provence was devoted to him. Backed by the Duke
of Orleans and the University of Toulouse, his was henceforth
the dominating figure in the Riviera. He no longer remained
permanently at Avignon ; he stayed at the Cistercian monastery
in the island of Lerins ; he visited Nice and Villa Franca for
change of air ; he knew the pirate city Monaco, of the Grimaldi,
and the picturesque castle, Dolce Acqua, of the Doria. The
country along the coast, where the ruins of old castles still crown

246 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the rocky precipices jutting up from fir-clad hills, where the
grey-green olive trees spring from the dull red earth and the
dull grey rock, where the almond and the orange brighten the
most sombre months of winter, the Riviera was the country of
Benedict from the time he escaped to Chateau Renard until
the time when he started for Savona and Porto Venere. He
was now determined to propose a meeting at which he and
his rival might arrange for the future unity of the Church. If
he might remain Pope, he was willing that his rival should be
first cardinal; and he had no doubt as to the result of the
meeting : he meant to remain Pope.
The death of Innocent the Seventh and the election of his
successor was apparently to bring Benedict's ' way of conven
tion ' within the range of practical politics.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 247

CHAPTER VII
THE WAY OF CONVENTION
One method of ending the Schism which, to us after the event,
seems tolerably simple, but which did not until August 1407 x
enter into the serious contemplation of any of the reigning
powers at the time, would have been to procure from each
College of Cardinals the assurance that, in the event of the
death of its Pope, it would not at once proceed to a new
election, but would allow time for negotiation. Pope Benedict
the Thirteenth had not, it must be remembered, at any time
prior to the subtraction of obedience, promised that he would
resign on the death of his rival ; and all the world knew what
little consideration he gave to any promise extracted from him
during that time of stress. Naturally neither College would
have given an assurance to abstain from a new election unless
certain that its rival would do the like ; but Charles the Sixth
and King Wenzel, acting in concert, should have been able to
procure such assurances from the respective Colleges of the
Popes whose obedience they acknowledged. As soon as either
Pope actually did die, earnest endeavours were made to procure
the postponement of the new election; but in those days of
slow communication, each College moreover being loth to
trust itself to the tender mercies of a Pope who had excom
municated it, and being hence in a hurry to protect itself by
a fresh election, these endeavours were always too late. After
the death of Pope Clement, the news took six days to reach
Paris ; and the King's messenger, riding his hardest, took three
days to reach Avignon, and the cardinals were entering into
conclave when he arrived. The news of the death of Pope
Innocent for some reason took more than six weeks to travel
1 Schwab, 205.

248 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
from Rome to Paris. Pope Benedict had already written to
the magistrates of Rome and to certain members of the Orsini
family, asking them to persuade the cardinals not to proceed
to a new election, offering to join them, and to sacrifice every?
thing for the union of the Church ; but they apparently
believed as little in his sincerity as had the late Pope before
them. Before the death of Innocent, the Duke of Berri had
written to the cardinals, entreating them not to elect a new
Pope on his death;1 and Gilles des Champs, 'master of
theology and counsellor to the King of France,' being then in
Rome, did his best to delay the entry into conclave.
When the news of Innocent's death reached Paris, the desire
was strongly expressed that a new election should be post
poned, that Benedict should be required to resign, and that the
united Colleges of Cardinals should together elect a new Pope
for Christendom, and thus terminate the Schism. King Charles
the Sixth, by the advice of his Council, wrote on the 23rd
December to the fourteen cardinals then in Rome, begging
them to postpone their entrance into conclave pending receipt
of an embassy from him. Giovanni the Dominican at Florence,
as soon as he heard of the Pope's death, went to the magistrate
and besought him to send an embassy to the cardinals to
postpone a fresh election. Giovanni himself was despatched
in the name of the Republic to the College; but, like an
austere friar, he travelled on foot. Both letter and friar
arrived too late. The cardinals had at first hesitated, but
they finally, notwithstanding the opposition of the Cardinal
of Aquileia, decided to proceed to election, and they had
already entered into conclave : they feared disturbances in
Rome, they feared the machinations of King Ladislas.2 A
small window in the building where the cardinals were bricked
up was, however, opened, and through this the friar delivered
his message. His recommendation was declined, but he was
told the comforting tale that he whom the cardinals would
elect might be considered rather as their proctor to effect a
union by abdication than as an actual Pope.3
The cardinals themselves were unfeignedly anxious to heal
1 Sybel, xvii. 8o. 2 Mur. xix. 925 ; Sybel, xvii. 81.
3 Brieger, ix. 245-6.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 249
the disruption in the Church, and before entering the conclave
they had determined to clear themselves in the eyes of all of any
suspicion of guilt in prolonging the Schism. They accordingly,
as a preliminary to the election, required each one of their num
ber to swear (a) that the new pontiff would abdicate if his rival
abdicated or died, and the cardinals of both obediences desired
to unite ; (5) that within one month of his election the new
Pope would notify to his rival, to the King of the Romans,
and to the other Kings of Christendom, his election and his
readiness to abdicate or to take any other reasonable method
of ending the Schism, and that within three months he would
send plenipotentiaries to choose a fitting place for negotiating
the Union ; and (c) that pending this negotiation he would
create no new cardinals, nor within a year afterwards, unless
through the fault of his rival no such result had followed.1
The cardinals then entered into conclave. It was near mid
night on the 29th before they had made their choice. In the
morning twilight of the 30th November 1406, a wet and
cloudy day, the bells rang out and the cardinals announced
that they had elected as Pope Angelo Corrario, a noble
Venetian, about eighty years of age, Patriarch of Constanti
nople and Cardinal-Priest of Saint Mark, who took the title
of Gregory the Twelfth. Gregory the Eleventh had terminated
the captivity at Avignon ; Gregory the Twelfth meant to
terminate the Great Schism : such at least was his intention
on Saint Andrew's Day 1406.
The new Pope was a tall man, mere skin and bone, but like
many a thin man very fond of a good meal, and inordinately
fond of sugar. He was pious, a friend of ascetics and mystics ;
somewhat of a fanatic, convinced of the righteousness of his
own designs, and apt thereby to deceive the world and himself
also ; a mixture of good intentions and weak will, of impetuous
enthusiasm and of what looked like crafty self-seeking. The
cardinals had elected him because they deemed that he had
one foot in the grave and would have time only to abdicate
before he died ; they had forgotten that bugbear and scandal
of the papacy, the Pope's nephew. Urban the Sixth had been
hampered by his nephew, the brutal Butillo, who had ravished
1 Sybel, xvii. 85.

250 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
a high-born nun and brought about trouble with Charles of
Durazzo. Innocent the Seventh had been hampered by his
nephew, the treacherous Ludovico, who had captured and
slain eleven peaceful Roman citizens and had caused his uncle's
flight to Viterbo. Now the cardinals had elected a man with
half a dozen nephews, all hungering clamorously for loaves
and fishes. The new Pope was lamentably under the influence
of his relatives, who were ever ready to play on his fears and
apprehensions for their own advantage. He was a pitifully
nervous old man, always ready to listen to those about him
rather than to make up his mind for himself. From such a
character it was vain to expect consistency of action ; and if
Benedict the Thirteenth was like to become a hardened
absolutist, Gregory the Twelfth was like to become to outward
appearance a consummate actor. For such a Pope Baldassare
Cossa, a man of determination and action, had naturally no
more respect and sympathy than had his patron, Boniface the
Ninth, before him.1
Pope Gregory was crowned in Saint Peter's on the 19th
December 1406. He thanked God with tears in his eyes that
he had been chosen as the means of restoring unity to the
Church, and he was in earnest when he did so.2 No sooner
was he elected than he ratified his former vow and exhorted
his cardinals to work with him for the peace of the Church.
He wrote to the Pope and cardinals at Avignon; he sent
forth an encyclical apprising the whole world of his resolution.
The abdication of a legitimate Pope might, he admitted, be
attended with inconvenience, but this was nothing compared
with the evil of the prolongation of the Schism. He had
ascended the apostolic seat not without apprehension, he would
descend readily and joyfully ; far from weighing on him, the
obligation which he had contracted charmed him, for he was
now so old that he had no further hopes in this world. Such
was the old man's protestation, and it was truthful when first
uttered. Great and universal was the joy at his accession and
his profession ; he was hailed as an ' angel ' of light.3 Gerson
preached an eloquent sermon rendering thanks to the Almighty;
the bells rang out everywhere for the approaching reunion of
1 Mur. iii. 837. 2 Erler, 156. 3 De Schismate, 228.

Pope Gregory the Twelfth.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 251
the Church ; Siena and Bologna offered their shelter for the
meeting of the two pontiffs ; the only fear was lest Gregory
might not live long enough to carry through the noble work.
' I am resolved to go wherever the union may be effected,' said
he to his court ; ' if I have no galleys, I will go in an open
boat ; if I have to go by land and can find no horses, I will
travel on foot, staff in hand, rather than fail of my word.'
It was impossible to speak more fairly or more clearly.
The new Pope had, however, no powerful civil authority,
such as that of France, to help him forward in his design.
The Italian policy of King Rupert had ended in utter failure ;
that of King Ladislas was opposed to any such scheme of
abdication and of reunion of the Papacy. Gregory had over
looked this obstacle. He at first fixed on Bologna as the
most fitting place of meeting for himself and Benedict to fulfil
their grand renunciation. The council of the city was
delighted with the proposal ; and the Cardinal Legate, who
had just escaped from another attempted assassination,1 wrote
to advise Gregory accordingly. The Pope acknowledged the
grateful affection of the men of Bologna; and Baldassare
Cossa on the 9th March despatched two envoys to Pope
Benedict, offering him the use of the city and desiring to know
what hostages he would wish delivered to him. The Pope
thanked them for their offer, but said that he had two days
before written to Rome agreeing to Savona as the place of
meeting. The ambassadors returned to Bologna on the 6th
May, j ust as the warlike Legate had recaptured the Rocca di
Ravaldino, taken from the men of Forli, and had celebrated
the event with grand joustings and rejoicings for three days,
the Cardinal's own j ousters wearing green, white, and red.2
Pope Benedict was at Marseilles with his cardinals when on
the 14th January 1407 he received the first letter from Pope
Gregory ; and on the 31st he replied in characteristic earnest
fashion. He was overwhelmed with joy ; vainly had he worked
with Boniface the Ninth and with Innocent the Seventh with
out obtaining any definite answer ; but happy was the man to
whom God had reserved the glory of terminating the Schism.
Gladly would he and his cardinals meet his rival and the rival
1 Ghirar, ii. 572. 2 Mur. xviii. 594 ; Ghirar, ii. 574.

252 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
cardinals to confer with them in some sure and convenient
place ; gladly would he resign his rights if his rival did the
same, in order that the two Colleges of Cardinals might unite
and together elect the future Pope. He at once sent the
safe-conduct for Gregory's embassy. All was fair to outward
seeming though the negotiations might present difficulties.
The answer reached the Pope at Rome about the middle of
February. Malatesta di Pesaro offered to be of the embassy,
and came to Rome with a stately following and forty horses.
Seeing that the Pope was straitened for cash, this was an offer
not to be lightly set aside. To the disgust and distrust of the
cardinals, whose advice he had promised to follow, Gregory
declined the offer of Malatesta, and chose instead his own
nephew Antonio, associating with him his treasurer, William
the Norman, Bishop of Todi, and a celebrated Doctor of Law,
Antonio di Butrio. By the 27th February everything was
ready for their departure, yet they were detained in Rome for
three weeks longer, and only left on the 18th or 19th March
when the three months stipulated in the oath had fully
expired.1 The nephew might be trusted to safeguard his own
and his uncle's interest ; the two other ambassadors were
stalwart advocates of the union. The cardinals at Pisa, how
ever, subsequently declared that the two latter were merely
men of straw, and that his nephew alone was entrusted with
Gregory's real instructions 2 and with a sealed Bull.
On Thursday in Easter week (1st April) the three ambassa
dors landed at Marseilles, and on the 3rd were received by
Benedict. Antonio Corrario began by demanding from the
Spanish Pope a declaration that he was ready to abdicate, to
which Benedict replied by reminding him that he had been
present at the election of Pope Urban the Sixth, and knew
that it was invalid, and that consequently he, Benedict, was
rightful Pope. Antonio then declared that he had never been
in favour of any ' way of convention,' that his uncle had no
doubt as to his being the rightful Pope, but wished to avoid
all discussions of a difficult question. On this basis, therefore,
the discussion as to the place of meeting proceeded. Florence
and Naples were suggested, but not Bologna ; 3 the ambassadors
1 Sybel, xvii. 112. 2 M-msi, xxvi. 1203. 3 Tartini, ii. 518.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 258
proposed Rome, Viterbo, Todi, Siena, and Lucca; Benedict
proposed Marseilles, Nice, Frejus, Genoa, and Savona. The
dispute waxed hot, and the ambassadors threatened to break
off negotiations and to betake themselves to Paris.1 Benedict
begged them not to leave Marseilles. They asked for three
persons, and three only, to meet them and to consult. Bene
dict agreed, and appointed the Cardinal de Thury, the Bishop
of Lerida, and Franz of Aranda. These three met Gregory's
three ambassadors, and fixed on Savona as the place of meeting.
Antonio showed them a letter of his uncle declaring his
willingness to go even to Ghent or Avignon if necessary. It
was agreed that the two Popes should meet by Michaelmas or
at any rate by All Saints' Day (1st November) to decide on
and to accomplish their mutual abdication. Each was to be
accompanied by the same number of armed galleys, not more
than eight in all ; and mutual precautions were arranged, as if
two rival corsairs, instead of the two heads of Christendom,
were to come together. From his consenting to a place of
meeting so far from Rome and in which French influence must
be predominant, from his stipulation as to the armed galleys
which he knew that his uncle could not afford, it looks as if
Antonio desired to accumulate difficulties for the future, rather
than to ensure a meeting of the two Popes, at which his uncle
might execute the wish which he had so often and so emphati
cally repeated.
The treaty of Marseilles was a diplomatic triumph for Pope
Benedict. Savona, the little port on the Letimbro, halfway
between San Remo and Genoa, had been fixed upon for their
meeting. Now at length the ' way of convention,' so long
battled for by Benedict, seemed open to him. Innocent the
Seventh had openly doubted whether a legitimate Pope could
be required to resign,2 and had been smitten by God with a
first stroke of apoplexy soon after; but his successor was
apparently a man of different mind, for, as soon as his nephew
returned Gregory accepted the place and the date proposed.
There was still time for reflection, for the treaty was not to be
ratified until the end of July. Had the two Popes and their
cardinals met and conferred together, had no violent coup de
1 Valois, iii. 504; Sybel, xvii. 116. 2 De Schismate, 195.

254 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
main been attempted on either side, there would undoubtedly
have been much intrigue and diplomacy ; many high promises
would have been made on both sides, but the final result can
hardly be doubtful: the determined and eloquent little
Spaniard would have emerged from the conference as the
recognised single Pope of Christendom, and the weak and
vacillating Venetian would have taken his place as the senior
cardinal in the united College of Cardinals.
The ' way of convention ' was, however, not yet fully open to
Pope Benedict. Of the five methods for ending the Great Schism,
the ' way of fact,' of which alone Pope Clement would hear, had
been discarded as impolitic and dangerous ; the ' way of com
promise,' by the appointment of an equal number of arbitrators
on each side, had never entered into serious consideration ; the
' way of cession " was alone approved by the French court and
by the extreme party in the University of Paris ; failing that,
the ' way of a council ' had the approval of the more moderate
party in the University ; but the ' way of convention ' was to
all of them anathema, and was regarded as a mere subterfuge
of the wily Pope Benedict. When he sent to the French
court and to the clergy and the University copies of his
letter to Pope Gregory, the allusion to the ' way of conven
tion ' was at once seized upon and condemned ; the King was
persuaded to sign the two ordonnances for the subtraction of
obedience, although, thanks to the Duke of Orleans, their
transmission to the Pope was delayed for the present ; and an
embassy of thirty-six members, comprising the extreme and the
moderate shades of opinion, was despatched to urge him once
more to abdicate. The embassy was to visit both Popes, and
to urge them to abdicate without meeting ; if they insisted on
a conference, the embassy was to facilitate their wishes, and to
propose certain towns, Genoa, Pisa, Lucca, Siena, or Florence,
as the place for meeting.
The embassy reached Villeneuve on the 30th April;
Gregory's three ambassadors had reached Marseilles on the
31st March, and Savona had already been agreed upon as the
place of meeting. Pope Benedict knew Savona, Pope Gregory
did not ; and to one who knows the place, the suggestion that
it should be used for a conference between two rival potentates.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 255
seems little better than a trap. The port is commanded by a
huge mass of rock which was converted by the Genoese, a
century and a half later, into a strong fortress ; this fort and
the more important part of the town are situated on the
eastern side of the river. The Letimbro itself, though in the
rains it swells into a mighty torrent, broad and deep, is for
the most part of the year a tiny stream, trickling now on one
side and now on the other of its stony bed; pickets might
have been posted here and there, but it would be impossible
to defend the banks against a night attack or a sudden
surprise : in fact, the Pope who held the western part of the
town would seem to be completely at the mercy of his rival
on the eastern bank. But at that time there were two for
tresses in the town : it was proposed that each Pope should
hold one, and that the place should be divided into two equal
zones ; that each Pope should bring the same number of
galleys, the same number of armed men, and the same number
of retainers ; that Savona should be under their joint command,
and that all the roads and approaches to the town should be
strictly guarded. Finally, Benedict allowed Gregory to take
whichever zone he pleased.1 It is small wonder then that
Gregory at first professed himself content with the arrange
ment which had been made. His nephew had even gone so
far as to welcome the offer of Genoese galleys to bring Pope
Gregory to Savona.
All this made the work of the French embassy so much the
simpler. When they arrived at Villeneuve on the 30th April,
they learned the contents of the treaty made nine days earlier
between the two Popes. At Aix a few days later they met
the Cardinal de Thury and the ambassadors from Pope
Gregory. The Patriarch of Alexandria, Simon de Cramaud,
and others in his train were in doubt as to the reception they
would meet from the Pope whom they had so often and so
consistently traduced, but the Cardinal reassured them. Bene
dict, he said, was perfectly ready to abdicate. Antonio
Corrario gave them the same assurance on behalf of his uncle.
Gregory had said to him, ' Do you think, my dear nephew,
that it is the obligation of my oath that obliges me to work
1 Valois, iii. 506, note.

256 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
for peace ? It is rather through Christian love that I am ready
to abdicate ; the desire for peace grows on me day by day.
When shall I see that happy moment when I shall render peace
to the Church ? ' De Thury and Antonio alike recommended
them to adhere rather to the spirit than to the letter of their
instructions, and to deal with Benedict sweetly and temper
ately, seeing that he was a proud man whom it was not wise
to irritate or exasperate.1 It was agreed that Antonio should
return at once to Rome to carry the news of the treaty to his
uncle. The ambassadors reached Marseilles on the 9th May.
Benedict sent his chamberlain and a large escort to meet them
outside the city and to conduct them to the comfortable
lodgings which he had provided. On the evening of that day,
in the Abbey of Saint Victor, the Pope met and greeted them.
It was a strange and memorable meeting. At the head of the
ambassadors stood Simon de Cramaud, the most determined
foe of the Pope, whose tiara he coveted. He was supported
by the implacable Norman churchmen, who had all along been
distinguished by their fierce opposition to their spiritual lord.
There was Gilles des Champs, who at the embassy of the royal
dukes had opened the proceedings by demanding the abdica
tion of Pope Benedict. There was Pierre Plaoul, who, in the
council of 1396, had pleaded long and earnestly for the
subtraction of obedience. There was Jean Petit, who, as hot
and as eager as any of the others, was about to earn for himself
undying infamy as the apologist of political assassination.
There were others of milder mood; but the Pope met and
greeted them all alike. He addressed each by name, inquir
ing after his health and welfare. His kindly grace won all
hearts. Those who had overwhelmed him with insults threw
themselves before him, and kissed his feet, his hands, his face.
The Pope, ' small in stature, in figure graceful, in countenance
dignified,' exercised a magnetic attraction which not even his
enemies could withstand.
Next day the public audience was held in the Abbey, and
the Patriarch of Alexandria in the name of the embassy asked
for fresh assurances from Pope Benedict. The Pope replied
1 Religieux, iii. 582.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 257
at once. He reminded them of the voyage which he had already
at his great age undertaken to Genoa in the interest of the
Church; he assured them that he had from the first been
ready to abdicate, and explained that it would have been in
vain for him to announce this intention unless and until he
was certain that his rival was of like mind with himself, but
that now that God had given him a man after his own heart
to deal with, he was old and near the grave and had no other
desire than to carry out the design which he had already
notified to the King of France and to the Christian princes.1
The ambassadors thanked him for his reply, and the further
audience was adjourned till next day.
Unfortunately the ambassadors were not satisfied with the
verbal promise of the Pope; they wanted it reduced to a
formal Bull. This demand was set forth by the Archbishop
of Tours on the 11th May. Benedict again took up his
parable. The four things necessary to secure the end for
which they were working, he told them, were confidence, con
cord, freedom of action, and speed. Why should they not
trust their sovereign pontiff? If they trusted him, there was no
need of a writing ; if they did not trust him, it was useless to
argue further. He had from the beginning proposed the
' way of convention,' and if he had been listened to, the union
of the Church would have been effected thirteen years ago. He
had offered to abdicate more clearly and frankly than his rival,
but the most precise declarations were wrongly construed when
once confidence was lost. He and his rival had now agreed on
a place of meeting, and the Cardinal of Thury would assure
them that it was not his fault that the meeting was not
to take place earlier. Again the archbishop repeated his
request, and again the Pope refused; he promised to send
messengers to the ambassadors to reassure them on every
point. Then the Pope spoke privately with Simon de Cramaud
and others, refuting with touching simplicity the accusations
which had been made against him at Paris ; he protested that
no taint of heresy had ever soiled his Christian faith. His
reproaches were so full of kindly moderation that even his
hardened antagonist could not contain himself: he burst into
1 Religieux, iii. 588.

258 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
tears, threw himself at Benedict's feet, and craved his forgive
ness : — ' If I have against my soul's salvation calumniated my
Father, I entreat him to have pity on me.'1 The other
doctors followed the example of their leader. The Pope
pardoned them, and invited them to dine with him on the
15th. Simon de Cramaud, ashamed of his temporary weakness,
and suspicious that he had been outwitted by the aged pontiff,
sent an excuse, but the others accepted.
The ambassadors were in a quandary. The Pope gave them
fair words, and promised everything they wanted, but he gave
them nothing beyond words. They had been instructed to
get from him a Bull, signifying his intention to abdicate ; and
they had been commissioned, if such Bull were not forthcoming,
to publish the ordonnance of the renewed subtraction of
obedience. Since they had been so commissioned, however, the
rival Popes had arranged a meeting at Savona ; hence it was
clear that the publication might endanger that meeting and
could do no good. Still they wanted the Bull ; they wanted
to tie the hands of the Pope, and to bind him down to the
' way of cession,' whereas it was clear from his talk about
liberty of action that he had not given up all thought of the
' way of convention.' The extremists of the University of
Paris knew not the way to deal with Pope Benedict : it was
a great mistake for them to show such want of trust and of
respect for him whom they professed to hold as the only
rightful Pope. They had an interview with the cardinals, and
consulted them, among other things, as to what was to be
done supposing Benedict were to die. This was a question
complicated by the consideration that the rival cardinals did
not acknowledge the college under Benedict. They also met
two envoys from the Duke of Orleans, whom they naturally
distrusted, but who explained that they also had endeavoured
to persuade Benedict to comply with the request for a Bull.
Finally it was agreed that a last attempt should be made
by the moderate men of the embassy to win the Pope's
compliance. On the evening of the 17th May, Pierre d'Ailly, Jean Gerson,
and the Abbe of Saint Denys had a special audience of the
1 Religieux, iii. 602,

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 259
Pope and the cardinals. The Bishop of Cambrai entreated the
Pope to grant the Bulls desired : by doing so, he would gain
the favour of France, while his refusal might cause him to be
regarded as schismatic and might endanger the success of the
negotiations with his rival. In reply the Pope expressed his
astonishment at the treatment which he had received from the
kingdom and the clergy of France ; it was contrary to the
canon law for such Bulls to be demanded or given ; it was
sufficient that he had declared his intention clearly in public
consistory ; it was idle to threaten him as a schismatic for
prolonging the Schism, for he had done his best to hasten its
termination. Then he explained to these men whom he could
trust that giving a Bull would have the reverse effect from
that which was desired, for it would look as if he in his subse
quent action acted under compulsion, and would thus invalidate
his abdication ; it would be impossible for him to treat with
his rival if his hands were thus tied. He therefore adhered to
his refusal.1
The ambassadors prepared to depart ; they had their final
audience. The Pope reiterated his readiness to abdicate;
he would prefer the ' way of cession,' he said, to any other
way of ending the Schism, but at the same time he refused
to exclude other ways absolutely from consideration. The
Patriarch acknowledged regret at not obtaining the Bulls
which the ambassadors had looked for. The Pope answered
that every good Christian ought to be satisfied; that he
doubted not the King of France would be satisfied ; and that
whoever was not satisfied with what he had declared as to his
intention, was not desirous of the unity of the Church. The
ambassadors took their leave.
They went to Aix ; and on the 21st they celebrated the Mass
of the Holy Ghost, and had a long discussion as to whether
they should publish the ordonnance of the subtraction of
obedience. They decided not to do so. They then split up
into three bodies. Two of their number were left in Marseilles
to confirm the Pope in his good resolution and to provide
against a vacancy by death. The majority went on to Pope
Gregory at Rome. Three of their number were sent to Paris
1 Religieux, iii. 616.

260 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
to report progress. The King and the court were perfectly
well satisfied with the result of the embassy. The University
of Paris was wroth because the ambassadors had not published
the subtraction of obedience. Pope Benedict, cut to the quick
by the distrust evinced by the embassy and knowing what was
in store for him,1 determined to be beforehand with the enemies
of his own household, and prepared a Bull of excommunication,
directed against all who should subtract obedience, directed in
other words against all his opponents in France. It was not
to be promulgated at once ; it was to be held in reserve. If
the obedience of France were again subtracted, if the King of
France used against him the most formidable weapon in his
power, he would use against the King of France the most
formidable weapon in the papal armoury. Charles held in
readiness his ordonnance of subtraction; the Pope held in
readiness his Bull of excommunication.
Notwithstanding his early profession of earnestness to secure
the peace and unity of the Church, Pope Gregory remained for
the first eight months of his reign in Rome, and took no steps
for meeting Pope Benedict. His sweet simplicity gave way to
a senile weakness. In the earliest days of his pontificate
Leonardo of Arezzo had foreseen the possibility of his tergiver
sation, and Gregory himself in his first encyclical had remarked
that obligations were of no force against the maker of laws.2
In May envoys came from Genoa and Savona to congratulate
him, to offer him security, to promise him and his cardinals
any ships they might require. But Gregory was surrounded
by nephews and relations who had no desire to renounce the
golden harvest which they saw before them. His nephew
Antonio had in February been made papal treasurer and
referendary — a bad sign for the union, said the officials of the
Curia.3 Another nephew, Gabriel Gondulmaro, had been taken
into the Curia ; his lay nephews, the sons of his brother Filippo,
were entertained at the papal court and wasted the papal
treasure in their horses, servants, and riotous living.4 His
cardinals urged him to fulfil the terms of the Treaty of
Marseilles, but Gregory referred the question of his obligation
1 Ehrle, vii. 599. 2 Sybel, xvii. 109.
s De Schismate, 228-9. 4 Mur. iii. 838.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 261
to a commission of twenty-four officials of his Curia, with his
vice-chancellor, the Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, at their head ;
and he was deeply chagrined when they backed up the recom
mendations of the cardinals and urged the Pope to fulfil his
obligation and his oath.1
The French ambassadors, with a fair wind behind them, had
reached Genoa in June, and there they made arrangements for
five galleys to be sent for the use of Gregory. They had sent
on Robert the Hermit to announce their coming in the Italian
towns ; and as they passed through Lucca and Florence they
were received with pomp and hospitality. They continued
their way through Siena and Viterbo, where they met two
cardinals, who informed them of the machinations of King
Ladislas ; and they reached Rome on the 5th July.2 They
found Pope Gregory still in Rome ; he had been obliged to
flee for refuge from an attack of the Colonnas to the Castle
of Sant Angelo. They had an interview with the Pope on
the 6th, and they met the ambassadors from Pope Benedict.
Gregory had fallen off from his first good intentions ; there
were points in the Treaty of Marseilles which he did not like ;
there were all sorts of difficulties in the way of the voyage to
Savona; he could not trust the Genoese galleys, and the
Venetians could not send him any ; he was afraid of what
Ladislas might do ; and above all, he had not any money.
Pope Innocent the Seventh, when he died, had already lost
his general Mustarda, who had been treacherously killed by
Paolo Orsini;3 but he had left two other generals, the
condottiere Paolo Orsini himself, and his own nephew Ludovico
de' Megliorati, who had been guilty of the dastardly massacre
of the eleven Roman citizens. Gregory desired to retain them
both. It was, however, one thing to take these generals into
his service, and quite another to retain them in it. The late
Pope's nephew had no mind to serve his uncle's successor ; he
feared the revenge of the Romans ; and when the Pope pro
posed to deprive him of the government of the March of
Ancona for the benefit of one of his own nephews,4 Ludovico
promptly revolted, seized on Ascoli, and deserted to King
1 Erler, 160. 2 Religieux, iii. 644.
* De Schismate, 196. * Ibid. 231.

262 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Ladislas of Naples. To Paolo Orsini Gregory already owed
six thousand golden gulden which he had borrowed for his
coronation ; and by March 1407 the condottiere general's bill
for the pay of his troops amounted to sixty thousand more.
Paolo Orsini marched off in anger toward Corneto, seized the
city of Toscanella as security for his debt, plundered, im
prisoned, and slew many of the citizens. Gregory endeavoured
to provide his nephews with lucrative posts, but could do
nothing to protect his subjects. To appease Orsini he pawned
a costly golden mitre, which had been presented to Pope Urban
the Sixth; he allowed his nephew Gondulmaro to sell a
number of books, belonging to the Pope and the Roman
Church, to Cardinal Minultulus. The costs of the embassy to
Marseilles were defrayed by one of the ambassadors, the Bishop
of Todi. The papal revenues from distant lands were gathered
as speedily as possible, the papal collector being ordered on the
12th March to send in money to Rome. With the States of the
Church under Papal Legates who were virtually independent,
Gregory was at his wits' end to find ready cash to pay his
troops and to defray the extravagant expenses of his nephews.1
The French ambassadors recognised his need, and offered
him funds sufficient to defend Rome for three months, if he
would only start at once to meet Pope Benedict. But the
Venetians would not send Gregory galleys for Savona, for
Savona was under the rule of Boucicaut, and the Marshal was
full of threatenings and vengeance against the Venetians. As
he had been returning to Genoa from the Levant, the Venetian
fleet, under Carlo Zeno, had fallen in with and had disastrously
defeated his fleet off Zonchio on the 7th October 1403 : 2 and
this was an indignity which the Marshal,3 ' a brave but bluff
and headstrong soldier,' was not likely to forgive or forget.
It was therefore useless for Pope Gregory to ask the Venetians
to their enemy's strong harbour, and he might have expected
a refusal when he made the request. Moreover, he, himself a
Venetian, distrusted his hereditary enemies, the Genoese; he
could not overcome this distrust, although his nephew Antonio
had returned to Rome in a Genoese galley, and although the
commandant of the Genoese ships was a man of his own choice,
1 Sybel, xvii. 98-9. ' Boucicaut, 264. 8 Hazlitt, i. 743.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 263
who was ready to give his wife and children as hostages for his
fidelity. Nothing could overcome the Pope's unreasonable
scruples. Gregory averred that he dare not trust Marshal
Boucicaut ; he wanted him removed from Genoa. It was in
vain that the Constable renewed his oath to abide by the
treaty, in vain that he offered to make over to Gregory and
his cardinals his own castles as additional security. Still the
Pope hesitated. Ladislas ingratiated himself, pandering to
the old man's delight in the table, by sending the Pope a
costly dinner-service.1 To the French ambassadors Gregory
poured out a particular string of complaints : he could not
trust their princes ; the word of one was no guarantee for any
of the others ; moreover, if they threatened subtraction of
obedience from a Pope whom they acknowledged, what would
they not do to a Pope whom they held to be a usurper ? The
ambassadors offered themselves to become hostages; but the
want of French confidence in Benedict was bringing forth the
result which he had foretold. A hundred citizens from Genoa,
fifty from Savona, were offered to Gregory as hostages for his
safety : it was of no avail. Furthermore, he urged that King
Ladislas of Naples was pillaging his territory and would ruin
it utterly if he left Rome, though there were some who believed
that Gregory himself was privy to the King's misdeeds.2
Through the whole month of July these wearisome
audiences of the two sets of ambassadors with Pope Gregory
continued, but all were fruitless. On one day Gregory pro
posed that he and his rival should both go by land to Savona,
and that there should be no armed galleys ; then he reflected
that one land route for him was closed by war, and that the
other was unsafe. Then he wanted a fresh treaty, seeing that
his nephew should not have bound him to the impossible ; but
the ambassadors had no power to do otherwise than to execute
the present treaty. He was suspected of collusion with Simon
de Cramaud,3 whom he afterwards accused of arrogance. He
offered to go to Pietra Sancta, five miles beyond Lucca : he
was told that if he meant to go, he had better start at once.
The old man burst into a torrent of tears. A day or two later
he had again changed his mind : he now proposed Pisa,
1 De Schismate, 230. 2 Ibid. 236. 3 Ehrle, vii. 603.

264 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Florence, or Siena for the interview ; he would agree to any
town in the dominion of Florence. On the 28th July he sent
for Pierre d'Ailly, Jean Gerson, and four others, and told them
that he trusted them and was going to open his heart to them.
Savona, he said, was so difficult as to be impossible, but he
would go to Pietra Sancta, or to any other place in his
obedience still nearer to that of Benedict if there was one.
The Bishop of Cambrai reminded him of the confident hopes
which his early professions had raised, urged him still to trust
in the King of France as he had once done, and assured him
that it was vain to talk of any new treaty. Gregory answered
that his confidence in the French King had been shaken by his
treatment of Benedict, and he objected, as Benedict had done,
to their being bound down to the 'way of cession' to the
exclusion of all others. When the bishop had answered this
plea, Gregory objected that there were so many royal princes
in France, and that the word of one did not bind another. He
then harped on the old question of the galleys ; he concluded
by declaring that he would go to Pietra Sancta and would
treat with Benedict from there. He burst into tears as he
said, ' Yes, I will give you union, do not doubt it ; I will so
work that I shall obtain the love of the King of France and of
all his kingdom ; only I beg of you not to leave me ; let some
of you stay with me to accompany and console me on the road.'
Truly a very pitiful, weak old man ! On the 31st July Gregory
gave the ambassadors a reply in writing setting forth the
reasons why he could not consent to Savona as the place of
meeting. The ambassadors, tired out with his tergiversations,
left Rome and went on their way.
The final and formal reply of Pope Gregory, which was
addressed to both sets of ambassadors, was to the following
effect : — He objected to Savona as the place of meeting because
it was eminently unsafe (valde suspectus), because he could not
get galleys to go there, because of the war between Facino
Cane and Genoa, and because of the likelihood of plague. He
suggested that Benedict should accept some place in the
Roman obedience. If, however, his rival insisted on Savona
as the place of meeting, then Gregory would be there by
the appointed time if the King of France would provide him

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 265
with the necessary galleys, but in that case the treaty must
be modified in the following particulars: — Benedict must
arrive first at Savona and must disarm all his galleys; Boucicaut
must be recalled to France or to some place which Gregory
approved, and must not interfere by land or by sea with those
at Savona; a fresh governor of Genoa must be chosen by
Gregory from among the ambassadors of the King of France ;
a hundred citizens of Genoa and fifty of Savona must be given
as hostages ; and finally, Gregory stipulated that if he decided
to go by land and found it impossible to reach Savona, or was
unwilling to go there (vel nollet accedere), he would send a
fully empowered proctor to Savona within the appointed time
to act for him. It was quite clear that Pope Gregory did not
intend to abide by the terms of the Treaty of Marseilles.1
On their way back the ambassadors heard that two Venetians
had written to Pope Gregory warning him not to trust himself
in Savona nor in the hands of Boucicaut, the Governor of
Genoa, for he would certainly be made prisoner. From Genoa
the ambassadors wrote a long epistle to the Pope urging him to
reconsider his decision and to fulfil the treaty. Pope Benedict
had heard of his rival's hesitancy, and on the 1st August
wrote to him from Nice expressing his astonishment. Thence
on the 7th August Benedict went to the monastery of Saint
Honorat on the Isle of Lerins to escape the plague which was
raging round Marseilles ; and here on the 22nd his ambassadors,
accompanied by a bishop from the Pope at Rome, found him.
They told him all that had happened, and Gregory's ambassador
delivered his master's missive. Benedict expressed his great
sorrow at the change in Gregory's sentiments, expressed his
belief that he would nevertheless not fail to be at Savona on
the 1st November, and intimated that he himself was going to
Nice to make his preparations for the voyage. He wrote to
his rival, urging him to abide by the treaty, reminding him
that they were aged men with no time to lose. Gregory had
communicated with the King of France, setting forth his
objections to Savona; and Charles had sent an autograph
letter to Benedict, full of kindly protestation, advising him
to go to Pisa rather than risk the loss of their common object.
1 Martene, ii. 1 368- 1 37 5.

266 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
This would have entailed the renewal of wearisome negotia
tions, and would have been fruitless, as the event proved.
Seeing that Gregory had distinctly promised to send fully
empowered proctors if he himself did not come to Savona,
Benedict certainly adopted the wisest and most politic course
when he resolved punctiliously to observe every article of the
Treaty of Marseilles. This he determined to do, and this he
did.1 He reached Savona on the 23rd September, and re
mained there until the 1st November was passed, awaiting the
arrival of Pope Gregory. But there was to be no meeting of
the rival Popes at Savona.
Ludovico de' Megliorati, the nephew of the late Pope
Innocent, and the Cardinal of Aquileia, meanwhile had plotted
with Giovanni and Nicolo Colonna to betray Rome to
Ludovico's new master, the King of Naples, who was eager
to seize the city and the Pope in order to prevent Gregory
from going to Savona. There were those who thought that
the Pope himself was in the plot, for he moved off to the
Castle of Sant Angelo with surprising celerity.2 The meeting
of the Popes, thought Ladislas, could only eventuate in the
election of a single French Pope, devoted to the interest of
France and to that of the Duke of Anjou ; it would therefore
be fatal to his own rule in Naples. On the night of the 17th
June, while the ambassadors from Pope Benedict and from the
King of France were still in the city, the Colonnas entered
Rome through a breach made in the wall with four hundred
horse and as many foot, trusting that the citizens would rise
and support them. They were disappointed. Paolo Orsini
was still close to the city, and hearing the outcry, he rose and
went at once against the enemy, assailing them with stones and
arrows, so that there was a great slaughter outside the Gate of
Saint Lawrence. He captured the two Colonna leaders and
fourteen others, whom he held to ransom, retiring with them
subsequently to his own castles. Ladislas's ' knight of freedom,'
Galeotto de Normannis, Orsini's own brother-in-law, Ricardo
de Sanguineis, and others lost their heads for that night's
venture.3 The citizens of Rome, turbulent and fickle as they
1 Ehrle, vii. 612. 2 De Schismate, 233.
3 Tartini, ii. 569-70; Mur. xviii. 594; xxiv. 982 ; De Schismate, 233 et seq.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 267
might be, were in no mind as yet to welcome King Ladislas in
their midst.
Having got rid of the obnoxious ambassadors, Gregory
determined to set forth leisurely on his journey to meet his
rival. He had to satisfy Paolo Orsini before he could leave
Rome, and he made over to him certain church lands ; others
he gave to three of his lay nephews.1 Having thus impoverished
himself, he was fain to tax the clergy and to pillage the churches
and monasteries ruthlessly 2 in order to provide funds for his
journey. He left Rome on the 9th August, reached Viterbo
on the 15th, and halted there for twenty days. Thence he
moved on to Siena, which he reached on the 4th September,
being received with great rejoicing and honour. He wrote to
the Count of Montferrat to protect him at Savona.
At Siena ambassadors met the Pope from Kings Wenzel and
Sigismund and also from Henry of England. These monarchs
were alarmed at the proposal for a conference at Savona. They
represented that it was a French city, it having passed, when it
revolted from Genoa, to the Duke of Orleans, and having been
by him transferred to the King of France. The Pope's life, said
the ambassadors, would be in danger ; he would be forced to
resign against his will ; there was no chance of any Pope being
elected whom they could or would obey ; the Schism would be
perpetuated.3 The French, said Sigismund, had been the
original cause of the Schism, and were the cause of its con
tinuance.4 King Ladislas continually represented to Gregory
that he had no right to resign, seeing that he alone was the
true Pope, and that the kingdom of Naples would never obey
any other. The Venetians and the Florentines, on the other
hand, reminded him of his vow : it was his duty as a good
Christian to put an end to the Schism ; although the Venetians
at the same time advised him not to trust himself at Savona,
which belonged to their rivals the Genoese, but to meet his
rival elsewhere. The Pope himself could not overcome his
distrust of Genoa and its governor; he distrusted moreover
that masterful Cardinal Legate, Baldassare Cossa; he was
persuaded that his life would not be safe at Savona. His
1 ' Aliqua castra, civitates, et terras ecclesiae ' : De Schismate, 238.
2 De Schismate, 239, 247. 3 Tartini, ii. 571-2. * Goeller, 21, note.

268 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
nephews also had immense influence over him. That rigid
Dominican Giovanni had been seduced by the pay of a
Florentine ambassador and by the dainty feeding at Gregory's
court from his former austerity; he had become Gregory's
confessor ; he had given up his early ardour for the union and
had learned to preach comfortable things ; he also dissuaded the
Pope from going to Savona. Gregory organised processions on
behalf of the union ; he gave the Beghards indulgences to sell ;
he commissioned the Mendicant Friars to set forth the fatal
perils which he and his cardinals would undergo if they ventured
as far as Savona.1 He busied himself in cultivating public
opinion to excuse his own feebleness and neglect of duty. He
entered into wearisome negotiations with the Lord of Lucca,
which astonished and irritated Paolo de Guinigi; 'the Pope
asks permission to come into my lands and then seems to doubt
me.' It was not until near the end of January that Pope
Gregory, accompanied by a large body of Florentine men-at-
arms, advanced in the thick of the frost and the snow as far
as Lucca, where the fortresses were given into his hands.
On the 3rd November 1407 three ambassadors from Gregory,
his nephew Francesco and two others, appeared at Savona and
set forth eleven several reasons for their master's failure to
appear either on the first or the second term provided by the
treaty. Having regard to the great expense entailed on
himself and on the King of Aragon, Benedict had at first been
inclined to retrace his steps, and would certainly have been
justified in so doing. Naturally he declined to enter into any
second treaty, seeing that the powers of the ambassadors were
insufficient and Gregory might subsequently disavow their
acts. But seeing that Gregory had promised to come to
Pietra Sancta, Benedict would go to meet him ; he would not
let the chance of a meeting fail through his own fault ; even
though his rival had failed to abide by the Treaty of
Marseilles, he would give him the opportunity of making the
grand renunciation. He therefore promised to go with his
cardinals to Porto Venere, and he declared that he would hold
Gregory free from his obligation to come to Savona, provided
he came, as he had already himself proposed, to Pietra Sancta.2
1 De Schismate, 249-50. 2 Martene, ii. 1388.

Louis, Duke of Orleans.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 269
This was publicly explained by his ambassadors in the
Cathedral of Siena on the 24th November in the presence of
Pope Gregory and his twelve cardinals, in the presence also of
the English and French ambassadors and of a large crowd
of listeners.1 But before Benedict set sail from Savona a
tremendous catastrophe befell him.
On the 23rd November 1407 Louis, Duke of Orleans, was
foully assassinated by the order of Jean sans Peur, Duke of
Burgundy. The Duke of Orleans, born on the 13th March
1872, was the younger and well-loved brother of King Charles
the Sixth. He was handsome, devout, learned, and witty ; he
could hold his own with the doctors of the University as well
as with the princes in council ; he was extravagant in expendi
ture, unscrupulous as to means, passionately fond of pleasure,
luxury, and pomp, royal in his liberality to princes or to
Celestins.2 When only fifteen years of age he had married
Valentine, a year his senior, the beautiful daughter of Gian
Galeazzo, and although he was faithless to her, the alliance
kept him true to the side of the Duke of Milan and of King
Wenzel of Bohemia against their rivals Rupert, King of the
Romans, and the house of Bavaria, whose influence in France
was upheld by the King's beautiful wife Isabel, daughter of
Stephen of Bavaria. When Charles was first attacked by
madness in 1392, the Duke put forward his claim to govern
France on his brother's behalf; but the influence of the Dukes
of Burgundy and Berri was too powerful for the young
aspirant to power. In that same year King Charles and Pope
Clement had proposed to conquer and create a kingdom of
Adria in Italy for the benefit of Louis of Orleans ; two fresh
paroxysms of the King's madness, some necessary negotiations
with England, discussions as to the infeudation of the proposed
kingdom, had caused two years' delay, and finally the death
of Pope Clement the Seventh had rendered the project abor
tive. But, notwithstanding this, the Duke soon became a
friend of the new Pope. He had a touch of the old crusading
spirit in him and was a Chevalier de la Passion : 3 he accom
panied his uncles on the embassy to Avignon in 1395 ; he fell
under the spell of Benedict, and thenceforward became his
i Ehrle, vii. 627. 2 Coville, 24. s Jarry, 53.

270 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
staunch ally and adherent ; he lost no opportunity subsequently
of thwarting the plans of his uncle of Burgundy, the strongest
and most masterful of the sons of the luckless King John of
France, who had from 1392 been at the head of the party
which demanded the Pope's abdication.1 The Duke of Orleans
did his best to oppose the proposal for the subtraction of
obedience, and did not sign the ordonnance with the other
royal Dukes.2 Relations between him and his uncle became
so strained that it came to the brink of a civil war. When
Philip of Burgundy died in 1404, the Duke at once obtained
the first place in the State ; he made friends with the Queen,
and between them they misgoverned France right rbyally.
Philip of Burgundy was succeeded by his less intelligent
and more impetuous son John, who only obtained fifth
place in the royal council. The new duke was a short man
with a big head, high cheek-bones, strongly marked features,
frail of body and short of stature ; he had nothing of the
grand seigneur about him save ambition and tenacity of
purpose. He was slow of speech ; profuse and lavish if occasion
required, but neither extravagant nor a gambler ; clever and
daring, unscrupulous, remorseless and treacherous, a profound
politician of the school of Machiavelli and Caesar Borgia;
ambitious to rule the realm of France even though he had to
invoke the aid of her hereditary enemies to secure his object.
He was destined to introduce into the troubled politics of that
time two new factors : political assassination, or the removal by
murder of a rival whom the ordinary courts of law were
powerless to touch ; and the invocation of the aid of the
democracy as a power in the State. Between two royal
princes so utterly opposed in character and in aims, hostility
was certain.3 When the Duke of Burgundy's expedition in
Picardy in 1405 proved abortive, he became still more inflamed
against his cousin of Orleans, whose own expedition in Guienne,
ruined by his delay and malversation, covered, him with ridicule
and disgrace. The hostility between the Dukes of Orleans
and Burgundy grew fiercer; they armed their followers; a
state of open war was once more imminent. Louis of Orleans
still remained, through good report and through evil, the
1 Bess, 22. 2 Jarry, 208. s Coville, 35 ; Barante, iii. 208,

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 271
staunch supporter of Pope Benedict ; he was the one royal
prince in France on whom the Pope could consistently count
for support. In November 1407 the royal cousins were
apparently reconciled ; they took the sacrament together.
Three days later Jean sans Peur had his cousin treacherously
murdered, even as Justinian had murdered Vitalian a thousand
years earlier. He confessed his crime, gloried in it, had it
elaborately justified by Jean Petit, the Norman Doctor. The
Duke of Burgundy was for some years to be the governing
spirit in France; he was bitterly opposed to the Pope and
in favour of the subtraction of obedience ; his influence over
the ecclesiastical policy of the French court was now to be
supreme ; the coming Council of Pisa was to be held under the
Burgundian protectorate.1 It was with a sense of weakened
strength and lost power that Benedict embarked at Savona on
the 23rd December. He called at Genoa, left there on the
last day of the year, and on the 3rd January 1408 reached the
little port of Porto Venere at the entrance to the Gulf of
Spezia. Porto Venere, thirty-five miles as the crow flies from Lucca,
had been subject to Genoa, and was consequently now a French
town, and within the obedience of Pope Benedict. The quaint
little harbour on the Ligurian Sea, separated by the Island
Palmaria from the beautiful Gulf of Spezia, with hills in the
background on whose snowclad summits the sun flushes pink
in the evenings of winter or early spring, was a tiny spot for
so august an assemblage. A horse could scarce find a foothold
there,2 but on the other hand it was perfectly safe. Petrarch
had described it as an erix fortissimo, ; and it had recently
been strongly fortified by the Genoese. On the Sunday of
Mid-Lent, Pope Benedict said Mass with complete security in
the little church of San Pietro on the rocky eminence. It
had been 'built by Pisans with alternate rows of black and
white marble, upon the site of an old temple of Venus — a
modest and pure piece of Gothic architecture, fair in desola
tion, refined and dignified, and not unworthy in its grace of
the dead Cyprian goddess. Through its broken lancets the
sea-wind whistles and the vast reaches of Tyrrhene gulf are
1 Bess, II. * Mur. iii. 805.

272 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
seen. Samphire sprouts between the blocks of marble, and in
sheltered nooks the caper hangs her beautiful purpureal snowy
bloom.'1 Had Pope Gregory ventured into Porto Venere he
might have been cut off by the French from Lerici, or by the
men of Spezia who had recently fortified their own city. To
guard against this the King of France offered to put into his
hands the town of Sarzana, with its picturesque fortress con
structed by Castruccio Castracani eighty years earlier, together
with the surrounding forts; and these would have been an
ample security to Gregory.
Gregory had said that he would come as far as Pietra
Sancta. On the 28th January he left Siena and came across
the snow-covered country to Lucca. Lucca, girt round by
the Apennines, where at that season of the year
' Jupiter hibernas cana nive conspuit Alpes/
had eighty years earlier been the city of Castruccio Castracani.
It had subsequently purchased its freedom from the Emperor
Charles the Fourth ; it was now under the sway of a native lord,
Paolo Guinigi, who was devoted to Pope Gregory. With one
Pope at Porto Venere and the other at Lucca, only a few
leagues apart, it needed only the presence of an Emperor of
the Holy Roman Empire to bring them together and to
compel them to do that for which all Christendom was waiting.
But, alas ! there was no Emperor, there was no King of the
Romans worthy of the name. Wenzel was a slothful drunkard,
and Rupert was miserably ineffective. There was no vis major
to compel the Popes to act. Gregory had come as far as
Lucca, but it seemed as if nothing would induce him to
advance the remaining fifteen miles to Pietra Sancta.
On the 1st February Benedict sent ambassadors to urge
Gregory to continue his march. He professed to be still full of
ardour for the union. ' Thus far have I come because I desired
and still desire it ; nay, I am ready at once to effect it, if you
can show me sufficient authority from your lord that he is ready
to do the like.' But he insisted that the place of their meet
ing must first be settled. Ambassadors from Venice came and
preached in favour of speedy action ; others from Rome, from
1 Symonds, Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, ii, 142.

Porto Venere,

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 273
Florence, from Perugia and Bologna urged the objection to
any further delay.1 Gregory listened to them all with deaf
ears. The envoys of Benedict proposed Porto Venere or
Spezia as the place of meeting, or their Pope should come
to Lerici or Ameglia. Leghorn was suggested as a suitable
place, being in the spiritual obedience of Gregory and in the
temporal obedience of the King of France ; but Gregory would
not allow his cardinals even to inspect the place. He proposed
a number of places in Tuscany, to which the ambassadors
objected by reason of the danger from King Ladislas. It was
then proposed that Gregory should go to Pisa and Benedict
to Leghorn, where they would only be eleven miles apart. The
French envoys tried to induce Benedict to go to Pisa or Lucca ;
but King Ladislas wrote saying that, if the Popes met at Pisa,
he should himself be present, and the Cardinal of Poitiers
advised Benedict on no account to go to Pisa or to put himself
in the hands of the Florentines.2 This proposal was replaced
by another made by the envoys from France, Poland, and some
Italian cities, which was very manifestly to the advantage of
Gregory. This was that he should come to Carrara, then as
now celebrated for its marble quarries, and that Benedict
should take up his abode in the little village of Avenza, which
was guarded by the castle of Castruccio Castracani with its
bold round towers and pinnacles. The rivals would then have
been but three miles apart : both places were in the Urbanist
obedience, and within the territories of the Signor of Lucca,
who was devoted to Pope Gregory. But the Roman Pope
regarded this plan as a trap, and refused even to have Carrara
inspected : why should they betake themselves to little insecure
castles when the town of Pisa was at their service ? Paolo
Guinigi and the Florentines offered to be security to Benedict
if he and his cardinals would go to Pisa, but before any answer
had been given Gregory withdrew his offer. The project for Pisa
and Leghorn was again broached ; but, when on this occasion
Benedict seemed likely to agree, Gregory again hesitated.
It seemed impossible to come to any agreement. Neither
Pope would hear of abdication by proctors. Twice before
had collusion between the rival Popes been suspected ; mes-
1 De Schismate, 253. 2 Ehrle, vii. 631-3.

274 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
sengers were again passing between them, and men began again
to suspect that each was urging his rival to keep up the outward
show of negotiation, but not to give way.1 However this may
have been, nothing availed to bring the Popes nearer each
other. Each apparently profoundly distrusted the other, each
thought that his rival wished to put himself in a position in
which all the material power should be on his own side. Gregory
refused to advance from Lucca, Benedict thought that he had
already gone far enough. The situation was aptly described
by Leonardo of Arezzo in a letter to Petrillo of Naples : ' You
would have said that one of them was a water rat afraid of the
shore, and that the other was a land rat afraid of the water.' 2
The ambassadors of different courts wearied themselves in
endeavours to secure the meeting : his cardinals prayed, begged,
and besought Gregory ; they pestered him at all hours of the
day and night, in public and in private, at his palace and at
church, but without avail. Finally, a certain brother of the
Carmelite Order, after Mass, lectured Gregory publicly in
church on his bad faith, his broken vow, his perjury. This
was more than the aged Pontiff could stand: his nephews
haled the indiscreet preacher from the church in which at the
time of vespers he and certain orators and ambassadors had
assembled ; the zealous Carmelite was imprisoned and sentenced
to bread and water ; but for his good friends he might never
have seen the light of heaven again.3 The Pope ordered that
no sermons should be preached which had not passed the
censure ; and several bishops who should have officiated with
him during Easter, in disgust at his perjury, withdrew them
selves from Lucca. The ambassadors of France and Venice,
and the cardinals themselves, seeing how impossible it was to
effect a meeting of the rival pontiffs, proposed that they should
abdicate simultaneously at a distance by means of proctors,
but each Pope scouted this proposal. The fact was that at
this time each had his attention anxiously fixed on Rome and
on what was happening there.
Paolo Orsini was meditating fresh treachery. His scheme
was to checkmate Ladislas of Naples by delivering Rome to
1 Martene, ii. 1342 ; Valois, iii. 536. 2 Mur. xix. 927.
8 De Schismate, 258.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 275
the Constable Boucicaut, thus playing the traitor to his own
patron, Gregory the Twelfth, and delivering Rome virtually
into the hands of Benedict the Thirteenth. The Constable
and Jacques de Prades, Constable of Aragon and one of the
ambassadors from that kingdom, assembled their ships at
Porto Venere ; Benedict himself put four galleys at their dis
posal, and impressed priests and monks as oarsmen ; but the
weather was against them and the fleet never started.1 Mean
time the King of Naples was not idle. He had got the
Florentines to agree that they would not help the Pope nor
Paolo Orsini, who held Rome for Gregory. On this Ladislas
concentrated his troops on Rome, stationed four galleys which
prevented victuals being imported into the city, and won over
Paolo Orsini, promising to make him Lord of Rome. In
April Ladislas took Ostia ; on the 22nd he was under the
walls of Rome. There was a slight fight between his soldiers
and those of Paolo Orsini, in which the advantage lay with the
Romans ; but on that night the faithless condottiere general
completed his treachery, joined the Colonna and the Savelli in
the enemy's camp, and next day introduced some of the King's
troops into Rome. The Romans, seeing that they were be
trayed, howled anathemas at the traitor, but sent ambassadors
to make terms, and surrendered their city. The winter had
been very hard for the citizens ; thunder and lightning, snow
and hail and mighty winds had terrified them ; famine had
become so severe that a man gladly bought for double its
ordinary price bread that he usually thought fit only for a
dog, and was only allowed to buy a single loaf at that. Under
these evil auspices, on the 25th April the King of Naples made
a triumphal entry into the Eternal City under a canopy borne
aloft by Roman nobles. He refused to alight at the Pope's
palace, deeming himself safer at the house of the Papal Cham
berlain : there was plentiful feasting ; the King put up lists
and two pavilions in the Square of Saint Peter and held a
tourney there. Ladislas appointed nine new Conservators of
his own, quashing the appointments which had previously
been made by the Cardinal of Saint Angelo. He tarried for
two months among his new subjects, arranged for the govern-
1 Boucicaut, 380-85.

276 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
ment of their city, received ambassadors from Florence and
Lucca ; the cities of Perugia, Orta, Terni, Todi, and Rieti at
once submitted to him. Then, well satisfied with his success,
he left Rome on the 23rd June to return to Naples.1
Rightly or wrongly, every one believed that the King of
Naples had been acting in collusion with Pope Gregory. The
news reached Lucca, Ladislas had entered Rome; Gregory
must return there. The Pope was evidently well pleased at
the victory of his ' best-beloved son Ladislas ' ; his nephews,
Antonio and Paolo, burst into transports of joy ; others of his
household illuminated their dwellings and held glad dances
therein. Gregory was relieved ; no one could expect him under
existing circumstances to continue the negotiations ; he deter
mined to break them off. He accused Pope Benedict and
Marshal Boucicaut of collecting ships to make an attempt on
Rome, which the foul weather had alone averted ; 2 he dis
missed his rival's ambassadors on the 11th May, breaking off
all negotiations for the cession ; he forbade his own court ever
to mention the union of the Church to him again ; he resolved,
in violation of his coronation oath, to fulfil the intention which
he had first formed at Viterbo, and to create a fresh batch of
cardinals. Gregory, like Benedict, had to contend against his
own sacred college ; each body was more anxious that its head
should abdicate than its head was apparently ready to resign.
When Baldassare Cossa, in name the Papal Legate but now in
reality the sovereign Lord of Bologna, sent to Gregory offering
him faithful obedience if the Pope would but keep his word,3
his embassy was scorned, and Cossa thenceforth played his own
game, taking the lead in the party which promoted the Council
of Pisa. If neither Pope nor Emperor would call an oecumeni
cal council, the Papal Legate was ready to advocate a council
to be called by the cardinals on their own authority.
The capture of Rome by King Ladislas completely altered
the aspect of affairs in Italy. He was now the commanding
figure in the peninsula, and he aspired to be Emperor. Gregory
wrote to him to ask for a suitable escort, and the King would
have complied, but the Florentines objected, and themselves
1 Mur. xxiv. 990-3. a Hefele, vi. 904.
1 Hardt, ii. 351.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 277
provided the necessary men for the Pope when he was ready to
leave Lucca. The departure of Ladislas for Naples relieved
the immediate fears of the men of Florence ; but the King
announced that, if the rival Popes met, he meant to be present,
seeing that he had his own interests to safeguard no less than
those of the Church, of which he was Protector. This would
have deprived the Popes of all independence of action ; so that
this announcement rendered the conference and the simul
taneous abdication an impossibility.
Full of his plan for the creation of a new batch of cardinals,
Gregory summoned the college to his palace on the 4th May.
They came, and found the place full of armed men, so that
they feared for their lives. The Pope scowled at them, bidding
them be seated and not move without his permission. As soon
as he began the office for the creation of new members, they
rose in a body and protested against such a violation of his
coronation oath. They tried to leave the building, but found
the doors guarded. The weak old man then gave way ; but before
he let them go he forbade them to leave Lucca, or to hold any
meeting without his permission, or to communicate with the
French ambassadors or with those of his rival. He knew that
his cardinals disapproved of his tergiversations ; he relied on
the support of his nephews and of his confessor, the recreant
Dominican. On the 9th May he called the cardinals together
again, but the majority of them alleged illness and declined to
appear. In their absence, however, the Pope created four new
cardinals. Among these were his nephew Antonio, who had
arranged the Treaty of Marseilles; the Dominican Friar
Giovanni, whd of late had consistently supported the ambassa
dors of King Ladislas ; and also the future Pope Eugenius the
Fourth, the nephew, or as some said the son, of Gregory him
self. The fourth was the protonotary Jacopo of Friuli, who
aforetime had been a doctor of medicine.1 The Pope had
now definitely broken with his entourage ; they could not trust
him, though the Lord of Lucca promised to protect the
cardinals. They knew that it was useless to expect Gregory to
do anything toward ending the Schism. The cardinals saw
that, unless the Schism were ended, a subtraction of obedience
1 Ciaconius, ii. 766.

278 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
was imminent and that their own revenues and livelihood were
endangered. They therefore lent a willing ear to the suggestion
that they should leave Lucca for a safer place where they
could act independently of the Pope.
Three of the cardinals were too weak and ill to travel. The
others went to Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, entered a solemn
protest against their master's acts, and obtained permission to
depart. On the morning of the 11th May, the Cardinal of
Liege, dressed as a simple priest, left the city on horseback.
Paolo Corrario, the Pope's nephew, sent horsemen after him,
who were on the point of overtaking him, when the Cardinal
gained the Castle of Ripafratta in the Pisan territory, and his
pursuers were driven back by the guard. Paolo Guinigi, who
had no desire to fall out with the Florentines, now interfered,
took the Pope's horsemen prisoners, and instilled a wholesome
fear into Gregory and his nephew,1 warning them that his
safe-conduct to them did not cover acts of violence on their
part. On the evening of that same day seven more cardinals,
and a few days later a ninth, escaped from Lucca to Pisa;-
they wrote thence to Pope Benedict, inviting him to come to
Leghorn. Now that he knew himself to be deserted by the court of
France, Benedict took the opportunity of showing his gratitude
to one who had hitherto always been faithful to him, one who
was ' ferventissimus in factis ecclesiae et bono unionis.'1 The
Marshal Jean le Meingre dit Boucicaut, Governor of Genoa,
had in 1405 been suspected of contemplating a coup de main
in favour of Benedict and of delivering Rome to him by force.3
The Pope had, in April 1407, sent him a mule with costly
bridling;4 in December 1407 he freed Jean's brother Geoffroi
from all pains and penalties which he had incurred during the
siege of Avignon; in February 1408 he, again at Jean's
request, exhibited a like favour to his father-in-law, Raimond
de Turenne; and about the same time he mortgaged to the
Marshal himself four castles in the Comtat Venaissin.5 It was
expenditure well incurred. Once again were the names of the
Pope and the Governor to be associated in connection with an
1 Brieger, xxviii. 195. s Mur. iii. 837-40. 3 Ehrle, v. 480.
4 Ehrle, vi. 143. 5 Ibid. v. 481 ; vi. 141.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 279
alleged coup de main on Rome ; and the Governor was to allow
the Pope to escape him when he might apparently have
captured and held him for his lord, the King of France.
The difference in the French policy, now that there was no
one at court to counterbalance the antagonism of the Dukes
of Burgundy and Berri, soon made itself disagreeably apparent
to the Spanish Pope. On the 12th January 1408, soon after
he arrived at Porto Venere in the hope of meeting his rival,
the King of France indited a letter announcing a policy of
neutrality between the rival Popes unless on or before the
next Feast of Ascension there was ' union in our Holy Mother
Church and one only true and acknowledged Pope and Pastor
of the Church Universal.' x The publication of the two ordon
nances of the subtraction of obedience was postponed to the
same date. It was not until Easter that the Pope received
this letter, so that he had barely six weeks in which to accom
plish the great work. He answered the King's letter forthwith,
on the 18th April. He told the King that it was no fault of
his that the Church was not already united ; he upbraided him
with listening to perfidious counsels, with cutting off the
apostolic taxes so that, as Jean Petit put it, no water came to
the mill ; 2 finally, he warned King Charles that, in addition to
other pains and penalties, he might incur those enumerated in
a certain instrument which had hitherto remained secret, but
of which he sent him now a copy. Pope Benedict enclosed for
the King's perusal a copy of the Bull of excommunication
which he had held in reserve since the 19th May 1407. He
knew that he was without a friend at the French court, and
must have foreseen the consequence. The letter was brought
by one Sancho Lopez, who gave it to the King in his oratory
on the morning of the 14th May, and then mysteriously dis
appeared. The missive was opened after Mass in presence of
the royal dukes. The King's anger flamed up at the insult.
Immediate action was taken.
The French court, which prided itself on taking no step in
church matters save in conjunction with the clergy and in
accordance with their wishes, immediately convened a fifth
council at Paris to consider the Bull promulgated by Benedict,
1 Chastenet, Preuves, 260. 2 Ibid. III.

280 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
and to give an ex post facto sanction to the subtraction of
obedience from him. The council was not well attended ; not
more than five archbishops and thirty bishops were present.
Pierre d'Ailly excused himself on the score of his gout and
went into hiding; the Universities of Toulouse and Mont-
pellier were not represented. But to make up for its lack of
numbers, its unanimity was wonderful. The assemblage was
held in the palace yard. The King, the royal princes, the
nobility, the Parlement, the University of Paris, and the public
were present. Jean Courtecuisse, who belonged to the Navarre
College and was a professor of theology, was the orator. He
dilated on all that the King had done to restore unity to the
Church ; he described the Bull as an attack on the royal
authority and majesty and on the honour of the kingdom ; he
anathematised Pope Benedict as a persistent schismatic and
heretic, a disturber of the peace, a persecutor of the Church.
Even the moderate and conciliatory Jean Gerson, who had
protested against the subtraction of obedience, was aroused to
wrath against the Pope whom he had hitherto trusted, but
whom he would never trust again ; he described Benedict's
procedure as a step full of detestable rashness and falsehood.
The Pope's cause was henceforth hopeless and without de
fenders in France. The subtraction of obedience was approved
by all. Pedro de Luna was never henceforth to be styled
Pope or cardinal or even Benedict; he was held to be an
obstinate heretic and schismatic whom no one was to obey ;
all his acts subsequent to the 19th May 1407, the date of his
Bull, were declared to be null and void. The Bull itself was held
up in the sight of all ; the parchment was unfolded by the royal
secretaries ; it was stabbed with penknives ; it was torn into
two parts — one was handed to the princes and counsellors, the
other to the University and the clergy, and both were rent into
little pieces. France had done with Pope Benedict and his
Bulls. Nicolas de Clamanges, being suspected of complicity
with the Pope, was forced to defend himself. Pierre d'Ailly,
being summoned to appear, could not be found ; two others,
who did appear, were forthwith imprisoned. An order was
sent to Marshal Boucicaut to arrest Pedro de Luna. Sancho
Lopez and his unfortunate courier were discovered ; they were

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 281
on two occasions brought in dung-carts to trial, and were
exposed to the jeers and insults of the populace : x they were
sentenced, one to imprisonment for life, the other to three
years' detention. Nor did the royal action stop here. While
the council was still sitting, Simon de Cramaud and Pierre
Plaoul arrived from Italy with the story of what had happened
there. On the 22nd May, King Charles wrote to the cardinals
of the Roman Pope entreating them to abandon their master,
who, with Pedro de Luna, could not find in the whole world a
single spot in which the two rivals might fulfil their oaths and
vows and give peace to the mourning and desolate Church.2
France had definitely given up all hope of the simultaneous
abdication of the Popes.
The invitation sent by the cardinals of Gregory to Pope Bene
dict to join them at Leghorn was one which the determined
little Spaniard would have been only too glad to accept. Could
he have appeared as Pope of the united body of cardinals, could
he have induced the cardinals of both obediences to recognise
him as their head, he would be in a fair way to ultimate
success. On the 20th May he despatched three of his servants
to prepare for his arrival at Leghorn ; he wrote to the Lord
of Lucca to ask for a safe-conduct ; he sent to the Florentines
to ensure the arrangements for commissariat. To the cardinals
who had invited him he sent four of his own cardinals and
four other envoys in whom he had implicit confidence. The
four cardinals were the old Cardinal of Poitiers, the only living
member who had been raised to the sacred college before the
Great Schism ; De Thury, who had been made cardinal by
Clement in 1385, and who had' been fierce in opposition to
Benedict during the subtraction of obedience ; and Pierre Blau
and Antoine de Chalant, to whom he had himself given their
scarlet hats. They were to take counsel with the cardinals of
Gregory as to the means of bringing him back to Pisa ; and if
this was impossible, they were to consult briefly concerning the
union of the Church and to report quickly to Benedict and the
rest of his cardinals.3 Benedict's cardinals, however, cast their
instructions to the wind, and acted in utter disregard of them.
Unfortunately for him, Paolo Guinigi, Lord of Lucca, refused
1 Monstrelet, 97. 2 Chastenet, Preuves, 293. s Ehrle, vii. 646.

282 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Spanish Pope the safe-conduct which he had requested;
and the Florentines being fearful declined to act without the
consent of King Ladislas. The Pope was therefore obliged to
give up his intended visit to Leghorn. This was but the
beginning of misfortune. Four of Gregory's cardinals came
from Pisa to Leghorn to meet those of Benedict, and a confer
ence was held. A proposal was made that a general council
of the cardinals should be held without regard to either Pope.
To this Benedict's cardinals answered that they could not
take part in any such council without him, but that he would
probably welcome the proposal. On second thoughts, however,
Pierre Blau took up the project, and all agreed to it. They
sent to Benedict a messenger, who reported the proposal to
hold a council of both obediences, but who omitted to say
that the council would proceed against him, as well as against
Gregory, if he refused to abdicate.1 Benedict, not under
standing the real nature of the proposal, sent messages of
satisfaction and encouragement to his cardinals.
Simon de Cramaud, the headstrong Patriarch of Alexandria,
the man who himself aspired to the tiara, had meantime
arrived with other envoys from Paris, bringing news of the
renewed subtraction of obedience and of the intended arrest of
Pope Benedict. The envoys and the Cardinal de Chalant left
Leghorn hurriedly, brought back two galleys to the Pope,
gave him their news, and counselled him to put himself in
safety. For two or three days longer Benedict still lingered
at Porto Venere ; he stationed watchmen to be on the lookout
for the approach of any enemy by land or by sea. He pro
posed to leave five plenipotentiaries under the safeguard of
the Constable Boucicaut ; but Boucicaut replied that if they
remained it must be at their own risk and peril. De Chalant
had not enlightened the Pope as to the intended scope of the
proposed council ; so that when Benedict sent fresh messages
of congratulation to his three cardinals at Leghorn, suggesting
that he would like to explain matters to them, he was still in
the dark as to the real nature of their proposed scheme. In
their answers the cardinals, who were all Frenchmen, blamed
the Pope's conduct toward France, which had brought about
1 Valois, iv. 6.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 288
a renewed rupture with that country, and had again endangered
their revenues ; they declined to rejoin him for fear of break
ing off the negotiations. There was nothing for the deter
mined little man to do but to avoid arrest of his person by
leaving Italy. It was rumoured that not only Boucicaut, but
also the cardinals at Pisa, intended to arrest him, and that
King Ladislas of Naples, in league with Pope Gregory, was
also on his heels.1
Accordingly on the 13th June, Pope Benedict wrote to his
rival, to the cardinals, and to others ; he reproached Gregory
in set terms as the cause of the failure to secure the union of
the Church ; he blamed the conduct of the French envoys ;
he asserted anew his own unalterable fidelity to the high aim
he had set before him. On the 15th June 1408 he published
an encyclical, announcing to the world at large, and more
particularly to the princes and clergy of his own obedience,
that he convoked a General Council to assemble at Perpignan
on All Saints' Day 1408. He had now tarried until further
waiting was perilous to his personal safety. Next morning,
with but four cardinals in his train, he set sail from Porto
Venere. He had made a strenuous endeavour to bring about
the ' way of convention,' and it had failed, more through the
fault of his rival than his own. He touched at Gallinaria, he
tarried four days at Villa Franca, he arrived at the coast of
Rousillon on the 1st July.
Three other cardinals of the Clementine obedience had
meantime joined their fellows at Leghorn. As they had not
yet definitely broken with their Pope they sent off news to
Benedict on the 14th June of their proposed General Council,
and intimated that they could not support his project for a
council in so remote a spot as Perpignan. On the 29th the
cardinals took a fresh and decisive step in advance. Six
cardinals of Benedict's obedience, and seven of Gregory's,
threw off their allegiance to their respective Popes, and decided
to call synods of their own obediences. In this momentous
step they were backed up by Cardinals Filargi of Milan and
Baldassare Cossa, whose proctor signed with the cardinals.
The Cardinal Legate of Bologna had now almost got the
1 Lenfant, i. 207.

284 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
members of both colleges to adopt the course which he
approved. The cardinals set forth that through the remiss
ness of both pretenders to the Papacy the task of caring for
the peace of the Church had fallen on them ; that they there
fore proposed, with the aid of the ruling powers, to call two
synods at two contiguous places for next Candlemas ; that each
college desired its own Pope to appear and to abdicate at the
synod, failing which he would be deposed, and that after such
abdication or deposition they would proceed to choose a new
sole Head of the Church.1 On the 1st July, the day before
Gregory promulgated his Bull announcing his council, the
cardinals solemnly withdrew their obedience from him; and
on the 3rd Gregory, finding it was useless to try to win them
back, published a declaration depriving them of their posts
and emoluments.
Pope Gregory meantime had decided to leave Lucca. The
new insults and defamatory pamphlets directed against him
and his new cardinals in this city had become intolerable.2
On the 2nd he followed the example set by his rival, and
announced that he too intended to call a General Council of
his obedience ; he was unable then to fix the place, but it was
to be somewhere in the north of Italy, for the convenience of
the German prelates. On the 14th July Gregory, 'very thin
in the face and livid of complexion as if he were at the point
of death,' moved out of Lucca with his Florentine escort.
' Of the three wavering cardinals, who had up till now sup
ported him, only one continued with him still. A silver cross
was borne before him, and the Holy Sacrament was carried
as usual on a mule. But at the first halt at Monte Carlo, in
the woods outside Lucca, the attendants drank too much of
the good wine of the place. They shouted, "Oh be joyful in
the Lord ! " the subdeacon lost the silver cross and carried the
empty stick, while the mule got driven into a ditch, where it
lay for two hours half-dead. Next night they saw a comet ;
the Pope and all the party passed a sleepless night ; and when
they reached Siena they had to beg permission to enter the
town as suppliants, with empty purses and hungry stomachs.' 3
1 Hefele, vi. 913. » De Schismate, 290.
3 Wylie, iii. 347 ; but see also Erler, 179.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 285
Notwithstanding the double convocation of councils by the
rival Popes, the cardinals at Leghorn held on their own way. On
the 23rd August the Florentines passed a formal act enabling
the cardinals to hold their proposed council at Pisa. The
' way of convention ' had failed no less irretrievably than had
the 'way of cession' before it. But in its failure it had
enabled the cardinals of both obediences to meet and to
fraternise ; they no longer distrusted each other as of yore ;
they had learned that it was possible for them to coalesce ;
they had resolved to make common cause against the rival
Popes. If the pontiffs, by reason of their cowardly mutual
distrust or because of their common love of place and power,
refused to give peace to Christendom and to end the accursed
Schism, it was the duty of the cardinals, as next in spiritual
authority, to make good the laches of their superiors. The
idea of a general council for ending this particular Schism was
as old as the Schism itself; but opinions as to its practicability
and advisability had materially changed since the days when
a general council was first proposed by the Universities of
Paris, Oxford, and Prague,1 since the days when the angry
Duke of Anjou had thrown Jean Rousse, when he suggested a
council, into the blackest cachot of the Chatelet. The general
opinion at that time, notwithstanding the writings of Henry
of Langenstein, was that the ' way of council ' was inordinately
dilatory and wellnigh impracticable. But the utter failure
of the ' way of cession " and the ' way of convention,' coupled
with the persistent teaching of Jean Gerson, had brought a
large number of both clergy and laymen to look upon the
' way of a council ' as the only practical means of healing the
Great Schism. The ancient prestige of the supreme pontiff
had declined ; it had declined the more rapidly now that there
were two heads of the Church, each anathematising the other ;
the welfare of the Church Universal was now held to be of
paramount importance : the Church could exist without a
Pope, seeing that the Head of the Church was Christ, and
that the Pope was merely His earthly representative.
The chief objection to the proposed council at Pisa was
that the convocation of an oecumenical council should be
1 Palacky, iii. 9,

286 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
either by the Pope or the Emperor, while here the Popes
had both convoked councils of their own, and the Emperor
neglected to act. There was indeed no dejure Emperor. The
convocation on the authority of the cardinals was utterly
uncanonical ; a council without a Pope at its head had once
been dreamed of by Cardinal Napoleon Orsini, but the death
of Pope John the Twenty-second had foiled his plans. The
present project was an attempt boldly to cut the Gordian
knot, and was approved by the Universities of Paris and
Bologna.1 It was a project eminently likely to commend
itself to a hard-headed man of action, such as was Baldassare
Cossa, the Papal Legate at Bologna.
When Gregory declined his offer of assistance, Cossa fell
off from him ; he was convinced that the Pope was not in
earnest in his pretended desire to abdicate, but that he
was ' feeding the people with words.' He disapproved also of
the appointment of the Pope's nephew as Bishop of Bologna,
so that Antonio Corrario never took possession of his see.
The Papal Legate was at open enmity with Pope Gregory
when Cardinal Pietro Filargi came to Bologna in 1408.
News of the assassination of the Duke of Orleans and of
the subtraction of obedience from Pope Benedict had been
received with delight, for it opened up a new vista in
papal politics. If Benedict was without support in France,
and Gregory was without support in Italy, they must both
fall; the cardinals of both obediences might then unite and
end the Schism by choosing a new Pope. Baldassare Cossa
saw that there was no hope of the rival Popes fulfilling their
renunciation, and already, before the cardinals abandoned
Gregory, he was in treaty with Florence.- Whether he com
municated with the Roman cardinals prior to their meeting
the four French cardinals at Leghorn does not appear; the
ideas of all the cardinals at that time were merely inchoate ;
neither body had resolved to cast off their allegiance to their
Pope. ^TJiejceis, at any rate, little room for doubt that Baldas.-
sare Cossa, Cardinal Legate of Bologna, was the author, jtlje
originator, and the guide' 6Tl;he Council of Pisa-as4taVentually
appeared.2 From the time at which he took "partrirr their
x Mansi, xxvi. 1170. a Hardt, ii. 351-4 ; Ciaconius, ii. 785 ; Hoefler, 442.

THE WAY OF CONVENTION 287
deliberations, he became the guiding spirit. Having resolved
that there should be a council, he strained every nerve on its
behalf. On the 6th June 1408 Baldassare Cossa made a league with
Florence for mutual defence against King Ladislas; on the
26th he pulled down all the arms of Pope Gregory in Bologna
as a sign of neutrality and open revolt ; on the 28th he got
together one hundred and fifty lances to aid the Florentines; on
the 8th August he went to Pisa accompanied by the Cardinals of
Ravenna and Milan, where he met two cardinals, one from
Benedict's obedience and one from that of Gregory. They had a
long consultation with the Florentines, and the Legate prevailed
on his allies to allow Pisa to become the scene of the proposed
council. It was not until this date, the 23rd August 1408,
that the cardinals were able to send out their invitations to
the council. These were ante-dated, so that they appeared
to have been issued before those of Popes Benedict and
Gregory : possibly they had been prepared beforehand and
were merely awaiting the decision of the Florentines pending
despatch. This action of the Cardinal Legate was gall and
wormwood to his enemies, Pope Gregory and King Ladislas ;
but the cardinals showed their confidence in him by creating
Baldassare Cossa Vicar of the Church and Prior of the
Cardinals.1 The ' way of convention ' having failed, the ' way
of a council' was now to be tried.
The Cardinals of Palestrina and Milan were sent to Siena to
invite Pope Gregory : they were obliged to post the invitation
in the piazza of the town.2 On the 24th September the
cardinals despatched their invitation to Pope Benedict. They
reminded him that he had agreed to the plan of a council ;
they had decided that he and Gregory should hold a council
of both obediences at Pisa on Lady Day next, and that the
cardinals should issue invitations ; they hoped that he would
help and take part, seeing that both Popes would be treated
with the utmost honour, the object being that both should
appear and abdicate, and that so the Church should again
have but one common head. Should the Popes not appear, the
council would be guided by the Holy Ghost in procuring an
1 Tartini, ii. 586 ; Mur. xviii. 595. a Hefele, vi. 917.

288 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
end to the Schism. In his reply, dated 7th November,
Benedict censured their proceedings, and summoned them to
attend his Council of Perpignan.
As soon as the decision of the united colleges became known,
there arose a storm of discussion as to the canonicity of the
proposed council. Through it all the cardinals held to their
proposal to hold an oecumenical council at Pisa on Lady
Day 1409.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 289

CHAPTER VIII
TWO MINOR COUNCILS
When the cardinals of both obediences took upon themselves
the responsibility of convoking a general council, the Great
Schism entered on a new phase. The ' way of fact ' had been
tried and had failed ; the ' way of cession "' had been tried and
had failed ; the ' way of convention ' had been tried and had
failed ; now a trial was to be made of the ' way of a council.'
Both Popes had promised to abdicate under certain conditions,
but each had at the back of his mind the notion that he
personally would not be called on to make this sacrifice. This
was the motive which led Pope Benedict to pursue so eagerly
the way of convention : the more he was pressed to resign, the
more determined he became not to resign until he had met his
rival face to face. This was the motive which led Pope
Gregory to refuse to bind himself to the way of cession if he
found some other way equally efficacious for ending the
Schism. The ' way of cession ' was the one way of which the
outside world thought, and when the rival Popes hesitated to
adopt it, they judged them, and they judged them harshly.
In the case of neither Pope, however, does such a harsh judg
ment seem altogether to be justified. If on the day after his
coronation Pope Gregory could have met his rival, he would
undoubtedly have been ready to abdicate; but Tempus edax
rerum, Time which weakens resolutions, allowed his nephews
to get the upper hand of the weak old man, and made him
irresolute and worse. Pope Benedict again was a pious and
firm man ; had his lot been cast in untroubled times, he would
probably have been a Pope after the order of Gregory the
Seventh or Innocent the Third ; but when he was determined
on saving the Church by the one way in which no one else

290 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
acquiesced, his firmness degenerated into obstinacy, and he
was accused, not without some show of reason, of self-seeking
and perversity. No wonder, then, that the King of France
called out on the two old men who could not find a single spot
in the whole earth on which to meet and perform their manifest
duty ! The cardinals judged their respective Popes with equal
severity. Ever since the royal embassy to Avignon the
majority of Benedict's cardinals had been hostile to him ; ever
since the days of their terror at Lucca the majority of
Gregory's cardinals had hated and distrusted him. When the
Popes wrote to them, they, being cardinals, sent a courteous
reply ; but in reality a proposition from either Pope was to
them, in the words of Milton, a 'mere tankard drollery, a
venereous parjetory for stews.'
The resolution of the cardinals to call an oecumenical council
was received with general, but not with universal, satisfaction.
It fortunately received a certain measure of that support from
the canon lawyers and the theologians which it so much needed.
Cardinal Baldassare Cossa bestirred himself to this end. From
the 20th December 1408 to the 1st January 1409, three
Faculties of the University of Bologna, the canonical, the
juridical, and the theological faculties, published certain 'con
clusions' amply justifying the action of the cardinals.1 A
Schism, said the learned doctors, through its long continuance,
degenerates into heresy ; if the Pope neglects to put an end
thereto, the faithful may withdraw their obedience ; and if
the cardinals in their turn neglect their duty, the faithful may
call a council ; and if the Pope unlawfully fails to appear, he
is to be held as a schismatic and a heretic (ttmquam nutritori
schismatis et haeresis et incorrigibili). This ' conclusion ' of the
University served as the legal basis for subsequent proceedings
of the council. The theory of the independent action of the
cardinals had indeed been ventilated since 1407.2
Nowhere was the plan of the council received with such rejoic
ing as in France. Both court and University were delighted.
From the day when the news was first brought to the council
engaged in tearing up the Bull of Pope Benedict, com
munications passed freely between Paris and the cardinals ; it
1 Mansi, xxvii. 219-22. 2 Goeller, 29.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 291
became certain that the council would be held under French,
under Burgundian, influence.1 On the 12th January 1409
Charles the Sixth announced his intention of inducing all the
Kings of Christendom to declare their neutrality between
the rival Popes. Even those who would ordinarily have
been opposed to a council recognised the hopelessness of
their position, and thought only of opening out some way of
retreat for the Popes whose perverse neglect they deplored.2
On New Year's Day 1409, Pierre d'Ailly preached at Aix a
sermon which reminds us of those of his youth. The Head of
the Church was Christ, and the Church was the mystical body
of Christ. To the Church had originally belonged the right
of assembling a council; where two or three are gathered
together in Christ's name, not in the name of Peter, there is
Christ in the midst of them. The council at Jerusalem was
presided over not by Peter, but by its bishop James. After
wards the right of convocation was limited to the Pope, for
his honour and the confounding of heresy. But the right of
the Church was never abrogated, and still exists ; it is to be
exercised not necessarily by the cardinals, but by believers who
by reason of their authoritative power or urgent exhortation
have acquired the right to represent those who work for the
unity of the Church. This was a doctrine more suited to the
times of the Reformation than to the beginning of the fifteenth
century. The power was to be exercised whenever there was a
vacancy, whenever the Pope was mad or a heretic, whenever he
persistently neglected to convoke a council, or whenever, as in
the present instance, there were two or more pretenders to the
papacy. D'Ailly spoke not a word of censure to Benedict ; he
avoided the mention of his name ; he did not condemn either
Pope. He even went so far as to send his views to the
brothers Ferrier, the staunchest adherents of Pope Benedict,
whose judgment he craved ; he sent them also to five French
cardinals supposed to be friendly to the same Pope.3 He
explained in a sermon at Tarascon on the 10th January that,
if the coming council was rightly convened, then both Popes
were bound to recognise it and were bound to appear, either
personally or by fully empowered proctors. He was not one
1 Goeller, 31. 3 Tschackert, 147. 3 Ibid. 148-51.

292 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of those who wished the council to proceed at once against
both Popes ; he rather desired that they should be induced to
resign. In case both proved obstinate, the council should
proceed to a new election only if it was satisfied that it carried
both obediences with it; otherwise it would but create a
further division, and the last state of the Schism would be
worse than the first.
These political sermons were at that time one of the
chief means of influencing and of educating public opinion.
D'Ailly was followed on the 29th January by Jean Gerson's
tractate on the Unity of the Church. Gerson combated
the positions that Popes alone could summon a council, and
that all who had renounced their obedience were thereby
excluded from it.1 His arguments were based on Scripture
and common sense; and he and D'Ailly enjoyed once again
the pleasure of demonstrating the superiority of theology
over canon law. Their arguments showed that they- had
broken with Benedict, and that they, the most moderate and
perspicuous of Parisian doctors, were among the champions
of the cause of the council. The important point was that
the theologians of Paris were at one with the canon lawyers
of Bologna — or, as some might erroneously have said, that
Jean sans Peur was at one with Baldassare Cossa — on the
point that the cardinals could legally convoke an oecumenical
council without the authority or intervention of the Pope.
The endeavours of the King of France meantime to obtain
neutrality through Europe had met with wide but not with
complete success. In Spain, for example, while the Castilians
subtracted their obedience, the Aragonese stood by their
countryman; in Italy, whatever Venice and Florence might
do, Naples and Rimini remained loyal to Pope Gregory.
Three monarchs, above all others, regarded the advent of the
proposed Great Council of Pisa with marked distrust "and dis
content : they were Rupert, King of the Romans ; Ladislas,
King of Naples ; and Sigismund, King of Hungary.
When the rival Popes had approached within fifty miles of
each other, had an Emperor with the decision of character
even of Henry the Seventh or Charles the Fourth appeared on
1 Schwab, 224.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 298
the scene, his influence would have sufficed to ensure a confer
ence of the Popes and a settlement of the Schism. But
Rupert had again missed his opportunity ; his narrow, logical
mind, regarding Gregory as the one true and only Pope,
declined to countenance any dealings with Benedict ; he was
unable to see that thirty years of calamity had altered the
situation ; he took still the same view of the Schism which
had been correct and appropriate at its commencement, but
he was insensible and impervious to the arguments of Henry
of Langenstein, of Conrad of Gelnhausen, of Pierre d'Ailly and
of Jean Gerson. Dietrich of Niem had from Lucca addressed
a letter to Rupert reproaching him with his inaction ; x it was
as difficult to drag King Rupert away from Heidelberg and
the new University as it was to drag King Wenzel away from
Bohemia. Nor would the three Archbishops of the Rhine
leave their country for the sake of the Schism ; though they
had each double the revenue of the King, and though, had it
been a question of filling one of their own sees, they would
have betaken themselves to Rome as readily as the three
Kings betook themselves to the feet of the Child Jesus.2
Dietrich warned him that Ladislas was already a candidate
for the Empire, but Rupert was detained, powerless and in
effective, in his own country. Ever since he had been forced
in his own despite to confirm the proceedings of the Diet at
Marbach, the King had been losing ground. The princely
Bishop of Liege got himself enfeoffed by Wenzel; the im
perial cities of Rothenburg, Regensburg, Aix, and Toul ac
knowledged him as still King of the Romans ; the Dukes of
Austria, even Rupert's old ally Leopold, declared for Wenzel.3
Rupert knew that the party of neutrality, fostered by Cardinal
Baldassare Cossa and led by the Archbishop John of Nassau,
was making headway through Germany : he tried to stem the
swelling current. He summoned the Electors in vain to
Bacharach in 1408; he summoned the clergy and laity to
Nuernberg on the 21st of October, but no decision in the
interest of the Church was taken. Then he called a great
Diet at Frankfurt for Epiphany 1409 to decide finally on the
relation of Germany to the Schism. The political no less
1 Hoefler, 411. 2 Ibid. 411. 3 Aschbach, i. 269-70.

294 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
than the ecclesiastical situation was in question. If Rupert
persisted in his fidelity to Pope Gregory and lost his own
followers thereby, his kingship became most precarious ; if, to
strengthen his hold on the kingdom, he gave up the Pope, he
belied his former life and abandoned the Pope who had
recognised him as the rightful King of the Romans. It was a
duel between the King and the Archbishop; John of Nassau re
membered how a hundred years earlier an Archbishop of Mainz
had raised Adolf to the throne and had then again deposed
him: he was resolved to follow the example of his predecessor.
The Diet at Frankfurt was attended by ambassadors from
the courts of England and France, by King Rupert and the
Electors of Mainz and Cologne, by the Duke of Brunswick,
the Landgraf of Hesse, the Markgraf of Meissen, the Burggraf
of Nuernberg, and by a large number of bishops, abbots, and
counts. All Europe was alive to its importance. From Pisa
came the Cardinal of Bari ; from Pope Gregory came his
nephew, the new Cardinal Antonio. Robert of Franzola rose
first in the Diet ; he formulated the views of the Archbishop
of Mainz, and justified the action of the cardinals at Pisa.
Then Cardinal Antonio rising announced that his uncle had
convoked a council for Whitsuntide at Udine, that Gregory
was anxious that the King of the Romans, as Protector of the
Church, should take the matter in hand. King Rupert him
self addressed the Diet. He pointed out that the action of
the cardinals at Pisa would merely increase the existing con
fusion, that it would create a triple instead of a double Schism,
and that the safest and most honourable course both for the
Church and the Empire would be to accept the proposal of
Pope Gregory. To his mortification he found that he was
unable to influence the Diet ; the majority declared for
neutrality between the rival Popes. The Diet broke up.
King Rupert and Cardinal Antonio departed for Heidelberg.
The King was determined to recognise no other Pope than
Gregory unless and until he were canonically deposed.
When the ambassador of Pope Gregory departed with King
Rupert, the Cardinal of Bari, the representative of the United
College at Pisa, went off to the court of Rupert's rival,
King Wenzel, at Prague. Both Wenzel and Sigismund had

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 295
endeavoured to shake Pope Gregory in his allegiance to
Rupert. They had written pointing out how their father
Charles the Fourth had secured the allegiance of Germany to
the Pope at Rome ; they had dwelt on the unshaken fidelity
of the house of Luxemburg, whereas the house of Bavaria
had already driven one Pope from Rome. Why should the
Pope prefer to Sigismund that King who had bought the
Romans and caused Pope Innocent to flee from Rome, that
King whose father had besieged Pope Urban in Nocera ? Let
Pope Gregory therefore cancel the approbation of Rupert and
recognise Wenzel as the only King of the Romans. Much as
Pope Boniface had regretted the step which he took on the 1st
October 1403, bitterly as his successors had regretted it, still
Gregory felt that it was irrevocable, that he was bound to the
weak King Rupert, that Wenzel and his stalwart half-brother
must necessarily be ranged against him. He declined their
proposal, and informed King Rupert. Thereupon Wenzel
wrote to the cardinals at Pisa ; he pointed out that he was
the rightful King of the Romans, that there was indeed a
Schism in the Empire, but that he was ready to do his best to
heal the more important Schism in the Church. All that he
demanded was that they should acknowledge him as rightful
King. This the cardinals were quite ready to do.
But although Wenzel had himself declared for neutrality,
there was a difficulty in bringing round the Archbishop and
the University of Prague to this mind. The consequent
necessity for action hastened an important change in the
kingdom and in the seat of learning. Charles the Fourth had
meant Bohemia to be the corner-stone of the Germano-Roman
Empire ; he had also intended the University of Prague to be
the most important seat of learning in that Empire. But the
Bohemians then as now were intensely patriotic ; they cared
very much for Bohemia, and very little for the rest of the
Empire : they wanted Bohemia for the Bohemians. In the
University also there was a party which desired the supremacy
of the Bohemians. This institution was founded on the model
of Paris rather than of Bologna. It was divided into four
nations, the Czechs, the Saxons, the Bavarians, and the Poles ;
each nation had an equal voice in the government of affairs,

296 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
and as three nations of the four were practically Germans, the
Teutons outvoted the Bohemians by three to one. This the
patriots resented. With John Hus, the Queen's confessor, at
their head, they pointed out to King Wenzel that it was
unfair that the children of the soil should be at the mercy of
the foreigner with no right of habitation, that the University
of Prague had been modelled on that of Paris, in which the
French were the predominant factor, as the Bohemians should
be in Bohemia. They forgot to mention that the Czechs had
been favoured at the expense of the other nations in 1384 ;
they failed to remind Wenzel that he had pledged his kingly
word in 1399 to aid the other nations ; they omitted to state
that the Teuton students at the University outnumbered the
Czechs by ten to one. There were indeed four nations in the
Faculty of Arts at Paris, as there were four nations in the
University of Prague : they were the French, the Normans, the
Picards, and the English ; but the Picards included those
from the Low Countries, the English included the Germans,
and the French included all the Latin races ; and although
the French nation had come to outnumber the others, they
were originally more nearly equal.1 What was more important
than all else, however, in the eyes of King Wenzel, was that
the three Teutonic nations were true to Pope Gregory, while
the Bohemians were in favour of neutrality. The ambassadors
from the French court and from the University of Paris came
to the aid of the Bohemian patriots by representing that the
three votes of the nations did not rest on statute but on
custom. Wenzel determined to ' free ' the Bohemian nation ;
like the patriots, he was of opinion that the Bohemians should
have lordship over the Germans. On the 18th January 1409
he altered the constitution of the University, and decreed that
in future the Bohemian nation should have three votes and
the other three nations one vote between them.2 The King had
the Patriarch of Aquileia on his side ; he now had three votes
out of four in the University ; on the 22nd January, therefore,
the Declaration of Neutrality was made. The Teuton students
represented to Wenzel that he had been misinformed and
misled, but their efforts were in vain. In disgust they quitted
1 Rashdall, i. 320, 2 Palacky, iii. 232,

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 297
Prague, two thousand of them in a single day, and three
thousand more soon afterwards,1 and migrated to Leipsic and
elsewhere. Thus the University of Prague lost its command
and position, as the kingdom of Bohemia had already lost hers ;
but Wenzel and the Patriots rejoiced. Bohemia was pledged
to neutrality ; it followed the lead of the cardinals at Pisa.
Still more hostile to the Council of Pisa than King Rupert
was his rival for the Empire, King Ladislas of Naples : he was
determined that there should be no council if he could help
it. He alone of all the monarchs of Europe, he who had taken
for his device Aut Ccesar aut nihil, had no desire as Caesar to
terminate the Schism ; he preferred that there should be two
Popes, one at Avignon and one at Rome; and just as the
King of France was the natural protector, guide, and director
of the Pope at Avignon, so was Ladislas determined, with his
kingdom firmly established over Central and Southern Italy, to
be the lord and master of the Pope at Rome. If the Great
Schism were terminated and there were but a single Pope in
Christendom, if there were but a single Pope in Italy, that
Pope would naturally seek to strengthen his position in Italy,
and the dominion of Ladislas over the centre and south of the
peninsula would be fatally endangered. There must be two
Popes in Christendom for him to be master of the Pope at
Rome.2 Therefore all thought of union of the Church was
hateful to him ; the eagerness of Pope Gregory for the termina
tion of the Schism was detestable. He won over the Pope's
confessor, getting the Pope to make the Dominican Giovanni
Bishop of Gaeta.3 As soon as he heard of the Treaty of Mar
seilles, he had sent the sweet-toothed old Pope a valuable present
of table-service,* which was joyfully received. Ladislas knew
that France was bent on ending the Schism ; he knew that
their allegiance sat lightly on the cardinals of Benedict, who
had already once been seduced from their allegiance ; he fore
saw that if only the cardinals of Gregory were won over to
unite with those of Benedict, then French influence would be
supreme not only in the coming council but also in the choice
of the new pontiff. Ladislas was as clear on this point as was
1 Pii Papae II., Opera, 103. 2 Brieger, ix. 258.
s Brieger, ix. 260, l De Schismate, 230,

298 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Sigismund of Hungary. He knew that any Pope whom the
cardinals might elect would be hostile to him, and would be
friendly to his rival, the Duke of Anjou. He was fighting for
the kingdom of Naples which he claimed to inherit from
Charles the First of Anjou. For him the fight against the
council must be a fight to the death.
The King of Naples tried in the first place to prevent Gregory
from leaving Rome by aiding and abetting, though he refrained
from personally appearing in, the rising of Nicolo and Giovanni
Colonna on the night of the 17th June 1407. That attempt was
as already narrated defeated by the proximity and the watch
fulness of Paolo Orsini. It wellnigh proved fatal to the hopes
of Ladislas, for not only did the Romans call out ' Death to
the traitor King and all his people,' but Paolo Orsini himself
had entered into a plot to deliver Rome to the Patriarch,
Simon de Cramaud — a plot which was only defeated by dis
trust of the condottiere and by the French hopes fixed on
Gregory.1 The Pope himself reproached Ladislas, charging
him with working against the union of the Church, and re
minding him of all that Naples owed to the Popes. The red-
haired libertine, being now Protector of the Church, could not
sit still under this rebuke ; he answered ironically that he
owed more to his own exertion than to any help from Pope
Boniface, that he had taken Ludovico de' Megliorati into his
pay to prevent him from doing harm to the Pope, that he was
ready to do all that in him lay to heal the Schism. At the
same time, he had not been excommunicated, his kingdom
had not been placed under an interdict, and the term for
the meeting of the two Popes at Savona had passed
by. So far Ladislas had won his object. In December he
repeated his assurance to Gregory. The austere Dominican
confessor also, after his fruitless embassies to Genoa and Venice,
returned to Siena and backed up his brethren, the mendicant
friars, in their representations of the dangers which would
have surrounded Pope Gregory had he ventured to Savona.
He was rewarded for his treachery to his early principles
and to his zeal for the union by the wealthy Archbishop of
Ragusa ; he was soon to be a cardinal.
Everything up to this point had favoured the schemes of the
1 Brieger, ix. 266.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 299
King of Naples. He got ready his forces by land and by
sea, being determined to checkmate the French if possible.
He had failed to prevent the Pope's departure, but Rome
itself was soon in an uproar. Gregory had left behind him
in the city Cardinal Petrus Stefaneschi as Vicar General, and
Paolo Orsini in command of the troops. They fortified
the approaches to the city, called out the citizens in
its defence, and increased the number of the paid soldiery.
The taxes being insufficient, contributions were levied from
laymen and clergy. These measures, the excesses of the
troops, and the scarcity of provisions, speedily reduced Rome
to a state of seething discontent. The King's work proved
easy. The story has been already told. The Cardinal took
to flight. Paolo Orsini and his troops, whom Boucicaut was
expecting to co-operate with him against Ladislas, entered
the service of the King of Naples. On the 25th April 1408,
amid the joyous shouts of the fickle populace and the plentiful
waving of palms, Ladislas entered Rome under a baldachino
held aloft by eight barons. He had anticipated the attempt
of Benedict, and Gregory might at least rejoice that the city
was not held by his rival, but by a King who had sworn
fidelity to him, and who had assured him his protection.
The King did not tarry in Rome. The ruling party in Perugia
were waiting to make over to him their city ; Pope Gregory
and his cardinals were in the power of his friend and ally
Paolo Guinigi. Ladislas pushed his troops up through Umbria
to the borders of Tuscany. The papal courtiers had mean
time urged on Gregory the creation of new cardinals, trying
unsuccessfully to get Paolo Guinigi on their side by promising
a hat to his relative, the Bishop of Lucca. Paolo Guinigi,
however, was not ready for the sake of a relative to see the
union of the Church sacrificed ; he sympathised with the
cardinals, though the latter were by no means unanimous as
to the means to be adopted. He cautioned the Pope against
the use of harsh measures to the cardinals, who in their turn
resolved not to recognise any new creations. The straight
forward conduct of his friend Paolo Guinigi, and the secession
of Gregory's cardinals, were a blow to Ladislas, who had
reckoned on one Pope going to Leghorn and the other to
Pisa, and who, on the 3rd May, had written to the Florentines

300 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
that he meant to send his galleys to the former place and to
go himself to the latter, both as Protector of the Holy Roman
Church and to secure his own interest as King of Naples.1
On the 13th May he sent an embassy to the Pope, accompanied
by one from Rome; and on the 21st Gregory issued an en
cyclical showing that he was on terms of complete understand
ing with Ladislas as to his occupation of Rome; indeed,
shortly afterwards he made over to the King the Vicariate of
Rome and of other parts of the Papal States for a considera
tion. The Pope with his new cardinals and the King with his
army were now in open war against the union of the Church.
The Florentines were unfeignedly anxious for the termina
tion of the Schism ; its continuance inj ured them not only as
believers, but also as men of commerce in their dealings with
those of the opposite obedience. They had, on the 23rd March
1408, expressed to the ambassadors of Gregory their belief
that the rival Popes were in collusion, and thought of nothing
less than the welfare of the Church ; the Venetian ambassa
dors, returning to Venice through Florence, said the same
thing, and laid the whole blame on the new Cardinal
Giovanni Domenici.2 The Florentines were consequently ready
for a declaration of neutrality. They had been anxious that
the Popes should meet, if possible, and that they should meet
at Pisa ; they repeatedly urged Gregory to hasten his coming ;
they promised full security to Benedict. But it was in vain.
In May they gave up all hope of a conference between the
rival pontiffs. Gino Capponi, a Florentine, went to Lucca,
took counsel with the cardinals, and was an accessory to their
desertion of Pope Gregory.3 Having gone thus far, Florence
could not rest there. She was anxious to keep on good terms
with France, but was as jealous of French influence in Italy
and in the settlement of the Schism as she was of the designs
of Ladislas in oversetting the equilibrium of the Italian States.
She knew that France was ready to interfere ; she foresaw
that if the coming council of the cardinals were to be held on
French territory, if it were held in Genoa, then it would
result in the election of a French Pope, and the evil days
of the Captivity would return ; that the French influence
1 Brieger, *.. 367. a Ammirato, iv. 407. 3 Raumer, 201.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 301
would become predominant in Western Europe, that there
could be no settlement of the Schism agreeable to Italy,
to Germany, and to the northern nations. Not being strong
enough to act alone, she entered into a league with Baldassare
Cossa, the powerful Cardinal Legate of Bologna. The treaty
against peoples, lords, and princes of every rank, even Pope,
Kaiser, or King, was concluded on the 80th May 1408. Still
the republic desired nothing less than war. She sent Luigi
Pitti on the 19th May to Lucca to announce to the Pope the
grief with which she had learned of the flight of the cardinals,
to entreat him to take no harsh measures against them, to
assure him of her filial devotion and desire to render every
assistance in the establishment of the union of the Church.
To the French ambassadors who desired to know whether
Florence would declare for neutrality, she returned an evasive
answer, which they interpreted in a satisfactory sense. Such
was the state of affairs in Florence when King Ladislas
appeared with his army on their frontier, announcing his
intention to be present at any council which might be held.
A decisive, straightforward answer would have brought the
King and his army on Florence. A temporising reply was
necessary. A defensive league was offered : what the King
wanted was an alliance against the Duke of Anjou. Florence
would not do anything which might bring her into conflict
with the cardinals and with France. Ladislas declined their
offer. The negotiations had served their purpose : they had
gained time ; troops had been pushed forward, and the Floren
tine territories were protected. In the beginning of June the
King's ambassador, Cristiano Carracioloj asked for permission
to bring four or five hundred lances through Tuscany to con
duct the Pope in safety from Lucca : this was also refused :
the republic would not allow foreign troops on her territory
in harvest time ; she herself would provide for the Pope's safe
escort. Ladislas saw that Florence was determined ; he pro
tested against their interference with his duty as Protector of
the Church ; he would wait for ten days, and if the Pope quitted
Lucca within that time and did not need his protection, he
would be content. Florence sent two envoys to Gregory,
promising him an escort of one hundred and fifty lances, and

302 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
urging him to write to the King that he did not require his
help. They told him that the King would only wait a fixed
time. The aged Pope was full of fears for his personal safety ;
the envoys were full of protestations and promises. Finally,
on the 14th July, as already narrated, Gregory left Lucca, and
on the 19th he reached Siena. The Florentines breathed
afresh ; Ladislas, with that lack of energy and determination
characteristic of his ambitious but weak nature, abandoned his
enterprise, returned to Rome, and on the 25th of July left that
city to brawl and wanton the summer through at Naples.1
Although she had granted safe-conducts to the cardinals of
Benedict, Florence had not as yet definitely withdrawn from
the obedience of Gregory. The cardinals had already deter
mined on the 25th March 1409 as the date for their proposed
council, and on the 4th August 1408 Florence gave them per
mission to choose any place in her territories for its meeting.2
The Cardinals Baldassare Cossa and Petrus Filargi now
appeared on the scene. Cossa had already, by means of the
Bolognese jurists Butrio and Anchorano, won over the majority
of the influential men of Florence to agree to a council being
held. On the 23rd August, at the Franciscan cloister, Pisa was
decided upon as the place of the council ; and on the 13th Sep
tember a formal contract with this object was made with the
Chancellor of the republic, Petrus Ser Mini. The council was
to be held within the next eighteen months, and the cardinals
were exhorted to settle the dispute as to the crown of Naples.
On the 28th August the republic sent the Franciscans, Antonio
and Stefano Buonacorsi, to Siena to inform Pope Gregory of
their proceedings and to invite him to the council.3 His
answer was what might have been expected.
On the 30th September 1408, King Ladislas sent to Rome
his trusted general, the Count of Troja, who took up his abode
in the Palace of Saint Apollinaris. Three days later, Pope
Gregory's nephew, Paolo Corrario, came to Rome, was magnifi
cently received, stayed the night there, and passed on his way
to Naples, where he remained for three weeks in conference
with the irresolute King. Ladislas wanted to get the Pope
to move from Siena to Perugia, which was under his sway, but
1 Raumer, 208. 2 Mansi, xxvii. 445-6. 3 Ibid, xxvii. 489 et seq.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 303
Carlo Malatesta induced the aged pontiff to go rather to
Rimini, where he remained from the 3rd November to the
16th May 1409.
Gregory had originally intended to visit Bologna on his
way to Rome ; he had given the lordship of that city,
where Baldassare Cossa was still in secure possession, and
the lordship also of Forli, Faenza, and other Church lands
to Ladislas in return for twenty thousand florins; and he
had bestowed the Vicariate of Forli and Faenza on his own
nephews. Carlo Malatesta, however, warned him against
putting himself in the power of the ambitious and masterful
Legate, who was suspected, utterly without reason, of having
caused the death of Pope Innocent, and who had publicly
pulled down the insignia of Pope Gregory from the city.
Gregory had therefore changed his route, and when he
reached Siena he in September 1408 issued a Bull against
Baldassare Cossa, recounting all his iniquities, depriving him
of the Legation of Bologna, and declaring him to be an enemy
and a rebel against the Pope. The Legate simply laughed at
the Bull, which he burned in the market-place. Pope Gregory
had scorned his overtures ; the cardinal had thrown off his
allegiance, and was now the recognised head of the conciliar
party. On the 14th December, after he had reached Rimini,
Pope Gregory again invited his recalcitrant cardinals back,
promising them full and free forgiveness if they returned ; at
the same time, he recounted all their backsliding, and was
especially severe on that ' child of iniquity and son of perdi
tion,' Baldassare Cossa, who had abused his position as Legate
of Bologna, who had aforetime maligned the Pope as perjured
and schismatic, and who had led astray the other cardinals,
as well as many prelates, cities, and private persons. Many
other detailed charges the Pope brought against his enemy,
Baldassare Cossa ; but neither Legate nor cardinals paid any
attention to his words. Gregory excommunicated them all
on the 14th January.1
At Florence in January 1409 a provincial council was held,
which was attended by the clergy from the Archbishop down
wards, by the Franciscan and Carmelite Friars, as well as by
1 Hefele, vi. 634.

304 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Priors of the Crafts and the Bannerets of the City. The
object of the meeting was to decide on the formal subtraction
of obedience. Pope Gregory was informed that the obedience
of the republic would be withdrawn from him on the 26th
March unless he on or before that date came to Pisa to attend
the council. The Pope declined. Obedience was withdrawn.
Florence had still King Ladislas to reckon with. He would
wreck the council if he could ; he had already in the strongest
terms forbidden the publication of the Bull for its convoca
tion in the kingdom of Naples. With the new year (1409) the
King roused himself into activity again. He despatched an
ambassador, Guffredo, to the cardinals at Pisa, complaining
that in their anxiety to obtain the adhesion of his rival,
Sigismund of Hungary, they had promised him to take from
Ladislas his rights in Naples if Sigismund would only acknow
ledge the Council ; they had moreover treated him disrespect
fully, calling him simply Ladislas of Durazzo : his real title
was ' Our most serene and unconquered Lord Ladislas by the
grace of God most illustrious King of Hungary, Sicily and
Jerusalem, Dalmatia, Croatia, Rome, Servia, Galicia, Rumania,
Bulgaria, etc., Count of Provence, Piedmont, etc.'1 This was
the King's title, and he expected to be called accordingly.
The Florentines knew that the embassy was directed against
them as much as against the cardinals, and were anxious to
pacify the King : they called on the cardinals to justify them
selves and to assure the King that they would recognise his
title.2 Ladislas* however, was in earnest. He assembled an army
of ten thousand cavaliers and a large body of foot-soldiers ;
his ships of war were in the harbours, and his supplies were
in readiness. Pope Gregory had assigned to him the States
of the Church. The King meant to make himself master,
if possible, of his new possessions. He announced his inten
tion of marching against Siena, and of besieging Baldassare
Cossa in Bologna ; he sent the Constable Alberigo da Barbiano
northward with forces. The Florentines came to the aid of
their ally ; they reinforced their castles, they encouraged the
Sienese; they took troops into their pay, and appointed
Malatesta de Pandolfo de' Malatesti their commandant. The
1 De Schismate, 287. 2 Mansi, xxvii. 492.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 305
warlike Legate marched with all his men against the Con
stable, who, after parleying with Malatesta, took his departure.
Then Ottobuon Terzo, with more Neapolitan troops, appeared,
but was held at bay by the combined forces of the Legate,
Malatesta, and the Marquess of Ferrara.1 The weather this
year was mild, clear, and fine up to the beginning of March,
so that the violets, the almond-trees, the plums, and the
peaches blossomed, the vines put forth their clusters, and all
the trees came into leaf ; then it turned bitterly cold beyond
all knowledge, and provisions became excessively dear.
On the 12th March Ladislas arrived from Naples at Rome,
and stayed there in the Pope's palace until the 2nd April,
ready for war. On his banners were inscribed the lines —
' I am a poor King, a friend of freebooters,
A lover of the people, and a destroyer of tyrants.' 2
The King set himself forth as a protector of the disinherited
and a herald of freedom. This was his new role.
Ladislas set out toward Siena. The Florentines sent am
bassadors to him ; he denied that he had ever promised not
to interfere in the affairs of Tuscany, and promised to send an
embassy to Florence. His ambassadors came ; they com
plained of the Florentines for their dealings with Perugia, for
their league with Baldassare Cossa, the King's enemy, who
had robbed the King's trusted man, Alberigo da Barbiano,
of his lands, and for their taking the Castle of Monte Carlo
from the Lord of Lucca. But the head and front of the
Florentines' offending was that they had given Pisa to the
cardinals for the election of a new Pope, whereas Gregory,
a holy man, was the only true Pope and only person who
could canonically convoke a council. The Florentines excused
themselves as best they could : they were pledged to a council ;
this would bring, as they knew, the election of a new Pope ;
they were anxious to avoid the interference of France in the
kingdom of Naples. The ambassadors asked them to make
a league with Ladislas for mutual defence. But the shifty
King was not a man on whom the Republic could depend.
1 Mur. xviii. 595-6. 2 Ibid. xxiv. 999.

306 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
The Florentines refused the proffered league ; they could not
break their alliance with the men of Siena and the Legate of
Bologna whose envoys were present : the Sienese gave the
like answer. The ambassadors were forced to return with this
unsatisfactory message to their King, who was very wroth,
and who threatened soon to make the Florentines sing a
different tune. Ladislas then moved on to Siena, remained
there a few days plundering and ravaging, but was obliged
to shift his quarters for want of provisions. On the 1 st May
he entered the Florentine territory, and on the 3rd pitched his
camp at Olmo, near Arezzo, where he wrought great damage.
He was unable to take any of the high-lying cities, but he
wasted the country around. On the 16th April, Baldassare
Cossa sent troops under Malatesta to the aid of the Floren
tines : the joint forces marched to Arezzo and offered battle
to the King, but Ladislas avoided anything like an en
counter ; he marched off to Castiglione and thence to Cortona,
plundering and spoiling the crops, the vines, and the fruit-
trees, ravaging the dominions which the Pope had assigned to
him. He did more damage than any man before him, where
fore the peasants called him in derision 'King Waste-crop.'1
Baldassare Cossa, on the other hand, was completely success
ful. On the 7th May he marched with a mighty array of
bombards, mangonels, catapults, and the like instruments of
war against the Constable Alberigo da Barbiano, defeated
him on the 16th, chased him out of Romagna, and took
several strong places ; while two days later his general,
Sforza, put a finishing touch to the good work by surprising
and killing the King's other general, Ottobuon Terzo.2
While eminent ecclesiastics from all countries of Europe were
assembling at Pisa, the work of defending Tuscany and the
Council against King Ladislas, of rendering it possible to
hold a Council at all, fell almost entirely under the guidance
of the Papal Legate of Bologna, 'the vigorous ruler, the
intelligent statesman, the successful general';3 and this ex
plains why he, a Cardinal of the Church, could take no part
in the earlier proceedings of the Council of Pisa. At Cortona
Ladislas tried to win over the Lord of the city by bribery ;
1 Tartini, ii. 597-602. 2 Mur. xviii. 597. a Raumer, 187.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 307
he was unsuccessful, but certain of the citizens themselves
turned traitors. On the 3rd June the Neapolitan general,
the Count of Troja, was admitted into the city, the Lord
of Cortona was bound hand and foot and sent off to Naples ;
while the French ambassador, who was also captured, was
held to ransom. The Venetians then unsuccessfully attempted
to make peace between Florence and Ladislas ; and the King,
leaving troops in Perugia, Cortona, and other places, returned
to Naples. His attempt to baulk the Council of Pisa had
been frustrated mainly through the energy and military
resource of Baldassare Cossa, Papal Legate of Bologna.
Not less opposed to the Council than Rupert and Ladislas
was King Sigismund of Hungary. From the time when Pope
Boniface the Ninth had countenanced the invasion of his
kingdom by Ladislas of Naples, Sigismund had broken off
relations with the court at Rome. He had not turned to
the Pope at Avignon, but he had withdrawn the spiritual
obedience of Hungary from Rome, and had appointed to
benefices whom he would.1 When Gregory became Pope,
Sigismund renewed his intercourse with Rome. He sent in
1406 envoys from Spalatro to the Pope asking for help
against the Turks and the heretical Bosnians, and Gregory
had hastened to grant remission of sins to all sinners who
aided the King in his warfare.2 From that time the friendly
relations between the two courts remained unbroken, although
the Papacy never regained its old influence in Hungary.
Sigismund regarded the Council of Pisa as a machination of
the French who, in his view, wanted to get possession of
both the Church and the Empire, and to reduce the whole
world under their sway. There were some grounds for this
view. Although the jurists had urged independent action
on the College as early as October 1407, yet the seven
cardinals of Gregory, when they broke away from their
obedience and appealed from the Pope to Christ and a
General Council, when they claimed the aid of princes and
prelates for the union of the Church, still did not attempt
to gain their end independently of the Pope. It was not
until they were joined by the French cardinals from the
* De Schismate, 153, * Sauerbrei, 16.

308 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
obedience of Benedict that they determined on the decisive
step. No sooner had the step been taken than it was ac
claimed by the French clergy and by the French King.
The project of the Council of Pisa had been taken under
French protection. On the 12th January 1409 Charles the
Sixth had announced his intention of endeavouring to win
over the courts of Europe to a declaration of neutrality
between the Popes ; he had despatched his ambassadors and
had informed the cardinals of their success.1 Sigismund be
lieved that his aim was to depose both existing Popes and
to elect a new Pope who should be a Frenchman, as sub
servient to French interests as Clement the Fifth and Clement
the Seventh had been before him. There was more hope for
Sigismund from a man like Gregory than from a French
Pope. When the cardinals wrote to him, he warned them
to go to work warily, lest they should otherwise make con
fusion worse confounded.
The same apprehension was present to the minds of Sigis
mund, of Rupert, and of Pierre d'Ailly. Sigismund would
hear of no council in which the Pope was not present. Let a
General Council meet under Pope Gregory, let all the princes
of Europe attend in person or by their representatives, let the
council then determine whether Gregory was bound by the oath
he had sworn ; and if it held that Gregory was so bound, then
let the cardinals proceed to a fresh election. This was his
plan ; it was the plan also of Carlo Malatesta. But neither
of them had any influence at that time with the aged Pope.
The Lord of Rimini besought him to enter into communica
tion with the cardinals at Pisa, but he would not. 'What
would become of his own cardinals ? ' said Gregory ; ' what
would become of King Rupert, of King Sigismund, of King
Ladislas, what would become of the others who held by him,
and who were therefore most odious to the cardinals at
Pisa ? ' 2 All was of no avail. King Sigismund in his scheme
did not mention Pope Benedict; he knew that France, the
most important country, had subtracted her obedience, and he
took no heed of other nations such as Scotland and Spain ;
nor again did he contemplate the contingency that the council
1 Goeller, 29-31. 2 Mansi, xxvii. 95.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 309
might decide that under existing circumstances Gregory was
not bound by his promise. His uppermost thought was that
all unity of action was utterly impossible if the council was
in the hands of France, and with such a council he would
have nothing to do.
Meantime, on the 30th May 1408, Florence had made a
league with Baldassare Cossa, Cardinal Legate of Bologna:
Pisa had been granted to the cardinals for their council, and
they had issued invitations thereto. The cardinals had bidden
Pope Gregory to Pisa, but he had answered them that to him
alone the right of convocation belonged, that he had already
convoked a council elsewhere, and that he was ready to
forgive and to reinstate them if they attended. Although
the Florentines were not unwilling to meet Gregory's wishes,
the cardinals stood firm. They insisted that the Pope's right
to convoke a council belonged only to a Pope who was
recognised as the universal and rightful head of all Christen
dom ; that at present there were two Popes, neither of whom
had obtained universal recognition nor could be held to be
rightful Pope ; that the right to convoke a council was there
fore lost to the Popes and had devolved on the cardinals who
had chosen them ; and finally, that it was the expression of
their intention to call such a council which had induced the
rival Popes to issue their invitations.
From the cardinals King Sigismund received two invitations
to their council, one dated the 16th July, the second dated
the 9th September. Though there were now three councils
convoked, the King did not give up hope. He sent his
ambassador, William of Prata, to Venice to induce the
Republic, which was of his mind in the matter, to reconcile
Pope and cardinals, and to get them to hold a council wherein
it should be determined whether the Pope was bound by his
promise or not ; on the understanding, however, that if not so
bound, the Pope should nevertheless be obliged to abide by
whatever resolution the council might approve as to the
means of ending the Schism. In other words, Sigismund was
now ready to agree that the Pope should be forced to abdicate
if the council so determined ; thus far he was willing to
concede to the cardinals. The important question now was,

310 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
however, not whether the Pope was bound by his oath, but
who was entitled to convoke the council.
At the end of January Gregory had taken up his abode at
Rimini, under the protection of Carlo Malatesta, who was
renowned and respected by all parties both as a general and
as a statesman. Carlo Malatesta joined with the King and
the Republic, and persuaded Gregory to be ready to abandon
his own council provided he could unite with his cardinals in
calling one. Bologna, Forli, Mantua, or Rimini was suggested
as the place of meeting ; or, as Gregory himself proposed, some
place might be named by an umpire elected by both parties.
William of Prata and Marino Rosso went as ambassadors to
the cardinals ; if they won over the old cardinals of Gregory,
they were then to try those of Benedict. King Sigismund
knew of Benedict's alleged eagerness for the union of the
Church ; and if he and Gregory and the cardinals could all be
brought to be of one mind, then a time and place for the
future council could be fixed, and there would be a chance of
the Schism being really ended.1 But the cardinals regarded
a proposal emanating from their old enemy as might have
been expected : they were not again to be deceived by him ;
there could be but one result to the embassy : they refused to
stultify themselves in the eyes of Europe by giving up their
council at Pisa.
King Sigismund was disappointed. On the 7th February
1409 he informed the republic of Venice that he had let the
cardinals know that he held Gregory for the only true Pope,
and that he had no intention of subtracting the obedience of
Hungary from him. He even appeared at this time to
contemplate appearing at the council which that Pope had
convoked at Udine. Gregory meantime, on the 14th December,
addressed a final supplication to his cardinals to return to
their obedience : on the 14th January 1409 they received
from him a Bull denouncing them as apostates, schismatics,
blasphemers, and foresworn. It was a mere brutum fulmen
from the aged Pope, who was now to feel his forsaken condi
tion. At the end of January the Republic of Florence
definitely seceded to the enemy's camp. About the same
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1 1 1 1 ; Goeller, 42.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 311
time appeared ambassadors from Henry the Fourth of
England, urging the Pope to agree to the Council at Pisa, and
informing him that, in any case, prelates from England would
be in attendance there. Sigismund himself forsook him.
Although the King was not represented at the Council of
Pisa, he informed the cardinals that he was in accord with his
brother's wishes. He did not believe in the Council of Pisa ;
he refused to countenance its proceedings ; but he was
eminently an active, practical man, with head and hands full
of far-reaching projects, and he needed a Pope who could
help him. A Pope forsaken by every crowned head of
Europe, except his two enemies Ladislas and Rupert, was no
good to King Sigismund of Hungary. He was represented
neither at the Council of Pisa nor at that of Cividale.
The account of the strenuous opposition offered by King
Ladislas of Naples, and of the equally strenuous measures
taken in defence of the council by Baldassare Cossa, Papal
Legate at Bologna, while it clears the way for the considera
tion of what occurred at Pisa, has taken us somewhat in
advance of the rest of the story. From the date of the
arrival of Simon de Cramaud and Pierre Plaoul from their
embassy to Pope Gregory, there had been, as has already been
mentioned, constant correspondence between Paris and Leg
horn. It was determined to send twelve representatives from
every ecclesiastical province of France to the Council of Pisa.
The Abbe of Citeaux promised to attend with twelve Cistercian
abbots ; the bishops, monasteries, and universities had received
separate invitations, and all were warned by the King to be in
attendance at Pisa on the 25th March 1409. The influence
of the Duke of Burgundy, whose apology for his crime had
been read on the 8th March by Jean Petit, was supreme.
The University of Paris surpassed itself in its animosity to
Pope Benedict : it declared the three French cardinals who
still adhered to him, as well as two new French cardinals whom
he had recently promoted, to be ' suspects ' ; it published a .
fresh ordonnance of neutrality. There was much discussion
in the Council at Paris as to the government of the Church,
the collation of benefices, and other points in the absence of
the Pope, but arrangements were made. The French court

312 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
and clergy, as a body, were prepared loyally to support the
Council of Pisa.
While the fifth council of the clergy was being held at
Paris, Pope Benedict was gathering the remains of his court
around him at Perpignan. Seven of his cardinals had left
him to join the twelve cardinals of the opposite obedience in
Italy; an eighth had disappeared and his whereabouts was
not known ; a ninth, the Cardinal Anglesola, had died shortly
after landing in Rousillon ; a tenth, Louis de Bar, had gone
to the court of France, to take there the place to which his
birth entitled him. There remained only three : the Savoyard
de Chalant, whom Benedict had raised to the purple in 1404
but could not trust; Jean Flandrin, who had been cardinal
since 1390 ; and Louis Fieschi of Geneva, who owed his hat
originally to Pope Urban the Sixth (1385). On the 22nd
September Benedict raised five more to the college, one a
native of Castile, two of Aragon, and two of France. One
of these latter, however, died sixteen days after his nomina
tion. There remained therefore seven cardinals to support
the Pope in his council at Perpignan. He had invited
the French clergy, but the King of France had promptly
issued decrees forbidding them to attend, and had posted
guards to stop their egress into Spain. Benedict still kept
up correspondence with his cardinals in Italy: in July he
summoned them to attend his council; in September they
replied by announcing to him the Council of Pisa and regret
ting that they could not attend that at Perpignan, of which
they did not see the use. Then on the 6th November arrived
the official intimation of the Council at Pisa, to which Benedict
and his three original cardinals, who were also invited to
attend, replied that he alone could convoke a General Council,
that he could not go to Pisa, and that his cardinals were to
come to Perpignan. The date fixed for the opening had
already passed. Still another communication was to pass
from his refractory cardinals to Pope Benedict. On the 25th
January 1409 they sent him a long letter from Pisa, in which
they again reminded him of his authorising them to call a
synod ; they mentioned that his rival now had scarce where
to lay his head, and expressed their hope that his perverse

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 313
refractoriness would not endanger the unity of the Church ;
they again begged Benedict to appear at the council at Pisa.
Not till the 5th March did the Pope answer this letter. He
referred them to the conclusions of his Council of Perpignan,
which had been published, and to the letters which his envoys
should bring as soon as they had obtained their safe-conduct ;
he concluded by warning them against the election of any
new Pope. Meantime, as already intimated, the Council of
Perpignan had been held.1
The Council of Perpignan had been called for the 1st
November, but the opening was postponed for a fortnight,
and the Pope to increase his pomp had, like his rival, named
four Patriarchs. On the 15th November the stately little
Pope in great splendour descended from the Castle of Per
pignan to the Church de la Real (beatae Mariae regalis) and
opened his council. The Pope himself read the Mass, the
Dominican Bishop of Oleron preached ; King Martin of Aragon
was the Protector of the Council. Beside the four Patriarchs
and the nine cardinals there were present the Archbishops of
Toledo, Saragossa, and Tarragona; thirty-three bishops,
together with many prelates from different parts of the
peninsula and also from Gascony, Savoy, and Lorraine. Many
more would have come from France, but for the royal prohibi
tion, and many of those who did come were forced to wear
disguises to elude the guards set to stop them on the road.
Including the envoys from different potentates there were not
far short of three hundred persons assembled.2 The first and
the second sessions (Saturday, 17th November) were ceremonial :
the Pope made his confession of orthodoxy. The real busi
ness began with the third session on the 21st November.
Benedict rose and spoke shortly on the importance of
oecumenical councils. He regretted that the Babylonish con
fusion of the time had prevented him from convoking one,
but he had assembled the present council to do what in him
lay for the reformation of the Church and the termination of
the unfortunate Schism ; and in order to refute the calumnies
against him, he had committed to writing a full account of
all his endeavours hitherto. The Cardinal de Chalant then
1 Hefele, vi. 935. s Valois, iv. 47.

314 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
began to read the lengthy memoir which set forth in its true
light the whole pontificate of Pope Benedict. It took from
the third to the ninth session, on the 1st December, to get
through the long history. Then on the 5th December the
Pope asked the council for its advice as to his future conduct,
alleging that he was ready to sacrifice his life in the interest
of the Church. Seeing that the majority of those present
were Spaniards, Benedict thought he might safely trust them
with his future. But he was bitterly disappointed. The
answer should have been given on the 12th December, but
owing to the difficulty of the question and the long delibera
tion necessary, the council found it impossible to reply to
the Pope's question before Friday, the 1st February 1409.
The majority of the members had meantime departed. The
council recognised the efforts which Benedict had made ; it
freed him from all reproach of heresy or schism ; it pro
claimed him a good Christian and a good Pope. But it was
intent on ending the Schism, and on doing so with the least
delay possible. Some of its members desired him to send
proctors to Pisa empowered to effect his abdication in case of
the death, the abdication, or the deposition of his rival : x
this advice was condemned by others ; discussions followed ;
there seemed little hope of unanimity; and the numbers
dwindled still further. Those in attendance were reduced to
sixty, to thirty, to eighteen, finally to ten : these were the
Cardinals of Toulouse and Chalons ; the Patriarch of Antioch,
the Archbishops of Saragossa and Tarragona, the Chancellor
of the King of Castile, three bishops, and the general of the
Dominican order.
On the 1st February, in the names of eighteen members of
the council, the Patriarch of Constantinople presented to
the Pope a schedule in which they besought him to hold fast
to the 'way of cession' and to declare his readiness to
abdicate if his rival were deposed ; to send to Gregory and
to the cardinals at Pisa trustworthy envoys empowered to
do all that he could do in person to secure the peace of the
Church; and finally, to arrange that in case of his death
no new election should be made.2 He was still, in spite of
1 Mansi, xxvi. mo. 2 Hefele, vi. 990 ; Valois, iv. 49.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 315
all that he had done, in the teeth of the council's own
approval of his actions, to be forced into the ' way of cession '
which he hated. The determined little Pope received the
deputation, and read the schedule : ' I shall do none of these
things,' he said ; ' besides, I know that you are not all of
one mind.' ' Holy Father,' replied the deputation, ' there
is but one of us who dissents.' 'Then he is more sensible
than the rest of you,' answered Benedict; and turning to
De Chalant, he added angrily : ' I forbid you on your
obedience to speak of this matter in the council. Do you
wish to make me a scandal ? ' 'I desire to raise no scandal,
Holy Father,' replied the Savoyard, ' but I must express my
opinion in the council.' The Pope became furious, and
threatened to imprison the Cardinal so that he should never
see the sun again. Finally the Pope agreed to select envoys
from different nations to represent him at Pisa, and to
examine the conditions on which it was proposed to treat of
the peace of the Church. This was on the 12th February ;
he adjourned the announcement of the names of his
ambassadors to the 26th March. In the meantime he was
again invited to go to Pisa ; the French king, Constable
Boucicaut, the Genoese, and the Florentines, offered him a
safe-conduct for thirteen months. For all reply Benedict
threatened to excommunicate any one who took any
measures to his prejudice or who dared to elect a new Pope
while he was alive.1 His logical firmness had degenerated
into headstrong obstinacy. Even he, however, was obliged to
recognise that the Council of Perpignan was a deplorable
failure, although it was not such an utter fiasco as the council
subsequently held by his rival Gregory.
Pope Benedict the Thirteenth enjoyed at least the credit of
holding his council at Perpignan in good time : it was opened
and was practically closed before the great Council of Pisa
commenced. But Pope Gregory the Twelfth was more dila
tory. On the 2nd July 1408 he had announced that he called
a General Council for next Pentecost at some place, to be here
after determined, in the Province of Aquileia or the Exarchate
of Ravenna; and on the 5th July he had written to King
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1119.

316 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Rupert to the same effect. At the end of July and the beginning
of August he had commissioned the Austin Friar Hieronymus
and the Minorite Fernandus to carry the news to all patriarchs,
archbishops, and others. On the 19th September he created
a batch of ten new cardinals. In October, Cardinal Giovanni
Dominici had written to England. On the 13th December
the Pope's nephew, Antonio Corrario, was sent as Cardinal
Legate to Germany and Flanders; on the 8th January
Giovanni Dominici was similarly sent to Hungary and Poland;
and on the 17th Bishop Antonio of Porto was sent to England
to beat up recruits for the council, the place of meeting having
on the 19th December been designated as Cividale and Udine.1
Meantime Lady Day 1409 came and the great Council of Pisa
'was opened. Carlo Malatesta, Pope Gregory's best and truest
friend, went there to protest ; the details of his interviews with
the cardinals will hereafter be narrated. When he returned
to Rimini he did his best to induce the Pope to go with his
Curia to Pistoja or San Miniato in order to treat with the
cardinals ; but Gregory, who was persuaded that they wanted
to capture him, obstinately refused, and held fast to his own
plan of a council in the Province of Friuli.2 Difficulties were
already arising. Gregory had intended to hold his synod in
Udine, which like Bologna was a city of arcaded streets, but
which was not as yet guarded by the citadel on Attila's Mound
nor adorned by the civic palace modelled after that of the
Doges of Venice. Udine was, however, the capital of the
Patriarchs of Aquileia, and they were the chief princes of that
corner of Italy. Unfortunately the Patriarch in possession at
this present was not the nominee of Pope Gregory, but the
adherent of King Wenzel and of the Cardinals. On the 16th
May the men of Udine held a meeting in opposition to the
projected council, and on the 29th they called on their Patri
arch, Antonius Pancera de Portogruario, to remain true to
them and not to give in to Pope Gregory.3 The Pope was
therefore obliged to change the venue to the little town of
Cividale, still nearer to the Julian Alps, ten miles to the east
of Udine.
Cividale, formerly known as Friuli or Forum Julii, where
1 Roem. Quart. 223-30. s Mansi, xxvii. 300. * Roem. Quart. 235.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 317
the wind blows shrewdly from ' the Alpine height of blue
Friuli's mountains,' ' though now shorn of some of its old
glory, is still one of the most interesting and picturesque cities
of the Venetian mainland. It is situated on the north-eastern
margin of that great alluvial plain, and clings, as it were, to
the skirts of the mountains which are climbed by the highway
of the Predil Pass. The city is divided from one of its suburbs
by a deep gorge, through which, blue as a turquoise, flow
the waters of the river Natisone on their way to the ruins
of desolate Aquileia.' 1 It was here, on the 6th June 1409,
more than ten weeks after the cardinals had passed in solemn
inaugural procession over the wooden bridge of the Arno, less
than three weeks before the day when the bells rang out from
the Leaning Tower their welcome to the new Pope of the
council, that Pope Gregory the Twelfth opened his council.
King Ladislas of Naples, who sixteen years earlier had been
offered in marriage to the daughter of Sultan Bajazet,2 was
now Protector of the Holy Roman Church. With his aid
Gregory had attempted to win the allegiance of his own native
city ; but the Venetians, undeterred by ' French fatuity and
Florentine malignity,' had declined ; they ultimately went over
to the Council of Pisa and its Pope. Nor did any of the
German prelates appear ; the charming of the Pope's nephew
had been in vain ; and King Rupert's letter, only sent off
about the middle of June, had not had time to take effect.
The Pope said Mass and opened the Council, and by reason
of the paucity of numbers postponed the second session for a
fortnight. On the 20th June there were present six cardinals,
three envoys from the King of the Romans and two from King
Ladislas ; the business officials were elected and the next session
appointed for the 28th. On that date certain acts and deeds
were read, but nothing of importance was done, and the fourth
session was fixed for the 15th July, before which date the
hearts of the little assembly were cheered by the advent of
three more cardinals. At the next meeting the Pope rose and
explained to the 'Oecumenical Council' all the manifold labours
he had endured in trying to effect a meeting with his rival, and
concluded by reminding them that they were there present in
1 Hodgkin, vi. 39. 2 Huber, Geschichte Oesterreichs. ii. 356.

318 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
order to express their views as to the best method of obtaining
union in the Church. The Cardinal of Utica then addressed
them : he thought that some principality or power, the
Republic of Venice for choice, should intervene and invite all
three Popes to meet in order simultaneously to resign. Even if
it were impossible to procure the attendance of the Pope at
Avignon, still he was bound by the oath which he had taken
at his coronation and by his subsequent promise, so that he
could be condemned as a fautor of schism, a perjurer, a contu
macious and incorrigible heretic.1 It was late when the worthy
cardinal had finished, and the same session was continued on
the 23rd, when the Cardinal of Ragusa, the ambassadors of the
two Kings, and others presented their views, some in writing
and some by word of mouth, after which the fifth session was
fixed for the 2nd August.
Pope Gregory meantime, on the 21st July, despatched the
Austin Hermit Hieronymus to Hungary, and five days later
appointed Bishop Albert of Posen as his Legate to Poland, and
Archbishop Sbinko of Prague to Bohemia.2 He also nominated
in the same capacity Bishop Henry of Winchester, notorious
for his incontinence, as Legate in England.3 The fifth session
was engrossed by the ambassadors of King Rupert : they were
the Bishops of Wuerzburg, Worms, and Verden, the Abbot of
Maulbronn, Blasius of Milan, and three other doctors of law.
They read the King's appeal from the Council of Pisa, which
was admitted and duly considered ; finally it was agreed that a
missive should be sent to the Republic of Venice, urging them
to display their ' zeal, love, favour, and suffrage ' to our Lord
the Pope. King Rupert's letters to the princes, bishops,
chapters, and cities of Germany had been as ineffective as
usual ; no representative appeared. Gregory on the same day
sent off two envoys to Venice, but received no favourable reply
from the Republic. At the sixth session, held on the 23rd
August, the number of cardinals in attendance, notwithstand
ing the recent creations, had by reason of their sickness
dwindled to six. At this session a commission was appointed
to investigate the title to the Papacy. The next meeting, on
the 27th, was occupied in hearing their report ; and the Pope
1 Roem. Quart, 256. 3 Ibid. 238-9. s Hefele, vi. 1038.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 319
expressed his intention of continuing the present council at
some future time at Rome, but at the same time appointed a
date for the next session.
The eighth, and as it proved the last and most important,
session of the Council of Cividale was held on the 5th September
1409. Probably the members felt that their days in Friuli
were short, for they were roused into unwonted activity. They
found that Urban the Sixth, Boniface the Ninth, and Innocent
the Seventh had been canonically elected ; that Gregory was
the only rightful Pope ; that the two Peters, of Luna and of
Candia — the latter had been elected by the Council of Pisa —
were sacrilegious Antipopes, schismatics, perjurers, disturbers
and destroyers of the Church. Having fulminated this dreadful
sentence, the tiny council adjourned till the 9th, but they were
never to meet again, for before that day the Pope had fled.
Gregory declared that he was still burning with desire for the
unity of the Church, and that he was ready to resign if Peter of
Luna and Peter of Candia would do the like ' according to the
formulary of the conclave.' He left the time and place of
resignation to be fixed by the three Kings, Rupert of Germany,
Ladislas of Naples, and Sigismund of Hungary. They were to
act in concert, and he named as his own attorney Carlo
Malatesta.1 The proposal sounded like a feeble joke from
the weak old man; for Sigismund and Ladislas had been
deadly enemies for the last twenty years, Ladislas and Rupert
were competitors for the imperial crown, and Sigismund and
Rupert were at odds on the same score. It would have
been impossible to find three princes in Europe less likely
to meet and agree together than were these three. However,
it mattered little what Gregory said or did. He had written
to King Rupert, thanking him for his fidelity and telling
him that he felt his position becoming precarious and must
betake himself to the refuge of King Ladislas. His chief
object now was to get away to some place safer than Cividale.
Antonius de Portogruario, the nominee of the cardinals at
Pisa, was now Patriarch of Aquileia in possession. A year
earlier Pope Gregory had attempted to oust him : the time
had now come for the Patriarch to take his revenge. He
1 Mansi, xxvi. 109 1.

320 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
caused all the passes to be watched to prevent the escape of
the Pope and his cardinals. The Venetians had sent to the
Pope to ascertain his intentions, and Gregory feared that
they might take upon them to execute the decree of excom
munication which the Council of Pisa had passed against him.
He asked for time to give his answer ; he really wanted the
time to plan his escape to the port where the two galleys sent
by King Ladislas were awaiting him. It was on the 6th
September before daybreak, between the seventh and eighth
hours of the night, that the Pope took flight. He dressed his
chamberlain, Paolo Lolli, a Roman, who was very like him in
the face, in the pontifical robes, and gave him the escort of
Ladislas as his guard. Gregory disguised himself as a
merchant ; he mounted a horse, and took with him only two
foot-servants. Thus he managed to elude the sentries of the
Patriarch ; he reached the shore, took a small boat, gained
the galleys, and thus made his escape to Gaeta. The un
fortunate chamberlain Lolli was seized, forced to walk two
miles bare-headed, and was forcibly dragged along before the
mistake was discovered. In their anger the soldiers tore off
his gorgeous robes, beat him, and took from him the five
hundred golden florins which he carried ; one of his captors
donned the pontifical raiment, marched up and down the
streets of Udine, and showered sham benedictions on the
people. Gregory meantime got safe to Ladislas, his present and
most powerful protector.1
Pitiful as were his efforts for supremacy in the Church,
Pope Gregory had not been entirely without help and
sympathy. King Ladislas of Naples and Carlo Malatesta of
Rimini had been faithful to him. Venice had refused to
listen to the French ambassadors and declined for the time
to subtract her obedience ; Sigismund of Hungary would not
follow the lead of Wenzel, and took no part in the Council of
Constance. Nor was Benedict without his adherents : the
King of Aragon announced to the King of France that he
meant to take part in the Council of Perpignan, and not in
that of Pisa ; the Regent of Castile would only consent to
subtract his obedience if Benedict did not abdicate before the
1 De Schismate, 316 ; Hefele, vi. 1036-9.

TWO MINOR COUNCILS 321
Council of the Cardinals assembled; the Regent and the
prelates of Scotland remained deaf to the charming of the
King of France ; and Pope Benedict thought he could count
upon the adhesion of Anthony of Brabant, brother of John,
Duke of Burgundy.
England took the side of the cardinals at Pisa. The
Abbot of Westminster and other Englishmen of note had
been at Lucca and had witnessed Gregory's tergiversations ;
Archbishop Arundel was at one with the French, and under
his influence the heart of King Henry the Fourth had been
' most blessedly kindled with zeal for the union of the Church.'
When the King ' heard how matters sped in Italy, he did
not mince his words. He would stand by the cardinals if he
had to shed his blood or be brayed in bits for it.' Notwith
standing this it was with great reluctance that he abandoned
Gregory, and he subsequently assured King Rupert that he
had never formally withdrawn obedience. But Francesco
Uguccione, Archbishop of Bordeaux, crossed the Channel in
November 1408, bringing with him a letter from Simon de
Cramaud and other prelates in Paris ; he pleaded ' laudably
and elegantly' before the King and his lords spiritual and
temporal. Sir John Cheyne and Bishop Chichele, who held
a brief for Gregory, remained silent; and the cardinal was
assured that England would send her representatives to the
council at Pisa.1
The King of France was equally successful elsewhere in his
endeavours on behalf of the cardinals. Genoa subtracted her
obedience on the 21st July 1408; Florence subtracted hers
formally on the 7th February 1409 ; Milan and Bologna were
already on the side of France ; Germany was divided. King
Rupert had some ground for his bitter denunciations of the
French court, who now, under the influence of John the Fear
less, were negotiating a marriage between the niece of his
rival Wenzel and the nephew of the Duke of Burgundy.
France, said the King, was alone responsible for the prolonga
tion of the Schism ; France had lavished gold to induce the
cardinals to elect a French Pope; 'France had suddenly
become favourable to a council because she saw herself power-
1 Wylie, iii. 349-66.

322 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
less otherwise to attain her ends ; France was using the
Church simply to extend her conquests on the side of the
Empire. But Heaven was tired of this impious policy;
the kingdom was a prey to the horrors of war ; Charles was
lunatic, and the royal princes were at deadly enmity one with
another. The colouring of the picture was overcharged, but
there was a certain amount of truth in the main outlines.1
The initial step had been taken by the cardinals, of whom the
majority were Italian. The University of Bologna had kept
step with the University of Paris. The treatise of Francesco
Zabarella, dated the 4th November 1408, had set forth the
superiority of the council over the Pope as clearly as any
tractate of Jean Gerson. The Kings of England, of Bohemia,
of Poland, of Portugal, of Cyprus ; the Dukes of Holland and
of Austria ; the Electors of Cologne and of Mainz and other
magnates of Germany — all these, no less than the French, had
promised to take part in the heroic endeavour which the
cardinals were to make at Pisa to put an end to the accursed,
thirty years old, Great Schism of the Church, j
1 Valois, iv. 72.

PISA 323

CHAPTER IX
PISA
At the time of the Great Council of Pisa, this Ghibeline city,
which had ever been faithful to the Emperor, had fallen under
the dominion of her ancient rival, the Guelf city of Florence,
which had generally been faithful to the Pope ; so that from
the political point of view there was something appropriate
in its being the scene of an oecumenical council, supposed to
represent all parties. The change in its fortune was the
result of a quadrilateral struggle between France, as repre
sented by Boucicaut the Governor of Genoa, Florence, and
the Signor and the people of Pisa itself. It had come about
on this wise.
Pisa in old times, like Ravenna, had been situate almost
on the shore of Italy ; 1 its navy had rivalled those of Venice
and Genoa. Now Pisa, like Ravenna, was six miles inland.
It is in the centre of a large, plain, corn-growing land ; to the
north-east are the Monte Pisani, whose snow-capped heights
in winter and early spring flush to a delicate pink in the
rays of the western sun ; to the west are other small hills.
As the dry land grew up between the city and the sea, each
place had constructed for itself a new port ; in Ravenna it
was Classis, at Pisa it was Leghorn. (And just as at Ravenna
there was a pine forest, the ' immemorial wood ' which Byron
loved, seaward from the city, so too at Pisa there was to the
north-west, seaward from the city, a pine forest where Shelley
wandered, ' All overwrought with branchlike traceries
In which there is re'ligioTf/

1 Dennis, Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, ii. 79, note.

324 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Pisa, like Perugia and Siena, fell before the might of Gian
Galeazzo of Milan, and when his strong hand was removed by
death, the old feud with Florence broke out afresh. The
Pisans ravaged the fields and vineyards and harried the cattle
of Florence, and the Florentines did the like by them ; the
advantage lay on the side of the stronger city.1 Duke Gian
Galeazzo in his will left Pisa and a few other small places to
his natural and eldest son, Gabriel Maria ; and Gabriel and
his mother, the beautiful and strenuous Agnese Mantegazza,
fearing the troubles under the regency in Milan, came to Pisa
for refuge in November 1403. They were very coldly received,
and the coldness turned to disaffection when Gabriel Maria
announced that he wanted money. The citizens represented
their inability to pay ; but Gabriel Maria seized some of their
leaders, condemned them for treachery, and raised funds
by fines and confiscations.2 Disaffection now turned to hatred.
In January 1404 an exile from Pisa prompted the Florentines
to make an attack ; but he repented him of his villainy, went
and informed the Ancients of Pisa : a guard was posted and
the attack was averted.3 The Signor of Pisa was now in
a dilemma : the citizens hated him mortally ; the Florentines
threatened to take his city. He therefore cast himself on the
protection of France.
Boucicaut knew that if Pisa and Leghorn passed into
the possession of Florence they would be a thorn in the
side of Genoa, and formidable rivals to her trade ; he
communicated his views to the French court, which gladly
received the overtures of Gabriel Maria. On the 15th April
1404 Gabriel swore fealty to the King of France, signed a
treaty with Boucicaut's delegate, declaring that he held his
domains of the French King and would make peace or war
only as he pleased, and promised in symbol of his fealty
to send every year a horse and a falcon. He also agreed to
give Boucicaut possession of Leghorn. France on her side
undertook to maintain Gabriel Maria at Pisa ; and the Signiory
over the city was bestowed by the King on the 24th May on
his brother Louis of Orleans, although the administration was
to be carried on by Boucicaut.4 Pisa consequently was trans-
1 Tartini, ii. 468, 472 ; Ammirato, iv. 347. 2 Tartini, ii. 477.
3 Ibid. ii. 488. * Jarry, 338.

PISA 325
ferred to the obedience of Pope Benedict, and it was at this
time, when the Pope was at Genoa with his faithful friend in
the summer of 1405, that the Venetians suspected Boucicaut
of meditating a coup de main to put Benedict in possession
of Rome.
As soon as the terms between Gabriel Maria and France
had been arranged, Boucicaut sent information to Florence
asking for their congratulation as a friendly power; at
the same time he seized the property of some Florentine
merchants. The Florentines remonstrated, sent an embassy
to France, and demanded the release of the property ; but
they were forced to make a league with Pisa for four years in
order to obtain release of the property, which was worth
one hundred thousand florins.1 Gabriel Maria now began to
think that he might make a better bargain with the Floren
tines than with the French, and Boucicaut himself began to
take a different view of the acquisition of Pisa. He held
Genoa with the aid of the Guelfs, and Pisa was intensely
Ghibeline. Gino Capponi came from Florence and had
interviews with the Governor, who was sadly in need of money
to aid Francesco da Carrara. Gabriel Maria on his side sent
word secretly to Maso degli Albizzi of Florence that he had
somewhat to say unto him. Maso accordingly went fishing
in the Arno at Vico Pisano, had a secret interview with
Gabriel Maria, but was unable to come to terms.2 The news
of these negotiations leaked out and became known to the
Pisans, who naturally wanted to have something to say as to
their own disposal. Since the death of Piero Gambacorti
twelve years earlier, the party of the Raspanti had been in
power ; but now a change ensued.3 At this time Gabriel Maria
was in possession of Pisa, and Marshal Boucicaut held Leghorn.
Ranieri Zacci, the most trusted confidant of the Signor, now
turned traitor against his master, and resolved to show Florence
and Italy that the Pisans had lost none of their old valour
and reputation.4 The Signor's troops were driven back into
the citadel, and Gabriel Maria himself was forced to retire to
Sarzana for safety. This popular rising upset the negotiations
of Boucicaut. The Pisans dug a deep ditch to separate the
1 Tartini, ii. 490. * Capponi, i. 413.
3 Capponi, i. 417. * Ammirato, iv. 368.

326 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
citadel from the city, and flung heaps of ordure and filth
in among the garrison; they ravaged the country round.
Boucicaut managed to throw a hundred men-at-arms into the
Signor's beleaguered fortress, and tried to send them provisions
in a vessel. The galley and the bark were, however, stopped at
the mouth of the Arno by the Pisans, who to the number of
six thousand seized them, took the crews prisoners, and
dragged the banner of the King of France through the mud,
trampling and spitting on it.1 This action was ' selon la
generate coustome qui est au pays de deld de non eulx tenir longue-
ment soubs une Seigneurie, quand Us se trouvent les plus forts.'' 2
It was useless for Boucicaut to reproach the Pisans with their
evil conduct ; they only answered him proudly.
The Florentine ambassadors now approached Gabriel
Maria at Sarzana, but he told them he had just sent his
mother off to Genoa to Boucicaut, and must await the
governor's answer. The French Constable saw what stuff the
Pisans were made of, and began to fear that the conjunc
tion of Pisa with Genoa would make the Ghibeline party so
strong that he would have difficulty in holding his own city.
Genoa was much more valuable than Pisa ; it would be im
politic to risk the loss of the more important city for the sake
of the less ; he determined to be contented with Leghorn and
to give up all thought of its mother city, Pisa. He came as
far as Porto Venere, where he met the Pisan envoys. They
attempted to palliate their recent conduct, throwing the
blame on the lower people, and offering Boucicaut himself the
Signiory. When he refused they offered to become subject to
the King of France, provided the citadel of Pisa and the forts
of Leghorn and Librafatta were made over to them; they
wanted to destroy the former and to hold the other two : in
fact, they wished the King of France to be their Signor merely
in name.3 Boucicaut laughed at this absurd proposal, told
them that Gabriel Maria was about to sell the Signiory to the
Florentines, who did not love them, and advised them to sub
mit themselves outright to the King of France. They replied
that they would never agree to this, and the negotiations were
broken off. The coast was now clear for the bargain to be
1 Boucicaut, 327. 2 Ibid. 320. s Ibid. 332.

PISA 327
struck between Gabriel Maria, Florence, and Boucicaut.
Although the Governor did not at first relish the notion of
the Signiory, for which homage had been done to his master,
being sold to the Florentines, still he acquiesced on the assur
ance that he should himself be left in undisturbed possession of
the port of Leghorn. Pope Benedict, who had hope of getting
the powerful Republic to acknowledge his obedience, backed
the Marshal up in this determination. Boucicaut accordingly
met the Florentine ambassadors at Leghorn. It was agreed
that he and Gabriel Maria should make over to Florence the
citadel and country of Pisa, that Boucicaut should retain
Leghorn, that Gabriel Maria should hold Sarzana and one or
two other small places, and that Florence should pay two
thousand florins.1 Something appears also to have been said
about the spiritual side of the question. This was on the
27th August. In accordance with this treaty the Florentine
Gino Capponi was put into possession of the citadel of Pisa
on the 31st August 1405.
Florence held Pisa on this occasion six days exactly.
The Pisans themselves had been no parties to the treaty, but
they lost no time in showing that they were to be reckoned
with in its execution. The citadel was strong, but the garrison
was negligent ; the Pisans discovered a postern gate which
was weakly guarded ; they entered, surprised the Florentines,
laid waste the place with fire and sword, excepting only the
towers which they preserved to guard the city. Florence had
lost Pisa and had only herself to blame. She let slip no time
in attempting to repair her loss, and the Pisans began to look
about them for allies. The Florentines refused to acknowledge
them except as rebels : when the Pisans attempted an embassy,
they received a reply addressed to the ' Captain and Ancients
of our city of Pisa.' 2 The Pisans sent ambassadors to King
Ladislas asking him to take the city under his protection ; but
he had designs on Rome, and had agreed with the Florentines
that he would not interfere with them if they did not interfere
with him ; he therefore declined the invitation of the Pisans.3
During the early part of the winter the Florentines gained a
little ground through the aid of Ludovico de' Megliorati and
1 Boucicaut, 339. 2 Capponi, i. 417. * Tartini, ii. 543.

328 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Sforza Attendolo ; they also bought one or two castles from
traitors, and captured a galley loaded with grain which was
coming to Pisa from Sicily.
In the spring of 1406 the Florentines took the field with
fifteen hundred lances, thirteen hundred foot soldiers, and
other troops. They were now in earnest, and it was to be a
fight to the death between them and their ancient rivals.
The Pisans were on their side ready to endure everything
rather than submit to hated Florence. Sforza was despatched
at the end of February to capture the strong post of Crispino,
five miles from Pisa; the Pisans thought to surprise him, but
the condottiere general defeated them with great loss. Maso
degli Albizzi and Gino Capponi took supreme command of
the Florentine forces, while Giovanni Gambacorti commanded
in the besieged city. The two delegates from the Ten pro
vided an adequate commissariat for their troops by proclaiming
a free market, exempt from all tolls; but the Pisans were
reduced to frightful straits. A convoy of their grain ships was
defeated and captured ; the useless mouths, old men, women,
and children, had to be turned out of the city, some of them
making their way to Lucca, others perishing under the city
walls, while the scarcity daily increased ; inside the besieged
town men ate grass and roots to sustain life. The Florentines
erected two bastions below the city, one on each side of the
river, which effectually stopped the entry of supplies. They
attempted to join these bastions with a bridge, but in May
there came a heavy rain, the river rose, the Pisans threw
branches and logs into the river, and the force of the water
and the rubbish was too much for the bridge, which was
carried away. The Pisans rushed out joyfully, thinking to
capture one bastion ; but the intrepid Sforza fearlessly crossed
the swollen stream in a frail bark, took command of the troops,
and drove off the discomfited citizens, who got back just in
time to prevent their enemies from entering with them within
the walls. On the night of the 9th June an escalade was
tried under a Florentine exile, Papi da Calcinaia, eager by
some deed of valour to purchase his return to his beloved
home; but the Pisans rushed to the wall, repulsed their
assailants, and the brave exile, locked in the arms of an enemy,

PISA 329
fell within and was killed. His corpse next day was fastened
on the back of an ass and carried round the city to encourage
the besieged. Quarrels broke out in the army of the besiegers
between Sforza and another condottiere general, Tartaglia, and
these were with difficulty adjusted, and impeded operations.
All hope of carrying Pisa by storm was given up, and
the city was straitly besieged, when one day signs of joy and
bonfires were observed : the banners of the Duke of Burgundy
were hung out on the towers and his arms displayed on the
gates, a herald issued from the city and announced that Pisa
belonged to the Duke, and that all the assailants were to
depart. Boucicaut had no part in this absurd interference of
the French ; the Florentines were disgusted ; they seized the
herald, bound his hands, and threw him into the Arno. Even
thus, however, the Pisans drew some advantage from the cir
cumstance, for some of the besieging troops, fearful of offending
the French, withdrew from the siege. The misery and hunger
in the city,however,daily increased, and in September, Giovanni
Gambacorti began to temporise. His envoys came out fast
ing, ate their fill, and wanted to take bread back with them.
' Eat as much as you like,' they were told, ' but you shall not
take back with you enough to last you a moment longer.'
Bread and flour were all exhausted ; there was nothing left in
Pisa but a little spice and sugar and three lean cows.
Giovanni Gambacorti was obliged to capitulate. But he was
not beaten ; he desired to save Pisa from being sacked. Gino
Capponi was ready to allow honourable terms. It was pro
posed that Pisa and all the fortresses should be surrendered,
that the islands of Capraia, Gorgona, and Giglio should be
given to Florence, and that fifty thousand florins should be
paid to Giovanni Gambacorti, who was to retain the signiory
of Bagno and to be received in Florence as a friend of the
city, exempt from all dues and taxes. The Florentines mur
mured at first, but only one white bean was given against the
acceptance of these proposals. Hostages were to be given to
the gallant defender of Pisa for the execution of the terms.
The agreement was ratified on the 8th October.1
On the following day the conquerors entered Pisa. Giovanni
1 Ammirato, iv. 380 et seq. ; Capponi, i. 419 et seq.

330 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Gambacorti had kept the negotiations a secret from the
citizens. He himself met the Florentine army at the gate of
San Marco, delivered to Gino Capponi a dart in sign of sur
render of the city, ' the most beautiful jewel of Italy,' and the
keys of the city were given up. As the army made its way
round the city, the men and women of Pisa, with pinched, livid
faces and sunken eyes, stared at them ; and when food was
thrown to them they rushed at it and devoured it like beasts,
so that some of them died ; and the children asked if there
would be anything for lunch. Pisa was spared the horrors of
a sack ; but a Florentine flag, which they had taken three years
previously, was elevated in sign of their overthrow. Many
of the most important citizens had escaped to Sicily and to
Naples. Gino Capponi addressed the hunger- stricken Pisans
who remained, enlarging on their many villainies toward
Florence for some years past ; and, after receiving their heart
felt thanks that the city was not sacked, he was elected Captain
of Pisa for the next eight months. Great were the rejoicings
in Florence : the acquisition of Pisa was announced to the
whole of Italy ; the celebrated volume of Justinian's Pandects,
which the Pisans had brought from Amalfi three centuries
earlier, and other venerated relics, were carried off to Florence,
just as Napoleon four centuries later deported treasures to Paris.
There was peace at last between the two rival cities.
The Florentines had made a solitude, and called it a peace.
The wondrous buildings of Pisa, which made the city, as
Giovanni Gambacorti had said, the jewel of Italy, still re
mained in undiminished grandeur, but the trade and navy of
the city were ruined, the population was decimated, the houses
were in ruins and desolate. Anything which would bring a
little wealth to the place was welcome to the mercantile men
of Florence. When Baldassare Cossa asked that the coming
council of the cardinals should be held at Pisa, his proposition
was welcomed.^ The Duomo was one of the wonders of the
world : where could so fitting an edifice for the meeting
of an oecumenical council be found ? The city was divided
into two parts by the river Arno : if the rival Popes appeared,
they would be separated by a natural and easily defensible
barrier. The vacant houses would provide accommodation

PISA 881
for all the prelates of Christendom. Their affluence would
bring wealth and might resuscitate the city. Florence, there
fore, willingly gave her consent that the coming council should
be held at Pisa, and the fact that the city was Florentine
reassured those who dreaded the overweening influence of the
French. The importance of the Council of Pisa in the struggle
against the claims of the Popes cannot be overestimated. The
Holy Roman Church is based on tradition. At the Council
of Trent, more than a hundred years later, it was held that
' the traditions handed down from the Apostolic age and pre
served in the Church are entitled to as much regard as the
doctrines and precepts which the inspired authors have com
mitted to writing.' J The Popes trace themselves up in lineal
succession through the Bishops of Rome to Saint Peter ; and
on Peter our Lord Himself declared that He built His Church.
Hence it follows that faithfully preserved tradition is the best
guarantee that the Church of Rome is really and truly the
Church of Christ. Nowadays reason sets itself up in opposi
tion to tradition. But the claims of untrammelled reason are
very modern. Aforetime every one sought the support of!
authority. At the time of the Reformation no one thought
of appealing simply to reason. By that time, and indeed for
some centuries before, the tradition of the Church had for the
most part hardened down into the canon law, which was the
great depository of the rulings of the Popes, even as the Pope
himself was the visible representative of divine authority and
the only safe continuator of tradition and of sacred law. The
revolt of Luther against the Papacy was little else than the
conflict of the Bible with the canon law ; the Protestants did
not appeal to reason against the traditions of the Fathers,
they appealed to the Bible, to the Word of God. But at the
beginning of the fifteenth century, in the days of the Council
of Pisa, the time was not yet ripe for such an appeal to the
Inspired Word ; the reading of the Bible was still prohibited
to the multitude.2 But the manifold corruption of the Church,
and the loss of respect for its Head engendered by the Great
Schism, brought about a revolt against authority as em-
1 Robertson, Charles the Fifth, ii. 160. J Hefele, vi. 984.

332 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
bodied in the Pope. The great councils were convoked, among
other reasons, to reform the Church in its Head and its
members ; and the great councils set themselves up above the
Pope and claimed an authority superior to his. They failed
to work a reform in the Church, so that the Reformation and
the Counter-Reformation became necessary; but they broke
in on the authority of the Pope and tarnished the divinity
jyhich hedged him round ; and thus they made the work easier
for the Protestant reformers of the sixteenth century. Pre
monitions of the appeal to the Bible as the ultimate standard
of orthodoxy are contained in the revolt of the Theological
Faculty of the University of Paris and in their endeavour to
set themselves up above the canon lawyers ; it is this which
renders the works of Jean Gerson of such supreme importance
at this period. It was by such arguments as he and his old
tutor, Pierre d'Ailly, adduced that the existence of the Council
of Pisa could most readily and successfully be justified ; for
that Council proceeded on the assumptions which the Councils
of Constance and Basel subsequently formulated. The great
1 importance of the Council of Pisa lies in the fact that it was
a patent revolt against the authority of the Pope ; it did not
set up the standard of reason against tradition, but neverthe
less it constituted a revolt against that supreme authority
which every good Christian had hitherto recognised. It was
in this way a decisive step toward the emancipation of the
intellect of man from the so-called trammels of authority and
Jradition. The rise of the conciliar spirit has been well and
clearly explained by an American writer. He says : — ' A "
group of earnest and able men, of whom John Gerson of the
University of Paris is the best known, began to advance ideas
which, though they broke with the special form which the
unity of the Church had been assuming in the headship of the
Pope, did not break with the real spirit of that unity, and
which consequently furnished a more solid doctrinal founda
tion for their plan of reformation than was possible for the
wilder ideas of others, and commanded general approval for
it. According to these theories the Church universal is superior
to the Pope. It may elect him if the cardinals fail to do so ;
it may depose one whom the cardinals have elected. The

PISA 333
Pope is an officer of the Church, and, if he abuses his office,
he may be treated as an enemy, as a temporal prince would be
in a similar case. The highest expression of the unity and
power of this Church universal is a General Council. This is
superior to the Pope, may meet legitimately without his
summons, and he must obey its decisions. The first attempt"1
to carry into practice the appeal from the Pope to a General
Council, and so to end the Schism, was in the Council of Pisa.' xj
When the clergy from the principal countries of Europe
began to assemble at Pisa, the city had not yet recovered
from that fearful baptism of fire, in which 'almost every
house had been smashed or riddled with gun-stones hurled
from bombards and catapults and the place had been brought
to wellnigh total ruin 7 ; 2 but still it afforded great convenience
for visitors. ' In the city,' said the Abbe of Saint- Maxence in
a letter to the Bishop of Poitiers, dated the 4th May 1409,
' there is great abundance of provisions, which are sold at
tolerably reasonable prices, and would be still cheaper were it
not for the duties levied on them. And in my opinion the
city of Pisa is one of the notable cities of the world : there is
a river running through it, which debouches in the sea at a
league distance ; and by this river great ships bringing wealth
of all kinds can come to the city ; and all round are vines,
wheat, and a large number of meadows. We are right well
lodged. There are, moreover, a large number of men-at-arms
present for the preservation of the said town which the
Florentines have taken by force of arms from the Pisans ; and
these same Florentines have transported a great number out of
Pisa, so as to prevent any treason, and they are now in
Florence to the number of two thousand, and they have to
show themselves twice a day at a certain fixed place to the
governors of Florence, on pain of losing their lives.' 3 Four
or five thousand Pisans had joined Ladislas of Naples, so that
there was plenty of accommodation, notwithstanding the
Florentines' garrison, for rebuilding had gone on apace. Still
it was evident that the resources of the city would be taxed to
the uttermost. ' Lodgings were bespoken at Pisa, as a great
1 Adams, Civilisation during the Middle Ages, 404.
a Wylie, iii. 372. a Monstrelet, 153.

334 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
multitude of visitors was expected, and it was a question of
sending on provisions beforehand, in view of the certainty of
serious scarcity.' 1
("The assemblage of representatives of the lay and the
spiritual worlds at Pisa was indeed imposing. The Kings of
England, France, Bohemia, Poland, Portugal, and Cyprus
were represented ; so too were the Dukes of Burgundy,
Brabant, and Anjou, of Austria, Lorraine, and Holland, and
the two Dukes of Bavaria ; the Count of Savoy, the Marquess
of Este, the Markgraf of Brandenburg, the Landgraf of
Thuringia, and many other German lords and princes. In
fact, as the Canons of Linkoeping said later in the year, with
the exception of the Scandinavian countries, almost every
kingdom of Christendom sent its ambassadors to PisaA?
There were, however, some notable monarchs and other
personages who were not represented at the Council of Pisa.
Many were late in appearing ; even the King of France was at
first only represented by the Bishop of Meaux, the King of
Sicily, Louis of Anjou, by the Bishop of Gap, and the King of
England by a cavalier, a doctor and a clerk who had come
straight from the Diet at Frankfurt.3
The ecclesiastics came in throngs. There were eighteen
cardinals in Pisa on the day before the Council opened.4
Four patriarchs attended, the foremost being Simon de
Cramaud, Patriarch of Alexandria. Ten archbishops were
present, seven of them being Frenchmen ; 5 and twelve others
sent their deputies or proctors, among these being the
Electors of Cologne and Mainz, and the Archbishops of
Canterbury and Yorlc^ Guy de Roye, the Archbishop of
Reims, had also meant to be there. He was an ardent
supporter of Pope Benedict, had protested against the
subtraction of obedience, and had had his temporalities
seized rather than subscribe to the half-tenth levied on the
clergy. Had he reached Pisa he was like to have disturbed
the unanimity of the Council. He set out with the Cardinal
de Bar, the cousin of the King of France, and the two arrived
within two days' journey of Gen^a. At Voltri, however, a
1 Wylie, iii. 361. 3 Valois, iv. 76, note. 3 Religieux, iv. 208.
4 Mansi, xxvii. 331. s Lenfant, i. 352.

PISA 335
dispute arose between the village farrier and one of their suite,
and the farrier was killed. The villagers immediately rose in
wrath and put the murderer to death ; they rushed to the
Cardinal's hotel and massacred five more of his men ; they
were about to pursue their vengeance further, when the
Archbishop appeared at one of the windows and tried with fair
words to calm their passion ; but an arrow pierced his heart,
and he fell back without uttering another word. The men of
Voltri were on the point of firing the house, meaning to burn
all therein, when a courier of the Governor of Genoa appeared
on the scene and stopped the Smeute. Boucicaut buried the
Archbishop in Genoa, put to death all who had taken part in
the rising, and levelled the hotel with the ground.1
^ 'Seventy bishops were at the Council, and eighty more were
represented. The heads of seventy monasteries were present in
person, and one hundred and twenty appeared by deputy.2
Minerbetti gives the number of abbots as three hundred, and
adds that there were two hundred masters of theology.3 The
generals of the Jacobins, the Cordeliers, the Carmelites, and the
Augustinians, were flanked by the Grand Master of Rhodes, the
Prior General of the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and the
Procurer General of the Teutonic Knights. The Universities
of France, Italy, England, and the Holy Roman Empire were
all represented. More than five hundred ecclesiastics were
present at the council at the beginning of June,4 and of
these at least one-third or two-fifths were Frenchmen.^/ As
they assembled for the opening day, the question most
anxiously debated by those who had the success of the Council
at heart was the attitude of the rival pontiffs. Would they
recognise the council? Would they appear, or would they
send proctors? Would these proctors be fully empowered?
These were the questions the resolution of which had much to
do with the termination of the Great Schism, and therefore
with the success or failure of the Council of Pisa.
Jean Gerson was unable to attend the Council of Pisa. He
was the Chancellor of the University of Paris, he was Professor
of Theology, he was Cure of Saint-Jean-en-Greve : his manifold
1 Religieux, iv. 206. 2 Lenfant, i. 353 et seq. 3 Tartini, ii. 605.
4 Finke, 283. 6 Valois, iv. 77.

336 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
duties detained him. But he had thrown himself heart and
soul into the movement. His work on the Unity of the
Church has already been mentioned. When the English
embassy, with Robert Hallam, Bishop of Salisbury, at its
head, passed through Paris on their way to Pisa, Gerson
harangued them on the text: 'Then shall the children of
Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and
appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of
the land : for great shall be the day of Jezreel.' He dwelt on
his old theme, that there was one head to the Church, even
Christ ; he reminded them of the efforts in behalf of a council
made by the Universities of Paris and Oxford, by Henry of
Langenstein of blessed memory, and by the great and devout
Conrad of Gelnhausen ; he enumerated instances in which it was
permissible to depose a Pope, those which had been given by
Pierre d'Ailly in his New Year's Day sermon ; he was earnest
that the work should have a permanent and not a mere
temporary effect.1 His chief assistance to the Council was
given, however, by his tractate on its power of deposition, ' De
auferibilitate Papae ab Ecchsia? The argument in this was
even more pronounced than heretofore. Christ is the Head, the
Bridegroom of the Church ; His Spirit, the Holy Ghost, is her
life ; therefore Christ and the Church are inseparable. But it
is otherwise with Christ's earthly representative, the Pope, who
is not inseparable from the Church ; he may resign as Clement
the Fifth had done ; his vows are of no effect, his marriage with
the Church becomes a nullity if it stands in the way of
her salvation ; the welfare of the Church, her peace and unity,
are the infallible touchstone. Churchly offices and priestly
dignities are but ordained for the good of the Church; and
just as the Pope can separate himself from the Church, so can
the Church separate herself from the Pope. The occasions
which justify such separation are those which he and Pierre
d'Ailly had before pointed out. Shall a private person be
entitled to defend himself from the Pope who attacks his life
or chastity, shall he be free to throw the Pope into the river in
such a case, and shall the same right be denied to the Church
itself? According to Aristotle, every free community has the
1 Schwab, 226.

PISA 337
right to indicate to its prince the path in which he should
tread, and if he refuses to walk therein, it can depose him ;
and shall not the same right inhere in the Church, before
which even Peter Wtified himself? The Church, or the'
council representing the Church, has the right to judge, and
her judgment is authoritative, the heretic or schismatic loses
his office by reason of her judgment, even though he be not
really heretic or schismatic ; the canon law has provided for
such cases ; the Church judges by the outward signs, and
judges not by the hearts of men. Therefore he who is
suspected, and neglects to appear and defend himself, may
rightly be condemned; and the same right of condemnation
exists where the cardinals are unable to satisfy the Church
who is the canonically elected Pope. This is the case in the
present Schism, and justifies the measures taken against both
Popes. The Church to be perfect, says Gerson in conclusion,
needs one Pope as] Christ's representative ; the Council of
Pisa has assembled under divine inspiration ; it has sufficient
authority to depose both existing Popes ; it can proceed to elect
a third, who shall be the indubitable Pope to be acknowledged
and obeyed by all.1 If there were a risk of such universal
recognition not following, then Gerson counselled the abandon
ment of any new election, and the determination to recognise
in the future as sole Pope whichever of the two present rivals
should outlive the other. They were both old men: the
Great Schism had already lasted thirty years; the further
delay could not be long.
The council, however, was in no mood for any such half
hearted conciliatory scheme ; they were ready to follow the
bolder measure ; they neglected the warning. Those who met at
Pisa had resolved beforehand what they were to do. Neutrality
reigned through the greater part of Italy ; even in Rome the
Senator had forbidden the citizens to mention the name of
Gregory at the Feast of the Assumption. ' The Synod of Pisa,
says the German historian, ' according to Catholic principles,
was from the outset an act of open revolt against the Pope.
That such an essentially revolutionary assembly should decree
itself competent to re-establish order, and was able to command
1 Schwab, 250-56.

338 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
so much consideration, was only rendered possible by the eclipse
of the Catholic doctrine regarding the primacy of Saint Peter
and the monarchical constitution of the Church, occasioned by
the Schism.'1 ' The Fathers at Pisa,' says the French historian
of the Great Schism, ' had in reality only one principle of
action, and that for a good reason ; with certain exceptions,
those alone had answered the appeal of the cardinals who
were resolved to follow them.'2
The council had been convoked for Lady Day ; and
accordingly on the morning of the 25th March 1409 the
Fathers met at the Church of Saint Martin,3 the large square
church near the water fountain, south of the Arno. Here,
arrayed in their albs and copes and crowned with white mitres,
the cardinals and prelates then in Pisa formed into procession,
and solemnly wended their way across the wooden bridge, the
Ponte Vecchio, which had been renewed twenty-five years
before,4 and which stood where the Ponte Mezzo now spans
the rushing yellow Arno. It was a very different procession
from that which the Pisans had wonderingly seen pass over
the same bridge two and a half years earlier, when the
Florentine troops to their amazement entered the city which
had been conquered by famine but not by foe. The route of
the procession brought them close to the Borgo, the busiest
part of the city ; they passed the flat-roofed basilica of San
Michele with its strange Gothic facade, and continued their
way along the Via del Borgo, until they turned off to the
Piazza degli Anziani. Facing them, as they entered the
Piazza, stood the ' orribile torre,"1 that ill-famed Tower of
Hunger in which Count Ugolino had been a hundred and
twenty years earlier immured and starved to death by the
Ghibeline Archbishop. ' Breve pertugio dentro dalla muda,
La qual per me ha il titol della Fame.' 5
Crossing the square diagonally, the procession passed the
little Romanesque Church of San Sisto, an unpretentious little
1 Pastor, i. 178. 2 Valois, iv. 80.
3 Monstrelet, 150. * A.S.I, vi. 934.
5 Dante, Inf. xxxiii. 22,

PISA 339
edifice in which some of the less important meetings of the
council were to be held ; and then, skirting the Archbishop's
Palace, they reached that marvellous north-west corner of the
city where are grouped those four buildings which are the
pride of Pisa and the envy of other cities. The Cathedral
had been consecrated nearly three hundred years before, but
its bell-tower had been completed only in 1350; it was a
century and a half since Nicolo Pisano had executed the
sculptures of the men struggling with demons on the baptistery
pulpit ; more than two centuries had elapsed since Archbishop
Ubaldo de' Lanfranchi had brought fifty-three ship-loads of
earth from Jerusalem to the Campo Santo that the Pisans
might rest in holy ground. The Cathedral at Pisa 'is the
noblest monument which Christendom contains of the aspira
tions and activity of the mediaeval Church. Nowhere is a
more vivid impression gained of the magnificent sobriety and
earnestness of the Italian citizens than when first the Cathedral
of Pisa strikes upon the eye. Away from the Arno, with its
throng of ships and noise of sailors, away from the Exchange
where merchants congregate, away from the Piazza where the
people meet to manage the affairs of their city, away at the
extremest verge of the city, where there is nought that can
hinder the full force of their impressiveness, the Pisans raised
the noble buildings which tell the sincerity of their piety and
the greatness of their municipal life. The stately simplicity
of the vast basilica, which was consecrated in 1118, shows
how the rich fancy of the Lombards enriched without
destroying the purity and severity of the Roman forms.
The graceful proportions of the baptistery, which was begun
in 1153, testify the increased freedom of handling among
the Pisan architects; and the Campanile is a memorial of
their determined spirit and joyous resoluteness in facing
unforeseen difficulties. The exquisite Gothic cloister of
Giovanni Pisano surrounding the peaceful burying-ground
of their forefathers, tells of the poetic seriousness of the
Pisan people and the freshness of their architects to receive
new impulses.'1 In the foregoing words has the English
Church historian described the scene which burst on the
1 Creighton, i. 235.

340 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
view of the great procession as it approached the Cathedral
on Lady Day 1409.
Due preparations for the vast assemblage had been made in
the Cathedral. On a long seat, on the level of the great altar
and in front of the choir, sat the Cardinal-Bishops, facing the
nave, with Guy de Maillesec, the old Bishop of Poitiers, and
Cardinal of Palestrina, at their head : he had been raised to
the college by Gregory the Eleventh before the Great Schism
began. The Cardinal-Priests sat on their right, the senior
being the Cardinal de Thury. Some ' domestic prophet ' had
foretold to this Burgundian cardinal that he would one day be
Pope : at the death of Clement the Seventh he had tried a
little judicious bribery; and now again he was lavish of his
wine and gifts to the other cardinals, but he got little by it.
If he could have driven Pope Benedict to resign he would
have had a better chance of election in France than here in
Pisa, where he failed to appreciate the influence of Cardinal
Baldassare Cossa. On the left of the choir sat the Cardinal-
Deacons, their senior being the Cardinal de Saluces, who had
been raised to the purple in 1383, and who at the death of
Pope Clement had proposed to end the Schism by the universal
recognition of Boniface the Ninth. Behind the cardinals as
they sat in solemn conclave was the great picture of Christ
painted by Cimabue. At the sides were benches for the
protonotaries of the sacred palace, employed in taking
minutes of the proceedings. Facing the cardinals was the
seat appropriated to the royal ambassadors who were prelates ;
and behind them, on both sides of the nave, glorious with
its layers of black and white marble, were the seats reaching
down to the door of the church, for the archbishops, bishops,
and abbots, in due order of seniority ; while stools were pro
vided for the envoys from chapters and convents. Fair benches
{scamna bene honesta), but on a rather lower level, were set
apart for knights, doctors, and those ambassadors who were not
prelates. Every effort had been made to secure to those present
their proper seats, but a notary gave warning that any failure
in this respect would entail no prejudice in the future.1
When all had taken their places, the Mass of the Holy
1 Mansi, xxvii. 116 ; Religieux, iv. 208.

PISA 341
Spirit was celebrated by the aged Cardinal of Palestrina, and
a sermon, introductory to the business of the council, was
preached by a Master of Theology ; after which, it being the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin, nothing more
was done. The council had been regularly opened ; the first
general session for business was appointed for the morrow.

342 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

CHAPTER X
THE WAY OF A COUNCIL
The first meeting of the Council of Pisa had been an occa
sion of ceremonial devotion ; the second meeting, or first
general session, was allotted mainly to the preparatory arrange
ments necessary for its work.
The opening Mass of the Holy Spirit was celebrated by the
Cardinal of Palestrina in long cope (pluviale) and white mitre,
but without his chasuble or sandals ; the other cardinals, the
bishops, and abbots remained standing the while ; when it was
finished they donned their surplices, copes, and mitres, and
took their places. Then followed the sermon. The preacher
was noteworthy, and his text remarkable. Pietro Filargi was
a citizen of Bologna of low birth ; he had once been a beggar
boy in Crete, and had been picked up by a Venetian Cordelier,
who noted his happy disposition, took him back to Venice,
and made him enter the Order of the Franciscans. He was
educated by the friars, was sent to Pavia, Norwich, Oxford,
and afterwards to Paris, where he read theology and was
accounted one of the most brilliant stars of the University ;
then he went to Candia again and remained in the island some
time, so that he became known as the Candiot. After this he
went to Lombardy and became the leading member of the
council of the Duke Gian Galeazzo, was tutor to his son, and
finally Archbishop of Milan. He had been created Cardinal-
Priest ' of the Twelve Apostles ' by Innocent the Seventh in
June 1405. He knew men and manners, and must have been
a strong and able man to win the confidence of the Duke of
Milan. He was kind-hearted, fond of strong wine, did not
pretend to any degree of austerity, and knew very little of the
business of the Consistory. He was profusely liberal, so that,
as he said later, he had been a rich bishop, a poor cardinal, and

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 343
was a mere beggar as Pope.1 He was, moreover, a great friend
of Baldassare Cossa, whom he admired and implicitly trusted.
As his text before the council he took the words, ' Adestis
omnes jUii Israel; decernite quid facere debeatis"1 ('Behold, ye
Children of Israel, all of you, give here your advice and
counsel '). The words had been addressed by the Levite, whose
concubine had been killed, to the Israelites, calling on them
for vengeance on the children of Benjamin. Filargi, however,
did not refer to this, but assured his listeners that, short of a
council, nothing but a miracle could heal the accursed Schism.
It was the general opinion of everybody. The sermon being
over, all present donned their silk copes and white mitres,
and the cardinal who had celebrated Mass moved to the altar,
where the chalice and paten were prepared, while antiphonies
were meantime sung. Then the officiating deacon called out
' Orate,"1 and all the prelates knelt, with their heads to the
ground and their mitres before them, for the space of a
Miserere. The deacon and sub-deacon then read the Litany,
to which all, still kneeling, responded. After a prayer from
the Cardinal of Palestrina, they rose. On this the Cardinal de
Saluces, habited as a deacon, read the Gospel ; the Veni
Creator was sung by the whole assembly kneeling; the officiating
deacon called on them to rise ; and they, putting on their mitres,
took their seats.2 The business of the council then began.
The Archbishop of Pisa, Alaman Adimar, mounted the
chancel and read the preliminary decrees, namely the Con
fession of Faith of Pope Gregory the Tenth, the Decree of the
Synod of Toledo of the year 675, enjoining peace and order
during a council, and the Declaration that the present council
believed and taught according to the faith and teaching of
Holy Church. The Cardinal of Palestrina then addressed
them concerning the election of officers. Six notaries, four
proctors, and two advocates were then elected, and swore duly
to perform their respective functions. One of the notaries,
Simon of Perugia, then addressed the council, and demanded
that the letters of convocation issued by both colleges be now
read, together with the invitations to the rival pontiffs, and
the proofs of their execution. This was done by an English
1 Ghirar, ii. 576; Lenfant, i. 286; Wylie, iii. 380. 2 Mansi, xxvii. 117.

344 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
doctor who was secretary to the Council : he read the invita
tion to Pope Gregory and the note of its execution at Siena ;
then the invitation to Pope Benedict and the return of execu
tion thereto, with the answer of the Pope and of the three
cardinals who had gone with him from Porto Venere to
Perpignan. One of the proctors on this demanded that they
should be declared contumacious ; on which the presiding
cardinal deputed two cardinal-deacons, two archbishops, and
two bishops to ascertain whether they were present. Accom
panied by the notaries, they proceeded to the doors of the
Cathedral and called on Petrus de Luna and Angelus Corrario,
in Latin and in the vulgar, to appear either in person or by
their fully empowered proctors. The call was made three
times without result. The request that they be proclaimed
contumacious was then repeated ; the President answered that
the request was good, but that the call to appear should be
repeated on the morrow. The session then terminated.1
At the second general session the two rival Popes, Petrus de
Luna, called Benedict the Thh'teenth, and Angelus Corrario,
called Gregory the Twelfth, were again summoned to appear,
and on their default application was made that they and their
recusant cardinals be declared contumacious. As there was a
certain difference of opinion, a special session was held next
day to discuss the legal points. The third general session was
held on the 30th March; and as the rival Popes and their
cardinals still made default, the two Popes were then declared
contumacious. The next session was appointed for the 15th
April, and grace until that date was given to the cardinals to
appear. The council did not recognise any recent creations :
the four who had not as yet come to Pisa, but whom it was
willing to admit within the period of grace, were the Cardinal
of Todi of the obedience of Gregory, and the Cardinals Chalant,
Flesco, and Flandrin of the obedience of Benedict.2 The
notice calling on the cardinals to attend was posted on the
doors of the Cathedral.
The reason for the lengthy prorogation was that Easter in
tervened. The services for this holy season were held at the
1 Mansi, xxvii. 118; Hefele, vi. 995.
2 Mansi, xxvii. 121, 359 ; Hefele, vi. 996.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 345
Church of Saint Martin. A Franciscan bishop preached on
Black Thursday; an English doctor, Richard by name, on
Good Friday ; and on Easter Sunday the sermon was given by
the Franciscan Vitalis. Meanwhile fresh arrivals were plenti
ful. Leonardo of Arezzo wrote on the 3rd April that the
attendance was very numerous : ' things are better arranged,1
says he, 'than one would have expected. So many people,
and persons of distinction, arrive daily that Pisa will hardly
be able to contain them. Nothing can equal the vigilance and
humanity of the Fathers. The English bishops with the
Cardinal of Bordeaux are expected.'1 This cardinal was
Francesco Uguccione of Urbino, a learned lawyer who had
been created cardinal by Innocent the Seventh, and who had
been for twenty years Archbishop of Bordeaux. He was one
of the first to revolt from Gregory. ' On September 10th he
was with the cardinals at Pisa, but before the end of the same
month he travelled to Paris, where he had repeated conferences
with the French Council, and being an active man and a ready
speaker, in spite of his great age, he did his best to bring
about an understanding between France and England for
common purposes. Accompanied by his secretary, the saintly
herd-boy Pey Berland, ... he crossed the Channel from Calais,
and arrived in England about the beginning of November 1408,
bringing with him a letter addressed to Archbishop Arundel
from the Patriarch Simon de Cramaud and many archbishops,
bishops, and abbots assembled in Paris.'2 He was now ex
pected in Pisa with the English prelates, both archbishops,
five bishops, and others, but they did not arrive till the 7th
May.3 The Abbe de Saint-Maxence, in a letter to the Bishop
of Poitiers, says that there were at this time in Pisa a hundred
and fifty prelates in copes and mitres, besides other abbots who
were not mitred.4 The city was fast filling. But the most
important personages who arrived in this interval were the
envoys from Rupert, King of the Romans, and Carlo Malatesta,
Lord of Rimini.
On the 26th July 1408 the cardinals had written from
\f Leghorn to King Rupert, informing him that they
meant to convoke a general council ; they had subsequently
1 Lenfant, i. 248. 2 Wylie, iii. 364. 3 Mansi, xxvii. 348. * Monstrelet, 153.

346 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
told him that it was to be held at Pisa on Lady Day
1409. The King, however, considered himself bound in
honour not to desert Pope Gregory. He knew that it was
from fear of Baldassare Cossa and the Florentines that Gregory
had declined to go to Savona ; he knew that the Venetians
had fallen off from him because he would not promote the
nephew of their Doge, Michele Steno, to be their bishop ; he
felt that if he himself abandoned Pope Gregory he would be
in that invidious position against which his father had warned
King Wenzel. Above all else, he was convinced that the
action of the cardinals would not further the real welfare of
the Church, but would result in a threefold, instead of a two
fold, Schism. He therefore determined to send an embassy
to Pisa to represent his views, and he selected for this purpose
Archbishop John of Riga, the Bishops Matthew of Worms
and Ulrich of Verden, the Protonotary John of Weinheim
and Master Conrad of Soest. The Council of Pisa, through
the intervention of the Cardinals of Milan and Bari, had
decided to recognise Wenzel as King of the Romans. Rupert,
on his part, did not recognise the council as a genuine
oecumenical council ; and this may have been the reason why
his ambassadors did not wear their dalmatics, so that they
could not sit with the other prelates and ambassadors.1
The fourth general session was opened on the 15th April
with the usual solemnities; and after the Litany, Master
Conrad of Soest appeared and craved an audience for the
'envoys of King Rupert. On permission being granted, the
Bishop of Verden went to the bishop's seat, and taking as his
text the words Pax Vobis he commenced his harangue. He
complained of the want of accuracy and formality in the
subtraction of obedience by the cardinals, and of their pre
suming to call a council without consulting the King of the
Romans, and in derogation of the right of the Pope who had
already called a council of his own ; and he dilated on the
inaccuracies which their post-dating the invitations had pro
duced. They had no right to order the faithful to disobey
their Pope ; they had no right, even in the cause of union, to
subtract their own obedience, doing evil on the pretext that
1 Religieux, iv. 216.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 347
good might come. The cardinals had n© right, ordinary or
delegated, to call a council ; the assemblage which they have
convened has no right to such a title. They have, moreover,
determined beforehand what the Holy Spirit is to move them
to do ; and the term which they have fixed is too short to
allow of all those of Gregory's obedience appearing. It is
absurd to stigmatise all those who remain true to their Pope
as fautors of Schism. The more important points of the
bishop's discourse were those which dealt with Pope Gregory
himself. Either he was Pope or he was not : if he was Pope,
then they were bound to obey him ; if he were not Pope, then
the question arose, when had he ceased to be Pope, seeing
that he had never resigned nor been condemned by the
Church Universal for heresy or any such sin. If his cardinals
doubted his position, the same doubts must attach to the
positions of Innocent the Seventh, of Boniface the Ninth,
of Urban the Sixth; nay, the same doubts must attach to
their own standing as cardinals. Pope Gregory is not called
on to appear before the Council of Pisa, which is composed in
the main of those who acknowledge the opposite obedience,
and in which those of Gregory's obedience are his enemies ;
and how can enemies be judges ? If he were to come to Pisa
and to resign, then would Benedict, if he did not resign,
become sole Pope; but if Benedict resign not, then is not
Gregory called upon to resign. In conclusion, in the name
of King Rupert whose right they had usurped, the bishop
proposed that the cardinals should convene with Pope Gregory
at a place agreeable to them both, at which the Pope should
do all that he had promised at his election ; if he refused, the
King would back up the cardinals in their choice of a new
Pope.1 The sermon was illogical enough, contesting the right
of the cardinals to convoke a council at one time, and
acknowledging it at another ; the objections taken were, says
the Monk of Saint-Denys, full of chicanery ; they were, says
Creighton, 'of a narrow and technical character, mostly
founded on an acute criticism of the terms of the summons
to the council, and difficulties concerning its dates.'2
1 Hoefler, 433 et seq. ; Hefele, vi. 998-1000.
2 Religieux, iv. 216; Creighton, i. 242.

348 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
This sermon on the text of Peace was a declaration of open
war, a sowing of discord. It was the first bit of opposition
which the council had as yet encountered. The Holy Fathers
i were not prepared to reply on the spot to this burst of
eloquence so full, as it seemed to them, of damnable heresy
and iteration ; they requested the orator to withdraw while
they consulted together; and on his readmittance they
asked him to give them in writing a list of the King's
objections, that they might consider and answer them. The
Bishop at first demurred, but eventually agreed; arid the
list, under twenty-four heads, was delivered next day at a
special session appointed for the purpose and held at the
Church of Saint Martin,1 and a commission was appointed to
consider and to answer them. Having thus got rid of the
obstructive Teutons for the nonce, the council proceeded with
its business. The rival Popes and the four cardinals were
again summoned, and again the answer was returned that
they were not present ; but further grace was given to the
cardinals as it was known that many who desired to take
part in the council had not been able as yet to reach Pisa.
The next session was appointed for the 24th.
Before this day arrived the German embassy had departed.
While they were in the Cathedral on the 15th their grooms
quarrelled with those outside, and the ambassadors, when
they came out protesting against the Council, took part in the
disturbance and increased the scandal. After the special
session Conrad of Soest posted on the doors of the Cathedral
a protest, containing the points of objection, setting forth the
/right of the King of the Romans alone to call a general
council, and stigmatising the Council of Pisa as a mere
conciliabulum. Having thus launched this brutum fulmen,
the German embassy early on the 21st April, secretly, without
intimation to any of their intention, without taking leave
of any cardinal, stole away from Pisa, a laughing-stock to
all: they were described by a countryman of their own as
' derisi et quasi fatui et juris ignari communiter reputatV That
same day — it was a Sunday — a Franciscan bishop preached,
appropriately enough, on the text ' Mercenarius fugit ' (' The
1 Mansi, xxvii. 123, 362.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 349
hireling fleeth V Although they had fled like thieves in the
night, the council determined that their protest should be
answered, and committed the task to a learned doctor of
Bologna, Petrus de Anchorano, whose report was subsequently
read at the seventh session : it was very voluminous and
learned, filling twenty-eight columns of Mansi.2
Meanwhile in Quasimodo week there had come to Pisa
Carlo Malatesta, handsome, learned, eloquent and liberal, the
best and most loyal of his race.3 He was the consistent
partisan and last refuge of Pope Gregory whom he was at
this time sheltering in one of his castles; he had come to
Pisa to try if he could make terms between his friend and the
cardinals. The Lord of Rimini was at this present just forty
years of age ; 4 he had won fair renown in the arts alike of
peace and of war: so charmed had Gian Galeazzo of Milan
been with him aforetime that he had appointed him tutor to
his sons. Carlo Malatesta hated men of commerce, but loved
men of letters ; he was admirably qualified to treat with the
cardinals, for he could bandy a jest as well as an argument ; he
was a man of affairs as well as an orator.5 The Cardinals de
Thury and Brancacio of the obedience of Benedict, and those
of Milan and Aquileia of the obedience of Gregory, were
appointed to confer with him ; his old friend, Baldassare
Cossa, was still on the warpath against King Ladislas of
Naples, and had not been able to reach Pisa as yet.
Carlo Malatesta — or rather his orator, for a long sermon
was first delivered on the text ' Honora Matrem tuam ' — set
before the cardinals all that he had done in the cause of unity.
He mentioned that the Cardinal Legate of Bologna had urged
him to work the good work, but that he had found it
impossible to persuade Gregory to come to Pisa, for he
would have none of Pisa, ' Pisas dommus Gregorius omnino
respuif; now he wished to persuade the council to adjourn
to some other time and place where Gregory could meet
them; he suggested Bologna, Forli, or Mantua; he would
not propose Rimini, although it was as safe as any.6 The
1 De Schismate, 301 ; Religieux, iv. 218 ; Christophe, iii. 306.
2 Mansi, xxvii. 367-94. s Monstrelet, 151 ; Yriarte, 46.
4 Biog. Univ. xxvi. 326. 6 Lenfant, i. 259. 6 Mansi, xxvii. 226 et seq.

350 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
cardinals defended their choice: it was necessary that a
council should meet, for both Popes disregarded their vows
and promises and were playing with Christendom ; in fact
Malatesta himself had admitted to Cardinal Filargi that it
was necessary that a general council should be convoked by
the cardinals. As to the place, both Popes had formerly
recommended Pisa, which was both convenient, secure, and
accessible. The council is now opened, and the cardinals
have no right to change the venue, having regard to those
who are already present and to those who are on their road.
The Lord of Rimini himself, they suggested, might work
effectually for the peace of the Church by prevailing on Pope
Gregory to come to Pisa. Carlo Malatesta answered that
Benedict had certainly agreed to Pisa, but on conditions
which were not fulfilled, while Gregory's relations to Florence
had so altered that any place in their dominions must needs
be obnoxious to him. He would not argue whether the
present council was oecumenical or not ; but he thought that
if the cardinals agreed to a change of venue, no one else
would dispute their decision. The main object after all was
the union of the Church, not any particular place ; and those
who were too poor to bear the expense of removing could be
helped from the Apostolic treasury ; he hoped that the
cardinals would reflect carefully over the matter, and not act
in the spirit of contention. Gregory was ready to do even
more than he was bound to ; therefore let not the cardinals,
let not the Cardinal of Milan, through hate or revenge,
prosecute Christ in the person of His representative, in the
person of him whom they had themselves chosen as the
successor of Saint Peter. He warned them, as King Rupert
had warned them before, that the path they were now tread
ing led not to unity in the Church, but to trinity. Carlo
Malatesta was doubtless aware of the dread in Italy lest an
Ultramontane, or possibly a German, might be chosen by
the council as Pope; he knew of the influence of Cardinal
Baldassare Cossa, and of his friendship for the Cardinal of
Milan, and hence probably his reference to Filargi.1 In
reply the cardinals confronted Malatesta with the alternatives
' Hoefler, 440.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 351
that Gregory should either come to Pisa or that he should
resign at Rimini in presence of a deputation whom they
would send there for the purpose. They endeavoured to
persuade the Lord of Rimini that there would come great
glory to his city through the resignation, and that, resigna
tion being equivalent to death of a Pope, the election of the
new Pope must also be held at Rimini. But to this specious
argument Carlo Malatesta merely replied that he desired
fame neither for himself nor his State, but simply the weal
of the Church.1
Their first conference having been thus fruitless, the
cardinals sent the eloquent Bishop of Cambrai to argue
with the learned Lord of Rimini. Pierre d'Ailly had just
reached Pisa, having started from Paris with the Cardinal
of Bari and the unlucky Archbishop of Reims.2 Together
with the Archbishop of Pisa and two others he waited on
Carlo Malatesta at his dwelling, and endeavoured to persuade
him that he ought to prevail on Gregory to submit, and that
the proposal to change the place of the council's meeting was
utterly wrong and could only hinder the work of unity.
Arguments of all kinds were introduced, and a long conversa
tion ensued. Malatesta assured the deputies that, if only
the Council met as he proposed, then Gregory would do
whatever was required and would resign if Benedict did the
like. Pisa had been chosen simply to please the Florentines,
whom neither Carlo Malatesta nor Gregory loved or trusted.
He told them that as he came through Florence he had
talked with the Priors of the Arts, and had said to them,
' My worthy lords and gentlemen, it appears to me that your
city wants Holy Church to elect herself a new Pastor in
order to minister to your necessities, and I doubt whether
you ought not in honour to change your proposal.' 3
While they were still conferring, a message came from the
four cardinals saying that they were awaiting Malatesta at the
house of the Cardinal of Aquileia. He mounted his horse
and rode off thither, to be met with the excuse that they had
not known he was engaged with the deputies. A fresh con-
1 Mansi, xxvii. 268. 2 Hefele, vi. 1004 ; Tschackert, 156, note,
3 Mansi, xxvii. 276.

352 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
ference took place between the four cardinals and four deputies
on the one side and Carlo Malatesta on the other. The
lords cardinals were getting heated and impatient. Cardinals
Brancacio and De Thury pointed out how irrational it was
now to want the place of meeting changed, and Malatesta
gave up all hope of effecting his purpose. They all rose.
The Lord of Rimini was leaving, when Cardinal Filargi
stopped him and said, ' The Lord Gregory and I have lived
together and are old friends ; I ask you, therefore, to say to
him from me that, now we are old, we ought to think of the
salvation of our souls. Let us lay aside these dignities which
profit rather to vanity than to salvation ; let him resign his
papacy and I will resign my cardinalship ; let us go to Saint
Nicolas on the Lido and serve God there.' He joined his
hands and added, ' I beseech you, Charles, say this much from
me.' But Carlo Malatesta did not trust the man who, like
himself, had been tutor under that wily old fox, the Duke of
Milan. The Pope and the Cardinal might indeed have been
' friends in youth ;
But whispering tongues can poison truth,
And constancy lives in realms above,'
and not necessarily, so Malatesta suspected, in the breast of
Pietro Filargi, the devoted friend and adherent of the old
Pope's worst and strongest enemy, Baldassare Cossa. There
were some who took Filargi for a mighty theologian and
prophet, ' summum theologum summumque prophetam,'1 x but to
Carlo Malatesta he was a cardinal with clerical frailties, vaulting
ambition among the rest. ' Your words sound fair, my lord,'
said he, 'but since Gregory is willing to resign the papacy
and does not ask you to give up your cardinalship nor to
follow him into a monastery, why not accompany him to some
secure place in which he may resign, you may remain cardinal,
and the true union and sacred peace of Holy Church may be
attained ? ' 'He will never resign,' replied Filargi ; ' he who
has once sat in the papal seat counts it too sweet ever to
relinquish save on compulsion.' 'Why then blame him for
his trifling delay ? ' rejoined Malatesta. ' Is he that has tasted
of the repast less likely to hasten than he that has never
1 Brieger, xxviii. 196.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 353
partaken ? You know not as yet whether he will resign or
not ; if he do, then you have your desire ; if he fail, then will
all Christendom be witness of his error.' More also he said.
The one man believed in Gregory, the other did not ; more
over, Filargi detected some hidden significance in the other's
words, and imagined that he was taunting him with being
himself in love with the papal throne. ' You are talking at
-me,' said he, 'but, thanks be to God, little care I for the
papacy. Let who will be Pope, provided the Church is united,
I reck not at all ; though, so far as in me lies, I would choose
a worthy shepherd for the flock.' Carlo Malatesta, sad at
heart, laughed bitterly, and said jestingly to the others
present, ' Think you, my lords, that the Cardinal of Milan
would willingly ascend the papal throne ? ' And when all
laughed at his question, he continued, ' Truly I am of the
same opinion as you all are.'1 So speaking he returned to
his dwelling, and thus ended the last real attempt to reconcile
Gregory and the cardinals.
The Pope, as already narrated, subsequently held his own
little council at Cividale. The cardinals indeed said something
about being ready to meet Gregory at any place within thirty
miles, and suggested Pistoja or San Miniato ; but Carlo Mala
testa, though willing to recommend Pistoja, did not think that
Gregory would consent to any place within the Florentine j uris-
diction. Whether Gregory had any real ground for suspicion
beyond his vague distrust of Baldassare Cossa and the Floren
tines, whether \he suspicion itself was ground for glory to the
city or shame,2 is immaterial ; the suspicion was ineradicable.
Something also was said, but nothing settled, about sending
deputies to Gregory's council. The negotiations for the
reconciliation had terminated in utter failure. The cardinals
were not to be bullied by King Rupert, nor persuaded by
Carlo Malatesta, into transferring their council from Pisa.
They held on the even tenor of their way, and Carlo
Malatesta left Pisa on the 26th April.
On the 24th April the fifth general session was held, and a
decided step taken in advance. The two Popes and four car
dinals were as usual summoned and declared absent; the Popes
1 Mansi, xxvii. 284-5. 2 Brieger, xxviii. 195.

354 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
were condemned for aggravated contumacy, and fresh grace
for appearance was given to the cardinals. As a step preliminary
to process against the two rival Popes, a tedious statement in the
form of an indictment was read, 'prolixa scriptura per modum
libelli oj" articuhrtim contra ipsos contendentes^ containing the
full history of the Great Schism, from the cardinals' point of
view, from the election of Pope Urban the Sixth onward. It
laid particular stress on the collusion between the rivals, their
secret understanding and common design to hinder the ' way
of cession,' referring to the embassy sent by Pope Benedict to
Rome to Boniface the Ninth and again to the messengers who
passed between him at Porto Venere and Gregory at Lucca.1
This belief in collusion was tolerably general in Italy.2 The
statement, although it was not so long as that prepared by
Pope Benedict and read at Perpignan, took three hours to
read through ; and certain of the audience may surely be
pardoned if, during that long Latin narration following on the
lengthy ceremonial observances, they occasionally slumbered
and slept. At its close a commission of 'notable men by
nations or provinces ' was appointed to investigate the charges,
and the next session was fixed for the last day of the month.3
Ecclesiastics were now fast flocking into Pisa. On the day
on which the fifth session was held there arrived the full com
plement of the embassies from France and the University of
Paris, the irrepressible Simon de Cramaud, afterwards to be
known as the ' Torch of the Council,' leading the van, accom
panied by the Norman doctor, Gilles des Champs. With them
came embassies from the Dukes of Brabant and Holland, from
Cleves, Bavaria, Lorraine, and Liege ; and these were followed
by the English contingent, with their brilliant escort of two
hundred cavaliers. The English obtained precedence over the
French at the council, seeing that England had been converted
by Joseph of Arimathea, notwithstanding that the French
asserted that they owed their salvation primarily to Lazarus
and his sister Martha, and to Mary Magdalen. At the head
of the English embassy was Robert Hallam or Hallum, an
honest, straightforward, and independent churchman, who
1 Hefele, vi. 1007, 1009, ion, a Brieger, xxviii. 193.
3 Mansi, xxvii. 363,

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 355
believed that ' the Lord desireth not the death of a sinner,
but rather that he should turn from his wickedness and live.'
He had been Chancellor of the University of Oxford, and had
been made Bishop of Salisbury by a Bull of Gregory the
Twelfth, dated the 22nd June 1407. His distinction was
acknowledged by the council, who granted him the first seat
on the bishops' bench to the left of the cardinals. 'The
Prior of Canterbury also was thought to be a man of mark,
both for his high character and his learning; but the chief
thing that struck the foreigners was his nice stock of cash,
with which he was as well supplied as any of their big
bishops.'1 Then came in great state the embassies from the
two Elector Archbishops of Cologne and Mainz. Those from
Cologne, when they were two days' journey from Pisa, fell
into the clutches of the Marquess of Malaspina, who detained
them prisoners, until they were released through the friendly
offices of Jean le Meingre dit Boucicaut, Governor of Genoa.2
At the sixth session of the council, held on the 30th April,
the English embassy reached the Cathedral and took their
seats while High Mass was being sung. Bishop Hallam then
ascended the pulpit, and taking for his text the words ' Justitia
et judicium praeparatio sedis tuae'' ('Righteousness and judg
ment are the foundation of thy throne '), he preached a long and
eloquent sermon, concluding with the information that he and
his fellows had come, provided with good and sufficient and
necessary powers from the King and the clergy of England, to
do and consent to whatever that holy council or the larger
and saner part thereof should think fit. He urged the
council to follow the divine will rather than any human, but
unfortunately his lengthy discourse left them no time to do
any business beyond appointing certain English and German
members to sit on the commission to examine the charges
against the rival Popes.3
At the seventh session of the council, held on the 4th May,
something was said as to sending an embassy to King Ladislas,
but nothing was decided. Probably the majority of the
members thought that the matter had better remain solely in
1 Wylie, iii. 377 ; Diet. Nat. Biog., xxiv. 99 et seq.
s Religieux, iv. 222. 3 Mansi, xxvii. 364.

356 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the hands of Cardinal Baldassare Cossa. The greater part of
the session was occupied in listening to a lengthy lucubration
from that doctor, learned in the canon and civil law, Petrus of
Anchorano, who had prepared the official answer to the objec
tions lodged by the representatives of King Rupert. All their
allegations might, he said, be reduced to four chief heads : the
subtraction of obedience, the convocation of the council, the
invitation to Pope Gregory, and the union of the two colleges
of cardinals. The doctor began by insisting that a mere
layman had no right to be heard on matters of faith. Nearly
every one, even the majority of the German prelates and
princes, agreed that the present council was necessary for the
ending of the monstrous two-headed Schism, and yet King
Rupert objected. His ambassadors defended Gregory but
said nothing about Benedict, who must also be considered; for
a reconciliation with one Pope only was mere waste of time.
The doctor then proceeded to consider the question of heresy.
The dictum of the canon law was that a Pope could only be
deposed for heresy ; but the Universities of Bologna and Paris
had invented a doctrine of what may be called constructive
heresy ; the favouring or abetment of an obstinate Schism was
equivalent to heresy ; and this doctrine the learned Petrus of
Anchorano upheld. He found that the rival Popes were
heretics; they desired to divide the Church, and so sinned
against the fundamental article of belief in One Holy Church;
they were devastators of the Church, and liable to punishment
under the canon law. Hence, even if each rival had been
sole Pope, since he had fallen into heresy and schism, it was
lawful to withdraw obedience from him and to order the faith
ful to do likewise. The lay princes were bound to withdraw
their obedience. Preliminary proof of heresy and schism was
unnecessary, since the fact was notorious. The next point
was that the King's envoys had pretended that the cardinals
were not empowered to convoke a council. The envoys asserted
that they came as intermediaries, whereas they were obstinate
partisans sowing tares among the wheat, and if they contended
that the Pope could regard a general council with distrust,
that meant that the Church Universal was liable to err.
Gregory and Benedict, as fautors of schism? had lost their

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 357
jurisdiction, which had devolved on the cardinals, who could
call a council ; the papal seat had been vacated through the
Schism, so that the cardinals were in duty bound to take
thought for the Church ; and even if it were held that the
papal seat were not vacant, still the Pope was suspected of
heresy and was obeyed by only part of the Church, so that the
case was the same. Against a wrongful Pope they had a
canonical right to invoke the assistance of the secular arm.
While neither of the rivals can convoke anything more than a
conciliabulum, the present synod must be held to be convoked
by their joint authority, seeing that they both at their election
implicitly swore to convoke it. In time of need, any bishop or
clerk, any simple Christian, could call a council. The cardinals
can not only convoke a council, but Gregory is bound by his
oath to resign, even though Benedict do not also abdicate.
The third point, the right of the cardinals to summon
Gregory, necessarily follows from their right to convoke a
council ; and even though they did not summon both rivals to
appear, they could depose them both, seeing that the complete
unity of the Church is otherwise unattainable. Deposition
will be equally valid, be they absent or present. Finally the
union of the two colleges was justified, because it was impos
sible to determine which was the rightful college.1
The council was much consoled and strengthened by this
lengthy report ; they decided to have no further dealings with
' Duke Rupert of Bavaria ' ; they solemnly recognised Wenzel
as the true King of the Romans, and gave his deputies pre
cedence over all others. At the same meeting the commission
to undertake the process against the rival Popes was finally
settled ; they were not going to proceed on the ground of
mere notoriety, but were to take evidence; and for this
purpose they selected two cardinals, one from each obedience,
a bishop and three doctors from France, one English doctor,
one Provencal, and two Germans. The council further
agreed to send ambassadors to King Ladislas, who was
besieging Siena, to urge him to cease hostilities. Pope
Gregory had given him permission to levy revenues in the
Papal States, and the King had now advanced, at the head of
1 Hefele, vi. 1013-16.

358 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
twenty-four thousand men, within five leagues of Pisa, with
the intention of overawing and stopping the council ; but the
Florentines, as the Abbe of Saint-Maxence says in his letter of
this day's date, were able to resist him and his force and to
preserve the council in safety.1 The Archbishops of Cologne
and Mainz did not assist at this session, owing to a dispute
about precedence, which the Fathers settled by getting them
to sit one alongside the other, instead of one behind and the
other in front.2
*¦"" On the 8th May, it being the Feast of the Apparition of
Saint Michael, the cardinals and others met at the flat-roofed
church in the Via del Borgo, and listened in the morning to
the eloquence of the Patriarch of Alexandria. He indulged in
the exercise of slaying the slain by again, in his own fashion,
refuting the contentions of the German embassy. In the
afternoon Cardinal Guy de Maillesec proposed that a com
mittee of the council be appointed to attend the deliberations
of the cardinals. The patriarch and the archbishops and
certain bishops were selected to represent France, and similar
arrangements were to be made for other nations. The
Cardinal of Albano then announced the approaching arrival of
the ambassadors of Pope Benedict, who, he contended, alone
represented the Church Universal, and who alone could
extirpate the Schism. He asked for instructions as to their
reception, audience, and treatment.3 The consideration of
this matter was adjourned till the morrow. In the discussion
on the 9th, the chief part was taken by Simon de Cramaud
and Robert Hallam. They agreed that the ambassadors
should be courteously received, and inquiry made from them
as to their powers, but that they should not be honourably
welcomed, seeing that they had not subtracted their obedience.
This latter proposition was opposed by the Bishop of Cracow,
by the envoys from Mainz and Cologne, and by certain
cardinals who had not as yet formally withdrawn their
obedience. The discussion was continued on the next day,
Wednesday, the 10th May.
The business at the eighth general session (10th May) was
opened by the Fiscal Advocate Simeon, who proposed that
1 Monstrelet, 153. 2 Religieux, iv. 224-6. 3 Ibid. iv. 228.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 359
the council should expressly declare that the two colleges of
cardinals had united, and that the council had been convoked
by them, legitimately and canonically, that it represented the
Church Universal, and was entitled as the highest earthly
judge to decide concerning both rival Popes. To this
most of those present at once answered Placet ; but a
discussion arose, as the Bishops of Salisbury and Evreux
contended that the union of the colleges was not complete
unless and until all the cardinals had withdrawn their
obedience. Further argument followed, but a conclusion was
reached, which was announced by the Patriarch of Alexandria
and the Bishop of Salisbury. It ran thus : — This holy Synod ,
after mature consideration declareth, (1) that the union of the
two colleges of cardinals is lawful and canonical and is hereby
confirmed ; (2) that this holy Synod hath been rightly and
canonically convoked by the united colleges ; (3) that it is an
Oecumenical Council, representing the Church Universal, and
possessed, as the highest earthly judge, of the power of judging
both pretenders to the Papacy and all that thereto apper
tained ; and finally (4) that the term for taking evidence be
further extended for a week, and the next session fixed for the
17th May. Meantime a minute of subtraction of obedience
was prepared for submission to the council at the same
session.1 At the ninth general session, held on the 17th May, the
Patriarch of Alexandria, Simon de Cramaud, at the command
of the council read the following decree : — ' This holy Synod,
in Christ's name assembled, declares and determines, on good
and reasonable grounds, (1) that every man ought voluntarily
and lawfully to withdraw from the obedience of Petrus de
Luna, calling himself Benedict the Thirteenth and of Angelus
Corrario, known as Gregory the Twelfth, from the time at
which they forebore to follow and fulfil the " way of cession " to
which they had sworn ; (2) that both pretenders, having been
canonically summoned to be here present and having made
default, have been rightly declared contumacious, and that
therefore it is to be considered that all believers have with
drawn and do withdraw their obedience from them ; (3) all
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1 139, 1220; xxvii. 366.

360 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
sentences of every kind pronounced or to be pronounced by
either or both of the pretenders to the prejudice of the union
against any one who has subtracted or who shall subtract his
obedience are hereby declared to be null and void ; (4) every
one, even cardinals, although they be judges in this council,
is empowered to give evidence ; (5) the commissioners to take
evidence are not to adhere literally to the articles delivered to
them at the fifth session, but may omit any or add thereto,
and may send elsewhere, specially to Florence, to take evidence.'
When this decree was put to the council there was a general
cry of Placet, but the unanimity was broken by the voice of a
dissentient Englishman. He was an adherent of Pope Gregory,
and sturdily voted against the decree; On being asked by
whose mandate he was there present, he confessed that he had
no mandate, whereupon he was summarily ejected and cast
into prison that proper inquiry might be made about him.
The importunate Englishman being thus turned out amid
confusion, ' confusione ejectus,"1 x what further happened to him
is not told : possibly he was forgotten ; at all events it is con
soling to reflect that he had no standing whatever, that his
was but a casual expression of lay opinion, a mere voice from
the inane breaking the calm unanimity of the clerical Council
of Pisa.
That council had been sitting now for nearly two months,
and all that it had done, beyond rejecting the proposals for
adjournment made by King Rupert and Carlo Malatesta, was
, to find that it was a regularly constituted Oecumenical Council,
empowered to provide for the unity of the Church, and that
the two rival Popes were contumacious in refusing to appear
before it. Seeing that the general opinion beforehand had
been that neither Pope would appear, the council had not
made much headway. The commission which it had appointed
to conduct the process against the Popes had meantime heard
many witnesses and had prepared a report. This was read ;
and it was so lengthy that the mere reading occupied the tenth
and eleventh sessions, held on the 22nd and 23rd May. The
charges proved were set forth, with the number and the rank
of the witnesses to each. As regards the majority of them,
Mansi, xxvii. 395.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 361
notoriety was taken as proof ; it was not necessary to prove
that a fact existed, it was enough to prove that the allegation
was notorious. ' Rumour painted full of tongues ' was accepted
as evidence ; her ' surmises, jealousies, conjectures,' were taken
for ' confirmations strong as proofs of Holy Writ.' On this
point there was no doubt. The charges enunciated were proved.
The question which troubled the council was as to the offence
constituted by the charges proved. The doctrine of the canon
law was that a Pope could only be deposed for heresy. The
new doctrine of constructive heresy had received the sanction
of the Universities of Paris and Bologna, but it was felt to be
novel : it was not preached at the council itself. Jean Gerson
was absent ; Pierre d'Ailly was silent. Heresy was a matter
of faith; schism was a matter of conduct. A man's conduct
might be faulty, as that of all men is, while his faith might
be unimpeachable. Would any defect in conduct amount to
a defect in faith ? Even Louis of Bavaria had alleged a defect
in faith, the disbelief in Christ's poverty, against John the
Twenty-second, when he sought to impeach him for heresy.
Did the attachment to power, the collusion, the bad faith, the
tricks and devices of the rival Popes really amount to heresy ? x
Eighty-four witnesses had been examined, ten of them twice ;
most of them were Italians, a large number were French ;
officials of the Curia had testified against their masters ; four
teen cardinals, the generals of the Franciscans, the Carmelites,
the Austin Friars and of other orders, Simon de Cramaud,
Gilles des Champs, the aged Robert the Hermit, and others
had given evidence. Still the council was not content. At
their twelfth session, held on the 25th May, they passed a
resolution that having regard to the notoriety, the scandal,
and the danger which would arise from further delay, the
commissioners should be empowered to take further evidence
and be allowed to send to Siena and Lucca for the purpose.
What they desired above all to avoid was the possibility of the
present proceedings being reopened at any future time as
insufficient.2 At. the close of the eleventh session there arrived a messenger
from Pope Benedict with Bulls which he delivered to his old
1 Valois, iv. 92. 2 Mansi, xxvii. 399.

362 IN THE DAYS QF THE COUNCILS
cardinals. They hesitated to open them, but on the advice of
the Patriarch of Alexandria, Cardinal Filargi broke the seals.
The Bulls contained sentences of excommunication and other
penalties against those who had disobeyed his former letters,
and also a warning and a prohibition against the election of
any new Pope. The council was greatly cheered by the receipt
of these Bulls, for they proved conclusively that Benedict had
received the requisition to attend, that it was useless to expect
him, and that he was veritably obstinate and contumacious.
Pope Benedict in fact, though his obedience was sorely circum
scribed, firmly believed that he was the only true Pastor of the
only true Church, and behaved accordingly.1
Thirty-two new witnesses were examined, their depositions
supporting ten fresh charges. The new evidence was of a
different complexion, being on the point of orthodoxy. It was
said that Pope Gregory had aforetime been prosecuted for
heresy before the Holy Inquisition, and moreover that he had
consulted a Jew necromancer named Helias. Against Bene
dict the allegations were more numerous and serious. He had
always exhibited a strange tenderness toward heretics, and a
strange ferocity toward the faithful. Hei had kept two
demons shut up in a little box ; he had searched all Spain and
even among the Saracens for books of magic ; he had given a
living in Cordova to a clerk who had brought him a book
showing the magical character of Christ's miracles ; he habitu
ally summoned magicians to assist him, seeing that he himself
was an inexpert necromancer; he had been promised that
three demons, the God of the Winds, the Prince of Sedition,
and the Revealer of Hidden Treasure, were to put him in
possession of Rome. It was alleged that magicians, one of
them a mysterious man with a long black beard, consorted
with him at Porto Venere ; that a tower had been struck by a
thunderbolt while he was doing his magic ; that the powers of
Hell accompanied him whithersoever he went.2 Armed with
evidence of this kind, there was little doubt that the council
would be able to find both Popes guilty of heresy. For the
present, however, it was held in reserve. The ordinary legal
mind will at once appreciate the facts that the case against
1 Mansi, xxvii. 398. 2 Valois, iv. 92-7.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 363
each Pope was entirely ex parte, and that the evidence was
mainly mere hearsay.
The question of the heresy of Gregory and Benedict was
very troubling to the hearts and consciences of the Fathers
at Pisa. On the 28th May the Bishop of Novara gathered
together an assembly of archbishops and bishops, of doctors,
licentiates, and masters of theology, in the Sacristy of the
Franciscans to discuss the matter. They were more than a
hundred in number : one quarter came from the University
of Paris, others from Cambridge, Toulouse, and other univer
sities, others were friars of different orders, a branch of the
Church specially devoted to the study of theology. They
decided unanimously that both rivals were schismatics and
heretics, and were liable to be deprived of the administration
of the papacy for that reason. The Bishop announced that
the Universities of Florence and Bologna were of the like
opinion ; one hundred and twenty masters of the latter uni
versity had given their written adhesion thereto. At the
thirteenth session of the council, held the next day, Master
Pierre Plaoul in his sermon stated that the University of
Paris was convinced that Benedict was a schismatic and a
heretic in the strict sense of the terms, and was liable to be
cut off from the Church of God and from all right to the
Papacy ; the same opinion was held by the Universities of
Angers, Orleans, and Toulouse. In conclusion, he read the
protocol prepared by the Bishop of Novara on the previous
day's proceedings. At the close of the session an advocate
of the council rose and demanded that an instrument be pre
pared, and a term of eight days fixed for the final citation
and appearance of the rival Popes ; and a citation was accord
ingly fixed to the doors of the cathedral and in other public
places in Pisa.1
On this same day eight of the ambassadors from the
University of Paris wrote to their brethren reporting
progress up to date. They say that the number of theo
logians present at the Bishop of Novara's conference was one
hundred and twenty-three, of whom eighty ' sont vos sujets et
soumis,"1 thus showing the great predominance of the French
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1144, 1224; xxvii. 399-401-

364 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
element at the council. In their letter they mention that
Gregory had sent a Bull to the English, trying to persuade
them to take the side of King Rupert, but in vain, seeing
that the men of England, Germany, Bohemia, Apulia, France,
Cyprus, Rhodes, and Italy were all of one mind in this matter.
Very few prelates, they say, had come from Hungary, because
their King was at war with the unbelievers. In conclusion, they
refer to the terrible Bull which had come from Pope Benedict.1
The further evidence taken by the commissioners was read at
the fourteenth session, held on Saturday the 1st June. At first
the reader wished to give merely a summary, but he was directed
to proceed as in the tenth and eleventh sessions. He concluded
by informing his auditors that the complete record with the
detailed depositions of the different witnesses would be on
view at the Convent of the Carmelites on the Monday and
Tuesday following.2 The commissioners who had taken the
evidence were at the cloister on those days at the hours of
tierce and vespers, but no one desired to inspect the record.
The council had now completed its preliminary preparations :
Pope Benedict had threatened his former cardinals with pains
and penalties ; Pope Gregory had made his despairing effort
to detach the English party ; both attempts had failed.
Everything was now ready for the final blow. It was delivered
on the 5th June 1409.
Wednesday the 5th June, the Eve of Corpus Christi, the
date of the fifteenth session of the Council of Pisa, was in
the eyes of all there assembled and in the eyes of the vast
majority of Christendom, a day big with the fate of both
'pretenders to the Papacy.' After the usual sacred cere
monies in the Cathedral, an advocate of the council mounted
the pulpit and demanded that the rival Popes be summoned
to appear. On this Cardinal Oddo Colonna, who was after
wards Pope Martin the Fifth, and the younger Cardinal of
Sant Angelo, Stefaneschi, who had been promoted by Inno
cent in 1405, proceeded to the doors of the Cathedral ; they
were accompanied by two archbishops and several doctors and
notaries. In a loud voice the rivals were thrice summoned to
appear in person or by deputy. No one answered. Return was
1 Monstrelet, 154. 2 Mansi, xxvi. 1145, 1225.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 365
made accordingly. Then the advocate asked that the Patriarch
of Alexandria be required to read the definite sentence of
the council. There was a universal murmur of Placet. The
doors of the Cathedral were thrown open, and in the presence
of a large throng of listeners Simon de Cramaud, assisted by
the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem, read the following
sentence : —
'In the name of Christ Jesus: This holy and universal
synod, representing the Church Universal, to whom the de
cision of this matter belongs, being here assembled by the
Grace of the Holy Spirit in the Cathedral of Pisa and sitting
as a court, having seen and carefully examined all and singular
that has been produced, proved and moved in the present case
of the union of the Church, the Faith, and the Schism against
Petrus de Luna, formerly known as Benedict the Thirteenth,
and Angelus Corrario, formerly known as Gregory the Twelfth,
which is more fully set forth in the present process ; and
having examined generally all that has influenced and moved
the said council to pass its present definitive sentence; and
having had frequent conferences together, and also with a
large number of masters of theology and of doctors of civil
and canon law ; and having after mature deliberation arrived
at a unanimous conclusion ; doth hereby in the best and most
lawful manner possible pronounce, declare and decree that all
the crimes, excesses and other matters necessary to the said
decision, set forth by the learned masters Henricus de Monte-
leone, Joannes de Scribanis, and Bertoldus Wildungen, the
promoters, instructors, solicitors, and proctors appointed to
conduct the present case for the extirpation of this detestable
and inveterate Schism and the union and re-establishment of
Holy Mother Church, against the forenamed Petrus de Luna
and Angelus Corrario, damnably contending for the Papacy,
and called by some Benedict the Thirteenth and Gregory the
Twelfth, presented and exhibited in petition before this sacred
and universal synod, have been and are true and notorious;
that the aforesaid Angelus Corrario and Petrus de Luna, pre
tenders to the Papacy, have been and are notorious schis
matics, nourishers, defenders, approvers, fautors, and per
tinacious maintainers of the ancient Schism; that they are

366 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
also notorious heretics and have departed from the faith, and
are guilty of the notorious and enormous crimes of breaking
their oaths and vows, in most evident and manifest manner,
by their incorrigible conduct and contumacy notoriously
scandalising God's Holy and Universal Church; that they
have thus rendered themselves unworthy of all honour and
dignity, and of the Papacy ; and that by reason of the afore
said iniquities, excesses and crimes, they are rejected and
deprived by God and the sacred canons from all rule or
authority, and are cut off from the Church. (\And further
more, the council by this definite sentence deprives, casts
down, and deposes Petrus and Angelus, each and both of
them, forbidding them to bear themselves as sovereign
pontiff, and declaring further that the Roman Church is
vacant.' The council then proceeds to release all Christians
from their obedience to the rival Popes, to absolve all those
holding imperial, royal, or other dignity from their oaths
or engagements toward them, and to threaten with excom
munication all who shall receive or succour them./ The
council next declares null and void all sentences of excom
munication, all pains and penalties decreed by either Pope,
and all promotions to the cardinalate made by Angelus
Corrario since the 3rd May 1408, or by Petrus de Luna since
the 15th June of the same year. All future processes of
either pretender were finally declared to be null and void.
The reading of this lengthy sentence1 having been con
cluded, all joined in singing the Te Deum. A solemn pro
cession was ordered for the morrow ; and it was further
ordained that no person should leave Pisa without permis
sion or without having signed the sentence which had just
been pronounced. Great was the rejoicing; the magistrates
proclaimed the sentence of deposition with the sound of
trumpets throughout the city; the bells of the Leaning
Tower rang out; and from every church steeple in Pisa the
joyful news was re-echoed; the surrounding village churches,
one by one, caught up the message and sent it on. In four
hours the tidings reached Florence. Every one thought that
now at last the Great Schism was at an end.
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1 146-8.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 367
Having deposed both Popes and having declared the papal
throne to be vacant, the next important business before the
council was the election of a new Pope. Nine days was the ,/
period of mourning on the death of a Pope, and then the
cardinals entered into conclave ; hence, as Benedict and Gregory
had met their official death on the 5th June, it was meet that
the conclave should be closed on the 15th. Who was to be
the new Pope? This was the question for whose solution
Charles of France and Ladislas of Naples, more than all other
monarchs, were waiting with anxious expectation. Would the
new Pope be a Frenchman ? Would he at least be favourable
to the claim of the Duke of Anjou to the crown of Naples ?
It was to prevent such a Pope being elected that Ladislas had
endeavoured, but in vain, to overawe the council. The
excitement soon became apparent in Pisa.
The first point to decide was as to who should be the electors.
Should the cardinals exercise their ordinary right ? The objec
tion was that all the cardinals, save one, had been promoted by
the two Popes who had just been deposed for heresy and schism.
An election by such a body might to many appear to be tainted.
The French party held a long consultation. The Patriarch
of Alexandria proposed that it would be desirable on this
occasion to depart from the regular rule and to allow the
council to elect a new Pope. This proposal at once raised
alarm at the French designs. When the Fathers considered
the strength of the clerical contingent from France and
Provence, when they reflected that Genoa and Leghorn were
in her hands and that Florence was allied with her, the object
of the ambitious Simon de Cramaud became too patent, even
though his scheme was backed by the authority of the Univer
sity of Paris. The other nations took alarm; they were
persuaded that an election by the council would mean the
election of a Frenchman. The decision was postponed from
the sixteenth session, held on the 10th June, to the seven
teenth, held on the 13th. By that day a way out of the
difficulty had been found. The cardinals were to proceed to
election, but on this occasion they were to proceed not as
cardinals promoted by either of the heretical Popes, but as
cardinals acting under the authority of the General Council ;

368 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
and they were exhorted to elect the new Pope with charity,
and so unanimously that no scintilla of discord should possibly
appear.1 The present exceptional proceeding was not to
prejudice their usual rights on any future occasion. While
High Mass was being sung, the cardinals retired behind the
altar and swore to elect a Pope, either unanimously or by a
two-thirds majority. The Podesta, the Captain, and the
Vicar of Pisa, in the name of the Republic of Florence, also
took the customary oath for the security of the conclave.
The French party did not like the compromise, but were
constrained to accept the rebuff. Simon de Cramaud must
have felt his hopes fading away.
There had been other business also at the sixteenth session.
The Cardinal Antoine de Chalant had appeared. The days
of grace allowed at the fourth session were long passed by;
but the Cardinal of Albano represented to the council that
the Cardinal of Saint Mary in Via Lata, as he had been
created by Benedict in 1404, had remained absent so long
in the hope of overcoming the obstinacy of his master, and
that he had only abandoned his task when he recognised its
utter hopelessness. The council accepted the excuse, and in
solemn silence the new arrival took his seat among his peers.
He was a Savoyard of noble family, and had formerly been
chancellor to the Count of his native province. Men said
that he had come to Pisa hoping that he might be acceptable
to both French and Italians as their future pontiff, seeing
that he might be accounted the countryman of either. It was
also rumoured that he tried to detach Boniface Ferrier from
the obedience of Benedict. ' What is the good of going to
Pisa ? ' inquired Boniface ; ' they will only make another Pope,
and he will be an anti-pope.' 'No matter, provided they
make one,' answered De Chalant ; ' let him be anti-pope or
devil, he will improve with keeping (postea purgabitury2
About the same time as De Chalant arrived two other
cardinals, Louis de Bar, who had started with the luckless
Archbishop of Reims, and Antonio Calvo, one of the two
Cardinals of Saint Praxedes. Another arrival was more
important than either of these.
1 Mansi, xxvii. 408, 2 Lenfant, i. 282.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 369
Another resolution taken at the sixteenth session testifies its
recognition of the widespread feeling in favour of reform of
the Church. This was the crying want of the age. Church
men themselves were alive to the simony and venality which
disgraced the Curia, and even the Universities cried out against
the excessive taxation, while the lay world stood aghast at the
moral depravity and turpitude which spread, like a loathsome
sore, over so many of the secular and regular clergy alike.
The nunneries were often mere brothels, the confessional was too
frequently a trap for innocent or comely wives and daughters.
Radical reform was necessary. It was opportune, therefore,
when the Archbishop of Pisa read a declaration signed by all
the cardinals, to the effect that whoever should be elected
Pope would continue the present council until, by its aid, he
had provided for the necessary, reasonable, and adequate
reformation of the Church in its head and its members. On
the proposal of the Fiscal Advocate, measures were taken to
announce the deposition of the rival Popes to the different
countries of Christendom. Antonius of Portugruario was also
declared to be the rightful Patriarch of Aquileia. Finally,
having settled who were to elect the new Pope, it was decreed
at the close of the seventeenth session that on the following
day, the 14th June, a solemn procession should proceed from
the Church of Saint Martin to the Cathedral, there to entreat
the divine aid in the choice of the new Pope.
Cardinal Baldassare Cossa, the guide and author of the
council, reached Pisa just in time for the new election ; the
deposition of the rival Popes had occurred three days after he
left Bologna. He had had much to do there this year. He
had known beforehand that he would have to protect the
council against the army of Ladislas ; and if the council
was able to do its work in peace, he desired to be at Pisa
at least in time for the new election. He had therefore to
arrange that Bologna should be secure and undisturbed during
his absence. He began by appointing his own man, Nicolo
Angelelli, to the command of the Castle, in place of Count
Manfred, whom he could not trust. The Count went off to
his relative, the Constable Alberigo da Barbiano, and accom
panied him in his unsuccessful attempt on Romagna. Then
2a

370 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Legate got fourteen of his own confidants elected among
the City Council of Bologna. He made arrangements for
fortifying the fortress of Crespellano in the level country. On
the 28th March he had seen his two fellow-countrymen, the
Cardinals Carracciolo and Maramaur, start for the council :
the former was a personal friend of Baldassare Cossa; the
latter had just returned from the Diet at Frankfurt. At the
same time the French ambassadors left Bologna for Venice, ' to
work for the union of Christendom.' Then had come the
attempt of Ladislas's general, Ottobuon Terzo, to kill the
Marquess of Ferrara, and his own death at the hand of Sforza
Attendolo, to the great joy of all. After the King of Naples
had been thus checkmated, the way was comparatively clear
for Baldassare Cossa to proceed to Pisa, and on the 2nd June,
accompanied by many learned men, in whose society he always
took pleasure, he departed.1 He was in Florence on the 12th,2
and reached Pisa just in time to enter the conclave with the
other cardinals. He was, in fact, in the city on the 14th.
On this day the grand procession took place; cardinals,
patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and clergy took part
therein. They marched from Saint Martin's Church, south of
the river, over the wooden bridge, up the Via del Borgo to the
Cathedral, as they had marched on Lady Day; and in the
Cathedral Cardinal de Thury again celebrated High Mass.
These occasional celebrations seemed to be all the honour he was
like to receive in return for his frequent presents of good wine
to the cardinals. The eighteenth session of the council then
commenced. Ambassadors, the Chancellor, and three cavaliers
had arrived from the King of Aragon, and demanded audience.
This was granted, but they were first required to produce their
credentials, for which they sent to their lodgings. The
Chancellor of the King of Aragon then ascended the pulpit ;
he set forth the zeal of his sovereign for the unity of the
Church; he requested to be informed of all that this con
gregation — he carefully avoided calling it a council — had
hitherto done; he announced that the envoys from Pope
Benedict were then in Pisa and desired an audience, and he
carefully guarded himself against the supposition that his
1 Ghirar, ii. 578-9. s Valois, iv. 105,

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 371
presence there should in any way countenance any of the
resolutions at which the honourable Fathers had arrived.
The mention of Benedict as still Pope was greeted with hisses
and laughter. The Fiscal Advocate answered for the council,
thanking the King for his good will, promising a commission
to inform the ambassadors of all that had hitherto happened,
and appointing certain others to examine the powers of the
envoys from Petrus de Luna, and to grant them an audience if
it were fitting. The Chancellor in his turn smiled at the con
cession of granting even a partial audience, through a com
mission, to the envoys of one who had been solemnly declared
heretic ; it was an inconsistency, but compromise was then, as
now, of the essence of politics.
The commission met at Saint Martin's Church that same
afternoon. The royal ambassadors and the envoys from
Benedict were present. The obstinate little Pope had delayed
in despatching his nuncios, he had neglected to provide them
with the powers which the Council of Perpignan had voted.
They had been detained at Nimes by order of the King of
France ; they had been stopped by a captain from Pisa ; and
now, being expected ever since the 8th May, they had arrived
after Pope Benedict had been formally deposed. They in
cluded in their number the Archbishop of Tarragona, the
Bishops of Siguenza, Mende, and Senez, and the Carthusian
Prior, Boniface Ferrier. With much difficulty did they gain
an entrance to the church, for the common people hooted
them as if they had been Jews. They were received by twelye
cardinals, among whom was Baldassare Cossa. In the church
itself the envoys, as had been formerly arranged, were not
greeted ' with honour.' The sentence passed against Pope
Benedict was read to them, and three cardinals were deputed to
hear what' they had to say. The Archbishop of Tarragona
began to speak : ' We are the nuncios of the honourable Pope
Benedict.' There arose an uproar immediately. The crowd
had pressed into the building. ' The nuncio of a heretic and
a schismatic art thou,' shouted one of them. When order was
restored the Bishop of Mende requested a hearing. A friendly
Florentine, who had property in Aragon, reminded him that
nothing could be said or done to the disrespect or detriment

372 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
of the council. Again he inquired if he might speak freely.
The Captain of Pisa answered that under the oath which he
and other officers had sworn he could allow nothing to the
prejudice of the approaching election; and the Cardinal of
Aquileia assured him that this condition was absolutely irre
vocable. As it did not seem that they were to be allowed
to say anything to the point, the royal ambassadors and the
papal nuncios asked for a day's delay in order that they might
consult together on their position. They desired at once to
return to their lodgings ; but this was impossible owing to the
excited state of popular feeling. They were obliged to wait.
They had the fullest powers, they said, and were determined
not to return home until the unity of the Church had been
accomplished ; from Pisa they would go on to Gregory and
would negotiate with him ; they asked the Cardinal Legate of
Bologna for a safe-conduct. ' If you come to Bologna,' said
he, ' with or without safe-conduct, I will burn you all as soon
as I catch you.' Remarkably frank and outspoken was Bal
dassare Cossa ; this was his first public utterance in the Council
of Pisa. The envoys knew him to be a man of his word ; so
they thought better of their project, and, like Pliable in
Pilgrim's Progress, they got out of the mire on that side
of the slough which was next to their own house. As soon as
the tumult had somewhat subsided, the captain's son and
certain respectable citizens escorted them back to their inn,
and that night the papal nuncios, like the German embassy
before them, left Pisa secretly without taking formal leave
of any one. Boniface Ferrier was especially annoyed at the
want of feeling on the part of those who had formerly been
cardinals and prelates under Pope Benedict. Simon de
Cramaud had set a guard on the city gates, but the nun
cios slipped through, and the council saw them no more.1
The last session of the popeless council was held on Satur-
\ day, the 15th June. High Mass was celebrated by Philippe de
^ Thury, Archbishop of Lyons, the cardinal's brother; and the
sermon was preached by the Bishop of Novara on the appro
priate text, '•Eligite meliorem et eumponite super solium ' (' Look
ye out the best and meetest and set him on the throne '). He
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1150; Hefele, vi. 1029-31.

THE WAY OF A COUNCIL 373
exhorted the cardinals to proceed to the unanimous choice
of a good and worthy ruler. This ended the session.
At vespers the twenty-four cardinals, the Cardinal Calvo
arriving just in time, entered the Archbishop's Palace, a
hundred yards or so to the west of the Leaning Tower, and
were there immured in conclave under the guard of the Grand
Master of Rhodes and other prelates, not to issue thence until
a new Pope should have been chosen. Fourteen of the car
dinals belonged to the obedience of Gregory, ten to that of
Benedict, and at first there was a natural bitterness between
the two parties.1 Bribery was said to be rife : every cardinal
had promised whatever they chose to ask to the servants of
the others ; the French court had lavished money ; the King's
cousin, Louis de Bar, Cardinal of Saint Agatha, might be
chosen ; the ' domestic prophecy ' of Cardinal de Thury might
haply be fulfilled ; Cardinal de Chalant, the Savoyard, might
be selected ; or Simon de Cramaud, Patriarch of Alexandria,
might at length obtain the tiara for which he had sighed
so long and worked so ardently. But since the French
machinations as to the method of election had been defeated
there was but little chance of an Ultramontane being selected.
Eleven days the cardinals continued their consultations. /Car
dinal Baldassare Cossa was by common consent the strongest
and ablest member of the college, and to him accordingly
they offered the papal crown. He declined to accept it, but
recommended to them his old friend and adherent, Petrus
Filargi, who was neither a Frenchman nor an Italian.2 He
was known to be an able man, ' a man of holy life and truly
religious,' says the Monk of Saint-Denys. He might not know
who were his father and his mother, but that saved him from
the trouble and temptation of providing for his relations ; he
might not be profoundly versed in the canon and the civil law,
but he was a man of the world who knew many men's manners
and had seen many cities ; it was no ordinary man who could
win the confidence of that astute and masterful tyrant, Gian
Galeazzo. His only serious fault was that he sat half the day
at table and had in his house four hundred female servants
clad in his livery.3 Moreover the worthy cardinal, after the
1 Mur. xxiv. 174. 2 Raynaldus, viii. 286. ' Mur. xix. 41.

374 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Patriarch of Alexandria, had been the most active prelate in
the affairs of the Council. For these recommendations, and
because he was now seventy years of age, the cardinals in con
clave assembled chose Petrus Filargi, Archbishop of Milan
and Cardinal of the Twelve Apostles, to be the future Pope
of the Council and of Christendom, and he took the title of
Alexander the Fifth.

Tope Alexander the Fifth.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 375

CHAPTER XI
POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH
The new Pope, Petrus Filargi, ' a man of the highest know
ledge, in name and in reality an Alexander,' is thus described
in his epitaph : —
' Divus Alexander, Cretensi oriundus ab or a,
Clauditur hoe saxo, summo venerandus honore,
Antea Petrus erat, sed celsa sede potitus,
Quintus Alexander Jit, ceu sol orbe coruscans,
Religione minor, post ad sublime vocatus.' 1
The news of his election would naturally be received with
great joy in Milan and Bologna,, where he was well known, but
not in Rome, which was at that time occupied by the troops
of Ladislas of Naples. The Gray Friars everywhere were
overjoyed that a Franciscan had been chosen Pope; in Pisa
they were wild with delight ; ' they ran about for days
through the streets and squares as if they were mad, determined
to get all the good things while the wind blew their way.'
More especially was the new election a triumph for France :
Baldassare Cossa, and consequently the new Pope also, were
devoted to the French alliance. Cardinal Louis de Bar was
despatched from Pisa to the court of his cousin, and Maitre
Luquet was deputed to the University of Paris. The news
reached that city on the evening of the 7th July, and was
announced next morning. The people were delighted; they
made huge bonfires; they walked in procession, the parle-
ment accompanying them ; they feasted and drank ; they
cried with a loud voice, ' Long live our Pope, Alexander the
Fifth ' ; the Te Deum was sung, and the bells rang through
the city the whole night long.2
1 Mur. iii. 841-2. 2 Lenfant, i. 292 ; Valois, iv. 10 ; Wylie, iii. 383.

376 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Although the Council of Pisa had deposed Popes Gregory
and Benedict and had elected Pope Alexander, there was still
much before them as a council to do. There was the burning
question of church reform ; there was also the question of the
reform of the papal procedure, which was agitated by many of
the bishops ; there was very much that a council ought to do,
if it was to satisfy all the hopes that had been raised. But
the Council of Pisa was under the influence of the cardinals ;
everything was planned by them ; what they proposed was
carried unanimously, and without them was nothing done
that was done. The cardinals, having elected a new Pope,
felt that they had done the one thing absolutely needful, and
were not inclined to undertake any further business of a
difficult or delicate character. Consequently the remaining
sessions of the council were devoted to matters of a merely
formal or uncontroversial nature. There were certain things
which it was necessary to adjust before the council could rise,
and the remaining four sessions of the council were devoted to
their regulation.
The sessions of the council had necessarily been suspended
while the cardinals were in conclave. The twentieth session
was held on the 1st July under the presidence of Pope Alex
ander the Fifth, and was marked by an increased solemnity.
Cardinal de Thury again celebrated High Mass, the Pope pro
nouncing the benediction. Those parts of the service which
had formerly been taken by a cardinal-bishop were now per
formed by His Holiness ; the Orate and the Erigite Vos, instead
of being proclaimed by a simple chaplain or deacOn, were
now pronounced by a cardinal-deacon ; and the Pope was
assisted by cardinals of the same rank in white dalmatics and
mitres. After the litany Alexander himself read the remain
ing prayers and intoned the Veni Creator Spiritus. A lofty
seat had been placed for him in front of the high altar, and
facing him were the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and
Jerusalem. After the office had been concluded, the Cardinal
de Chalant, assisted by three bishops, ascended the pulpit
and read and published the decree, from which it appeared
that the Pope had been unanimously elected by all the
cardinals. A prayer for the welfare of the new pontiff and of

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 377
Holy Church was then put up. The Pope then preached
a sermon on the text, ' Fiet unum ovile et unus pastor ' (' There
shall be one fold and one shepherd '). As a prophecy the text
was premature; as a statement of fact it was inaccurate.
Every one knew that there were certain kingdoms, such as
Scotland and Naples, which still adhered to the old Popes ;
that although the greater part of Christendom might have
withdrawn its obedience from them, still the subtraction was
not universal; and though Alexander the Fifth and the
majority of his audience might believe that very shortly the
whole Church would become one fold under one shepherd, still
that belief was, as faith too often is, merely the ' substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.' There were
at present, and for some years there were still to be, three sheep-
folds under three shepherds, as King Rupert and others had
foretold ; the Council of Pisa had not secured the unity of the j
Church ; the Great Schism was not terminated, but intensified.
The sermon being over, Cardinal Baldassare Cossa, at the
Pope's order, rose and read certain newly framed decrees, rati
fying all that the cardinals had done from the 3rd May 1408
until the council was opened, and all that the council itself
had performed up to the present time, and supplying all
defects, if any existed. The Cardinal de Chalant was restored
to his benefices which had been forfeited by his con
tumacy. The two colleges of cardinals were then formed into
a single college. The next decree related to the reformation
of the Church in its head and its members : the Pope requested
the different nations to appoint deputies, men of probity, age,
and capacity, to consult with him and his cardinals in this
matter. Finally the Pope announced that he intended to send
messengers, and he desired the cardinals and all who had taken
part in the council to carry the news, to all kings and princes
and to all parts of the world, that all connected with his own
election and the deposition of his rivals had been done
decently and in order. To all of which proposals the council
answered in murmuring assent, Placet.1
Sunday, the 7th July, was the day fixed for the coronation.
The new Pope, assisted by the cardinals and by the prelates in
1 Mansi, xxvii. 411-12.

378 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
their long copes (pluviales) and white mitres, celebrated Mass,
and then came out of the western door of the Cathedral.
Here, on the steps of the facade, the only part of the exterior
which makes any pretence to architectural beauty or finish,
a high throne had been erected facing the baptistery. The
Pope took his seat. The Epistles and the Gospel were read
in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. Tow was solemnly burned
before him, to show that the glory of this world passeth away.
The triple crown was set on his head by the Cardinal of
Saluces amid the shouts of the spectators. Then His Holiness,
with the cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and mitred
abbots, mounted their steeds, duly caparisoned in white cloths
and trappings. The abbots headed the procession, followed
by the bishops ; behind the patriarchs came the cardinals in
order of rank, and last of all came the Pope on his white mule,
clad in full pontificals and with the tiara on his head. Thus
they rode solemnly through the streets of Pisa. The two rival
Popes were burned in effigy ; the Jews, as was customary, met
the Pope and petitioned for the confirmation of their privileges ;
they presented him with the book of their law, which he threw
behind him, having a better law as his guide, even the Law
of Christ. Arriving at his house, the Pope dismounted, and
the Captain of Pisa took the horse and its trappings as his
perquisite. Even before he was crowned the new Pope had given evidence
of his extravagant and reckless liberality. He had created
abbots, bishops, and archbishops ; he had presented benefices
and dispensations to the servants of all the cardinals who had
elected him ; he had showered his bounty without respect of
persons, acting as no Pope had acted for centuries before, so
that the more intelligent of the Curia were stupefied, and
murmured at his indiscretion.1 He thought nothing of church
dignities, so improvidently did he distribute them.
The twenty-first session of the council was held on the 10th
July, and was occupied in receiving the ambassadors of
Florence and of Siena, who had come to congratulate the new
pontiff. The election was a triumph for Florence over the
King of Naples. In this session also Alexander annulled all
1 De Schismate, 324.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 379
the sentences of his rivals against those who had withdrawn
from their obedience and had chosen the path of neutrality,
but at the same time he confirmed all their decrees passed in
matrimonial causes.1
The summer was wearing on; it was hot in Pisa. Many
prelates and ambassadors had already left, and many others
were anxious to quit, the sunny city. Accordingly at the next
session, which was not held until the 27th July, Pope Alex
ander announced that the work of the reformation of the
Church would be undertaken by a council to be held in con
tinuation of the present council in April 1412, at some place
to be hereafter notified. In the same session he ratified all the
provisions of his rivals in favour of his own adherents ; he
renounced his right to all outstanding arrears due to the
Apostolic See from all churches up to the date of his own
election ; and at the same time he gave up all claim to the
spoils of deceased prelates and to the revenues of vacant bene
fices. This renunciation was an act of wise liberality, inasmuch
as it avoided a number of claims fruitful of litigation and
difficult of execution.
The twenty- third and last session of the Council of Pisa was
held on Wednesday the 7th August 1409. It was decreed
that the real property of the Roman and other churches should
not be alienated by sale or mortgage either by the Pope
or by any other prelate until the next general council ; it was
further decreed that before that time all the bishops should
hold diocesan councils and all the abbots should hold chapters.
The Pope undertook to send ambassadors to the kings and
princes of Christendom and to the faithful generally to publish
to them the acts of the Council of Pisa. On the authority of
God, of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and on his own authority,
Alexander bestowed plenary absolution on all who had
attended the council and on the servants who had been with
them, and this was to avail even to the hour of death. Finally,
permission was now given to all remaining members to return
to their own homes.
Thus ended the Council of Pisa. It was uncanonical from
the outset, being convoked neither by Pope nor Emperor; but
1 Mansi, xxvi. 1152, 1253.

380 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
it was deemed to be a work of necessity. The Universities of
Paris and Bologna approved its action ; Gerson, D'Ailly, and
other learned prelates wrote lengthy treatises to prove its
canonicity. It was known to be under French or Burgundian
influence : in March 1409 the cardinals invoked the aid of the
French court in behalf of the Pope whom they were to elect.
It was attended by representatives of the greater part of
Christian Europe ; and when once Carlo Malatesta and the
envoys of King Rupert and Pope Benedict had been dismissed,
its unanimity was wonderful. Everything was carefully
arranged beforehand, and a unanimous murmur of Placet
greeted nearly every decision. Nevertheless it had but little
confidence in itself; it did protest too much, and one protesta
tion was used to fortify another. The only person who raised
a dissentient voice, a sturdy Englishman, was hunted from the
session and clapped into prison. It acted upon the novel
assumption that the rival Popes were bound to answer its
summons and to present themselves before it, and that they
were guilty of contumacy in not appearing. It elected a new
Pope; but although he was obeyed by the greater part of
Christendom, the unity of the Church had not been achieved:
instead of two Popes there was now a trinity. Spain, Scot
land, Sardinia, Corsica, Armagnac, Foix, and Beam, still
acknowledged the obedience of Benedict ; parts of Italy and
of Germany, and the northern kingdoms, were still faithful to
Gregory.1 In the matter of the moral reform of the Church,
that reformation for which all Europe was yearning, the
council did nothing. Possibly it did the best it could at the
time in insisting that diocesan and conventual councils should
be held to digest the necessary measures.2 In the matter of
internal reform of administration there was also much that
called for immediate attention, although here the path of
reform was not so clear. ' The prelates and proctors of
England, France, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, and Provence,
presented to the Pope a list of grievances to which they called
his attention, as deviating from the old laws and customs of
the Church. They enumerated translations of bishops against
1 Hergenroether, ii. 846. 2 Hefele, vi. 1042.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 381
their will, Papal reservations and provisions, destruction of the
rights of patronage of bishops and chapters, the exaction of
first-fruits and tenths, grants of exemptions from the visita
torial power of bishops, the excessive liberty of appeal to the
Pope in cases which had not been heard in the inferior courts.' 1
The French court and the University of Paris wished to obtain
from the Council of Pisa the restoration of the liberties of the
Gallican Church; they wanted the Papacy to go back a
hundred years and to renounce all those rights and preroga
tives which it had asserted or created in the interval. These
were matters which affected the Church revenues, and the
aim of the reformers was to abate the excessive drain of
revenue to Rome, and to keep more of the wealth of the
Church for themselves. They had very little regard to the
excessive and unavoidable expense of the Pope and the papal
Curia ; and some of the clamour in this respect was as reason
able as would have been a demand for the King to live ' of
his own' under circumstances in which Parliament willingly
granted tenths and fifteenths. It was almost impossible,
regard being had to the monarchical system of the Papacy, to
get the matter regarded fairly and impartially from the side
of the Pope and from the side of the clergy, and the cardinals
at Pisa were hardly likely to side with the latter. Very little
attempt was made to deal with any of these abuses. ' In fact,'
says the Bishop of London, ' we are driven to admit that the
council scarcely proceeded with the care, discretion, or single
ness of purpose which were necessary to enable it to perform
the duty which it had undertaken. Its intention from the
beginning seems to have been to over-ride, not to conciliate,
the contending Popes. In the first session the advocate of the
council was allowed to call them by the derisive names of
" Benefictus " and " Errorius." The council entirely identified
itself with the cardinals, and accepted their procedure as its
own.' Jean Gerson was not present to point out that it was the
Church Universal, and not the cardinals, that the council
should represent. Pierre d'Ailly, save for his deputation to
meet Carlo Malatesta, did not lift up his voice in the council ;
1 Creighton, i. 253.

382 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
he was a mere spectator with no influence on the proceedings.
For part of the time he was sent away to Genoa on special
work, so that his actual stay in Pisa at the time of important
deliberations was of the shortest. The canon lawyers of the
University of Paris were well and worthily represented by
Simon de Cramaud, whose services were appreciated and fully
utilised by the cardinals, and who did his work con amore.
But the Theological Faculty of the University, which repre
sented the new and rising school of religious criticism, that
school which looked rather to the living word of the spirit
than to the dead letter of the law, this Faculty was practically
unrepresented at the Council of Pisa. ' If the council had
taken up a position of its own, which could have been supported
by all moderate men, it might have exerted such influence on
the Popes themselves, or their supporters, as to have reduced
them to submission. Moreover, the council did not sit long
enough, nor discuss matters with sufficient freedom, to make
its basis sure.' 1 Beside being uncanonical, the council of Pisa
had not been impartial ; it had failed to exhibit a j udicial and
reasonable spirit; its decisions therefore were not accepted
with that universal reverence and respect which usually
attached to the findings of an oecumenical council. ' We can
not wonder that an assembly which dealt so hastily and so
precipitately with difficult and dangerous questions should fail
to obtain a permanent solution.'
While the council had been doing its utmost to ensure
peace and unity, both France and Germany were drifting
perilously near the verge of civil war. After the assassination
of the Duke of Orleans on the 23rd November 1407, and the
scholastic apology for the crime by Jean Petit on the 8th
March 1408,2 the Duke of Burgundy in July marched off to
Liege to the relief of his brother-in-law the Bishop. The
coast was now clear for his opponents. On the 11th Septem
ber another assembly of the princes was held in the interest of
the widowed Duchess. The Abbe of Cerisi pronounced a
harangue which was longer and more eloquent than that of
Jean Petit ; the royal princes determined to proceed against
the Duke of Burgundy rigorously, ' according to the terms of
1 Creighton, i. 254. * Barante, iii. 107.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 383
justice ' : if he did not submit, the King was to make war upon
him with the greatest power possible.1 Unhappily the Duke
returned from Liege more powerful than before: he had
defeated and massacred his foes in thousands; he had by
his personal courage won the name of Jean sans Peur. The
beautiful but unfortunate Valentine Visconti, who had of late
taken for her motto Rien ne m!est plus, plus ne m'est rien,
died j ust before her husband's assassin re-entered Paris on the
28th November. The common people received John of Bur
gundy gladly ; the King, the Queen, and the princes left Paris
hurriedly. A hollow peace was patched up between the two
parties at Chartres on the 9th March 1409. The King and
Queen returned to Paris, but the sons of the late Duke of
Orleans — the eldest was but eighteen years of age — remained
absent from court. The young Duke of Orleans won over to
his cause the Dukes of Berri, Bourbon, and Brittany. Being
already a widower, he married the daughter of Count Bernard
of Armagnac ; he thus became the head of the sturdy Gascon
troops; and the war between the Burgundians and the
Armagnacs loomed in the near distance. Nothing but want of
funds kept the opponents from flying at each other's throats.
The ambassadors of King Rupert, who had fled from Pisa
like thieves in the night, had previously and subsequently
been received by Pope Gregory like the sons of the morning.
He created Matthew, Bishop of Worms, his Legate, and
Matthew delegated to another ambassador, Bishop Ulrich of
Verden, his powers in Magdeburg, Bremen, Verden, and
Minden; and Rupert ordered obedience to be rendered ac
cordingly. But the greater part of Germany had escaped
from the obedience of Pope Gregory, and had embraced that
of the cardinals' Pope, Alexander the Fifth. The Austrian
Dukes and the University of Vienna, all the east and south
and much of the west of the Empire, were against the King.
The star of Wenzel and the French alliance was in the as
cendant. King Rupert's cousin, Ludwig of Bavaria-Ingol-
stadt, brother of the Queen of France, had married for his
first wife the daughter of the Duke of Bourbon. He now
took for his second Princess Catharine of Navarre, and the
1 Lavisse, iv. i. 335.

384 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
King of France, the Dukes of Berri and Burgundy were at
the wedding.1 King Rupert's arch-enemy, John of Nassau,
Archbishop of Mainz, now figured as Ugatus natus of the new
Pope, and was a vassal of the King of France. The imminence
of civil war in France itself alone secured its neutrality at this
time in Germany. Before the new Pope was elected, Rupert
addressed a letter to the German princes, describing the
reception of his embassy. He attributed their want of success
not to the disposition of Gregory's old cardinals, but to the
disaffection of the others and the opposition of the Florentines ;
Baldassare Cossa by his intrigues led the council whither he
would. Had Rupert himself been willing to assent, the
cardinals would have made him the mightiest Kaiser in the land ;
his ambassadors had answered that they were not sent to seek
any temporal glory for their own King, but for the love of
God and the eternal welfare of Holy Church. But Germany
had pronounced against her King. The Elector Archbishops
of Mainz, Cologne, and Trier, the Archbishop of Magdeburg,
the Markgraf of Meissen, had sent their ambassadors to Pisa ;
so too had Bavaria, Lorraine, Austria, Burgundy, Brabant,
and the Wittelsbachs of Holland. King Rupert had to drain
the cup of ill-fortune to the dregs.2
Not only was the King losing ground both in matters of
Church and of State, not only was he abandoned by the princes
even of his own family, but the cities of the Empire, the towns
which had in 1408 made a special league with him, renounced
their liability and their allegiance. His most trusted and
trustworthy friend, Friedrich, Burggraf of Nuernberg, entered
the service of King Sigismund of Hungary, the half-brother
of Rupert's rival. His most talented ecclesiastic, Matthew of
Cracow, Bishop of Worms, died on the 5th March 1410.
Death had also by that time deprived him of five of the ten
children which his wife had borne him, the last to die being
his youngest and best-beloved daughter, the beautiful Elsa,
whose marriage to Frederic of Austria secured him the Habs
burg alliance. The old feud with John of Nassau broke out
afresh ; it was a feud to the death now that the spiritual
allegiance was divided. Rupert went to Marburg at the
1 Huebner, tab. 133 ; Hoefler, 445. 2 Hoefler, 446-48.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 385
beginning of March, and made a league with Hermann of Hesse,
Otto and Eric of Brunswick, and others, against the Arch
bishop-Elector, and then returned to Heidelberg to await the
war which must soon break out. Two months later the un
expected happened, and war was averted.
King Sigismund of Hungary and the Venetian republic
had been no less earnest than King Rupert in desiring a
reconciliation between Gregory and the cardinals ; but unlike
King Rupert they deserted the aged Pope when they saw that
his cause was lost. Angelo Corrario looked for the support of
the Republic, and sought for an asylum in his native city ;
but he had refused to support the candidature of the Doge's
nephew for the bishopric, and he had now to pay the penalty.
Ambassadors from England, France, and Burgundy implored
the Republic to support the conciliar Pope and to assist in
closing the Schism. There was a hot debate in the Senate.
The Doge wished to recognise Alexander, and his motion was
carried by seventy-nine votes against forty-eight. Venice
accepted the Pope elected by the Council of Pisa.
This act was a distinct declaration of ecclesiastical policy,
doubtless the right policy for the Republic. As a temporal
power Venice, along with France, the Emperor and other
temporal princes, was concerned to resist the claims of the
Roman Curia, and to support the conciliar principle that
general councils are superior to Popes, from whom may lie
an appeal to a future council. To this fundamental line of
ecclesiastical policy, declared now for the first time by the
Republic, Venice adhered throughout all her many disputes
with Rome.1
Sigismund of Hungary followed suit. He was the coming
man, but he was not as yet in a position to dominate the
board ; he was obliged to wait upon circumstances and to play
an opportunist game. He had desired a council at which both
Popes should be present, and had worked for this end ; but
when once Alexander had been elected, the King's project was
no longer feasible, and he reconsidered his position. He had
none of King Rupert's honourable loyalty, through good
report and through evil, to the man whom he considered to
1 Brown : Venice, a Historical Sketch, 269.
2 B

386 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
be the rightful and canonical Pope ; Sigismund looked to his
own interest and the interest of Hungary. What could he
gain by adherence to a Pope whom nearly all princes and
prelates, whom the Republic of Venice had forsaken ? The
Republic, moreover, had just sold Zara and other places to
Ladislas of Naples, who had claims on Hungary, and could
only have concluded the purchase with an eye to making them
good ; so that the Republic now was to be reckoned among
the enemies of Sigismund ; and since Gregory was already on
the side of Ladislas, it behoved Sigismund not to allow the
Republic of Venice to monopolise the favour of Alexander.
Pope Gregory, moreover, with his wofully shrunken obedience,
could be of no use to a warlike king in his projects against
the Turks, the enemies of Christendom ; no one would listen
to a crusade preached by Gregory. The Council of Pisa had
on its side done its best to revive the honour of the house of
Luxemburg by its acknowledgment of Wenzel in opposition
to Rupert ; and if Sigismund desired at some future time to
succeed his half-brother, it clearly behoved him to recognise
the Pope who had acknowledged Wenzel as the rightful King
of Germany. Such were probably the reasons which deter
mined King Sigismund of Hungary to acknowledge the Pope
who derived his authority from the Council of Pisa.1
Although Alexander the Fifth was not a Frenchman, still
his election was a triumph for the French party in the Council
of Pisa, for it was the victory of Baldassare Cossa, Papal
Legate of Bologna, and of the French alliance. There was
now some chance that the claims of Louis of Anjou would be
pressed against Ladislas of Naples, the enemy alike of the
Cardinal and of the Duke. Louis himself arrived at Pisa in
July 1409, and his arrival was the cause of the delay which
had occurred in holding the twenty-second session of the
council. When his father died at Bari on the night of the
20-21st September 1384, Louis, the second duke of the second
house of Anjou, was a boy of seven, in the care of his mother,
Marie de Bretagne in France. His father in his will desired
that the child might be sent as soon as possible to Italy to
comfort and console the inhabitants of his kingdom ; '" the
1 Goeller, 62-3. 2 Valois, ii. 83.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 387
loyal barons and the captains of the army swore allegiance,
and the soldiers shouted ' Long live King Louis the Second ;
Death to the traitor Charles.' On the 2nd August of that
year he was married by proxy to Lucie, daughter of Bernabo
Visconti, who was then reigning at Milan. On the 9th
February 1385 he entered Paris, was met by two cardinals,
two archbishops, and the royal dukes of Berri, Burgundy, and
Bourbon. The Neapolitan nobles and Marie de Bretagne
solicited aid from the French King for the invasion of Naples.
On Pentecost Day, 21st May 1385, the boy knelt before Pope
Clement the Seventh at Avignon and did him homage, and
the Pope placed in his hands two banners with the arms of the
Church and of Naples, thus investing him with the Kingdom of
Sicily. No pecuniary help from France was,however, forthcoming
until the year 1390.
On the 20th July of that year the young duke set
sail for his kingdom, and he reached Naples three weeks
later. He was received with acclamation ; the banner
of Clement the Seventh waved in the streets of Naples, and
the young King was preceded by the Papal Legate. But few,
however, of the barons came in to tender their allegiance, and
a long and dreary contest between the two pretenders to the
crown began.1 The Castle of Saint Elmo was taken on the
18th October 1390 ; the Castle Nuovo surrendered on the 7th
March 1391 ; Otto of Brunswick and Alberigo da Barbiano
were captured on the 24th April 1392 ; Amain was taken in
June 1392 and Ravello in February 1393 ; and in September of
the same year a number of the Calabrian barons submitted.
Then followed some years of desultory warfare, until the tide
of fortune turned in favour of King Ladislas. At the end of
1398 certain of the barons returned to his allegiance ; and in
1399 he captured Tarento and Naples from his rival, who
returned disconsolate to France.2 From that year the Duke
had remained in France, nourishing in his breast the claims
which he was unable to prosecute by force of arms. Lucie
Visconti being dead, he married Yolande of Aragon on the
1st December 1400. This was in the time of the first sub
traction of obedience from Pope Benedict the Thirteenth, and
1 Tartini, ii. 226 ; Valois, ii. 168. 2 Tartini, ii. 401 -•*¦

388 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Marie de Bretagne had withdrawn the domains in Provence
from their spiritual allegiance. The Duke, however, joined
the party of his cousin of Orleans ; he dined and slept at the
Pope's palace at Avignon on the 27th August 1402, was once
again invested by His Holiness with the Kingdom of Sicily,
and restored his obedience to Pope Benedict in return for a
money payment of sums due to him from the Holy See. In
1405 the Duke of Anjou had accompanied the Pope to Genoa,
a voyage which occasioned some trepidation to King Ladislas,
who believed then, and later when Pope Benedict was at Porto
Venere, that a coup de main was to be attempted on Rome
in the interest of the French Pope and the French Duke.
Quarrels at court recalled the Duke to Paris, and Ladislas was
saved any invasion in 1405. From that time Louis of Anjou was
unable to do anything in furtherance of his claim on the crown
of Naples, until the league of Florence, Siena, and the Cardinal
Legate of Bologna opened to him more alluring prospects.
On the 26th June 1409, the day on which the cardinals
raised to the pontifical throne the only member of the
Urbanist college who had not engaged to support Ladislas,1
the league between the contracting parties was made at
Pisa. Louis of Anjou engaged to furnish during the month
of July a thousand lances, five hundred to come from France
and five hundred to be engaged at his expense ; and on the
day when he started for the war with Naples, the two republics
and the Cardinal Legate were to grant him the like aid on
their part. On the 25th July the Duke arrived at Pisa, was
met and welcomed by the ambassadors from Florence and
by the cardinals, was received in public consistory, and
assisted at a session of the council. After having given his
allegiance to Alexander the Fifth, the new Pope appointed
the Duke to be Gonfalonier of Holy Church, and on the
19th August 1409 invested him with the Kingdom of Sicily
as Clement the Seventh had done in 1385, and Benedict the
Thirteenth in 1402. Louis, Duke of Anjou, had been
sufficiently invested, but had still his kingdom to win from
its actual occupant, and meanwhile the Florentines were
beginning to doubt whether they had done wisely in havino-
1 Valois, iv. 119.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 389
invited him to Italy. They had entered into the league
because of the negotiations of Ladislas with the Pisan exiles,
because of his wasting of Arezzo, because of the treachery at
Cortona; but now that Baldassare Cossa had driven their
enemy to a distance and had dispelled their fears, they began
to fear lest they had introduced a compromising and
, dangerous pretender into their midst. Their allies, however,
determined to drive the King of Naples out of the states of
the Church.1
It was ten years since Louis, Duke of Anjou, had been
driven from Italy by Ladislas of Naples ; he was now thirty-
two years of age, but he had learned little by misfortune. He
was neither the man to command an army in the field, nor
the man to take the lead in a great expedition. On the
present occasion he had left part of his fleet behind him, and
he reaped the fruit of his folly. His ships, when he reached
Savona, found the place in revolution, and forthwith attacked
the Genoese. At Genoa the aspect of affairs at this time
changed completely, much to the joy of Ladislas, much to
the chagrin of the Duke of Anjou. The two sons of Gian
Galeazzo of Milan had complained to the King of France of
the depredations of Facino Cane, who was gradually usurping
the whole of their possessions : they asked the King to take
them under his protection and sovereignty. Delighted at
the prospect of extending French influence in Italy, the King
commissioned the Marshal Boucicaut to take the necessary
steps. The Marshal borrowed money, raised an army, left
Messire de Choleton 2 in command of Genoa, marched off, took
Tortona, crossed the Po, and met the Count of Pavia, who in
troduced him into that city in the midst of a brilliant cortege.
Thence he moved on to Milan, which the Duke in like manner
surrendered to Boucicaut for the King of France. The Marshal
was girt with a splendid sword, received the golden sceptre,
and seated himself on the royal throne. French troops were
to take possession of the castles of Milan, and war was to
be declared on Facino Cane. ' O the blindness of men's
hearts, knowing not the future,' exclaims the pious monk ;
he was ignorant that through the devices of that same
1 Tartini, ii. 607; Valois, iv. 121. 2 Monstrelet, 159; Religieux, iv. 260.

390 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Facino Cane, the Marquess of Montferrat was at that moment
master of Genoa. No sooner had the Marshal left Genoa
than the Marquess had agreed secretly with the Doria and
Spinola families to raise the place against him. They in
troduced troops into the neighbouring villages and held
revolutionary meetings in the city. Choleton was assassinated
on the 2nd September ; of the French some were massacred,
others fled to the citadel; the Marquess of Montferrat was
welcomed with acclamation and conducted to the palace.
Under him twelve councillors were appointed, after the ancient
fashion, to govern the republic. Boucicaut hastened back
to Genoa, but found the city in the hands of his enemies ;
he could do nothing. The French in the citadel surrendered,
and were allowed to rejoin the Marshal, a shirt on their backs
and a stick in their hands (' sola tunica amicti et v'vrgam manu
tenentes '). Genoa was thenceforward lost to France, although
the Genoese refused to admit Facino Cane ; they excused their
action to the King of France on the ground of the excessive
cruelties and exactions of the Marshal, who was the worst
tyrant in Christendom.1 Genoa was now mistress of the
Riviera ; the city had no mind to help Louis of Anjou. In
spite of the letters of Pope Alexander, who sent the Cardinal
of Saluces to them, the Genoese leagued themselves with
Ladislas of Naples, and committed reprisals on the Florentines
as the allies of his rival.2
On the 7th September 1409 the Duke of Anjou marched
out of Pisa with five hundred lances under the command of
Tanguy du Chatel, a Breton leader with a boyish face. The
Duke went to Siena to await Baldassare Cossa, who was again
to be engaged in an occupation thoroughly congenial to him.
The Legate had come from Florence, where he had for the
time overcome the scruples of the Ten, and had arranged
that the Florentine troops should meet their allies at Chiusi.
There were two thousand lances and five hundred foot.
Malatesta de' Malatesti, the Lord of Pesaro and Fossom-
brone, and cousin of Carlo Malatesta, was in supreme com
mand;3 and under him were two excellent condottiere
1 Monstrelet, 159; Religieux, iv. 254-66. " Valois, iv. 131.
3 Biog. Univ. xxvi. 328.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 391
officers, Sforza Attendolo and Braccio da Montone. The
Florentines had taken the precaution to send two citizens
with their general,1 who fortunately did not hamper him
excessively. King Ladislas had left Paolo Orsini behind him
in command of his troops in Tuscany ; and Paolo Orsini,
more suo, played the traitor and entered the service of the
new Pope ; so that it seemed as if the boast of the Florentines
that they would conquer Ladislas with his own troops were
about to be realised. No one knew better than the King that
many of the condottiere generals were ready to desert to the
employer with the longest purse. Having thus annexed their
enemy's general, there was nothing to oppose the allies ; they
enjoyed a triumphal march through Tuscany and Umbria;
Orvieto - and Montefiascone submitted to them ; at Viterbo
the citizens deposed Pope Gregory's nephew, who was the
Vicar, and made over the city to the Legate amid shouts of
' Long live Alexander the Fifth, death to Pope Gregory.'
With the single exception of Todi, the whole country passed
under the sway of the new pontiff, whose troops were on their
march to Rome.2
Their arrival was expected. Although the Castle of Sant
Angelo was held against the Neapolitans by Vituccio Vitel-
leschi, who was at first neutral but soon declared himself a
partisan of Pope Alexander, several new gates were made
with proper defences during the month of September. The
allied forces reached Rome on the 1st October. They pene
trated into the Borgo, and reached the Portico of Saint Peter.
The Porta Viridaria, the principal gate of the Leonine city,
through which Emperors customarily entered, had been walled
up on the 19th August by the order of the Senator of Rome,
but had been reopened on the 25th September to admit the
Count of Troja, Giovanni Colonna and others of the Neapolitan
generals fleeing before the allies. On Tuesday the 3rd
October at the hour of tierce, Louis, Duke of Anjou, accom
panied by Paolo Orsini and four other Orsini generals, made
his triumphal entry into Rome. Cardinal Baldassare Cossa
took possession of the Vatican. The banners of Pope
Alexander the Fifth, of Holy Church, and of Duke Louis of
1 Ammirato, v. 7. 2 Tartini, ii. 613.

392 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
Anjou floated over the Leonine city; and the Duke's chaplain
celebrated Mass at the high altar of Saint Peter's Church.1 It
was seven years since Baldassare Cossa had last been in Rome,
the private chamberlain of Pope Boniface the Ninth, who had
promoted him to be Cardinal-Deacon of Saint Eustachius, and
had then made him Papal Legate of Bologna. Six years of
strong and successful rule over that stormy city had trans
formed him into the foremost cardinal of the Urbanist
obedience. He had originated and engineered the Council of
Pisa; he had got a firm friend elected as Pope, and was
himself the man behind the throne ; he had entered the
Eternal City in triumph, and now held the papal palace and
the papal fortress for Alexander the Fifth.
The whole of Rome was, however, not yet conquered : the
Count of Troja and the Colonnas still held the city across
the Tiber for King Ladislas. Although the allies held the
Castle, they could not wrench the strongly fortified bridge of
Sant Angelo nor the Trastevere from the enemy. On the
10th October the allies abandoned the Borgo, crossed the
Tiber by the Monte Rotondo two miles north of the city,
and attempted to take Rome from the east; but it was in
vain. They had made no provision for an assault.- The
only alternative was to besiege the city ; and seeing that this
involved a considerable delay, the Duke and the Cardinal did
not deem their presence any longer to be necessary.2 On the
10th October the Duke of Anjou and Cardinal Baldassare
Cossa left the army under the command of the Florentine
general, Malatesta de' Malatesti, Signor of Pesaro, and hurried
back to join the Pope. The French troops remained under
the generals Tanguy de Chatel and the Count of Tagliacozzo.
Malatesta was assisted by Paolo Orsini, by Sforza Attendolo,
by Braccio da Montone; against them were ranged the
Neapolitans under the Count of Troja, under whom were
Giovanni and Nicolo Colonna and Baptista Savelli. Skirmishes
between the rival armies occurred all through the months of
October, November, and December.
The last session of the Council of Pisa had been held on
the 7th August. Pestilence then appeared in the city, and
* Mur, xxiv. 1003. 2 Raumer, 221,

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 393
the Pope and cardinals, fearing for their lives, withdrew later
in the month to Prato, the little Florentine town on the
Bisenzio, where the Virgin's Girdle is preserved and exhibited,
and where the Cardinal and the Duke, on his way back to
France to raise additional funds, found them on the 1st
November. The Pope, before leaving Pisa, while his strong friend,
thirty years his junior, was still at his side, had shown
a certain disposition toward meeting the demand for the
internal reform of the papal government. Alexander was
willing to give up much : he abandoned all claims to arrears
of revenue due to the Apostolic See, and all the spoils and
revenues of vacant benefices ; he promised not to transfer
bishops without their consent, save for special and weighty
reasons ; he restored, pending the meeting of a new council
in three years' time, the right of election to cathedral churches
and to the larger monasteries ; he recognised to a certain
extent the right of the ordinary to appoint to benefices in his
own nomination ; but further than this he was not prepared
to go. He expressly reserved for himself and the cardinals
the rights to first-fruits and services, which had become a
regular and necessary source of revenue to the Holy See. At
the same time, although he renounced his claim to apostolic
taxes due and unpaid, he sent an officer to France to collect
all arrears possible ; and at the same time he deputed Cardinal
de Thury to propose to the French court and the University
of Paris the imposition of a new tax of two-tenths on the
clergy of the kingdom. The Pope and the cardinals had
themselves to think of as well as the realm of France.
Moreover, Pope Alexander the Fifth, in the absence of
Baldassare Cossa, and without consulting any of the other
cardinals, unhappily promulgated a Bull of very serious and
far-reaching consequences. This was the Bull, Regnans in
Excelsis, in favour of the Mendicant Friars, dated the 4th (or
the 12th) October 1409. Petrus Filargi had been educated by
the Franciscans and had entered their order ; all his best feel
ings were bound up with them, and their interests were dearest
to his heart. Unhappily the last two hundred years, as has
already been pointed out, had witnessed a sad deterioration

394 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
among the mendicant orders. From a blessing they had too
frequently become a curse to the communities among which
they dwelt ; the friction and strife between them and the
secular clergy had invaded the Universities of Paris and
Oxford ; the parish priest everywhere with reason complained
that the friar with his portable altar deprived him of the
tribute and the alms of the faithful. In 1215, before any
order of mendicant friars had been constituted, the Fourth
Council of Lateran had issued its famous Bull, Omnis utriusque
sexus, requiring every person to confess at least once in the
year to his or her own parish priest, or to another confessor
by the express permission of that priest. This was the year
before the Order of the Dominicans was instituted. In 1227
Pope Gregory the Ninth, without mentioning the Bull
of the Lateran Council, authorised the Preaching Friars
to hear confessions in places where they preached. This
caused some apprehension, especially in England,1 among the
secular clergy, whose privileges and revenues were thus in
vaded. But Innocent the Fourth in 1244 supported the
Dominicans against the bishops. In 1253 the Friars were
expelled from the University of Paris for disobedience to
its statutes ; 2 and in the year following Pope Innocent, shortly
before his death, published a second Bull, disavowing his
former, prohibiting them from hearing confessions without
the permission of the parish priest. This Bull in its turn was
revoked by Innocent's successor, Alexander the Fourth, who
allowed the Friars to preach and to hear confessions, provided
they had the permission of the Pope or of a Papal Legate or
of the ordinary of the place. He also revoked the decree
of the University expelling the Friars. Clement the Fourth
in 1265 placed some limitations on the Bull of Alexander, and
in 1280 Pope Martin the Fourth attempted to settle the
matter, and at the same time to save the authority of the
Lateran Council, by giving to the Friars full liberty to hear
confessions provided the penitent also confessed once a year
to his own parish priest. The strife between the seculars and
regulars, however, increased in virulence as the years went on,
and the mendicant orders grew stronger and stronger. The
1 Matthew Paris, iii. 149. 2 Rashdall, i. 378.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 395
Popes naturally favoured them, for the mendicants were
subject to them alone under their own generals, and were the
most powerful and popular agents of the papacy throughout
Europe ; but the bishops and secular clergy fought hard for
the loaves and fishes of which the friars despoiled them. By
the time of Pope Boniface the Eighth the friars had worked
serious havoc with the influence of the secular clergy; this
Pope surrounded them with his special protection, raised
them to high dignities in the church, and even made several
of them cardinals ; J he promulgated in favour of the Domini
cans and Franciscans — and it was subsequently extended to
the Austin friars and the Carmelites — the Bull known as
Super Cathedram. This allowed them to preach, to hear con
fessions, to award penance and grant absolution, and to bury the
dead in the provinces in which they were established, provided
their superiors had obtained the permission of the bishops.
Even this limitation did not approve itself to his successor,
who gave the Dominicans full and unlimited power to hear
confessions ; but the Bull of Boniface was re-established by
the Council of Vienne under Clement the Fifth in 1811, and
remained thenceforward in force. The friars selected by their
superiors as fit and proper persons to hear confession were by
them presented, under this Bull, to the bishops for permission
' in order that with their permission and under their good
pleasure the friars designated might, in the towns and dioceses
of the aforesaid prelates, hear the confessions of those who
wished to confess to them, impose salutary penance, and grant
them the benefit of absolution.' It naturally followed that
those who confessed to the friars were no longer required to
confess to their parish priests, and this view was expressly up
held by Pope John the Twenty-second. Unfortunately this
Pope was himself of not unimpeachable orthodoxy, and the
opinion, which had the sanction of the Lateran Council, that
every one was obliged to confess to the parish priest once
in the year, found favour and was vigorously defended. Not
withstanding this, the regulars gained ground. In Germany in
King Rupert's time, when the King himself did a good turn to
divers monasteries, and when there were several reforming
1 Rocquain, 213.

396 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
abbots, the general state of the regular clergy was better than
that of the secular.
Now that they had got a Franciscan Pope, the friars
determined to turn their opportunity to their own ad
vantage. All four orders complained to him of the con
tention that confession to a friar did not exempt a man
from confession to the parish priest. Pope Alexander the
Fifth, in the Bull Regnans in Excelsis, upheld in every point
the constitution of his predecessor Boniface, notwithstanding
the Bull of the Lateran Council, and any other papal constitu
tions to the contrary (' non obstante predicta, quae incipit Omnis
utriusque sexus, et aliis constitucionibus apostolicis contrariis
quibuscunque ').1 This Bull is expressed to be made with the
counsel and consent of the cardinals, but they all declared that
they knew nothing whatever about it. The greatest excitement
was caused in the University of Paris, where the well-received
opinion was that confession made to an ' admitted brother,' as
the licensed friars were called, was of doubtful and uncertain
efficacy. In order to avoid mortal sin, said the doctors, it was
necessary for a man to confess to a priest who had the cure of
souls. In 1408 a Franciscan, Jean de Gorel, had publicly main
tained that friars were an institution of the primitive Church
and therefore prior in their inception to the parish priest ; that
they therefore had a superior right to preach, to hear con
fessions, to administer extreme unction, and to perform burials.
But the Theological Faculty of the University had haled the
bold Franciscan before themselves, and had obliged him to
recant and to state publicly that these rights, and the all-
important right to collect tithes, belonged essentially to the
parish priest, and that the mendicant friar could not have
them except accidentally and by permission of the prelates.
When the friars produced the Bull of Alexander, the University,
backed as they were by the cardinals, at once flew to arms ;
they determined to expel all the mendicants unless they re
nounced the Bull. The Dominicans and the Carmelites at
once complied. On the 1st March 1410, at the Church of
Saint Martin in the Fields, one of the ' Dogs of the Lord '
preached a sermon before the University, in which he declared
1 Religieux, iv. 292-306.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 397
that his order had not asked for the Bull, and that they were
content with their former privileges. The Franciscans held by
the Franciscan Pope ; they refused to submit ; they ran about
the streets with copies of the Bull in their hands ; they h>
suited the priests ; they proclaimed that they alone could hear
confessions and levy tithes. Jean Gerson preached against
them on the third Sunday in Lent ; and, what was more
efficacious, the King sent a herald to make a proclamation and
to affix a notice outside the Friary doors, forbidding the
secular clergy, on pain of loss of their temporalities, to allow
any Franciscan or Augustin to preach or hear confession in
their churches.1 The cause of quarrel was finally removed
by Alexander's successor. ' From his conduct in this matter,'
says Bishop Creighton, * we may judge the character of Alex
ander. Owing everything to his Order, he was ready to
befriend it in any way, and at once complied with the requests
which its advocates preferred, without any consideration of
their wisdom or expediency. . . . He was generally under the
rule of his cardinals ; only in granting this Bull to his beloved
Order did he venture to act without their advice, and then he
foolishly endeavoured to act secretly, because he had not the
courage to face and overcome opposition.' 2
Rome meanwhile was suffering all the horrors of war : the
papal army occupied the Leonine City ; the Neapolitans were
south of the Tiber. When the Legate and the Duke went off
to join the Pope, Paolo Orsini, who liked to take military
matters deliberately, marched his troops off toward the Lago
Bracciano, leaving Nicolo Orsini in charge of the Castle Sant
Angelo. The first care of the clergy was to preserve their
sacred relics : images, bells, and reliquaries were hurried from
one church to another for safety; the Veronica was finally
deposited in the Castle. Bombards were hurled from Sant
Angelo into the city, and frequent sallies were made; what
with the scarcity and the war, the citizens were at their wits'
end : they dared not cross the'river to get in their vintage, for
Nicolo Colonna attacked boats and crops. A mole was made
at the Sanctus Spiritus; a 'cat' was prepared for breaking
down the walls; certain gates of the city were walled up,
1 Schwab, 459-60 ; Lenfant, i. 313- 16. 2 Creighton, i. 265.

398 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
others were burned down. On the 22nd October some of the
Neapolitan troops marched out toward Naples, but three
days later the galleys of Ladislas appeared before Ostia, and
on the 28th the city was in a state of siege. It was impossible
tp observe the Feast of All Saints. The church bells rang not
at all, except as a call to arms. In November, Ladislas sent as
usual to appoint the magistrates for the year, and took the
opportunity to order a few salutary executions. At times a
touch of comedy lightened the darkness. A butcher, who had
sold a hundred pigs, sent them to the river to be watered;
one of the pigs ran away; the drovers and the other pigs
followed; and all were captured by the garrison of Sant
Angelo. Most of the cattle, however, were dying from want
of fodder. Toward the end of the month renewed prepara
tions were made by the Count of Troja ; Paolo Orsini also
threw supplies into Sant Angelo. The armies avoided any fixed
fighting, but convoys were attacked and prisoners made on
one side and on the other ; sallies were met by counter-sallies ;
cries for the Church and the Orsini were answered by shouts
for the Church and the Colonna. The weather was stormy
and tempestuous. Great damage was done to the churches :
some of the towers and turrets were pulled down, the principal
doors were taken off their hinges or bricked up, parts of the
Portico of Saint Peter's were ruined.
As the year drew to its close the allies pressed closer
and closer round the city. On Saturday the 28th December,
the Feast of the Holy Innocents, Malatesta drew up his
whole army outside the walls ; his troops shouted to
the Romans to raise a cry for the Church and the People ;
bombs from the Castle Sant Angelo were hurled into
the city. Nicolo Colonna with six hundred horsemen
stood ready to meet them. There was no fight that day;
at vespers the troops drew off. That night Paolo Orsini
came with his army and encamped outside Saint Peter's on
the Vatican Hill. Next afternoon, at the time of vespers,
the Count of Troja, with Nicolo Colonna and Baptista Savelli,
marched out their army through the Porta Septimania, and a
fight took place. The slaughter was not great, but the con
dottiere general gained a decisive victory, took a large number

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 399
of prisoners, and others of his enemies threw themselves into
the river and were drowned. The most important prisoner was
the Count of Troja himself, who, however, managed to escape
that same night, thereby depriving Paolo Orsini of his hope
of a heavy ransom. The Florentine general, Malatesta, was
already in communication with one Laelius, a noble with a
strong following, and with other traitors inside the walls.1
The defeat of the Neapolitan generals was decisive. On the
last day of the year the fickle Romans, led by some boys,
raised the cry ' Viva lo Popolo e la Chiesa ! ' and shortly after
midnight the victorious generals entered Rome in triumph.
On the 5th January 1410 the Senator who held the Capitol
for King Ladislas surrendered it to Paolo Orsini, who on the
8th brought his wife, Donna Rica, into the city. The strong
towers by the gates still held out for King Ladislas, but they
were taken one by one ; Paolo Orsini stuck to the work ; he
did not cease it even for the Games ' in Agone ' which were
superintended by Malatesta. On the 16th January, after
three or four days' bombardment, the Porta San Lorenzo,
which stands on the site of the ancient Porta Tiburtina, on
the road leading to Tivoli, surrendered. On the 29th January
an embassy was despatched to Pope Alexander to announce the
good news to him. Finally, on the 15th February, the Porta
Maggiore, the gateway which stands where the old archway of
the Claudian aqueduct once brought into Rome the water
which was ' second only in excellence to the Marcia itself,' 2
was taken by assault, and the last sign of Neapolitan rule was
thus effaced from Rome. The papal troops garrisoned the
Eternal City. Pope Alexander was acknowledged by the
Romans. King Ladislas of Naples was defeated, but not yet
conquered.3 The Roman embassy found Pope Alexander at Pistoja, the
Tuscan mountain town near the Ombrone and about eighteen
miles from Prato. Like it, Pistoja was subject to the Floren
tines. On the 1st November at Prato, on the day when the
Duke and the Cardinal returned from Rome, Alexander fulmi
nated a Bull against King Ladislas of Naples, who had — so
the Bull ran — been nourished by the milk and substance of
1 Raynaldus, viii. 300. 2 Hodgkin, iv. 161. 3 Mur. xxiv. 1007-1015.

400 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Roman Church, who had been crowned King of Naples
and Sicily by Pope Boniface the Ninth, who had abused his
power and had been excommunicated by Pope Innocent the
Seventh, who had usurped the possessions of the Church and
forfeited all his engagements toward her, who had imprisoned
the relations and ravaged the lands of the Cardinals Cossa and
Antonius, and who finally had prohibited his subjects from
recognising Pope Alexander ; wherefore by the advice of his
cardinals the Pope now summoned King Ladislas to appear
and to hear the sentence depriving him of his kingdom and
his rights. It is needless to say that Ladislas of Naples took
no notice of this brutumfulmen.
At Pistoja the Pope spent Christmas and the New Year, and
here he received the Roman ambassadors. He was inclined to
accede to their request and to go to Rome ; the Florentines also
persuaded him thereto, in order to confirm the Romans in
their obedience and to recover other lands of the Church.1
But Cardinal Baldassare Cossa was opposed to the proposed
move. Rome was now safe, and the presence of the Pope was
unnecessary. He reminded the Pope that at the time of his
election it was agreed that they should work for the recovery
of the possessions of the Church in Tuscany, and that he him
self had spent strength and money to that end ; furthermore,
he added that when he left for the Council of Pisa, he had
promised the Bolognese that on his return he would bring the
Pope back with him, and that he feared they might kill him
if he failed to keep his word.2 There was a touch of sardonic
humour in the suggestion that Baldassare Cossa, who had lived
through six years of repeated attempts at assassination, stood
really in fear of the men of Bologna. The argument was
thrown out as a sop to the Curia, and it was believed by the
credulous and stolid Dietrich von Niem ; but Pope Alexander
knew Bologna and Baldassare Cossa too well to take it seriously.
Probably the cardinal's real reason was that he knew that his
own presence was required at Bologna, and that after the issue
of the Bull Regnans in Excelsis, he dared not leave the Pope
alone. He promised to make suitable accommodation for
the Pope and his cardinals ; and accordingly, braving the ice
1 Ghirar, ii. 580. 2 Hardt, ii. 355 et seq.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 401
and snow and the ' winter's furious rages,' the Pope and Curia
accompanied Cardinal Baldassare Cossa back to his beloved
city of Bologna.
During his absence on the march to Rome and with the
Pope, the Legate's place at Bologna had been filled by his
friend, Cardinal Conrad Caracciolo, who like himself was
a Neapolitan. The Pope was settled in the Anziani Palace
with his court around him ; suitable lodgings in different
palaces and houses were provided for the cardinals,1 and all
were entertained by Cardinal Cossa. Undoubtedly the move
was well advised. The Pope was old and feeble ; it was better
to keep him in comparative safety than that he should run the
risk of renewed hostilities. Rome was safe for the time, but
King Ladislas was not yet subdued. He had lately taken for
his motto Aut Ccesar aut nihil, meaning to try for the over-
lordship of all Italy ; he might be expected back from Naples
at the head of a large army ; while his opponent, the Duke
of Anjou, on the other hand, had departed to France for
reinforcements, and had not yet returned. The events of the
next few years proved that the Cardinal had judged the danger
aright. That his own presence was urgently required at
Bologna was proved by the revolt of Forlimpopolo.
While Pope Alexander was at Bologna he received news of
the war between King Sigismund of Hungary and his allies the
Servians against the Turks,2 whereupon the Pope preached a
crusade calling upon all Christian princes to help the king
dom of Hungary in its time of need.3 About the same time,
at the solicitation of the Archbishop of Prague, the Pope pro
mulgated a Bull against the Wyclifite heresies in Bohemia,
but without naming John Hus. The reformer, being Rector of
the University of Prague and in favour at court, where he was
the Queen's confessor, went his own way peacefully, saying
that he should appeal from Alexander ill-informed to Alex
ander better-informed. On the 22nd January 1410 the Pope
renewed his condemnation of his two rivals and their adherents.
Another embassy arrived from the Romans, bringing the Pope
1 Ghirar, ii. 580. 2 Aschbach, i. 233.
s Lenfant, i. 323, quoting Bzovius ; Aschbach says nothing about any crusade :
vid, sup. p. 307.
2 C

402 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the keys of the city, and entreating him to come speedily and
take possession. Alexander was delighted with the embassy,
and appointed the Cardinal of Saint Praxedes to the adminis
tration of the Church and the City of Rome, with power
to absolve the citizens from the oath which they had taken to
Pope Gregory and King Ladislas. The Florentines also
promised the Pope to help the Duke of Anjou.
Among the most zealous partisans of the league against
King Ladislas was Nicolo, the Marquess of Este. In gratitude
for his good offices the Pope summoned him to Bologna, and
on Laetare Sunday presented ' him with the Golden Rose.
The ceremony of consecration of the Golden Rose and of its
presentation to the prince most worthy for devotion to Holy
Church had been inaugurated by Pope Urban the Second in
1095 ; it designated Christ, who was ' the Rose of Sharon ' ;
the red colour typified His blood, the ' dyed garments from
Bozrah ' ; and its colour of musk and balm was the emblem of
His resurrection. It was consecrated and presented once a year,
on the fourth Sunday in Lent.1 On the present occasion, the
Pope after blessing and distributing candles to the populace
from the loggia of his palace, went with his cardinals to the
Church of San Petronio, where he celebrated Mass after the
custom of the pontiffs in Rome, blessed the Golden Rose, and
presented it to the Marquess with the usual solemn ceremonies.
It was almost the last act of Filargi's pontificate.
The rejoicings, more than there had ever been before in
that city, with which the arrival of Pope Alexander was-
welcomed at Bologna, were marred by the news of the revolt
of the little town of Forlimpopolo, which lies just beyond
Forli on the road to Ravenna. The Constable da Barbiano,
the old enemy of Baldassare Cossa, was at the bottom of the
plot ; Giorgio Ordelasi was his instrument. Ordelasi opened
communications with the men of Forli as well as with those of
Forlimpopolo ; he got two hundred horse and two hundred^
foot from the Lord of Urbino ; the gates of the castle, through
the negligence of the officer in charge, were treacherously
opened to him at night by the citizens in the plot, and
Forlimpopolo was taken. The rebellion spread through the
1 Lenfant, i. 323-5,

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 403
country-side : troops were sent from Bologna ; Florence sent
three hundred foot soldiers to the aid of the Podesta of Forli.
Then one night Giorgio Ordelasi tried to surprise Forli ; he
got within the walls by treachery, but was repulsed after
a sharp fight by the Podesta and the Florentine troops.1 On
the 3rd March Forlimpopolo was straitly besieged, and on
the 8th April the Papal Legate himself went there to super
intend the operations. The town was on the point of surrender
when, on the 28th April, Baldassare Cossa was recalled to
Bologna by the news that his old friend, Pope Alexander, was
seriously ill. When a Pope was ill, poison was always sus
pected ; and although the cardinal was then fifty miles from
Bologna, there were not wanting some who pretended that the
illness was caused by a poisoned clyster which he had sent to
be administered. This report was not believed even by the
cardinal's inveterate enemy, Dietrich von Niem, and may
safely be ascribed to mere idle and empty malice. Baldassare
Cossa at once raised the siege and hastened back to Bologna.
The old Franciscan, ' who was an excellent man in the whole
course of his life,' 2 was daily getting weaker and weaker ; it
was evident that he lay a-dying. He made a good end.
When he found that he was getting worse rather than better,
he assembled the cardinals round his bed and said to them :
* Let not your heart be troubled : I ascend to my Father and to
your Father.' He asked them to pray that he might die with
a quiet and contrite spirit, and made an exemplary confession
of faith. He recommended France and the University of
Paris to their care ; he exhorted them to concord and peace,
and to defend the honour of the Church; and he swore' by that
death he was just now about to undergo, and by the conscience
of his well-acted life, that he did not think or believe that
anything was decreed in the Council of Pisa but with all
justice and integrity, without any deceit or fraud.'3 He
blessed them all, saying, ' My peace I give unto you, my peace
I leave with you.' He bade them adieu ; he commended his soul
to God, and shortly after midnight on the 4th May he died,
with a last prayer on his lips. The funeral sermon was
preached by a Franciscan on the text, ' He hath ascended into
1 Tartini, ii. 621. » Platina, 342. 3 Ibid.

404 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
heaven.' The funeral Mass was said by the Cardinal of Viviers
in the church of the Cordeliers ; the Pope's body was embalmed
and exposed for nine days, dressed in sacerdotal costume, with
gloves in the hands, and the feet bare for the kisses of the
faithful. On the ninth day he was buried in the church of the
order he loved so well, the most beautiful shrine in Bologna.
There his mortal remains still lie beneath the marble figure of
the Pope carved by Sperandio of Mantua.
Pope Alexander the Fifth had reigned for ten months and
eight days. As soon as he was buried the cardinals were ready
to enter into conclave. Carlo Malatesta sent imploring them
to defer the election in the hope of securing the unity of the
Church : he suggested a council. Baldassare Cossa answered
him that his plans were not feasible, that a fresh council
would be too tedious, that cession was impossible seeing that
Gregory was in the hands of King Ladislas, that the cardinals
could not remain without a head.1 He added that he himself
had done more for the welfare of the Church than others ; that
if a friend of his were elected, it were well ; that if an enemy
were chosen it might be for the good of his own soul. As
at the previous election, Baldassare Cossa was his own chief
opponent. It was not that he did not desire the dignity, but
that he, being still in the prime of life, did not desire it
at that particular juncture; he would have preferred to
have bided his time and, like Hildebrand before him, to have
remained the all-powerful cardinal behind the papal throne,
in a position of nearly equal power, of less responsibility, of
greater opportunity. He advised the cardinals to choose
Conrad Caracciolo as their pontiff. The Cardinal of Malta
was a homely, unpolished man ; not learned, but of good moral
repute. A Neapolitan, he had joined the Curia in the time of
Urban the Sixth, and had served with Cossa in the court of
Boniface the Ninth : that Pope had made him Bishop of
Malta ; in 1405 Innocent the Seventh created him Cardinal-
Priest of Saint Chrysogonus. He had been at first trusted by
Gregory the Twelfth, but had abandoned him to join the
cardinals at Pisa; and he had been sent by Alexander the
Fifth as Legate to Cisalpine Gaul. He had filled the place
1 Hefele, vii, 5.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 405
of Baldassare Cossa at Bologna ; the Papal Legate knew and
trusted him. The choice, however, would not have delayed
matters much, for Conrad Caracciolo died at Bologna in 1411.1
The Duke of Anjou, however, had returned from France
and was at Pisa ; he sent emissaries to the cardinals
urging them to elect Baldassare Cossa. The French court
and the Republic of Florence favoured the same candi
date. The habitual jealousy of the French and Italian
cardinals being thus assuaged, the result was a foregone
conclusion. But it is doubtful whether, even in the interest
of Louis of Anjou, such a choice was not a mistake. A
fighting cardinal would have done the Pope more service than
a partisan Pope. The Popes were now men of peace. The
days of the fighting Popes who appeared at the head of their
own armies, the days of the Second Gelasius and Calixtus,
were nearly three hundred years past, and a century had still
to elapse before the advent of that thunderbolt of war, Pope
Julius the Second. Meantime the Popes were no longer
warriors and generals; their methods had changed. It is
instructive on this point to mark the difference between the
conduct of the papal campaign against the Hohenstaufen and
that against Louis of Bavaria. Against the former excom
munication had indeed not been spared; but the cities of
Lombardy had been raised in revolt, and the house of Anjou
had been invoked to conquer the last princes of the rebellious
house. War alone had decided the event. Against Louis of
Bavaria, on the other hand, Pope John the Twenty-second,
beyond the petty crusade of the Poles and the petty attempts
at revolt of the Italian Guelfs, had depended entirely on the
spiritual arms of the Church, on excommunication and inter
dict. He arrogated to himself the collation to all bishoprics,
and tried to win over the three archbishops of the Rhine, but
he was confronted by the towns and by most of the great lords
of Germany and by the whole Order of the Franciscan Friars.
Marsiglio of Padua, John of Jandun, Englebert of Admont
and other ecclesiastics lent their aid to the King, who held
his own. Later on, during the Great Schism, Clement the
Seventh had financed the first Duke of Anjou, and Benedict
1 Ciaconius, ii. 718.

406 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
the Thirteenth had despatched galleys for Rome, but neither
pontiff had taken any personal part in the war. So too, if
Baldassare Cossa became Pope, his fighting days were over ; as
a general and a warrior he was lost to the French cause, and his
most conspicuous role of public usefulness was concluded. In
this respect, therefore, his election as Pope was a mistake.
On the 14th May 1410 the cardinals entered into conclave.
They were bricked up in the great hall of the Podesta's Palace,
the palace which is surmounted by a large, square, open, battle-
mented tower, the palace which since 1245 had been used as
the residence of the city magistrate. The hall itself was
named after the young and handsome poet-king Enzio, the
natural son of the Emperor Frederic the Second : men said
that here he had lingered out the days of his weary captivity,
and that here he had been solaced by the love of the beautiful
Lucia Viadagola. The influence of the French court, of the
Duke of Anjou, and of the Republic of Florence was too
powerful for resistance: on the 17th May the eighteen
cardinals issued from the conclave and announced that
Baldassare Cossa, Cardinal-Deacon of Saint Eustachius, was
to be their future Pope. He took the title of Pope John
the Twenty-third.
Baldassare Cossa had now, when little more than forty years
of age, attained the height of an ecclesiastic's ambition. He
had fulfilled the jesting promise which he made to his fellow-
students when he left the University of Bologna. But the
appointment was a mistake, and he himself must have felt it
to be so. Hitherto he had been a man of war ; henceforth he
was to be a man of peace, the servant of the servants of God.
His chief enemy that he knew was King Ladislas of Naples ;
against him he was to appear no more in the field of battle.
The new Pope was a consummate and crafty politician of the
Italian school,1 but he was nothing more ; he had no
experience of European politics, and he was not a statesman.
He was a Neapolitan, an Italian of the Italians. The ordinary
Italian character of his day was devoid alike of religious
and of moral enthusiasm; intellectually and artistically it
was polished and acute ; but it was of the earth, earthy ; it
1 Hergenroether, ii. 849.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 407
was incapable of the breadth of feeling and view which
distinguishes the mere politician from the real statesman.
With but few exceptions, such as Carlo Malatesta, all Italian
politicians of that time were opportunists. The new Pope
might have his envoys in the various courts of Europe, he
might know the characters and the motives of the men who
played the game of politics, he might see the best move for
the moment on the political chessboard, but he would not
attempt to see further. John Hus's schemes for religious
reformation, the war between the Poles and the Teutonic
Order, the deadly feud between the Burgundians and the
Armagnacs, the war between France and England, the dispute
as to the succession in Spain — these were all mere moves on the
board which he would regard simply as they affected his own
opportunist policy. In character, though not incapable of
emotional excitement, he strikingly resembled that later
Italian soldier, politician, and historian, Guicciardini. ' Faith,
religion, conscience, self-subordination to the public good,
have no place in his list of human motives ; interest, ambition,
calculation, envy, are the forces which, according to his
experience, move the world.' x His very virtues were a
disadvantage for his high office. He possessed ' arts or
policy,' but not dissimulation or closeness ; and as Bacon
points out, the ' properties of arts or policy, and dissimulation
or closeness, are indeed habits and faculties several and to be
distinguished.' Gregory the Twelfth vacillated and prevari
cated until no man knew what he desired or intended.
Benedict the Thirteenth was too often so intoxicated with the
exuberance of his own verbosity that it was impossible to
discover his hidden meaning or real intention behind a cloud
of darkening eloquence. But the new Pope spoke his mind,
told the truth, and kept his word; and although we may
consider these to be good qualities, they were by no means
conducive to the success of a Pope at the beginning of the
fifteenth century. Silence, or at least reticence, was preferable
to candour and plain speaking.
A second enemy in the Pope's way was the spirit of religious
reform. To an Italian, who worshipped strength and the
1 Symonds, i. 238.

408 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS
beauty that waits on strength, the desire for social and moral
reform was wellnigh unintelligible; and as regards the demand
for reform of the financial economy of the papacy, for that
reform for which the clergy everywhere, and the University of
Paris in particular, were insistent, it must be remembered that
Baldassare Cossa had received his early training in the very
worst school possible, the corrupt and simoniacal court of Pope
Boniface the Ninth. Beside these two enemies there was a
third unknown foe looming in the near future.
On the 17th May the new Pope was elected ; on the 18th,
the day following, died Rupert, King of the Romans. He had
come from Heidelberg to Oppenheim for the Feast of Pente
cost. He was weak in health, and ordered his chancellor,
Raban of Helmstadt, to make a division of the hereditary
lands among his surviving sons. He was expecting war, not
only with the Elector- Archbishop of Mainz, but with King
Wenzel, who was preparing to reassert the rights which the
Council of Pisa had recognised. The God of Battles was to
decide between the rival Kings. It was according to German
notions that it should be so ; and Rupert had neglected his
manifest duty when he abandoned the strife with his rival to
hurry off to Italy. Not only was he beaten in Italy, but he
produced a schism in the empire. The end of his reign
threatened to be a repetition of the end of the reign of the
previous Bavarian king, his great-grandfather's brother, Louis
of Bavaria.1 But the King, who was now fifty-eight years of
age, grew weaker every day. As the Octave of Pentecost
broke, the dying man had the Mass read to him and the
extreme unction administered. When the benediction was
pronounced he breathed his last. He died as he had reigned,
a disappointed, unsuccessful King. He was an upright, clear
sighted, well - meaning man, a friend to learning and to
scholars ; his great fault was that he lacked concentration of
purpose,2 and knew not how to adapt his means to his ends.
1 Huebner, tab. 138.
2 King Rupert failed to appreciate the fact that ' in the victorious days of the
Roman Republic it had been the aim of the senate to confine their councils and
legions to a single war, and completely to suppress a. first enemy before they
provoked the hostilities of a second.' — Gibbon, vi. 289.

POPE ALEXANDER THE FIFTH 409
He gave to ' unproportioned thought his act,' and hence his
uniform failure. A worse king would have done better. His
death brought on the negotiations for a new election ; and the
third great foe of Pope John the Twenty-third was the future
Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Everything presaged a
troubled pontificate. The future hid it in darkness and
storm.

INDEX

411

INDEX
N.B. —For the Kings of England and France, see under the respective
countries ; for those of Germany, see under Emperors and Kings of the
Romans ; for the Popes, see under Pope.

Abbreviatores, 167.
Abelard, 88, 104.
Admont, Englebert of, 20, 405.
Adolf of Nassau, Archbishop of
Mainz, 114, 165.
Agnani, the outrage of, 18, 29 ; 1 1 1,
"4, 173-
Aigregeuille, Jacques d', 129.
Ailly, Pierre d', 73, 132 ; his theo
logy, 136-9 ; 155-7, 176, 178, 186-7,
189, 194, 206-7, 230 ; defends Pope
Benedict at the fourth Council of
Paris, 236-8 ; 245, 258-9, 264, 280 ;
his Sermon on New Year's Day
(1409), 291 ; at Tarascon, 291-2 ;
breaks with Pope Benedict, 292 ;
293. 3°8, 332. 336, 35i» 361, 381-2.
Albano, Cardinal of, 358, 368.
Albert, Bishop of Posen, 318.
Albert of Austria, 53.
Albert of Bavaria, 113.
Albert the Great (Albertus Magnus),
79-
Albigenses, 37, 83-4, 88.
Albornoz-, Cardinal, 145, 213, 222.
Alexander of Hales, 79.
Alfonso the Eleventh of Castile, 116.
Aliman Adimar, Archbishop of Pisa,
343. 369-
Amadeus of Savoy, the 'Green Count,'
147.
Amalric of Bena, 90.
Andrew, husband of Joanna of Naples,
124.
Angers, University of, 203, 363.
Anglesola, Cardinal, 312.
Anjou —
Louis, first Duke of, 62, 114, 125,
132-3, 146-8, 285.
Louis, second Duke of, 125, 143,
148-9, 154, 166-7, 190, 204, 236,
298, 301, 334 ; his early career,
386-8; comes to Pisa and joins
the League, 388 ; reverse at Genoa,
389-90 ; marches from Pisa to

Rome, 390-2; leaves Rome for
France, 392, 401 ; returns in time
for the election of the new Pope,
405-
Anne of Bohemia, 135.
Anselm of Lucca, 9.
Anthony of Brabant, 197, 244, 321,
334.
Antonio, Bishop of Porto, 316.
Antonio da Ritonot, Franciscan
friar, 225.
Antony de Bek, Bishop of Durham, 72.
Aquileia, Cardinal of. See Caetani.
Aquileia, Patriarch of. See Porto-
gruario.
Aquinas, Saint Thomas, 17, 79, 88,
I3S, 138.
Archbishops of Canterbury, 38.
Archdeacons, 70-1.
Arnheim, Monastery of the Fountain
of the Blessed Mary at, 101.
Arnold of Brescia, 83.
Artevelde, Philip van, 129.
Arundel, Archbishop, 321, 345.
Aston, Cardinal, 148.
Aston, John, 135.
Auberchicourt, Eustache d', 129.
AuGUSTINUS Triumphus, his treatise
Summa de Potestate Ecclesiastica, 23.
Austin Canons, 73, 76-7.
Austin Friars or Hermits, 102, 395.
Avignon, the Popes at, 22, 57-8, 105,
133-4; negotiations at, 156-60;
royal embassy at, 176-8.
Azo the Dominican, 179.
Babylonish Captivity at Avignon, 22.
Bar, Jean de, 109.
Bar, Louis de, Cardinal, 312, 368,
373. 375-
Baratterie, or gaming-housesin Bologna,
224-5.
Barbiani, Manfredo, 217.
Barbiano, Alberigo da, 145, 201, 215,
217, 227, 241-2, 304-6, 369, 402.

412 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

Barbiano, Giovanni di, 162.
Bari, Cardinal of. See Marramaldo.
Bartholomaeus of Dordrecht, 97-8.
Beghards, the, 91, 93, 268.
Beguines, the, 91, 93.
Benedictine Monks, 73, 77, 80.
Benevento, battle of, 89.
Bentivoglio, Giovanni, 214-6.
Bernard of Clairvaux, 59, 138.
Berri, Jean, Duke of, 119, 156-7,
176-7, 179, 185, 188, 200, 204-5,
207-8, 236, 248, 279, 384.
Bishops, character of, 65-70.
Black Death, the, 68, 73, 75, 80, 92,
128.
Blanche, daughter of Henry the
Fourth, 200.
Blau, Pierre, Cardinal, 281-2.
Bologna, 105-6, 154; politics of,
161 -2 ; 210; previous history of,
213-4 ; taken by the Duke of Milan,
215-6 ; recovered by Baldassare
Cossa, 217-9; description of the
city, 220-4; 225-6, 241, 251-2, 273,
287, 3°3-
Bologna, University of, 36, 53, 71,
113, 149, 160, 286, 290, 322, 356,
361, 363-
Bonizo, his Liber ad Amicum, 9.
Boucicaut, Geoffroi le Meingre dit,
191-2, 194, 278.
Boucicaut, Jean le Meingre dit, Con
stable and Marshal of France, 124,
189, 262-3, 265, 275-6, 278-9, 282-3,
315, 324-7, 355, 389.
Bourbon, Louis, Duke of, 185, 188,
200, 383.
Braccio da Montone, 153, 217, 391-2.
Bracquemont, Robert de, 194, 205.
Bradwardine, Archbishop of Canter
bury, 79.
Brescia, battle of, 201.
Brethren of the Common Life (or Lot),
98-101 ; of the Free Spirit, 91, 93,
97 ; of the Holy Spirit, 52 ; of the
Poor Life, 87 ; of Saint Antony, 52 ;
of Saint Lazarus, 52.
Bretigny, Peace of, 118.
Breuil, Ameilh du, Archbishop of
Tours, 236.
Brigitta, Saint, 79, 105.
Brittany, Duke of, 383.
Bulls, Papal, namely —
Ausculta Fili, 18.
Clericis Laicos, 18.
Exiit qui seminat, 86.
Omnis utriusque sexus, 394.
Regnans in Excelsis, 393-7.
Super Cathedram, 395.
Unam Sanctam, 16.

Burgundy, Duke of. See John,
Philip.
Butillo, nephew of Pope Urban the
Sixth, 62-3, 148, 249.
Butrio, Antonio di, 252, 302.
Caetani, Antonio, Cardinal of Aqui
leia, 234, 372.
Calverley, Hugh, 129.
Calvo, Antonio, Cardinal of Saint
Praxedes, 368, 373.
Cambridge, University of, 363.
Canons of the Common Life, 101.
Canossa, the Humiliation of, 9, 11,
18.
Canterbury Tales quoted, 54, 71, 75»
78, 81, 142, 164.
Capponi, Gino, 300, 325, 327-30.
Caracciolo, Conrad, Cardinal, 370,
401, 404.
Cardinals, Election of the Pope by
the College of, 7 ; reputation of,
63-4-
Carmelites, 395-6.
Carrara, Francesco of, 161, 201,
212, 244.
Carthusians, 77, 96, 175, 205.
Caselecchio, battle of, 215.
Castruccio Castracani, 197, 272-3.
Cathari, the, 83-4, 88-90.
Catharine, Saint, 74, 76, 105, 107.
Celestines, 175.
Cervolles, Arnaud de, Archipretre,
129, 191.
Cesena, the Bloody Massacre of, 58,
106.
Chalant, Antoine de, Cardinal,
281-2, 313, 315, 344, 368, 373, 376.
Chamberlains, three classes of papal,
163.
Charles, first Duke of Anjou, 15, 89,
122, 124, 298.
Charles of Anjou, younger brother of
Duke Louis, 166.
Charles of Durazzo, 114, 124-5,
146-9, 250.
Charles the Third, King of Navarre,
185, 188, 190.
ChAteau Renard, 205-6, 208, 246.
Cheyne, Sir John, 321.
Chichele, Bishop, 321.
Church in the Middle Ages : temporal
power of, 40 ; as landowner, 40-2 ;
as schoolmaster, 50-2 ; as physician,
52.4.
Ciompi, revolt of the, 129.
Cistercians, 73, 76-7, 80.
Cividale, Council of, 316-20.
Clergy, celibacy of the, 8.
Clisson, Olivier de, 129.

INDEX

413

Cologne, 91, 94, 96.
Colonna, Cardinal Oddo, 364.
Colonna, Giovanni, 239, 266, 298,
391-2.
Colonna, Nicolo, 239, 266, 298, 392,
397-8.
Colonna, Sciarra, 18, 29.
'Compagnies, les grandes,' 129.
Conrad, Archbishop of Mainz, 165.
Conrad of Gelnhausen, 132, 293.
Conrad of Soest, 346, 348.
Conrad Schmidt, 92.
Conrad Waldhauser, 102-3.
Conradin, 15.
Corrario, Angelo. See Pope Gregory
the Twelfth.
Corrario, Antonio, Cardinal, 252-3,
255-6, 260, 262, 276-7, 286, 294,
316.
Corrario, Paolo, 276, 278, 302.
Cortona, 306-7, 389.
Cossa, Baldassare, the family of,
140-1 ; a corsair, 142-4 ; character
of, 144-5 » a student at Bologna,
149-52 ; Archdeacon of Bologna,
160 ; first takes arms, 161-2 ; private
chamberlain of Boniface the Ninth,
1627; hostility of Niem to, 168;
character of, 170; Cardinal and
Legate at Bologna, 211; recaptures
Bologna and makes treaty with
Milan, 216-9 '¦> his pontifical entry,
220 ; public works and rule, 224 ;
his taxes, 224-5 ; puts down plots,
226-7 > obtains Faenza, 227 ; invites
Pope Innocent to Bologna, 239 ;
plots in Bologna, 241 ; war with
Alberigo da Barbiano, 241-2 ; sup
ports the party of neutrality in
Germany, 244, 293 ; sends ambas
sadors to Pope Benedict, 245, 251 ;
writes to Pope Gregory, 251 ; is dis
trusted by him, 267 ; leads the party
for a council, 276, 283 ; author of
the Council of Pisa, 286 ; makes a
league with Florence, 287, 301,
309 ; obtains approval of the Univer
sity of Bologna to the Council of
Pisa, 290, 302 ; prevails on Florence
to allow the council to be held at
Pisa, 302 ; burns the Bull of Pope
Gregory, 303, 305 ; drives back the
troops of King Ladislas, 306, 353 ;
comes to Pisa, 369-70 ; his reply to
the ambassadors of Pope Benedict,
372 ; declines the papal crown, 373 ;
at the council, 377, 386, 388-90;
marches with the Duke of Anjou to
Rome, 390-2 ; takes Pope Aelxander
to Bologna, 400-1 ; marches to For- |

limpopolo, 403 ; returns because of
the Pope's illness, 403 ; is elected
Pope, 404-6; reflections on his
election, 406-9.
Council, planof ageneral, first broached,
131-2.
Courtecuisse, Jean, 179, 184, 235,
280.
Courtrai, battle of, 18.
Cramaud, Simon de, Patriarch of
Alexandria, 158, 174, 176, 179,
185-6, 188, 192, 199, 235-8, 255-8,
263, 281-2, 298, 311, 321, 334, 345,
354. 3S8-9, 361-2, 365, 367-8, 372-3,
376.
Cros, Jean de, Cardinal of Limoges,
108.
Cros, Pierre de, Chamberlain, m.
Dancers, the, 93.
Dante, his De Monorchia, 20-2.
David of Dinant, 90.
Decameron quoted, 63, 223.
Decretals of Isidore, 4, 9.
Des Champs, Gilles, 136, 156-7, 177,
183, 188, 235, 248, 256, 354, 361.
Despenser, Henry, Bishop of Nor
wich, 67, 113.
Deventer, House of the Brethren of
the Common Life at, 99.
Dictatus Papa, 9.
Dieudonne, Cardinal, 9
Dolcino of Novara, 87.
Dominic, Saint, 79, 88.
Dominican Friars, 13, 79-80, 102, 104,
394-6.
Donation of Charlemagne, 9.
Donation of Constantine, 3, 6, 16, 20-
21, 24, 27.
Dubois, Pierre, 137.
Durazzo, house of, supports the Pope
at Rome, 114, 153.
Ecclesiastical Courts, 36-7, 43.
Eckard of Cologne, 90.
Electors of the Holy Roman Empire,
21, 23-4, 33.
Elizabeth of Goerlitz, 185.
Emblems of the relationship of the
Church and the Empire, namely — the
soul and the body, 6, 12 ; the sun
and the moon, 12, 15, 21 ; the two
swords, 12, 20-21.
Empire, Holy Roman — first stage, 2 ;
second stage, 5 ; third stage, 16.
Emperors and Kings of the Romans,
namely —
Adolf of Nassau, 42, 165, 294.
Alfonso of Castile, 16.
Charles the Great, 2-3, 5, 21, 156.

414 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

Emperors and Kings (continued) —
Charles the Fat, 5.
Charles the Fourth, 24, 31-4, 92-3,
101-2, 117, 119-20, 129, 131, 295.
Constantine the Great, 1, 12.
Constantine the Sixth, 1, 2.
Frederic Barbarossa, io-ii, 130,
15°. 195-
Frederic the Second, 13-15, 29,
124, 406.
Henry the Fowler, 5.
Henry the Second, 52, 82.
Henry the Third, 3.
Henry the Fourth, 9, 10.
Henry the Fifth, 10, 42.
Henry the Seventh (of Luxemburg),
23-
Louis of Bavaria, 23-31, 57, 87, 92,
133. !97. 361, 4°5, 408.
Otto the Great, 5, 6.
Otto the Third, 3, 21.
OlTO the Fourth, 1 1.
Philip of Swabia, 1 1.
Rudolf of Habsburg, 16, 31, 37, 128.
Rupert hi. (nicknamed Clem), King
of the Romans, 68-9, 119-20, 165,
184, 196 ; together with the Arch
bishops of the Rhine summons
Wenzel to appear at Oberlahnstein,
197 ; Wenzel deposed and Rupert
elected, 198 ; his early measures,
199-200; his unsuccessful campaign
in Italy, 200-2 ; is recognised by
Pope Boniface, 203 ; his quarrel
with John of Nassau, 243-4 ; 269,
272 ; discontented with a council
at Pisa, 292 ; summons a Diet at
Frankfurt, 293-4; 3°8, 3". 3*6,
318-9, 321, 345 ; his embassy at
Pisa, 346-9 ; their arguments re
futed, 356-7, 360, 380, 383-4 ; his
death, 408.
Wenzel, King of the Romans, King
of Bohemia, 33, 42, 69, 94, 113,
117, 1 19.21, 131-2, 159, 164-5,182,
184 ; meets Charles the Sixth at
Reims, 185 ; 186-7; degeneracy of
his government, 195 ; charges of
the Electors leading to his deposi
tion, 196-8 ; 199-200, 202-3, 242-4,
247, 267, 269, 272 ; writes to Pope
Gregory and to the Cardinals at
Pisa, 295 ; changes the constitution
of the University of Prague, 395-7 ;
declares for neutrality, 296, 357,
386.
England, 5, 8, 18, 24, 57, 61-2, 67-9,
7i-3, 75-7. 8°. 89-90, 113, 117-9,
128-9, 134-5. !42, 150. 181, 199, 294,
311, 318, 321, 322, 334, 354, 394.

England, Kings of, namely —
Edward the First, 18, 34, 68.
Edward the Third, 18, 31, 53, 61,
90, 117, 122, 126.
Henry the Fourth, 67, 199, 267,
311, 321, 334.
John Lackland, 37.
Richard of the Lion Heart, 11, 66.
Richard the Second, 117-8, 148,
181, 196.
William the Conqueror, 17.
Englishman, the importunate, at the
Council of Pisa, 360, 380.
Eon of the Star, 83.
Este, Nicolas of, Marquess of Ferrara,
200, 217, 219, 241-2, 305, 370;
receives the Golden Rose, 402.
Ezzelino da Romano, 37, 88.
Facino Cane, 211, 215, 217-8, 226,
389.
Faenza, 227. Lord of, see Manfredi.
Faustrecht in Germany, 37.
Feast of the Ass, 46-7 ; Feast of Fools,
46, 58 ; Festivals, 45 et seq.
Ferrara, 106, 216, 227. Marquess
of, see Este.
Ferrier, Boniface, 368, 371-2.
Fieschi, Louis, Cardinal, 312, 344.
Filargi, Pietro (or Petrus), Cardinal
of Milan, 283, 286, 302 ; his early
life, 342 ; his sermon, 343 ; his dis
course with Carlo Malatesta, 352-3 ;
362 ; recommended by Baldassare
Cossa as Pope and elected, 373-4.
See Pope Alexander the Fifth.
Filastre, Guillaume, Dean of Reims,
236, 238.
Flagellants, the, 92, 194.
Flandrin, Jean, Cardinal, 312, 344.
Flandrin, Pierre, Cardinal, 107.
Florence, 106, no, 129, 131, 161, 194,
200, 210, 213-5, 219. 242, 248, 252,
273. 276-7, 286-7; in favour of
neutrality, 300; jealous of French
influence, 300 ; makes a league with
Baldassare Cossa, 287, 301 , 309 tem
porises with King Ladislas, 301-2 ;
agrees to the council being held at
Pisa, 302 ; provincial council held,
and obedience withdrawn from Pope
Gregory, 303-4; its dealings with
King Ladislas, 305-6; declares
neutrality, 310 ; 321, 366, 378,
390.
Florentius, Bishop of Utrecht, 97-8,
101.
Fondi, iii, 180.
Forli, 241, 303, 402.
Forlimpopolo, 402.

INDEX

415

France, Kings of, namely —
Charles the Fifth, U3-5, 117-8,
125, 129, 132-3. 174-
Charles the Sixth, 64, 117-9, 148-9,
154, 156-9, 174-6, 181-2, 185, 187,
189-90, 193, 200, 203-8, 214, 238,
247-8, 254, 260, 265, 267, 269, 279-
81, 291-2, 312, 315, 321-2, 324,
326, 334, 382-3, 397.
John the Good, 270.
Louis (ix.), Saint, 128, 173.
Philip Augustus, 37.
Philip the Fair, 18-19, 26-7, 34, 57,
68, 173.
Philip of Valois, 18.
Francis, Saint, of Assisi, 46, 79, 85-6,
96-7.
Franciscan Friars, 13, 29, 45, 57,
79-81, 86-7, 104, 133-4, 375. 395-7-
Frankfurt, Diet at (1338), 24; Diet
a' (1397). 183-5 ; meeting of the
Electors at (1400), 197 ; Diet at
(1409), 293-4.
Franz of Arabda, 253.
Fratecelli, the, 87-8.
Frederic, Archbishop of Cologne, 42,
61, 165, 196-8, 201.
Frederic of Brunswick, 198.
Free Thinkers, sect of the, 133.
Friars, the, 36, 41, 57, 79-82.
Friedrich, Burggraf of Nuernberg,
201, 384.
Galeotto de Normannis, the ' Knight
of Freedom,' 266.
Gambacorti, Giovanni, 328-30.
Garzon, John, of Bologna, 222-3.
Genoa, 124, 153, 194, 228, 234, 253,
257, 260, 262-5, 271. 321, 388-90.
Gerard of Borgo San Donnino, 86.
Gerard dePuy, Cardinal, 63, 105, 116.
Gerhard Groot, 79, 94, 96-101.
Gerson, Jean Charlier de, 57, 74,
132, 136, 139, 156, 176, 178-9, 194,
204-5, 207 ; his New Year's Day
sermon, 229-30 ; 237, 239, 245, 250,
258, 264, 280, 285 ; breaks with
Pope Benedict, 292 ; 293, 332, 335-7,
380-1, 397.
Gilbertines, the, 76.
Gile, Jean, Cardinal of Liege, 278.
Giovanni, the Dominican Cardinal,
195, 248, 268, 277, 297-8, 300, 316.
Golden Bull, the, 24, 33.
Golden Rose, the, 402.
Gondulmaro, Gabriel, 260, 262, 277.
Gonzaga, Francesco of, 200, 212.
Gorel, Jean de, 396.
Governolo, defeat of the Milanese
at, 162,

Gozzadini, Bonifacio, 217, 226.
Gozzadini, Gabbione, 226-7.
Gozzadini, Nanne, 214-7, 219, 226-7,
241.
Grange, Jean de la, Cardinal of
Amiens, no-n, 114.
Grosseteste, Bishop, 62, 68, 76, 79.
Guinigi, Paolo de, Lord of Lucca,
268, 272-3, 277-8, 299.
Hallam, Robert, Bishop of Salisbury,
passes through Paris, 336 ; arrives
at Pisa, 354 ; preaches in the Cathe-
d.ral> 355 J takes part in the discus
sion as to the welcome to be accorded
to the ambassadors of Pope Benedict,
358; and as to the union of the
Colleges, 359.
Hedwig, daughterof Louisof Hungary,
117.
Henry of Castile, 184, 190, 200, 203,
240.
Henry of Kalkar, 96.
Henry of Langenstein, 63, 78, 93, 132,
135,229,285,293.
Henry of Trastamara, 117.
Henry of Waldeck, 198.
Henry of Winchester, 318.
Hieronymus, the Austin Friar, 316,
318.
Hohenstaufen, 10-15, 22, 57, 405.
Hus, John, 30, 82, 90, 104, 136, 142,
296, 401.
Isabel of Bavaria, Queen of France,
118, 200, 269.
Italy, political and social develop
ment of, 121-4.
Jacopo of Carrara, 201.
Jacopo of Friuli, Cardinal, 277.
Jagello, King of Lithuania, 117.
Jean de Nevers, afterwards Duke of
Burgundy, 119.
Jean de Varennes, 175.
Jenzenstein, Archbishop of Prague,
195-
Joachim of Flora, 86.
Joanna, Duchess of Brabant, 197.
Joanna the First, Queen of Naples,
1 14-5, 124, 146, 190.
Joffrid of Leiningen, 165.
John, King of Bohemia, 53.
John, Archbishop of Riga, 346.
John, Duke of Burgundy, 229, 244,
269-71, 279, 291-2, 311, 321, 329,
334, 382-3.
John, King of Castile, 132, 181.
John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, 45,
89. "7-

416 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

John of Jandun, 26, 28, 405.
John of Nassau. See Nassau.
John of Paris, his Tractatus de Potestate
regia et papali, 19-20, 137.
John of Parma, 86.
John of Salisbury, 17, 71.
John of Weinheim, 346.
Jordan of Osnabruck, 20.
Jost of Moravia, Elector of Branden
burg, 197.
Jubilee, the, 163.
Knights Hospitallers, 13.
Knights of Saint John, 52.
Knights Templars, 13, 52.
Kuno of Falkenstein, Archbishop of
Trier, 42.
Ladislas, King of Naples, 125, 149,
153-4, 165; marriages of, 166; 167,
202, 210 ; his intrigues at Rome in
the time of Pope Innocent, 233, 239-
40; 242, 248, 251, 261-3, 266-7,
273-7, 283, 287 ; opposes the Council
of Pisa, 292; 297-8; answers the re
buke of Pope Gregory, 298 ; captures
Rome, 299 ; sends embassy to Pope
Gregory, 300 ; marches towards
Florence, 301-2 ; sends embassy to
the Cardinals at Pisa, 304 ; marches
from Rome, 305 ; his alliance declined
by the Florentines, 306 ; ravages
Tuscany butis forced to retreat, 306-7 ;
remains faithful to Pope Gregory,
320 ; declines the invitation of the
Pisans, 327 ; embassy from the
Council of Pisa, 355-7 ; turn of
affairs in Genoa favours him, 389 ;
the allies march to Rome and drive
out his troops, 390-2, 397-9 ; Pope
Alexander's Bull against, 399-400.
Lateran Council, first (1124), 10;
second (1139), 65 ; third (1179), 84 ;
fourth (1215), 394-6.
Latin, the universal language of edu
cated people, 35.
Lay teachers, 52.
Legano, battle of, n.
Leghorn (Livorno), 228, 273, 278,
281-3, 285-6.
Leonardo of Arezzo, 260, 274.
Leopold, Duke of Austria, 201, 293.
Lerins, Monastery on the Isle of, 245,
265.
' Liberty of December,' 46.
Liege, 193. Cardinal of, see Gile.
Lolli, Paolo, 320.
Lopez, Sancho, 279-81.
Louis the Great of Hungary, 113, 125,
131.

Louis, Count Palatine, son of King
Rupert, 200-1.
Louis de Male, Count of Flanders, 113.
Louis of Tarentum, married Joanna of
Naples, 124.
Lucca, 194, 200, 253-4, 263, 268,
272-4, 276-8, 284, 300-2. Lord of,
see Guinigi.
Luciferans, the, 91.
Luna, Pedro de, 107-8, ill, 116, 157,
159; elected Pope, 160. See Pope
Benedict the Thirteenth.
Lupold of Bebenburg, 21.
Lyons, 15, 84; Council of, 15.
Maillesec (or Malesset), Guy de,
Cardinal of Palestrina, also known
as the Cardinal of Poitiers, 206, 273,
281, 340, 342-3, 358.
Maillotins, the, 130.
Malaspina, Lionardo, 217.
Malatesta, Carlo, Lord of Rimini,
152, 162, 169, 201, 215, 217-9, 226,
242, 3°3. 305-6, 308, 310, 320, 345 ;
his negotiations at Pisa, 349-53 ; 360,
380, 404, 407.
Malatesta de' Malatesti, Lord of
Pesaro, 252, 390, 392, 398-9.
Malatesta de Pandolfo de' Malatesti,
3°4-
Maltraversi of Bologna, 214.
Manfredi, Astorre de', Lord of
Faenza, 227, 241.
Mantua, 213, 215. Lord of, see
Gonzaga.
Manuel, Emperor at Constantinople,
119.
Manupello, Cardinal of, 148.
Maramaur, Cardinal, 370.
Marbach, League of, 240, 243, 293.
Marguerite, mother of King Ladislas,
148, 153, 166.
Marie de Bretagne, 125, 386-7.
Marramaldo, Landolfo, Cardinal of
Bari, 294.
Marseilles, 251-4, 256 ; Treaty of,
253. 259-
Marsiglio of Padua, author of the
Defensor Pads, 26-8, 31, 74, 134,
137, 405-
Martin, King of Aragon, 181, 191,
200, 203, 268, 313, 320, 370.
Maso degli Albizzi, 325, 328.
Matthew, Bishop of Worms, 68, 346,
383-4-
Matthias of Janow, 103, 135.
Megliorati, Cosmato. See Pope
Innocent the Seventh.
Megliorati, Ludovico de', 239-40,
250, 261, 266, 298, 327.

INDEX

417

Michael of Cesena, 29, 87, 133.
Milan, 86, 88, 148, 161-2, 200, 218,
321.
Milic of Bohemia, 102-3.
Minultulus, Cardinal, 210, 262.
Monchhuysen, Monastery at, 96.
Monks, the, 41, 51-2, 59, 76-8.
Montferrat, Theodor, Marquess of,
267, 39o.
Montpellier, University of, 53, 203,
280.
Mount Saint Agnes, monastery of, 101.
Muhldorf, battle of, 24.
Murles, Pierre de, 114.
Mustarda of Forli, 240, 261.
Naples, 124-5, 140, 143, 147-9, 153.
166-7, 252, 292, 302, 305, 307, 387.
Nassau, John of, Archbishop of Mainz,
61, 165, 183-4, 196-8 ; his struggle
with King Rupert, 243-4 ; leads the
party of neutrality in Germany, 244,
293-4, 383-4, 408.
Nationality, rise of the feeling of, 25.
Nice, 245, 253, 265.
Nicolas de Clamanges, 63-4, 73, 79,
136, 156, 175, 204, 280.
Nicopolis, battle of, 120.
Niem (or Nyem, or Nieheim), Dietrich
von, 144, 167-9, 211, 293, 400, 403.
Noellet, Guillaume de, Cardinal, 105,
107.
Novara, Bishop of, 365, 372.
Nuernberg, 28, 199.
Nunneries, 78.
Oberlahnstein, 197-8.
Ordelasi, Giorgio, 402.
Orleanists and Armagnacs, 1 1 8.
Orleans, Duchess of. See Visconti,
Valentine.
Orleans, Louis, Dukeof, 119, 148, 156-
7, 176, 178, 182, 185-6, 188, 192;
becomes protector of Pope Benedict,
193-4 ; 200, 204 ; brings about the
restitution of obedience in France,
207-8; 209, 230, 233, 244-5, 254, 258,
267 ; his character and assassination,
269-71 ; 324, 382.
Orleans, University of, 203, 363.
Orsini, Cardinal Jacopo, 107-8, 116.
Orsini, Paolo, condottiere general,
217, 226, 239-40, 261-2, 266-7, 274-5,
298-9. 391-2, 397-9.
Otto, Bishop of Minden, 70.
Otto, Duke ol Brunswick, 114.
Ottobuon, Terzo, 305-6, 370.
Oxford, University of, 36, 133, 179,
285.
Paderborn, Bishop of, 70.

Padua, 200, 212, 215.
Palestrina, Cardinal of. See Mail-
lesec.
Papacy, work of the, 59 ; revenues of
the, 60-2 ; indirect utilities of its
usurpations, 172.
Papi da Calcinaia, 328.
Paris, first Council of, 175; second
Council of, 182 ; third Council of,
188 ; fourth Council of, 235-8 ; fifth
Council of, 279-81.
Paris, University of, 19, 26, 36, 50-1,
53. 56-7, 62, 96, 103-4, 133, 135-6,
157-8, 171, 174-6, 178, 186, 189,
205, 234, 245, 254, 258, 260, 280,
285-6, 290, 296, 311, 322, 356,-361,
363. 367. 381-2, 394, 403.
Patarines, 36, 83.
Peckham, Archbishop of Canterbury,
79-
Pedro the Cruel, of Castile, 117.
Pepoli of Bologna, 213.
Perpignan, 241, 273, 276, 283, 288,
299. 303 ; Council of, 312-5.
Perugia, 63, 105, 153-4, 213, 216, 218,
305, 307-
Peter Martyr, 89.
Peter of Aragon, 25.
Peter of Corbara, 29.
Peter of Luxemburg, 156, 175.
Peter's Pence, 59.
Petit, Jean, 235-6, 256, 271, 279, 311,
382.
Petrus de Anchorano, 302, 349, 356-7.
Petrus Ser Mini, 302.
Philip, Duke of Burgundy, 113, 119,
156-8, 174, 176, 178-9, 182, 188, 200,
204-5, 207-8 ; death of, 229.
Physicians in the Middle Ages, 52-3.
Piancaldolo, 242.
Pierre de Bruys, 83.
PiERRE-les-Boeufs, 236.
Pierre du Bois, his Quaestio de Potes
tate Papae, 19.
Piers Plowman, quoted, 37-8, 45, 64, 75.
Pietra Sancta, 263-4, 268, 272.
Piracy in the Middle Ages, 142-3.
Pisa, 122, 194, 213, 216, 273, 278,
285-8, 309 ; history of the city from
1402 to 1409, 323-330 ; condition of
the city at the time of the Council,
333, 338-40 ; election of the Pope at,
373-4; arrival of the Duke of Anjou
at, 388 ; the army leaves for Rome,
390 ; the Pope leaves Pisa, 393.
Pisa, the Archbishop of, Aliman
Adimar, 343.
Pisa, the Council of, first suggestion
of, 282 ; the Florentines at the inter
vention of Baldassare Cossa consent

2d

418 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

to the Council being held at Pisa,
285, 287, 309, 330; objections to
its convocation, 285-6, 288, 337-8 ;
supported by the University of Bo
logna, 290 ; welcomed in France,
290-2 ; opposed by King Rupert,
293-4 ; welcomed by King Wenzel,
295-7 ; opposed by King Ladislas,
297-300 ; attitude of Florence to
wards, 300-4 ; King Ladislas attacks
and Baldassare Cossa defends the
Council, 305-7 ; attitude of King
Sigismund towards, 307-9 ; attitude
of Venice and of Carlo Malatesta,
309-10 ; attitude of England towards,
311, 321; strongly supported by
France, 311; attitude of Europe gene
rally, 321 ; importance of the Council
as an anti-papal movement,33i-3; the
assemblage at the Council, 334-5, 354-
5 ; Gerson speaks and writes in sup-
port of the Council, 335-7 ; the Council
opened, 338-41 ; first general session
of the Council, 342-4 ; the second,
344 ; third, 344 ; fourth, 346-8 ; fifth,
353-4; sixth, 355; seventh, 355-8;
eighth, 358-9 ; ninth, 359-60 ; tenth,
eleventh, and twelfth, 360-2 ; thir
teenth, 363 ; fourteenth, 364; fifteenth
session at which the rival Popes
were deposed, 364-6 ; sixteenth
and seventeenth sessions, 367-9;
eighteenth,37o-i ; nineteenth, 372-3 ;
twentieth, 376-7 ; twenty-first, 378 ;
twenty-second, 379 ; twenty- third and
last session, 379 ; the Easter services,
344-5 ; King Rupert's embassy before
the Council, 346-8 ; their flight,
348-9 ; their arguments considered
and refuted, 356-7 ; Carlo Malatesta
and the Council, 349-53 ; arrival of
the English embassy, 354-5; commis
sion appointed for taking evidence
against the Popes, 357 ; Feast of the
Apparition of Saint Michael, 358 ;
arrival of Bulls from Pope Benedict,
361-2 ; the evidence as to heresy,
362 ; the Bishop of Novara's assembly,
363-4 ; discussion as to the modus
eligendi of the new Pope, 367-8 ;
arrival of Cardinal de Chalant, 368 ;
resolution as to reformation of the
Church, 369; Pope Benedict's am
bassadors meet a commission, 370-2 ;
election of the new Pope, 373-4;
nature of the remaining sessions, 376 ;
coronation of Pope Alexander the
Fifth, 377-8 ; results of the Council,
379-82 ; Sigismund and Venice desert
Pope Gregory, 385-6 ; Pope Alexan

der's dying declaration regarding
the council, 403.
Pistoja, 399-400.
Pitti, Luigi, 301.
Plaoul, Pierre, 135,
281, 311, 363.
Poitiers, Cardinal of. See Maillesee.
Poland, 24, 119, 131, 322, 334. 38°-\
Pomuk, Johann von, 195.
Poor Men of Lyons, 84-5.
Pope Adrian the Fourth, 38.
Pope Alexander the Second, J7-8.
Pope Alexander the Third, ii, 84,
188.
Pope Alexander the Fourth, 37,
394-
Pope Alexander the Fifth(«« Filargi,
Pietro), 38 ; his election, 373-4 ; the
news of the election, 375 ; presides
at the Council of Pisa, 376-7 ; is
crowned, 378 ; winds up the Council,
379 ; is acknowledged by Venice and
by Sigismund of Hungary, 385-6 ;
his election a triumph for the French
party, 386 ; negotiations with Genoa,
390 ; leaves Pisa, 393 ; his Bull,
Regnans in Excelsis, 393-7 ; his Bull
against King Ladislas, 399 ; goes to
Bologna, 400- 1; his actionat Bologna,
401-2 ; his death, 403.
Pope Benedict the Ninth, 6.
Pope Benedict the Eleventh, 22, 38.
Pope Benedict the Twelfth, 38, 57,
60, 87, 160, 190.
Pope Benedict the Thirteenth, 160 ;
character of, 172-4 ; sends am
bassadors to the French King, 174-65
receives royal embassy at Avignon,
176-8 ; manifestations in favour of,
179; the 'way of convention' his
favourite scheme, 180-1 ; embassies
of the three kings to, 182-3 > tne
' way of cession ' proposed to and
disapproved by, 185-7 ; Council of
Paris favours subtraction of obedience
from, 188-90 ; besieged at Avignon,
190-2 ; negotiations during captivity,
r93-4 > restitution of obedience to,
203-5 J escape from Avignon, 205-6 ;
restitution of obedience in France and
publication of Bulls, 207-8 ; recon
ciliation with the King of France,
208-9 > his policy after his escape,
227-8 ; thanks the University of
Paris, 230 ; sends ambassadors to
Rome, 230-2 ; secures the obedience
of Genoa and Pisa, 233 ; goes to
Genoa, 234 ; attacked and defended
in the fourth Council of Paris, 234-8 ;
issues Bulls for a Council, 240 ; de-

INDEX

419

clines to come to Bologna, 245, 251 ;
his position after his escape, 245-6 ;
his measures on the death of Pope
Innocent, 247-8 ; his first letter from
and to Pope Gregory, 251-2; receives
his ambassadors and agrees to meet
his rival at Savona, 252-3 ; concludes
the Treaty of Marseilles, 253 ; em
bassy sent to him from Paris, 254-6 ;
his conferences with the ambassadors,
256-9 ; prepares a Bull of excom
munication, 260 ; his ambassadors
at Rome, 261-4 ; writes to Pope
Gregory, 265 ; goes to Savona, 266 ;
agrees to go to Porto Venere, 268-9 j
reaches Porto Venere, 271 ; sends
ambassadors to Pope Gregory pro
posing a meeting, 272-3 ; his favours
to Marshal Boucicaut, 278 ; receives
ultimatum from France and sends his
Bull of excommunication, 279 ; is
disowned by France, 280-1 ; sends
cardinals and envoys to Leghorn,
281 ; unable himself to go to Leg
horn, receives proposals of the car
dinals there, 282 ; returns from Porto
Venere to Spain, 282-3 > convokes a
Council at Perpignan, 283 ; declines
the invitation of the cardinals to
their Council, and summons his own
cardinals to Perpignan, 288 ; his
attitude considered, 289-90 ; D'Ailly
and Gerson break with him, 291-2;
his Council at Perpignan, 312-5 ; his
adherents at Perpignan, 320 ; arrival
of his ambassadors at the Council of
Pisa announced, 358; deposed by the
Council, 365-6 ; his ambassadors at
the Council, 370-2 ; 407.
Pope Boniface the Eighth, 16-19, 24,
27, 56-7, 163, 395.
Pope Boniface the Ninth, 42, 62,
144 ; election of, 153 ; wins back
the papal dominions, 154; pecuniary
exactions of, 154; overturestoFrance,
156-7 ; 160, 162-3, If>5, 168, 170,
180 ; receives an embassy from the
three Kings, 182-3 > also fr°m tne
Diet at Frankfurt, 184, 185-7 ; con
demns the White Penitents, 195 ;
declaration in favour of Wenzel, 196;
receives communication from the
Electors, 198 ; confirms the election
of King Rupert, 203 ; his attitude
toward cardinals, 210-11; appoints
Baldassare Cossa to be Legate a
latere at Bologna, 211, 217 ; ratifies
treaty with Milan, 219 ; receives
ambassadors from Pope Benedict,
230-1 ; death and character, 231-2;

241, 251, 295, 307, 319, 340, 347,
354, 400.
Pope Celestine the Fifth, 38.
Pope Clement the Fifth, 22-3, 26-7,
57, 62, 87, 395.
Pope Clement the Sixth, 23, 25-6,
31, 60-2, 87, 93, 163, 170, 190, 216.
Pope Clement the Seventh, 58, 62,
106-8 ; election of, m ; 112-14 ; re
cognition in France, 115 ; recognises
the adoption of the Duke of Anjou,
125; 131-3, 136, 139, 146-9, 154-8;
death of, 158; 159, 174, 182, 209,
214, 247, 254, 269, 340.
Pope Gregory the Sixth, 7.
Pope Gregory the Seventh, 7-10, 17,
36, 38, 55, 66.
Pope Gregory the Ninth, 13-15, 138,
394-
Pope Gregory the Eleventh, 105, 107,
167, 249, 340.
Pope Gregory the Twelfth, 59, 168-9,
245 ; his election, 249 ; his nephews,
250 ; his initial good resolutions,
250-1, 253, 255-6 ; delays sending
his embassy, 252 ; agrees to meet
his rival at Savona, 253-5 > remains
in Rome, 260 ; meets the French
ambassadors and those of Pope Bene
dict, 261-4; his final reply, 264-5;
writes to the King of France, 265 ;
moves to Sant Angelo because of a
plot, 266 ; goes to Siena, 267 ; his
action there, 267-8 ; his ambassadors
at Savona, 268 ; comes to Lucca,
268, 272 ; thwarts all proposals for
a meeting, 273-4 ; on hearing of the
capture of Rome breaks off negotia
tions, 276 ; creates new cardinals,
277 ; is deserted by nine of the old
cardinals, 278 ; leaves Lucca, 284 ;
calls a Council, 284 ; invited to the
Council of Pisa, 287 ; his attitude
considered, 289-90 ; Naples and
Rimini remain loyal, 292 ; the atti
tude of Germany, of Wenzel, and
of Sigismund to him, 293-5 > °f
Ladislas, 297-300; Florence sends
envoys, 301-2; Gregory issues a
Bull against Baldassare Cossa, 303 ;
Florence withdraws its obedience,
304 ; relations with Hungary, 307 ;
his protest to Carlo Malatesta, 308 ;
negotiations with the cardinals, 310;
his Council at Cividale, 315-20;
defended by the German envoys and
by Carlo Malatesta at Pisa, 346-53 ;
question of his heresy, 362 ; deposed
by the Council of Pisa, 365-6 ; the
greater part of Germany renounces

420 IN THE DAYS OF THE COUNCILS

his obedience, 383 ; Venice and Sigis
mund renounce obedience, 385-6 ;
404, 407.
Pope Innocent the Second, 65.
Pope Innocent the Third, 11-12, 17,
36-7, 55-6, 84, 86.
Pope Innocent theFourth, 15-16, 394.
Pope Innocent the Sixth, 42, 62.
Pope Innocent the Seventh, 67, 168,
210, 226 ; elected Pope, 232 ; calls
a council, 233, 240 ; his fatal con
cession to King Ladislas, 233 ;
escapes from Rome to Viterbo, 239 ;
his death, 240, 242, 244 ; the news
received, 247-8 ; 250-1, 253, 261,
295. 303. 319. 347. 400, 404-
Pope John the Eighth, 4.
Pope John the Twelfth, 5-6.
Pope John the Twenty-second, 17,
23-31, 35, 60, 87, 91, 104, 133, 138,
221, 286, 361, 395.
Pope John the Twenty-third. See
Cossa, Baldassare.
Pope Leo the Third, 2-3, 13, 21.
Pope Leo the Ninth, 7.
Pope Nicholas the Great, 4.
Pope Nicholas the Third, 86.
Pope Nicholas the Fifth, 38.
Pope Paschal the Second, 10, 42.
Pope Stephen the Tenth, 7.
Pope Sylvester the First, 3.
Pope Sylvester the Second, 3.
Pope Urban the Fourth, 15, 38.
Pope Urban the Fifth, 61, 102, 105.
Pope Urban the Sixth, 62, 64, 103 ;
election of, 108 ; character and early
proceedings of, 109-m ; the obedi
ence of, 1 12-5; his quarrel with
Naples, 125; 131-2, 145, 147-9;
death of, 153, 156, 163, 167-8, 174,
213-4, 232, 249, 262, 295, 312, 319,
347, 354. 4°4-
Pope Victor the Second, 7.
Portogruario, Antonius Pancera de,
Patriarch of Aquileia, 316, 319-20,
369-
Porto Venere, 246, 268, 271-3, 326,
354. 362.
Prades, Jacques de, Constable of
Aragon, 275.
Prague, 102-3 ; University of, 32, 36,
r33, 285 ; its constitution changed by
King Wenzel, 295-7.
Prignano, Bartolommeo. See Pope
Urban the Sixth.
Publicani or Paulicians, 82-3.
Raban, Bishop, 68, 408.
Radewin, Florentius, 98-9, 101.
RAnieri Zacci, 325.

Rectors, 72.
Reims, meeting of the Kings of France
and Germany at, 185.
Rense, meeting of the Electors at
(1338), 24; election at, 120; Diet
at, 138.
Reynolds, Walter, Archbishop of
Canterbury, 67.
Richard of Cornwall, 16.
Rienzi, 57, 87.
Robert of Franzola, 294.
Robert of Geneva, Cardinal. ifePope
Clement the Seventh.
Robert le Mennot, 'the Hermit,' 182-3,
261, 361.
Rome, i-io, 13, 18, 21, 23, 29, 56-8,
61-2, 72, 87, 102, 107-8, m, 115,
131, 139-41, 144, 153-4, 156, 161-5,
167-9, !8o, 182-4, 187, 194-7, 228,
230, 232-4, 239-40, 248, 252-3, 259,
264-7, 272, 274-6, 297-300, 305,
391-2.
Rosso, Martino, 310.
Rouen, revolt of the coppersmiths, 130.
Rousse, Jean, 133, 285.
Roye, Guy de, Archbishop of Reims,
334-5, 351, 368.
Rudolf, Elector of Saxony, 196-8.
Rupert the First, 196; the Second,
195-
Rural Deans, 71.
Ruysbroek, John, 94, 96, 98.
Saint Denys, Abbe of. See Villette.
Salerno, 9 ; University of, 53.
Saluces, Cardinal de, 340, 343, 390.
Salva, Martin de, Cardinal of Pampe
luna, 172, 194, 205.
Sarzana, 325-7 ; peace conference at,
106.
Savelli, Baptista, 239, 392, 398.
Savelli, Paolo, 210.
Savona, 228, 234, 246, 251 , 253-5, 258.
Sbinko, Archbishop of Prague, 318,
401.
Scotland, 113, 377, 380.
Scriptores, 167.
Sforza Attendolo, 215, 306, 327-9,
391-2, 398.
Siena, 213, 216, 251, 253, 267-9, 284,
289, 303.6, 378.
Sigismund, King of Hungary, 53,
119-20, 131, 142, 181, 202-3, 267,
292, 294-5, 298, 3°4 ; his attitude to
the Council of Pisa, 307-9; receives
invitations from the Cardinals, 309 ;
negotiations with Carlo Malatesta and
Venice anent the Council, 309-11 ;
abandons Pope Gregory, 385-6 ; his
war against the Turks, 307, 401 ;

INDEX

421

the future foe of Pope John the
Twenty-third, 409.
Stefaneschi, Cardinal, 299, 364, 402.
Steno, Michele, Doge of Venice, 202,
Society in the Middle Ages, 126.
Tagliacozzo, Battle of, 15.
Tanguy du Chatel, 390, 392.
Tarragona, Archbishop of, 371.
Tauler, John, 94.
Tebaldeschi, Cardinal, 109, m.
Teutonic Order of Knights, 117.
Theology and the Canon Law, 150.
Thomas a Kempis, 100.
Thury, de, Cardinal, 192, 253, 255-7,
281, 340, 352, 370, 373, 376, 393.
Thury, Philippe de, Archbishop of
Lyons, 372.
Tomaceli.i, Pietro. See Pope Boniface
the Ninth.
Toulouse, University of, 179, 187,
203-4, 235, 245, 280, 363.
Translation of the Empire, 12, 21.
Troja, Count of, 239-40, 302, 391-2,
398-9-
Udine, 310, 316.
Ugolino of Cremona, 218.
Uguccione, Francesco, Archbishop of
Bordeaux, 321, 345.
Ulrich, Bishop of Verden, 346, 383.
Universitas Citramontanorum and Ul-
tramontanorum at Bologna, 151.
Ursins, Juvenal des, 235.
Vanello da Montefalco, 226.
Venice, 249, 267, 272, 274, 300; its
negotiations concerning the Council,
309-10, 385.
Verme, Jacopo del, 145, 201, 212, 215.
Vicars, parish priests, 73-5.
Villa Franca, 245, 283.
Villeneuve, 177-8, 254-5.
Villette, Philippe de, Abbe of Saint
Denys, 258.
Visconti —
the house of, 211.
Bernabo, 106, 148, 211 ; captured by
his nephew, 212, 218.

Filippo Maria, 226,
Gabriel Maria, 226, 233, 324-7.
Galeazzo the Second, 211.
Gian Galeazzo, 148, 161-2, 195, 197,
200-2; death of, 202, 216; 210-6,
241.
Giovanni Maria, 217-9, 226.
Giovanni of Ollegio, 213.
Valentine, Duchess of Orleans, 1 18-9,
148, 269, 382-3.
Viterbo, 253, 267, 276.
Viviers, Cardinal of, 404.
Waldenses, 84, 88-9, 93.
Waldo, Peter, 82, 84.
'Ways' proposed for terminating the
Great Schism ; namely —
the ' way of fact,' chap. iv.
the ' way of compromise ' or arbi
tration, 157, 178.
the ' way of cession' backed by 'sub
traction of obedience,' chap. v.
the ' way of convention ' or discus
sion, 177, 181, 228, chap. vii.
the ' way of a council,' 131-3, 157,
181, chap. a.
Wenzel, brother of Charles the Fourth,
32-
Wenzel of Bohemia, 53.
Wenzel, King of the Romans. See
Emperors. >
Werner, Archbishop of Trier, 196-8.
White Penitents, the, 194-5.
Wilhelmina of Bohemia, 86-7.
William, Archbishop of Cologne, 61.
William the Norman, Bishop of Todi,
252.
William of Ockham, 30, 133, 135,
137-8.
William of Prato, 309-10.
Windesheim, monastery at, 101.
Winkelers, the, 93.
Worms, Concordat of, 10.
Wyclif, John, 30, 67, 72, 79, 81-3,
89-90, 104, 134-6.
Zagabriga, Bishop of Lerida, 253.
Zeno, Carlo, 262.
Zonchio, battle of, 262.

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