Part 789

"In April, A. D. 1412, the Pope [John XXIII.], to preserve appearances, opened at Rome the council which had been agreed upon at Pisa for the reformation of the Church in her Head and members. Quite a small number of bishops put in an appearance, who, after having condemned the antipopes, and some heretical propositions of Wycliffe and John Huss, hastily adjourned. John, who does not seem to have had any very earnest wish to correct his own life, and who, consequently, could not be expected to be over solicitous about the correction of those of others, was carefully provident to prevent the bishops coming to Rome in excessive numbers. He had come to a secret understanding with Ladislaus, his former enemy, that the latter should have all the roads well guarded. Ladislaus soon turned against the Pope, and forced him to quit Rome, and seek refuge, first at Florence, and next at Bologna (A. D. 1413). From this city John opened communications with the princes of Europe with the purpose of fixing a place for holding the council. … The Emperor Sigismund appointed the city of Constance, where the council did, in fact, convene, November 1, A. D. 1414. … The abuses which prevailed generally throughout the Church, and which were considerably increased by the existence of three rival Popes, and by the various theories on Church government called forth by the controversy, greatly perplexed men's minds, and created much anxiety as to the direction affairs might eventually take. This unsettled state of feeling accounts for the unusually large number of ecclesiastics who attended the council. There were 18,000 ecclesiastics of all ranks, of whom, when the number was largest, 3 were patriarchs, 24 cardinals, 33 archbishops, close upon 150 bishops, 124 abbots, 50 provosts, and 300 doctors in the various degrees. Many princes attended in person. There were constantly 100,000 strangers in the city, and, on one occasion, as many as 150,000, among whom were many of a disreputable character. Feeling ran so high that, as might have been anticipated, every measure was extreme. Owing to the peculiar composition of the Council, at which only a limited number of bishops were present, and these chiefly in the interest of John XXIII., it was determined to decide all questions, not by a majority of episcopal suffrages, but by that of the representatives of the various nations, including doctors. The work about to engage the Council was of a threefold character, viz., 1. To terminate the papal schism; 2. To condemn errors against faith, and particularly those of Huss; and 3. To enact reformatory decrees.

… It was with some difficulty that John could be induced to attend at Constance, and when he did finally consent, it was only because he was forced to take the step by the representations of others. … {2439} Regarding the Council as a continuation of that of Pisa, he naturally thought that he would be recognized as the legitimate successor of the Pope chosen by the latter. … All questions were first discussed by the various nations, each member of which had the right to vote. Their decision was next brought before a general conference of nations, and this result again before the next session of the Council. This plan of organisation destroyed the hopes of John XXIII., who relied for success on the preponderance of Italian prelates and doctors. … To intimidate John, and subdue his resistance, a memorial, written probably by an Italian, was put in circulation, containing charges the most damaging to that pontiff's private character. … So timely and effective was this blow that John was thenceforth utterly destitute of the energy and consideration necessary to support his authority, or direct the affairs of the Council." In consequence, he sent a declaration to the Council that, in order to give peace to the Church, he would abdicate, provided his two rivals in the Papacy, Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., would also resign. Later, in March, 1415, he repeated this promise under oath. The Emperor, Sigismund, was about to set out to Nizza to induce the other claimants to resign, when John's conduct gave rise to a suspicion that he did not intend to act in good faith. He was charged with an intention to escape from the Council, with the assistance of Frederic, Duke of Austria. He now gave his promise under oath not to depart from the city before the Council had dissolved. "But, notwithstanding these protestations, John escaped (March 21, 1415), disguised as a groom, during a great tournament arranged by the duke, and made his way to Schaffhausen, belonging to the latter, thence to Laufenburg and Freiburg, thence again to the fortress of Brisac, whence he had intended to pass to Burgundy, and on to Avignon. That the Council went on with its work after the departure of John, and amid the general perplexity and confusion, was entirely due to the resolution of the emperor, the eloquence of Gerson [of the University of Paris], and the indefatigable efforts of the venerable master, now cardinal, d'Ailly. The following memorable decrees were passed …: 'A Pope can neither transfer nor dissolve a general Council without the consent of the latter, and hence the present Council may validly continue its work even after the flight of the Pope. All persons, without distinction of rank, even the Pope himself, are bound by its decisions, in so far as these relate to matters of faith, to the closing of the present schism, and to the reformation of the Church of God in her Head and members. All Christians, not excepting the Pope, are under obligation to obey the Council.' … Pope John, after getting away safe to Schaffhausen, complained formally of the action of the Council towards himself, summoned all the cardinals to appear personally before him within six days, and sent memorials to the King of France [and others], … justifying his flight. Still the Council went on with its work; disposed, after a fashion, of the papal difficulty, and of the cases of Buss and Jerome of Prague [whom it condemned and delivered to the civil authorities, to be burned. …

See BOHEMIA: A. D. 1405-1415].

In the meantime, Frederic, Margrave of Brandenburg, acting under the joint order of Council and Emperor, arrested the fugitive Pope at Freiburg, and led him a prisoner to Radolfzell, near Constance, where 54 (originally 72) charges —some of them of a most disgraceful character—extracted from the testimony of a host of witnesses, were laid before him by a committee of the Council." He attempted no defense, and on May 29, 1415, John XXIII. was formally and solemnly deposed and was kept in confinement for the next three years. In July, Gregory XII. was persuaded to resign his papal claims and to accept the dignity of Cardinal Legate of Ancona. Benedict XIII., more obstinate, refused to give up his pretensions, though abandoned even by the Spaniards, and was deposed, on the 26th of July, 1417. "The three claimants to the papacy having been thus disposed of, it now remained to elect a legitimate successor to St. Peter. Previously to proceeding to an election, a decree was passed providing that, in this particular instance, but in no other, six deputies of each nation should be associated with the cardinals in making the choice." It fell upon Otho Colonna, "a cardinal distinguished for his great learning, his purity of life, and gentleness of disposition." In November, 1417, he was anointed and crowned under the name of Martin V. The Council was formally closed on the 16th of May following, without having accomplished the work of Church reformation which had been part of its intended mission. "Sigismund and the German nation, and for a time the English also, insisted that the question of the reformation of the Church, the chief points of which had been sketched in a schema of 18 articles, should be taken up and disposed of before proceeding to the election of a Pope." But in this they were baffled. "Martin, the newly elected Pope, did not fully carry out all the proposed reforms. It is true, he appointed a committee composed of six cardinals and deputies from each nation, and gave the work into their hands; but their councils were so conflicting that they could neither come to a definite agreement among themselves, nor would they consent to adopt the plan of reform submitted by the Pope."

_J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, sections 270-271 (volume 3)._

The election of Martin V. might have been a source of unalloyed happiness to Christendom, if he had at once taken the crucial question of Church Reform vigorously in hand; but the Regulations of the Chancery issued soon after his accession showed that little was to be expected from him in this respect. They perpetuated most of the practices in the Roman Court which the Synod had designated as abuses. Neither the isolated measures afterwards substituted for the universal reform so urgently required, nor the Concordats made with Germany, the three Latin nations, and England, sufficed to meet the exigencies of the case, although they produced a certain amount of good. The Pope was indeed placed in a most difficult position, in the face of the various and opposite demands made upon him, and the tenacious resistance offered by interests now long established to any attempt to bring things back to their former state. The situation was complicated to such a degree that any change might have brought about a revolution. {2440} It must also be borne in mind that all the proposed reforms involved a diminution of the Papal revenues; the regular income of the Pope was small and the expenditure was very great. For centuries, complaints of Papal exactions had been made, but no one had thought of securing to the Popes the regular income they required. … The delay of the reform, which was dreaded by both clergy and laity, may be explained, though not justified, by the circumstances we have described. It was an unspeakable calamity that ecclesiastical affairs still retained the worldly aspect caused by the Schism, and that the much needed amendment was again deferred."

_L. Pastor, History of the Popes, from the Close of the Middle Ages, volume 1, pages 209-210._

ALSO IN: _H. H. Milman, History of Latin Christianity, book 13, chapters 8-10 (volume 6)._

_J. C. Robertson, History of the Christian Church, book 8, chapter 8 (volume 7)._

PAPACY: A. D. 1431. Election of Eugenius IV.

PAPACY: A. D. 1431-1448. The Council of Basle. Triumph of the Pope and defeat, once more, of Church Reform.

"The Papacy had come forth so little scathed from the perils with which at one time these assemblies menaced it, that a Council was no longer that word of terror which a little before it had been. There was more than one motive for summoning another, if indeed any help was to be found in them. Bohemia, wrapt in the flames of the Hussite War, was scorching her neighbours with fiercer fires than those by which she herself was consumed. The healing of the Greek Schism was not yet confessed to be hopeless, and the time seemed to offer its favourable opportunities. No one could affirm that the restoration of sound discipline, the reformation of the Church in head and in members, had as yet more than begun. And thus, in compliance with the rule laid down at the Council of Constance,—for even at Rome they did not dare as yet openly to set at nought its authority,—Pope Eugenius IV. called a third Council together [1431], that namely of Basle. … Of those who sincerely mourned over the Church's ills, the most part, after the unhappy experience of the two preceding Councils, had so completely lost all faith in these assemblies that slight regard was at first yielded to the summons; and this Council seemed likely to expire in its cradle as so many had done before, as not a few should do after. The number of Bishops and high Church dignitaries who attended it was never great. A democratic element made itself felt throughout all its deliberations; a certain readiness to resort to measures of a revolutionary violence, such as leaves it impossible to say that it had not itself to blame for much of its ill-success. At the first indeed it displayed unlooked-for capacities for work, entering into important negotiations with the Hussites for their return to the bosom of the Church; till the Pope, alarmed at these tokens of independent activity, did not conceal his ill-will, making all means in his power to dissolve the Council. This, meanwhile, growing in strength and in self-confidence, re-affirmed all of strongest which had been affirmed already at Pisa and Constance, concerning the superiority of Councils over Popes; declared of itself that, as a lawfully assembled Council, it could neither be dissolved, nor the place of its meeting changed, unless by its own consent; and, having summoned Eugenius and his Cardinals to take their share in its labours, began the work of reformation in earnest. Eugenius yielded for the time; recalled the Bull which had hardly stopped short of anathematizing the Council; and sent his legates to Basle. Before long, however, he and the Council were again at strife; Eugenius complaining, apparently with some reason, that in these reforms one source after another of the income which had hitherto sustained the Papal Court was being dried up, while no other provision was made for the maintenance of its due dignity, or even for the defraying of its necessary expenses. As the quarrel deepened the Pope removed the seat of the Council to Ferrara (September 18, 1437), on the plea that negotiations with the envoys of the Greek Church would be more conveniently conducted in an Italian city; and afterwards to Florence. The Council refused to stir, first suspending (January 24, 1438), then deposing the Pope (July 7, 1439), and electing another, Felix V., in his stead; this Felix being a retired Duke of Savoy, who for some time past had been playing the hermit in a villa on the shores of the lake of Geneva.

See SAVOY: 11-15th CENTURIES.

The Council in this extreme step failed to carry public opinion with it. It was not merely that Eugenius denounced his competitor by the worst names he could think of, declaring him a hypocrite, a wolf in sheep's clothing, a Moloch, a Cerberus, a Golden Calf, a second Mahomet, an anti-christ; but the Church in general shrank back in alarm at the prospect of another Schism, to last, it might be, for well-nigh another half century. And thus the Council lost ground daily; its members fell away; its confidence in itself departed; and, though it took long in dying, it did in the end die a death of inanition (June 23, 1448). Again the Pope remained master of the situation, the last reforming Council,—for it was the last,—having failed in all which it undertook as completely and as ingloriously as had done the two which went before."

_R. C. Trench, Lectures on Medieval Church History, lecture 20._

"In the year 1438 the Emperor John and the Greek Patriarch made their appearance at the council of Ferrara. In the following year the council was transferred to Florence, where, after long discussions, the Greek emperor, and all the members of the clergy who had attended the council, with the exception of the Bishop of Ephesus, adopted the doctrine of the Roman church concerning the possession of the Holy Ghost, the addition to the Nicene Creed, the nature of purgatory, the condition of the soul after its separation from the body until the day of judgment, the use of unleavened bread in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the papal supremacy. The union of the two churches was solemnly ratified in the magnificent cathedral of Florence on the 6th of July 1439, when the Greeks abjured their ancient faith in a vaster edifice and under a loftier dome than that of their own much-vaunted temple of St. Sophia. The Emperor John derived none of the advantages he had expected from the simulated union of the churches. Pope Eugenius, it is true, supplied him liberally with money, and bore all the expenses both of the Greek court and clergy during their absence from Constantinople; he also presented the emperor with two galleys, and furnished him with a guard of 300 men, well equipped, and paid at the cost of the papal treasury; but his Holiness forgot his promise to send a fleet to defend Constantinople, and none of the Christian princes showed any disposition to fight the battles of the Greeks, though they took up the cross against the Turks. {2441} On his return John found his subjects indignant at the manner in which the honour and doctrines of the Greek church had been sacrificed in an unsuccessful diplomatic speculation. The bishops who had obsequiously signed the articles of union at Florence, now sought popularity by deserting the emperor, and making a parade of their repentance, lamenting their wickedness in falling off for a time from the pure doctrine of the orthodox church. The only permanent result of this abortive attempt at Christian union was to increase the bigotry of the orthodox, and to furnish the Latins with just grounds for condemning the perfidious dealings and bad faith of the Greeks. In both ways it assisted the progress of the Othoman power. The Emperor John, seeing public affairs in this hopeless state, became indifferent to the future fate of the empire, and thought only of keeping on good terms with the sultan."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine and Greek Empires, book 4, chapter 2, section 6 (volume 2)._

Pope "Eugenius died, February 23, 1447; … but his successors were able to secure the fruits of the victory [over the Council of Basel] for a long course of years. The victory was won at a heavy cost, both for the Popes and for Christendom; for the Papacy recovered its ascendancy far more as a political than as a religious power. The Pope became more than ever immersed in the international concerns of Europe, and his policy was a tortuous course of craft and intrigue, which in those days passed for the new art of diplomacy. … To revert to a basis of spiritual domination lay beyond the vision of the energetic princes, the refined dilettanti, the dexterous diplomatists, who sat upon the chair of St. Peter during the age succeeding the Council of Basle. Of signs of uneasiness abroad they could not be quite ignorant; but they sought to divert men's minds from the contemplation of so perplexing a problem as Church reform, by creating or fostering new atmospheres of excitement and interest; … or at best (if we may adopt the language of their apologists) they took advantage of the literary and artistic movement then active in Italy as a means to establish a higher standard of civilisation which might render organic reform needless."

_R. L. Poole, Wycliffe and Movements for Reform, chapter 12._

ALSO IN: _J. E. Darras, General History of the Catholic Church, 6th period, chapter 4 (volume 3)._

See, also, FRANCE: A. D. 1438; and 1515-1518.

PAPACY: A. D. 1439. Election of Felix V. (by the Council of Basle).

PAPACY: A. D. 1447-1455. The pontificate of Nicolas V. Recovery of character and influence. Beginning of the Renaissance.

See ITALY: A. D. 1447-1480.

PAPACY: A. D. 1455. Election of Callistus III.

PAPACY: A. D. 1458. Election of Pius II., known previously as the learned Cardinal Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini, historian and diplomatist.

PAPACY: A. D. 1464. Election of Paul II.

PAPACY: A. D. 1471-1513. The darkest age of Papal crime and vice. Sixtus IV. and the Borgias. The warrior Pontiff, Julius II.

"The impunity with which the Popes escaped the councils held in the early part of the 15th century was well fitted to inspire them with a reckless contempt for public opinion; and from that period down to the Reformation, it would be difficult to parallel among temporal princes the ambitious, wicked, and profligate lives of many of the Roman Pontiffs. Among these, Francesco della Rovere, who succeeded Paul II. with the title of Sixtus IV., was not the least notorious. Born at Savona, of an obscure family, Sixtus raised his nephews, and his sons who passed for nephews, to the highest dignities in Church and State, and sacrificed for their aggrandisement the peace of Italy and the cause of Christendom against the Turks. Of his two nephews, Julian, and Leonard della Rovere, the former, afterwards Pope Julius II., was raised to the purple in the second year of his uncle's pontificate." It was this pope—Sixtus IV.—who had a part in the infamous "Conspiracy of the Pazzi" to assassinate Lorenzo de' Medici and his brother.

See FLORENCE: A. D. 1469-1492.

"This successor of St. Peter took a pleasure in beholding the mortal duels of his guards, for which he himself sometimes gave the signal. He was succeeded [1484] by Cardinal Gian Batista Cibò, a Genoese, who assumed the title of Innocent VIII. Innocent was a weak man, without any decided principle. He had seven children, whom he formally acknowledged, but he did not seek to advance them so shamelessly as Sixtus had advanced his 'nephews.' … Pope Innocent VIII. [who died July 25, 1492] was succeeded by the atrocious Cardinal Roderigo Borgia, a Spaniard of Valencia, where he had at one time exercised the profession of an advocate. After his election he assumed the name of Alexander VI. Of 20 cardinals who entered the conclave, he is said to have bought the suffrages of all but five; and Cardinal Ascanio Sforza, whom he feared as a rival, was propitiated with a present of silver that was a load for four mules. Alexander's election was the signal for flight to those cardinals who had opposed him. … Pope Alexander had by the celebrated Vanozza, the wife of a Roman citizen, three sons: John, whom he made Duke of Gandia, in Spain; Cæsar and Geoffrey; and one daughter, Lucretia."

_T. H. Dyer, History of Modern Europe, volume 1, pages 105, 108, 175, 177-178._