^
St. ^
Scholastio niibrary
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
VOL. I.
f !;
PASTOR S HISTORY OF THE POPES.
SIX VOLUMES OF THE ENGLISH EDITION
NOW COMPLETED.
THE HISTORY OF THE POPES. Translated from
the German of Dr. LUDWIG PASTOR, and edited by the Rev.
FREDERICK IGNATIUS ANTROBUS of the London Oratory.
Vols. I. and II. A.D. 1305-1458. Demy 8vo. 1899 (and ed.) ,
Vols. III. and IV. A.D. 1458-1483. 1894.
Vols. V. and VI. A.D. 1484-1513. 1898.
245. net per 2 vols.
LONDON:
KEGAN
PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER,
& CO., LIMITED.
THE |
HISTORY OF THE POPES,
FROM THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
DRAWN FROM THE SECRET ARCHIVES OF THE VATICAN AND OTHER
ORIGINAL SOURCES.
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
FROM THE GERMAN OF
DR. LUDWIG PASTOR,
PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF INNSBRUCK.
FREDERICK IGNATIUS ANTROBUS
OF THE ORATORY.
SECOND EDITION.
VOLUME I.
LONDON:
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., LD.,
PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD.
1899.
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
50121
JUN - 1 1956
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
Brief of H.H. Pope Leo XIII. to Professor Pastor
Notice by His Eminence, Cardinal Manning
Editor s Preface vi
Author s Preface vii
List of complete Titles of Books frequently quoted in Vols.
I. and II xi
Table of Contents ... xlvi
List of Documents in Appendix... Ivi
Introduction ... ... ... 1-56
The Popes at Avignon (1305-1376) ... 57~ 116
The Schism and the Great Heretical Movements (1378-
1406) ... 117-174
The Synods of Pisa and Constance (1409-1417) ... 174-207
Martin V. (1417-1431) ... ... 208-282
Eugenius IV. (1431-1447) ... 282-361
Appendix of Unpublished Documents ... ... ... 362-408
Index of Names .., ... ... ... ... ... 409-419
BEIEF OF HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIII.
TO PEOFESSOR PASTOE.
"Dilecto filio Ludovico Pastor Doctor! historic tradendae
^nipontem.
" Leo P.P. XIII.
"Dilecte fill, salutem et Apostolicam benedictionem. Ex
historia Pontificum Romanorum, quam habes institutam, adlatum
Nobis primum volumen est una cum litteris tuis. Quod rerum
monumenta veterurn, utique ex Tabulario Vaticano deprompta,
usui tibi scribis fuisse, gratum est : nee fieri profecto potest, ut
tanta supellex non magnum afferat ad investigandam antiquitatem
lumen. Tu vero opus babes in manibus sane laboriosum idemque
magna casuum varietate notabile cum ab exitu medii sevi exorsus,
pergere ad hanc nostram setatem contendas. Sed ab ista lucubra-
tionum tuarum priore parte, cui quidem suffragium idoneorum
virorum videmus non defuisse, conjecturam facere de reliquarum
bonitate licet. Reddere cum alacritate, qua? restant, hortaremur,
nisi Nobis esset cognitum tua te voluntate alacrem hortatione
plane non indigere. Nee sane facultatem ingenii tui usquam
poteras utilius sanctiusque collocare, quam in illustrandis diligenter
ac sincere rebus gestis Pontificum maximorum, quorum laudibus
tam saepe invidere vel temporum iniuria consuevit vel hominum
obtrectatio malevola. Caelestium munerum auspicem ac benevo-
lentiae Nostrae paternae testem tibi Apostolicam benedictionem
peramanter in Domino impertimus. Datum Roma? apud S.
Petrum die XX. Januarii Anno 1887, Pontificatus Nostri nono.
"LEO P.P. XIII."
NOTICE.
PROFESSOR PASTOR S " History of the Popes from the close of
the Middle Ages," comes to us with a singular and exceptional
weight of authority.
First, because of the ample encouragement conveyed by the
brief of Leo XIII. when the first volume of the history was com
pleted. Such letters of His Holiness do not, indeed, convey a
critical approval of the work, but an abundant testimony to the
fitness and learning of Dr Pastor for the accomplishment of his
undertaking.
Secondly, because this history may be regarded as the first-fruits
of the action of the Holy Father, which, a little time ago, so
surprised the writers of anti-Catholic history. Leo XIII., as it
will be remembered, addressed a letter to the five Cardinals whom
he had appointed as a commission to oversee the publication of
historical matters contained in the Vatican Archives. The Holy
Father charged them to see that the history of the Holy See and
of the Church should be written with absolute truth on the only
just and imperishable principle that the historica veritas ought to
be supreme, of which we Jiave a divine example in Holy Writ,
where Jthe sins, even of Saints, are as openly recorded as the
wickedness of sinners.
iv NOTICE.
Thirdly, because no author as yet has written the history of the
Popes with such copious evidence, drawn, not only from the Vatican
Archives since they were thrown opan by Leo XIII., but from a
multitude of other sources hitherto never examined, as, for in
stance, the Consistorial Archives, the Archives of the Lateran, of
the Inquisition, of the Propaganda, of the Sistine Chapel, of the
Secretaryship of Briefs, and of the Library of St. Peter s. As to
the Vatican Library, even Ranke and Gregorovius were only able
to inspect a small number of the manuscripts. Beyond these,
Professor Pastor has examined the Libraries and private Archives
of Rome, the public and semi-public Libraries as the Angelica, the
Barberina, the Casanatense, the Chigi, the Corsini, the Vallicellana,
the Altieri, the Borghese, the Buoncompagni, the Anima, the
Campo Santo and Santo Spirito, the Colonna, Gaetani, and Ricci.
To all these may be added the Archives of Milan, Paris, Florence,
Vienna and Mantua, Lucca, Modena and Naples, Aix in Provence
and Treves.
If anyone will examine the notes and references at the foot of
the pages in this work he will see at once that this list of
authorities is not a mere catalogue of names, but of sources from
which a copious and truthful history has been industriously drawn.
If any further evidence were needed to show how minutely this
history has been written, it will be sufficient to add that these two
volumes contain, besides the Introduction, only the history of four
Pontiffs, from 1417 to 1458. Nevertheless, in that brief period
is to be found one of the most decisive events of history, the effect
of which is in full action upon the Church and upon the world at
this day.
All histories of this period, from Ranke to Creighton, will need
extensive correction, and, in a large measure, to be rewritten. In
the time of Nicholas V., the so-called " Renaissance " was at its
height, and parted itself off into two distinct schools the heathen
Humanists, and the Christian Humanists. The heathen Humanists
NOTICE. V
plunged themselves, with all their intellectual culture, into the
atheism and foulness of a revived paganism. They were the
forerunners of the intellectual apostasy from the Church, which,
some seventy years after, broke out in Germany under the pretence
of reformation. This revolt in religion of individual judgment
against Divine authority was translated in the last century into the
domain of politics by the first French Revolution, which has been
truly described by Carlyle as the last act in the drama of
Lutheranism. The Christian Humanists elaborated all intel
lectual culture in perfect fidelity to the revelation of the Christian
faith. Nicolas V. became their patron and protector, and thereby
placed himself at the head of the intellectual culture which has
pervaded the Catholic Church, expanding itself from the time of
his Pontificate to the Pontificate of Leo XIII.
HENRY EDWARD,
Cardinal Archbishop.
October 27^, 1891.
VI
EDITOR S PREFACE.
THE great success which has attended the publication of Professor
Pastor s History of the Popes in the literary circles of Germany,
Catholic and non-Catholic alike, has led to the hope that the work
might be acceptable in an English translation.
The many Histories of the Popes and of the Papacy already
existing exhibit a tendency to treat the matter too exclusively
some from a political, others from an ecclesiastical point of view.
It is for the reader to decide whether in the present work this
defect has been avoided.
The vast literature on the history, and on the artistic and social
life of the Renaissance which has been published in the last few
years, and the liberality with which the present Pontiff has opened
the Archives of the Vatican to students of history, place present
writers at a great advantage as compared with their predecessors.
The Editor s portion of the work has been confined to the super
vision of the translation. He has endeavoured to follow the text
as closely as is consistent with an idiomatic translation. The
notes, which contain most valuable matter, have been given in full.
The bulk of the first volume has necessitated dividing the English
version. Should the present volumes meet with a favourable
reception, the publication of the remainder will be carried out
without delay.
The Editor begs to express his best thanks to the friends who
have co-operated with him in preparing the translation.
F I. A.
The Oratory,
South Kensington, S.IV.
Vll
AUTHOR S PREFACE.
THE publication of a new " History of the Popes from the
Conclusion of the Middle Ages/ drawn from original
sources, cannot be considered a superfluous task. Apart
from the special interest attaching to the annals of this the
most ancient and still most vigorous of dynasties, from a
purely scientific point of view, a new work embodying the
substance of the numerous monographs of the last ten
years, with additions and corrections from fresh original
documents, seems urgently called for.
Ranke, the first in importance of all Protestant German
Historians, owes his fame to his " Lives of the Popes in the
Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries," which appeared in
1834-1836, and which, even in the most recent editions,
essentially represents the state of historical research at
that period. The alterations made by the aged author are,
with the exception of its continuation to the year 1870,
confined to a small number of points. He gives but a
summary notice of the Renaissance age, our knowledge of
which has been immensely increased during the last few
decades by the labours of learned men in Italy, as well as
in Germany and France ; in the latter country especially,
by those of the indefatigable Eugene Miintz. A thorough
acquaintance with that period is an essential preliminary to
the comprehension of the sixteenth century.
When His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. generously opened
the secret Archives of the Vatican to students, it became
evident that the History of the Popes during the last four
centuries would have to be re-written. Ranke, Burckhardt,
Voigt, Gregorovius, and Creighton all wrote on the Renais
sance Age before these Archives were accessible, and even
Reumont, whose trustworthy and exhaustive " History of
the City of Rome" has been of the greatest use tome, gives
but a few specimens of the rich treasures they contain.
Accordingly my first task, during a somewhat prolonged
residence on two occasions in the Eternal City, was to make
myself thoroughly acquainted with them. My studies were
greatly facilitated by the kind assistance afforded me by
their custodians, and I soon became convinced that Pertz s
viii AUTHOR S PREFACE.
observation, " the keys of St. Peter are still the keys of
the Middle Ages/ is also applicable to our own times.
In addition to the secret Archives of the Vatican, I
found, while in Rome, partly by my own exertions, and
partly by the aid of friends, historical materials of great
value in a number of other Archives, which had hitherto
been almost inaccessible. Among these are the Con-
sistorial Archives, the Archives of the Lateran (which un
fortunately have not been classified), of the Inquisition, of
Propaganda, of the Sixtine Chapel, of the Secretaryship of
Briefs, and of the Library of St. Peter s. Nor must the
treasures of the Vatican Library be passed over, especially
as Ranke and Gregorovius were only able to inspect a
small number of these manuscripts.
My researches in the inexhaustible mine of the Papal
collections were supplemented by those which I made in
the Libraries and Private Archives of Rome. I visited the
public or semi-public Libraries, which are celebrated
throughout the literary world, as the Angelica, the Barbe-
rina, the Casanatense, the Chigi, the Corsini, and the
Vallicellana Libraries, and also the less known Altieri,
Borghese, and Boncompagni Libraries, the Archives of
the Anima, of the Campo Santo al Vaticano, and of the
Santo Spirito, as well as those of the Roman Princes,
which, in many cases, are not easy of access. Among
these the Archives of the Colonna, Gaetani, and Ricci
families yielded an unexpected amount of treasure, while
others, as, for example, those of the Odescalchi and Orsini,
were comparatively barren.
The overwhelming mass of documents before me decided
me only to begin my systematic investigation of the Roman
Archives at the middle of the fifteenth century, which we
may consider as the period closing the Middle Ages, and
forming the transition between two great epochs.
Ample as are the historical materials to be found in
Rome, I could not limit myself exclusively to these
sources without incurring the danger of being one-sided.
I therefore extended my investigations to the other
Archives in Italy, especially those of the more or less
important Italian powers, which were in constant com
munication with the Holy See, and which sent Ambassadors
to Rome at an earlier date, and more frequently than is
generally supposed. The diplomatic correspondence of
the Sforzas in the State Archives at Milan long detained
me, and I was able to fill up the gaps existing in "it from the
AUTHOR S PREFACE. ix
Ambrosian Library, and afterwards from the National
Library of Paris. Florence, Vienna, and Mantua furnished
an unlooked-for amount of documents, most of which are
still unknown. Lucca is not so rich, but from Modena and
Naples I have gathered much that is of value for my work.
I need hardly say that in my various journeys I did not
neglect the numerous rich Libraries and the important
Municipal Archives which are scattered through Italy. I
also investigated the collections of manuscripts in France
and Germany, and at several places, as, for example, at Aix
in Provence and at Treves, I made interesting and valuable
discoveries.
Extracts from manuscripts which I believe to be un
published are marked in this work by an asterisk (*). It
was impossible in the Appendix to find place for all the
matter before me, but I intend at a later period to publish a
large collection of manuscripts connected with the History
of the Popes ; the documents which are to form part of the
proposed volume are designated by two asterisks (**).
I owe a debt of gratitude, in the first place to His
Holiness Pope Leo XIII., who has most graciously been
pleased to take an interest in my work, and to encourage
me in its prosecution ; then to their Eminences Cardinals
Jacobini, Hergenrother, and Mertel, His Excellency Count
Paar, Austrian Ambassador to the Holy See, Monsignori de
Montel and Meszczynski, and Herr Wilhelm HiifTer in
Rome; also to Fr. Ehrle, S.J., and Dr. Gottlob, the latter
of whom placed at my disposal a number of documents
relating to the war against the Turks.
I am also greatly indebted to the Minister of Public
Worship and Education in Vienna for his kindness in
regard to the transmission of manuscripts, and to the
custodians and officials of the Archives and Libraries I
have visited, for the assistance they have so obligingly
afforded me in my investigations. I beg them all to accept
my sincere thanks.
The second volume of this work will conclude the History
of the Renaissance Age, and will appear as soon as possible.
The subject matter of the four other volumes, which will
probably complete my undertaking, will be the three great
events of History since the Renaissance : the great disrup
tion in the Western Church, the Catholic Restoration, and
the Modern Revolution.
LUDWIG PASTOR.
1 5th August, 1885.
XI
COMPLETE TITLES OF BOOKS
FREQUENTLY QUOTED IN VOLS. L AND II.
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Kirchengeschichte des fiinfzehnten Jahrhunderts. i.
Lief. Mainz, 1884.
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di mezzo. Nuovo saggio topografico dato sopra
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sEneas Sylvius Piccolomineus, (Pius II. papa). Opera.
Basileae, 1551.
Pii secundi pontificis maximi commentarii rerum
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cardinalis Papiensis, verum gestarum sui temporiset ad Pii
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10 Aufl. Neu bearbeitet von Dr. F. X. Kraus. Bd. 2.
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Mediolani, 1733.
Annales Laurentii BonincontriL Muratori, Script, xxi.,
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Annales Placcntini, ab anno 1401 usque ad 1463 ab
Antonio de Ripalta patricio Placentino conscripti.
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Annali Veneti dal 1457 al 1500, di Dom. Malipiero,
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Archiv der Gesellschaft fur alt ere Deutsche Geschichts-
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a. M. und Hannover, 1820-1874. Neues Archiv der
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Atti e memorie delle R.R. deputazioni di storia patria
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Baluzius (Balnze), Steph., Vitae Paparum Avenionensium,
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II Piccinino nello Stato di Siena e la Lega Italica,
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Bellesheim, Alphonsus, Geschichte der Katholichen Kirche
in Schottland von der Einfiihrung des Christenthums
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Bernino, Dom., Historia di tutte 1 Heresie. Tom. iv., sino
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Beschreibung der Stadt Rom, von Ernst Platner, Karl
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Birck, M., Der Kolner Erzbischof Dietrich Graf von Mdrs
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der Realschule zu Miilheim am Rhein, 1878.
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Bonanni, Phil., Numismata Pontificum Romanorum quae
a tempore Martini V. ad annum 1699 vel authoritate
publica vel private genio in lucem prodiere. T. i., con-
tinens numismata a Martino V. usque ad Clementem
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in quattro libri e dedicata all em. e rev. principe il
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Borgia, Stef., Memorie istoriche della pontificia citta di
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Bressler, Hermann, Die Stellung der Deutschen Universi-
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Briefe, Romische, von einem Florentiner (A. v. Reumont).
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Romanorum pontificum, Taurinensis Editio locupletior
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Storia de solenni Possess! de sommi pontefici detti
anticamente process! o procession! dopo la loro coro-
-nazione dalla basilica Vaticana alia Lateranense,
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Notizie storiche delle stagioni e de sit! diversi in cui
sono stati tenuti i conclavi nella citta di Roma. Roma,
1823.
Canetta, C., La pace di Lodi, gaprile, 1454. Rivista storica
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Capecelatro, A If., Geschichte der hi. Katharina von Siena
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Cardella, Lorenzo, Memorie storiche de Cardinali della
santa Romana chiesa. Tomo terzo. Roma, 1793.
Carinci, G. B., Document! scelti dell Archivio della ecc
famiglia Gaetani di Roma. Roma, 1846.
Lettere di O. Gaetani. Roma, 1870.
Caro, J. t Geschichte Polens. Vierter Theil, 1430-1455.
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der Geschichte des Konstanzer Concils. Gotha, 1880,
Casimiro, P., Memorie istoriche della chiesa e convento di
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Catalanus, Josephus, De magistro sacri palatii apostolic!
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Catalanus, Michael, De vita et scriptis Dominic! Capra-
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Accedit appendix monumentorum et Corollarium de
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Cave, Guill., Scriptorum ecclesiasticorum historia litte-
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Cecconi, G., Carte diplomatiche Osimane raccolte ed ordi-
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Archiven und Bibliotheken. Wien, 1837-1838. 2
Bde.
Geschichte Kaiser Friedrichs IV. und seines Sohnes
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Christophe, J. B., Geschichte des Papstthums wahrend
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Ciavarini, C., Collezione di document! storici antichi
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Ctnagli, Angela, Le monete del Papi descritte in tavole
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Clement, Les Borgia. Histoire du pape Alexandre VI., de
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Codex epistolaris sseculi decimi quinti. Pars posterior ab
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Comba, E., Storia della riforma in Italia narrata con sussi-
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Comfagnom\ P., La Reggia Picena ovvero dei presidi della
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Creighton, M., A history of the Papacy during the period
of the Reformation. Vol. i. : The great schism ; The
Council of Constance. Vol. ii. : The Council of
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Cribellus, L., Libri duo de expeditione Pii Papae secundi in
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Ctironichette antiche di varj scrittori del buon Secolo della
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Cugnoni, J., ^Eneae Sylvii Piccolomini Senensis qui postea
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Dehio, G. t Die Bauprojecte Nicolaus V. und L. B. Albert!,
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Desjardins, Abel, Negociations diplomatiques de la
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Diario Ferrarese dall anno 1409 sino al 1502, di autori
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,, Kirche und Kirchen, Papstthum und Kirchenstaat.
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Die Papst-Fabeln des Mittelalters. Ein Beitrag
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Beitrage zur politischen, kirchlicben und Cultur-
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Ebrard, Friedrich, Die Strassburger auf Kaiser Fried-
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Echard, J., et Quetif., J., Scriptores ordinis praedicatorum
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Eggs, G. J., Purpura docta, seu vitae, legationes, res gestae,
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Erhard, H. A., Geschichte des Wideraufbliihens wissen-
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Erler, G., Zur Geschichte des Pisanischen Concils. Pro-
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Evelt, Jtil.j Rheinlander und Westphalen in Rom, in der
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Die Anfange der Bursfelder Benedictiner-Congrega-
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Fabricius, J. A., Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis
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Fantuzzi Giovanni, Notizie degli Scrittori Bolognesi, 1781-
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Fiala, F., Dr. Felix Hemmerlin als Propst des St. Ursen-
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Flathe, L., Geschichte der Vorlaufer der Reformation.
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Forcella, V., Iscrizioni delle chiese e d altri edifici di Roma
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14 vol.
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con un appendice delle nctizie statistiche-topografiche
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Frantz, Erich, Sixtus iv. und die Republik Florenz.
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Frediani, Niccolo V., Sommo Pontefice. Memorie
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Frind, A., Die Kirchengeschichte Bohmens. Vol. iv.,
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Frommann, Th., Kritische Beitrage zur Geschichte der
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Fuente, V.De la, Historia eclesiastica de Espafia. Segunda
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Galletti, G. C., Philippi Villani liber de civitatis Florentiae
famosis civibus, etc. Florentiae, 1847.
Gams, B., Series episcoporum ecclesiae catholicae quotquot
innotuerunt a beato Petro apostolo. Ratisbonae, 1873.
Gaspary, Adolf, Geschichte der Italienischen Literatur.
Erster Band (Geschichte der Literatur der Europaischen
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Gatticus, J. B., Acta caeremonialia S. Rom. Ecclesiae ex
mss. codicib. I. Romae, 1753.
Gebhardt, B., Die Gravamina der Deutschen Nation gegen
den Romischen Hof. Breslau, 1884.
Geiger, L., Petrarca. Leipzig, 1874.
Renaissance und Humanismus in Italien und Deutsch-
land (Allgemeine Geschichte in Einzeldarstellungen,
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Georgius, Domin., Vita Nicolai Quinti Pont. Max. ad fidem
veterum monumentorum. Accedit eiusdem Disquisitio
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Geschichtsquellen, Thiiringische. Zweiter Band : Chronicon
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Geymuller, H . von, Die urspriinglichen Entwiirfe fur St.
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Giannone, Pietro, Istoria civile del regno di Napoli. Ediz.
accresciuta di note critiche ecc. T. iii. Venezia,
1766.
Gierke, Otto, Untersuchungen zur Deutschen Staats-und
Rechtsgeschichte, vi. Johann Althusius und die
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Gieseler, J. C. L., Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte.
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Giornali Napolitani dall anno 1266 sino al 1478. Mura-
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Goerz, Regesten der Erzbischofe zu Trier. Trier, 1861.
Gori, Fabio, Archivio storico, artistico, archeologico e
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Roma e Spoleto, 1875-1883.
Gottlob, Adolf } Karls IV. private und politische Beziehungen
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Graziani, Cronaca della citta di Perugia dal 1309 al 1491
secondo un codice appartenente ai conti Baglioni
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Gregorovius, F., Lucrezia Borgia. Nach Urkunden und
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Die Grabdenkmaler der Papste, Marksteine der
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Grotefend) //., Quellen zur Frankfurter Geschichte. Erster
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Grube, Karl, Die Legationsreise des Cardinals Nicolaus
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Guasti, C., Due Legazioni al Sommo Pontefice per il
Commune di Firenze presedute da Sant Antonino
arcivescovo. Firenze, 1857 (edition of only 250
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Guerike, H. E. F., Handbuch der Kirchengeschichte.
Fiinfte, vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage. Erster
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Guglielmotti, Alb., Storia della Marina Pontifica nel medio
evo dal 728 al 1499. Vol. ii. Firenze, 1871.
,, Storia delle fortificazioni nella spiaggia Romana
risarcite ed accresciute dal 1560 al 1570. Roma,
1880.
Haeser, Heinrich, Lehrbuch der Geschichte der Medicin
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Haffner, P., Die Renaissance des Heidenthums, im
" Katholik." Jahrgang, 55. Erste Halfte. Mainz,
,, Grundlinien der Geschichte der Philosophic (Grund-
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Hagen, K., und E. Duller, Deutsche Geschichte. Neue
illustrirte Ausgabe. Dritter Band. Hamm, 1862.
Hain, L., Repertorium bibliographicum. 4 vol. Stutt
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Hammer, J. -von, Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches,
grossentheils aus bisher unbeniitzten Handschriften
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Hammerich, F., Sanct Birgitta, die nordische Prophetin und
Ordensstifterin. Ein Lebens-und Zeitbild aus dem
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Hardt, H. v. d., Magnum cecumenicum Constantiense
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Hartwig, O., Leben und Schriften Heinrichs von Langen-
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Harzheim, G., Vita Nicolai de Cusa Cardinalis et episcopi
Brixinensis, etc. Trever. 1730.
,, Concilia Germaniae. T. v. Coloniae, 1763.
Hase. K., Caterina von Siena. Ein Heiligenbild. Leipzig,
1864.
XXVI TITLES OF BOOKS.
Haupt, Hermann, Die religiosen Secten in Franken vor
der Reformation, in der Festgabe zur dritten Sacular-
feier der Julius-Maximilians-Universitat zu Wiirzburg,
dargebracht von V. Gramich, H. Haupt, und K. K.
Miiller. Wiirzburg, 1882.
Hausser, L., Geschichte der Rheinischen Pfalz nach ihren
politischen, kirchlichen und literarischen Verhalt-
nissen. Zweite Ausgabe. Erster Band. Heidelberg,
1856.
Heeren,A. H. L., Geschichte des Studiums der classischen
Literatur seitdem Wiederaufleben der Wissenschaften.
Gottingen, 1797-1801. 2 Bde.
Hefele, C. T., Die temporare Wiedervereinigung der
Griechischen mit der Lateinischen Kirche. Dritter
Artikel : Wiederauflosung der Union und Eroberung
Konstantinopels durch die Tiirken. Tubing. Theolog.
Quartalschrift. Jahrgang 30, S. 179-229. Tubingen,
1848.
Conciliengeschichte nach den Quellen bearbeitet. Bd.
vi. und vii. Freiburg i. Br., 1867-1874.
ffeinemann, O. von, Die Handschriften der herzo-
glichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbiittel. Erste Abtheilung.
Die Helmstedter Handschriften, i. Wolfenbiittel,
1884.
Heinrich, J. B. } Dogmatische Theologie. Bd. ii. Mainz,
1876.
Hergenrother } J., Anti-Janus. Eine historisch-theologische
Kritik der Scrift : <( Der Papst und das Concil von
Janus." Freiburg, i. Br., 1870.
Katholische Kirche und christlicher Staat in ihrer
geschichtlichen Entwicklung und in Beziehung auf die
Fragen derGegenwart. Historisch-theologische Essays
und zugleich Ein Anti-Janus vindicates. Zvvei Abthei-
lungen. Freiburg, 1872.
Handbuch der allgemeinen Kirchengeschichte. Bd.
ii. und iii. Freiburg, 1877-1880.
Herquet, K., Juan Ferrandez de Heredia, Grossmeister
des Johanniterordens (1377 bis 1396). Miihlhausen, i.
Th., 1878.
Hertzberg, G. F. t Geschichte Griechenlands seit dem
Absterben des antiken Lebens bis zur Gegenwart.
Zweiter Theil. Vom Lateinischen Kreuzzug bis zur
Vollendung der Osmanischen Eroberung 1204-1470.
Gotha, 1877.
TITLES OF BOOKS. XXV11
Hertzberg, G. F., Geschichte der Byzantiner und des
Osmanischen Reiches bis gegen Ende des sechzehnten
Jahrhunderts. (Allgem. Geschichte in Einzeldarstel-
lungen herausg. v. Wilh. Oncken.) Berlin, 1883.
Hettinger, F., Lehrbuch der Fundamentaltheologie.
Freiburg, i. Br., 1879.
Die Gottliche Komodie des Dante Alighieri nach
ihrem wesentlichen Inhalt und Charakter. Freiburg, i.
Br., 1880.
Hettner, //., Italienische Studien. Zur Geschichte der
Renaissance. Braunschweig, 1879.
Heyd, IV., Geschichte des Levantehandels im Mittelalter.
Bd. ii. Stuttgart, 1879.
Hinschius, P., System des katholischen Kirchenrechts mit
besonderer Riicksicht auf Deutschland. Berlin, 1869-
1883. 3 Bde.
Hipler, Dr. und Prof., Die christliche Geschichts-Auffas-
sung. Vereinsschrift der Gorres-Gesellschaft zur Pflege
der Wissenschaft im katholischen Deutschland. Koln,
1884.
Histoire litter air e de la France. T. xxiv. Paris, 1862.
Historisch-politische Blatter fur das katholische Deutsch
land. Bd. i.-xcvi. Miinchen, 1838-1885.
H ofler, C., Ruprecht von der Pfalz, genannt Clem, Romis-
cher Konig., 1400-1410. Freiburg, i. Br., 1861.
Kaiserthum und Papstthum. Ein Beitrag zur Philo
sophic der Geschichte. Prag, 1862.
Aus Avignon. Prag, 1868.
Anna von Luxemburg, Kaiser Karls IV. Tochter,
Konig Richards II. Gemahlin, Konigin von England,
1382-1394, in den Denkschriften der kaiserlichen Aka-
demie der Wissenschaften, Philosoph-hist. Klasse. xx.,
89-240. Wien, 1871.
Die Avignonesischen Papste, ihre Machtfiille und
ihr Untergang, im Almanach der kaiserl. Akademie
der Wissenschaften. Jahrgang, 21 S. 231-285. Wien,
187.1.
,, Die Romanische Welt und ihr Verhaltniss zu den Re-
formideen des Mittelalters. Wien, 1878.
Hopf, C., Griechenland im Mittelalter und in der Neuzeit.
(Allgem. Encyklopadie, herausg. v. Ersch und Gruber.)
Erste Section. Bd. Ixxxvi. Leipzig, 1868.
Hubler B., Die Constanzer-Reformation und die Concor-
date von 1418. Leipzig, 1867.
XXV111 TITLES OF BOOKS.
H dbner, de, Sixte-Quint. T. i. Paris, 1870.
Jacobus Philippus Bergomas, Supplementum Chronicarum,
Venetiis, 1513.
I was unable to see this edition, and, therefore, quote
from the Italian translation which appeared in Venice
in 1520.
Jager, Albert, Der Streit des Cardinals Nicolaus von
Cusa mit dem Herzoge Sigmund von Oesterreich als
Grafen von Tirol. Ein Bruchstiick aus den Kampfen
der weltlichen und kirchlichen Gewalt nach dem Con
cilium von Basel. Innsbruck, 1861. 2 Bde.
Jahrbuch, historisches, der Gbrres-gesellschaft^ redigirt
von Hiisser, Gramich und Grauert. Miinster und
Miinchen, 1880-1885. 6 Bde.
Jahrbuch der Koniglich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen,
Bd. i. Berlin 1880.
Janitschek. //., Die Gesellschaft der Renaissance in
Italien und die Kunst. Vier Vortrage. Stuttgart,
Janssen, Joh., Frankfurts Reichs-correspondenz nebst
anderen verwandten Actenstiicken von 1376 bis 1519.
Des zweiten Bandes erste Abtheilung (1440-1486).
Freiburg, i. Br., 1866.
Bohmers Leben, Briefe und kleinere Schriften.
Freiburg, i. Br., 1868. 3 Bde.
Geschichte des Deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgang
des Mittelalters. Bd. i., Ncunte Auflage. Freiburg,
i. Br. 1883.
Janus [Dollinger, Huber u. A.], Der Papst und das
Concil. Eine weiter ausgefiihrte und mit dem Quel-
lennachweis versehene Neubearbeitung der in der
" Augsburger Allg. Zeitung" erschienenen Artikel :
" Das Concil und die Civilita." Leipzig, 1869.
Infessura, Stef., Diario della citta di Roma. Muratori,
Script, iii., 2, 1111-1252. Mediolani, 1734.
Invernizzi, Giosia, Storia letteraria d Italia. II Risorgi-
mento, Parte i. II secolo xv. Milano, 1878.
Istoria Bresciana (Memorie delle guerre contra la Signo-
ria di Venezia dall anno 1437 smo al I 4^ di Christo-
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789-914.
Istoria della citta di Chiusi in Toscana, di Mess.-Jacomo
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TITLES OF BOOKS. XXIX
Kampen, N. G. van, Geschichte der Niederlande. Erster
Band: Von den altesten Zeiten bis zum Jahre 1609.
Hamburg, 1831.
Kampschulte, F. W., Zur Geschichte des Mittelalters.
Drei Vortrage. Bonn, 1864.
Kaprinai, Sf., Hungaria diplomatica temporibus Matthiae
de Hunyad. Pars ii. Vindobonae, 1771.
Katholik, der. Zeitschrift fur kathol Wissenschaft und
kir Miches Leben, Jahrg. 1-65. Strassburg und Mainz,
1820-1885.
Katona, Steph., Historia critica regum Hungarian stirpis
mixtae. Tom. vi., Ordine xiii., Pars ii. (1448-1458).
Pestini, 1780.
Kayser, Fr., Papst Nicolaus V. (1447-1455) und das Vor-
dringen der Tiirken, im Histor-Jahrbuch der Gorres-
gesellschaft vi., 208-231. Miinchen, 1885.
Keiblinger, F. A., Geschichte des Benedictinerstiftes Melk
in Niederosterreich, seiner Besitzungen und Umge-
bungen. Bd. i. Wien, 1867.
Kerschbaumer, A., Geschichte des Deutschen National-
hospizes, "Anima" in Rom. Nach authentischen, bisher
unbenutzten Quellen. Wien, 1868.
Keussen, Hermann, Die politische Stellung der Reich-
stadte, mit besonderer Beriicksichtigung ihrer Reichs-
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Kinkel, G., Kunst und Kiinstler am papstlichen Hofe in
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"Augsburger Allgem. Zeitung," 1879, N. 200, 202,
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Kirfhenlexikon oder Encyklopadie der kathol. Theologie
und ihrer Hulfswissenchaften, herausgeg. von H. J.
Wetzer und B. Welte. Freiburg, 1847-1856. 12 Bde.
Zvveite Auflage, begonnen von J. Card. Hergenrother,
fortgesetzt von F. Kaulen. Freiburg, 1882-1884.
3 Bde.
Klaic, V., Geschichte Bosniens von den altesten Zeiten
bis zum Verfalle des Konigreiches. Nach dem
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Korting, G., Geschichte der Literatur Italiens im Zeitalter
der Renaissance. Bd. i : Petrarca s Leben und Werke;
Bd. ii : Boccaccio s Leben und Werke ; Bd. iii : Die
Anfange der Renaissance-Literatur in Italien. Erster
Theil. Einleitung. Die Vorlaufer der Renaissance die
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Kolde, Th., Die Deutsche Augustinercongregation und
Johann von Stampitz. Ein Beitrag. zur Ordens und
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Kollar, F. } Monumentorum omnis aevi analecta. Viennae,
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Krauss, F. X., Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte fur Studi-
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Krones, F. von, Handbuch der Geschichte Oesterreichs.
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Labbe, Ph., Sacrosancta Concilia. Venet. 1728-1733.
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Lamms, Joh., Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum qui
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Liburni, 1756.
Ldmmer, //., Analecta Romana. Kirchengeschichtliche
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Zur Kirchengeschichte des sechzehnten und sieben-
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Lechler, Gotthard, Johann von Wiclif und die Vorge-
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Lederer, St., Der Spanische Cardinal Johann von Torque-
mada, sein Leben und seine Schriften. Gekronte
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Leibniz, Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium. Hannovene,
1707.
Lens, M., Konig Sigismund und Heinrich der Fiinfte von
England. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Zeit des
Constanzer Concils. Berlin, 1874.
,, Drei Tractate aus dem Schriftencyklus des Con
stanzer Concils. Marburg, 1876.
Leo, //., Geschichte von Italien. Theil. 3 und 4. Hamburg,
1829-1830.
Universalgeschichte. Zweiter Band, die Geschichte
des Mittelalters enthaltend. Dritte umgearbeitete
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L Epinois, Henri de, Le gouvernment des papes et les
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Lorenzy O., Papstwahl und Kaiserthum. Eine historische
Studie aus dem Staats und Kirchenrecht. Berlin, 1874.
,, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen im Mittelalter seit
der Mitte des dreizehnten Jahrhunderts. Zweiter Band.
Zweite umgearbeitete Auflage. Berlin, 1877.
Loserth, J., Beitrage zur Geschichte der husitischen
Bewegung. iii. Der Tractatus de longevo schismate
des Abtes Ludolf von Sagan im Archiv fiir Oesterreich.
Gesch. lx., 343-561. Wien, 1880.
Letter a del Venerabile Maestro Luigi Marsili contro i
vizj della corte del Papa, Testo di lingua ora ridotta
alia sua vera lezione. Geneva, 1859.
Lettere di Sant Antonino arcivescovo di Firenze. Firenze,
1859.
Liber confratermtatis B. Manse de Anima Teutomcorum
de Urbe, quern rerum Germanicarum cultoribus offerunt
sacerdotes aedis Teutonicae B. Mariae de Anima Urbis
in anni sacri exeuntis memoriam. Romae, 1875.
Lichnowsky, E. M., Geschichte des Hauses Habsburg.
Sechster Theil. Von Herzog Friedrichs Wahl zum
Romischen Konigbis zu Konig Ladislaus Tode. Wien,
1842.
Limburger Chroniken, Deutsche Chroniken und andere
Geschichtsbiicherdes Mittelalters. Herausggeben von
der Gesellschaft fiir altere Deutsche Geschichtskunde.
Vierten Bandes erste Abtheilung. Hannover, 1883.
Lindner, Th., Papst Urban VI., in Brieger s Zeitschrift fiir
Kirchengeschichte, iii., S. 409-428, 525-546. Gotha,
1879.
Geschichte des Deutschen Reiches vom Ende des
vierzehnten Jahrhunderts bis zur Reformation. Erste
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Liter aturblatt } Theologisches, In Verbindung mit der
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Litta, P., Famiglie celebri Italiane. Disp., 1-183. Milano
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Lunig, Christ, Codex Italiaediplomaticus. Francofurti, 1725-
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Maassen,jFr. ) NeunK.a]:)\te\ liber freieKircheund Gewissens-
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Macau/ay, Lord, iiber die romisch-katholische Kirche.
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Maffeius, Raphael, Volaterranus, Commentariorum Urba-
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Magenta, C., I Visconti e gli Sforza nel Castello di Pavia e
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Magnan, Histoire d UrbainV. et de son siecle d apres les
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Mai, A., Spicilegium Romanum. T. i.-x. Romre, 1839-
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Makuscev, V., Monumenta historica Slavorum meridiona-
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Malagola, Carlo, Delia vita e delle opere di Antonio Urceo
detto Codro. Studi e ricerche. Bologna, 1878.
L Archivi di Stato in Bologna dalla sua istituzione a
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Mancini, C., Vita di Leon Battista Alberti. Firenze, 1882.
Manetti, J., Vita Nicolai V. summi pontificis ex manu-
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Manniy D. M., Istoria degli anni santi dal loro principio
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Mansi, Sacror. Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio.
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Manzi, G., Testi di lingua inediti tratti da codici della
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Marini, Gaet. } Degli archiatri Pontifici, vol. i.-ii. Roma,
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Markgrafj H., Uber das Verhiiltniss des Konigs Georg
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Martene (Edmundi) et Durand (Ursini) , Veterum
scriptorum et monumentorum, historicorum, dog-
maticorum moralium amplissima collectio. Parisiis,
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Martens, IV., die Beziehungen der Ueberordnung, Neben-
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MasiuS) Alfr., Flavio Biondo, sein Leben und seine
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Massari, Ces., Saggio storico-medico sulle pestilenze di
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Mathieu, Msgr. le Cardinal, Le pouvoir temporel des
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MaziOj P., Di Rainaldo Brancaccio Cardinale e di Onorato
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Meiners, C., Lebensbeschreibungen beriihmter Manner aus
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Menzel, K., Kurfiirst Friedrich der Siegreiche von der
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Meuschen, Jo. Gerh., Caeremonialia electionis et corona-
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Minieri Riccio, Camilla, Saggio di Codice diplomatico
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MittheUungen des Instituts fiir Oesterrichishe Geschichts-
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Mohler, Joh. Adam, Kirchengeschichte. Herausgeg. von
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Molinet, Cl. du, Historia summorum pontificum a Martino
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Monrad, D. G., Die erste Controverse liber den
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Milller, C. Der Kampf Ludwigs des Bayern mit der
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Midler, G., Document! sulle relazioni delle citta Toscane
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Pacchi, Dom., Ricerche istoriche sulla provincia della
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Pagt, Franc., Breviarium historico-chronologico-criticium,
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Palacky, F., Geschichte von Bohmen, grosstentheils nach
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Papebrochii, D., Conatus chronico-historicus ad universam
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d
xlvi
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
INTRODUCTION.
PAGE
The Literary Renaissance in Italy . . . . i
Petrarch and Boccacio, its founders . . . . i
How the writers of antiquity should be studied .
Their influence upon Petrarch and Dante .... 3
Contrast between Petrarch and Boccacio .... 4
Their attitude towards the Church 5
Both befriended by the Popes . 6
How the Church viewed the literary Renaissance . . 7
of a one-sided interest in heathen literature .
How that literature may serve the interests of truth . . 9
Views of some early Fathers regarding it .... 9
A perverted use of it condemned 10
Combination of classical culture and Christian education . 1 1
Effect on the Church of the reaction towards antiquity . J2
Opposition between the heathen and Christian Renaissance . 1 3
Lorenzo Valla, the exponent of the heathenizing party . . 13
He ridicules the moral teaching of the Church . . -15
Gross impurity of his writings 16
His attack upon religious vows 17
AnxJ on the temporal power of the Papacy . . . 18
Justifies revolt against the Pope 19
Contends that Constantine s concession was a forgery . . 20
And that the Pope had forfeited his right to govern . . 21
Renounces his opinions and seeks to enter the Papal service 22
Antonio Beccadelli and his writings . . . . .23
Immorality of his works, efforts to suppress them. . . 24
^"f he false Humanism represented by Valla and others . . 26
Its adherents indifferent or hostile to religion ... 28
Poggio Bracciolino and the profligate Renaissance . . 29
Shameless immorality of his writings ..... 30
His censure of the morals of the clergy . . . 3 1
His description of the monks, a caricature . . . .32
Far-reaching influence of the mendicant friars . . 33
Religious and moral condition of the Renaissance period . 34
Revival of religion in Florence 35
The Italian saints of the 1 5th century .... 36
Effect of the false Renaissance on the clergy and upper classes 38
The medley of Christian and heathen ideas . 39
Attempt to reconcile the Renaissance with Christianity . 40
Cultivation of Greek and Latin literature at Florence . . 41
The love ofTraversari andLeonardi Bruni for ancient literature 42
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xlvii
PAGE
Other representatives of the Christian Renaissance . . 43
Vittorino da Feltre and his system of education ... 44
His religious and moral qualities the secret of his influence 46
Heathen literature must be judged by a Christian standard . 48
Contrast between the Pagan and Christian ideal of humanity 48.^.
All genuine advance of knowledge advantageous to religion . ^R^^,
Dangerous tendencies of the Renaissance seen by the Church 49^-"
Opposition to the Humanists in some cases carried too far . 51^
The abuse of classical learning alone to be condemned . 5 1
The Church the protectress of intellectual progress . . 52
The opponents of the Renaissance do not represent the Church 52^-
The Popes as patrons of ancient learning . 53-"-"
Nicholas V. becomes the head of the Renaissance movement ^^
Admiration for antiquity consistent with claims of the Church 55
The promotion of the Renaissance not a reproach, but an honour 5 y
Under the guidance of the Church the intellectual movement
not dangerous ........ 56
BOOK I.
THE POPES AT AVIGNON, 1305-1376 ". 57
A.D.
1305 Clement V. begins the separation from Rome . . 58
1316 John XXII. establishes a permanent abode at Avignon 58
Evils which resulted from this cause . . . .59
The Popes dependent on the Government of France . 60
Yet assiduous in promoting the spread of Christianity . 6 r
" > *JDisastrous effects of the Avignon period ... 62
Its effect upon rival parties in Italy .... 63
1314 Death of Clement V. ...... 63
Dante and Petrarch condemn the residence in France . 64
Petrarch s condemnation of the Avignon Popes
exaggerated ....... 66
""* s *Effect on Avignon of the great influx of strangers , 67
1314 Rome in a state of desolation and anarchy . . . 69
-=4n art Avignon became the rival of the Eternal City . 70
Rome brought to the brink of ruin . . . 71
""^Financial difficulties at Avignon ..... 72
Dante s indignation at the cupidity of the Popes . . 72
Conflict between the Empire and the Church . . 73
Between the Friars Minor and John XXII. ... 74
Subversive doctrines of Occam, Marsiglio, and Jean
de Jandun ........ 76
=s New principles of civil and ecclesiastical government . 77
""""The Pope and the Council subject to the civil power . 78
The goods of the Church the property of the State . 79
Exaggerated theories on behalf of the Church . . 80
Marsiglio the " precursor " of the Revolution . . 8 1
xlviii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. PAGE
1328 Deposition of the Pope and election of an Anti-Pope . 82
Schism in the Church 82
Envenomed struggle between Church and State . . 83
1334 Death of John XXII. and election of Benedict XII. . 83
1339 Erection of the Papal palace at Avignon ... 84
-""The Pope represses corruption and reforms the
Religious Orders . . . . . .85
1342 His death, and election of Clement VI. ... 86
Death of Louis of Bavaria and triumph of the Pope . 86
Revolt of Cola di Rienzo and its suppression . . 87
Character of Clement VI 88
1348-4^6 issued Bulls for the protection of the Jews . . 89
""Extravagance during his pontificate .... 90
"^^Resistance to the payment of taxes levied by the Pope 91
Duke Stephen of Bavaria forbids their collection . 92
1352 Election of Innocent VI 93
-His thorough reform of Church government . . 93
Cardinal Albornoz restores the Papal authority in Italy 94
1362 Death of Innocent VI. and election of Urban V. . 95
1367 Urban V. returns to Rome rejoicings of the people . 95
Charles IV. s pilgrimage to Rome alliance between
the Empire and the Church .... 95
The Pope returns to Avignon 97
1370 His death and character 97
Is succeeded by Gregory XI 100
1375 Florence joins the revolt against the Holy See . . 100
The States of the Church in insurrection . . . 101
Consternation of Gregory XI. . . . . .102
1376 He declares war against Florence .... 103
St. Catherine of Siena endeavours to make peace . 104
Sent by the Florentines to negotiate at Avignon . .107
Tries to bring about the return of the Pope to Rome . 108
Insurrectionary movement in the Eternal City . .109
1376 The Pope quits Avignon for Rome . . . .10
1377 After numerous delays he arrives there . . .11
The Florentines foment fresh troubles in Rome . . 1 1
The Pope fails to suppress them 12
Wins over to his side the chief general of the Florentines 1 3
Florentine proposals of peace rejected by the Pope . 14
Renewed negotiations Congress of Sarzana . . 15
1378 Death of Gregory XI., the last of the French Popes . 116
II.
THE SCHISM AND THE GREAT HERETICAL MOVEMENTS,
1378-1406 (1409)
Meeting of the Conclave division among the Cardinals 117
The populace demand the election of a Roman . .118
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xlix
A.D. PAGE
1378 (April 8th) The Cardinals unite and elect Urban VI. . 118
They publicly recognize the election its canonical
validity . . . . . . . .120
The Pope inspires the highest anticipations . .121
His character and the measures adopted by him . 122
His action violent and impolitic. .... 123
St. Catherine of Siena pleads for moderation . .124
The Pope alienates the Cardinals and his political friends 125
The French Cardinals openly revolt and quit Rome . 126
1378 (August Qth) They, assemble at Anagni and declare the
election invalid . . . . . . .127
They elect the Anti-Pope Clement VII. . . .127
Commencement of the great Papal Schism. . .127
Conduct of the Cardinals inexcusable . . .129
St. Catherine of Siena s condemnation of them . .130
Dependence of Clement VII. on the French Court . 131
He gives away the greater part of the States of the
Church . . . . . . . 132
The support of Clement VII. mainly political . . 133
Efforts of the French King in his favour . . .134
England espouses the cause of Urban VI. . . .134
The northern kingdoms remain loyal to him . . 135
Extreme and imprudent measures of the Pope . .136
1381 He excommunicates the Queen of Naples . . .136
1383 He goes to Naples to assert his authority and is besieged 136
The Cardinals determine to seize his person . 137
He discovers their intention and puts them to death . 137
1389 Death of Urban VI. deplorable consequences of his
reign 137
Perplexity of the faithful 138
The whole of Christendom affected by the Schism . 141
Reform in ecclesiastical affairs necessarily interrupted . 141
The Schism prepared the way for the so-called
Reformation . . . . . . .142
The disunion affects even public worship . . -143
The unity and concord of Christendom broken . -145
Cause and origin of the Church s condition . .146
Efforts to remedy the evils of the time . . . 147
Labours of Gerhard Groot and his community . .148
Thomas a Kempis describes the " Brothers of the
Common Life". . . . . . 149
Their work in the amelioration of Catholic life in
Germany . . . . . . . .150
Growth of Sectarian Conventicles and false prophesies 1 5 1
The politico- religious prophecy of Telesphorus . . 153
Pernicious principles contained in it . . . .154
The widespread credence given to the prophesies . 155
Grave crisis in the Church rise of heretical movements 1 5 6
1 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. PAGE
Spread of the Waldensian doctrines in Germany and
Austria 157
Subversive principles of the Sect of Free Thought . 158
Appearance of John Wyclif in England his teaching . 159
His influence on John Huss, the Bohemian heresiarch. 161
Political consequences of these doctrines . . . 162
Tend to produce anarchy in Church and State . .163
1389 The Roman Cardinals elect a new Pope . . . 164
Boniface IX. succeeds Urban VI 164
1394 Death of Clement VII., and election of the Anti-Pope
Benedict XIII 165
All attempts to heal the Schism are frustrated . . 165
1404 Death of Boniface IX., and election of Innocent VII. . 165
Projects of Innocent VII. for the revival of science
and arts . . . . . . . .166
1406 Arrested by his death 166
Adherents of the false Renaissance enter the Pope s
service 168
The Humanists become the leaders of public opinion . 168
The great influence which they exercised . . .169
Classical proficiency leads to ecclesiastical preferment . 171
Means suggested to terminate the Schism . . .172
Decision of the University of Paris on the subject . 173
III.
THE SYNODS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE, 1409-1417 (1418).
Communications between the rival Popes . . .175
The hopes of union prove delusive . . . .176
1408 Seven of Gregory XII. s Cardinals appeal against him. 176
France and other Powers disown Benedict XIII. . 177
Benedict XIII. s Cardinals join those who deserted
Gregory XII i 177
They convene a Council at Pisa. . . . .178
1409 The Council assembles its want of Canonical
authority I7 8
True doctrine of the primacy of St. Peter . . .179
General Councils must be convened by the Pope . 180
The primacy of the Pope and unity of the Church
disputed ....... 181
Erroneous views on the jurisdiction of the Pope and
the Episcopate !8 2
Mistaken views on Infallibility jg 4
Belief in the Divine right of the primacy seriously shaken 1 8 5
Zabarella holds that a General Council is superior to
the Pope .187
King Rupert s Ambassadors at the Council of Pisa 188
TABLE OF CONTENTS. li
A.D. PAGE
The Council condemns and deposes both Popes . .189
Election of another Anti-Pope, Alexander V. . . 1 90
Increased confusion a second Schism created . .191
1410 Death of Alexander V.,and election of John XXIII. . 191
Intervention of the King of the Romans hoped for . 192
False doctrines as to the jurisdiction of a General
Council . . . . . . . 193
Sigismund summons the Council of Constance its
composition . . . . . . .194
John XXIII. s object in consenting to its convocation 195
The Council s hostility to him 196
1415 His proposals of surrender and flight from the Council 196
The Council decrees its supremacy over the Pope . 197-
Its subversive and irregular proceedings . . .198
1415 (May 20th) John XXIII. is tried by the Council and
deposed ...... 199
1415 (July 4th) Gregory XII. in the interests oHhe Church
decides to abdicate 200
He convenes the Council and thereby^ renders it
legitimate ........ 200
Flight of Benedict XIII. the Holy See declared vacant 201
1417 Gratitude of the Council to Gregory XII. his death . 202
Hostile feeling in the Council towards the Cardinals . 203
Conflicting interests and division in the Council . . 204
Its failure due to its composition and mode of procedure 205
Division in regard to reform, and the election of a new
Pope 206
The Bishop of Winchester effects a compromise . . 206
1417 The great Schism ended by the election of Martin V. 207
BOOK II.
I.
MARTIN V., 1417-1431.
Triumph of the Church, general rejoicings . . . 208
Character of Martin V. difficulties which confronted
him ......... 209
Cause of the postponement of ecclesiastical reform . 210
The Pope determines to take up his residence in Rome 211
His meeting with the Anti-Pope John XXIII. . .212
1417 (March 6th) His agreement with Queen Joanna of
Naples . . . . . . . -213
The Neapolitan troops evacuate Rome . . .213
1420 Martin V. enters Rome deplorable condition of the city 214
Ruin of its churches and artistic monuments . .215
The Pope devotes himself to the work of restoration . 216
lii TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. PAGE
And to the re-establishment of public security . .217
He restores St. Peter s and St. John Lateran . .218
Enlists the services of the most celebrated painters . 219
Lends encouragement to art 220
Labours to promote prosperity and order . . .222
Brigandage banished from the States of the Church . 223
Their transformation into a united monarchy . .224
Consolidation and growth of the Papal power . . 224
Submission of various cities to the Pope . . .225
Reasons which led him to favour the Colonna . . 226
His excessive partiality towards them causes jealousy . 228
His zeal against heretics, and for the reform of the clergy 229
He causes the body of St. Monica to be brought to Rome 230
Contrasts St. Augustine with the Heathen philosophers 231
Promotes devotion to the Most Holy Sacrament . .231
1424 St. Bernardine of Siena visits Rome .... 232
The marvellous effect of his preaching . . . 233
St. Frances of Rome and her companions . . . 235
Congregation of the " Oblates of St. Mary " founded . 236
1425 The King of France restores the rights ot the Pope . 237
Abolition of anti-papal legislation in England . . 237
Martin V. zealously maintains the rights of the Church 238
1428 He summons a General Council to meet at Pavia . 239
The Council proving hostile, he dissolves it . -239
Reform of religious affairs indefinitely postponed . . 240
Exactions in Rome under pretext of ecclesiastical fees . 241
International character of the Papal Court . . .242
Immense number of foreigners in the service of the Pope 243
The Germans greatly favoured by the Popes . .245
The influence of the German nation on the Papacy . 247
The intercourse between Rome and foreign nations . 248
Pilgrims to Rome national foundations for their
reception ........ 248
Origin of the Hostelry of Our Lady at Campo Santo . 249
The founders of the Hospice of Sta. Maria Dell Anima 250
Some other German foundations in the Eternal City . 252
Charitable institutions of other nations in Rome . . 253
Erection of a house for Irish priests and a hospice for
English Pilgrims 254
Foundation of National Churches connected with
the Hospices . . . . . . -255
Rome thus becomes the home of all nations . .255
Adherents of the Renaissance in the Papal Service . 256
Effect of the Councils of Constance and Basle on the
movement. . . . . . . .256
Poggio discovers MSS. copies of the classics . .257
Becomes Papal Secretary his ridicule of the clergy . 258
TABLE OF CONTENTS. liil
A.D. *AGE
Ribaldry of Poggio and his literary companions . . 259
Their varied talents cause them to be employed . . 259
Composition and number of the College of Cardinals . 260
Limit imposed by the Council of Constance . .260
Small number of creations made by Martin V. . .261
He issues regulations for the reform of the Sacred College 262
Displays excessive rigour towards the Cardinals . . 263
Honoured by his selection of those created by him . 265
Great learning and austerity of Cardinal Cesarini . 266
His relations to the revival of classical learning . .268
Cardinal Albergati s connection with the Humanists . 268
How Cardinal Correr disposed of the revenues of his
benefices . . . . . . . .270
The influence of such men in the Councils of the Pope 271
Cardinal Giordano Orsirii promotes literature and art . 272
Bequeaths his literary treasures to the public use . 273
Martin V. s efforts to restore Catholic Unity in Spain . 274
Open hostility displayed by the King of Aragon . .275
King Alfonso summoned to Rome . . . .276
His submission to the Pope and end of the Schism . 276
Martin V. endeavours to extirpate the Bohemian heresy 277
Failure of the crusade against the Hussites. . . 278
The Kings of England and France demand a Council . 279
Martin V. s dread of the Council defers summoning it 279
He yields to the pressure summons the Council of Basle 280
1431 Dies before it assembles survey of his character . 281
II.
EUGENIUS IV., 1431-1447.
Election of Eugenius IV. the Cardinals impose terms 282
The Pope submits to the curtailment of his authority . 284
Eugenius IV. s majestic presence and austere habits . 285
The sanctity of his life veneration in which he was held 286
Violence of his measures against the House of Colorma 286
1431 The Council of Basle assembles and is dissolved . .287
It ignores the Bull of dissolution 288
Reasserts the Council s supremacy over the Pope . 289
1432 The Pope and his Cardinals summoned before the
Council 289
The extreme action of the Council inexcusable . . 290
Consequences, if its decrees had prevailed . . 291
1433 The Pope recalls the decree dissolving the Council . 292
Conspiracies against him invasion of the Papal States 293
Flight of the Pope he yields to the demands of the
Council . . . . . . . -293
1434 Revolution in Rome, proclamation of a republic . . 294
liv TABLE OF CONTENTS.
A.D. PACK
The Pope s palace and the Vatican plundered by the
populace ...... .29^
End of the republic the Papal authority restored . 296
Vitelleschi s relentless action against the rebels . .296
And against the Houses of Savelli and Colonna . . 297
His military enterprises in Naples and in the Papal States 298
1440 Is entrapped on the Bridge of St. Angelo and put to death 299
The circumstances of that event are uncertain . 300
Cardinal Scarampo appointed to succeed him
Relations of Eugenius IV. to the Renaissance
Flavio Biondo s description of the city of Rome
33
34
His testimony to the Pope s zeal for restoration
Great number of Humanists in the Papal Service . 305
The Pope declines Valla s services .... 306
Relations between the Christian and heathen Humanists 307
The Council of Basle attacks the Church s constitution 308
The Pope appeals to the European Powers against it . 309
Negotiations for union with the Greek schismatics . 311
Conflict at Basle as to meeting place of the Union Council 312
The Greeks join the Papal party and Ferrara is selected 312
1437 The Basle Synod summons the Pope to appear before it 312
(July 1 8th) He issues a Bull suspending its deliberations 3 1 3
Its most distinguished members withdraw . . .314
1438 The Council of Ferrara. End of the Greek Schism . 315
General rejoicings throughout Christendom . .316
Importance of its bearing on the Pope s Jurisdiction . 317
He is decreed to be the Father and Teacher of all
Christians . . . . . . . .317
Influence on literature of the intercourse with the Greeks 3 1 8
Some distinguished representatives of Eastern culture . 318
Bessarion as an ecclesiastic and a scholar . . .319
He brings together the learned men of Greece and Italy 321
His invaluable collection of classical manuscripts . 322
The Armenian and other Churches reconciled to Rome 323
Untiring efforts of Eugenius IV. in the cause of union 324
The Turks persecute the Christians in the East . .325
The Pope appeals to the Western Powers against the
1443 Response to tha appeal defeat of the Turks . . 326
A ten years truce concluded with them . . .327
1444 The truce is broken defeat of Christian army at Varna 328
1439 Tne Council of Basle deposes Eugenius IV. election
of Felix V 32 g
Reaction produced by the violent measures of the Council 320
Treaty between Alfonso of Aragon and the Pope . .331
1443 Th e Pope s ten years exile ended his return to Rome 332
Dilapidated condition of the Eternal City . m .332
TABLE OF CONTENTS. lv
A.D. PAGE
Scotland acknowledges the authority of Eugenius IV. . 333
Francesco Sforza again makes war on the Papal States 334
The Pope triumphs over the Council of Basle . -334
Attitude of France and Germany towards the Council. 335
The Diet of Mayence and the Pragmatic Sanction of
Bourges . 336
Germany divided between the Pope and the Council . 337
The Pope secures the adhesion of Frederick III.
deposition of two Archbishops . . . . 338
The German Electors demand Papal recognition of the
Basle decrees ....... 339
1446 Assembly and composition of the Diet of Frankfort . 339
^Eneas Sylvius procures a reaction favourable to the Pope 340
His career he becomes Secretary to Cardinal Capranica 341
His employment and companions at the Synod of Basle 342
He breaks with the Council enters the service of
Frederick III. . 343
Determines to reform his life and becomes a Priest . 344.
His interview with the Pope begging his forgiveness . 345
Breaks up the league of German Electors and gains
allies for the Pope 347
Speaks for the German envoys to Eugenius IV. . . 348
Conditions of agreement between Germany and the Pope 349
1447 The cause of the Synod of Basle lost death of
Eugenius IV. . . . . . . . 350
His character results of his pontificate . . .351
His successful defence of the Monarchical Constitution
of the Church 352
His care of the poor, and interest in benevolent
undertakings . . . . . . 3^3
The " Visita Graziosa " originated in his reign . 354
Unjustly censured in regard to the Church s reform . 355
Reform to be enduring must be systematic and gradual 356
Eugenius IV. steadily pursued the reform of the clergy 357
His relation to art and the Renaissance . . .358
His restoration of churches and public buildings . . 359
Heathenism reflected in Renaissance Art and literature 360
Employment of Fra Angelico in the decoration of the
Vatican 361
Ivi
LIST OF UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS.
I. Pope Gregory XL to Giovanni Fieschi 362
II. to Bernardo Cariti 363
III. to Lucca 364
IV. The Republic of Florence to the Romans 365
V. Pope Gregory XL to Osimo ... ... ... 367
VI. to Florence ... ... 369
VII. to Abbot Bertrando ... ... 374
VIII. to the Nuncio Pietro Raffini ... 375
IX. to Cardinal de Lagrange ... 377
X. Cristoforo di Piacenza to Lodovico II. di Gonzaga 378
XL 379
XII. 380
XIII. Giovanni di Lignano to Pope Urban VI 383
XIV. Roman Documents regarding the Papal Schism of
the year 1378 ... ... 384
XV. Langenstein s Invectiva 386
XVI. Acta Consistorialia 387
XVII. The Jubilee of the year 1423 393
XVIII. Pope Martin V. to Charles of Bourbon 394
XIX. Cardinal Antonio Correr to Florence 396
XX. Antonio de Rido to Florence ... ... ... 308
XXL Pope Eugenius IV. to Corneto ... ... ... 300
XXII. ,, to Bologna ... 4 oo
XXIII. Abbot of San Galgano to Siena 402
XXIV. ... ... ... 403
XXV. j, ... ... ... 404
XXVI. 404
XXVII. ... 405
XXVIII. ... 4o6
XXIX. ,, ... ... ... 407
XXX. ...
INTRODUCTION.
THE LITERARY RENAISSANCE IN ITALY AND THE CHURCH.
/ WITH the exception of the period which witnessed the
transformation of the Pagan into the Christian world, the
history of mankind hardly offers one more striking than
that of the transition from the Middle Ages to modern
times. One of the most powerful elements in this epoch
of marked contrasts was the exhaustive appreciation and
extension of the study of the ancient world, commonly
known as the Renaissance, or the new birth of classical
antiquity. This movement naturally began in Italy, where
the memory of the classic past had never been wholly
effaced, and with it opens a new epoch.
The object of this work is not to demonstrate the origin
and development of this revolution, effected in science,
poetry, art, and life. The historian of the Popes is only
concerned with the Renaissance, in so far as it comes in
contact with the Church and the Holy See.
To thoroughly and correctly appreciate this relation, we
must bear in mind that in this movement, which began in
the realm cf literature, there were from the first two con
flicting currents, discernible, more or less, in its gifted
founders, Petrarch and Boccaccio.
Like the author of the " Divine Comedy," Petrarch took
his stand upon the Church, and succeeded in combining
enthusiastic admiration for classical antiquity with devout
reverence for Christianity. His passionate love for the
antique did not make him forget the sublimity of the
Christian mysteries. On the contrary, the poet repeatedly
and energetically declared that he looked on the Gospel as
higher than all the wisdom of the ancients. " We may,"
he writes to his friend Giovanni Colonna, "love the schools
of the philosophers, and agree with them only when they
are in accordance with the truth, and when they do not
lead us astray from our chief end. Should anyone attempt.
B
2 INTRODUCTION.
to do this, were he even Plato or Aristotle, Varro or Cicero
we must firmly and constantly despise and reject him.
Let no subtlety of arguments, no grace of speech, no
renown, ensnare us ; they were but men, learned, so far as
mere human erudition can go, brilliant in eloquence, en
dowed with the gifts of nature, but deserving of pity inas
much as they lacked the highest and ineffable gift. As
they trusted only in their own strength and did not strive
after the true light, they often fell like blind men. Let us
admire their intellectual gifts, but in such wise as to
reverence the Creator of these gifts. Let us have com
passion on the errors of these men, while we congratulate
ourselves and acknowledge that out of mercy, without
merit of our own, we have been favoured above our fore
fathers by Him, who has hidden His secrets from the wise
and graciously manifested them to little ones. Let us
study philosophy so as to love wisdom. The real wisdom
of God is Christ. In order to attain true philosophy, we
must love and reverence Him above all things. We
must first be Christians then we may be what we will.
We must read philosophical, poetical, and historical works
in such manner that the Gospel of Christ shall ever find an
echo in our hearts. Through it alone can we become wise
and happy ; without it, the more we have learned, the more
ignorant and unhappy shall we be. On the Gospel alone
as upon the one immoveable foundation, can human dili
gence build all true learning." *
In justification of his love for the philosophers and poets
of antiquity, Petrarch repeatedly appeals to St. Augustine,
whose "tearful Confessions" were among his favourite
books. " So great a Doctor of the Church/ he says,
11 was not ashamed to let himself be guided by Cicero,
although Cicero pursued a different end. Why, indeed,
should he be ashamed ? No leader is to be despised,
who points out the way of salvation. I do not mean to
deny that in the classical writers there is much to be
avoided, but in Christian writers also there are many things
that may mislead the unwary reader. St. Augustine him
self, in a laborious work, with his own hand rooted the
weeds out of the rich harvestfield of his writings. In
short, the books are rare that can be read without danger,
* Ep. rer. famil vi. 2 ed. Fracasetti [Firenze, 1864], ii.
112-119.
INTRODUCTION. 3
unless the light of Divine Truth illuminates us, and teaches
us what is to be chosen and what to be avoided. If we
follow that Light, we may go on our way with security."
Petrarch never flinched from expressing his devout senti
ments ; he repeatedly showed himself the apologist of
Christianity, and on the occasion of his solemn crowning
at the Capitol, went to the Basilica of St. Peter to lay his
wreath of laurels on the altar of the Prince of the Apostles."^
Yet Petrarch did not escape the leaven of his age or the
influence of the dangerous elements of antiquity. He
often succumbed to the sensual passion so faithfully
depicted in his work, " On Contempt of the World ; " his
inordinate love of preferment is another blot upon his
stormy life, and we discover in him not a few traits at
variance with his devout Christian intuitions. Among
these are his scornful attitude towards scholastic theology,
which had, indeed, much degenerated, and his craving for
fame. On this point we shall judge him the more
leniently, if we reflect that even the heart of a Dante,
whose immortal poem upholds the Christian view of the
nothingness of human glory, was not impervious to this
weakness. Still it is sad to see a man so eminent in
intellectual gifts as Petrarch, yearning after crowns of
laurel, royal favours, and popular ovations, and pursuing
the phantom of glory in the courts of profligate princes. f
Undoubtedly this ardent passion for renown, to which the
* See Korting, i., 174, 178, 205, 407 et seq., 495 et seq. ; iii.,
430, 431. Haffner, Renaissance, 227 et seq. Piper, Mon. Theol.,
653, 654. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 80, 86 et seq., 95
et seq. Blanc in Ersch-Gruber, 3, Section xix., 250, 251. Geiger,
Petrarca (Leipzig, 1874), 92, 93. Gaspary, i., 457. Bartoli, 61
et seq. The assertion lately repeated by Korting, i., 75, Voigt, i.,
2nd ed., 86, Frenzel, Renaissance (Berlin, 1876), 5, Geiger, Renais
sance, 29, and Paulsen, 29, to the effect that Petrarch was a priest,
is erroneous. He. had only received minor orders. The passage
quoted by Korting from the work De otio religios. Opp. (Basil,
1554), 363, proves nothing, for " divinas laudes atque officium
quotidianum celebrare," does not mean to say mass, but refers to
the breviary and office in choir.
t Korting, i., 36 et seq., 157 et seq., 521 ; iii., 420, 423. Voigt,
Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 71 et seq., 85, 126 et seq., 136 et seq.,
148. Haffner, Renaissance, 228 et seq. Bartoli, 10 et seq. With
regard to Dante, in relation to glory, see Burckhardt, Cultur, i.,
3rd ed., 171 et seq., and Schnaase, vii., 2nd ed., 36 et seq.
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
4 INTRODUCTION.
Christian conscience of the poet opposed such an in
efficacious resistance, must be considered as a taint of
heathenism. In the old classical authors, especially in
Cicero, this ideal of human fame was so vividly pre
sented to the mind of Petrarch, that at times it entirely
eclipsed the Christian ideal.*
But he has one uncontested excellence : never does a
wanton or sensual thought mar the pure silver ring of his
sonnets. In this respect, the most marked contrast exists
between him and his friend and contemporary Boccaccio,
whose writings breathe an atmosphere of heathen corrup
tion. The way in which this great master ot style and
delineation of character sets at naught all Christian
notions of honour and decency, is simply appalling. His
idyll, " Ameto," reeks with the profligacy of the ancient
world, and preaches pretty plainly the lt Gospel of free
love ; " and his satire, " Corbaccio," or " The Labyrinth of
Love," displays the most revolting cynicism. A critic of no
severe stamp declares that even the modern naturalistic
writers can hardly outbid the defilement of this lampoon. f
And the most celebrated of all Boccaccio s works, the
" Decameron/ is a presentation of purely heathen principles,
in the unrestrained gratification of the passions. A modern
literary historian says, that the provocative, sensuous style
of the stories may find its explanation without the possi
bility of excuse in the prevalent immorality of the times,
and the unchaining of all evil passions, caused by the
plague; their effect is all the more dangerous, from the
genuine wit, with which the writer describes the triumph of
cunning, whether over honest simplicity or narrow-minded
selfishness. J
Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 126, 127. I
t Scartazzini in the Allgemein Zeitung, 1882, No. 336, Suppl.
In regard to " Ameto," see E. Feuerlein, in Sybel s Hist. Zeitschr.
N.F. ii., 238. Petrarch as a poet : Norrenberg, i., 319. Gaspary, i.,
460 / seq.
t Hettner, Studien, 47, 49. See Korting, ii., 447 et seq., 657.
Wegele, 595. Janitschek, 8. Feuerlein, loc. tit., 242 et seq. F.
de Sanctis, Storia della, Lett. Ital. (3rd ed., Napoli, 1879), i., 287
et seq. M. Landau, G. Boccaccio, Sein Leben und Seine Werke
(Stuttgart, 1877), endeavours as much as possible to excuse Boc
caccio, but admits (134) that he " cannot be washed quite clean."
G. de Leva also judges him severely, Sull opera II primo Rinasci- *
mento del prof. G. Guerzoni (Padova. 1878), 10.
INTRODUCTION. 5
In his stories Boccaccio takes especial delight in heaping
ridicule and contempt on ecclesiastics, monks and nuns,
and with polished irony, represents them as the quintes-x
sence of all immorality and hypocrisy.* ({
And yet Boccaccio was no unbeliever or enemy of the
Church. His insolent language regarding ecclesiastical
personages is by no means the outcome of a mind essen
tially hostile to the Church, and none of his contemporaries
considered it as such. A preacher of penance, who visited
Boccaccio in the year 1361, reproached him bitterly with
the immorality of his writings, but not with their dis
loyalty. The compiler of the " Decameron " was never,
even in his most careless days, an unbeliever, and in later
life, after his conversion, the childlike piety of his nature
reasserted itself, lie eagerly embraced every opportunity
of manifesting his faith, and of warning others against the
perusal of the impure writings, which caused him such deep
regret. The dalliance of former days with the old classic
gods was quite at an end, and we have his assurance that he
did not look upon learning as antagonistic to faith, but at the
same time, he would rather renounce the former than the
latter.f H[s_will also bears witness to his piety. Boccaccio
hereby leaves the most precious of his possessions, his
library, to the Augustinian Friar and Professor of Theology,
Martino da Signa, on condition that he should pray for his
soul; and after Martino s death he desires that the books
* This wanton tone found but too ready imitators, who did not
shrink from the most horrible language. See Burckhardt, Cultur,
i., 3rd ed., 231 et seq. E. Ruth, Gesch. der. ital. Poesie (Leipzig,
1847), 7> 5 2 et Sc 1-i bo etseq. Geiger, Renaissance, 81, 262 et seq.,
and M. Landau, Beitriige zur Gesch. der. ital. Novelle (Wien,
1875), 22 et seq., 27 et seq., 39. With regard to Masuccio
Guardato, of Salerno, Landau observes : " However much one
may hate priests, it must be confessed that the manner in which
Masuccio attacks them, goes beyond the measure of fair war. His
heavy club falls on monks and priests, the Pope himself is not
spared, and he often indulges in the most obscene mockery of
Catholic customs." Even worse perhaps are the novels of
Giovanni Ser Cambi, in *Cod. 193 of the Trivulzio Library at
Milan, published only in part, out of regard to decency (see
Landau, 39).
^ t See Korting, ii., 189 et seq., 267 et scq., 366 et seq., 659 et seq.
G. Guerzoni, II primo Rinascimento (Verona, 1878), 80, 81. A.
Hortis, Studi sulle opere lat. del Boccaccio (Trieste, 1879), 475
et seq.
6 INTRODUCTION.
should become the property of the monastery of Santo
Spirito, and be always accessible to the monks. He wishes
that his last resting place should be in the Augustinian
Church of Santo Spirito, at Florence, or if death should
overtake him at Certaldo, in the Augustinian Church of
Saints Philip and James in that town.*"
/ The position taken up by these two founders and
pioneers of the Renaissance in regard to the Church was,
therefore, not by any means a hostile one, and accordingly
the attitude of the Popes towards them was throughout
friendly. Boccaccio went three times as Ambassador from
the Florentines to the Papal Court, and was always well
received there. t All the Popes from Benedict XII. to
Gregory XL showed Petrarch the greatest favour, and
Clement VI. delivered the great poet from pecuniary
embarrassments and procured for him the independence
needed for his intellectual labours. J It is, therefore, not
correct to look on the movement, known as the Renais
sance, the literary manifestation of which is Humanism, as,
in its origin and its whole scope, directed against the
Church. On the contrary, the true Renaissance, the study
of the past in a thoroughly Christian spirit, was in itself a
legitimate intellectual movement, fruitful in fresh results,
alike for secular and spiritual science. ||
* Testamento di Giov. Boccaccio secondo la pergamena origi-
nale delP Archivio Bichi-Borghesi di Siena (Siena, 1853).
f M. Landau, Boccaccio, 223 et seq. Korting, ii., 197 et seq.,
304 et seq., 307. A. Hortis, Giov. Boccaccio, umbasciature in
Avignone (Trieste, 1875).
J Korting, i., 224, 440, 441.
Paulsen, 5.
|| See Daniel, Des etudes classiques, 222. Mb hler, Schriften,
published byDo Uinger (Regensburg, 1840), ii., 17, 32, 25. Norren-
berg, ii., 8, 10, and the following passages of Hergenrother, ii., i,
172. With regard to the art of the Renaissance, to which a special
chapter will be devoted in a future volume of this work, the
Dominican Fr. A. M. Weiss (iii., 902) very justly observes: "An
absolute and indiscriminate condemnation of the Renaissance, as
a whole,^ and of everything connected with its art, cannot possibly
be just." And 903 : " To condemn the Renaissance in general
with the severity exercised by some of our best brothers-in-arms,
no doubt speaking from full conviction, is a thing that cannot be
justified." See also F. Schneider in the Lit. Rundschau, 1881, 230
et seq. J. Graus> Kirchenschmuck, 1885, ^- 2 */., and
INTRODUCTION. 7
The many-sided and methodical study of the intellectual
works of former days, with its tendency to deliver men s
minds from the formalism of the degenerate scholastic
philosophy, and to make them capable of a fresher and
more direct culture of all sciences, especially of philosophy
and theology, could not but be approved from a strictly
ecclesiastical point of view. In the eyes of the Church,
everything depended on the method and the aim of thel
humanistic studies; for the movement could only be hostile
to her, if the old ecclesiastical methods were forsaken, if
classical studies, instead of being used as means of culture,
became their own end, and were employed not to develop
Christian knowledge, but rather to obscure and destroy it.*
So long, then, as the absolute truth of Christianity was
the standing ground from which heathen antiquity was
apprehended, the Renaissance of classical literature could
only be of service to the Church. For, just as the ancient
world in all its bearings could only be fully manifested to
the spiritual eye, when viewed from the heights of
Christianity, so Christian faith, worship, and life, could not
fail to be more amply comprehended, esteemed, and
admired from a clear perception of the analogies and
contrasts furnished by classic heathenism. j- The conditions
imposed by the Popes and other ecclesiastical dignitaries
upon the revived study of antiquity could but serve, as long
as this study was pursued in a right spirit, to promote the
interests of the Church, and these conditions corresponded
with the old ecclesiastical traditions.
Proceeding from the principle that knowledge is in
itself a great good, and that its abuse can never justify its
suppression, the Church, ever holding the just mean, from
the first resisted heathen superstition and heathen
immorality, but not the Graeco-Roman intellectual culture.
Following the great Apostle of the Gentiles, who had read
the Greek poets and philosophers, most of the men who
carried on his work esteemed and commended classical
studies. When the Emperor Julian endeavoured to deprive
Hetlinger, Welt und Kirche (Freiburg, 1885), ii., 359 etseq. These
articles by J. Graus have since been published separately in a
work entitled : " Die Katholische Kirche, und die Renaissance,"
Gratz, 1885.
* Bippert, in the Freiburger Kirchenlexikon, xii., 594-605.
f See the excellent treatise on the Relation of Classical Antiquity
to Christendom, in the Hibior. polit. Buiiter., xxx., 102 et stq.
8 INTRODUCTION.
Christians of this important means of culture, the most
sagacious representatives of the Church perceived the
measure to be inimical and most dangerous to Christendom.
Under the pressure of necessity, books on science were
hastily composed for teaching purposes by Christian
authors, but after the death of Julian the old classics
resumed their place.*
The danger of a one-sided and exaggerated interest
in heathen literature, regardless of its dark side, was never
ignored by Christians. " For many/ writes even Origen,
" it is an evil thing, after they have professed obedience to
the law of God, to hold converse with the Egyptians, that is
to say with heathen knowledge."! And those very Fathers
of the Church, who judged the ancient writers most
favourably, were careful from time to time to point out the
errors into which the young may fall in the study of the
ancients, and the perils which may prove their destruction.
Efforts were made by a strict adherence to the approved
principles of Christian teaching, and by a careful choice of
teachers, to meet the danger which lurked in classical
literature. Thus, history tells us, did the Church succeed
in obviating the perils to moral and religious life attendant
on its perusal. Zealots, indeed, often enough arose
declaring, " In Christ we have the truth, we need no other
learning," and there were not wanting Christians who
abhorred classical learning, as dangerous and obnoxious to
Christian doctrine. But the severity, with which Saint
Gregory Nazianzen blames these men, proves this party to
have been neither enlightened nor wholly disinterested. In
espousing the cause of ignorance, they were mainly seeking
their own advancement, regardless of the great interests
of science and intellectual culture in Christian society,
which they would have left to perish, if they had got the
* Daniel, loc. cit., 20-27. Histor. polit. Blatter., xxxiv., 631,
and H. Kellner, Hellenismus und Christenthum (Koln, 1866), 266
et seq. Timoteo Maffei, Prior of the Canons Regular of Fiesole, and
friend of Cosmo de Medici, pointed out this law of Julian s to the
opponents of classical studies. See his treatise dedicated to
Nicholas V. : *In sanctam rusticitatetn litteras impugnantem.
Cod. Vatic., 5076, f. 8. Vatic. Library.
t Origenes, Ep. ad Greg., 2 (Migne, Patr. Gr. xi., 90), and other
passages in B. Braunmiiller, Beitiiige zur Gesch. der iiildung in
den drei ersten Jahrhunderten des Christenthums (Mettener Progr.,
1854, 1855), 31 et seq.
INTRODUCTION. 9
upper hand. The most clear-sighted of those who
watched over the destinies of the Church, were always
intent on the protection of these interests/* as were also
the great majority of the eastern and western Fathers.
" The heathen philosophy/ writes Clement of Alexandria,
" is not deleterious to Christian life, and those who
represent it as a school of error and immorality, calumniate
it, for it is light, the image of truth, and a gift which
God has bestowed upon the Greeks; far from harming the
truth by empty delusions, it but gives us another bulwark
for the Truth, and, as a sister science, helps to establish
Faith. Philosophy educated the Greeks, as the law
educated the Jews, in order that both might be led to
Christ. "f " He, therefore, who neglects the heathen
philosophy," says Clement in another passage, " is like the
fool who would gather grapes without cultivating the vine
yard. But as the heathen mingle truth with falsehood we
must borrow wisdom from their philosophers as we pluck
roses from thorns. "J
In like manner spoke St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen,
St. Augustine, St. Jerome, and other celebrities of the early
Church. They all manifested a clear perception of, and a
w r arm susceptibility for, the beauties of classical literature.
Without closing their eyes to the disadvantages and dark
shadows of heathenism, they also saw the sunshine, the rays
of the eternal light, which beamed forth from these glorious
achievements of the human intellect; they heard the
prophetic voices which rose from their midst, and sought to
bring them into unison with the language of Christendom.
They discriminated between the common human element
contained in classical literature, and the heathen element
which enfolds it ; the latter was to be rejected, and the
former to take its place within the circle of Christian ideas.
They constantly repeated, that everything depends on the
manner in which the heathen classics are read and employed
* Daniel, 37.
j" " E7r(cia}ayH yap KCII vr>/ (iXoTw0/) ro EXXj/j tAroi- ojs o ropes
TOVS Efipaiovs fit xP t<TT " v " Stromata, i., 5.
J Stromata,i., 17; ii., i. For Clement s judgment respecting
the heathen philosophers, see Haffner, Grundlinien, 297 et seq., and
Knittel, Pistis und Gnosis in the Tiibinger Quartalschrift, Jahrg.,
55 ( l8 73) J 99 et se( J-
H. Tacoby, Die classische Bildung und die alte Kirche, in the
Allgem. Zeitung, 1880, Suppl. 354 and 355.
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
10 INTRODUCTION.
in education. These expressions of disapprobation are not
directed against the classics in themselves, but against a
wrong spirit and a perverted method in their use ; they
agree in this respect with St. Amphilochius, who gave
the following advice with regard to the perusal of
these works : " Be circumspect in dealing with them,
collect the good that is in them, shun whatever is dan
gerous; imitate the wise bee, which rests upon all flowers
and sucks only sweet juices from them."* In the same
sense, and with true Attic elegance, St. Basil the Great
wrote his celebrated " Discourse to Christian youths, on the
right use of the heathen authors. "t In opposition to the
unjust attacks which treated heathen books without excep
tion as vain lies of the Devil, this great Doctor of the Church,
whose fame is still fresh in the Basilian Order, dwells with
manifest affection on the value and excellence of classic
studies as a preparation for Christian science. The writings
of St. Gregory Nazianzen furnish proof of even greater
esteem, love, and enthusiasm for the literature of the
ancients. " It has cost me little," he says in one of his
discourses, to give up all the rest : riches, high position,
influence, in short all earthly glory, all the false joys of the
world. I cleave to but one thing, eloquence, and I do
not regret having undergone such toils by land and sea to
acquire it."J
* See Daniel, 26 et seq., 38 et seq., Histor. Polit. Blatter, xxxiv.,
632 et seq., and Stephinsky, Die heidnischen Classiker als Bildungs-
mittel (Trier, 1886), xvi. el seq.
j" Ao7os Trpbs TOVS v tovs onus av c ^\\r]viKwv uQiXoiVTO \6ywv. See
Alzog, Patrologie, 3rd ed. (1876), 262 et stq. This discourse of St.
Basil s was translated into Latin by Lionardo Bruni in 1405 or 1406.
Numerousprinted publications bear witness to the wide dissemination
of this translation, (Panzer, Annales Typographic! [Norimbergae,
1799 et seq. ], v., 78 ; x., 141) and the MS. are yet more numerous ;
the Vatican Library alone possesses 24. See Codd. Vatic., 409, f.
I29a-i34a; 1494, f. ii5a-i22a ; 1495, f. i62a-i73a ; 1792, 1.39^-
49a ; 1807, f. 5Oa-6ia ; 2726, f. iooa-ic>9a; 3003, f. I54b-is6b
(incpl.); 3386, f. ia-2ib; 3407, f. 2ib-3ob; 5061, f. 5 ia-62b-
5109, f. 87a- 9 5b. Ottob., 1184, f. 9 8a-ii5a; 1267, f, uSa-issa-
1341, f. ia-26a; 1800, f. 29a-3 9 b. Regin., 1151, f. 3ob-38a;
1321, f. 82a-9ia ; 1464, f. 9 a-i6b ; 1555, f. I2ga-i4ia ; 1778, f.
57 b -73 a ; r 7 8 4, f. 87a-iooa. Urbin., 1164, f. ia-i6a: 1172 f
ia-i5a; 1194, f. 86a-iO7a.
TT +u See Danie1 2 5 * se ?-> and R- Riepl, Des hi. Gregor v. Nazianz
Urtheil uber die classischen Studien und seine Berechtigun^- dazu
(Progr. des Gymnasiums zu Linz, 1859).
INTRODUCTION. II
The necessity of combining classical culture with Christian
education, henceforth became a tradition in the Church,
especially as the scientific development of the period to
which most of the above-mentioned Fathers belong, has had
an enduring influence on the ages which have followed.*
Amidst the storms of later times, the Church preserved
these glorious blossoms of ancient culture, and endeavoured
to turn them to account in the interest of Christendom.
Monasteries, founded and protected by the Popes, while the
genuine spirit of the Church yet lived within them, rendered
valuable service in guarding the intellectual treasures of
antiquity. With all their enthusiasm for classical literature,
the true representatives of the Church were, nevertheless,
firmly convinced, that the greatest and most beautiful things
antiquity could show came far short of the glory, the loftiness
and the purity of Christianity. No exaggerated deification
of the heathen writers, but their prudent use in a Christian
spirit; no infatuated idolatry of their form, but the employ
ment of their substance in the interest of morality and
religion, the combination, in short, of classical learning with
Christian life this w r as the aim of the Church.
This utilization for Christian ends of the ancient writers
was eminently fruitful. " The direct use, which the Fathers
made of these writings in their warfare against idolatry and
vain philosophy, is obvious. But/ Stolberg adds, ( who
can estimate all that Origen, the Sts. Gregory, St. Basil,
St. Chrysostom and others gained indirectly in the way of
culture and grace, and more important still in intellectual
energy from the ancients ? "f
The discourses and treatises of those Fathers of the
Church who had studied the classics, furnish ample proof
that the simplicity of the Faith is far from being impaired
by^the ornaments of rhetoric. Their poems, as amongst
* Evidence of the traditional practice of 400 years is brought
forward by Daniel in his beautiful work (15 et seq.), translated into
German by J. M. Gaisser (Freiburg, 1855). With regard to
ancient times, see Stephinsky in Kraus, Real-Encyclopadie der
Christl. Altherthumer (Freiburg, 1881), 29 et seq. See also J. Alzog,
Commentatio de Litterarum Graecarum atque Romanarum studiis
cum Theologia Christiana conjungendis (Frib. Brisg., 1857). Also
Pohle s excellent article in the Freib. Kirchenlexicon iii., 2nd ed.,
421 et seq.
f J. Janssen, Friedrich Leopold Graf zu Stolberg (Freiburg,
1882), 233.
I2 INTRODUCTION.
others, St. Gregory Nazianzen s tragedy, "The Suffering
Saviour," render the conceptions of the Patristic, as clearly
as Dante s immortal poem does those of the scholastic
theology. The efforts of Julian the Apostate to dissolve
this Alliance between Christian faith and Grseco-Roman
( culture are a clear indication of the increase of strength
which Christianity was then deriving from this source.*
In regard to the reaction towards antiquity, which was
the almost necessary consequence of a period of decay of
classical learning, the attitude to be adopted by the repre-
sentatives of the Church was clearly defined. Their pro
motion of the newly-revived studies certainly in some sense
denoted a breach with the later Middle Ages, which had
unduly repressed the ancient literature, and, in consequence,
fallen into a most complete and deplorable indifference as
to elegancies of form, but it involved no breach with the
Middle Ages as a whole, far less with Christian antiquity in
general. t
/ But this reaction in the Renaissance took a special
/ colouring and shape from the circumstances of the time in
I which it occurred. It was a melancholy period of almost
universal corruption and torpor in the life of the Church,
/ which from the beginning of the fourteenth century had
/ been manifesting itself in the weakening of the authority
of the Pope, the worldliness of the clergy, the decline of
the scholastic philosophy and theology, and the terrible
/ disorders in political and civil life.J The dangerous
elements, which no doubt the ancient literature contained,
were presented to a generation intellectually and physically
over-wrought, and in many ways unhealthy. It is no
\ wonder, therefore, that some of the votaries of the new
\ tendency turned aside into perilous paths. The beginnings
\ of these defections can already be traced in Petrarch and
* Haffner, Die Renaissance, 116-117.
j- Daniel, 184 etseq. See Histor.Polit. Blatter xxxiv., 637 et seq.
With regard to the neglect of form in the later part of the Middle
Ages, Paulsen very justly observes, 28-29, that Humanism furnished
its complementary contrast ; it displays an exclusive attention to
form, often combined with an absolute indifference to matter. The
matter is frequently a mere lay figure set up to exhibit the elegance
of the garment.
J Haffner, Grundlinien, 625. Daniel, 199, 207, 222. See
Book i., Chapter I.
INTRODUCTION. 13
Boccaccio, the founders of the Renaissance literature,
though they never themselves forsook the Church.
The contrasts here apparent beca me more and more
marked as time went on.*
On the one side the banner of pure heathenism was
raised by the fanatics of the classical ideal. Its followers
wished to bring about a radical return to paganism both in
thought and manners. The other side strove to bring the
new element of culture into harmony with the Christian
ideal, and the political and social civilization of the day.f :
These two parties represented the false and the true, the
heathen and the Christian Renaissance.
The latter party, whose judgment was sufficiently free
from fanatical bias to perceive that a reconciliation between
existing tendencies would be more profitable than a breach
with the approved principles of Christianity and the _
development of more than a thousand years, could alone *
produce real intellectual progress. To its adherents the j
world owes it, that the Renaissance was saved from bring- r
ing about its own destruction.
Not a few Humanists wavered between the two streams.
Some sought to find a happy mean, while others were in
youth carried away by the one current, and in mature age
by the other.
No one has better expressed the programme of the
radical heathenizing party than Lorenzo Valla in his book
on Pleasure, published in 143 i.J
* The presence of these two opposing tendencies in the Humanism
of the fourteenth century has been pointed out by A. Wesselofsky
in the introduction to his edition of the " Paradise degli Alberti."
H. Janitschek also followed the same line, and thus succeeded in
disentangling and bringing some order into the chaos of the literary
life of the fifteenth century. See also Hettner, 168 et seq.
f Janitschek, 8, 9.
J L. Vallae de voluptate ac vero bono libri III. (Basileoe, 1519) ;
Valise, Opp. 896-999. Janitschek, who was the first rightly to
estimate the importance of this work, believes it to have been written
"between 1430 and 1435 " ( Io )- He has overlooked the fact that
Vahlen, Vallae opusc., 44, had previously, in 1869, determined this
to be the time of its publication. A second work, composed about
1433, in which the Epicurean doctrines are professed in all their
fulness, is mentioned by Voigt,Wiederbelebung, I., 2nd edition, 470.
Vahlen s (loc. cit. 46) opinion that these two works were never printed,
is erroneous. Besides the Louvain edition of 1483 quoted by
Voigt, I saw one printed at Cologne " in domo Quentell," in 1509.
j 4 INTRODUCTION.
This treatise, in some ways a very remarkable one, is
divided into three dialogues, in which Lionardo Bruni
represents the teaching of the Stoics, and Antonio Becca-
delli that of the Epicureans, while Niccolo Niccoli maintains
the cause of "the true good." These personages are well
chosen. The grave majestic Bruni had really, as one of his
unprinted works * proves, endeavoured to effect a union
between Christian Ethics and the Stoic philosophy.
Antonio Beccadelli, surnamed Panormita from his native
city, Palermo, was his direct Antipodes. He was the
author of " Hermaphroditus," a collection of epigrams far
surpassing in obscenity the worst productions of ancient
* Isagogicon moralis philosophise. This treatise, like Bruni s
other writings (see Mai, Spic. i., 548), enjoyed an uncommonly
wide circulation. I have noted the following MSS. : Arras, Town
Library : Cod. 973 (from the Cathedral Library). Basle, Libr. :
Cod. f. ii., 13. Dresden, Royal Library: Cod. C. 374, f. 35,36
(imperfect).- Escurial, Libr. : see Haenel, Catal. 951. Florence,
Laurent. Libr. : Cod. Castellina, 92, f. 41-62 ; National Libr. : Cod.
Magliabech, cl. vii., Cod. 180, n. 4 ; cl. xxiii., Cod. 148, n. 2 ; Cod.
1. i., 31 (from S. Mark s). MS. StrozT, cl. xxiii., Cod. 149, n. 2.
Riccardian Libr. : Cod. m.-i.-xvi. and n.-ii.-xii. Milan, Trivulzio
Libr. : Cod. 761, n3. Naples, National Libr. : Cod. viii., g. 12.
Rome: Buoncompagni . Libr. : (see Narducci s Catalogue, 130).
Chigi Libr.: Cod. i., iv., 118. Vatic. Libr.: Cod. Vatic., 372
(unpaged towards the end, Isag. without title), 5116, f. 43-63.
Regin., 777, f. 6ib. et seq., 786, f. 91-103^, 1555. Ottob., 1239, f.
1-13. Urbin., 1164, f. 98b. et seq., 1173, f. 129 et seq., 1339, f. i et
seq., 1439, f * et se< l Turin, University Libr. : Cod. g. v., 34, f.
12 et seq. Vienna, Court Lib.: Cod. lat. 960 and 3420 (the
extracts from this MS. in Janitschek, 101. a, 15, are not quite cor
rect). Zeitz, Canons Libr. : Cod. Ixxviii. (F. Bech s Reckoning),
f. 77-91. Following Janitschek, (101), and Voigt (ii. 2nd ed.,
458), I had believed Bruni s Isagocicon moralis disciplinae to be
unprinted. This is not the case. On the contrary, I can mention
two examples of this remarkable little book. The first of them,
without a title-page, I found in a miscellaneous volume in the
Library of the University at Innsbruck (Sig. ii. 6, f. 1051-2).
Here it fills forty small unpaged quarto sheets. Another example,
in a private library, gives a partially better text; and, like the one
in the library at Innsbruck, must have been printed in Italy
(Rome ?) in the last third of the fifteenth century. This copy has
the title-page: " Hysagoga Leonardi Aretini||. de philosophia
morale ad Gale|| otum incipit foeliciter|| " The closing words are :
" Finitur introductio philosophise moralis || Leonardi Aretini ad
Galeotum suum|| " It fills thirty small quarto sheets.
INTRODUCTION.
times. Niccolo Niccoli, " the reviver of Greek and Latin
literature in Florence," was, in a certain sense, a type of
the Christian Humanist; his fundamental principle was,
that scientific investigation and Christian sentiment must
go hand in hand. Even from friends such as Poggio and
Marsuppini he would not tolerate words of disrespect for
his faith ; he detested all materialists and unbelievers.
The errors of his life were atoned for by a most edifying
death.*
We must not allow ourselves to be deceived by the con
clusion of the Dialogues; their purpose is simply to cast
ridicule upon the Stoic morality, as used by the party of
conciliation as a bond of union between heathen and
Christian views, and that with the ulterior aim of casting
ridicule on the moral teaching of the Church. t
Cautiously, but yet clearly enough and with seductive
skill, the Epicurean doctrine was put forward as defending
a natural right against the exactions of Christianity. The
gist of this doctrine is summed up by Beccadelli, the ex
ponent of Valla s own views, in the following sentences :
" What has been produced and formed by nature cannot be
otherwise than praiseworthy and holy ; " " Nature is the
same, or almost the same as God."
It has been remarked by a judge,J who is far from
severe, that the last of these propositions, placing the
creature on a footing of equality with the Creator, strikes
at the very foundations of Christianity; the first demolishes
those of morality, substituting for virtue pleasure, for the
" will or love for what is good and the hatred of evil,"
pleasure, "whose good consists in gratifications of mind
or body, from whatever source derived."
Beccadelli, the mouthpiece of Valla, further teaches, with
perfect consistency, that the business of man is to enjoy
the good things of nature, and this to their fullest extent.
The " gospel of pleasure " demands the gratification of
every sense ; it completely ignores the barriers of chastity
* When this great scholar felt the approach of death, he had an
altar erected in his sick room on which his friend Ambrogio
in
Traversari said mass daily. The dying man received the Holy
Viaticum with such devotion that all present were moved to tears.
See the striking picture given by Vespasiano da Bislicci in Mai, i.,
627 et seq.
t Janitschek, xi.
% Geiger, Renaissance, 132.
Z 6 INTRODUCTION.
and honour, and would have them abolished, where they
still exist, as an injustice.* No sense is to be denied its
appropriate satisfaction. The individual, says Valla
plainly, may lawfully indulge all his appetites. Adultery
is in the natural order. Indeed, all women ought to be in
common. Plato s community of women is in accordance
with nature. Adultery and unchastity are to be eschewed
only when danger attends them : otherwise all sensual
pleasure is good.f
Pleasure, pleasure, and nothing but pleasure ! Sensual
pleasure is, in Valla s eyes, the highest good, and therefore
he esteems those nations of heathen antiquity happy, who
raised voluptuousness to the rank of worship. J Vice be
comes virtue, and virtue vice. All his indignation is called
forth by the voluntary virginity ever so highly esteemed
in Christendom. Continence is a crime against " kind "
nature. " Whoever invented consecrated Virgins," he
said, " introduced into the State a horrible custom, which
ought to be banished to the furthest ends of the earth."
* The following passage will give a notion of the mad ideas
which Beccadelli (Valla) puts forth (lib i., cap. 22) : " Ausim
medius fidius affirmare, nisi fcedae simul et emeritae mulieres
reclamarent ac velut facto agmine impetum facerent, utpote quae
numero vincunt formosas vel nudas vel seminudas, per urbem
utique in aestate incessuras, quod utinam, ut pro me dicam, hoc a
viris fieri permitteretur et plus bellas corpore quam deformes,
teneras quam exsiccatas andiremus. Nam si his fceminis, quae
pulchrum cap ilium, pulchram faciem, pulchrum pectus habent,
has partes denudatas ferre patimur, cur in eas iniuriosi sumus quae
non iis partibus, sed aliis pulchrae sunt ? "
t Lib. i., cap. 38 : " De fornicatione et adulterio non impro-
bando; " " Omnino nihil interest utrum cum marito coeat mulier
an cum amatore." Cap. 40 : " Quod formula Platonica de com-
munione fceminarum est secundum naturam." Cap. 41 : " Utile
fore si fceminae non essent singulorum." Cap. 42 : " Vitanda
interdum stupra et adulteria propter metum et periculum." Cap.
43 " Quod aliqui mrechi plectantur, non propterea mcechos esse
damnandos." " Si quis in adulterio deprehensus, morte aut alia
pcena plectatur, is, si recte indicemus, imprudentiae non incestus
pcenas luit." " Omnis voluptas bona est."
J The passage on this subject in the 46th chapter of the first
book is as follows : " Felices illse fceminse Siccenses (quae est in
Africa civitas), quae vetere instituto, si rem non habebant, non in
Vestae templo ad perpetiendam continentiam retrudebantur, sed
in fano Veneris dotem sibi comparabunt."
INTRODUCTION. 17
This institution has nothing to do with religion ; " it is
sheer superstition. " " Of all human things, none is more
insufferable than Virginity. If we were born after the law
of nature, it is also a law of nature that we should in turn
beget. If you must have women consecrating their whole
lives to the service of religion, choose married women and,
indeed, those whose husbands are priests. Observe, how
ever, that all the Divinities, with the sole exception of
Minerva, were married, and that Jupiter, so far as in him
lay, could not endure virgins. Those who profess them
selves to be consecrated virgins are either mad, or poor, or
avaricious.""*
The new Gospel of a life of pleasure, in opposition to
the Scriptural law, " In the sweat of thy face shalt thou
eat thy bread/ is indeed put forward only by way of argu
ment, but this is done in a manner which gives the reader
easily to understand that Valla himself agreed with it.
An able modern historian observes : " It is not surprising
that these discussions earned for Valla the reputation of
maintaining pleasure to be the chief good ; that the form of
disputation was looked upon as a simple precaution, and
the triumph of Christian Ethics as a mere show of justice.
The poisonous theory of life had been promulgated, it
mattered little whether it was defended or not. Moreover,
that which was known of the author s life said but little for
his morality/ t
Valla was not alarmed by the attacks of theologians on
his daring opinions, for King Alfonso of Naples was his
firm protector. On the contrary, he now betook himself to
the realm of theology, and eagerly sought opportunities of
encountering his ecclesiastical opponents. J His dialogue
on religious vows, the first of his works to become known
in recent times, here comes under our notice. It is of
* The passages quoted are in lib. i., cap. 44 : " Non esse nefas
se virginibus sanctimonialibus immiscere ; " and in cap. 46 :
" Accusatio virginitatis." In the first section occurs the following
sentence, which cannot well be translated : " Melius merentur
scorta et prostibula de genere humane, quam sanctimoniales
virgines ac continentes."
t Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 470. See Monrad-
Michelsen, 44, 45.
J Voigt, loc. cit., i., 2nd ed., 474.
De professione religiosorum, published by Vahlen, Vallae
opusc., Ixii., 99-135.
c
iS INTRODUCTION.
special interest, as in its pages Valla goes far beyond the
previous attacks of the Humanists on the monastic life.
His predecessors in this field had assailed the externals of
the religious state; they had, under the guise of stories,
held up the excesses of individuals to scorn. Valla, in this
work, treats the subject quite differently. His attack is of
a more radical character; he assails the monastic life in
itself, combating the proposition, which has always been
upheld by the Church, that by the same course of moral
life, a man bound by religious vows attains higher merit and
gains a greater reward than does one who belongs to no
religious order.* The acrimonious remarks in regard to
the clerical and monastic states, with which this book
abounds, are of trifling importance in comparison with this,
its main intent and purpose, which strikes at the very root
of the religious life in general.
With equal audacity and venom, Valla turned his arms
against the temporal power of the Papacy, in his pamphlet,
" On the falsely credited and invented Donation of Con-
stantine."t Considerations affecting the genuineness of
this document had been put forward some years previously
by the learned Nicholas of Cusa, in his " Catholic Concord
ance ; " and, independently of Valla and Cusa, Reginald
Pecock, Bishop of Chichester, in the middle of the fifteenth
century, showed by a careful sifting of the historical
evidence the untenable character of this long-credited
document. J But Valla, in his work, went a great deal
further than these writers. In his hands the proof that
the document was a recent forgery became a violent
attack on the Temporal Power of the Popes. If Constan-
* The idea attacked by Valla is very beautifully expressed in a
sermon by St. Bernardine of Siena, which has not yet been
printed : *Sermo fratris Bernardini de Senis de sacra religione, et
quod melius est bonum facere ex voto quam ex libera voluntate.
Cod. A.D., xiii., 41, n. 7. Libr. of Brera at Milan.
t De falsa credita et ementita Constantini donatione declamatio,
first printed by Hntten, 1517, with an insolent preface, addressed
to Leo X. (see D. F. Strauss, Hutten, i., 280-285, an d Janssen,
Deutsche Gesch.,ii., 62, 63), and often subsequently printed.
J Dollinger, Papst-Fabeln, 103, 104. In the year 1443, yneas
Sylvius Piccolomini urged Frederick III. to bring the question of
Constantine s Donation under the consideration of a Council.
Miihlbacher, in the Mittheilungen, ii., 115 et seq., shows how, later
on, the Imperial Chancery took cognizance of the results of con
temporary criticisms of this document.
INTRODUCTION. 19
tine s Donation be a forgery of later times, he concluded,
then the Temporal Principality of the Popes falls to ruin,
and the Pope has nothing more urgent to do than to divest
himself of the usurped power."* The Pope is all the more
bound to do this, because, according to Valla s view, all the
corruption in the church and all the wars and misfortunes
of Italy are the consequence of" this usurpation.
The virulence of Valla s denunciations against the
" overbearing, barbarous, tyrannical Priestly domination "
has scarcely been surpassed in later times. " The Popes,"
he says, " were always filching away the liberties of the
people, and therefore when opportunity offers the people
rise. If at times they willingly consent to the Papal rule,
which may happen when a danger threatens from some
other side, it must not be understood that they have agreed
to continue slaves, never again to free their necks from the
yoke, and that their posterity has no right of settling their
own affairs. That would be in the highest degree unjust.
We came of our own free will to you, O Pope, and asked
you to govern us ; of our own free will we go away from
you again, that you may no longer govern us. If we owe
you anything, then make out the debit and credit account.
But you wish to rule over us against our will, as if we were
orphans, although we might perhaps be capable of govern
ing you with greater wisdom. Moreover, reckon up the
injustices, which have so often been inflicted on this State
by you or the magistrates you have appointed. We call
God to witness that your injustice constrains us to rise
against you, as Israel of old rose against Jeroboam. And
the injustices of those days, the exaction of heavy tributes,
how trifling were they in comparison with our disasters !
Have you enervated our State? You have. Have you
plundered our churches ? You have. Have you outraged
matrons and virgins ? You have. Have you shed the
blood of citizens in our towns ? You have. Shall we bear
this ? Or shall we, perhaps, because you choose to take the
place of a father, forget that we are children ? As a
father, O Pope, or, if the title suits you better, as a lord,
we have called you hither, and not as an enemy or an
executioner. Although the injuries we have suffered might
justify us, we will not imitate your cruelty or your impiety,
for we are Christians. We will not raise the avenging
* Vahlen, Valla, 202, 203. See Invernizzi, 123 t,t seq.
20 INTRODUCTION.
sword against your head, but after we have dismissed and
removed you, we will appoint another father and lord. Sons
are permitted to flee from evil parents who have brought
them up, and shall we not be allowed to flee from you, who
are not our real father, but only a foster-father who has
treated us extremely ill ? Attend to your priestly office,
and do not set up a throne in the regions of night, thence
to thunder forth and hurl the hissing lightnings against this
and other nations. The forgery of Constantine s gift has
become a reason for the devastation of all Italy. The time
has come to stop the evil at its source. Therefore I say
and declare for if I put my trust in God I will not be
sf men that during the years of my life, not one
and prudent steward has occupied the Papal Chair.
Far from giving food and bread to the family of God, the
Pope declares war against peaceful nations, and sows dis
cord between States and Princes. The Pope thirsts after
foreign possessions, and exhausts his own. He is what
Achilles called Agamemnon, a king who devours the
people/ "*
It will be seen that it is Valla, not Machiavelli, who
started the often-repeated assertion that the Popes are to
blame for all Italy s misfortunes. Like the Florentine
historian, Valla knows not, or else forgets, that the Church
and her rulers preserved the most valuable elements of the
ancient culture for humanity, civilized the barbarians, and
created mediaeval international law that the Primate as
head of the one Church founded by Christ must necessarily
have fixed his seat in the capital of ancient power and
civilization, and in order perfectly to fulfil his high office,
must be a monarch and not a subject. t
As to the important question, in what light the more
recent gifts of territory to the Holy See were to be re-
* Vallae Opp., 793, 794. Monrad-Michelsen, 32-34.
t Hipler, Geschichts-Auffassung, 73. Phillips, v., 705. With
regard to Machiavelli, and also Valla, Wegele, (Dante, 5,) justly
observes that it is impossible to make the Popes alone responsible
for the political disruption of Italy. "Certainly, as they claimed
a political and territorial position, the (centralized) unity of Italy,
whether under a native or a foreign prince, could never enter into
their desires and plans ; and yet it is none the less certain that the
sympathies of the Italians themselves were almost always with
them in this matter, and accordingly they, too, must be held in some
measure responsible for the disunion of Italy.
INTRODUCTION. 21
garded, Valla proceeds very simply. He maintains that,
being renewals of Constantine s ancient gift, they could
not constitute a new right ! The objection that, failing
Constantine s document, the temporal possessions of the
Popes rested on the right of prescription, he meets with
the assertion that, in the case of unauthorized dominion
over men, the right of prescription has no existence, and
that, even if it had, it would long since have been forfeited
by the tyranny of the Popes. This tyranny was all the
more crying because the exercise of temporal power was
quite inconsistent with the duties of a spiritual Head.*
In the above-mentioned pamphlet, which is a caricature
of the government of the Popes, and openly calls the
Vicars of Christ "tyrants, thieves, and robbers,"f the author
of the " Dialogue on Pleasure" frequently assumes the air
of a pious Christian. He endeavours to speak in an edify
ing manner of " the loftiness and grandeur " of the spiritual
office of the Popes, and brings forward a number of quota
tions from Holy Scripture. In strange contrast with these
passages in his work are the oft-repeated passionate
appeals to the Romans, urging them to revolt against the
temporal power of the Holy See. Valla also addresses the
Princes ; paints in the darkest colours the grasping ambition
of Rome, and pronounces them to be justified in depriving
the Pope of the States of the Church. J He concludes this
menacing libel with a formal declaration of war against the
Papacy. " If the Pope refuses/" he says, " to quit the
dwelling, which does not belong to him, and return to his
own, and to take refuge from the angry waves in the haven
of his own vocation, I will set about a second discourse,
which will be much more violent than the present one."
In order to form a correct estimate of Valla s anti-papal
pamphlet, the circumstances under which it appeared must
be taken into consideration. According to his own account,
he wrote it six years after the insurrection of the Romans
against Eugenius IV. This Pope, who, as feudal Lord of
Naples, favoured the claims of the House of Anjou, was at
* Vahlen, Valla, 203.
f Vallae Opp. 791.
J Valise Opp. 762.
Loc. cit., 795. The very title, "Successor of Peter," seems to
Valla unsuitable, (Opp. 776) ; some of his expressions sound
actually Protestant. See Monrad-Michelsen, 10.
22 INTRODUCTION.
the time in open conflict with King Alfonso, who, on his
side, supported the schismatics of Basle. This state of affairs
explains how Valla, living under the protection of the King,
could venture thus to declare war against the head of the
Church and the spiritual power.* The sincerity of his convic
tions as to the unrighteousness of the temporal power of the
Holy See soon became apparent. After the reconciliation of
the Neapolitan Monarch with Eugenius IV., he made every
possible effort to enter the Papal service. In a humble
letter addressed to the Pope, whom he had so lately abused
as a tyrant, he retracted his former writings, and expressed
i his willingness in future to devote himself to the service of
\ the Apostolic See.f
" The treatise regarding Constantine s grant," says an
author who occupies almost the same position as Valla, " was
the boldest attack on the temporal power ever ventured on
by any reformer; was it then strange that a new popular
tribune a Stefano Porcaro should arise ? "J In zealously
prosecuting the pamphlet the Papacy merely acted in self-
defence. Any other Government would have done the same,
for Valla called on the Romans to drive the Pope from
Rome, and even intimated that it would be lawful to kill
him. That the ideas, expressed with such unexampled
* See Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 473 et seq., and Monrad-
Michelsen, 10-26 (Clausen, L. Valla, Kjobenhavn, 1861).
f Hettner, 172, justly calls Valla unprincipled. That those who
shared Valla s opinions " showed no excess of stubbornness, or
heretical obstinacy," (Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 478),
and had no principle, has been often and justly repeated in recent
times (see Villari, i., 120, I2Q, and Comba, 428). If Valla wrote to
the once reviled Eugenius IV., " Ut si quid retractione opus est, et
quasi ablutione, en tibi me nudum offero," Pomponius Lsetus
confessed to Paul II. : " Fateor et me errasse et ideo poenas mereri.
. . . Rursus peto veniam." Platina even offered to become an
informer : " Tibi polliceor, etiam si pnetervolantibus avibus aliquid
quod contra nomen salutemque tuam sit, audiero, id statim literis
aut nunciis Sanctitati tuae me indicaturum."
J Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 535.
Opp. 79 2 - Monrad-Michelsen, 35. Cochlaus, writing at a
later date, points out with great justice, that Valla s book was not
condemned for calling in question the genuineness of Constantine s
(Donation, but for its abuse of the Apostolic See; if he had modestly
defended the truth his work would have been as little objected to
as the writ ; ngs of the other opponents of the Document. C. Otto,
Cochlaus der Humanist (Breslau, 1874), 74, 75.
INTRODUCTION. 23
audacity, fell on a fruitful soil is evidenced by the attempt
of Stefano Porcaro on the life of Nicholas V., and also by
the fact that later on, in the time of Pius II., the Papal
Secretary, Antonio Cortese, brought out an " Anti-Valla."
Unfortunately, only a fragment* of this unprinted work is
preserved in the Library of the Chapter at Lucca, which
also contains another work against Valla and in defence of
the temporal power of the Holy See.f
Valla s audacious attack on Christian morals in his
dialogue "On Pleasure" was far surpassed by Antonio
Beccadelli Panormita (f 1471)4 Repulsive though the
subject be, we must speak of his " Hermaphrpditus " or
collection of epigrams, because the spirit of the false
Renaissance is here manifested in all its hideousness.
"The Book," says the Historian of Humanism, "opens
a view into an abyss of iniquity, but wreathes it
with the most beautiful flowers of poetry." The most
horrible crimes of heathen antiquity, crimes whose
very name a Christian cannot utter without reluctance,
were here openly glorified. The poet, in his facile verses,
toyed with the worst forms of sensuality, as if they were
the most natural and familiar themes for wit and merri
ment. " And moreover, he complacently confessed himself
the author of this obscene book, justified it by the examples
of the old Roman poets, and looked down upon the strict
guardians of morality as narrow-minded dullards, incapable
of appreciating the voluptuous graces of the ancients. "
Cosmo de Medici accepted the dedication of this loath-
* Con. 582, f. 491-499, viii., folia Antivallae Cortesii, made use
of by Fabric us-Mansi, vi., 574, and Tiraboschi, vi., 2, 347. See
also under the section on Stef. Pocaro s Conspiracy, where the
necessary observations are made regarding ./Eneas Sylvius Picco-
lomini s paper on the subject.
t Quod papaprsesit temporalibtis contra L. Vallam in ea oratione,
quam fecit de ementita donatione Constantini ; (this is addressed to
the Pope strongly against Valla;) Valdensis potius quam
Vallensis appellandus est, f. 270-274 of Cod. 582, of the Chapter
Library at Lucca.
J Regarding Beccadelli, see besides the works cited by Voigt,
Wiederbel. i, 2nd ed., 484, the new work of F. Ramorino, Contri-
buti alia storia biogr. e critica di A. B. (Palermo, 1883).
Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 481. See Reumont s
judgment, Gesch., iii., i., 320, 508, 509, and Invernizzi, 166.
24 INTRODUCTION.
some book, which is proved by the countless copies in the
Italian libraries to have had but too wide a circulation."*
Beccadelli s disgraceful work did not, unfortunately,
stand alone, for Poggio, Filelfo and ^Eneas Sylvius Picco-
lomini have much to answer for in the way of highly-
seasoned anecdotes and adventures. No writing of the
so-called Humanists, however, equals Beccadelli s collec
tion of epigrams in impurity. The false heathen Renais
sance culminates in this repulsive " Emancipation of the
Flesh," sagaciously characterized by a modern historian as
the forerunner of the great Revolution, which in the
following centuries shook Europe to its centre. t
The representatives of the Church, who in later times
w r ere often too indulgent towards the manifold excesses of
the Humanists, happily did their duty on this occasion, and
met this "appalling fruit of faith in the infallibility of the
\ ancients" witj^^^ision. Pope Eugenius IV. forbad the
\ reading op^this work under pain of excommunication.
I Cardir^rTCesarini, a zealous friend of Humanism, destroyed
\ rtXnerever he could get possession of it. The most cele-
-HBrated preachers of the day, St. Bernardine of Siena and
Roberto da Lecce, earnestly warned their hearers against
such vile literature, and burned Beccadelli s Epigrams in
the open squares at Milan and Bologna. Counter publica
tions were also circulated by the ecclesiastical party.
The manuscript of a long indictment against Beccadelli,
composed by the Franciscan, Antonio da Rho, is preserved
in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. The Carthusian,
Mariano de Volterra, composed a poem against him, and
the learned Minorite, Alberto da Sarteano, wrote a letter of
warning to the young men of Ferrara, and also a larger
* Janitschek, 101, Guarino of Verona and A. Loschi praised the
" Hermaphrodites " (Schio, i 18), and even a Bishop (he belongs
to the days ot John XXIII.) expressed a wish to read the book.
See Ant. Beccadelli ep., lib. iv. (Neapoli, i746),ep. ii., 23.
t Gregorovius, vii., 2nd ed., 499, without indeed distinguishing
between the heathen and the Christian Renaissance, writes, " The
revival of learning was the first great act of that immense moral
transformation in which Europe was involved, and whose marked
epochs are : the Italian Renaissance, the German Reformation,
and the French Revolution." In reference to Luther s connection
with the Libertine Humanism, see the Protestant Paulsen, 128
et seq.
INTRODUCTION. 25
work, with a view of counteracting the influence of this
impure poet.*
The sensation caused by this vile book was so great
that even Poggio, who was certainly by no means over
particular in such matters, advised Beccadelli in future to
choose graver subjects, inasmuch as " Christian poets are
not allowed the license enjoyed by the heathen." Becca
delli had the insolence to defend himself against this slight
reproof, which was not very seriously meant, by an appeal
to the authority of the ancients. A great many " learned,
worthy, holy Greeks and Romans had," he said, " sung of
such things; and yet the works of Catullus, Tibullus,
Propertius, Juvenal, Martial, Virgil, and Ovid were
universally read ; the very Prince of Philosophers, Plato
himself, had written wanton verses." Beccadelli then
gives a list of Greek philosophers and statesmen, who had
indulged in writings of this description, and yet been
virtuous. Similarly in his epigrams he had been careful
to declare, that although his writings were immodest his
life was spotless. f If Beccadelli really believed what he
said, daily experience should have taught him another
lesson. The horrible crimes which had been the curse of
the ancient world, and which were the theme of his elegant
verses, raged like a moral pestilence in his time in the
larger towns of Italy, especially among the higher classes
of society. Florence, Siena, and Naples were described as
the chief seats of these excesses ; J in Siena, indeed, in the
beginning of the fifteenth century, it had been found
necessary, as in ancient Rome, to legislate against the
prevailing celibacy of men. Lucca and Venice also bore
* See Tiraboschi, vi., 2, 91, and Voigt, loc. cit. 482 et. seq.
The burning of the book in Ferrara in presence of Eiigenius IV.,
mentioned by Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 324, as well as by Voigt and
Invernizzi, 166, is not proved.
f Ant. Panormitae Hermaphroditus, ed. F. C. Forberg (Coburgi,
1824), 40, 113. The letter to Poggio is printed in this work
(5-13).
J Loc. at., 54. See Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 471 et seq. Giidemann,
Gesch. des Erziehungswesens und der Cultur der Juden in Italien
wiihrend des M. A. (Wien, 1884), 217 et seq., and Burckhardt,
Cultur, ii., 3rd ed., 199 et seq., who very justly remarks : "The
more clearly the evidence seems to speak in this sense, the more
must we be on our guard against its unconditional acceptance or
generalization."
L. Fumi, Bando di prender mogiie in Siena (Siena, 1878).
2 6 INTRODUCTION.
an evil name in regard to the prevalence of those vices,
which had no small share in bringing about the downfall of
Greece.*
The corrupting effects of the false, profligate Humanism
represented by Valla and Beccadelli made themselves felt
to an alarming extent in the province of religion, as well as
in that of ethics. The enthusiasm for everything connected
with the ancient world was carried to such an excess, that
the forms of antiquity alone were held to be beautiful, and
its ideas alone to be true. The ancient literature came to
be looked upon as capable of satisfying every spiritual need,
and as sufficing for the perfection of humanity. Accord
ingly its admirers sought to resuscitate ancient life as a
whole, and that, the life of the period of the decadence
with which alone they were acquainted. Grave deviations
from Christian modes of thought and conduct were the
necessary consequences of such opinions. t
In the beginning of the fifteenth century Cino da Rinuc-
cini brought forward a list of serious charges against the
adherents of the false Renaissance. " They praise Cicero s
work De Officiis/ he says, " but they ignore the duty of
controlling their passions and regulating their life accord-
* With regard to Lucca, see S. Bongi, Inventario del archivio
di stato in Lucca (1872), i., 213 et stq. In the Council of Con
stance, the Italians in general were reproached with this crime ;
see Reber, Hemmerlin, 59. On the 2nd May, 1455, the Council
of Ten in Venice passed the following resolution* : Cum claris-
sime intelligatur quantum multiplied in hac civitate abhominabile
et detestandum vicium sodomitii, unde ad obviendum huic pessimo
inorbo et ne provocemus super nos iram domini nostri Dei, est
totis sensibus et ingeniis providendum : vadit pars quod eligi
debeant per capita huius consilii duo nobiles nostri mature etatis
pro quahbet contrata, qui tales electi sint per unum annum, etc."
The names are given of the men elected for each Quarter (Sex-
terium, sestiere) who were to put down this crime. See Misti dei
DieciT. XV,/. 49^50 : State Archives of Venice. Cf. also P. G.
Molmenti, La Stoiia di Venezia nella vita privata, 2 eciiz. (Torino,
1880, 287. 288, and Graziani, 568.)
t The position of these Humanists in regard to the Church was
naturally very different from that which the two founders and
pioneers of the Renaissance had occupied. The steady growth of
this false tendency during the latter part of the fifteenth century,
will be described in a future volume of this work. The false
Renaissance is not to be considered as responsible for all the im
morality of the age ; it aggravated it, but was not the sole cause.
INTRODUCTION. 27
ing to the rules of true Christian chastity. They are devoid
of all family affection, they despise the holy institution of
marriage, and live without rule. They avoid all labour for
the State either by word or action saying that he who
serves the community serves nobody. As to theology, they
give undue praise to Varro s works, and secretly prefer them
to the Fathers of the Church. They even presume to assert
that the heathen gods had a more real existence than the
God of the Christian religion, and they will not remember
the wonders wrought by the saints."*
There may be, perhaps, some exaggeration f in these
charges, but it cannot be denied, that enthusiastic admira
tion for the ancients exercised a most deleterious influence
on the Christian conscience and life of the representatives
of the false Renaissance. Even Petrarch lamented the
fact, that to confess the Christian faith and esteem it
higher than the heathen philosophy was called stupidity
and ignorance, and that people went so far as even to deem
literary culture incompatible with faith. J
It is recorded of the celebrated Florentine Statesman,
Rinaldo degli Albizzi, that he held a disputation with a
physician versed in philosophy, on the question whether
science is in opposition to Christian faith. Like Pietro
Pomponazzo, a century later, Albizzi maintained the affir
mative, supporting his opinion by quotations from Aristotle.
Carlo Marsuppini, of Arezzo, the State Chancellor of the
Florentine Republic, openly manifested a great contempt
for Christianity and an unbounded admiration for the
heathen religion. He adhered to these sentiments to the
end, and a contemporary says, " He died without confes
sion or Communion, and not as a good Christian." ||
* The 4< Invettiva " of Rinuccini is printed in the Paradiso degli
Albert!, ed. A. Wesselofsky, i., 2, 303-317. See Janitschek, 10.
t Geiger in the Gottinger Gel. Anz., 1880, p. 694, points out,
in reference to Janitschek, that in order to give an appearance of
justice to his charges, the assailant is too ready to draw a caricature
of the other party, and this remark applies also to Rinuccini.
Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 479, however, unhesitatingly
adopts Rinuccini s view.
J See Korting, i., 426, 427,
Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, iii., 601-618. Reu-
mont, Lorenzo de Medici, i., 2nd ed., 394.
|| Mazzuchelli, Scritt. d ltalia, i., 2, 1004. See Tiraboschi,
vi., 2, 375, and Villari, i., 106. "Luigi Marsigli and Colluccio
Salutato," says Hettner, 167, " adopted the religious ideas of Cicero,
Si Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
28 INTRODUCTION.
Few, however, went to such lengths ; most of these men,
when the reality of death drew near, abandoned their
empty speculations, and a penitent return to the dogmas
of the faith took the place of their former vagaries. Even
such men as Codro Urceo and Machiavelli, before their
end, sought the aid of the Church, from which their lives
and opinions had estranged them, and whose graces and
blessings their writings had contemned ; they died after
making their confession, fortified with the consolations of
religion."*
The adherents of the false Renaissance, with scarcely an
exception, were, during life, indifferent to religion. They
looked on their classical studies, their ancient philosophy,
and the faith of the Church as two distinct worlds, which
had no point of contact. From considerations of worldly
Drudence or convenience they still professed themselves
Catholics, while in their hearts they were more or less
alienated from the Church. In many cases, indeed, the
very foundations of faith and morals were undermined by
the triumph of false Humanism. f The literary men and
artists of this school lived in their ideal world of classic
dreams ; theirs was a proud and isolated existence. The
eal world of social and, yet more, that of moral and
religious life, with its needs, its struggles, and its sacrifices,
Virgil, and Seneca. The ancient notions of destiny and fortune
were spoken of more than God." To enable us to understand the
opinions of these men, the publication of Salutato s didactic poem,*
De fato et fortuna, would be most desirable. Only a portion of it
is printed. See Voigt, 2nd ed., 207, note 5. MS. copies are
numerous. In the Laurentian Library at Florence I saw two copies
of the MS., Plut., liii., Cod. 18, and Sma. Annunziata, 86.
* Frantz., Sixtus IV., 187. Miintz, La Renaissance, 14 et seq.,
and Hipler, 74. As to Machiavelli, see particularly Villari, Hi.,
324 et seq. ,- and as to Codro Urceo, see Burckhardt, ii., 3rd ed.,
274, and a monograph by C. Malagola, Delia vita e delle opere di
Antonio Urceo detto Codro (Bologna, 1878), 191.
t Lechler, ii., 500, 501. Renting, i., 193, 194 ; iii., 245.
Burckhardt, Cultur, ii., 3rd ed., 274, says: "Most of them must
inwardly have wavered between scepticism and fragments of the
Catholic faith, in which they had been brought up, and externally
from motives of prudence adhered to the Church." Hettner, 57,
very aptly remarks : It is not in the nature of the Latin race to
grub and delve like Faust ; dogmatic questions were discussed,
but not solved. They were either rank sceptics or careless
hypocrites."
INTRODUCTION. 2g
was far too common and too burdensome for their notice ;
and they only condescended to take part in it, in so far as
was necessary in order to bring themselves into view and
to share in its advantages."*
Overweening self-esteem was a characteristic of all these
men ; they never thought themselves sufficiently appre
ciated. Some of them, as for example, Filelfo, cherished
affixed idea that they were the geniuses of their age, and
that the whole world must give way to them because they
spoke Greek and wrote Latin with elegance, t Notwith
standing all the Stoical phrases, which adorned their dis
courses and writings, these Humanists were fond of money
and good cheer, desirous of honour and admiration, eager
to find favour with the rich and noble, quarrelsome amongst
themselves, ready for any intrigue, calumny, or baseness,
that would serve to ruin a rival. J
Poggio Bracciolini maybe taken as a genuine representa
tive of this false Humanism. This gifted writer, " the most
fortunate discoverer the world has ever known in the field
of literature/ is, as a man, one of the most repulsive figures
of the period. Almost all the vices of the profligate Renais-\
sance are to be found combined in his person, and it would
be hard to say whether his slanderous disposition or the
gross immorality of his life is most worthy of condemna
tion.
Notwithstanding occasional expressions of another kind
in his writings, there can be no doubt that Poggio s point
of view was more heathen than Christian. Christianity and
the Church were entirely outside his sphere. To quote the
words of the biographer of ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, " he
* Weiss, Apologia, iii. Elsewhere he very ably discusses the
influence of this tendency on art. See on this subject, Cantu, i.,
188.
t See Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 355, 516; ii., 2nd
ed., 367. Burckhardt, Cultur, i., 3rd ed., 339, note i, p. 246.
The audacity and pretentiousness of Humanists of this type were
often amazing. As, for example, when Poggio in his *Invectiva in
Nic. Perottum says : " Senectutem ego meam ita ad hanc diem
produxi, ut omni pudore honestetur, omni careat dedecore, ut nulli
sit in ea locus impudentiae," etc. Cod. 17, f. 42, Plut. xlvii. of the
Laurentian Library in Florence.
J Korting, iii., 157. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 329.
Burckhardt, Cultur, i., 3rd ed., 31 1 */ siq. Schnaase, viii., 2nd ed.,
536.
30 INTRODUCTION.
was such a worshipper of heathen antiquity, that he would
certainly have given away all the treasures of dogmatic
theology for a new discourse of Cicero." * A remarkable
example of his heathen, or rather indifferent, state of mind
is furnished by his well-known letter to the Council of
Constance on the occasion of the burning of Jerome of
Prague. Poggio speaks with the greatest enthusiasm of
Jerome, from which, however, it is not to be inferred that
he approved of his opinions. On the contrary, the con
ception of a martyr to any faith was as foreign to the mind
of this follower of the false Renaissance as to that of a
heretic. The thing which he admired in Jerome was of a
very different kind. The courage with which this man met
death reminded him of Cato, and of Mutius Scevola, and
he considered the eloquence of his address to the Council
as approaching that of the ancients. The decision of the
ecclesiastical authority is scarcely noticed by Poggio; he
only regrets that so noble an intellect should have turned
to heresy ; " If," he adds, " the accusations brought against
him are true." This doubt is, however, disposed of by the
cool observation, "it is not my business to judge of the
matter ; I contented myself with the opinion of those who
are considered wiser than I am." t
Almost all the writings of Poggio are offensively obscene
and coarse. The worst in this respect, after his " Facetiae,"
are his shameless and immoral letter on the license which
prevailed atthe baths of Zurich, J and his libels on Filelfo and
* Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 197. See also Villari, i., 96 et seq.
Reumont, Lorenzo, i., 2nd ed., 381. With regard to Poggio s
Life, see also Shepherd s Life of Poggio, translated into Italian with
additions by T. Tonelli, 2 vols. (Florence, 1825). A new edition
of Poggio s letters, based upon the study of MSS. relating to them,
is being prepared by Prof. A. Wilmanns, at Gottingen. I have to
thank the kindness of this scholar for access to the 2nd and 3rd
volume of Tonelli s collection of the Epist. Poggii, which are
extremely rare. (Even Reumont, Lorenzo, i., 2nd ed., 381, is not
acquainted with the 3rd vol.)
f This remarkable document has often been printed. Tonelli, i.,
11-20. Regarding the opinion, see Voigt, Enea Silvio, loc. at.
Villari, i., 97, and Hettner, 170. ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini also
speaks in a strange manner of the burning of Jerome, Hist. Boh.,
c. xxxvi.
J De balneis prope Thuregum sitis descriptio. Opp. 297-301,
published in French and in Latin by A. Meray, Les bains de Bade
INTRODUCTION. 31
Valla.* " Like the lowest boy out of the streets," says the
historian of Humanism, " Poggio assails his adversary with
the coarsest abuse and the basest calumny." He accuses
these two Humanists of every kind of turpitude, and the
greater part of the work is unfit for translation. t
The impression produced is a strange one, when a
writer, whose own life was so far from respectable, J sets
himself up as a censor of the depraved morals of the monks
and clergy. Poggio cannot find words sufficiently stinging
with which to brand the hypocrisy, cupidity, ignorance,
arrogance, and immorality of the clergy. The monks,
however, are everywhere the especial object of his sarcasm,
often, indeed, in discourses, letters, and treatises, where
such sentiments might least have been looked for. Violent
attacks upon them are to be found, as in his dialogues on
Avarice and on Human misery, and in his book against
hypocrites. " There are monks," he says, "who call them
selves mendicant friars, but it seerns rather that they bring
others to beggary, being themselves idle and living by the
sweat of other men. Some of these assume the name of
Observantines. I do not know what good all these can
(Paris, 1876). See D. Hess, Die Badenfahrt (Zurich, 1818),
Archiv. fur osterr. Gesch., xxi., 143, 149. Regarding the "Facetiae,"
see Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 15 et seq., and Landau,
Ital. Novelle, 68 et seq.
* Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 338.
t Such is the opinion of Raumer, i., 2nd ed., 40. Poggio s
works alone, says Burckhardt (i., 3rd ed., 312) contain impurity
enough to bring the whole band into disrepute. Villari (i., 102),
after mentioning the invectives which Valla and Poggio flung at
each other, concludes " Let us escape from this filthy region." See
further Ch. Nisard, Les Gladiateurs de la Republique des Lettres,
etc., 2 vol. (Paris, 1860).
J In his 55th year Poggio left the woman with whom he had
hitherto lived, and who had borne him fourteen children, to marry a
young girl of good family. He justified this proceeding in the
Dialogue : An seni sit uxor ducenda. 4k An essay in elegant Latin,"
says Villari (i., 101), " sufficed to solve the most difficult problems
of life, and to set the conscience at rest." We may here take the
opportunity of rectifying a very strange mistake of Burckhardt,
Cultur, ii., 3rd ed., 237. Poggio is represented as an ecclesi
astic, although Vespasiano da Bisticci expressly says : " Non voile
attendere a farsi prete." Mai, SpiciL, i., 547.
Geiger, Renaissance, 104. Invernizzi, 91 et seq.
INTRODUCTION.
be said to do ; I only know that most who call themselves
Minorites and Observantines are rude peasants and idle
mercenaries, who aim not at holiness of life, but at escaping
from work."* Even in their preaching, according to Poggio,
the object of the monks is not the healing of sick souls, but
the applause of the simple folk whom they entertain with
buffooneries. They indulge their boorish loquacity without
restraint, and are often more like apes than preachers.f
In order to understand how unjustifiable is this carica
ture of the monks, we must remember that the Reli^us
Orders j^ave to Italy in the tit ieenth century a line of
preacTTers whose devotion to their calling and whose power
and earnestness have, even after the lapse of ages, com
manded the esteem of those who differ from them. The
limits of this work do not permit us to enter into a detailed
account of all the brilliant and truly popular orators who
produced the remarkable and copious pulpit literature of
the age of the Renaissance. The most celebrated
preachers of the Franciscan Order were St. Bernardine
of Siena (t 1444), Alberto da Sarteano (t 1450), St. Jacopo
della Marca (t 1476), St. John Capistran (t 1456), Antonio
di Rimini (about 1450). Silvestro di Siena (about 1450),
Giovanni di Prato (about 1455), Antonio di Bitonto
(t 1459), Roberto da Lecce (t 14^3), Antonio di Vercelli
(t 1483)-*
* Opp., 102.
t Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nded., 220 (see p. 16). Geiger,
Renaissance, icu tt stq., gives other similar passages. Norrenberg,
in opposition to Voigt, justly shows in Hiilskamps Lit. Hundweiser,
1882 (p. 16), and in his Literaturgeschichte (ii., io),that too much
importance is not to be attached to the feud between the Humanists
and the Religious Orders. Indeed, as Poggio wished to be buried
in the Franciscans Church of Santa Croce at Florence, and allowed
both of his sons to enter the ecclesiastical state, his attacks on
the monks do not prove that antagonism against them, which
modern writers suppose. His eldest son became a Dominican ;
the father s objection was merely because he would rather have led
him to Humanistic studies, and did not arise from any aversion
to the state of life in itself.
Information regarding the above will be found in Wadding,
Script. Ord. Min. (Romx, 1650), and Sbaralea, Suppl. Script.
Francisc. (1806) ; see also Chevalier, Repert., under the foregoing
names. In the Dominican Order, besides G. Dominici, Giovanni
di Napoli (f 1460), Gabriele Barletta (t i47c) [see Echaid I.,
INTRODUCTION. 33
In his celebrated work on the Renaissance, Burckhardt
admirably describes the meaning of these Italian preachers
of penance. "There was," he says, "no prejudice
stronger than that which existed against the mendicant
friars; the preachers overcame it. The supercilious
Humanists criticized and mocked; when the preachers
raised their voices they were entirely forgotten." With
his usual sagacity, this scholar remarks that the men, who
bore within them this mighty fervour and this religious
vocation, were, in the north, of a mystical and contemplative
stamp, and in the south, expansive, practical, and imbued
with the national taste for eloquence.* And here we may
mention that St. Bernardino of Siena is said to have
Studied oratory from the ancient models, and that Alberto
da Sarteano, one of his most distinguished disciples and
followers, certainly did so.f
Too little attention has as yet been bestowed on the
action of these prejiclu;rs of penance, who were highly
esteemed ^and sought after by the people, and even by
worldly-minded princes,! and zealously supported by the
Popes, especially by Eugenius IV. and Nicholas V. When
the History of Preaching in Italy at the period of the
Renaissance is written, it will be seen that the free and
fervent^ exercise of this office is one of the most cheering
si ^s x jn an age clouded with many dark shadows. It
became evident that a new spirit had begun to stir in
ecclesiastical life. Many proofs are before us that in Italy
and in the other countries of Christendom the words of
820, 844], M. Carrieri, and finally Savonarola, were distinguished
as preachers. As we are now dealing with the Early Renaissance,
I must refer to a later Volume for a notice of the last-named
eloquent preacher.
* Burckhardt, Cultur, ii., 3rd ed., 238-240. The close connec
tion of the establishment of the Monti di Pieta with the action of
the preachers is shown by Ciampi, Niccola della Tuccia, xxiv.
t Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 231 ; see 233. We shall
speak of St. Bernardinc later on. Reumont (iii., i., 69) says he is
one of the men, who, like St. Francis ot Assisi and St. Antony of
Padua, work on the masses by the fire of love, enkindling them
from the glow of their own hearts.
t See the * Letter of Fr. Sforza, Duke of Milan, to the Obser-
yantmes in Bologna, dated 1455, April 28 (regarding Antonio de
Bitonto), and his letter to Roberto da Lecce, dated 1458, Dec. 5,
in MS. 1613 of the Fonds Ital. : National Library, Paris.
D
34 INTRODUCTION.
censure and warning were not spoken in vain. No age,
perhaps, offers such striking scenes in the conversion of all
classes of the people, of whole towns and provinces, as
does that, whose wounds were so fearlessly laid bare by
Saints Vincent Ferrer, Bernardine of Siena, John Capis-
tran, and by Savonarola.*
"An age/ as a modern historian observes, "which thus
perceives and acknowledges its faults, is certainly not
among the worst of ages. If in the individual the
recognition of a fault is the first step to amendment, it
cannot be otherwise in regard to whole classes of men, to
nations, and to the Church itself. No one who bestows
even a superficial glancs on the literature of the period,
can deny that this recognition existed in the Church in
the time of the Renaissance. The first and most essential
step towards amendment had been taken, and there was
well grounded hope that further energetic measures would
follow."t
From this point of view, the general unfavourable judg
ment of the religious and moral condition of the Renais
sance period may be essentially modified. At all events,
as the first German authority on Italian history has lately
observed, it is a mistake to suppose from the numerous
testimonies of Pagan tendencies furnished by the Italian
Humanists, that these were absolutely general. J This
gifted nation and this is especially true of Florence,
the intellectual home of the Renaissance still retained
its warm religious feeling in the midst of all party
struggles, excommunications, and external conflicts. The
numerous confraternities of laymen, to which high
and low belonged, kept all classes in constant and
salutary contact with the Church which had never ceased
to be national, as did also the mystery-plays, in which, until
the end of the fifteenth century, distinguished poets and
poetesses took part. Thus the religious dispositions of
* See Burckhardt, op. cit. ; Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 383 et seq.,
and Miintz, La Renaissance, 20.
t Opinion of Rohrbacher-Knopfler, op. cit., 379.
J Reumont, Brief e xxii. See Frantz, Sixtus IV., 55, note. F.
Torraca, Roberto da Lecce, Arch. Stor. Napolit. 7th year, fasc. i.
Miintz, La Renaissance, 13, 23, 103.
Reumont, Briefe xxiii. Lorenzo, i., 2nd ed., 432. Frantz,
Sixtus IV., 128, 237, 238, 243. J. Ciampi, Le rappresent. sacre
del medio evo in Italia (Roma, 1865). D Ancona, Sacre Rappresent.
INTRODUCTION. 35
the people held many things together, which threatened to
fall to pieces, and explains much that would otherwise
be difficult of solution ; it was often very touchingly mani
fested.* When Gregory XL, the last of the Avignon Popes,
laid an interdict upon Florence, crowds of citizens used to
assemble in the evenings before the images of the Madonna,
at the corners of the streets, and endeavour by their prayers
and hymns to make up for the cessation of public worship.
Vespasiano da Bisticci, in his life of Eugenius IV., relates
that when the Pope, during his sojourn in Florence, blessed
the people from a balcony erected in front of the church of
Sta. Maria Novella, the whole of the wide square and the
adjoining streets resounded with sighs and prayers ; it
seemed as if our Lord Himself, rather than His Vicar, was
speaking. In 1450, when Nicholas V. celebrated the
restoration of peace to the Church by the publication of a \
Jubilee, a general migration to the Eternal city took place ;
eye-witnesses compared the bands of pilgrims to the flight
of starlings, or the march of myriads of ants. In the year
148;^ the Sienese consecrated their city to the Mother of God,
and in" 1 495, at the instigation of Savonarola, the Florentines
proclaimed Christ their King.f
The magnificent gifts, by which the pomp and dignity of
religious worship were maintained, the countless works of
Christian art, and the innumerable and admirably organized
charitable foundations, { also bear testimony to the con
tinuance of " heartfelt piety and ardent faith " in the Italy
of the fifteenth century.
Side by side with these evidences of religious feeling in
/ the Italian people, the age of the Renaissance certainly
/ exhibits alarming tokens of moral decay ; sensuality and
y license reigned, especially among the higher classes.
dei sec., xiv., xv., e xvi. (Firenze, 1872). Cf. K. Hillebrand, Etud.
Ital. (Paris, 1868), and A. Lumini, Le Sacre Rappresent. Ital. dei
sec. xiv., xv. e xvi. (Palermo, 1877;.
* Reumont, Lorenzo, i., 2nd ed., 427. Cf. Capecelatro-Conrad,
166.
t Hettner, 165. See F. Torraca, Jacopo Sannazaro (Napoli,
1879), I2 9> an( l Miintz, La Renaissance, 10, 14, 15, 20. For the
Jubilee of 1450, see Chapter III. of the 3rd book of our present
work.
J See Woltmann, ii., 136. Frantz, Sixtus IV., 237 et seq., and
especially Miintz, La Renaissance, 8 et seq., and 74 et scq.
Cf. supra, p. 25
36 INTRODUCTION.
Statistics on this subject, however, are so incomplete, that a
certain estimate of the actual moral condition of the age or
a trustworthy comparison with later times is impossible.
But if those days were full of failings and sins of every
kind, the Church was not wanting in glorious manifesta
tions, through which the source of her higher life revealed
itself. Striking contrasts deep shadows on the one hand,
and most consoling gleams of sunshine on the other are
the special characteristics of this period. If the historian
of the Church of the fifteenth century meets with many
unworthy prelates and bishops, he also meets, in every part
of Christendom, with an immense number of men distin
guished for their virtue, piety, and learning,* not a few of
whom have been by the solemn voice of the Church raised
to her altars. Limiting ourselves to the most remarkable
individuals, and to the period of which we are about to
treat, we will mention only the saints and holy men and
women given by Italy to the Church.
The first of this glorious company f is St. Bernardine of
Siena, of the Order of Minorites, whose eloquence won for
him the titles of trumpet of Heaven and fountain of know
ledge, and whom Nicholas V. canonized about the middle
of the century. Around him are grouped his holy brothers
in religion : Saints John Capistran, Jacopo della Marca, and
Catherine of Bologna, a Sister of the same Order (t 1463).
Among the Blessed of the Franciscan Order are Tommaso
Bellaci (t 1447), Gabriele Ferretti (t 1456), Arcangelo di
Calatafimi (t 1460), Antonio di Stronconio (t 1471), Pacifico
di Ceredano (t 1482), Pietro di Moliano (t 1490), Angelo
di Chivasso in Piedmont (t 1496), Angelina di Marsciano
(t 1435)) Angela Caterina (f 1448), Angela Felice (t 1457),
Serafina di Pesaro (t 1478), Eustochia Calafata (f 1491),
etc.
The Dominican Order was yet richer in saints and holy
* Delightful pictures of many great Italian Bishops of this
period are given by Vespasiano da Bisticci in the third part of his
Vite di uomini illustri (Mai, Spicil, i., 224 et seq.) The mere
enumeration of the names would fill up too much of our space.
j Information concerning almost all the above named may be
found in Chevalier, Repertoire. See also Moroni, Dizionario Eccl.
Stadler-Heim, Heiligen Lexicon, i.-v. (Augsburg, 1858-1882). A.
Weiss, Vor der Reformation, 20 et stq., and Rohrbacher-Knopfler,
365 et seq.
INTRODUCTION. 37
persons. Blessed Lorenzo da Ripafratta (f 1457) laboured
in Tuscany, and under his direction the apostolic St. Anto
ninus (f 1459) grew up to be a pattern of self-sacrificing
charity, and the glorious talent of Fra Angelico da Fiesole
(f 1455) soared heavenward, leading men s hearts to the
Eternal by the language of art, as the mystics had done by
their writings."* St. Antoninus, whose unexampled zeal
was displayed in Florence, the very centre of the Renais
sance, had for his disciples Blessed Antonio Neyrot of
Ripoli (f 1460) and Costanzio di Fabriano (t 1481). Blessed
Giovanni Dominici (t 1420) and Pietro Geremia da Palermo
(t 1452) were celebrated preachers and reformers. Then
follow Blessed Antonio ab Ecclesia (f 1458), Bartolomeo
de Cerveriis (f 1466), Matteo Carrieri (f 1471), Andrea da
Peschiera (t 1480), the Apostle of the Valteline, the recently
beatified Cristoforo da Milano (f 1484), Bernardo Scam-
maca (t 1486), Sebastiano Maggi da Brescia (f 1494), and
Giovanni Licci, who died in 1511, at the extraordinary age
of one hundred and fifteen. The Dominicaness, Chiara
Gambacorti (f 1420), had held communication with the
greatest saint of the later mediaeval period, St. Catherine
of Siena ; and, together with Princess Margaret of Savoy
(t 1407), also a Dominicaness, was subsequently beatified. f
In the Order of St. Augustine we have to mention the
following who have been beatified : Andrea, who died at
Montereale in 1479, Antonio Turriani (f 1494), Rita of
Cascia (f 1456), Cristina Visconti (f 1458), Elena Valen
tino du Udine ( f 1458), and Caterina da Pallanza (f 1478).
Blessed Angelo Mazzinghi de Agostino (f 1438) belonged
to the Carmelite Order ; that of the Gesuati had Giovanni
Travelli da Tossignano (f 1446), the Celestines, Giovanni
Bassand (1-1455); and the Regular Canons the Holy
Patriarch of Venice, St. Lorenzo Giustiniani (f 1456).
Blessed Angelo Masaccio (t 1458) was of the Camaldolese
Order, and finally the great Cardinal Bishop of Bologna,
Albergati (f 1443), was a Carthusian. St. Frances (f 1440),
the foundress of the Oblates, was working in Rome. The
* Frantz, Sixlus IV., 54. See Marchese, Scritti, ii., 233-261, on
Lorenzo da Ripafratta.
t See Reumont, Briefe, 77 et seq., who observes that another
member of the Gambacorti family was beatified, viz., Pietro
(f i435) founder of the Congregation of Hieronymites, which
founded Sant Onofrio in Rome.
38 INTRODUCTION.
labours of another founder, St. Francis of Paula (born 1416,
f 1507), belong in part to the period before us. These
names, to which many more might easily be added, furnish
the most striking proof of the vitality of religion in Italy at
the time of the Renaissance. Such fruits do not ripen on
trees which are decayed and rotten to the core."*
/ Though it is an error to consider all ranks of Italian
society in the fifteenth century as tainted with the spirit of
Paganism, we must admit that the baneful element in the
Renaissance took fearful hold on the upper classes. How,
indeed, could it be otherwise ? The seductive doctrines of
Epicurus, and the frivolous, worldly wisdom of the Rome
of Augustus, were far more attractive than Christian
morality. To a pleasure-loving and corrupt generation,
the vain mythology of heathenism was infinitely more
congenial than the Gospel of a crucified Saviour, and the
religion of self-denial and continence. Many ecclesiastical
dignitaries also unhappily show undue favour to the false
Humanism. Startling as this may at first sight appear, it
is by no means difficult to account for it.
In the first place we must consider the wide-spread
worldliness among the clergy, which was a re_sultjof_the
Avignon period of the Papacy, and the subsequent con
fusion of the schism. Secondly, Humanism soon became
such a power that a struggle with it under existing circum
stances would have been very hazardous. The chief reason,
however, that the Church and the false Renaissance did
not come into open conflict, was the extreme care taken by
almost all the adherents of this school to avoid any collision
V with the ecclesiastical authorities. The race of dilettanti
and free-thinkers looked upon the doctrinal teaching of the
Church as a thing quite apart from their sphere. If in
their writings they invoked the heathen gods, and advocated
the principles of the ancient philosophers, they also took
pains from time to time to profess their submission to the
Creeds, and were skilful in throwing a veil over the antago
nism between the two.f However vigilant the rulers of the
Church might be, it was often very hard to determine when
this toying with heathenism became really reprehensible.
* Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 367. Many Saints belonging exclusively
to the second half of the century are mentioned by him and by A.
Weiss, op. cit.
t Grenzholen, 1884, No. 21, p. 369. See Gieseler, ii., 4, 504;
Schnaase, viii., 2nd ed., 533. Miintz, La Renaissance, 15, 16.
INTRODUCTION. 39
The strange medley of heathen and Christian words,
ideas, and thoughts, that prevailed in the age of the Renais
sance is notorious. The Church authorities were not severe
on transgressions of this kind ; and as far as literature was
concerned, there can be no doubt that their leniency was
thoroughly justified. If the Humanists, in their horror of
sinning against Ciceronian Latinity, endeavoured to express
Christian ideas in antique phrases, the fashion was certainly
an absurd, rather than a dangerous, one. " What need/
says Voigt, with reason, " to cry out, if a lively orator should
introduce a Roman asseveration into his discourse. Who
would charge him with polytheism, if, instead of calling on
the one God, he should on some occasion say : Ye Gods !
Or if a poet, instead of imploring Divine grace, should beg
the favour of Apollo and the Muses, who would accuse him
of idolatry ? "* Accordingly, when Ciriaco of Ancona chose
Mercury for his patron saint, and on his departure from
Delos addressed a written prayer to him, his contem
poraries were not the least scandalized, but contented them
selves with laughing at his enthusiasm, and singing of him
as "the new Mercury," and " immortal as his Mercury."t
The indulgence, which the ecclesiastical authorities showed
towards the false Renaissance, is intelligible enough, if
we remember that its obviously dangerous tendencies had
much to counterbalance them.
From the beginning, the true Christian Renaissance
existed side by side with the false.
Its followers were equally enthusiastic in their admira
tion for the treasures of antiquity, and they recognized in
* Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 479. See Paulson, 7, 33, and
Miintz, La Renaissance, 12. Similar examples are to be found
not only in Dante (see Wegele, pp. 498, 501, 522), but also at an
earlier date. See F. Piper, Mythologie der Christl. Kunst, 2 vols.
Here is also mentioned the exaggeration of this fashion in the time
of Leo. X., of which we shall speak later on (i., i, 285 tt seq.).
See also Cantu, i., 189. Burckhardt also points out that the Pedants
who latinized everything, are not to be judged too severely. Cultur,
i., 3rd ed., 292.
t Voigt, op. tit, 2nd ed., 287. Ciriaco s prayer begins : Artium
mentis ingenii facundiseque pater alme Mercuri, viarum itinerum-
que optime dux, etc. O. Jahn publishes it in the Bull dell Inst. di
corr. Arch., 1861, p. 183. We may here remark that Ghiberti s
enthusiasm for the Greeks went so far that he countedllme not
from the Christian era, but from the Olympiad. Rio, i., 315.
4 INTRODUCTION.
the classics a most perfect means of intellectual culture,
but they also clearly perceived the danger attendant on the
revival of the old literature, especially under the circum
stances of the time. Far from relentlessly sacrificing to
heathenism that Christianity, which had permeated the very
life of the people, they deemed that safety lay in the con
ciliation of the new element of culture with its eternal
truths; and in this opinion they had the support of Dante,
and were in accord with Petrarch s highest aspirations.
They were justly alarmed at the radical tendency, which
aimed at doing away with all existing sanctions and
influences. They saw with dismay that all national and
religious traditions were threatened, and that therefore a
salutary result from the movement was very doubtful.
The programme of these men, the most clear-sighted and
sober-minded of the Humanists, was the maintenance of
religious and national traditions, the study of the ancients
in a Christian and national spirit, the reconciliation of the
Renaissance with Christianity.*
The chief representatives of the Christian Renaissance
were Giannozzo Manetti, Ambrogio Traversari, Lionardo
Bruni, Gregorio Carraro, Francesco Barbaro, Maffeo Vegio,
Vittorino da Feltre, and Tommaso Parentucelli, afterwards
known as Pope Nicholas V.
Giannozzo Manetti (1396-1459), the friend of Pope
Eugenius IV. and Pope Nicholas V., was most deeply con
vinced of the truth ot the Christian Religion. This noble-
minded and distinguished scholarf used to say that the
Christian Faith is no mere opinion, but an absolute
certainty, that the teaching of the Church is as true as an
axiom in mathematics. However much occupied Manetti
might be, he never went to work without first having
heard Mass. He placed all his learning at the service of
] the Church, and although a layman, was well versed in
theology and literature, and translated the New Testament
and the Psalms. He had studied three books so indefatig-
ably, that he may be almost said to have known them by
heart ; these were the Epistles of St. Paul, St. Augustine s
City of God, and the Ethics of Aristotle. Manetti was the
* See Janitschek, 14-15. Burckhardt, Cultur, ii., 3rd ed.,
271. Norrenberg, ii., 13. Villari, i., 109 et seq., and Miintz, La
Renaissance, 16, 17, 91.
t Burckhardt, Cultur, i., 3rd ed., 261.
INTRODUCTION. 41
first, and, for a long time, the only Humanist in Italy, who
turned his attention to the Oriental languages. To defend
the cause of Christian truth, he learned Hebrew and began
to write a work against the Jews, whom he meant to combat
with their own weapons. This great scholar was a man of
exemplary life ; his friend and biographer, Vespasiano da
Bisticci, affirms that, during an intercourse of forty years,
he had never heard an untruth, an oath, nor a curse, from
his lips.*
Manetti s teacher was the pious Ambrpgio Traversari,
General, of the Camaldolese Order from 1431, a man whom
the Protestant historian, Meiners,f declares to have been a
model of purity and holiness ; a superior, admirable for his
strictness and prudent gentleness ; an author of great industry
and learning, and an ambassador whose talents, courage, and
statesmanship won for him a high position amongst the most
distinguished of his contemporaries. This eminent scholar
was the first to introduce Humanist influences into the
ecclesiastical sphere. A mixed assembly of clerics and
laymen, the elite of the Florentine literary world, used to
meet in his convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli, to hear him
lecture on the Greek and Latin languages and literature,
and explain philosophical and theological questions. The
biographer of Lorenzo de Medici speaks enthusiastically of
those days when a brilliant intellectual radiance shone
forth from this convent, enlightening the dwellings of the
Florentine patricians and, through them, the whole world.
" Never/ he says, " was there seen among clerics and
laymen so much real and solid learning devoted to the
Church and State, while also ministering to the charm of
daily life and the promotion of good morals/ Tommaso
Parentucelli, who had witnessed this Florentine literary
life, which, although not faultless, was on the whole so rich
and noble, was unable, even when he had attained the
highest dignity in Christendom, % to create in Rome any
thing that could compare with it.
* Naldo Naldi wrote a very full Latin biography of Manetti ; see
Muratori, Script, xx., 520-608. See Galletti, 129-138, and Vespa
siano da Bisticci, Commentario della vita di G.M., ed., Fanfani
(Turin, 1862).
t Meiners, ii., 279-280.
% Reumont, Briefe heiliger Italiener, 109, no, and Lorenzo de
Medici, i., 2nd ed., 388.
42 INTRODUCTION.
Traversari s unceasing labours in the reforn of his Order,
and all the harassing toils attendant on his office as Papal
Envoy, never interfered with his interest in Greek and
Roman literature. Notwithstanding the heavy pressure
of necessary business, he contrived to find time to ransack
libraries for rare manuscripts and copy them, to visit
literary celebrities, to investigate ecclesiastical and heathen
antiquities, and by various letters to promote the study of
science. His learned works relate chiefly to the Greek
writers of the Church, and he was undoubtedly the first
authority on the subject and the possessor of the richest
collection of books.* In his scrupulous conscientiousness,
Traversari thought the translation of profane authors un
suitable to his office. Nevertheless, at the request of his
friend, Cosmo de Medici, he consented to translate
Diogenes Laertes on the Lives of the Philosophers, con
soling himself with the thought that this work might serve
the interests of the Christian religion, " inasmuch as when
the doctrines of the heathen philosophy are better known,
the superiority of Christianity will be the more clearly
understood."
The celebrated Lionardo Bruni (1369-1444), Apostolic
Secretary under Innocent VII., Gregory XII., Alexander
V., and John XXIII. , and afterwards Chancellor of the
Republic of Florence, was also sincerely attached to the
Church. His love for the classical did not hinder him from
recommending " sacred studies," which, from their very
nature, must be the sweetest of " sweet toils." What a
contrast there is between Valla and this good man, who,
though not himself a monk, esteemed the religious life, and
refused to support a monk who wished to leave his con
vent, f Bruni was greatly looked up to, and people came
from all parts to see him ; a Spaniard even went so far as
to fall on his knees before him. When this noble scholar
departed this life on the gth March, 1444, the Priors deter-
* This is the opinion of Voigt, i., 2nd ed., 321, who cannot be
accused of any special preference for Traversari. See Piper, Monu
ment. Theolog., 663, Note 3. With reference to Traversari as an
archaeologist, see also Miintz, Precurseurs, i \^ et seq.> and as a
jurist, Savigny, vi., 422 et seq.
f Geiger, Renaissance, 101. See Monsani in Arch. Stor. Ital.
Serie ii., v., i., 29-59 ; 2,3-35, and Gherardi, ibid. Serie iv., xv.,
416-421.
INTRODUCTION. 43
mined to pay him extraordinary honour; his corpse was
clad in dark silk, and on his breast lay the History of
Florence, as the richest gift of the Chancellor to, the
Republic. Manetti pronounced the funeral oration, and
crowned the dead with the laurel of the poet and the
scholar, "as an immortal testimony to his wonderful wisdom
and his surpassing eloquence." He was then buried in
Santa Croce, where an epitaph composed by Marsuppini,
and a monument sculptured by Bernardo Rossellino, mark
his resting place.*
Among the Christian Humanists we must reckon
Gregorio ^lofrara^ the highly cultured kinsman of Pope
Gregory XII. , and Francesco Barbaro, who, like him,
belonged to a patrician family of Venice. f Barbaro
enjoyed the friendship of almost all the learned Italians
of his day, and was, by family tradition and personal
feeling, devoted to the cause of the Church. In the nego
tiations with the Councils of Basle and of Florence he
sought, with equal zeal, to promote the interests of the
Papal power, and to provide for the spiritual wants of his
clients. He furnishes a remarkable example of the union
of the Humanist and ecclesiastical tendencies in an age
when the latter had begun to lose its power.J
Maffeo Vegio (1407-1458), the worthy explorer of the
ancient Christian monuments of Rome, must not be passed
* Voigt, i., 2nd ed., 314 et seq. Bruni s monument is the most
important of Rcssellino s works. The lower part and the figure
are of rare grandeur and beauty. Burckhardt, Cicerone, ii., 4th
ed., 365, 366. See Miintz, Precurseurs, 75-90. Vegio and Guarino
also composed epitaphs for Bruni. Vegio s* " Epitaphion " is as
follows :
Hoc Aretini Leonard! tecta sepulchro
Quo nemo eloquio clarior, ossa cubant.
Heu quantum damni tali tibi luniine rapto
Et graeca et pariter lingua latina facis.
At vivit cuius aeternum scripta legentur
Sternum cuius fama superstes erit:
Quam terris longe celebratam extenderat usque
Ad summos quos nunc incolit ipse polos.
Cod. 5552, f. 395, the Court Library in Vienna.
t Respecting Barbaro, see Agostini, Scritt. Venez., ii. , 37
tt seq. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 423 et seg. With
.regard to Barbaro s letters, published by Sabbadini, see Will mans
learned criticism in the Gott. Gel. Anz., 1884, 849-885. Reumont,
Beitrage, iv., 229-356, has a beautiful essay on Gregorio Corraro.
J Willmans, loc. at., 850.
44 INTRODUCTION.
over. That " tender and eloquent book," the Confessions
of St. Augustine, made a deep impression on his mind, as
also on that of Petrarch. It brought about Vegio s com
plete conversion, and induced him to devote himself
entirely to ecclesiastical literature. Without transcribing
the splendid list of his works, we must mention his widely-
read book on Education, inasmuch as it represents an
endeavour to combine the wisdom of the Classics with the
Bible and the teaching of the Church. He strongly recom
mends the work of Virgil, Sallust, and Quintilian, as means
of culture, but objects to the Elegiacs on account of their
indecency, and would have the comic authors reserved
for the perusal of grown-up men.* In the time of
Eugenius IV., Vegio came to Rome, where he filled the
offices of Datary, Abbreviator, and Canon of St. Peter s,
and finally became an Augustinian Canon. He died in
1458, and was buried in Sant Agostino, in the very chapel
where, thanks to his efforts, the bones of St. Monica had
found a fitting place of rest, when brought from Ostia in
1430. Vegio s pure life and piety were honoured beyond
the limits of his own order. An enthusiastic notice of him
is to be found among the writings of the Florentine Vespa-
siano da Bisticci.f
The most attractive and amiable of the representatives
I of the Christian Renaissance is Vittorino da Feltre, the
i greatest Italian Pedagogue of his age. " He was one of
those men who devote their whole being to the end for
which their capacities and knowledge specially fit them."];
* Voigt. Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed,, 466-467. Kiimmel, in
Schmid s Encyklopiidie des Erziehungs und Unterrichtswesens
(Gotha, 1873), i x< 656 et seq.
f Voigt, Joe. cit., 42, Mai, Spicil. i., 653-655. See Schweminski,
P. P. Vergerius and M. Vegius (Posen, 1858, Programm). We
shall speak of Vegio s work on St. Peter s, which marks the
beginning of Christian Archaeological literature, when we come to
the time of Nicholas V. See Geiger, Vierteljahrschr. fiir Cultur
und Literatur der Renaissance (1885), i., 199-201.
J So says Burckhardt, Cultur, i., 3rd ed., 255, who, in a few
strokes of the pen, has drawn an excellent picture of this admirable
man. See Geiger, Renaissance, 171. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i.,
2nd ed., 537 et seq. Raumer, i., 2nd ed., 33 et seq. Kiimmel in
Schmid s loc. cit., ix., 722 et seq. The valuable monograph of Ros-
mini, Idea dell ottimo precettore ecc. Le Nottzie stor. int. a.
studio pubbl. ed ai maestri dei s. xv. e xvi. che tennero scuola in
INTRODUCTION. 45
The honour of having introduced this excellent man " to
his proper sphere of work" belongs to the Marquess Gian
Francesco Gonzaga, who summoned him to Mantua in 1425,
to take charge of the education of his children and direct
the court school. Vittorino began his labours by a
thorough cleansing of the Casa Giocosa, the new educa
tional Institution, which was pleasantly situated on the
borders of the lake of Mantua.* At his command the gold
and silver plate, the superfluous servants, vanished, and
order and noble simplicity took the place of pomp and
show. The hours of study were punctually observed, but
they were constantly varied by bodily exercise and recrea
tion in the open air. Vittorino encouraged his pupils to
expose themselves to cold and heat, to wind and rain, for
he believed that a soft and idle life was the origin of many
maladies; but there was nothing of Spartan harshness in
the education, and individual idiosyncrasies were sufficiently
respected. t In the fine season he used to take his pupils on
long excursions to Verona, to the Lake of Garda, and into
the Alps. In regard to decency and good manners, Vitto
rino was rigid ; swearing and blasphemy were always
punished, even if the offender were one of the Princes.
Corporal punishments were reserved for the worst cases ; in
general the penalties inflicted were of the nature of dis
grace. The moral and religious conduct of the scholars
was most carefully watched over, for Vittorino held that
true learning is inseparable from leligion and virtue. A
bad man, he used to say, can never be a perfect scholar, far
less a good orator.
His method of teaching was simple and concise; he
guarded carefully against the evil subtleties of the day.
" I want to teach them to think," he said, " no,t to split
hairs." The classics naturally formed the groundwork of
higher education, but with a careful selection fitted for the
young.J Mathematical Science, Logic, and Metaphysics,
Mantova, tratte dall* archivio stor. Gonzaga di M. per St. Davari
(Mantova, 1876), and A.Morlet, Viet, de Felire et la Maison Joyeuse,
ou un lycee modele au xv. siecle en Italic (Le Havre, 1880).
* Regarding the Casa Giocosa, see Rosmini, loc. tit., 72.
Davari, loc. tit., 20, and Paglia s essay in Arch. stor. Lomb., 1883,
xi., fasc. i.
t Kammel, 725. See Rosmini, 81 et seq., 144 et seq.
% Voigt, i., 2nd ed., 545, says that Vittorino s judgment and
prudent selection must meet with approval even in the present day.
46 INTRODUCTION.
were not neglected ; special attention was devoted to com
position, and every encouragement given to originality.
Vittorino was always ready to help those, who were back
ward in their studies. Early in the morning he was among
his scholars, and when all around had betaken themselves
to rest, he worked on with individual boys. " Probably," to
use the words of a modern author, " the world had never
before seen such a schoolmaster, who was content to be a
schoolmaster and nothing else, because in this calling he
recognized a lofty mission ; one who, just because he
sought nothing great for himself, found all the richer
reward in the results of his labour."*" When a monk
/asked permission from Pope Eugenius IV. to enter
i Vittorino s Institution, the Pontiff answered, " Go, my son.
We willingly give you up to the most holy of living men."t
Vittorino s fame was widely spread ; eager disciples
flocked around him from far and near, even from France,
Germany, and the Netherlands. J Many of these youths
were poor, and such were received by the good man with
particular affection ; they were not only freely instructed,
but also fed, lodged, clothed, and provided with books at
his expense, and his generosity often extended even to
their families. For these scholars, whom he received for
the love of God (per I amore di Dio), he founded a special
institution in association with the Princes School. Here
he lived like a father in his family, giving to it all he
possessed, for his own wants were very easily satisfied.
It is no wonder that the scholars looked up to such a
master with love and respect. Federigo da Montefeltro,
Duke of Urbino, one of the noblest among them, a man
distinguished by his courage, cultivation, and large-minded-
ness, placed Vittorino s portrait in his palace with the
inscription : " In honour of his saintly master, Vittorino
da Feltre, who by word and example instructed him in all
human excellence, Federigo places this here."||
The secret of this great schoolmaster s immense in
fluence is to be found principally in his religious and
* Kammel, loc. tit., 725.
t Rosmini, 200. Raumer, i., 2nd ed., 34.
J For the story of a Carthusian from the Netherlands, who
went to Mantua to study the science of music under Vittorino,
see Ambros, Gesch. der Musik, ii., 2nd ed., 486.
Voigt, i., 2nd ed., 540.
|| Rosmini, 362.
INTRODUCTION. 47
moral qualities, his disinterestedness, his humility and
simplicity, and the charm of his virginal purity.* All his
contemporaries speak with respect of his piety. Vespasiano
da Bisticci says that "he daily recited the Divine Office
like a priest ; he strictly observed the Fasts of the Church,
and insisted on his scholars doing the same. He said
grace before and after meals like a priest, constantly
approached the sacraments, and accustomed his scholars
to go monthly to confession to the Observantine Fathers.
He also wished them to hear Holy Mass every day; his
house was a very sanctuary of good morals." f Vittprino s
example shows that a good man may be immersed in
classical studies, without making shipwreck of his faith.
His liberality equalled his piety ; no monk or beggar, who
sought his aid, was sent empty away. Notwithstanding
his unremitting labours as a teacher and educator, he
always found time to visit widows and orphans, the poor,
the sick, and even prisoners, and wherever he went, he
bore with him comfort, instruction, and help. It was said
of him, that the only people who received nothing from
him were those, whose needs were unknown to him.
Almsgiving on so large a scale would not have been
possible, but for the generous support of the Marquess of
Mantua and some of his wealthy scholars. All that he
received from them was given away to alleviate the
sufferings of his fellow men. When he died on the 2nd
February, 1446, at the age of sixty-nine, his property was
so deeply in debt, that his heirs declined the inheritance,
and the corpse had to be buried at the Prince s expense.
He left instructions that no monument should be raised to
his memory.J
The position occupied by the representatives of the
Christian Renaissance in relation to the ancient world
was the only true one, and they have in some degree
solved the problem how justly to appreciate antiquity.
* Era di lui opinione, oltre alia continenza che noi abbiamo
detto, che fusse vergine. Vespasiano da Bisticci in Mai, i., 641.
t Vespasiano da Bisticci, loc. cit.
% Rosmini, 164 et seq., 236 et seq. A medal by Pisanello was
struck in memory of Vittorino, with the inscription : " Victorinus
Feltren-summus mathematicus et omnis humanitatis pater." See
Friedlander, Schaumiinzen in the Jahrb. der Preuss. Kuntsamml.,
i., 101. A monument to Vittorino was erected at Feltre, in 1868,
with the inscription : " To Vittorino, the Prince of Educators."
48 INTRODUCTION.
Their enthusiasm for the intellectual treasures of the past
| never went so far as to endanger their devotion to the
Christian religion. Unlike the extreme Humanists, they
| held fast the principle, that the__works of the heathens are
/ to be judged by a Christian standard. They saw the
/ danger of so idealizing the moral and religious teaching of
/ Heathenism, as to make it appear that by its means alone
/ the highest end of life could be attained, thus ignoring the
/ necessity of Christian doctrines and morality, of remission
/ of sin and grace from on high.*"
In the light of Christianity alone can the ancient world
be fully and justly estimated, for the pagan ideal of
humanity, as exhibited in its heroes and divinities, is not,
as a modern philosopherf justly observes, a full or complete
one. It is but a shadowy outline, wanting the colour and
life which something higher must supply a fragmentary
form, which has yet to find its complement in a more
perfect whole. This higher Image of human perfection is
the Incarnate Son of God, the Prototype of all creatures ;
no creation of fancy or product of human reason, but the
Truth and the Life Itself. The ideals of Greece grow pale
before this Form, and only vanity and folly could ever turn
from It to them. This folly was perpetrated by the ad
herents of the false Renaissance, by those Humanists who,
instead of ascending from the Greek Poets and Philosophers
to Christ, turned their backs on the glory of Christianity
to borrow their ideal from the genius of Greece.
The twofold character of the Italian Renaissance renders
it extremely difficult justly to weigh its good and evil in
relation to the Church and to religion. A sweeping judg
ment in such cases would generally be a rash one, even
were the notices of the individuals concerned less scanty
than those which are before us ; here, as elsewhere, human
penetration is baffled in the endeavour to appreciate all its
bearings. J
A modern Historian has forcibly remarked that every
genuine advance of knowledge must in itself be of ad
vantage to religion and to the Church, inasmuch as Truth,
Science, and Art are alike daughters of heaven. From
* See Katholik, 1855, p. 193-211, 252-259.
t Haffner, Renaissance, 18.
J Burckhardt has written in strong language regarding the
moral condition of this period (ii., 3rd ed., 199).
Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 323.
INTRODUCTION.
49
this point of view we must contemplate the encourage
ment given by ecclesiastics to the revival of classical
literature. A distinction should evidently here be drawn
between the two schools of the Renaissance, and judgment
pronounced accordingly. Those members of the Church,
who promoted the heathen view, acted wrongly, and were,
if we look at their conduct with a view to the interests of
the Church, blameworthy. Impartial inquiry will, how
ever, lead us to temper this blame by a consideration of all
the attendant circumstances, and to bear in mind the
difficulty of avoiding the abuse, to which the ancient
literature, like all other good things of the intellect, is
liable.
The common impression that the dangerous tendencies
of the Renaissance were not recognized by the Church is
very erroneous. On the contrary, from the beginning,
men were never wanting, who raised their voices against
the deadly poison of the false Humanism. One of the first
in Italy to indicate its pernicious influence on education
was the Dominican Giovanni Dominici. This preacher,
who laboured arcFently for the reformation of his Order,
enjoyed the favour of Pope Innocent VII., and was raised
to the purple by Gregory XII.* In his celebrated Treatise
on the order and discipline of Family Life, written very
early in the I5th century, he denounces, with all the energy
of his ardent nature, the system " which lets youth and
even childhood become heathen rather than Christian ;
which teaches the names of Jupiter and Saturn, of Venus
and Cybele rather than those of God the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost ; which poisons minds that are still
tender and powerless by sacrifice to the false Gods, and
brings up wayward nature in the lap of unbelief. "t
In yet stronger terms does Giovanni Dominici express
* For a further account of this zealous man, who died at Buda,
June loth, 1419, aged 64, on a diplomatic mission, see Act
Sanct. Junius, ii., 396 et seq. Echard, i., 768 et seq. Fabricius-
Mansi, ii., 468, 469 ; Hi., 358. Marchese, Scritti, i., 2nd ed., 34^
seq. Salvi, vi.-lvi., and Rattinger in the Hist. Jahrbuch v., 168. *
I have seen Sermones de sanctis et de tempore, by G. Dominici, in
Cod xi.-68 of the Barberini Library in Rome. The date of 1420,
which has been repeatedly given as his death, is erroneous ; see the
authentic testimony of * the Acta Consistor., in the Consistorial
Archives of the Vatican ; see Appendix, Nr. 16.
t Salvi, 135, 136. See Reumont, Kl. Schriften, 16 et seq,
E
50 INTRODUCTION.
himself in a writing* which has but recently been brought
to light, and which is dedicated in courteous language to
the celebrated Chancellor of Florence, Coluccio Salutato.
Its primary object was to warn him against being seduced
by the charms of the false Renaissance ; but at the same
time, it aimed at protecting youth in general from the
questionable elements contained in the classic literature,
and at counteracting its perversion and misuse. The
Dominican condemns those, who give themselves up with
blind and deluded zeal to heathen learning, and are thus led
to depreciate the Christian Religion. Looking at the
subject from an ascetic point of view, he is at times blind
to the ancient literature. In his horror at the new heathen
ism, which was rising before his eyes, he is even betrayed
into the utterance of such paradoxes as, that it is more
useful to a Christian to plough the ground than to study
the heathen authors !f Exaggerations of this kind pro
voked exaggerations from the opposite party, and in this
way it became more and more difficult, if not absolutely
impossible, to arrive at a clear understanding in regard to
the proper use of the ancient classics.
The Franciscans, as well as the Dominicans, distinguished
themselves by their opposition to the Humanists, or Poets,
to use the name by which they were commonly called. { It
* Lucula noctis Di. Jo. Dominici cardinal S. Sixti, now in the
Laurentian Library in Florence, with the Signature: 174 sop. la
porta. Conv. sopp. 549 [Sta Maria Novella, 338] et seq. 17-1286.
This MS. was long supposed to be lost ; see Salvi, Ixi., and
Wesselofsky, i., 2, n. Anziani found it again, Janitschek( 105) made
use of it; see also Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 207,
Note 5. Another MS. of the Lucula, 141 pages, with coloured
Initials, was sold by the Florentine Antiquarian Franchi (see his
Catalogo, No. 47, p. 57) for ^130 to Signor Andrea Nizzi.
t Utilius est christianis terrain arare quam gentilium intendere
libris. Strangely enough Dominici appeals to the authority of the
heathen Cicero, in his praise of Husbandry, to support this propo
sition and others of a similar kind (p. 79 of the above noted MSS.
of the Laurentian Library).
J Hettner (99 et seq.), in his treatise " Ueber die Kunst der
Dominicaner im 14 und 15 Jahrhundert," has shown that the
Dominicans were the constant and watchful guardians of the
strictest ecclesiastical feeling, in opposition to the secularization of
the Renaissance art; see what is said under the head of.Fra Angelico
da Fieso e Other instances will be brought forward wherPvve
come to write of Savonarola. Much interesting information is
INTRODUCTION. 51
cannot be denied that most of these men were full of holy
zeal for the interests of Christianity, and that their
courageous efforts were of real advantage to the Church,
at a time when many other dignitaries, from a spirit of
worldliness, favoured the false Humanist tendencies. Still,
it is much to be regretted that the majority of the opponents
of the Poets went a great deal too far. Correctly to under
stand the position, we must bear in mind the furious attacks
on the Religious Orders and their scholastic teaching by
Poggio, Filelfo, and other elegant and well-known
Humanist authors. The new movement had gained
strength so fast, that the monks were left almost defence
less against the ribaldry of these men. Further, the
alarming errors and excesses of the extreme admirers of
antiquity justified the worst apprehensions for the future.
Consequently, most of those, who withstood the false
Renaissance, lost sight of the fact that these errors had
their origin, not in the revival of classical studies, but in
their abuse, and in the deplorable social, political, and
ecclesiastical conditions of the times. Corrupt intellectual
elements, struggling for complete emancipation, had
gathered round the banner of the Renaissance, and they
often led the great Humanist movement into crooked
paths. Thus it came to pass, that the larger number of the
monks, in their zeal, overlooked the distinction between the
true and the false Renaissance, and made Humanism in
general responsible for the excesses of the most extreme of
its votaries. Against such attacks the Humanists could
most justly appeal to the works of St. Jerome, St. Augus
tine, St. Ambrose, St. Cyprian, and other Fathers of the
Church, which are full of quotations from the Poets and of
classical reminiscences. The monks often waged war in a
very unskilful manner, as, for instance, when they treated
Valla s attacks on Priscianus and the mediaeval grammarians
as heretical."*
given in the Memorie of P. Marchese ; many erroneous conclusions
of Hettner s are corrected in the Essay : Renaissance und die
Dominicanerkunst. Histor-polit. Blatter xciii., Sjget seg. ; xciv., 26
et seq.
* See Vahlen, Valla, 213 et seq., and Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i.,
2nd ed., 476 et seq. If we may believe Salutato, there were, in his
time, foolish Theologians, who despised St. Augustine s work on the
City of God, because in it he had quoted Virgil and other Poets !
Mehus, Vita Trav. 293. The struggles of the Italian Humanists
52 INTRODUCTION.
The partial and short-sighted view, which condemned the
fwhole Renaissance movement as dangerous to faith and
I morals, cannot be considered as that of the Church. At
/this time, as throughout the whole of the Middle Ages, she
I showed herself to be the Patroness of all wholesome
I intellectual progress, the Protectress of all true culture and
I civilization. She accorded the greatest possible liberty to
I the adherents of the Renaissance, a liberty which can
I hardly be comprehended by an age, which has lost the
unity of the Faith.* Once only in the period of which we
are about to treat, did the Head of the Church directly attack
the false Renaissance, and this censure was called forth by
a shameless eulogy of heathen vices, which the Pope, as the
chief guardian of morals, could not pass over in silence. t
Otherwise the Church gave liberal encouragement to
Humanist studies, fully endorsing the beautiful words
of Clement of Alexandria, that the learning of_ the
heathens, as far as it contains good, is not to be con
sidered heathen, but a gift of God.J And, indeed, the
speedy degeneracy of the Renaissance in Italy was not the
fault of the ancient literature, but rather of its abuse.
That the many irreconcilable enemies of the Renaissance,
who are to be found in the Religious Orders, are not the
true representatives of the Church, is evident from the fact
that the greater number of the Popes adopted a very
different attitude towards the new movement. ||
with the Religious Orders have yet to be thoroughly treated ;
Burckhardt and Voigt have here done comparatively little. Voigt
lays much stress on the irritation \vhich the Humanists provoked in
the Theologians; see i., 2nd ed., 521.
* See Korting, ii., 366, 660. Nowhere was greater intellectual
liberty enjoyed than in the Eternal City. " Et quod maximi
omnium faciendum videtur mihi, incredibilis quad am hie libertas
est," wrote Filelfo from Rome in 1475. Rosmini, Vita di Filelfo
(Milan, 1808), ii., 388. As to the reproofs to which the Popes,
e.g.i Sixtus IV., submitted in their own Chapel, see Burckhardt,
Cultur, ii., 3rd ed., 244.
t See supra, p. 24. Regarding the measures taken by Paul II.
against the Roman Academy we shall treat further on.
J Clemens Aiex., Stromata, i., 4 ; irdvrw yap amos r&v KaXuv 6
#05.
F. von Schlegel, Sammtl. Werke, 2nd ed., Vienna, 1846, ii.,
15, has pointed this out.
|| St. Antoninus, the great Archbishop of Florence, also eschewed
the violence of the antagonists of the Poets. " From the high
INTRODUCTION. 53
The friendly relations which existed between the Popes
and the two founders of the Renaissance literature,
Petrarch and Boccaccio, have already been mentioned ;
these relations were not impaired by the passionate
language, used by these two great writers in denouncing
the corruptions which had made their way into ecclesi
astical affairs during the Avignon period. No less than
five times was Petrarch invited to fill the office of Apostolic
Secretary, but the poet could not make up his mind to
undertake the charge, fearing that it would compel him to
give up literature, his special vocation.* But he gladly
employed himself, at the desire of the learned Pope Clement
VI., in the collection of early manuscripts of Cicero s works
for the Papal Library.f When the tidings of the death of
Petrarch, whom he had once invited to Avignon by an
autograph letter, reached Pope Gregory XL, he commis
sioned Guillaume de Noellet, Cardinal Vicar of the Church
in Italy, to make diligent inquiries after his writings and to
have good copies made for him, especially of the Africa,
the Eclogues, Epistles, Invectives, and the beautiful work,
On the Solitary Life.J
Gregory XL, whom a modern writer has justly char
acterized as the best of the Avignon Popes, showed a
notable interest in the half- forgotten heritage from the
ancient world. When he heard that a copy of Pompeius
Trogus had been discovered at Vercelli, he at once sent a
letter to the Bishop of that city, desiring him immediately
to look after this book and to have it conveyed to the
Papal Court by a trusty messenger. A few days later the
same Pope charged a Canon of Paris to make researches
watch-tower of the Faith," says Vo gt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed.,
382 et scq., " he looks mildly down on the heathen, on whom the
light had not yet arisen. He is by no means unacquainted with
the classical literature, he has no horror of its heathen nature,
indeed, he occasionally inserts an appropriate verse from Ovid in a
letter." His opposition to the heathenish tendencies of Humanism
was so moderate that all Humanists spoke of him with respect.
* Hb rting, i., 200.
t Mehus, Vita Trav., 216.
J The remarkable Brief of Gregory XL, dated 1374, Aug. n,
is printed by Meneghelli, Opere (Padova, 1831), vi., 198, and
Theiner Cod., ii., 559-560. See Marini, Archiatri, ii., 21, n. 2.
Hofler, in the Sitzungsberichten der Wiener Akad-Histor-phil,
Cl.lxv., 813.
54 INTRODUCTION.
in the Sorbonne Library regarding several works of
Cicero s, to have them transcribed as soon as possible by
competent persons and to send the copies to him at
Avignon.* It might, at first sight, have seemed likely that
the storms which burst over the Papacy after the death of
Gregory XL would have deterred the Popes from showing
favour to the Renaissance, which was now asserting its
power in the realm of literature, and yet it was actually at
this very period that a great number of the Humanists
found admission into the Roman Court. t
A closer study of this time, in connection with which the
previous years of the residence of the Popes at Avignon
must also be considered, will bring to light the causes of
the gradual and, in some respects, hazardous influx of
Humanism into the Papal Court. A review of the History
of the Popes from the beginning of the Exile to Avignon
until the end of the great Schism seems all the more
necessary, as without an intimate acquaintance with this
period of peril to the Papacy, the latter course of events
cannot be understood.
In the progress of the following work we shall show that
the Renaissance gradually took root in Rome under Martin
V. and Eugenius IV. ; that Albergati, Cesarini, and Cap-
ranica, the most distinguished among the wearers of the
purple in the fifteenth century, encouraged Humanism in its
best tendencies; that the sojourn of Eugenius IV. in
Florence, and the General Council held there, produced
marked effects in the same direction ; until at last, in the
person of Nicholas V., a man mounted the Throne of St.
Peter, who, full of confidence in the power of Christian
Science, J ventured to put himself at the head of this great
* For both these letters, which I found in the Papal private
Archives, see Nos. i and 2 in the Appendix.
f During the Avignon period we meet with but few Tuscan
Humanists in the Papal service. The first of these is Petrarch s
Jriend, Zanobi da Strada, whom Pope Innocent VI. appointed
Protonotary and Secretary of Briefs about the end of 1358 or
beginning of 1359. Urban V. summoned Francesco Bruni,
another friend of Petrarch s, to Avignon about the year 1365.
His companion in office was Coluccio Salutato, afterwards dis
tinguished as Chancellor of Florence and an opponent of the
French Papacy. See Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 195 ; ii.,
2nd ed., 5-7.
J Hiibner (i., 47) has drawn particular attention to this point.
INTRODUCTION. 55
intellectual movement. This circumstance was the be
ginning of a new epoch in the history of the Papacy, as
well as in that of science ap^ Stt^^a.n en0"Fi T winch reached
its climax in the reigns of Julius Il.^ancf Leo X.j
It has often been said thatthe RenaissaltWfts elf ascended
the Papal Throne with Nicholas V., yet it must not be for
gotten that this great Pontiff was throughout on the side of
the genuine and Christian Renaissance. The founder of
the Vatican Library, like Fra Angelico whom he employed
to paint his study in that Palace, knew how to reconcile
his admiration for the intellectual treasures of the past with
the claims of the Christian religion: he could honour both
Cicero and St. Augustine, and coufd appreciate the
grandeur and beauty of heathen antiquity without being
thereby led to forget Christianity.*
The leading idea of Nicholas V. was to make the Capital
of Christendom the Capital also of classical literature and
the centre of science and art. The realization of this noble
project was, however, attended with many difficulties and
great dangers. If Nicholas V. overlooked or under
estimated the perils which threatened ecclesiastical
interests from the side of the heathen and revolutionary
Renaissance, this is the only error that can be laid to his
charge. His aim was essentially lofty and noble and
worthy of the Papacy. The fearlessness of this large-
hearted man, in face of the dangers of the movement " a
fearlessness which has in it something imposing "f strikes
us all the more forcibly, when we consider the power and
influence which the Renaissance had at this time attained
in Italy. The attempt to assume its guidance was a great
deed, and one worthy of the successor of the Gregories and
Innocents.
To make the promotion of the Renaissance by the Holy
See a matter of indiscriminate reproach, betrays total
ignorance of the subject. For, deep and widespread as
was the intellectual movement, excited by the resuscitation
of the antique, it involved no serious danger to Christian
civilization, but rather was an occasion of new activity and
energy, as long as the unity and purity of the Christian
* Miintz, Precurseurs, 101 ; cf. p. 145. Hiibner, loc cit.
f Burckhardt, Cultur, i., 3rd ed., 265 ; he adds : " Nicholas V.
was at ease regarding the fate of the Church, because thousands of
learned men stood by her side ready to help her."
56 INTRODUCTION.
faith were maintained unimpaired under the authority of
the Church and her head.* If in later days, in consequence
/ of the undue influence obtained by the heathen Renaissance,
[ a very different development ensued ; if the intellectual
wealth, won by the revived study of the past, was turned to
rtvil purposes, Nicholas V., whose motives were of the
highest and purest, cannot be held responsible. On the
centrary, it is to the glory of the Papacy that, even in
regard to the great Renaissance movement, it manifested
tliat magnanimous and all-embracing comprehensiveness
which is a portion of its inheritance/)" As long as dogma
\\las untouched, Nicholas V. and his like-minded successors
allowed the movement the most ample scope ; the founder
of the Vatican Library had no foreboding of the mischief
which the satire of the Humanists was preparing. The
whole tenor of his pure life testifies that his words
proceeded from an upright heart, when he earnestly
exhorted the Cardinals assembled around his death-bed to
follow the path he had chosen in labouring for the welfare
pf the Church the Bark of Peter, which, by the wonderful
^guidance of God, has ever been delivered out of all
storms. J
* Haffner, Grundlinien, 691. Hergenrother speaks in similar
terms : " The new tendency was in itself by no means prejudicial,
but rather favourable to the Church." See further Beissel, in the
Laacher Stimmen, xviii., 471 et seq., and Rohrbacher-Knopfler,
323-
t This was the case also in the sixteenth century ; see Reumont
V. Colonna (Freiburg, 1881), 125.
J Mai, Spicil., i., 60. Hettner, 169.
BOOK I
RETROSPECTIVE VIEW OF THE HISTORY OF THE POPES
FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE EXILE AT AVIGNON
TO _THE END OF THE GREAT SCHISM, 1305-1417.
I. THE POPES AT AVIGNON. 1305-1376.
THE disastrous struggle between the highest powers of
Christendom, which began in the eleventh century and
reached its climax in the thirteenth, was decided, appar
ently to the advantage of the Papacy, by the tragical
downfall of the house of Hohenstaufen. But the over
throw of the Empire also shook the temporal position of
the Popes, who were now more and more compelled to
ally themselves closely with France. In the warfare with
the Emperors, the Papacy had already sought protection
and had found refuge in that kingdom in critical times.
The sojourn of the Popes in France had, however, been
only transitory. The most sacred traditions, and a history
going back for more than a thousand years, seemed to have
bound the highest ecclesiastical dignity so closely to Italy
and to Rome that, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth
centuries, the idea that a Pope could be crowned anywhere
but in the Eternal City, or could fix his residence for the
whole duration of his Pontificate out of Italy, w r ould have
been looked upon as an impossibility."*
* See E. Renan, La papaute* hors de 1 Italie in the Revue des
Deux Mondes (1880), xxxviii., 109.
58- HISTORY OF THE POPES.
A change came over this state of things in the time of
Clement V. (1305-1314), a native of Gascony. Fearing for
the independence of the Ecclesiastical power amid the
party struggles by which Italy was torn, and yielding to
the influence of Philip the Fair, the strong-handed op
pressor of Boniface VIII., he remained in France and
never set foot in Rome. His successor, John XXII., also a
Gascon, was elected, after prolonged and stormy discus
sions, in 1316, when the Holy See had been for two years
vacant. He took up his permanent abode at Avignon,
where he was only separated by the Rhone from the
territory of the French King. Clement V. had lived as a
guest in the Dominican Monastery at Avignon, but John
XXII. set up a magnificent establishment there.* The
essential character of that new epoch in the history of the
Papacy, which begins with Clement V. and John XXII.,
consists in the lasting separation from the traditional home
of the Holy See and from the Italian soil, which brought
the Popes into such pernicious dependence on France and
seriously endangered the universal nature of their position.
" O good beginning !
To what a vile conclusion must Thou stoop."f
The words of the great Italian poet are not exaggerated,
for the Avignon Popes, without exception, were all more
or less dependent on France. Frenchmen themselves, and
surrounded by a College of Cardinals in which the French
element predominated, they gave a French character to the
government of the Church. This character was at variance
with the principle of universality inherent in it and in the
Papacy. The Church had always been the representative
* Details on this subject from the Papal exchequer accounts are
given by Faucon, Melanges d archeologie et d hist. (ii., 43 et seq.).
t Dante, Parad., xxvii., 59, 60.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 59
of this principle in contradistinction to that of isolated
nationalities, and it was the high office of the Pope, as her
Supreme Head, to be the common Father of all nations.
This universality was in a great degree the secret of the
power and influence of the Mediaeval Popes.
The migration to France, the creation of a preponderance
of French Cardinals, and the consequent election of seven
French Popes in succession, necessarily compromised the
position of the Papacy in the eyes of the world, creating a
suspicion that the highest spiritual power had become the
tool of France. This suspicion, though in many cases
unfounded, weakened the general confidence in the Head
of the Church, and awakened in the other nations a feeling
of antagonism to the ecclesiastical authority which had
become French. The bonds which united the States of
the Church to the Apostolic See were gradually loosened,
and the arbitrary proceedings of the Court at Avignon,
which was too often swayed by personal and family
interests, accelerated the process of dissolution. The
worst apprehensions for the future were entertained.*
The dark points of the Avignon period have certainly
been greatly exaggerated. The assertion that the
Government of the Avignon Popes was wholly ruled by
the " will and pleasure of the Kings of France/ f is, in
this general sense, unjust. The Popes of those days
were not all so weak as Clement V., who submitted the
* Schwab, Gerson, 7. Alvaro Pelayo draws a gloomy picture
of the decay in the life of the Church in his work: " De planctu
ecclesise," concluded in 1332. See especially lib. ii., art. 8, 28, 48,
and 49 (see Gierke, 55).
f Martens, 130. Similarly Hase, Kirchengeschichte (10 ed.,
1877), 293, who calls Clement V. and his immediate successors
"French Court Bishops." Hofler, who altogether denies the
French servitude, goes into the other extreme (Avignones. Ptipste,
246).
60 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
draft of the Bull, by which he called on the Princes of
Europe to imprison the Templars, to the French King.*
Moreover, even this Pope, the least independent of the
fourteenth century Pontiffs, for many years offered a
passive resistance to the wishes of France, and a writer,
who has thoroughly studied the period, emphatically
asserts that only for a few years of the Pontificate of
Clement V. was the idea so long associated with the
" Babylonian Captivity" of the Popes fully realized. f The
extension of this epithet to the whole of the Avignon
sojourn is an unfair exaggeration. The eager censors of
the dependence into which the Avignon Popes sank, draw
attention to the political action of the Holy See during this
period so exclusively, that hardly any place is left for its
labours in the cause of religion. A very partial picture
is thus draw r n, wherein the noble efforts of these much-
abused Pontiffs for the conversion of heathen nations
become almost imperceptible in the dim background.
Their labours for the propagation of Christianity in India,
China, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, Barbary, and Morocco have
been very imperfectly appreciated. J The earliest of the
* Baluze, Vitae, ii., iii. See Boutaric, La France sous Philippe
le Bel (Paris, 1861), 124 et seq. Wenck, 74, 80.
t Wenck, 9. See Boutaric in the Revue des quest, hist, xxi., 21.
J See on this subject the valuable essays of F. Kunstmann in the
Histor. polit. Blattern, xxxvi., 865-872; xxxvii., 25-39, 135-153,
225-252 ; xxxviii., 507-53?, 7oi-7i9< 793- 8l 3 5 xxxix., 489-507;
xlii., 185-206; xliii., 676-681; xlv., 81-111, 177-200. See
Zeitschr. fur histor. Theol., 1858, p. 288 et seq. Tub. Quartalschr.,
l8 77> P- 33- Kiilb, Gesch. der Missionsreisen nach der Mongolei,
3 vol. (Regensburg, 1860). Heyd, Levantehandel, ii., 146 et seq.,
149, 174, 197, 220, and S. Ruge, Gesch. des Zeitalters der Entdeck-
ungen (Berlin, 1881), 71 et seq. P. Marcellino da Civezza, in his
Storia delle Missioni Francesc. (Roma e Prato, 1856-1883), 7 vols.,
has treated of the Franciscan Missions down to the sixteenth
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 6l
Avignon Popes, Clement V. and John XXII., gave the greatest
attention to Eastern affairs, and were the originators of a
series of grand creations, from which the best results were
to be expected. Their successors were chiefly occupied in
the maintenance and preservation of the works established
by the wisdom of their predecessors, yet in the time of
Clement VI. an effort was made to extend the sphere of
the Church even to the furthest limits of Eastern Asia.*
/The unwearied assiduity of the Avignon Popes in taking
advantage of every favourable event in the East, from the
Crimea to China, to promote the spread of Christianity by
sending out missions and founding Bishoprics, is all the
more admirable because of the great difficulties with which
the Papacy was at that time beset. f
A complete estimate of their large-minded labours for
the conversion of the heathen, and a thoroughly impartial
appreciation of this period, will not be possible until the
Regesta of these Popes, preserved in the Secret Archives of
the Vatican, have been made accessible to investigation. {
century. Regarding the solicitude of the Avignon Popes for the
Slavs in Servia and Bosnia, see Balan, Relazioni, 136 et seq.
* See Kunstmann, loc. cit., xxxvi., 870.
t Reumont expresses this opinion in the Allgem. Zeitung, 1879,
p. 3676.
J The publication of the records of the Avignon Popes is one of
the great works which Leo XIII. has set on foot. A portion of it
has been placed in the hands of the Benedictines of Moravia and
Monte-Cassino. The beginning of this important contribution to
history has appeared : Regestum, dementis papae V., ex vaticanis
archetypis, S.D.N. Leonis XIII. P.M. jussu et munificentia editum
(Romse, 1885). The Records of Benedict XII. and Clement VI.
have recently been investigated by a commission from the Bavarian
Government. The French Government has ordered the collection
of t materials in Rome, relating to the time of Clement VI. Prof.
Werunskyhas published " Excerpta ex registris Clementis VI. et
62 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
We shall then obtain an insight into that inner life of Church
affairs which held its clear and sure course amidst all ex
ternal tumults ; which, while the Papacy was apparently on
the brink of ruin, " did not forget the lonely Christians
among the heathens of Morocco and in the camps of the
wandering Tartars, and took thought for the eternal salva
tion of nations still unconverted, as faithfully as for the de
liverance of the imperilled Church."*
With the most ample recognition of the worldwide
activity of the French Popes, it cannot be denied that the
effects of the transfer of the Holy See from its natural and
historical home were disastrous. Torn from its proper
abode, the Papacy, notwithstanding the individual greatness
of some of the Avignon Pontiffs, could not maintain its
former dignity. The freedom and independence of the
highest tribunal in Christendom, which, according to
Innocent III., was bound to protect all rights, was en
dangered, now that the supreme direction of the Church
was so much under the influence of a nation so deeply
imbued with its own spirit, and possessing so little of the
universal. That France should obtain exclusive possession
of the highest spiritual authority was a thing contrary both
to the office of the Papacy and the very being of the
Church.
This dependence on the power of a Prince, who in
former times had often been rebuked by Rome, was in
strange contradiction with the supremacy claimed by the
Popes. By this subjection and by its worldliness, the
Avignon Papacy aroused an opposition which, though it
might for a moment be overborne while it leant on the
Innocentie VI., historiam S.R., Imperil sub. regimina Cardii
IV., illust.," Innsbruck, 1885.
* Pertz., Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere Deutsche Geschicts-
kunde, v., 29.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 63
crumbling power of the Empire, yet moved men s minds so
deeply that its eilects were not effaced for several centuries.
Its downfall is mu^t closely connected with this opposition,
which was manifested, not only in the bitter accusations of
its political and clciicai enemies, but even also in the letters
of its devoted friend St. Catherine, which are full of en
treaties, complaints, and denunciations. The Papal Govern- "-
ment, founded as it was on the principle of authority, built
up in independence of the Empire, and gaining strength
in proportion to the decay of that power, was unable to
offer any adequate resistance to this twofold stream of
political and religious antagonism. Th_ catastrophe of the
great Schism was the immediate consequence of the false ^"
position now occupied by the Papacy."*
The disastrous effects produced by the residence of the
Popes at Avignon were at first chiefly felt in Italy. Hardly
ever has a country fallen into such anarchy as did the
Italian peninsula, when bereft of her principle of unity by
the unfortunate decision of Clement V. to fix his abode
in France. Torn to pieces by irreconcilable parties, the
land, which had been fitly termed the garden of Europe,
was now a scene of desolation. t It will easily be under
stood that all Italian hearts were filled with bitter longings,
a regret which found voice in continual protests against the
Gallicized Papacy. The author of the Divine Comedy
sharply reproved the " Supreme Pastor of the West " J for
this alliance between the Papacy and the French monarchy.
On the death of Clement V., when the Cardinals assembled
in conclave at Carpentras, Dante came forward as the
exponent of the public feeling which demanded the
return of the Papal Throne to Rome. In a severe
* This is Reumont s view : Theolog. Literaturblatt, vi., 663.
t Phillips, iii, 279.
J Dante, Inferno, xix. , 82.
64 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
letter addressed to the Italian Cardinals he says :
"You, the chiefs of the Church militant, have neg
lected to guide the chariot o.f the Bride of the Crucified
One along the path so clearly marked out for her. Like
that false charioteer Phaeton, you have left the right track,
and though it was your office to lead the hosts safely
through the wilderness, you have dragged them after you
into the abyss. But one remedy now remains : you, who
have been the authors of all this confusion, must go forth
manfully with one heart and one soul into the fray in
defence of the Bride of Christ whose seat is in Rome, of
Italy, in short of the whole band of pilgrims on earth.
This you must do, and then returning in triumph from the
battle-field, on which the eyes of the world are fixed, you
shall hear the song Glory to God in the Highest; and
the disgrace of the covetous Gascons, striving to rob the
Latins of their renown, shall serve as a warning to all
future ages."*
Petrarch judges the French Popes with the greatest
severity. In theory he condemns every one, worthy or
unworthy, who lived at Avignon. No expression is too
strong when he speaks of this city, which he compares to
the Babylon of the Apocalypse. In one of his poems he
calls it " the fountain of anguish, the dwelling-place of
wrath, the school of errors, the temple of heresy, once
Rome, now the false guilt-laden Babylon, the forge of lies,
the horrible prison, the hell upon earth/ In a whole series
* Opp. min. di Dante ed. P. Fraticelli (Florence, 1862), iii., 486-
494. Wegele, 262-265. The " Vasconum opprobrium," as Wegele
justly remarks, applies firstly to the party of French Cardinals
created by Clement V., and in the second place to France and the
French policy. Janus (245) applies the expression also to John
XXII., who, at the time when Dante wrote this letter, had not yet
been elected !
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 65
of letters, which, however, he took care to keep to himself,
he pours forth the vials of his wrath on the city, which had
drawn the Popes away from sacred Rome. He even uses
the peaceful sonnet, in which he had formerly been wont to
express only the bliss and the pain of love, to fulminate, like
a prophet of the Old Testament, against the doings of the
unholy city.* It would be, however, a great mistake to
consider his picture of the wickedness of Avignon and the
corruption of the Church, painted with true Italian fervour,
as strictly trustworthy and accurate. Petrarch here speaks
as a poet and as a fiery, enthusiastic, Roman patriot. His
judgments are often intemperate and unjust. His own life
was not such as to give him the right to come forward as a
preacher of morals. Passing over his other failings, we
need here only allude to his excessive greed for benefices.
This passion has much to do with his bitterness against
Avignon and the Papal Court. We are led to suspect that
there were many unsuccessful suits.f Petrarch did nothing
towards the amendment of this evil world ; the work of
reformation was in his own case begun very late. He was a
dreamer, who contented himself with theories, and in
practice eschewed all improvements which demanded any
greater effort than that of declamation. {
* See Geiger, Petrarca, 168-169. Gaspary i., 457 et seq., Bartoli
85 et seq., 96 et seq.> and Die Reime des F. Petrarca, translated
and elucidated by K. Kekule and L. v. Biegeleben (Stuttgart, 1844),
i., 220; ii., 181-183.
t Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 104; see 85 et seq., 99
et seq. See also Kb rting, i., 25 et seq., 200, who justly observes
(i., 308) that the very man who, towards the Court at Avignon,
assumes the attitude of a moralist, found no word of blame for the
horrible deeds of the Visconti, but rather flattered them in the
basest manner, and even in later days, when he could have spoken
without any fear of consequences, uttered no word of disapprobation.
% Korting, i., 227. Bartoli, 97 et seq. See supra, p. 3.
F
66 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The unmitigated condemnation of the Avignon Popes
must have been based in great measure on Petrarch s
unjust representations, to which, in later times and without
examination, an undue historical importance has been
attached. He is often supposed to be a determined adver
sary of the Papacy ; but this is a complete mistake. He
never for a moment questioned its divine institution.*
We have already said that he was outwardly on the best
terms with almost all the Popes of his time, and received
from them many favours. They took his frequent and
earnest exhortations to leave Avignon and return to deso
late Rome as mere poetical rhapsodies, and in fact they
were nothing more. If Petrarch himself, though a Roman
citizen, kept aloof from Rome ; if, though nominally an
Italian patriot, he fixed his abode for many years, from
motives of convenience, or in quest of preferment, in that
very Avignon which he had bitterly reproached the Popes
for choosing, and which he had called the most loathsome
place in the world, must not the Babylonish poison have
eaten deeply into his heart ? How much easier it would
have been for Petrarch to have returned to Rome than it
was for the Popes, fettered as they were by so many politi
cal considerations ! f
But however much we may question Petrarch s right to
find fault with the moral delinquencies of the Court at
Avignon ; however much we may, in many respects, modify
the picture he paints of it, no impartial inquirer can deny
that it was pervaded by a deplorable worldliness. For this
* Korting, i., 407-441 ; ii., 201.
t This is Voigt s opinion, i., 2nd ed., 65. H. Jacoby, Die
Weltanschauung Petrarca s" (Preuss. Jahrb., 1882, xlix, 570), says:
" In the matter of politics Petrarch was a dreamer." Balbo, de
1 Epinois (281, 282), Gaspary (i, 421 et seq., 450), and Bartoli,
1 6 1, speak in similar terms.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 67
melancholy fact we have testimony more trustworthy than
the rhetorical descriptions of the Italian poet* Yet it must
in justice be borne in mind that the influx of thousands of
strangers into the little French provincial town, so suddenly
raised to the position of capital of the world, had produced
all the evils which appertain to densely populated places. t
Moreover, even if we are to believe all the angry asser
tions of contemporaries as to the corruption prevailing in
Avignon,! evidence is not wanting, on the other hand, of
ardent yearnings for a life conformable to the precepts of
the Gospel.
Side by side with the profligacy which was the charac
teristic of the age, and, therefore, prominent in its history,
there were still to be found scattered in various places
many, homes of quiet and devout contemplation. Thence
went forth an influence, winning noble souls to a higher
ideal of existence, and gently, but perseveringly, striving
by means of self-denial and persuasion, to allay the pas
sionate feuds of parties and disentangle their intrigues.
As this higher life only manifested itself here and there,
history passes it by ; it is dealt with in commonplace
phrases, judged, or rather misjudged, by the measure of
the later movements of the sixteenth century, as if they
formed a canon for the historical investigation of all
* See especially the accounts given by Alvaro Pelayo, who was
intimately acquainted with the state of affairs at Avignon. In one
place (ii., 48) this writer, who was thoroughly attached to the
cause of the Papacy, says : " Lupi sunt dominantes in ecclesia ;
pascuntur sanguine ; anima uniuscuiusque eorum in sanguine est."
See Dante, Parad., xxvii, 56-59.
f Korting, i., 129.
J There can be no doubt, that it is in vain to look for a fair
judgment of the Avignon period from most of the Italian Chroniclers.
See Hist. Litt., Tom. xxiv., 10, 14, 18, 20, 21.
68 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
religious phenomena. At no time were there wanting
good and earnest men, who were doing their utmost in
their own circle to stem the tide of corruption, and exert
ing a salutary influence on their age and surroundings.- It
would be most unjust to the champions of the Papal rights
to suppose that, because they maintained the monarchy of
the Pope and his right to both swords, they were ready to
sanction that which was evil at Avignon, or condone
tyrannous abuses. In the highest circles there were men
of the ancient stamp with the strictest views of life. Alvaro
Pelayo praised the Cardinal Legate Martin, who went to
Denmark poor and returned poor, and the Legate Gau-
fridus who, when sent to Aquitaine, bought his own fish
and would not accept even wooden platters. He wished
Bishops and Popes not to have smart pages about them,
and not to promote undeserving relations. He prayed
that all simoniacal practices should be abolished, that the
Roman Church should be a mother, not a sovereign, and
that the Pope should consider himself not a lord, but a
servant, a steward, a labourer. These men, who looked on
Louis of Bavaria as a tyrant, were not on that account dis
posed to give the Pope a free pass. While energetically
asserting his rights, and those of the Church and the
Bishops, they also insisted on the accompanying duties with
a plainness of speech, which we miss in later ages, together
with the magnanimity shown by those who suffered it*
The removal of the Holy See to Avignon was most
disastrous to the Eternal City, which thereby lost, not only
her historic position as the Capital of Christendom, but also
the material benefits which the presence of the Popes con-
* The above is taken literally from Hofler, Roman. Welt,
131-133. See Kraus, 481, 487 et seq. Schubinger, 298, 374, and
Hergenrother, ii., i, 149 et seq., 185 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 69
ferred on the community at large, and on many of the
individual inhabitants.. While the Popes resided in Rome
and its neighbourhood, they were able, for longer or shorter
periods, to maintain order and peace between Barons and
Burghers. Their Court and the influx of strangers which
it attracted, brought great wealth into the City, and when
the Pontiff was in their midst, the Romans could easily
attain to lucrative ecclesiastical positions. This state of
things was now completely changed. Rome, thrown upon
herself, was in her interior resources inferior to all the
considerable cities of central Italy. She became a prey
to increasing isolation and anarchy.* The longer the
absence of the Popes continued, the greater was the
desolation. The Churches were so dilapidated and
neglected that in St. Peter s and the Lateran cattle were
grazing even to the foot of the altar. Many sacred edifices
were roofless, and others almost in ruins. t The monuments
of heathen antiquity fared even worse than those of Chris
tian Rome, and were mercilessly destroyed. A Legate sold
the marble blocks of the Colosseum to be burned for lime.
The materials of the ancient edifices were even carried out
of the City. In the archives regarding the construction of
the Cathedral of Orvieto are a number of documents, which
show that the overseers of the work brought a great deal
of the marble employed from Rome, that they sent agents
there almost more frequently than to Carrara, and that they
repeatedly received presents of great blocks of marble,
* Sugenheim, 240 et seq. Papencordt, Rienzo, 37 et seq.
f In August, 1375, the Augustinian Luigi Marsigli wrote to
Guido del Palagio : " Riguardi chi vuole le chiese di Roma, non
dico se sono coperti gli altari, che della polvere sono piu sovvenuti
che di altro ricoprimento da quegli, che i titoli tengono di esse ;
non dico se sono ufficiate o cantonvisi Tore, ma se hanno tetti, usci
o serrami." Lettera del v. L. Marsigli, x., xi.
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
yo HISTORY OF THE POPES.
especially from the families of the Orsini and Savelli.*
The only public work executed in Rome during the
Avignon period was the construction of the marble steps
leading up to the Church of St. Maria Ara Coeli. The
remarkable development of art which had been going on
during the latter half of the thirteenth century was suddenly
arrested. The school of the Cosm. iti came to an end ; the
influence : of Giotto had vanished. t Avignon became in
this respect a dangerous rival to the Eternal City, for
even in their exile the Popes did not forget the fine arts.
Death alone hindered Giotto from accepting the flattering
invitation of Benedict XII., and in 1338-39 the Pope sum
moned in his stead the celebrated painter, Simone Martini
of Siena, to adorn his Cathedral and his Palace ; the
interesting but long-neglected frescoes of this artist are
now, alas ! in a melancholy condition. J The bereaved
City fared almost as ill in regard to literature as to art.
The consequences of this state of things, which then passed
unperceived, made themselves felt at a later period. The
triumph of the Renaissance in Rome would have been
neither so rapid nor so complete, but for the state of
barbarism into which the City had fallen when deprived of
the Pope.
* Papencordt, Rienzo, 42. See della Valle, Storia del duomo di
Orvieto, (Roma, 1791), 103, 105, 266, 268, 286, 289-290.
t Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 657. See Reumont,ii., 1000 et seq.,
and Schnaase, vii., 2nd ed., 477.
J For Giotto s summons to Avignon, see Schnaase, vii., ist ed.,
356, note 2 ; regarding Simone Martini s paintings in Avignon,
see Crowe-Cavalcaselle, ii., 261-269. J * 111 XXII. similarly
encouraged art and artists ; see Faucon in the Melanges d arche"o-
logie et d hist., published by the Ecole Francaise de Rome, ii.
(1882), 43-83. On Simone Martini s paintings in Avignon, see
Miintz in the 45th vol. of the Mem. de la Soc. Nat. des Antiq. de
la France.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 71
It is hard to form an adequate idea of the utter desola
tion^ and degradation of Rome at this time. The view on
which Petrarch looked down from the Baths of Diocletian,
with its hills crowned by solitary churches, its uncultivated
fields, its masses of ancient and modern ruins, its scattered
rows of houses, had nothing to distinguish it from the
open country but the circuit of the old walls of Aurelian.
The ruins of two epochs heathen antiquity and the
Christian middle ages made up the Rome of those days.*
It was no mere figure of speech when Cardinal
Napoleone Orsini, after the death of Clement V. (1314),
assured the King of France that the transfer of the Papal
residence to Avignon had brought Rome to the brink of
ruin, or when at a later date (1347), ^^ a di Rienzo
declared that the Eternal City was more like a den pi
robbers than the abode of civilized men.t
Rome learnt by bitter experience that she was historically^.^-
important only as the seat of the Papacy, and the Popes
had also much to suffer on account of their separation
from their natural prescriptive home. Parted from Italy
the States of the Church, and Rome, the very ground had
been cut away from under their feet. In one respect in ,
particular this very soon made itself felt.
The financial difficulties from which the Popes had
suffered even in the thirteenth century became much more ^
serious after they had taken up their abode, on French soil.
On the one hand, the income they had drawn from Italy
failed ; and on the other, the tributary powers became much
more irregular in the fulfilment of their obligations,
* Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 689. See 177 et seq., ^l
4 1 8 et seq.
t Cardinal N. Orsini s letter is printed in Baluze, Vitae, ii., 289-
292, that of Cola di Rienzo in an old Italian translation in Sanso-
vino, Casa Orsini, 52-53^, and in Bussi, 195-196.
72 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
because they feared that the greater part of the subsidies
they paid would fall into the hands of France. The Papal
financiers adopted most questionable means of covering
deficits. From the time of John XXII. especially, the
*
hurtful system of A.nnates, Reservations, and Expectancies,
came into play,* and a multitude of abuses were its conse
quence. Alvaro Pelayo, the most devoted, perhaps even
over-zealous, defender of the Papal power in the fourteenth
century, justly considers the employment of a measure,
liable to excite the cupidity of the clergy, as one of the
wounds which then afflicted the Church. His testimony is
all the more worthy of consideration, because, as an official of
many years standing in the Court, he describes the state
of things at Avignon from his own most intimate know
ledge. In his celebrated book, " On the Lamentation of the
Church/ he says : " Whenever I entered the chambers of
the ecclesiastics of the Papal Court, I found brokers and
clergy, engaged in weighing and reckoning the money
which lay in heaps before them."f
This system of taxation and its consequent abuses soon
aroused passionate resentment. Dante, " consumed with
zeal for the House of God," expressed, in burning words,
his deep indignation against the cupidity and nepotism of
the Popes, always, however, carefully distinguishing
between Pope and Papacy, person and office. J It was not
* See Cristophe, ii., 8-16, and Phillips, v., 564^ seq. The
manner in which Benedict XL (1303-1304) sought to remedy
financial pressure is described by Ch. Grandjean in the Melanges
d Arch., et d Hist., iii., i and 2.
t A. Pelagius, ii., art. 7.
J Hettinger, Dante, 122 and 460. See also Reumont, ii., 816,
who shows that the author of this financial system was a grave,
simple, and moderate man. In support of my own judgment of
the Avignon finance, which may perhaps be by many considered
too severe, I would refer to the strong expressions used by J. von
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 73
long, however, before an opposition arose which made no
such distinctions, and attacked not only the abuses which
had crept in, but the Ecclesiastical authority itself. The
Avignon system of finance, which contributed more than
has been generally supposed to the undermining of the
Papal authority, greatly facilitated the attacks of this
party.
From what has been said it will be clearly seen that the
long-continued sojourn of the Popes in France, occasioned
as it was by the confusion of Italian affairs,"* was an
important turning-point in the history of the Papacy and
of the Church. The course of development which had
been going on for many centuries, was thereby almost
abruptly interrupted, and a completely new state of things
substituted for it. No one who has any idea of the nature
and the necessity of historical continuity, can fail to per
ceive the danger of this transference of the centre of
ecclesiastical unity to southern France.f The Papal power
and the general interests of the Church, which at that time
required quiet progress and in many ways thorough reform,
must inevitably in the long run be severely shaken.
To make matters worse, the conflict between the Empire
and the Church now broke out with unexpected violence.
The most prominent antagonists of the Papacy, both
ecclesiastical and political, gathered around Louis of
Gorres, in the Histor-polit. Bl. xxviii., 703 et seq. ; see xvi., 328^
seq., and in the introduction to H. Suso s Leben und Schriften, pub
lished by Diepenbrock (2nd ed., Regensburg, 1837), xxix. The
feeling called forth in Germany by the manner in which the
Avignon Popes amassed money, is reflected in many of the City
Records (see Chroniken der deutschen Stiidte, iv., 306; vii., 189 ;
ix., 583), and about the end of this period, led in Germany, as well
as in England, to open resistance. See infra, p. 91.
* See Renan in the Revue des Deux Mondes( 1880), xxxviii., 112.
t Theiner-Fessler, vii. See Phillips, in., 331, 334.
74 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Bavaria, offering him their assistance against John XXII.
At the head of the ecclesiastical opposition appeared the
popular and influential order of the Friars Minor, who at
this very moment were at daggers drawn with the Pope.*
The special occasion of this quarrel was a difference
between them and him, regarding the meaning of
evangelical poverty ; and the great popularity of the Order
made their hostility all the more formidable.f The
Minorites, who were irritated to the utmost against the
Pope, succeeded in gaining great influence over Louis of
Bavaria, an influence which is clearly traceable in the
appeal published by him in 1324, at Sachenhausen, near
Frankfort. In this remarkable document, amongst the
many serious charges brought against " John XXII. , who
calls himself Pope," is that of heresy, and it is asserted that
he exalts himself against the evangelical doctrines of perfect
poverty, and thus against Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and
the company of the Apostles, who all approved it by their
lives. { After a passionate dogmatic exposition of the
poverty of Christ and a shower of reproaches, comes the
appeal to the Council, to a future legitimate Pope, to Holy
Mother Church, to the Apostolic See, and to every one in
general to whom an appeal could be made.
This document, in which political and religious questions
* See Marcour, 1-20. Miiller, i., 83 et seq. For the connection
between this conflict and the Franciscan agitation which disturbed
ecclesiastical affairs more than a century previously, see M. Ritter
in the Theol. Literaturblatt, 1877, p. 121 et seq.
f Hofler, Avignonesische Papste, 255, 256.
J Baluze, Vitae, ii., 496 and 502.
Loc cit., 511. For the Minorites share in Louis Appeal and
his attitude towards them, see Marcour, 29 et seq., 71-715.
Miiller, i., 75 et seq., 86 et seq., and Riezler, Gesch. Bayerns, ii., 352
et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 75
were mingled together, was sedulously disseminated in
Germany and Italy. It must have greatly embittered the
whole contest. A religious conflict was now added to the
political one. Louis, a simple soldier, was unable to
measure its consequences and powerless to control its
progress. It grew more and more passionate and violent.
The Minorites no longer confined themselves to the
province of theology, in which the conflict between them
and the Pope had at first arisen, but also took part in the
political question. Led on by their theological antagonism,
they proceeded to build up a political system resting on
theories which threatened to disturb all existing ideas of
law, and to shake the position of the Papacy to its very
foundations. The special importance of the action of the
Minorites* consists in the assertion and maintenance of
these principles, which indeed did not at once come pro
minently forward, for the writings of the Englishman,
William Occam, in which they are chiefly propounded,
collectively date from a period subsequent to the Diet of
Rhense. There can, however, be no doubt that the views
which Occam afterwards expressed in his principal work,
the " Dialogus/ -j- had already at an earlier period exercised
great influence.
* Special stress is laid on this by Marcour, 29.
t Besides this book, his work, Super potestate summi pontificis
octo quaestionum decisiones, is worthy of consideration. See, re
garding both works, Marcour, 30 et scq. Riezler, Literar. Wider-
facher, 249-275, and Gierke, 54 et seq., 213 et seq. For Occam s
philosophical system, see Schwab, 274 et seq., cf. 31 et seq.,
Prantl, Gesch. der Logik, iii, 327-420, and Haffner, 634 et seq.
The relation between Occam s doctrine regarding the Lord s
Supper and that of Luther is treated in Theol. Studien und Kritiken,
1839, p. 69-136; 1873, p. 471 et seq. On Occam s view of the
relations between Church and State, see Dorner s Essay in the
Theol. Studien und Kritiken, 1885, Vol. iv.
76 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
According to the theory of Occam, who was deeply
imbued with the political ideas of the ancients, the Emperor
has a right to depose the Pope should he fall into heresy.
Both General Councils and Popes may err, Holy Scripture
and the beliefs held by the Church at all times and in all
places, can alone be taken as the unalterable rule of Faith
and Morals. The Primacy and Hierarchical Institutions in
general are not necessary or essential to the subsistence
of the Church ; and the forms of the ecclesiastical, as of
the political, constitution ought to vary with the varying
needs of the time.
With the Minorites two other men soon came to the front,
who may be considered as the spokesmen of the definite
political opposition to the Papacy. It was probably in the
summer of the year 1326 that the Professors of the
University^ of JParis, Marsiglip of Padua and Jean de
Jandurij made their appearance at the Royal Court of
Nuremberg.* The " Defender of Peace " (Defensor
Pacist), the celebrated joint work of these two most
important literary antagonists of thr Popes of their day, is
of so remarkable a character that we must not omit to give
k a further account of its subversive propositions. This
work, which is full of violent invectives against John XXII.,
" the great dragon and the old serpent," asserts the un-
* See Riezler, Literar. Widersacher, 29 et seq., who in opposition
to Dollinger and others shows that neither Jean de Jandun nor
Marsiglio belonged to the Order of Minorites (34 et seq,, 56).
For the date of the arrival of these two learned men in Nuremberg,
see Miiller, i., 162.
t Riezler is not entirely correct regarding the editions and MSS.,
Literar. Widersacher, 193 et seq. The work was completed, accord
ing to Miiller (i., 368), probably in June, 1324. Another, but not
sufficiently considered conjecture as to the origin of this remarkable
document is put forward by M. RiLter in the Theol. Lit. Blali.
(1874, p. 560).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 77
conditional sovereignty of the people. The legislative
power which is exercised through their elected representa
tives, belongs to them, also the appointment of the
executive through their delegates. The ruler is merely
the instrument of the legislature. He is subject to the law,
from which no individual is exempt. If the ruler exceeds
his authority, the people are justified in depriving him of
his power, and deposing him. The jurisdiction of the civil
power extends even to the determination of the number of
men to be employed in every trade or profession. In
dividual liberty has no more place in Marsiglio s state than
it had in Sparta.
Still more radical, if possible, are the views regarding
the doctrine and government of the Church put forth in
this work. ( The sole foundation of faith and of the Church
is Holy Scripture, which does not derive its authority from
her, but, on the contrary, confers on her that which she
possesses. The only true interpretation of Scripture is,
not that of the Church, but that of the most intelligent
people, so that the University of Paris may very well be
superior to the Court of Rome. Questions concerning
faith are to be decided, not by the Pope, but by a General
Council.
This General Council is supreme over the whole Church,
and is to be summoned by the State. It is to be composed
not only of the clergy, but also of laymen elected by the
people. As regards their office, all priests are equal ;
according to Divine right, no one of them is higher than
another. The whole question of Church government is
one of expediency, not of the faith necessary to salvation.
The Primacy of the Pope is not founded on Scripture, nor
on Divine right. His authority therefore can only, accord
ing to Marsiglio, be derived from a General Council and
from the legislature of the State ; and for the election of a
78 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Pope the authority of the Council requires confirmation
from the State. The office of the Pope is, with the College
appointed for him by the Council or by the State, to
signify to the State authority the necessity of summoning
a Council, to preside at the Council, to draw up its
decisions, to impart them to the different Churches, and to
provide for their execution. The Pope represents the
executive power, while the legislative power in its widest
extent appertains to the Council. But a far higher and
more influential position belongs to the Emperor in
Marsiglio s Church ; the convocation and direction of the
Council is his affair ; he can punish priests and bishops,
and even the Pope. Ecclesiastics are subject to the
temporal tribunals for transgressions of the law, the
Pope himself is not exempt from penal justice, far
less can he be permitted to judge his ecclesiastics, for
this is the concern of the State. The property of the
Church enjoys no immunity from taxation; the number of
ecclesiastics in a country is to be limited by the pleasure of
the State ; the patronage of all benefices belongs to the
State, and may be exercised either by Princes, or by the
majority of the members of the parish to which an ecclesi
astic is to be appointed. The parish has not only the right
of election and appointment, but also the control of the
official duties of the priest, and the ultimate power of
dismissal. Exclusion from the Christian community, in so
far as temporal and worldly interests are connected with it,
, requires its consent. Like Calvin * in later days, Marsiglio
Regards all the judicial and legislative power of the Church
* See Kampschulte, Joh. Calvin (Leipzig, 1869), i., 268 et seq.
The relation of Marsiglio s system with that of Calvin has not been
remarked by any modern historian but Dollinger (Lehrbuch, ii., i,
259). It seems to me probable that the " Defensor Pacis " exer
cised a direct influence on the " Reformer " of Geneva.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
as inherent in the people, and delegated by them to the
clergy. The community and the State are everything ; the
Church is put completely in the back-ground; she has no
legislature, no judicial power, and no property.
The goods of the Church belong to the individuals who
have devoted them to ecclesiastical uses, and then to the
State. The State is to decide regarding sale and purchase,
and to consider whether these goods are sufficient to
provide for the needs of the clergy and of the poor. The
State has also power, should it be necessary for the public
good, to deprive the Church of her superfluities and limit her
to what is necessary, and the State has the right to effect
this secularization, notwithstanding the opposition of the
Priests. But never, Marsiglio teaches, is power over
temporal goods to be conceded to the Roman Bishop,
because experience has shown that he uses it in a manner
dangerous to the public peace."* Like Valla and Mac-
j chiavelli, in later times, Marsiglio assumes the air of an
/ Italian patriot, when he attributes all the troubles of Italy
f to the Popes. This is a palpable sophistry, for that reproach
was in no w r ay applicable to Marsiglio s days. Italy was then
under the sway of her most distinguished monarch, King
Robert of Anjou, whom the Popes had protected to the best
of their power, and Louis of Bavaria s expedition to Rome
was certainly neither their wish nor their work. On the
contrary, at a later period, Pope John XXII. issued a Bull
* Friedberg in Dove-Friedberg, Zeitschr. fur Kirchenrecht,
viii., 121-137. See also Friedberg, Mittelalterliche Lehren, ii., 32-
48. Riezler, Wiedersacher, 198 et seq., 225-226. Maassen, 217-
220. Gierke, 52-54, 125, 128, 228. Martens, 397-399. Schockel,
Marsilius von Padua (Strasburg, 1877). B. Labanca, Marsiglio di
P. (Padova, 1882). See Gott. Gel. Anz., 1883, No. 29. Ischac-
kert, 2, 5, 45, has some good remarks regarding Marsiglio s
theories of Church and State.
So HISTORY OF THE POPES.
with the object of separating Italy from Germany, and
thereby destroying the influence of the " Ultramontanes,"
or non-Italians in Italy.*"
In face of these outrageous attacks and this blank denial
of the Divine institution of the Primacy and the Hierarchy,
there were never wanting brave champions of the Apostolic
See and of the doctrine of the Church. Most of them,
unfortunately, were led by excess of zeal to formulate
absurd and preposterous propositions. Agostino Trionfo,
an Italian, and Alvaro Pelayo, a Spaniard, have, in this
matter, gained a melancholy renown. As one extreme
! leads to another, in their opposition to the Caesaro-papacy
of Marsiglio, they exalted the Pope into a kind of demi
god, with absolute authority over the whole world.
Evidently, exaggerations of this kind were not calculated
to counteract the attacks of political scepticism in regard
to the authority of the Holy See.f
The theory put forward in the " Defensor Pads," re
garding the omnipotence of the State and the consequent
annihilation of all individual and ecclesiastical liberty, far
* Hofler, Kaiserthum, 153. The famous Bull of John XXIL,
by which Italy was severed from the Empire, neither exists in the
Vatican, in the original, nor in the Regesta. This fact has been
established by F. Denifle (Archiv. von Denifle und Ehrle., i., 626),
and the question of the authenticity of the Bull has entered into a new
phase. Scheffer-Boichorst (Mittheilungen, vi., 78) and W. Felten
(Die Bulle : " Ne pretereat.," Trier., 1885) have pronounced against
it. In the last mentioned, a most conscientious work, the author
endeavours to show that the Bull is a forgery, composed in the
Chancellery of the House of Anjou, published and used against the
Pope by the Minorites.
t See Hergenrother, Kirchengeschichte, ii., I, 18. Staat und
Kirche, 415 et seq. Lederer, 193. Dollinger, Papst-Fabeln, 130,
and Alzog, ii., loth ed., 14. Regarding the Bull of John XXII.
against the "Defensor Pads," see Werner, iii., 547 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 8l
surpassed all preceding attacks on the position and con
stitution of the Church in audacity, novelty, and acrimony.
Practically this doctrine, which was copied from the
ancients, meant the overthrow of all existing institutions
and the separation of Church and State. Many passages
of the work go far beyond the subsequent utterances of
Wyclif and Huss, or even those of Luther and Calvin,
whose forerunner ^Ma^j^fi *>38$JSLjSP considered. The
greaf*Prench Revolution was a partial realization of his
schemes, and, in these days, a powerful party is working
for the accomplishment of the rest.* Huss has been
styled " th_Precursor!LQL J&sJ&KOlutipn . t but the^j-u^hpr
of the ! MDefenspkfa.cis " might yet more justly claim the
title.
Louis of Bavaria accepted the dedication of the book
which brought these doctrines before the world and
promulgated political principles of so questionable a
character, but a still greater triumph was in store for
Marsiglio. In union with the anti-papal Minorites and the
Italian Ghibellines, he succeeded in inducing Louis to go
to Rome and to engage in the Revolutionary proceedings
of the year 13284 The collation of the Imperial Crown
by the Roman people, their deposition of the Pope and
* Riezler, Widersacher, 227. See Friedberg, Mittelalterl.
Lehren, 48, 49. Schwab, 30, 31. G. B. Lechler, Der Kirchen-
staat und die Opposition gegen den papstlichen Absolutismus im
Anfang des vierzehnten Jahrhunderts (Leipzig, 1870), 20 et seq.
Preger, 6 et seq. Kohler (Die Staatslehre der Vorreformatoren) in
den Jahrb. fiir deutsche Theologie (1874), xix., 356 et seq.
t L. Blanc, Hist, de la Revol. Francaise (1847), i-> J 9-
\ The well-informed Mussato mentions Marsiglio and Ubertino
di Casale as the advisers who had most influence with Louis on his
expedition to Italy. Bohmer, Fontes, i., 175. See Riezler, 43 et
seq.j 49-50. Miiller, i., 163 et seq. For the part taken by the
Minorites, see Marcour, 43 et seq.
G
82 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
election of an anti-Pope in the person of the Minorite,
Pietro da Corvara, were the practical results of the
teaching of the " Defensor Pads."*
Some of the Emperors of the House of Hohenstaufen
had been men of stronger characters than Louis was, yet
none had ever gone to such extremes. He appealed to
doctrines whose application to ecclesiastical matters was
equivalent to revolution, and whose re-action on the
sphere of politics after their triumph over the Church
would have been rapid and incalculable. For a century
and a half the Church had been free from schism ; by his
action he let loose this terrible evil upon her. His culp
able rashness gave a revolutionary and democratic turn to
the struggle between the Empire and the Papacy. He
repudiated all the canonical decisions regarding the
Supremacy of the Pope which the Emperors of the House
of Hapsburg had accepted, degraded the Empire to a mere
Investiture from the Capitol, and despoiled the Crown of
Charles the Great, in the eyes of all who believed in the
ancient imperial hierarchy, of the last ray of its majesty.
It is strange that under Louis the Roman Empire should
actually have been thus desecrated and degraded, so soon
after Dante s idealization had crowned it with a halo of
glory.f
It is impossible in the present retrospect to describe all
* Hofler, Concilia Pragensia (Prag., 1862), p, xxi.
t These are the words of Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 153-155.
The passage here given from a manuscript in the Vatican Library,
(Cod. Vat. 4008. Nicolai Minor, ord. collectio gestorum tempore
Joannis XXII. super quaestione de paupertate Christi, fol. 27, not
2 5) has also been published from a copy by Ficker von Huber in
the 4th volume of the Bohmerschen Fontes (p. 590), at full length.
The beginning of this remarkable passage had already been printed
from a Parisian MS., in the year 1693, by Baluze (i., 706).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 83
the vicissitudes of Church and State during the . struggle
which was so disastrous to both. Envenomed by the
dependence of the Popes on France, the exasperation
on both sides was intense. The ecclesiastical power was
implacable, lost to all sense of moderation, dignity, or
charity. The secular power, cowardly but defiant, shrank
from no extreme, sought the aid of the lowest demagogues,
and by its vacillations frustrated each favourable chance
that arose. The long and obstinate warfare, so little
honourable to either party, could have no result save the
equal humiliation of both and the complete ruin of social
order in Church and State.* John XXII., restless and
active to the last,t died at a great age on the 4th
December, 1334.
His successor, Benedict XII. (1334-1342), a man of
austere morals, was unable, notwithstanding his gentle and
pacific disposition, to compose the strife with Louis of
Bavaria and the Friars. King Philip VI. of France and
the Cardinals in the French interest laboured to prevent
peace between the Pope and Louis, and Benedict had not
sufficient strength of will to carry out his purpose in face
of their opposition. {
John XXII., in his latter years, had thought of returning
to Rome, and Pope Benedict XII. wished to do so, but the
* Such is the opinion of Gorres (in the Preface to H. Suso s
Leben und Schriften, published by M. Diepenbrock [Regensburg,
1829], xxix.-xxx.) and Bohmer (Regesten Ludwigs des Bayern,
[Frankfurt, 1839], xiii. Note: See Janssen, Bohmers Leben, i.,
284).
t The volumes of Regesta preserved in the Secret Papal
Archives, containing sixty thousand, (according to other com
putations nearer eighty thousand), documents, bear witness to the
world-wide labours of John XXII. Dudik, Iter Rom., ii., 4 (see
Civ. Catt. Ottob., 1884, p. 39).
t See Miiller, ii., 3 et seq.
84 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Eternal City was at this time an arena of passionate
discord and constant bloodshed. A Pope could not have
remained there, even if the predominance of French in
fluence and the irksome protection of the House of Anjou
had allowed him to make the attempt* King Philip VI.
and the French Cardinals, who formed the large majority
of the Sacred College, accordingly found no difficulty in
detaining the Pope on the banks of the Rhone. In face of
the hopeless and yearly increasing confusion in Italy, the
wish to return to the Tombs of the Apostles gradually died
away in his noble soul. In 1339 he began to build at
Avignon a suitable dwelling-place, half palace and half
fortress ; it was enlarged by his successors and so
gradually grew into the celebrated Palace of the Popes.
This gigantic pile standsf on the rock of the Doms, and
with its huge, heavy square towers, its naked yellowish-
brown colossal walls, five yards in thickness and broken
irregularly by a few pointed windows, is one of the most
imposing creations of mediaeval architecture. In its
strange combination of castle and cloister, prison and
palace, this temporary residence of the Popes reflects both
the deterioration and the fate of the Papacy in France. It
was the Popes prison, and at the same time their Baronial
Castle, in that feudal epoch when the Heads of Christendom
were vassals of the French Crown, and were not ashamed
to bear the title of Counts of Venaissin and Avignon. The
* Kraus, 467.
f According to Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionn. de 1 Architecture
(Paris, 1864), vii., 27, it occupies an area of 8000 metres and was
used as a barrack until 1883. It may be said that the French
nation is in honour bound to restore this ancient edifice, whose
neglected condition strikes every visitor ; this work is now in con
templation. E. Miintz is preparing an exhaustive work on the
Palace of the Popes at Avignon.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 85
Palace of the Popes, in comparison with which the neigh
bouring Cathedral has an insignificant appearance, also
manifests the decline of the ecclesiastical, and the pre
dominance of the worldly, warlike, and princely element,
which marked the Avignon period.*
The labours of Benedict XII. as a reformer, in the best
sense of the word, are worthy of the highest praise. In
this respect he forms a striking contrast with his prede
cessor ; he also most carefully avoided anything approach
ing to nepotism. " A Pope," he said, " should be like
Melchisedech, without father, without mother, without
genealogy." t During his whole Pontificate he manifested
the most earnest desire to do away with the abuses which
had prevailed in the preceding reign, severely repressing
bribery and corruption in all the branches of ecclesiastical
administration. He sent the prelates who lingered about
the Court back to their dioceses, and revoked all In-Com-
mendams and Expectancies, with the exception of those
appertaining to the Cardinals and Patriarchs. He made
the reform of the relaxed Religious Orders of men his
special care,J and, as one of his biographers observes, he
caused the Church, which had become Agar, to be again
Sara, and brought her out of bondage into freedom.
Benedict XII/s successor, Pierre Roger de Beaufort, was
* See BoiserSe (Stuttgart, 1862), i., 664, and Gregorovius,
Wanderjahre, ii., 2nd ed., 330, 331. See A. Stolz, Spanisches
(Freiburg, 1854), 55, and L. de Laincel, Avignon (Paris, 1872),
329 et seq.
f This is related by Cardinal ^Egidius, of Viterbo, who lived
much later; see Pagi, Breviarium, iv., 117.
J See Schwab, 12 et seq., and Miiller, ii., 3, who gives the
authentic proofs. See also Schmieder, Zur Gesch. der Durch-
fuhrung der Benedictina in Deutschland, in the u Studien aus dem
Benedictiner-Orden," iv., Jahrg. 4 and 5.
Quinta Vita Benedicti XII., in Baluze i., 232.
86 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
also a native of the South of France ; he was born at the
Castle of Maumont in the Diocese of Limoges, and, on
his accession, took the name of Clement VI.* (1342-1352).
Unlike the pacific Benedict, this strong-minded Pontiff pro
ceeded to resume against Louis of Bavaria the traditions of
John XXII. , and with success. He skilfully turned the
enmity of the Houses of Liitzelburg and Wittelsbach to
account against the Emperor. A deadly struggle between
these two families was imminent, when Louis suddenly died.
The triumph of the Papacy seemed assured, for Charles IV.
undertook to satisfy all the demands of the Papal Court,t
and even the portion of the German nation which had
followed the Emperor in his opposition to the Popes,
gradually reverted to its former path.
But the whole nature of the conflict between the two
divinely appointed powers, and the new ideas which had
come to light during its continuance, had worked a great
change in the spirit of the age. The old Pagan idea of
the State, so destructive of every other human or divine
right, had been revived by Marsiglio and Occam, and its
delusive sophistry had beguiled many. The disastrous
struggle had shaken the allegiance of thousands to the
authority of the Pope, many spiritual bonds which had
hitherto attached them to the Church were loosened, the
general feeling was no longer what it had formerly been,J
and, moreover, the corruption of morals during these years
had made frightful progress.
* For his earlier life and his relations with Charles IV., see
Werunsky, Gesch. Kaiser Karls IV. (Innsbruck, 1880), 19 et seq..
257 et seq., and Gottlob, 39 et seq., 44 et seq.
f Huber, Regesten Karls IV. (Innsbruck, 1877), xv.-xvi., 21, No.
228.
J Preger, 61. See Miiller, ii., 266, and Lorenz, Papstwahl,
194.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 87
The Pontificate of Clement VI. was marked by the
revolt of Cola di Rienzo, and the magic power attached to
the name of the Eternal City was again manifested, but
the fantastic extravagance of the Tribune, the instability
of the Roman people, and, finally, the measures taken
against it by the Pope, soon made an end of the new
Republic and its head. The whole revolt seemed like
some meteor that beams forth for a moment and is imme
diately lost in the darkness. Yet in some respects it was
an important sign of the times. The programme of
Italian unity under an Italian Emperor, put forth by the
"Tragic Actor in the tattered purple of antiquity,"* clearly
showed the progress already achieved by the modern idea
of nationality. The ruin of the great political unity of the
Middle Ages brought forth the selfish spirit of modern
times. This unchristian nationalism was first developed
in France, the very nation into whose power the Head of
the Church had fallen. Thence it spread to Italy, where it
found an ally in the heathen Renaissance. This was only
natural, for nationalism in its narrowest sense was the
spirit of the ancient world. Sooner or later a conflict
between the Church and this degenerate principle was
inevitable, for the Universal Church cannot be national.
According to the will of her Divine Founder, she must
accommodate herself to every race : there must be One
Fold and One Shepherd. At one and the same time the
most stable and the most pliable of all institutions, the
Church can be all things to all men. and can educate every
nation without doing violence to her nature. She perse
cutes no tongue nor people, but she shows no special
preferences. She is simply Catholic, that is, Universal.
Were it possible for her to become the tool of any one
* This name is well bestowed on him by Gregorovius, vi., $rd
ed., 358.
88 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
nation, she would cease to be the Universal Church,*
embracing the whole world.
Clement VI. was in many respects a distinguished man.t
He was celebrated for immense theological knowledge, for
a marvellous memory, and, above all, for rare eloquence.
Some of his sermons, preached in the Papal Chapel before
his elevation to the Pontificate, are preserved in manuscript
in German Libraries. When Pope, he used to preach
publicly on occasions of special importance to the Church,
such, for example, as the appointment of Louis of Spain to
be Prince and Lord of the Canary Islands (1344)4
* " Cola di Rienzo und die modernen Nationalitiiten : " Hislor-
polit., Bl. xx., 470 et seq., and Dollinger, Kirche und Kirchen, 20,
21.
t Hofler, Av ignonesische Papste, 271, considers him the most
important amongst the Popes of his time. See Aus Avignon, 19.
Christophe goes further (ii., 167), for in his opinion few Popes
have ever ruled the Church with greater ability.
J Collatio facta per dominum Clementem papam quando con-
stituit Ludovicum de Hispania principem Insularum Fortunatarum.
Cod. xi., 343, f. i85a-i89b of the Library of the Canons Regular
at St. Florian; also in Cod. 4195* f- I O5~ I 54 of the Court Library
at Vienna (see Hofler, Roman. Welt, 123, 124). The sermons of
Clement VI. were very widely circulated. Copies of them are
found in Brussels : Bibl. de Bourg., Cod. 3480; Eichstiidt Library
(see Hofler, Aus Avignon, 10, 18, 20) ; St. Florian Library, Cod.
xi., 126, f. iQ6b et seq., and xi-343 ; Frankfurt on the Main, Town
Library (Cod. 71 of the former Cathedral Library, identical with
the contemporary MS., from which Schumk took his copy,
Beitrage zur Mainzer Gesch. [Frankfurt, 1788]) ; St. Gall
Monastery Library, Cod. 1023 ; Gnesen Cathedral Chapter
Library, Cod. 53 (saec xiv.) ; Innsbruck : University Library, Cod.
25, f. 119 etseq., 234, f. 2O$*etseq., 769, f. 82 et seq. ; Kremsmiinster
Library, Cod. 4 (see Schmid, Cat. Cod. Cremif. f. 76) ; Leipzig :
Paul.-Bibl. (Montfaucon Bibl. 595); Metz : Library Cod. 97;
Munich : Court Library, Cod. Lat. 8826 (see Miiller, i., 144), and
Cod. Lat. 903, 18205, 18660, 21247 seethe Catalogue of MSS.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 89
The gentleness and benevolence of this Pontiff were
even more remarkable than his erudition and eloquence.* He
was ever the helper of the poor and needy, and the brave
defender of the unfortunate and oppressed. When a
sanguinary persecution broke out against the Jews, who
were detested as the representatives of capital, and slain
by thousands by the excited populace in France and
Germany, the Pope alone espoused their cause. He felt
that his exalted position imposed on him the duty of curbing
the wild fanaticism of the turbulent masses. In July and
September, 1348, he issued Bulls for the protection of the
abhorred race. If in the frantic excitement of the time,
these measures were almost fruitless, Clement VI. at least
did all that was in his power, by affording refuge to the
homeless wanderers in his little State. t
But notwithstanding the admirable qualities of this
Pontiff, there is a dark side, which we must not conceal.
Through the acquisition, by purchase, of Avignon and the
Olmiitz Library (see Archiv, x., 676) ; Oxford and Cambridge
(see Oudin, iii., 931) ; Paris Library (see Miiller, i., 166 ; ii., 361,
363) ; Rheims : Archiepiscopal Library, according to Ziegelbauef,
Hist. rei. litt. ord. S. Bened., iii., 181 (if still extant ?) ; Treves :
Seminary Library, Cod. iii., 10 (olim monast. S. Mathiae) ; Venice :
Library of St. Mark s, cl., vi., Cod. 9 ; Vienna : Court Library (see
above and Tabular i., 328; ii., 487). Sermones Mag., Petri
Rogerii memb. s. 15, according to a note of Heine inserted in the
Serapeum (1847), T. viii., p. 87. These sermons were found in a
MS. in the Library of the Monastery of Ripoli, whence they have
been transferred to the Archives of the Crown of Aragon at
Barcelona.
* Clementissimus ille Clemens, clementiae speculum. Tertia
Vita Clementis VI., Baluze, i., 300; compare 263.
f See L. Bardinet, Condition des Juifs du comtat Venaissin pen
dant le 86* jour des Papes a Avignon, in the Revue Hist., xii., 18-22 ;
Haeser, iii. 155, and K. Miiller s Literaturangaben in the Zeitschr.
fur Kirchen-Gesch., vii., 114.
go HISTORY OF THE POPES.
creation of many French Cardinals, he made the Roman
* Church still more, dependent on France.* Her true in
terests suffered much from the manner in which he heaped
riches and favours on his relations, and from the luxury
of his Court. Extravagance and good cheer were carried
to a frightful pitch in Avignon during his reign. There
was a certain magnanimity in the prodigality of Clement,
who said that he was Pope only to promote the happiness
of his subjects ;t but the treasure left by his two immediate
predecessors was soon exhausted, and fresh resources
were needed to enable him to continue his liberal
mode of life. He was only able to procure these at the
cost of the interests of the Church, for his financial
measures were even more injurious than those of Clement
V. and John XXII. As in former times, so now, the
frequent and excessive exercise of the undoubted^ right of
* See Christophe, ii., 107 et seq., 352 et seq., and de Beaume-
fort, Cession de la ville et de 1 Etat d Avignon au Pape Clement
VI., par Jeanne L, reine de Naples (Apt., 1874). A characteristic
sign of the increase of French influence (see the extract from
Faucon, 82, supra, p. 58) at the Papal Court, after the time of
John XXII., is found in the fact that Clement VI., instead of, like
his predecessor, employing an Italian artist in the decoration of the
Papal Palace at Avignon, selected a French one. In a contract in
the Town Archives at Avignon, of the year 1349, this Simonettus
Lugdunensis, pictor curiam Romanam sequens is appointed. The
monogram of this painter (M.L.) is also to be seen in the Chapel
of Innocent VI. at Villeneuve ; see Canron, Le Palais des Papes a
Avignon (2nd ed., Avignon, 1875), 2I According to Miintz
(Bullet. Monument., 1884), the Italian element was still in a
majority among the artists employed by Clement VI. Cf. what
this writer says about Simonet of Lyons. Cf. Janitscheck, Rupert,
T. viii., p. 390. On the Library of the Popes at Avignon, see Fauoon,
La Librairie des Papes, 1316-1420 (Paris, 1886), Vol. i. andji.
t Baluze, i., 282.
J See Phillips, ii., 585 et seq. ; v., 540 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 91
the Popes to levy taxes led, in many countries, to violent
resistance. Among the Teutonic nations especially, the
discontent was extreme.* England endeavoured to protect
herself by strict legislative enactments,t and her example
was afterwards followed by Germany. Owing, however, to
political distractions, the opposition was not unanimous,
although the measures adopted were, in some cases, suffi
ciently stringent. In October, 1372, the monasteries and
abbeys in Cologne entered into a compact to resist Pope
Gregory XI. in his proposed levy of a tithe on their
revenues. The wording of their document manifests the \x
depth of the feeling which prevailed in Germany against
the Court of Avignon. " In consequence," it says, " of the
exactions with which the Papal Court burdens the clergy,
the Apostolic See has fallen into such contempt, that the
Catholic Faith in these parts seems to be seriously
imperilled. The laity speak slightingly of the Church,
because, departing from the custom of former days, she
hardly ever sends forth preachers or reformers, but rather
ostentatious men, cunning, selfish, and greedy. Things
have come to such a pass, that few are Christians more
than in name." J The example of Cologne was soon followed.
Similar protests were issued in the same month by the
Chapters of Bonn, Xanten, and Soest, and in the month of
* Among the Latin races also, complaints of the enormous
exactions of the Avignon Court were heard. The Augustinian,
Luigi Marsigli, wrote to a friend from Paris on the 2oth August,
1375 : Alle disordinate spese di Avignone non basta le offerende di
San Pietro e Paulo, e non basterebbe quello che Creso in Lidia
raun6 ; che Cesare don6 in Roma, o cio che in quella distrusse
Nerone. Lettera del b. L. Marsigli, p. xi.
j- See Lingard, iv., 178 et seq. Schwab, 530. Pauli, iv., 481 et
seq. Stubbs, Const, hist, of England (Oxford, 1878), iii., 314.
^ The document is printed in Lacomblet, Urkundenbuch fur
Gesch. des Nieder-rheins (Diisseldorf, 1853), iii., 627-629.
g2 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
November by the ecclesiastics of Mayence.* Such was the
feeling in Western Germany towards the end of the
Avignon period, and in Southern Germany the same
sentiments prevailed. Duke Stephen the elder of Bavaria
and his sons addressed a letter to the ecclesiastics of their
country in 1367, informing them "that the Pope lays a
heavy tax on the income of the clergy, and has thus brought
ruin on the monasteries ; they are therefore strictly enjoined,
under severe penalties, to pay no tax or tribute, for their
country is a free country, and the princes will not permit
the introduction of such customs, for the Pope has no orders
to give in their country ."f
Clement VI., unfortunately, did not recognize the injury
inflicted on the interests of the Church by his extravagant
demands for money. On the contrary, when the abuses
which had ensued were brought to his notice, and he was
reminded that none of his predecessors had allowed things
to go to such lengths, he replied, " My predecessors did not
know how to be Popes/ J a saying which is characteristic
of this Pontiff, in whose person the period of the Avignon
exile is most characteristically portrayed.
* Gudenus, Cod. dipl. Mog. (Francof., 1751), in., 507-514.
t Printed by Freyberg, Gesch. der bayerischen Landstande
(Sulzbach, 1828), i., 265 ; see also, although it belongs to the
period of the Schism (1407), the letter of Duke Frederick of Austria
to the religious communities of the Tyrol, in Brandis, Tirol unter
Friedrich von Oesterreich (Wien, 1821), 291, 292.
J Baluze, i., 311. See Schwab, 14 et seq., 37, 39.
Hefele. vi., 579, 588 ; Hofler, Aus Avignon, 19; Hammerich,
163 ; Miiller, ii., 165 ; Villani and others also accuse Clement VI.
of immorality. How close his relations were with France is clearly
shown by the account of the sums of money, which he and his
brother Guillaume Roger lent to Philip VI., John II., and the French
barons during the long war. Between 1345 and 1350 Philip VI.
received 592,000 golden florins and 5,000 scudi, and John II. the
enormous sum of 3,517,000 florins. See Bibl. de 1 Ecole des
Charles, xl., 570-578.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 93
Happily for the Church, Clement s successor, Innocent
VI.* (1352-1362), was of a very different stamp. This
" austere and righteous " man seems to have taken
Benedict XII. as his model. Immediately after his corona
tion he revoked the Constitution of Clement VI., granting
benefices in certain cathedral and collegiate churches to
ecclesiastical dignitaries, suspended a number of Reserva
tions and In-Commendams, expressed his disapproval
of pluralities, and bound every beneficed priest to personal
residence, under pain of excommunication. In this way he
emptied the Papal Palace of a crowd of useless courtiers,
whose only occupation was intrigue and money-making.
Naturally frugal in his own expenses, and convinced that it
was his duty to be very careful in regard to the possessions j
of the Church, he banished all splendour from his Court,]
put a stop to superfluous outlay, and dismissed needless
servants. He required the Cardinals, many of whom were
given up to luxury and had amassed immense wealth, f to
follow his example, and often rebuked the passions and
failings of individual members of the Sacred College.
Preferment in his days was the reward of merit. " Eccle
siastical dignities/ he used to say, " should follow virtue,
not birth."J Innocent VI., who contemplated a thorough
reform of Church government in general, earnestly strove
to stem the corruption of the age, even beyond his own
immediate sphere. Accordingly, in 1357, ne sent Bishop
Philippe de Labassole to Germany to labour at the reform of
* This energetic Pope was not born at Maumont, as has often
been stated, but at the village of Mont near Beyssac, close to the
Castle of Pompadour. See Christophe, ii., 170, and Werunsky, 61,
note 5. Gregorovius repeats the old error in his latest edition (vi.,
3rd ed., 322).
t See Andr, Monarch, pontif., 243 et seq., 319.
J See Christophe, ii., 173, for particular details. See also
Schwab, 17, and Werunsky, 63.
94. . HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the clergy.* Almost all historians regard Innocent VI. as
an austere, earnest, and capable ruler, who, although not
wholly free from the taint of nepotism, worked unceasingly
for the welfare of the Church and of his people. Some
even consider him the best of the Avignon Popes. f
This remarkable Pontiff also lent a helping hand to the
final restoration of the Empire, but this new Empire was
too weak to have sufficed for itself even in ordinary times.
From the fear of a return to the days of Frederick II. and
Louis of Bavaria, it was considered prudent, if possible, to
deprive the Empire of all power of injuring the Church,
and everything else was sacrificed to this idea.J The
mistake proved a serious one. With all his admirable
qualities, Innocent VI. was no politician.
The brightest spot in his Pontificate is the restoration of
the papal authority in Italy, by means of the gifted Cardinal
Albornoz. The return of the Pope to his original and
proper capital was now a possibility. It was, moreover,
becoming a matter of urgent necessity, as the residence of
the Papal Court on the banks of the Rhone had been
rendered most insecure by the increasing power of
mercenary bands and the growing confusion of French
* See Schubiger, 16 et seq. ; and Stimmen aus Maria-Laach,
xix., 341.
t Thus Sugenheim, 257 ; Papencordt, Rienzo, 277, and Grego-
rovius, vi.,3rded.,390. See Hammerich, 163, 164, and Zopffel in
Herzogs Real-Encyklopadie, vii., 2nd ed., 338. Regarding the ap
pointment of the first Humanist in the Papal Court by Innocent
VI., see supra p. 54, note t ; and for the refutation of the idea that
Innocent VI. was an enemy of learning, see Hist, litt., t. xxiv.,
21, 22.
J Hofler, Roman. We, 127. See Avignonesische Papste, 282,
283.
See Reumont, ii., 900 et seq.\ Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 323 et
seq.y and Weninsky, 65 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 95
affairs. Innocent VI. had indeed meant to visit Rome,* but
old age and sickness frustrated his purpose. His successor,
the learned and saintly Urban V. (1362-1370), was more
fortunate. Two great events mark his Pontificate as one
of the most important of the century.
His return to Rome, which the Emperor Charles IV.
promoted with all his power, was effected in 1367. It was
the only means by which the papal authority could be re
instated, the Papacy delivered from the entanglement of
the war between France and England, and the necessary
reform of ecclesiastical discipline carried out.
The second great event, which occurred in the following
year, was the Emperor Charles IV/s pilgrimage to Rome
and the friendly alliance between the Empire and the
Church. t The return of Urban V. to the tombs of the
Apostles was an occasion of immense rejoicing to all
earnest and devout Italians. Giovanni Colombini, the
founder of the Gesuati, and his religious came as far as
Corneto to meet the Pope, singing hymns of praise. They
bore palm branches in their hands, and accompanied the
Holy Father on his way with rejoicings. Shortly after
wards he confirmed their statutes which were based on the
Rule of St. Benedict. Petrarch welcomed the Pope on his
entry into Rome in the words of the psalmist : " When
Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a
barbarous people, then was our mouth filled with gladness
and our tongue with joy."
Rome had seen no Pope within her walls for more than
* See his letter of April 28, 1361, to Charles IV., in Mart&ne,
Thesaur, ii., 946, 947. For the manner in which the Popes were
threatened at Avignon, see Herquet, 49 et seq.; Andre, 402 et seq. ;
and Gottlob, 87 et seq., 93.
f Hofler, Roman. Welt, 129. " When this was written in 1367
the two swords were reconciled," Limburg Chronik, 55.
96 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
sixty years ; the city was a very picture of utter decay :
the principal churches, the Lateran Basilica, St. Peter s, and
St. Paul s, and the Papal Palaces were almost in ruins.
The experience of two generations had proved, that while
the Popes might possibly do without Rome, Rome could
not do without the Popes. Urban V. at once gave orders
forthe restoration of the dilapidated buildings and churches.*
Royal guests soon arrived at her gates, and the city gradu
ally began to recover.f The Romans came to meet their
Sovereign with all due respect and submission^ ; peace
and quietness seemed at last to have returned. But
Urban V. was not endowed with strength and persever
ance to unravel the tangled skein of Italian affairs, and
resist his own longing and that of most of the Cardinals
for their beautiful French home. In vain did the
Franciscan, Pedro of Aragon, point out the probability
of a schism if the Pope should forsake the seat of the
Apostles. The supplications of the Romans, the warnings
* Before he left Avignon, Urban V. had sent directions that the
neglected gardens of the Vatican should be put in order, Theiner,
Cod. dipl., ii., 430. For an account of the work of restoration,
undertaken in the Vatican and the Lateran, see Chronique des Arts
et de la Curiosite, 22 Mai, 1880, and Archivio della Soc. Rom., vi.,
13, 14. The walls of the Leonine city were also at this time
repaired, Adinolfi, i., 130.
j In the years 1368 and 1369 Urban V. received in Rome the
Emperor Charles IV., Queen Joanna of Naples, the King of
Cyprus, and the Greek Emperor, John Palaeologus. Stephen of
Bosnia was also expected in the Eternal City. See Theiner, Mon.
Hung., ii., 91, 92.
J See the testimony of the Pope himself in his letter to the
Roman people, inRaynaldus, ad an., 1370 n., 19. Also Froissart,
ix., 49-51.
Reumont, Briefe, 19. See Gesch. Roms., ii., 950 etseq.^ 956
et seq. Regarding the really useful work accomplished by Urban
during his sojourn in Italy, see 1 Epinois, 327-337.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 97
of Petrarch, and St. Bridget s prediction that he would die
when he left Italy, were unavailing to turn Urban V. from
his purpose. To the great sorrow of all true friends of the
Papacy and the Church, he went to Avignon, where he
shortly died (December 19, 1370). When Petrarch heard
the tidings he wrote : " Urban would have been reckoned
amongst the most glorious of men, if he had caused his
dying bed to be laid before the Altar of St. Peter and had
there fallen asleep with a good conscience, calling God
and the world to witness that if ever the Pope had left
this spot it was not his fault, but that of the originators of
so shameful a flight."* With the exception of this weak
ness, Urban V. was one of the best of the Popes, and his
resistance to the moral corruption of the day is worthy of
all honour, even though he was unable completely to
efface the traces of the former disorders. f
The period was in many ways a most melancholy one.
The prevailing imp^^ity ^vrppHpH anything thai- had
been witnessed since the tenth century. Upon a closer
inquiry into the causes of this state of things, we shall
find that the evil was in great measure due to the .aJjtfilgd
conditions of civilized life. Commercial progress, facilities
of intercourse, the general well-being and prosperity of all
classes of society in Italy, France, Germany and the Low,
Countries, had greatly increased during the latter part of
the thirteenth century. Habits of life changed rapidly,
and became more luxurious and pleasure-seeking. The
* Geiger, Petrarca, 179.
t Gieseler, ii., 3,114. Froissart (vi., 504 ; seeviii., 55) speaks
very highly of Urban V. German chroniclers praise this Pope in
the warmest terms. One of the Chronicles of Mayence (Deutsche
Stadtechroniken, xviii., 172) says of him : "Fuit lux mundi, et via
veritatis, amator justitiae, recedens a malo et timens Deum." See
Limburg. Chronik, 51 and 59.
H
98 HISTORY OF THE POPES:
clergy of all degrees, with some honourable exceptions,
went with the currjant. * Fresh wants necessitated addi
tional resources, and some of the Popes (as, for example,
John XXII. and Clement VI.) adopted those financial
measures of which we have already spoken. Gold became
the ruling power everywhere. Alvaro Pelayo, speaking
as an eye-witness, says that the officials of the Papal
Court omitted no means of enriching themselves. No
audience was to be obtained, no business transacted
without mpngy, and even permission to receive Holy
Orders had to be purchased by presents. f The same
evils, on a smaller scale, prevailed in most of the epis
copal palaces. The promotion of unworthy and incom
petent men, and the complete neglect of the obligation of
residence, were the results of this system. The synods,
indeed, often urged this obligation, but the example of
those in high places counteracted their efforts. The
consequent want of supervision is in itself enough to
explain the decay of discipline in the matter of the
celibacy of the clergy, though the unbridled immorality,
which kept pace with the increasing luxury of the age,
had here also led many astray.J
Urban V., himself a saintly man, attacked these abuses
with energy and skill ; he clearly saw that the reformation
of the clergy was the first thing to be attended to, and took
vigorous measures, not only against heretical teachers, but
also against immoral and simoniacal ecclesiastics and idle
monks. He enforced the rule regarding the holding of
* Schwab, 38, 39. See Magnan, 139 et seq. y and Cipolla, 157.
t Alvar. Pelag., lib. ii., art. 15.
J Schwab, 39, 40, 53. See also Hammerichj 129 et seq., 133 et
seq., 164, and Fr. H. S. Denifle, Taulers Bekehrung (Strassburg,
1879)* I3I-I33-
See Raynaldus, ad an., 1363,0. 27; 1365, n. 17; 1368, n.
16-18; 1369,0.12,13; 1370,11.16.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 99
Provincial Councils, which had long been neglected, put a
stop to the disgraceful malpractices of the Advocates
and Procurators of the Roman Court, and conferred
benefices only on the deserving."* He wished his Court to
be a pattern of Christian conduct, and, therefore, watched
carefully over the morals of his surroundings. He was
fearless wherever he believed the interests of God to be
concerned, and, although of a yielding disposition, showed
an amount of decision in maintaining the rights and
liberties of the Church, which astonished all who knew
him. The luxurious life at Avignon was distasteful to
him, and furnished one strong reason for his journey to
Rome. He was free from any taint of nepotism, and
induced his father to give up a pension which the King of
France had granted him ; justice was his aim in all things;
he was punctual in holding Consistories ; all business,
especially such as concerned the affairs of the poor, was
promptly despatched, he kept strict order in his Court, and
put down all fraud and oppression. f During his sojourn in
Italy, Urban also occupied himself with ecclesiastical
reforms, one of which was that of the celebrated Abbey
of Monte Casino. J
The weakness of Urban V. in so speedily abandoning
* Christophe, ii., 266-269. Magnan, 147.
t Schwab, 1 8.
J Baluze, i., 389, 390. L. Tosti, Storia della badia di Monte
Casino (Naples, 1843), iii., 54-61. In reference to such Popes as
Benedict XII. and Urban V., the austere ^Egidius of Viterbo
wrote : * " Si urbis et Romanarum ecclesiarum rainas inspicias,
hoc exilii tempus noctem dixeris, si mores sanctitatemque pontifi-
cum diem appellandum existimabis." Hist, viginti saeculor., Cod.
C., 8, i9f, 261 of the Bibl. Angelica at Rome. The Avignon
Popes, who were so active in the cause of missions, also did much
for the promotion of learning, especially for the Universities. On
this subject the reader may refer to the work of Fr. H. Denifle, Die
Universitaten des Mittel Alters bis 1400, Band i. (Berlin, 1885).
100 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Rome was visited on Gregory ,XI. (1370-1378), a Pontiff
distinguished for learning, piety, modesty, and purity of
life. In his time, the spirit of Italian nationality rose up
against the French Papacy. The great mistake which had
been made in entrusting the government of the States
of the Church almost exclusively to Provencals, strangers
to the country and to its people, was sternly avenged.
A national movement ensued, the effects of which still
survive in Italy, and which produced a general uprising of
the Italians against the French.
The Republic of Florence, once the staunchest ally of
the Holy See, now took the lead in opposition " to the
evil Pastors of the Church," and in July, 1375, associated
itself w r ith Bernabo Visconti, the old enemy of the
Apostolic See. Unfurling a red banner, on which shone
the word, " Liberty," in golden letters, the Florentines
called upon all who were dissatisfied with the rule of the
Papal Legates to arise. The preponderance of Frenchmen
amongst the governors in the States of the Church was, no
doubt, in some degree the cause of the ready response
made to this appeal. Still, the most loyal adherent of
Gregory XL, St. Catherine of Siena, denounces the con
duct of the " evil Pastors," and urges the Pope to proceed
vigorously against those " who poison and devastate the
garden* of the Church." It would, however, be unfair to
adopt the tone of the majority of Italian chroniclers
and historians, and lay all the blame on the Papal
Legates. "The policy of most of the Italian states," to
quote the words of one thoroughly conversant with this
period,t " was infected with that same disease of self-
* See Tommaseo, iii., 114, 159 et seq. St. Antoninus, Arch
bishop of Florence, passes a similar severe judgment in his
Chronicon, t. xxiL, c. i., i.
t Reumont, ii., 967 ; see iii., i, 26, 482, and Christophe, ii., 313..
St. Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
HISTORY OF THE POPES. IOI
seeking and duplicity, of which the Legates were accused,
while the mode of government in the princely Castles and
in the Republics was incomparably more oppressive than
in the Papal dominions. Some of these Legates were
among the most distinguished servants of the Church of
that age, but they all shared in the Original Sin of foreign
nationality, and did not understand the Italians, who, on
the other hand, found it convenient to attribute to others
their own faults."
The behaviour of the Florentines towards Gregory XI.
was closely connected with the internal affairs of the
Republic. A numerous party in Florence, to whom the
increased authority of the dominant Guelph section of the
nobles was obnoxious, extremely disliked the strengthening
of the territorial power of the Pope. Dreading a diminution
of Florentine influence in Central Italy, they adroitly made
use of the errors of the Papal governors to stir up the
States of the Church.* Their efforts were successful
beyond all expectation. In the November and December
of 1375, Montefiascone, Viterbo, Citta di Castello, Narni,
and Perugia rose in revolt, soon to be followed by Assisi,
Spoleto, Ascoli, Civita Vecchia, Forli, and Ravenna, and
before two months had passed, the March of Ancona, the
Romagna, the Duchy of Spoleto, in short, the whole of the
States of the Church were in open insurrection. The power of
the revolutionary torrent is strikingly shown by the defection
of Barons like Bertrando d Alidosio, the Vicar Apostolic of
Imola, and Rodolfo da Varano, who had been numbered
* Reumont, Briefe, 27, 28. Reumont s view is supported by
many documents in the Florentine Archives, which A. Gherardi
has published as an appendix to his treatise : La guerra del
Fiorentini con P. Gregorio XI. delta la guerra degli Otto Santi,
(Arch. St. Ital., Serie iii., Vol. 5, 6, 7, and 8).
102 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
among the most devoted adherents of the Pope.* The
Florentines, not yet content, made constant efforts to gain
the few cities which still resisted the Revolution, and,
where letters and emissaries failed to accomplish this
object, proceeded to more forcible measures. f
Consternation reigned in Avignon ; Gregory XL, timid
by nature, was deeply shocked and alarmed by the evil
tidings from Italy. Fearing that the cities which still
remained true to him would also join the standard of
revolt, he endeavoured to make terms with his opponents,
but in vain ; the Florentines had no desire for peace,
especially when they had succeeded in inducing the power
ful city of Bologna, the " pearl of the Romagna/ 1 to turn
against the Pope.J
* Sugenheim, 302, 303. See A. Sansi, Storia del comune di
Spoleto (Foligno, 1879), i., 154. In August, 1375, Gregory XI.
feared that the City of Lucca would also join the enemies of the
Church ; see his * Letter to Lucca in Appendix No. 3, from the
Original in the Archives at Lucca.
t Gherardi, loc. at., v., 2, 58. See Appendix No. 5. * Gregory
XI. at Osimo, 1377, Febr. 12 ; Archives at Osimo.
J The * Invectiva contra Bononienses, qui rebellarunt se ecclesiae
(19 March, 1376) refers to Bologna s revolt. Cod. 3121, f. i87a-
i88b, of the Court Library at Vienna. It says: " Recordare
Bononia quid accident tibi, intuere et respice opprobrium tuum
magnum. O quantum facinus commisisti et in quanto tuam
gloriam super omnes totius seculi nationes magnificam vituperio
posuisti ; " and in another place : " Tu nosti, si bene consideras,
quam suave sit jugum ecclesiae et levissimum onus ejus." The
author of this Invective, in his devotion to the Papacy, says of the
Florentines : " Ipsi vero servitutis arborem plantaverunt, de qua
fingunt alios fructus debere colligere libertatis." In the same
Vienna MS. we find, f. 1 5 1 a, a fragment of a letter from Ricardus
de Saliceto, legum doctor de Bononia, d.d. Bononiae, vii. Junii,
1376, to Gregory XL, endeavouring to persuade the Pope to show
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 103
In face of the reckless proceedings of his enemies,
Gregory XL believed the time had come when even a
pacific Pontiff must seriously think of war. A sentence
accordingly went forth, which, as time proved, was terrible
in its effects and in many respects doubtless too severe.
The citizens of Florence were excommunicated, an inter
dict was laid upon the city, Florence, with its inhabitants
and possessions, was declared to be outlawed.* Gregory
XI. came to the unfortunate decision of opposing force by
force, and sending the wild Breton mercenaries, who were
then at Avignon with their captain, Jean de Malestroit, to
Italy, under the command of the fierce Cardinal Legate,
Robert of Geneva.f War was declared between the last
French Head of the Church and the Republic of Florence.
No one more deeply bewailed these sad events than St.
Catherine of Siena, a young and lowly nun, who exercised
a wonderful influence over the hearts of her contemporaries,
as the ministering angel of the poor in their corporal and
spiritual necessities, the heroic nurse of the plague-stricken,
and the mighty preacher of penance. This simple maiden,
who is one of the most marvellous figures in the history of
the world, clearly perceived the faults on both sides in this
terrible strife, and " in heartstirring and heartwinning
mercy, and seeking to excuse the Bolognese : " Nunquam a sancta
ecclesia nee sanctitate vestra recesserunt, recedere etiam non
intendunt, sed a diabolicis ministris et adversariis."
* Raynaldus, ad an, 1376, n. 1-6. Capecelatro, 108. Liinig, Cod.
dipl. i., 1087-1093. Charles IV. on the 5th April also placed the
Florentines under the ban of the Empire. See Deutsche Reich-
tagsacten, i., note 92.
t SeeRicotti, Storiadelle Compag. di ventura, ii., 160 ; TEpinois
351, and *Tabula gentium armorum in servitio papas et Roberti
cardinalis ; Gebennensis legati apostolic! in Italia. Cod. lat 4190, f.
26^-33 of the National Library in Paris.
104 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
words " spoke out her convictions to all, even to the most
powerful. As the true Bride of Him who came to bring
peace to the world, she constantly urged peace and re
conciliation upon the opposing parties. " What is sweeter
than peace?" she wrote to Niccolo Soderini, one of the
most influential citizens of Florence ; " it was the last will
and testament which Jesus Christ left to His disciples,
when He said, l You shall not be known as My disciples by
working miracles, nor by foretelling the future, nor by
great holiness shown forth in all your actions, but only if
you shall live together in charity and peace and love/ So
great is my grief at this war which will destroy so many
among you, body and soul, that I would readily, if it were
possible, give my life a thousand times to stop it." *
The letters addressed by St. Catherine to Pope Gregory
XL are unique in their kind. She looks at everything from
the highest point of view, and does not scruple to tell the
Pope the most unwelcome truths, without, however, for a
moment forgetting the reverence due to the Vicar of
Christ. "You are indeed bound," she says in one of these
letters, " to win back the territory which has been lost to
the Church ; but you are even more bound to win back all
the lambs which are the Church s real treasure, and whose
loss will truly impoverish her, not indeed in herself, for the
Blood of Christ cannot be diminished, but the Church loses
a great adornment of glory which she receives from her
virtuous and obedient children. It is far better to part
with a temporal treasure than with one which is eternal.
Do what you can ; when all that is possible has been done,
* Tommaseo, iii., 13, 14. B. Veratti, in the Opuscoli relig. lett.
e morali (Serie ii., t. viii., 185-204 [Modena, 1866]) draws atten
tion to a MS. of the letters of St. Catherine belonging to the Con-
fraternita Modenese della SS.ma Annunziata, which is very
superior to that used by Tommaseo.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 105
you are excused in the sight of God and of men. You
must strike them with the weapons of goodness, of love,
and of peace, and you will gain more than by the weapons
of war. And when I inquire of God what is the best for
your salvation, for the restoration of the Church, and for
the whole world, there is no other answer but the word,
Peace, Peace ! For the love of the crucified Saviour,
Peace." * " Be valiant and not fearful/ St. Catherine en
treats after the revolt of Bologna ; " answer God who calls
you to come and to fill and defend the place of the glorious
Pastor St. Peter, whose successor you are. Raise the
standard of the Holy Cross, for as, according to the
saying of the Apostle t St. Paul, we are made free by
the Cross, so by the exaltation of this standard which
appears before me as the consolation of Christendom,
shall we be delivered from discord, war and wickedness,
and those who have gone astray shall return to their allegi
ance. Thus doing you shall obtain the conversion of the
Pastors of the Church. Implant again in her heart the
burning love that she has lost. She is pale through loss
of blood which has been drained by insatiable devourers.f
But take courage and come, O Father ; let not the servants
of God, whose hearts are heavy with longing, have still to
wait for you. And I, poor and miserable that I am, cannot
wait longer; life seems death to me while I see and hear
that God is so dishonoured. Do not let yourself be kept
from peace by what has come to pass in Bologna, but
come. I tell you that ravening wolves will lay their heads
in your lap like gentle lambs, and beseech you to have pity
on them, O Father." J
* Tommaseo, iii., 173-4. Capecelatro-Conrad, 100.
t Awful words, which recall the expressions of Dante and
Alvaro Pelayo, quoted supra, p. 72.
J Tommaseo, iii., 165. Reumont, Briefe, 25, 26.
106 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
With like freedom did Catherine point out to the rulers
of Florence that they owed obedience to the Church, even
if her pastors failed in the performance of their duties.
" You know well that Christ left us His Vicar for the
salvation of our souls, for we cannot find salvation any
where save in the mystical body of the Church, whose Head
is Christ and whose members we are. He who is dis
obedient to the Christ on earth has no share in the in
heritance of the Blood of the Son of God, for God has
ordained that by his hand we should be partakers of this
Blood and of all the Sacraments of the Church which
receive life from this Blood. There is no other way, we
can enter by no other door, for He who is Very Truth
says, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He who
walks in this way is in the truth and not in falsehood.
This is the way of hatred of sin, not the way of self-love
w r hich is the source of all evil. You see then, my dear
sons, that he who like a corrupt member resists the Holy
Church and our Father, the Christ upon earth, lies under
sentence of death. For as we demean ourselves towards
him, whether honouring him or disobeying him, so do we
demean ourselves towards Christ in Heaven. I say it to
you with the deepest sorrow, by your disobedience and
persecution you have deserved death and the wrath of
God. There can nothing worse happen to you than the
loss of His grace ; human power is of little avail where
divine power is wanting, and he watcheth in vain that
keepeth the city, unless the Lord keep it. Many indeed
think that they are not offending God but serving Him,
when they persecute the Church and her Pastors, and say
they are bad and do nothing but harm ; yet I tell you
that even if the Pastors were incarnate devils and the
Pope the same, instead of a good and kind Father, we
must be obedient and submissive to him, not for his
HISTORY OF THE POPES. I0y
own sake; but as the Vicar of the Lord in obedience to
God." *
The words, alas ! fell on a barren soil, St. Catherine soon
perceived to her great sorrow that the Florentines, who
had sent her to negotiate their terms of peace at Avignon
(June, 1376), had no real desire to come to an under
standing with the Pope.f For those who now held sway
in Florence intended to bring the Church to such straits
that her temporal power would disappear, and this not
from any lofty ideal as to the higher interests of the Church,
but in order that the Pope should be without the means of
punishing them. J The peace, with which the Saint of
Siena saw that the fulfilment of the dearest wish of her
heart the Pope s return to Rome was closely connected,
seemed more distant than ever. But St. Catherine did not
lose courage. During her sojourn at Avignon she un
ceasingly implored the Pope to yield and to let mercy
prevail over justice ; not content with this, she desired to
lay the axe to the root, in order to remove the evil
thoroughly. She now urged him by word of mouth, as she
had already done in her letters, to undertake the reforma
tion of the clergy. The worldly-minded Cardinals were
amazed at the plain speaking of this nun. She told the
Pope of his failings, especially his inordinate regard for his
relations. All Avignon was in a state of excitement ;
many would have been glad to crush her, but they feared
the Pope who had taken her under his protection. She
loudly complained that at the Papal Court, which ought to
have been a Paradise of virtue, her nostrils were assailed
* Tommaseo, iii., 165, 166. Reumont, Briefe, 29,30. Hase,
Cat. von Siena, 190.
t Capecelatro, 109 et seq., 114.
J Hase, Cat. von Siena, 135.
Capecelatro, 118.
108 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by the odours of hell.* It is greatly to the honour of
Gregory that St. Catherine could venture to speak thus
plainly, and equally to her honour that she did so speak.
St. Catherine s zeal for reform was even surpassed by
that with which she endeavoured to bring about the return
of the Pope to Rome. She laboured with the greatest
ardour for the realization of this project, which lay very
near her heart, in the first place on account of the relations
then existing between Rome and Italy, and the longing
desire of all Italians. But her strongest motive was her
solemn conviction that the Chief Pastoral Office in the
Church ought to be closely associated with the City, which
the blood of the Apostles and of countless martyrs had
hallowed. She by no means overlooked the other advant
ages of the ancient abode of the Caesars, but her devout
enthusiasm herein widely differing from that of Petrarch
was kindled by the vision of Rome, as the Holy City born
again and ennobled in Christ. She writes of Rome, as a
" garden watered with the blood of martyrs, which still
flows there and calls on others to follow them/ f and it
was her desire to make her great by restoring to her her
choicest ornament, the Throne of the Apostles. Equally
earnest was her desire to restore the fallen power of the
Vicar of Christ ; and, fully persuaded that in no other city
on earth could the Papacy flourish as in Rome, J she gave
herself no rest, until she had undone the work of Philip
the Fair.
Meanwhile the aspect of affairs in Italy had become more
and more threatening to the Papacy. Besides Rome, only
Cesena, Orvieto, Ancona, Osimo, and Jesi, had remained
true to the Pope, and the rebels had left no means untried
* Acta Sanctorum, April iii., 891.
t Tommaseo, iv., 252, 253.
J Capecelatro, 129 et seq., 155,214,215.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 109
to shake the Allegiance of these places.* Rightly judging
that the attitude of the Eternal City must have a decisive
influence, they laboured especially to induce the Romans
to rebel. But happily for Gregory, the violent letters
of the Florentine Chancellor, Coluccio Salutato, urging
them to rise against " the barbarians, the French robbers,
and the flattering priests/ f were unheeded. It was, how
ever, impossible for Rome to continue absolutely uninflu
enced by the general insurrectionary movement, and a
party arose there which threatened that if Gregory put off
his return to Italy, an antipope should be elected. The
great excitement which reigned throughout the States of
the Church, is proved by the fact that many of the inferior
clergy in the revolted Provinces joined the insurrection,
and incited the members of their flocks to expel the Papal
officials.J
Since the days of Frederick II. the Papacy had never
been in such imminent peril, for it now seemed on the
point of losing its historical position in Italy, and even of
being permanently banished by the Italians themselves to
Avignon. St. Bridget had, many years before, expressed
her fear that, unless Gregory XL soon returned to Italy, he
would forfeit not only his temporal, but also his spiritual ||
authority, and this fear seemed on the point of realization.
* See Gherardi, loc. dt., v., 2, 72 and 79. Ciavarini, i.,
88.
t See in Appendix No. 4* the letter from the Florentine archives
addressed by the Florentines to the Romans on the 4th January,
1376.
J Fanciulli, Osservaz. critiche sopra le antichita cristiane di
Cingoli, i., 447 et S W- Sugenheim, 303, 305.
Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 449. Kraus, 469.
|| Revelat. S. Brigittae, cap. 143. See Hammer ich, 171 et seq.,
HO HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The restoration of the Papal residence to Rome was the
only possible remedy.
Gregory XL had long entertained the idea of going to
Rome, but the influences which detained him in France had
as yet been too strong; his venerated father, Count de
Beaufort, his mother, his four sisters, his King, his
Cardinals, and his own repugnance towards a country
whose language was unknown to him,* were all so many
hindrances in the way. If the sickly and timid Pontiff at
last overcame the pressure put upon him by those around
him, and by the French King, who sent his own brother,
the Duke of Anjou, to Avignon, t this result is due to the
burning words of St. Catherine of Siena. On the 13th
September, 1376, Gregory XL left Avignon for Genoa
travelling by way of Marseilles. At Genoa, St. Catherine
succeeded in counteracting all the attempts made to induce
him to turn back. Fearful storms delayed the voyage to
Italy, and in consequence he only reached Corneto on the
5th December. The inhabitants of this ancient Etruscan
City went forth to meet the Pope when he landed, carrying
olive branches in their hands, and singing the Te Deum.J
Gregory XL remained here five weeks, principally on
* Hase, Cat. von Siena, 140.
t " Omnes cardinales de lingua ista," wrote Cristoforo di
Placenza from Avignon on the iyth July, 1376, u sunt repug-
nantes, patres et fratres illud idem, et audio quod dux Andegavensis
venit ad impediendum motum si poterit," Osio, i., 183.
{ Petrus Amelius narrates the journey of the Pope in a very bad
poem, which has often been printed (Muratori, iii., 2, 690, 704.
Ciaconius, ii., 576, 585. Duchesne, Card. Franc., t. ii., p. 437 et
seq. Bzovius ad an, 1376,^ 31 et seq.). See A. Perruzzi, Storia
d Ancona (Pesaro, 1835), ii., 102; Herquet, 63 tt seq., and the
* Report of Cristoforo di Piacenza of 13 Dec., 1376 (Gonzaga
Archives at Mantua, E. xxv., 3, fasc. i.). Another unpublished
account of this journey, written by Bertrandus Boyssetus, is, accord
ing to Baluze (i., 1196), preserved in the Paris Library.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. Ill
account of inconclusive negotiations with the inhabitants of
the Eternal City, whom the Florentines were ceaselessly
inciting to revolt.* The practical Romans, however, came
to terms with the Pope s plenipotentiaries, and on the 2ist
December, 1376, an agreement was concluded which
enabled him to continue his journey. He left Corneto on
the 1 3th January, 1377, and on the I4th landed at Ostia
and went up the TiEer to St. Paul s, whence on the I7th,
accompanied by a brilliant retinue, he made his entry into
the City of St. Peter.f
The conclusion of the unnatural exile of the Papacy in
France was a turning point in the history of the Church, as
well as in that of Rome. The spell with which Philip the
pair had bound the ecclesiastical power was broken ; a
French Pope had set himself free. The gratitude of the
world was assured to him, and that of Rome could not be
wanting. Yet Gregory XI. found no rest in the Eternal
City, where anarchy had taken such deep root that the,
Florentines found no difficulty in stirring up fresh troubles.
Hardly had he established himself in the Vatican, when the
conflict regarding the limits of his authority in the City
broke out anew, and the treaty concluded between the
Pope and the Romans proved but a false peace.J Yet
more melancholy were the experiences of the well-meaning
Pontiff in regard to general affairs. He had, as he himself
wrote to the Florentines, left his beautiful native land, a
* As again on the 25th December, 1376; see Salutatus, Epist.
L, 58, 59-
t The Pope chose to go by water, because the way by land was
not safe. Cronichette antiche, 210.
J Reumont, ii., 1005 et seq.
* * Letter of July i5th, 1377 (Appendix No. 6), in the
Archives at Florence. Gregory XI. expresses himself in similar
terms in a letter to the Bishop of Urbino, dated Jan. 21, 1378,
Rome. Copy in the Cod. 91 5, f. 391, 394 of the Me* janes Library
at Aix.
H2 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
grateful and devout people, and many other delights, and,
notwithstanding the opposition or the prayers of Kings,
Princes and many Cardinals, had hastened to Italy amid
great dangers, with great fatigue, and at great cost, fully
determined to remedy whatever his servants might have done
amiss, ready, for love of peace, to accept conditions little
honourable to himself, if only by this means tranquillity
might be restored to Italy. To his deep sorrow, all the
hopes which he had built on his personal presence in Italy,
were disappointed. The improvement expected, not only
by the Pope, but also by many discerning contemporaries,*
failed to appear. The rebellion had assumed such formid
able dimensions, hatred against the rule of the Church
seemed to be so interwoven with the sentiment of patriotism,
that the evil might be deemed incurable. And the anti-
papal feeling was fearfully intensified by the tragical
massacre perpetrated at Cesena (February, 1377), by order -
of the Cardinal of Geneva. This deed of blood was
welcome to the Florentines, who now appealed, not only
to their allies and to the hesitating Romans, but to many
Kings and Princes of Christendom.f While they por-
* .g., the Mantuan Ambassador Cristoforo di Piacenza ;
see his *Letter of isth Dec., 1376, in the Gonzaga Archives at
Mantua, etc.
f Gherardi, v., 2, 105, 106 ; viii., i, 280-283. I have seen, in the
Gonzaga Archives at Mantua, a copy of the letter to the Romans
and of their answer, dated 1377, April 17. The bloodshed at
Cesena was more or less correctly described and severely blamed
by all contemporary historians. The Archbishop of Prague, Johann
von Jenzenstein, in his * " Liber de consideratione," expatiates in
the strongest terms on the " atrocious crime " which the Cardinal
of Geneva had perpetrated at Cesena : " Sed quod horrendum est
auditu et lamentabile dictu, universes civitatis hujus habitatores et
incolas feritate sua crudeliter interemit," Cod. Vatic., 1122,
f. 45b. Vatican Library.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 113
trayed the horrors that had taken place in Cesena in the
darkest colours, they sought to justify their own attitude
and to increase the hatred felt for the Papal cause. In
Italy their efforts were very successful, as we learn from a
passage in the Chronicle of Bologna, which declares that
the people would believe neither in the Pope nor in the
Cardinals, because such things had nothing in common
with the Faith.*
Gregory XL, whose health had suffered much from the
climate, to which he was unaccustomed, and the troubles of
the few months he had spent in Rome, left the unquiet city
in the end of May for Anagni, where he remained until
November. Amid the increasing confusion of affairs and
exhaustion of financialf resources, he never lost courage.
He well knew that the fortune of war is subject to many
vicissitudes, and he had firm confidence in the justice of his
cause.J The wise policy, with which he had liberally
rewarded the loyal, severely punished the irreconcilable,
and readily forgiven the repentant, gradually worked a
change in his favour. He succeeded in reconciling the
wealthy City of Bologna to the Church, and winning to his
side Rodolfo da Varano, the chief General of the Floren
tines. The Prefect of Vico, to whom Viterbo was subject,
* Cronica di Bologna, 510.
f See Gregory s ** Appeal to the Queen of Naples, dated [1377]
October 12, Anagni, and the * Letter to Pietro Raffini, in Appendix
No. 8, both in the MS. of the Mejanes Library at Aix.
J *Gregory XI. to Rodolfo da Varano, 1377, July 26. Me janes
Library at Aix and elsewhere.
Regarding the reward of the loyal, see 1 Epinois, 354.
Gherardi, v., 2, 107. Fumi, Orvieto, 561 et seq. G. Cecconi,
Carte dipl. Osimane (Ancona, 1878), 28 et seq. In the * Liber
croceus magnus bullar. et privilegior. of the Archives of Ancona I
found, f. iit-vb., four Bulls of Gregory XI. of the year 1377, witli
privileges for this city.
I
t4 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
also gave up the Florentine League, which seemed
threatened with dissolution. But the people of Florence
were not to be influenced by these events, and instead of
adopting moderate measures, proceeded to extremities.
The conditions proposed to the Pope were such as he
could not accept.* Not only did the Republic refuse to
restore the confiscated property of the Church and to
repeal the Edict against the Inquisition, but it also
demanded that all rebels against the Church should
remain for six years unpunished in statu quo, and should
be free to make treaties, even against the Pope and the
Church. Such proposals could not really be called con
ditions of peace ; they were, as Gregory XI. justly
observed, merely an effort to strengthen revolutionary
tyranny and to prepare the way for fresh war.f And yet,
in a letter addressed soon afterwards to the Romans, the
Florentines had the audacity to complain most bitterly of
the Pope as preaching peace with his lips only !J
It is no wonder that, instead of listening to the mild
counsels of St. Catherine of Siena, Gregory XI. vigorously
carried on the war with his inexorable opponents, who
ended by disregarding even the Interdict. He took
every means to ensure the publication of his terrible
sentence against the Florentines, by which their trade was
* This is the opinion of Gregorovius, the partisan of the Floren
tines, vi., 3rd ed., 467. The impossibility of acceding to their
exorbitant demands is pointed out by Gregory XI. in his * Letter
to Cardinal Pierre d Estaing of Sept. i, 1377. Anagni. Cod.,
915, f. 260, 261, of the Me" janes Library at Aix.
t * Gregory XL to Florence, 15 July, 1377. State Archives,
Florence (Appendix No. 6).
J C. Salutatus, Epist., ed. Rigacc., i., 141-143. Vitale, 330,
33 -
See Cronichette antiche, 212, 213.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 115
most seriously affected, in places such as Venice and
Bologna, where it had not yet been promulgated.* If
tidings reached him, from countries where this had been
done, of a lenient execution of the decree, he at once
protested in the strongest terms.f The injury thus
inflicted on the national prosperity of the Republic was
quite incalculable. J
The prosecution of the war demanded an immense out
lay. The increasing tyranny in the internal government of
the Republic, and the insufferable burden laid by the
Interdict on the consciences of a religious population,
produced a growing desire for peace, which endangered the
success of the warlike party. Signs of discord became
apparent among the confederates. || Accordingly, when the
Bishop of Urbino, as envoy from the Pope, proposed their
own ally Bernabo Visconti to the Florentines as umpire,
the chiefs of their party did not venture to refuse to appear
at the Peace Congress to be held at Sarzana. Early in the
year 1378 Bernabo arrived in the city, where ambassadors
from most of the Italian powers soon assembled. Gregory
XI. had at first been averse to sending a Cardinal to the
Congress, but for the sake of peace he finally resolved on
this concession,1f and the Cardinal of Amiens, accompanied
by the Archbishops of Pampeluna and Narbonne, accord-
* * Gregory XL to the Abbot of S. Niccolb at Venice, from the
MS. at Aix, given in Appendix No. 7. Regarding Bologna, see
Muratori, xviii, 515.
t * Gregory XI. to Pietro Raffini, 26 Dec., 1377. Appendix
No . 8.
J Stefani, Istoria, 145 and 163.
See p. 34 of the Introduction.
|| Gherardi, loc. tit., v., 2, 106.
1[ * Gregory XI. to the Bishop of Urbino, 2ist January, 1378,
Cod. 915 in the Mejanes Library at Aix.
Il6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ingly appeared on his behalf. On the I2th of March the
negotiations began, to be almost immediately interrupted
by the death of the Pope."*
Gregory XI. had returned to Rome from Anagni on the
7th November; the Romans who during his absence had
become reconciled to the Papal rule, received him joyfully
and delivered to him the contract of peace with Francesco
di Vico, prefect of the City.f A little before his death the
Pope was able to assure the Romans that the condition of
their City had hardly ever been so peaceful as during the
preceding winter.J The tranquillity of Rome could not,
however, deceive Gregory as to the dangers which
threatened the Papacy ; he knew too well how much was
still wanting to a durable settlement of Italian affairs, and
he could not but acknowledge that he had failed to carry
out the ecclesiastical reform so strongly and so justly urged
upon him by St. Catherine. Dark visions hovered round
his sick-bed. He seems to have had a foreboding of the
schism that was imminent, for, on the igth of March, 1378,
he made arrangements to ensure the speedy and unanimous
election of a successor. His health had always been
delicate, and on the 2yth March he succumbed to the con
tinual agitation he had undergone and to the unfavourable
effects of the Italian climate. Gregory XI. was the last
Pontiff given by France to the Church.
* The troubles of Urban VI. s time enabled the Florentines to
conclude peace with the Church under more favourable circum
stances (28 July, 1378). See Salutatus, Epist., ii., 179 et seq., 199
et seq. Gherardi, loc. /., v., ii., 123.
t See ** Despatch of Cristoforo di Piacenza of i5th Nov.,
1377. Gonzaga Archives at Mantua, E. xxv., 3, fasc. i.
J * Gregory XI. to Cardinal de Lagrange and the Archbishop
of Narbonne, 1378, March 2. Appendix No. 9 from the Aix
MS.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 117
II. THE SCHISM AND THE GREAT HERETICAL
MOVEMENTS, 1378-1406 (1409).
AFTER an interval of seventy-five years a Conclave again
met in Rome, and on its decision depended the question
whether or not the injurious predominance of France in
the management of the affairs of the Church should con
tinue. * Severe struggles were to be expected, for no slight
disunion existed in the Sacred College.
Of the sixteen Cardinals then present in Rome, four only
were of Italian nationality. Francesco Tibaldeschi and Gia-
como Orsini were Romans, Simone da Borsano and Pietro
Corsini, natives respectively of Milan and Florence. These
Princes of the Church were naturally desirous that an Italian
should occupy the Chair of St. Peter. The twelve foreign
or " Ultramontane " Cardinals, of whom one was a Spaniard
and the others French, were sub-divided into two parties.
The Limousin Cardinals strove for the elevation of a native
of their province, the birthplace of the last four Popes. Of
the six remaining members of the Sacred College, two were
undecided, and the four others, of whom the Cardinal of
Geneva was the leader, formed what was called the Gallican
faction.
No party accordingly had the preponderance, and a
protracted Conclave was to be anticipated. External cir
cumstances, however, led to a different result. Before the
Cardinals entered on their deliberations, the Municipal
authorities of Rome had besought them to elect a Roman,
or at any rate an Italian, and while the Conclave was pro-
* The foregoing history exhibits the ample fulfilment of the
prophecy, which declared that the power of France would prove a
sharp reed to the Roman Church, piercing the hand of him who
leaned upon it (see Bulaeus, v., 576 ; cf. Harting, i., note 44).
Il8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ceeding, the governors of the districts appeared, and pre
sented the same petition. The populace gathered round
the Vatican in the greatest excitement, djemanding, with
shouts and uproar, the election of a Roman. The Cardinals
were compelled to make haste, and as no one of the three
parties was sufficiently powerful to carry the day, all united
in favour of Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari, a
candidate who belonged to no party and seemed in many
respects the individual best fitted to rule the Church in this
period of peculiar difficulty. He was the worthiest and
most capable among the Italian prelates. As a native of
Naples, he was the subject of Queen Joanna, whose pro
tection at this crisis was of the greatest importance. A
long residence in Avignon had given him the opportunity
of acquiring French manners, and ties of equal strength
bound him to Italy and to France. On the 8th April,
1378, he was elevated to the supreme dignity, taking the
name of Urban VI.*
Great confusion was occasioned by a misunderstanding
which occurred after the election. The crowd forcibly
broke into the Conclave to see the new Pope, and the
Cardinals, dreading to inform them of the election of
* The different accounts of the election of 1378 are very well
put together by Hefele, vi., 628-659. Among other more modern
works, see the excellent essay of Lindner in the Histor. Zeitschrift.,
xxviii., 101-127, on which the above description is based, also the
same scholar s Gesch. des deutschen Reichs, i., 72-81 , and Schwab,
97-111. Several of the French Cardinals plainly told Bishop
Nicholas of Viterbo that their disunion was one of the principal
reasons for Prignano s election. Bishop Nicholas says : " Ego
tune ivi ad dom. card. S. Angeli, qui breviter respondit mihi, quod
Barensis erat electus propter eorum et Lemovicensium miseriam et
discordiam." Cardinal d Aigrefeuille expressed himself in similar
terms. * Report of Bishop Nicholas of Viterbo of j Nov., 1379.
Arm., liv., n. 17, f, 74b~75b. Secret Archives of the Vatican.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 119
Prignano, who was not a Roman, persuaded the aged
Cardinal Tibaldeschi to put on the Papal Insignia and
allow the populace to greet him. Hardly had this been
done, when, apprehensive of what might happen when the
deception was discovered, most of the Cardinals sought
safety in flight. Finally, confidence was restored by the
assurance of the City authorities that Prignano s election
would find favour with the people. It is plain then that
the election itself was not the result of compulsion on the
part of the Roman populace. If, however, the least
suspicion of constraint could be attached to it, the subse
quent bearing of the Cardinals was sufficient to completely
counteract it.* As soon as tranquillity was restored
Prignano s election was announced to the people and was
followed by his Coronation. All the Cardinals then present
in Rome took part in the ceremony, t and thereby publicly
acknowledged Urban VI. as the rightful Pope. They
assisted him in his ecclesiastical functions and asked him for
spiritual favours. They announced his election and Corona
tion to the Emperor and to Christendom in general by
* Hefele, vi., 658, 659. Bartolomeo di Saliceto in his * Con-
silium super facto schismatis (see Appendix No. 14) says very
justly : " Etsi prima electio potest aliquo modo impugnari, quod
non video, secunda valet indubitanter et sine scrupulo." The sub
sequent and perfectly voluntary actions of the Cardinals weigh very
heavily in the balance, and for this very reason Cardinal Pietro
Corsini afterwards endeavoured to represent them as irrelevant;
see his * Tractatus juris et facti super schisma et initium schismatis
inecclesia Rotnana tempore Urbani VI., anno 1378, Cod. 40, D. 4
of the Corsini Library in Rome. I saw a second copy in Cod. 264,
NB 3, T. n, p. 96 et seq., of the Library at Ferrara.
t * " Postea vidi ipsum coronari cum processione solemni et ire
ad S. Joannem et redire cum toto populo indifficienter cum omni
bus cardinalibus, archiepiscopis, episcopis, etc? * Report of
Bishop Nicholas of Viterbo, loc. tit., Secret Archives of the Vatican.
120 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
letters signed with their own hands, and homage was
universally rendered to the new Head of the Church. No
member of the Sacred College thought of calling the elec
tion in question ; on the contrary, in official documents, as
well as in private conversations, they all maintained its
undoubted validity.*
It cannot, indeed,t be denied that the election of Urban
VI. was canonically valid. The most distinguished lawyers
of the day gave their deliberate decisions to this effect ; J
but it had taken place under circumstances so peculiar that
it was extremely easy to obscure or distort the facts. It
was canonical, but it had been brought about only by the
dissensions between the different parties, and was agreeable
to none. The Cardinals respectively hoped to find a
pliable instrument for their wishes and plans in the person
of Urban VI. In the event, however, of this hope being dis
appointed, or of their discords being appeased, it was to be
expected that the elected Pontiff would fall a victim to
their reconciliation. Without a single genuine adherent in
* See Hefele, vi., 659 et seq. Regarding the private utterances
of the Cardinals, see Raynaldus, ad an. 1378, n. 13-15, and the
passage from the ** Report of Bishop Nicholas of Viterbo, given
in the Appendix No. 1 4.
f Such is the opinion of Lindner, loc. tit., 126. Similarly the
most esteemed Catholic writers (Hefele, vi., 653 et seq., Hergen-
rother, ii., i, 18; Heinrich, Dogm., Theil, ii., 418, etc.), and
many Protestant authors (as Leo, ii., 647 ; Hinschius, i., 271 ; and
Siebeking, 14, note 3) assert the undoubted validity of Urban VI. s
election. It therefore follows that Urban s successors, Boniface
IX., Innocent VII., and Gregory XII., were the only lawful Popes.
J Giovanni di Lignano, Baldo di Perugia and Bartolomeo di
Saliceto. See Hefele, vi., 645, 652, and Savigny, vi., 232, 268. I
may observe in addition to the statement of Savigny, that the Con-
silium pro Urbano VI. by Bartolomeo di Saliceto is also to be found
in *Cod. Vatic., 5608, f. 119-131. In the Appendix No. 14 are
some notices regarding the numerous documents in the Roman
Archives and Libraries bearing on the Schism.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 121
the College of Cardinals, he might soon see his supporters
changed into opponents.*
The new Pope was adorned by great and rare qualities;
almost all his contemporaries are unanimous in praise of
his purity of life, his simplicity and temperance. He was
also esteemed for his learning, and yet more for the con
scientious zeal with which he discharged his ecclesiastical
duties. f It was said that he lay down to rest at night with
the Holy Scriptures in his hand, that he wore a hair-shirt,
and strictly observed the fasts of the Church. He was,
moreover, experienced in business. When Gregory XI.
had appointed him to supply the place of the absent
Cardinal Vice-Chancellor, he had fulfilled the duties of the
office in an exemplary manner, and had acquired an unusual
knowledge of affairs. Austere and grave by nature, nothing
was more hateful to him than simony, worldliness, and im
morality in any grade of the clergy. J
It was but natural that the elevation of such a man should
call forth the brightest anticipations for the welfare of the
Church. Cristoforo di Piacenza, writing to his Sovereign,
Lodovico Gonzaga of Mantua, soon after the election of
Urban, says : " I am sure that he will rule God s Holy
Church well, and I venture to say that she has had no such
Pastor for a century and more, for he has no kindred, he is
on very friendly terms with the Queen of Naples, he is con
versant with the affairs of the world, and is moreover very
clear-sighted and prudent."
* Lindner, loc. "/., i.
t Theod. de Niem, i., i.
\ Loc. tit. See Stefani, 197, ed. App., 330, 331. Lindner,
Urban VI., 411 et seq. Capecelatro, 203. Siebeking, ii., note i.
See in Appendix No. 1 1 the text of this remarkable* letter,
which I found in the Gonzaga Archives at Mantua. Cristoforo di
Piacenza had at first the most favourable opinion of Urban VI., as
his despatch of the, 9th April, 1378, testifies (see Appendix No.
jo). He was quickly and thoroughly undeceived !
122 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
But Urban VI. had one great fault, a fault fraught with
evil consequences to himself, and yet more to the Church ;
he lacked Christian gentleness and charity. He was
naturally arbitrary and extremely violent and imprudent,*
and when he came to deal with the burning ecclesiastical
question of the day, that of reform, the consequences were
disastrous.
The melancholy condition of the affairs of the Church at
this period is clear from the letters of St. Catherine of
Siena. The suggestions of reform which she had made re
peatedly and with unexampled courage had unfortunately
not been carried out.f Gregory XI. was far too irresolute
to adopt energetic measures, and he also attached undue
weight to the opinions of his relations, and of the French
Cardinals, by whom he was surrounded ; moreover, he was
fully occupied by the war with Florence, and this was
perhaps the chief cause of his inaction. Whether, if longer
life had been granted to him, he would really have under
taken the amendment of the clergy, it is impossible to say.
One thing is certain, that at the date of the new Pope s
accession the work had still to be done.
It is to Urban s honour that he at once took the matter
in hand, beginning in the highestj circles, where, in the
* Dietrich of Nieheim, an eye-witness of the events we have
related above, and a believer in the validity of Urban s election, says
(i., 7) that the Cardinals came to the conclusion that the sudden
elevation to the supreme dignity had completely turned his head.
See the opinions of Froissart, Lionardo Aretino, Tommaso de
Acerno, and St. Antoninus ot Florence, brought together by Reu-
mont (ii., 1024).
t Capecelatro, 174.
J St. Catherine of Siena in her letters constantly reverts to the
worldliness of the higher clergy, and her charges are confirmed by
all her contemporaries. The Augustinian, Luigi Marsigli, speaks
of the Cardinals as the " avari, dissoluti, importuni e sfacciati
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 123
opinion of all prudent men, the need was the most urgent.
But instead of proceeding with the prudence and modera
tion demanded by a task of such peculiar difficulty, he
suffered himself from the first to be carried away by the
passionate impetuosity of his temper. Thus his already
unstable position was soon rendered most precarious. The
very next day after his coronation he gave offence to many
Bishops and Prelates, who were sojourning in Rome, some
of them for business, and some without any such reason.
When, after Vespers, they paid him their respects in the
great Chapel of the Vatican he called them perjurers,
because they had left their churches. A fortnight later,
preaching in open consistory, he condemned the morals
of the Cardinals and Prelates in such harsh and un
measured terms, that all were deeply wounded. Nor
did the Pope rest satisfied with words. His great
desire was to eradicate simony, and that all business
brought to Rome should be despatched gratuitously,
and without presents. This he more especially re
quired from the Cardinals, who were bound to be models
to the rest of the clergy. He publicly declared that he
would not surfer anything savouring of simony, nor would
he grant audience to anyone suspected of this sin. He
particularly forbade the Cardinals to accept pensions, con
sidering this practice to be a great hindrance to the peace
Limogini." Lettera del V., L. Marsigli, p. x. Most of the
Cardinals, according to the Cronica di Rimini, 919, had ten or
twelve Bishoprics and Abbeys apiece : " e anco tenevano scelerata
vita si de la lussuria e di simili modi di mal vivere." Johann von
Jenzenstein, Archbishop of Prague, in his " Liber de considera-
tione," sharply condemns the greed and luxury of the Cardinals of
his day : " Ecce quam avaris crudelibus nefariis sancta mater
ecclesia illis temporibus fuit stipata cardinalibus ! Affluebant
deliciis quodque desiderabat anima eorum non negabant sibi,"
Cod. Vatic., 1122, f. 45, 46, Vatican Library.
124 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of the Church. He expressed his intention of living as
much as possible in Rome, and, as far as in him lay, of
dying there.* Urban also issued ordinances against the
luxury of the Cardinals, and these measures were no doubt
most excellent. Would only that the Pope had proceeded
in a less violent and uncompromising manner ! He
certainly did not take the best way of reforming the
worldly-minded Cardinals, when, in the Consistory, he
sharply bade one of them be silent, and called out to the
others " Cease your foolish chattering ! " nor again, when
he told Cardinal Orsini that he was a blockhead, f On the
contrary, these brutal manners embittered men s minds, and
did much to frustrate his well-meant plans and actions.
St. Catherine of Siena was aware of the severity, with
which Urban VI. was endeavouring to carry out his
reforms, and immediately exhorted and warned him.
" Justice without mercy," she wrote to the Pope, "will be
injustice rather than justice." " Do what you have to do
with moderation," she said in another letter, " and with
good-will and a peaceful heart, for excess destroys rather
than builds up. For the sake of your Crucified Lord, keep
these hasty movements of your nature a little in check." J
But instead of giving heed to these admonitions, Urban VI.
pursued his disastrous course, breaking rather than bending
* Report of Giovanni di Lignano, translated by Papencordt-
Hofler, 443, 444. The important passage in the Appendix No. 13
is from Cod. n. 269 of the Library at Eichstiitt. For the Pope s
efforts in the way of reform see also Rattinger in the Histor. Jahrb.,
v., 165 ; F. Grotanelli, Leggenda min. di St. Cat. da Siena e
lettere de suoi discepoli (Bologna, 1868), 260, and the " Liber de
consideratione," by Johann von Jenzenstein, Cod. Vatic. 1122,
f. 46, Vatican Library.
t See Hefele, vi., 663, for the authentic proof. Also Siebeking,
ii., note 3.
J Tommaseo, iv., 64, 466 et seq. Hase, 253,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 125
everything that opposed him. Relations between him
and the Cardinals became more and more strained, for
not one among these luxurious prelates had sufficient
humility and patience to endure his domineering proceed
ings. Scenes of the most painful description frequently
occurred, and, considering the incredible imprudence of
Urban s conduct, we cannot wonder at his insuccess.
Almost immediately after his election, St. Catherine had
advised him to counteract the influence of the worldly-
minded Frenchmen who formed the majority in the Sacred
College, by the nomination of a number of virtuous and
conscientious Cardinals, who might assist him with counsel
and active support in the arduous duties of his office.* But
Urban let precious time go by without adding to their
number. Instead of acting, he confined himself to saying,
in presence of several of the French Cardinals, that it was
his purpose to create a preponderating number of Romans
and Italians. An eye-witness relates that at these words
the Cardinal of Geneva grew pale and left the Papal
presence.f
A revolution in the Sacred College was evidently
imminent, when Urban VI. fell out with his political
friends, the Queen of Naples and her husband, Duke
Otto of Brunswick. He also quarrelled with Count
Onorato Gaetani of Fondi. J The exasperated Cardinals
now knew where to find a staunch supporter. Hardly had
the oppressive and unhealthy heats of summer set in at
Rome, when the French, one after another, sought leave of
absence " for reasons of health." Their place of meeting
* Tommaseo, iv, 67, 68. Capecelatro, 207.
t Thomas de Acerno in Muratori, iii., 2,725. Regarding the
immense mistakes made by Urban, see also Cancellieri, Notizie, 12.
J See Carinci, Lettere di O. Gaetani, p. 119. See Document!
scelti dell* Archivio Gaetani, Carinci, p. 35 et seq.
126 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was Anagni, and it was an open secret in Rome that they
were resolved to revolt against a Pope, who had shown
them so little regard, and who absolutely refused to transfer
once more the Papal residence to France.* If hopes were
entertained of an amicable arrangement of differences,t
such hopes soon proved delusive. The Schism which had
been impending ever since Clement V. had fixed his seat
in France, and which had almost broken out in the time of
Urban V., and aga in in that of Gregory XL, J now became
a reality.
In vain did the Italian Cardinals, by order of the Pope,
propose that the contest should be settled by a General
Council ; in vain did the most eminent lawyers and states
men of the day, such as Baldo di Perugia and Coluccio
Salutato, maintain the validity of Urban s election ; in vain
did St. Catherine of Siena conjure the rebellious Cardinals,
by the Saviour s Precious Blood, not to sever themselves
from their Head and from the truth.
The plans of reform entertained by Urban VI. filled the
French King, Charles V., with wrath. The free and in
dependent position, which the new Pope had from the first
assumed was a thorn in the side of the King, who wished
to bring back the Avignon days. Were Urban now to
succeed in creating an Italian majority in the Sacred
College, the return of the Holy See to its dependence on
* This demand of the Cardinals is expressly mentioned by
Urban VI. as cause of the rupture. Raynaldus ad an. 1378, n. 25.
See Cronica di Rimini, 920.
t See* Despatch of Cristoforo di Piacenza of the 24th June,
1378. Gonzaga Archives at Mantua, Appendix 12.
J See Flathe,ii.,4i, 42, ^xn&supra p. 109. How nearly a Schism
occurred under Urban V. is shown by the * Report of Francesco
de Aguzzonis, Cod. Vatic. 4927, f. 146, Vatican Library.
See Savigny, vi., 208-228. Schulte, 257 et seq., 275 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 127
France would be greatly deferred, if not indeed altogether
prevented. Charles V therefore secretly encouraged the
Cardinals,* promising them armed assistance, even at the
cost of a cessation of hostilities with England, if they would
take the final step, before which they still hesitated. Con
fident in his powerful support, the thirteen Cardinals
assembled at Anagni, on the gth August, 1378, published
a manifesto, declaring Urban s election to have been
invalid, as resulting from the constraint exercised by the
Roman populace, who had risen in insurrection, and pro
claiming as a consequence the vacancy of the Holy See.
On the 2oth September they informed the astonished
world that the true Pope had been chosen in the person of
Robert of Geneva, now Clement VII. f The great Papal
Schism (1378-1417), the most terrible of all imaginable
calamities, thus burst upon Christendom, and the very
centre of its unity became the occasion of the division of
the Church.
It is not easy to form a correct judgment as to the pro
portion of blame due respectively to the Pope and the
Cardinals. It would be at once unjust and historically
incorrect to make Urban VI. alone responsible ; indeed, the
principal share of guilt does not fall upon him.J Reform
* See Raynaldus, ad an. 1378, n.46. Hefele,vi.,666. Gottlob, 129,
Hartwig, i., 44. I will hereafter publish the important * Report of
Francesco de Aguzzonis, (Cod. Vatic. 4927, f. 146, Vatican
Library).
t In the Cathedral of Fondi there is still to be seen the half-
shattered marble chair, on which the anti-pope (il papa di Fondi,
Cronica di Bologna, 519 : Cronica di Pisa, Muratori, xv., 1075 ;
Istoria Napolit., ibid., xxiii., 223) seated himself after his election.
In the little town of Atella in Southern Italy is a mural painting
relating to the Schism. See Stanislao d Aloe, La Madonna di
Atella nello Scisma d Italia (Napoli, 1853).
% See the observation of Victor le Clerc, Hist. Litt., T. xxiv., 30.
128 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
was a matter of the most urgent necessity, and Urban VI.
was performing a sacred duty when he boldly attacked
existing corruptions. * If he overstepped the bounds of
prudence, the fault, though a serious one, can readily be
accounted for by the amount of the evil. Urban made this
error worse by deferring the creation of new and worthy
Cardinals until too late.
It must also be observed that the measure of reform
undertaken by the Pope involved a complete breach with
the fatal Avignon period, and this not only in an ecclesias
tical, but also in a political sense.
If Urban sternly dismissed a certain number of the
Cardinals and sent them back to their Bishoprics, his aim
in this was not merely the removal of great and mischievous
abuses, but also the diminution of French influence in the
Papal Court, and of the pressure in favour of a return to
Avignon. With the same objects in view the Pope purposed
to choose Cardinals from all the different nations of Christen
dom. He wished to re-assert that universal character of
the Roman Church which had been so seriously impaired
during the Avignon period ; hence his friendly attitude
towards England. With a clearsightedness surpassing that
of any of his contemporaries, this energetic Pontiff per
ceived that if it would again fulfil its proper destiny, the
Papacy must not belong to any one nation, and must pass
beyond the narrow circle of French interests. Urban s
* Johann von Jenzenstein, in his * " Liber de consideratione,"
expresses this opinion, but blames Urban s imprudence. "Certe,
imo juste fecisti," he says, addressing the Pope, " condemnabas
simoniacos, avaritiam enervabas, superbos quantum in te fuit
contundebas, cenas turpes et convivia submovebas, voluisti ut
ambularent cum Deo tuo. Bene fecisti, juste egisti, non est qui
dicat tibi secus, tamen pace tua dicam non satis caute factum
est.," Cod. Vatic. 1122, f. 46, Vatican Library.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 129
programme consisted in its liberation from the excessive
influence of France."* Resistance was inevitable, and its
very violence shows the progress the evil had already
made.
The guilt of the worldly-minded Cardinals far outweighed
that of the Pope. By his want of charity and violence of
temper, Urban doubtless gave them just cause for com
plaint. But instead of bearing with patience the weak
nesses of the Pontiff they had chosen, instead of temper
ately opposing his unjust, or apparently unjust, measures,
goaded on by the French King, who felt that his influence
in ecclesiastical affairs was seriously threatened, they pro
ceeded at once to extremities. They were bound to pay
honour and obedience to the lawful Head of the Church,
whose position they had for months fully recognized, and
yet they took occasion from his personal failings to declare
his election invalid, and, by the appointment of an Anti-
pope, to cause a Schism in the Church. f The conduct of
the Cardinals is absolutely inexcusable. J They constituted
themselves at once accusers, witnesses, and judges; they
sought to remove a less evil by the infinitely worse remedy
of a double election and a Schism. St. Catherine of Siena s
scathing words were fully justified. " I have learned/ she
wrote to Urban, " that those devils in human form have
* This is the well-founded opinion of Lindner (Urban VI., 417).
See Hotter s note to Papencordt, 441, and Teipel s article in the
Tub. theol. Quartalschrift, 1859, P* I 57~ I 6o.
f See Lederer, Torquemada, 4-7, and Hofler in the Sitzungs-
bericht. d. bohm. Gesellschaft d. Wissenschaft, 1866, p. 42.
J See Raumer, 18, and Andre, Mon. pontif., 491.
So the revolted Cardinals are often called in contemporary
documents and chronicles, and the expression also occurs at a later
date ; see, for example, Broglio s * Chronik. (Tonini, v., 2), in Cod.
D., iii., 48, f. 3ib, in the Gambalunga Library at Rimini.
LT
cfcael s College
Scholastic s Library
130 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
made an election. They have not chosen a Vicar of Christ,
but an Anti-Christ; never will I cease to acknowledge
you, my dear Father, as the Representative of Christ upon
earth. Now forward, Holy Father ! go without fear into
this battle, go with the armour of divine love to cover you,
for that is a strong defence."
No less pointed are the words addressed by the Saint to
the recreant Princes of the Church. " Alas ! to what have
you come, since you did not act up to your high dignity !
You were called to nourish yourselves at the breast of the
Church ; to be as flowers in her garden, to shed forth sweet
perfume ; as pillars to support the Vicar of Christ and his
Bark ; as lamps to serve for the enlightening of the world
and the diffusion of the Faith. You yourselves know if you
have accomplished that, to which you were called, and which
it was your bounden duty to do. Where is your gratitude
to the Bride who has nourished you ? Instead of being her
shield you have persecuted her. You are convinced of the
fact that Urban VI. is the true Pope, the Sovereign Pontiff,
elected lawfully, not through fear, but by divine inspiration
far more than through your human co-operation. So you
informed us, and your words were true. Now you have
turned your backs on him, as craven and miserable knights,
afraid of your own shadow. What is the cause? The
poison of selfishness which destroys the world ! You, who
were angels upon earth, have turned to the work of devils.
You would lead us away to the evil which is in you, and
seduce us into obedience to Anti-Christ. Unhappy men !
You made truth known to us, and now you offer us lies.
You would have us believe that you elected Pope Urban
through fear; he who says this, lies. You may say, why
do you not believe us ? We, the electors, know the truth
better than you do. But I answer, that you yourselves have
shown me how you deal with truth. If I look at your lives,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 131
I look in vain for the virtue and holiness, which might deter
you, for conscience sake, from falsehood. What is it that
proves to me the validity of the election of Messer Bartolo-
meo, Archbishop of Bari, and now in truth Pope Urban
VI. ? The evidence was furnished by the solemn function
of his Coronation, by the homage which you have rendered
him, and by the favours which you have asked and received
from him. You have nothing but lies to oppose to these
truths. O ye fools ! a thousand times worthy of death ! In
your blindness you perceive not your own shame. If what
you say were as true as it is false, must you not have lied,
when you announced that Urban VI. was the lawful Pope ?
Must you not have been guilty of simony, in asking and re
ceiving favours from one, whose position you now deny ? "*
* This admirable letter, given by Tommaseo, iv., 150-161 ; cf. p.
167, Reumont s Translation, ii. (1034, 1035), * s addressed in the
first instance to the Italian Cardinals, but St. Catherine s inspired
words equally apply to the others. In connection with this letter,
it is interesting to read that of Coluccio Salutato to the " Ultra
montane " Cardinals. " Quis not videt," says the celebrated Chan
cellor, "vos non verum Papam quaerere, sed solum Pontificem
natione Gallicum exoptare." After exposing the contradictory
statements made by the Cardinals, and refuting their assertion that
the election had taken place under the influence of fear, he puts
himself for a moment in their position, and continues : " Malum
fuit per metum electionem Summi Pontificis celebrare ; pejus con-
firmare jam factum ; pessimum autem exhibere reverentiam con-
firmato. Turpe fuit non verum Pontificem in Christi Vicarium
fidelibus exhibere ; annuntiare litteris turpius ; turpissimum autem
rei veritatem cum taciturnitate tanti temporis occultare. Pericu-
losum fuit in sede intrudere qui per ostium non intravit ; tolerare
tarn diu periculosius fuit intrusum, sed omnium periculorum pericu-
losissimum est Pontifici Pontificem inculcare," Salutatus, Epist.,
ed. Rigacc., i, 18-39. See a ^ so Lignano s warning in Raynaldus,
ad an. 1378, n. 30, and the opinion of the Carthusians regarding
the extinction of the Schism, in Tromby, vii., cxi.
132 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Such was indeed the case. The outbreak of the schism
was chiefly due to the worldly Cardinals, stirred up by
France, and longing to return thither.* This condition
of things was a result of the disastrous Avignon epoch,
which accordingly is ultimately responsible for the terrible
calamity which fell upon Christendom. t " From France,"
as a modern ecclesiastical historian J well observes, "the
evil proceeded, and France was the chief, and, in fact,
essentially the only support of the schism, for other
nations were involved in it merely by their connection
with her. But the Gallican Church had to bear the weight
of the yoke, which, in her folly, she had taken upon her
shoulders. Her Bishoprics and Prebends became the prey
of the needy phantom-Pope, and of his thirty-six Cardinals.
He was himself the servant of the French Court, he had to
put up with every indignity offered him by the arrogance
of the courtiers, and to purchase their favour at the cost of
the Church in France, thus subjected to the extortions of
both Paris and Avignon. " How completely Clement VII.
looked on himself as a Frenchman, and how thoroughly all
feeling for the liberty and independence of the Papacy had
died within him, is clearly evidenced by the fact that, re
serving for the Holy See only Rome, the Campagna, the
* See Siebeking, 14, note 3.
f Even the French writers, Christophe (iii., v.) and 1 Epinois,
admit the schism to have been produced by national antipathies
and sympathies, the immediate and logical consequence of the
sojourn of the Popes at Avignon. See also Dollinger, The Church
and the Churches, Eng. Transl., p. 125 ; Werner, iii., 680 ; Hofler,
Ruprecht, 134, and Anna of Luxemburg, 119; Gregorovius, vi.,
3rd ed., 483-485, and Capecelatro, 173.
J Dollinger, Lehrbuch, ii., i, 281.
Loc. cit. See Clemangis, De corrupto ecclesiae statu, Opp.
(ed. Lydius, Lugd. Bat., 1613), 26, and Chronique du religieux de
St. Denys, ii., 2.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 133
Patrimony of St. Peter, and Sabina, he granted the greater
part of the States of the Church to Duke Louis of Anjou
to form the new kingdom of Adria, on condition that he
should expel Urban VI.* No former Pope had ventured
thus to tamper with the possessions of the Church. Such an
action was only possible to the " executioner of Cesena,"
the man " of broad conscience/ t as the historian of the
Schism calls him.
The rival claims to the lawful possession of the Tiara
were now a matter of general discussion, and unfortunately,
judgment too often depended on political considerations,
rather than on an impartial examination of facts. J It
became evident that the question really underlying the
whole contest was, whether French influence, which had
become dominant in Europe since the downfall of the
Hohenstaufens, should still control the Papacy, or whether
* See the Bull of Clement VII., Leibnitz, Cod. jur. gent., i.,
239-250, and Liinig, Cod. Ital. dipl., ii., 1167-1182, and P. Dur-
rieu s interesting article, Le royaume d* Adria, in the Revue des
quest, hist. (1880), lv., 43-78, and A. dAncona in the Rass.
settim. (1881), viii., 102 et seq.
t Niem., ii., i. Stefani, 204, explains in a few words how it
came to pass that the bloodthirsty (" homo sanguinis," Baluze, ii.,
914, and Salutatus, Epist., i., 31) Cardinal of Geneva was elected.
" Costui elessero," he writes, " perocche era di grande aiuto, pen-
sando, che essi ne sarebbono aiutati dal Re di Francia si per lo
parentado e si per la lingua e per averlo in Provenza, ove di poi
and6."
J The great misfortune was that politics took possession of
ecclesiastical questions. In a memorial laid before the Council
of Constance we find the following remarkable passage : " Occasio
et fomentum schismatis erat discordia inter regna : inter se prius
divisa partibus de papatu contendentibus se pariformiter con-
junxerunt. Quae quidem discordia si inter regna non processisset,
schisma non tarn diu stetisset nee tarn leviter inchoatum fuisset,"
v.d. Hardt, i., 24, 1170.
134 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Papacy should resume its normal universal position.*
The French King, Charles V., perfectly understood the
real gist of the matter. "I am now Pope!" he exclaimed,t
when the election of Clement VII. was announced to him.
The Anti-pope was not generally acknowledged, however,
so rapidly as the French monarch could have desired. The
University of Paris was at first neutral, and only espoused
the cause of Clement VII. under compulsion. The Spanish
Kingdoms also began by endeavouring to maintain
neutrality, so that his cause would probably have perished
in its infancy, had it not been for the powerful support of
Charles V.,J who spared no pains to win over all nations in
any way subject to French influence Within the next few
years all the Latin nations, with the exception of Northern
and Central Italy and Portugal, took the part of Clement
VII., and Scotland, the ally of France, naturally also
adhered to the French Pope.
The attitude of England was determined by the enmity
existing between that country and France. When the
French King declared for Clement VII., England energeti
cally espoused the cause of Urban VI. Guido di Malesicco,
the Legate of the Anti-pope, was not allowed to set foot on
English soil, and King Richard even went so far as to con
fiscate the property of the Clementine Cardinals. England
in general identified the struggle against Clement with the
war against France ; the split in the Church and the con
flict between the two nations became blended together.
* Lindner, Urban VI., 417.
t See Theol. Studien u. Krit., 1873, p. 151-161.
J Such is also the opinion of Hefele, vi., 673. Regarding the
attitude of Spain, see V. de la Fuente, Historia eccles. de Espaiia,
418 et seq.
Hofler, Anna of Luxemburg, 119. Subsequently, England
alone responded to Urban s summons to a crusade against the
Anti-pope. See Lindner, i., 90. Hofler, he. at., 118, 158, 170
ef seq. Lingard, History of England, iii., 343.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 135
The Emperor, Charles IV., who had already looked with
an unfavourable eye on the sojourn of the Popes at
Avignon, was also a firm adherent of the Roman Pope.
He was well aware that France aspired to dominion, not
merely over the Papacy or the Empire, but over the whole
world.* Charles example was followed by the greater
portion of the Empire and by Louis of Anjou, King of
Hungary and Poland, who was connected by marriage
with the Princes of the House of Luxemburg, and was the
inveterate enemy of Joanna of Naples. Ever since Charles
had aided him against the Turks, and the Queen had become
estranged from the Pope, he had forgotten that French
blood ran in his veins. f The northern kingdoms and
most of the Italian States, with the exception of Naples,
continued loyal to the Roman Pope.t
It was much to the advantage of Urban VI., who in the
meantime had created a new College of Cardinals, that his
opponent was not able to maintain a position in Italy,
where, nevertheless, the battle had to be decided. But
now, as if struck by blindness, the Pope began to commit
a series of errors. In the pursuit of his own personal ends he
completely lost sight of the wider views, || which ought to
have directed his policy. The conflict with his powerful
neighbour, Queen Joanna of Naples, became his leading
* See Urban VI. s letter to King Wenceslaus, dated Rome,
September 6th, 1382. Peltzel, i., Urkundenb, 53, No. 33.
t Puckert, ii. Among the reasons which influenced Germany
in preferring the Roman to the Avignon Papacy may be the fact
that several of the German Universities derived their legal existence
from Urban VI. See Phillips, Gesch. der Universitat Ingoldstadt
(Munich, 1846), 7.
J It is worthy of notice that the authority of the Roman Popes
was always acknowledged over a much larger extent of territory
than that of their opponents. Guericke, i., 5th ed., 719.
In the end of May, 1379, Clement VII. went to Avignon.
|| Lindner, Urban VI., 421 et seq., 542.
136 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
idea. He excommunicated her as an obstinate partisan of
the French Pope, declared her to have forfeited her throne,
and allowed a Crusade to be preached against her. He
entrusted the execution of his sentence to the crafty and
ambitious Charles of Durazzo, invested him with the
Kingdom of Naples on the ist June, 1381, and crowned
him on the following day. In return for these favours,
Charles had to promise to hand over Capua, Caserta,
Aversa, Nocera, Amalfi, and other places to the Pope s
nephew, a thoroughly worthless and immoral man. While
thus providing for the aggrandizement of his family, Urban
did not scruple to despoil churches and altars of their
treasures, in order to obtain the resources necessary for the
expedition against Naples.* But punishment soon over
took him. Charles at once took possession of the Kingdom
of Naples, but seemed to have quite forgotten his promise.
Urban was beside himself, and resolved to go in person to
Naples and assert his authority. Notwithstanding the
opposition of his Cardinals, he carried this unfortunate
project into execution in the autumn of 1383. The result,
as might have been expected, was only to add fresh bitter
ness to the conflict, and to bring about Urban s complete
discomfiture. The monarch, who owed his crown to the
Pope, treated him from the first as his prisoner. A brief
reconciliation was followed by still more violent discord,
and the Pope was besieged at Nocera. Here he exposed
his high dignity to ridicule, by proceeding four times a day
to the window, and with bell, book, and candle solemnly
excommunicating the besiegers.f And as if to fill up the
Niem, i., 22. Rattinger (Literar Rundschau, i., 251) is wrong
in doubting this fact ; see Urban s brief to the Archbishops of
Naples and Capua, Liinig, Cod. Ital. Dipl., iv., 534.
t Giornali Napolit, 1052. The besiegers, on their part, offered a
reward of 10,000 golden dollars for the person of the Pope, living or
dead ! Baluze, ii., 982.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 137
measure of the abjection and misery of the Holy See, he,
at this very time, fell out with his own Cardinals. Embittered
by the irksome insecurity of their sojourn at Nocera, and
by the violence and obstinacy of the Pope, who, deaf to
their advice, continued to involve himself and the Church in
fresh perplexities, several of them got an opinion drawn up
by a Canonist, Bartolino di Piacenza, to the effect that a
Pope, who by his incapacity or blind obstinacy should
endanger the Church, might be placed under the guardian
ship of some Cardinals and made dependent on their ap
proval in all matters of importance. They accordingly
determined to take forcible possession of his person, but
Urban, being forewarned, caused the conspirators to be
seized, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately put to death.*
The cruel harshness of the aged Pope greatly injured his
reputation. Two of his Cardinals went over to the French
Pope, by whom they were gladly welcomed. It was a
terrible calamity for the Church, that just at a time when
Princes and people were bent on their own political
interest, the severe and obstinate character of Urban pre
pared so much evil for himself and his adherents, and that no
power was able to turn him from his course. f He held with
unbending determination to his unfortunate Neapolitan pro
ject, and died unlamented at Rome on i5th October, 1389.
Christendom had never yet witnessed such a Schism ; all
* So Dollinger describes this conspiracy (ii., i, 282, 283), the
history of which is extremely obscure (see Reumont, ii., 1058 ;
Cipolla, 189, 191). The accounts given by Gobelin and Dietrich
von Nieheim leave a very different impression; see Sauerland, 15
et seg., and Bayer, Gob. Persona (Leipzig, 1875), 29. The execu
tion of the Cardinals by order of Urban VI. is characterized by
^gidius of Viterbo in his Historia viginti saeculor : as " scelus
nullo antea sseculo auditum," Cod. C. 8, 19 of the Angelica
Library at Rome.
t Hergenrother (ii., i, 41) Balan (iv., 423), and Creighton
(i., 92 et seq.) all express this opinion.
138 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
timid souls were cast into a sea of doubt, and even
courageous men like Abbot Ludolf of Sagan, its historian,
bewailed it day and night.*
Anti-popes, indeed, had already arisen on several occa
sions, but in most cases they had very soon passed away,
for, owing their elevation to the secular power, it bore
more or less clearly on its very face the stamp of violence
. and injustice. But in the present instance all was different;
unlike the Schisms caused by the Hohenstaufens or Louis
of Bavaria, that of 1378 was the work of the Cardinals, the
highest of the clergy. And, moreover, the election of Urban
VI. had taken place under circumstances so peculiar that it
was easy to call it in question. It was impossible for those
not on the spot to investigate it in all its details, and the
fact, that all who had taken part in it subsequently re
nounced their allegiance, was well calculated to inspire
doubt and perplexity.f It is extremely difficult for those
who study the question in the present day with countless
documents before them, and the power of contemplating the
further development of the Schism, to estimate the difficul
ties of contemporaries who sought to know which of the
two Popes had a right to their obedience. The extreme
confusion is evidenced by the fact that canonized Saints
are found amongst the adherents of each of the rivals. St.
Catherine of Siena, and her namesake of Sweden, stand
opposed to St. Vincent Ferrer and the Blessed Peter of
Luxemburg, who acknowledged the French Pope.f All
* Laserth, Beitrage, 361, 368, 375, 404, 456, 457, 553- " Fu
di tutti gli altri (scismi) ilpessimo," says the Istojia di Chiusi, 961.
t See the ** Report of Francisco de Aguzzonis, Cod. Vatic.,
4927, f. 146, Vatican Library.
} See Papebroch, 431 et seq. The relations of St. Vincent
Ferrer with Benedict XIII. a r e dealt with in an article : L anti-pape
Benoit XIII. en Rousillon, Revue du monde cath, 10 Avril, 1866.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 139
the writings of the period give more or less evidence of the
conflicting opinions which prevailed ; and upright men
afterwards confessed, that they had been unable to find out
which was the true Pope. *
To add to the complications, the obedience of Germany
to Urban VI. and that of France to Clement VII. was far
from complete, for individuals in both countries attached
themselves to the Pope, from whom they expected to gain
most.f The allegiance of the Holy Roman Empire to
Urban was evidently of an unstable character, since
ecclesiastics in Augsburg fearlessly, and without hindrance,
accepted charges and benefices from the hands of the Anti-
pope and his partisans, and itinerant preachers publicly
asserted the validity of his claim. J Peter Suchenwirt, in
a poem written at this period, describes the distress, which
the growing anarchy within the Church was causing in
men s minds, and earnestly beseeches God to end it.
" There are two Popes," he says ; " which is the right
one?
* As, for example, the Carthusian Werner Rolewinck (1425-1502)
in Pistorius, ii., 567 (cf. iii., 350). See St. Antoninus, Chronic,
tit., xxii., c. ii (non videtur saluti necessarium credere istum esse
vel ilium, sed alterum eorum), and Ludolf of Sagan in Loserth, 456.
The Limburger Chronik, on the other hand, says (73) : " Also
waren zwene babeste, einer zu Rome, der was mit rechte ein babest,
der ander zu Abigon mit unrechte."
t See Coluccio Salutato s remarkable letter in Martene, Thesaur.,
ii., 1158 (also in the edition of Rigaccius, i., 116).
J See Ch. Meyer, Das Schisma unter Konig Wenzel und die
deutschen Stadte in the Forschungen, xvi., 355, 356.
In 1386 a false Bishop went about in the Dioceses of Treves
and Mayence. Limburger Chronik. 18. Other instances are given
in Haupt s interesting article on Joh. Malkaw, Zeitschr. fur Kir-
chengesch, vi., 324 et seq.
140 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
"In Rome itself we have a Pope,
In Avignon another ;
And each one claims to be alone
The true and lawful ruler.
The world is troubled and perplext,
Twere better we had none,
Than two to rule o er Christendom,
Where God would have but one.
He chose St. Peter, who his fault
With bitter tears bewail d ;
As you may read the story told
Upon the sacred page.
Christ gave St. Peter pow r to bind,
And also pow r to loose ;
Now men are binding here and there,
Lord, loose our bonds we pray."
" Our sins, indeed, had deserved this punishment ; the
world is full of injustice and falsehood :
* Never have hatred, pride, and greed,
Had pow r so great as now."
" Men are sunk in vices and crimes ; it is in vain to look
for peace and justice. The disastrous year of 1378 took
an Emperor and a Pope from the world ; we have now a
Pope too many and an Emperor too few. God alone can
put an end to this misery;" and the poet concludes with
the prayer
" To Christendom its chiefs restore,
Both its Pope and its Emperor,
Thus throughout the world shall be,
End made of wrong and misery." *
It has been well observed t that we can scarcely form an
* P. Suchenwirt s Werke, published by A. Primisser (Wien,
1827), 107-109, Zimmerman, 2.
t By F. H. Geffcken, Staat und Kirche (Berlin, 1875), l %5*
See Guerike, i., 5th ed., 718, and Hagenbach, 463.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 141
idea of the deplorable condition to which Europe was
reduced by the schism. Uncertainty as to the title of its
ruler is ruinous to a nation ; this schism affected the whole
of Christendom, and called the very existence of the
Church in question. The discord touching its Head neces
sarily permeated the whole body of the Church ; in many
Dioceses two Bishops were in arms for the possession of
the Episcopal throne, two Abbots in conflict for an abbey.
The consequent confusion was indescribable."* We cannot
wonder that the Christian religion became the derision of
Jews and Mahometans.f
The amount of evil wrought by the schism of 1378, the
longest known in the history of the Papacy,:): can only be
estimated, when we reflect that it occurred at a moment,
when thorough reform in ecclesiastical affairs was a most
urgent need. This was now utterly out of the question,
and, indeed, all evils which had crept into ecclesiastical
life were infinitely increased. Respect for the Holy See
was also greatly impaired, and the Popes became more
than ever dependent on the temporal power, for the schism
* " Surrexit regnum contra regnum, provincia contra pro-
vinciam, clerus contra clerum, doctores contra doctores, parentes
in filios et filii in parentes," writes Abbot Ludolf of Sagan in his
Tractatus de longaevo schismate, c. 2 (Loserth, 404).
t Gerson, Opp., ii., 115; Martene, Thesaur., ii., 1159, an< ^
Langenstein s Invectiva contra monstrum Babylonis, v., 243 et seq.
in Cod. 320, f. 92 et seq. of the University Library at Breslau. See
Appendix No. 1 5 .
J Muratori, xix., 646, and Pistorius, ii., 567.
See especially Schwab, 492 et seq., 675 et seq., who justly
observes, that the work of Nicolas de Cle mangis, " De corrupto
Ecclesiae statu," is by no means absolutely reliable. See also on this
subject Voigt, Enea, i., 193-195. As to the condition of the German
Church see the detailed account of Hofler, Ruprecht, 1 1 2 et seq.,
and also Wegele, ii., 411.
142 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
allowed each Prince to choose which Pope he would
acknowledge.* In the eyes of the people, the simple fact
of a double Papacy must have shaken the authority of the
Holy See to its very foundations. It may truly be said
that these fifty years of schism prepared the way for the
great Apostacy of the sixteenth century.
It is not within the scope of the present work to recount
all the vicissitudes of the warfare between the claimants of
the Papal throne for Urban VI. received immediately a
successor. Neither side would yield, and the confusion of
Christendom daily increased and pervaded all classes of
society. The Cardinals of the rival Popes were at open
variance, and in many dioceses there were two Bishops.
This was the case in Breslau, Mayence, Liege, Basle, Metz
Constance, Coire, Lubeck, Dorpat, and other places, and
even the Religious and Military Orders were drawn into
the schism, f
The conflict was carried on with unexampled violence.
* Flathe, ii., 65 ; Guerike, i., 5th ed., 718. The Schism com
pelled the Popes to make great concessions to the temporal Princes
(see the Decree of Boniface IX. against the extension of ecclesias
tical jurisdiction, found in the Diisseldorf Archives, and published
by Varrentrapp [Hermann von Wied, Leipzig, 1878. Appendix
5-6]), and it seems to have been the origin of the so-called Placet
or Exequatur ; see Martens, 142 ; Hergenrother, Staat und Kirche,
819.
t For particulars regarding the distracted Dioceses, see Lindner,
i., 92, 93. Haupt, in the Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte, vi.,
340, speaks of the disunion among the mendicant Orders ; regard
ing that among the Carthusians see Tromby, vii., 45 d seq., 48
et seq., 60 et seq., 98, 104; app. Ivi. et seq., clxiii et seq. See also
J. Delaville Le Roulx, Un anti-grand-maitre de 1 Ordre de Saint Jean
de Jerusalem, etc. Bibl. de 1 Ecole des Charles, xl., 525. The con
test of two Abbots for the celebrated Abbey of Corbie at the end of
the fourteenth century is related by Evelt, 125, 126.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 143
While the adherents of the Roman Pope reprobated the
Mass offered by the " Clementines," the " Clementines "
in their turn looked on that of the " Urbanists " as a
blasphemy ; in many cases public worship was altogether
discontinued.* " The depths of calamity, " as St. Catherine
of Siena said, " overwhelmed the Church/ " Mutual
hatred," writes a biographer of the Saint, " lust of power,
the worst intrigues flourished amidst clergy and laity alike,
and who could suppress these crimes ? God alone could help,
and He led the Church through great and long-continued
tribulation back to unity, and made it plain to all that
men may indeed in their wickedness wound her, but they
cannot destroy her, for she bears within a divine principle
of life." Therefore, even amid the direst storm of discord,
St. Catherine could write, " I saw how the Bride of Christ
was giving forth life, for she contains such living power that
no one can kill her ; I saw that she was dispensing strength
and light, and that no one can take them from her, and I
saw that her fruit never diminishes, but always increases."!
But this did not lessen the Saint s distress. " Every age,"
she wrote to a nun, " has its afflictions, but you have not
seen, and no one has seen a time so troubled as the present.
Look, my daughter, and your soul must be filled with grief
and bitterness, look at the darkness which has come upon
the Church ; human help is unavailing. You and all the
servants of God must take Heaven by storm ; it is a time
for watching, and not for sleeping ; the foe must be
* Niem, i., 19. Christophe, iii., 35, 36.
f Capecelatro-Conrad, 242, 243. Johann von Jenzenstein, in
his* " Liber de consideratione," addressed to Urban VI , also asserts
his firm confidence in the indestructibility of the Church : " Quoties
destruitur, toties iterum construitur," Cod. Vatic., 1122, f. 43,
Vatican Library.
144 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
vanquished by vigils, by tears, by groans and sighs, and by
humble, persevering prayer."*
But St. Catherine did not content herself with merely
praying for the Pope. After the failure of her efforts to
nip the fearful evil of the Schism in the bud, she put forth
all her powers to secure the victory of justice the cause
of the Roman Pope. Letters full of warning, supplication,
and menace were addressed by her to various individuals ;
she wrote to the Pope and the Cardinals as well as to the most
illustrious Princes. Her influence aided Urban to maintain
his position in Italy and contributed to the defeat of the
French Anti-pope in that country.f But she was not per
mitted to witness the restoration of unity to the Church, for
on the 29th April, 1380, she died, full of grief for the dis
orders due to the Schism, but with an unshaken confidence
in the " eternal future of the Church."
The literature of this period, a field as yet but little
explored, testifies to the general distress caused by the
Schism. Touching lamentations in both prose and verse
portray the desolation and confusion of the time, and this
* Loc. cit.) 214 (Tommaseo, iv., 143). " lo, per me," writes St.
Catherine to a Carthusian monk, " muoio e non posso morire di
vedere offendere tanto il nostro Creatore nel corpo mistico della
santa Chiesa e contaminare la fede nostra da quegli che sono posti
per alluminarla."
t Loc. cit., 221 et seq., 228 et seq., 240 et seq., 243 et seq , 252
et seq., 254 et seq., 258. Chavin de Malan (Vie de St. Catherine de
Sienne, Paris, 1846) justly observes that St. Catherine was to the
Papacy what Joan of Arc was to the French monarchy. " A heart
more loyal to the Church and to the Papacy perhaps never beat in
any human breast," says Hase, 1 97. See also the beautiful words of
Janitschek,DieGesellschaft, &c., p. 21. In reference to St. Catherine s
part in the promotion of the unity of the Church, see also the letter
of Stefano Macone, the celebrated General of the Carthusians,
Tromby., vii., App. clxv.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 145
was aggravated by epidemics. " Whose heart/ 1 cries
Heinrich von Langenstein, " is so hardened as not to be
moved by the unspeakable sufferings of his Mother, the
Church ? " In order to give yet more force to his complaint
that the spirit of unity and concord has forsaken Christen
dom, he brings the Church herself forward and puts into
her mouth the words of Jeremias, associated by the Liturgy
with the Dolours of our Lady : " See if there be sorrow like
my sorrow."* The celebrated Canonist, Giovanni di Lignano,
in a treatise in support of the legitimacy of Urban VI., echoes
Langenstein s words. f The chronicler of St. Denis mentions
a comet which appeared at this time with its tail turned to
the west, as portending war, insurrection, and treason. He
foretold that a Pope was to be besieged in Avignon, and a
Pope driven from Rome. The pious Giovanni dalle Celle,
in despair at the contest which deprived the very centre of
the Church of its universality, writes : " They say that the
world must be renewed ; I say, it must be destroyed." J
Amongst writings of a similar nature we must not omit the
frequently quoted treatise addressed to Urban VI. by the
celebrated Archbishop of Prague, Johann von Jenzenstein,
who depicts the abjection of the Church in striking terms.
* I found Langenstein s * Exclamatio contra schisma ecclesire
in Cod. 129, f. 82a, 83 of the University Library at Innsbruck,
and in MS. also in the Court Library at Vienna. See Denis, ii.,
847.
f Tractatus de fletu ecclesise. Arm., liv., t. 18 (n. 5), Secret
Archives of the Vatican.
J Compendio di dottrina etc. (Bologna, 1861), 351. Kraus,
494. Jean Petit in 1392 composed a poem: La Complainte de
FEglise (see Froissart, xv., 375), which also belongs to this class of
works. Bitter complaints are also to be found in * Nic. de Bitonto,
Consilium super schismate, Cod. Vatic., 4192, Vatican Library.
" Liber de consideratione scriptus ad Urbanum papam
sextum," divided into the following sections : " (i) De planctu
L
146 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
From these complaints it is evident how keenly the need of
a supreme Judge, Guardian, and Guide in ecclesiastical
affairs was felt.
Naturally, men did not stop at mere expressions of
sorrow, but went on to inquire into the origin of the evil
which was bringing such dishonour on the Church. The
most clear-sighted contemporary writers point to the
corruption of the clergy, to their inordinate desire for money
and possessions in short, to their selfishness as the root
of all the misery. This is the key note of Nicolas de
Clemangis celebrated book, " On the Ruin of the Church "
(written in 1401); and in a sermon delivered before the
Council of Constance, the preacher insisted that " money
was the origin of the Schism, and the root of all the con
fusion."*
It cannot, however, be too often repeated that the ecclesi
astical corruption was in great measure a consequence of
the Avignon period, and of the influence which State politics
had acquired in matters of Church government. The rupture,
produced by the recreant French Cardinals, was, in reality,
nothing but the conflict of two nations for the possession
of the Papacy ; the Italians wished to recover it, and the
French would not let it be wrested from them.t
ecclesiae; (2) De origine schismatis; (3) De ecclesiae humilia-
tione; (4) De ecclesise destitutione ; (5) De civitate Dei ; (6) De
civitate diaboli," Cod. Vatic., 1122, f. 43, 63, Vatican Library. In
Appendix No. 14 see apassage from Giovanni di Spoleto s, "Dialogus
de tollendo Schismate," copied from a MS. in the Library of St.
Peter s, Rome.
* Zimmermann, 2-3, gives proofs. See also the words of the
Abbot Ludolph of Sagan, a man devotedly attached to the Church,
Loserth, 392, and Johann von Jenzenstein s *" Liber de considera-
tione," Cod. Vatic., 1122, f. 46, Vatican Library.
t Dollinger, Kirche und Kirchen, 9. Janus, 315. K. Hase is
also of this opinion. " If the proximate cause of the Schism," he
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 147
Those who raised their voices to complain of the corrup
tion and confusion of Christendom were not always men of
real piety or moral worth. In many cases they might with
advantage have begun by reforming their own lives. Some
of them went so far as to charge all the evils of the day
upon the ecclesiastical authorities, and stirred up laity and
clergy against each other; such persons only destroyed
that which was still standing. Others, again, clamoured for
reform, while themselves doing nothing to promote it.
But at this time, as at all periods in the history of the
Church, men were found who, without making much noise
or lamentation, laboured in the right way that is, within
the limits laid down by the Church for the thorough
amendment of all that was amiss.
Of this stamp was Gerhard Groot of Deventer (born
1340, died 1384).* This excellent man, whom John Busch
and Thomas a Kempis rightly name a light of the Church,
endeavoured to spread abroad a true idea of the high voca
tion of the clergy, to point out to Christian people the way
of salvation, and to propagate genuine piety in the hearts
of his fellow men. Having received deacon s orders, he
went through Holland, preaching missions in the towns of
Zwolle, Deventer, and Kempen. He usually preached
says (Cat. von Siena, 249), " was the violent conduct of Urban, its
deeper origin is to be found in the attempt of the French Papacy
to maintain itself as such. That which has lasted for seventy years,
and which men remember as existing from their childhood, is easily
believed to have a right to endure, and this opinion gains strength if
national feeling is enlisted on its side."
* See the remarkable Monograph of Karl Grube (Koln, 1883).
In a letter, which has not yet been published, regarding the
Schism, G. Groot expresses the desire " quod ambo pontifices
cum omnibus cardinalibus cantarent in coelo empyreo gloria in
excelsis, et alius verus Elyachim poneret pacem et unitatem in
terris," Cod. 4923^. 196, Court Library at Vienna.
I4 8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
three times a day ; people came from miles to hear his
inspired discourses. The Churches were for the most part
too small to contain the congregations, and he frequently
preached in the churchyards. His language was not that of
the schools, but of the heart, and therefore it reached the
hearts of his hearers. Moreover, his life was the practical
exemplification of his doctrine. His whole work may be
briefly summed up as the " promotion of the imitation of
Jesus Christ."
Much was gained when by degrees a circle of disciples
gathered round this Apostolic man ; they lived under his
direction and that of his friend, Florentius Radewins, earn
ing their bread by transcribing pious books, and employing
themselves also in the religious instruction of the people.
By the advice of Florentius, they put their earnings together
and lived in common under a head elected by themselves.
With Gerhard s assistance, Florentius drew up a rule of
life and ordinances for the Community. All promised to
obey him as their Superior and to remain for life. Vows,
in the proper sense of the word, were not taken, for the
new Community was not as yet recognized as a religious
Congregation by the Holy See. Each member had also
to promise that he would contribute to the general support
by manual labour, especially by writing. Their object was
to lead the life of the early Christians "the life of Perfec
tion and of Imitation of Christ" The principle of self-sup
port, on which this community was founded, distinguished
it from the existing religious houses, which made the Divine
worship, prayer, and religious instruction their practical
aim, and derived their support from endowments or the
gifts of the faithful.*
* Gerhard abhorred begging, and set before his disciples the
example of St. Paul who also worked with his own hands. Grube,
loc. at., 67.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 149
Such was the origin of the celebrated community of the
" Brothers of the Common life " (Fraterherren) * The fervent
words of Thomas a Kempis describe their further progress.
" Humility, the first of all virtues, was here practised from
the least to the greatest. This makes the earthly house a
Paradise, and transforms mortal men into heavenly pearls,
living stones in the Temple of God. There, under holy
discipline, flourished obedience, the mother of virtues, and
the lamp of spiritual knowledge. The highest wisdom con
sisted in obeying without delay, and it was a grave fault to
disregard the counsel or even the slightest word of the
Superior. The love of God and of men burned within and
without, so that the hard hearts of sinners melted into tears
when they heard their holy words ; those who came cold,
went away inflamed by the fire of the discourse and full of
joy, and resolved for the future to sin no more. There was
a shining store of armour for the spiritual warfare against
each separate vice ; old and young alike learned to fight
bravely against Satan, the flesh, and the deceits of the
world. The memory of the ancient Fathers and the fervour
of the Egyptian solitaries, which had long lain half buried,
was brought to life again, and the religious state rose, in
conformity with the traditions of the primitive Church, to
the highest perfection ! There were heard pious exhorta
tions to the practice of virtue, and the most holy and
sorrowful passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ was the sub
ject of frequent and devout meditation. We know that
from the attentive remembrance of His Passion comes
healing for our souls ; it has power to kill the poisonous bite
of the serpent, to moderate the passions of the heart, and
* See the article contributed by K. Hirsche to Herzog s
Realencyklopadie, ii., 2nd ed., 678-760, where a list of the
numerous works regarding them will be found.
l$ HISTORY OF THE POPES.
to raise the dull soul from earth to Heaven by the imitation
of the Crucified."*
Gerhard Groot and his foundation had soon to encounter
much opposition, especially from the Mendicant Friars. Ac
cordingly, a very short time before his early death, he urgently
recommended his friend Florentius to adopt the rule of a
religious order. His wish was carried out in the year 1386-
1387, when a house, following the rule of St. Augustine,
was established at Windesheim, three hours journey to the
south of Zwolle, and six members of Florentius Brother
hood took possession of it. This foundation deserves to be
particularly mentioned, even in a History of the Popes, for
monastic reform and the revival of faith flowed thence
like a mighty stream, first through Holland and then
through the whole of Northern Germany, the Rhine
country, and Franconia. It was established as a Congrega
tion in 1395, and its Statutes were immediately confirmed
by Pope Boniface IX.f The disciples of Groot did much
to promote the real reform of the clergy, and the ameliora
tion of Catholic life in Germany and the Netherlands. The
services rendered by the Congregation of Windesheim and
the Fraterherren in raising the standard of popular instruc
tion, and promoting the spread of religious literature in the
vernacular, have been recognized by the best judges. It is
acknowledged that they were not behind their age in regard
to scientific attainments, and that their method in classical
studies was excellent. J The rapid increase of this con-
* Somalius, Opp. Thomae a Kempis (Antwerpiae, 1615), 951,
cap. xxi., N. 2. Grube, G. Groot, 71-72.
t Grube, J. Busch, 13. G. Groot, 82-84.
J Raumer, Gesch. der Padagogik, i., 27 et seq>, 2nd ed. Bursian,
89. See also F. Jostes Introduction to the Sermons of Joh. Veghe
(Halle, 1883). Dr. Grube, who has thrown much light on the
whole subject, gives a complete account of the literary work of
the Windesheim Congregation in the Katholik, 1881 (i, 42 et seq.).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 151
gregation, from the year 1386, when the first six brothers
took possession of mud huts at Windesheim,* and the
wonderful renovation of monastic life which it initiated,
form one of the brightest spots in an age so full of sorrow.
Among the darker shades of the picture of this period,
we must count the formation of sectarian Conventicles by
laymen and the increase of false prophecies. In regard to
the first of these evils, it has been well observed that times
like that of the great Schism are fraught, for earnest
natures, with a special danger, in proportion to their dis
satisfaction with the provision for their spiritual needs,
made by those who represent the Church. f The false
prophecies, on account of their wide diffusion, demand a
more detailed examination. The difficulty of ascertaining
which Pope was the true one, and the anxiety and per
plexity of conscience which afflicted all thoughtful souls, in
consequence of the chaotic state of the Church, led to
a notable multiplication of visionaries and prophets. J
There was a widespread expectation of the coming of
Anti-Christ, and the approaching end of the world ; an
Englishman, writing probably in the year 1390, even
maintained that the Pope was the Anti-Christ of the
Apocalypse. By means of another most dangerous class
* Grube, Groot, 84 et seq.
t Grisar in the Hist. Jahrb., i., 628. In 1437 an( ^ 1438 the
Synods of Salzburg and Brixen were obliged to take measures
against Conventicles of this kind. See Bickell, 64.
J See Johann von Jenzensteins * Liber de consideratione
scriptus ad Urbanum papam sextam." Cod. Vatic., 1122, f. 46,
48. Vatican Library.
See Niem, iii., 41, 43. Hofler, Concilia Pragensia, 1353-
1413 (Prag. 1862), xli. Hartwig, i., 21, 49, note; ii., 8.
Dollinger, Weissagungsglaube, 270. Hipler, 62. Even the
Blessed Giovanni dalle Celle gave credit to the prophecy which
foretold the end of the world; see Lettere del b. Giovanni dalle
152 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of prophecies, political and heretical agitators, the latter
of whom were at this time peculiarly audacious, en
deavoured to turn the sad condition of the Church to
profit for their own purposes.* A host of these predic
tions, which aggravated the general confusion, are inspired
by the false ascetical principle that the clergy and the
Church ought to return to Apostolic poverty.
Views of this kind are forcibly enunciated in the cele
brated work of the so-called hermit, Telesphorus, who,
born, by his own account, near Cosenza, gave out that
he lived in the neighbourhood of Thebes. His prophecy
claims our attention, because, as countless manuscripts
bear witness, it enjoyed a wider circulation than any other
writing of the kind.f
Celle, ed. B. Sorio (Roma, 1845), J 88 et seq. The anticipation of
the advent of Anti-Christ and of a false Pope again prevailed in
Northern Italy in 1420, 1433, 1443, and 1457; see Wadding, x.,
33 et seq. ; Annal. Placent. in Muratori, Script, xx., 878, 905, and
Steinchneider in the Zeitschr. der Deutschen morgenland. Gesells-
chaft (1875), xxix., 165.
* Hartwig, i., 71. Even in the Avignon days the opponents of
the Papacy had enlisted prophecies in their service ; see Gaspary,
i., 356 et seg., 530. Kervyn de Lettenhove, Froissart, vi., 262
et seq.
t According to Db llinger, Weissagungsglaube, 369, the work of
Telesphorus was printed in Venice in 1515, but this edition (which
I have been unable to find) is so rare that modern writers only
know the work from MSS. I give a list of those whose existence I
have been able to ascertain : Berlin : Royal Museum, Hamilton
MS., 628 (saec. xv.). Bologna: University Library, Cod. 1577,
f. i et seq. Florence : National Library, MSS. Strozz, cl. xxii.,
Cod. 22, f. 128 et seq. London: British Museum, Arundel MSS.,
117 (see Index to the A. MSS., London, 1840). Lyons: City
Library, Cod. 654, (with pictures ; presented by Franc, de
Chevriers, 1624, to the Library of the Jesuits College in Lyons).
Milan: Trivulzio Library, Cod. 199 (saec. xv.). Mayence : City
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 153
Telesphorus starts from the idea that the Schism is a
punishment for the sins and crimes of the Roman Church
and the clergy in general. Its conclusion, he says, is to be
expected in the year 1393, when the Anti-Pope (the
Italian Pope) will be slain in Perugia. This event will be
followed by a complete renovation of the Church and the
return of the clergy to Apostolic poverty, but the perse
cution of the clergy will continue. A new Emperor and a
new Pope will then appear, and the latter, the " Pastor
Angelicus," will deprive the Germans of the Imperial
Crown and bestow it on the French King Charles ; he
will recover possession of Jerusalem, and the union with
the Greek Church will be accomplished. The burden of
the prophecy of Telesphorus is the transfer of the Imperial
dignity to the Royal House of France ; it is nothing but a
programme of French hopes and political aspirations, set
forth in the prophetical form so popular at the period.*
Library, Cod. 247. Munich: Palace Library, Cod. lat. 313, f. 10
et seq. ; 4143 (saec xvii.), f. 5 et seq. ; 5106, f. 233 et seq. (see Cat.
Cod., etc.). Pommersfelden : Library of Count Schonborn; see
Archiv, ix., 538 et seq. Rome : Chigi Library, Cod. A. vii., 220;
Vatic. Library, Cod. Vatic., 3816, f. 331 et seq. ; 3817, f. i6b. et
seq; Cod. Regin. 580 (ssec. xv., with pictures) ; Ottob. 1106 (ex
cod. Jo. Angeli ducis ab Altaemps). Turin : Library ; see Fabri-
cius, vi., 514. Venice: St. Mark s Library ; see Valentinelli, ii.,
128, 215. Vienna: Court Library, Cod. 3313, f. i et seq. Wol-
fenbiittel Library; see Hartwig, i., 71, note 2. The Telesphorus
MS. of the Trivulzio Library is described by Porro, Cat. dei Codici
MSS. della Trivulzio (Torino, 1884), 433. The Prophecies of
Telesphorus (with pictures) in Cod. A. 5 (ssec. xv.) of the
Seminary Library, Padua.
* Dollinger, Weissagungsglaube, 351. Regarding the efforts of
France to obtain the Empire, see Janssen, Rheingeliiste, 2nd ed.
(Freiburg, 1883), and for the Papa Angelico, see Dollinger, loc. tit.,
3 J 7 339 et seq., 345 et seq., 347. Kraus, 401, and Marchese, ii.,
154
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The wide diffusion of this prediction and its anti-German
character, induced the " most eminent German theologian
of the day/ Heinrich von Langenstein (Henricus de
Hassia), to write a controversial work in reply * The
worthy Hessian scholar begins by disapproving the
existing rage for prophecies, and specially condemns the
predictions of Joachim and Cyrillus, from which Teles-
phorus had borrowed. His position throughout is that of
the celebrated Theological School of Paris, which made no
account of these predictions, and looked upon those of the
Abbot Joachim as mere guesses which had nothing super
natural about them, while his treatment of many dogmatic
questions was far from orthodox.
Langenstein strongly opposes the principle laid down by
Telesphorus, that the clergy ought to be deprived of all
their wealth and possessions. He justly observes that it
would be most dangerous to teach the powerful laity,
already unfavourably disposed towards ecclesiastics, that
they had a right, under pretext of reform, to take posses
sion of Church property, and that the abuse of riches by the
clergy does not furnish a ground for deprivation. If this
* Published in Fez, Thesaurus anecdot. noviss. (Aug. Vindel.,
1721), i, 2, 505, 568; ex MS. Cod. Carthusiae Gemnicensis.
Hartwig (ii., 34) knows of but two MSS. copies of Langenstein s
work (Vienna and Wolfenbiittel). I am able to indicate three
others, which vary in some degree from the published version ;
this is especially the case in regard to the MS. in the University
Library at Basle, Cod. A. iv., 24 (Liber ecclesise S. Leonardi ord.
canonic, regul., written in 1440), N. 6; and its division of
chapters is different : Cap. 6 = cap 9 in Fez ; cap. 10 = cap. 13
in P.; cap. n = cap. 17 in P. The name of the hermit is here
given in three different forms : Theolophilus, Theolophorus,
Theoloferus. The other MSS. are in the University Library at
Innsbruck, Cod. 620, f. loia, I33b, and in the Town Library at
Frankfort-on-Main, Cod. 783, N. 3 of the old Dominican Library
in that city.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 155
were so, the property of laymen must also be taken from
them, since most of them make a worse use of it. If,
however, the Religious Orders were to be suppressed
and despoiled, as Telesphorus predicts, the consequence,
Langenstein maintains, would be, not the reformation, but
the complete ruin of the Church.*
The so-called Telesphorus was not the only instance of
a false prophet. Langenstein s work clearly proves their
number to have been very considerable. He devotes a
whole chapter to those, who were induced by the Schism to
come forward and to foretell, by the course of the stars or
their own conjectures, the triumph of one or other of the
Popes and the end of the contest. t While Telesphorus
supported France, Gamaleon predicted the renovation of
the Church after the conquest of Rome by the German
Emperor and the transfer of the Papacy to Germany.^
In the excited state of public feeling, these pretentious
prophets, in an uncritical age, found ready credence. The
* Fez, loc. tit., 529, 534. The spoliation of the clergy had
already been predicted by the sects of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries; similar socialistic doctrines were afterwards put for
ward by Hans Bohm of Niklashausen ; see Haupt, 58. In almost
all the prophecies of the period, the cry of " Woe ! Woe ! to the
clergy " is repeated. See e.g., the * Prophecy of the year 1396 in
Cod. 269 of the Library at Eichstatt.
t Langenstein also mentions the appearance of false prophets in
the Invectiva contra monstrum Babylonis. Cod. 320 (v. 487) of
the Royal University Library at Breslau. See also Johann von
Jenzenstein s * "Liber de consideratione," Cod. Vatic., 1122, f.
49, Vatican Library.
Dollinger, Weissagungsglaube, 351. Kraus, 494.
A* prophecy of 1395 (An Astrological Prognostication) con
cludes with an exhortation to spread the prediction abroad, so that
everyone may be prepared and, before these storms break, seek a
safe dwelling-place in caves of the highest mountains, and take
provisions for thirty days. Cod. 269 of the Eichstatt Library.
156 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
predictions were copied out and illuminated as if they had
been revelations of the Holy Spirit. In short, there was a
very deluge of prophecies regarding the termination of the
Schism, and all of them ended in nought*
The crisis which the Church passed through at this junc
ture, is the most grievous recorded in her history. Just
when the desperate struggle between the rival Popes had
thrown everything into utter confusion, when ecclesiastical
revenues and favours served almost exclusively as the
reward of partisans, and when worldliness had reached its
climax, heretical movements arose in England, France,
Italy, Germany, and, above all, in Bohemia, and threatened
the very constitution of the Church. t This was most
* Dollinger, Weissagungsglaube 348-349. The above-mentioned
MSS. of the prophecy of Telesphorus in Berlin, Lyons, Venice, and
especially the beautiful Codex a. vii., 22 of the Chigi Library,
Rome, are illuminated. Lippman considers the illuminations in
the Berlin MS. to be of some artistic merit.
t The widely-scattered notices regarding the heretical movement
of this age have unfortunately never been gathered together ; the
work would be a most profitable and valuable one. See, besides
Mosheim s book, De Beghardis et Beguinabus (Lips. 1790),
especially Gieseler, ii., 3, 267 et seq., 276 et seq, ; Harm, Gesch der
Ketzer im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, 1847), n -> 5 l % et seq., 533-546 et
seq.; R. Wilmanns, Zur Gesch. der Romischen Inquisition in
Deutschland wahrend des vierzehnten und fiinfzehnten Jahrh, in
Sybels Histor. Zeitschr. N.F. v., 193 et seq.; J. W. Rohrig,
Mittheilungen aus der Gesch. der Evangel. Kirche des Elsasses
(Paris-Strasburg, 1855), * T ~77 \ Hartwig, i., 13-25 ; Ochsenbein,
aus dem Schweizerischen Volksleben des funfzehnten Jahrh. (Bern,
1881) ; Grube, G. Groot, 22 et seq. ; Limburger Chronik, 81 ;
Kolde, 59 et seq. ; Friedjung, Karl, iv. (Wien, 1876), 199, 328-329,
and especially the remarkable work of Dr. H. Haupt, Ueber die
religiosen Secten in Franken, 1882. With regard to Italy, see Flathe,
ii., 3 et seq.-, Cantu, i., 132 et seq, ; Arch. Stor. Ital., serie iii., vol.
i., 2 p., 3 et seq.; ii., i p. 8 et seq. ; Wesselofsky, i., 145 et seq., 335
etseq. ; Comba, i., 329 et seq. ; Miscell. di Storia Ital., xx., 196 et
seq., and Storia di fra Michele Minorita come fu arso in Firenze nel
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 157
natural ; the smaller the chance of reform being effected by
the Church, the more popular and active became the reform
movement not directed by her ; the higher the region that
needed, but resisted reform, the more popular did this
movement become/*
Germany was disturbed by the Beghards, and also more
especially by the Waldenses, whose doctrines had taken
root in Bavaria and Austria during the latter half of the
thirteenth century, and, notwithstanding constant repres
sion, had become widely diffused. The movement reached
its height in Germany in the last thirty years of the
fourteenth century the disastrous time of the Great
Schism. It was not only in Southern Germany and the
Rhine country, the two centres of Mediaeval heresy, that a
great proportion of the population had embraced the
Waldensian doctrine, it had also made its way into the
north and the furthest east of the empire. Waldensian
congregations were to be found in Thuringia, the March of
Brandenburg, Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Pomerania,
Prussia, and Poland. f That the Waldenses were very
numerous in the Austrian dominions at the beginning of
the last decade of the fourteenth century is proved by the
fact that they had no less than twelve superintendents.! In
1389, con document! risguardanti i fraticelli della povera vita, ed.
Fr. Zambrini (Bologna, 1864).
* The close relationship between the Schism and the general rise
of heretical teaching is forcibly insisted on by Heinrich von Lan-
genstein in the Invectiva contra monstrum Babylonis (Breslau Uni
versity Library, Cod. 320), v., 253 and 797; Ecce novae surgunt
haereses, quia schismata durant (see Appendix, No. 15), and Zacharias
Trevisanus in his *Oratio habita ad Gregorium xii, (1407), in Cod.
lat. xiv.-ccxciii and xi.-lxiii., Library of St. Mark at Venice.
t H. Haupt, 17 et seq,, 21-22.
J See G. K. Friess, Patarener, Begharden und Waldenser in
Oesterreich wahrend des Mittelalters, in the Oesterr. Vierteljahr-
schrift fur Kathol. Theologie(i872), xi., 242-257 et seq.
158 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Southern Germany things had by this time come to such a
pass that the Celestine Monk, Peter of Munich, appointed
Inquisitor for the Diocese of Passau in 1390, felt that his
life was in danger, and urgently implored the aid of the
secular power against the heretics, who threatened him
with fire and sword. The condition of the neighbouring
Diocese of Ratisbon was similar to that of Passau. 1 *
Too little attention has hitherto been bestowed on the
revolutionary spirit of hatred of the Church and the clergy,
(many of whom were, alas, unworthy of their high calling,)
which had taken hold of the masses in different parts of
Germany. Together with the revolt against the Church, a
social revolution was openly advocated. A chronicler,
writing at Mayence in the year 1401, declares that the
cry of " Death to the Priests," which had long been
whispered in secret, was now the watchword of the day.f
The reappearance in many parts of Germany of the
Pantheistic Sect of Free Thought furnishes an example of
the aberrations to which heresy leads. The recently-dis
covered report of proceedings, taken against an adherent
of this sect at Eichstatt in 1381, shows us the awful danger
which threatened all ecclesiastical and social order from
this quarter.J The Eichstatt heretic maintained that, by
devout worship and contemplation of the Godhead, he had
come to be one with God, absolutely perfect and incapable
of sinning. The practical consequences which the accused
had drawn from his imagined perfection were of a most
suspicious nature, and are calculated to substantiate many
of the charges, hitherto deemed unjust and incredible,
* Haupt, Ein Beghardenprocess in Eichstatt vom Jahre, 1381,
in the Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengeschichte, v., 488.
t Chroniken derDeutschen Stadte, xviii., 240. Haupt, 52-54.
J By H. Haupt, Ein Beghardenprocess, etc., loc. cit. y from which
the above is taken almost verbatim.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 159
which Mediaeval writers have brought against the sectaries
of their day ;* for, in the opinion of the accused, neither
the precepts of the Church nor the laws of common
morality, are binding on one who is endowed with the spirit
of freedom and perfection ; even the gravest breaches of
the sixth commandment are, in his case, no sin, so far as he
merely follows the impulse of nature ; and so firmly is he
persuaded of his right to do " what gives him pleasure,"
that he declares he is permitted to put to death those who
oppose him, even if they were a thousand in number.
The appearance of John Wyclif in England was a
matter of far greater moment than heresies of this kind,
which were forcibly repressed by the Inquisition. The
errors of the Apocalyptics and the Waldenses, of Marsiglio,
Occam, and others, were all concentrated in his sect, which
prepared the transition to a new heretical system of a
universal character, namely, Protestantism. His teaching is
gross pantheistic realism, involving a Predestinarianism
which annihilates moral freedom. f Everything is God. An
* Such is the opinion of the above-mentioned Protestant scholar
(p. 491). Regarding a pantheistic sect widely spread in Suabia
in the first years of the fourteenth century, see Nider, Formicarius
(ed. 1517), f- 44 R.
t Hergenrother, ii., i, 210 et seq. ; iii., 393-395. See also re
garding Wyclif and his system, Hefele, vi., 810-831 ; Werner, iii.,
571 et seq. ; Hb fler, Geschichtschreiber der Husitischen Bewegung,
iii., 33, 140 et seq. ; the Monograph of R. Vaughan (London,
1853) ; F. Bohringer (1856), and more particularly Lechler s
great work. The development of this heresy in connection with
the peculiar position of English affairs is well brought out by
Hofler, Anna von Luxemburg, 106 et seq., 138 et seq. R. Bud-
densieg s publication of J. Wyclif s Lateinische Zeitschriften aus
den Handschriften herausgeg (Leipzig, 1883), is very valuable. In
connection with the fifth centenary of Wyclif there were published
two important works : i. R. Buddensieg, J. Wyclif and Seine
Zeit, Gotha, 1885. 2 J- Stevenson, The Truth about J. Wyclif,
160 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
absolute necessity governs all, even the action of God Him
self. Evil happens by necessity ; God constrains every
creature that acts, to the performance of each action.
Some are predestined to glory, others to damnation. The
prayer of the reprobate is of no avail, and the predestined
are none the worse for the sins which God compels them
to commit. Wyclif builds his church on this theory of
predestination. It is, in his view, the society of the elect.
As an external institution, accordingly, it disappears, to be
come merely an inward association of souls, and no one
can know who does or does not belong to it. The only
thing certain is that it always exists on earth, although it
may be sometimes only composed of a few poor laymen,
scattered in different countries."* Wyclif began by a con
ditional recognition of the Pope, but afterwards came to
regard him, not as the Vicar of Christ, but as Anti-Christ.
He taught that honour paid to the Pope was idolatry, of a
character all the more hideous and blasphemous, inasmuch
as divine honour was given to a member of Lucifer, an
idol, worse than a painted log of wood, because of the great
wickedness he contains. f Wyclif further teaches that the
Church ought to be without property, and to return to the
simplicity of Apostolic times. The Bible alone, without
tradition, is the sole source of faith. No temporal or
ecclesiastical superior has authority, when he is in a state
of mortal sin. Indulgences, confession, extreme unction
and orders, are all rejected by Wyclif, who even attacks the
London, 1885. The latter work contains inedited matter. Wyclif s
tractatus de civili dominio liber i. (London, 1885), has been pub
lished by the Wyclif Society.
* Lechler, i., 567 ; Kohler in the Jahrb. fur Deutsche Theol.
(1875), xx -> IJ 8.
t See Lechler, i., 582-584, 601, note 3, and K. Miiller in the
Histor. Zeitschr., N.F., xi., 76.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. l6l
very centre of all Christian worship, the Most Holy Sacra
ment of the Altar.
These doctrines, which involved a revolution, not only in
the Church, but also in politics and society, made their way
rapidly in England. Countless disciples, poor clergy whom
Wyclif sent forth in opposition to the " rich Church which
had fallen away to the devil/ propagated them through the
length and breadth of the land. These itinerant preachers,
in a comparatively short time, aroused a most formidable
movement against the property of the Church, the Pope,
and the Bishops. But a change suddenly took place.
King Richard the Second s marriage with Anne, the daugh
ter of the King of Bohemia, was a great blow to the cause
of Wyclif in England. The Courts of Westminster and
of Prague were of one mind in regard to the affairs of the
Church and other important political questions, and would
have done anything rather than show favour to Wyclif and his
companions, or to France and her anti-Pope, Clement VII. *
On the other hand, as this marriage led to an increase of
intercourse between England and Bohemia, Wyclif s ideas
found entrance into the latter country. English students
frequented the University of Prague, and Bohemians that of
Oxford; and Wyclif s treatises were widely spread in
Bohemia. John Huss, the leader of the Bohemian move
ment, was not merely much influenced, but absolutely
dominated by these ideas. Recent investigations have
furnished incontestable evidence that, in the matter of
doctrine, Huss owed everything to Wyclif, whose works he
often plagiarized with astonishing simplicity.!
* Hofler, Anna, 158 et seq. The bloody persecution of the
Wyclifites began after the accession of the House of Lancaster ;
seeLechler, ii., ^etseq.
t See Loserth, Hus und Wyclif (Prag, 1884), who finally
M
162 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The opinions of the Bohemian leader, like those of Wyclif,
must necessarily have led in practice to a social revolution,
and one of which the end could not be foreseen, since the
right to possess property was made dependent on religious
opinion. Only " Believers," that is to say, the followers
of Huss, could hold it, and this right lasted as long as their
convictions accorded with those that prevailed in the country.
Argument is needless to show that such a theory destroys
all private rights, and the attempt to make these principles
so plausibly deduced from the doctrines of the Christian
religion serve as the rule for the foundation of a new social
order, must lead to the most terrible consequences. The
subsequent wars of the Hussites evidently owed their
peculiarly sanguinary character in great part to these
settles the question as to the relations between these two men. Re
garding Huss, see Palacky (Gesch. Bohmens, Bd. iii., and Docu-
menta Mag. Jo. Hus (Prag, 1869); the useful and exhaustive
study of J. A. Helfert, Hus und Hieronymus (Prag, 1853), and
the works of C. von Hofler, who may in this line be called a
pioneer. The most important are Die Geschichtschreiber der
Husitischen Bewegung in Bohmen, three parts (Wien, 1856
et seq,}, and the Monograph, Joh. Hus und der Auszug der
Deutschen Professoren und Studenten aus Prag. Palacky, in his
treatise, Die Gesch. des Husitenthums und Prof. Hofler (1866,
2nd ed., 1867), has shown that Hofler s sources of information were
defective ; this discovery, however, in no way affects his general
view of the subject. The Protestant Pastor, L. Krummel s
(Gesch. der Bohmisch. Reform. [Gotha, 1866]), attempted vindi
cation of the Hussite movement is, as Schwab in the Theol.
Literatur-Bl. (1866, p. 665 et seq.) has shown, unsuccessful. The
work of W. Berger, Joh. Hus und Kb nig Sigismund (Augsburg,
1871), is, however, deserving of the highest praise. On the side
of Catholic theology, we have J. Friedrich (Die Lehre des Joh. Hus
und ihre Bedentung fur die Gegenwart [Regensburg, 1862], and
Joh. Hus, ein Lebensbild [Frankfurt, i864j) ; Schwab, 549-609, and
Hefele, vii., 28 et seq., 142 et seq., 184 et seq., 211 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 163
views.* If Huss declared war against social order, he also
called in question all civil authority, when he espoused
Wyclif s principle, that no man who had committed a mortal
sin could be a temporal ruler, a bishop, or a prelate, " be
cause his temporal or spiritual authority, his office and his
dignity would not be approved by God."
Whether Huss realized the consequences of such doc
trines, or merely followed his master, may remain an open
question ; one thing, however, the most enthusiastic
admirer of the Czech reformer cannot dispute namely,
that doctrines which must have rendered anarchy per
manent in Church and State imperatively required to be
met by some action on the part of the civil and ecclesias
tical authorities.t The results of the opinions promulgated
by Huss soon became apparent in the Bohemian Revolution
in which the idea of a democratic Republic and of a social
system based on communistic principles took practical
form.
The international danger of Czech radicalism, which
also soon made itself " terribly apparent "J in Germany
was exposed in clear and forcible terms on New Year s
Day, 1424, by an envoy of the Cardinal Legate in his
* Zollner, Zur Vorgeschichte des Bauernkrieges (Programm des
Vitzthum schen Gymnasiums in Dresden, 1872), 34-35.
f Zollner, loc. tit., Helfert, Hus, 259 et seq. To the expression
of L. Blanc already quoted (p. 81), I will here add the words of
the latest Apologist of the Hussite doctrine. Ernest Denis, in his
work, Huss et la guerre des Hussites (Paris, 1878), p. i, observes :
" With Huss really begins the Revolution which is to end in the
destruction of Catholic unity."
J See Bezold, 113 et seq., and in Sybel s Histor. Zeitschrift,
N.F. v., 16 et seq.\ Janssen, Gesch., ii., 396 et seq. Regarding
Hussite Missionaries in the Diocese of Bamberg from 1418-1421,
see Haupt, 31 et seq. ; and ibid. (36 et scq.) t for the sympathy
of Southern Germany with the Hussites.
1 64 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
address to the Polish King. " The object of my mission."
he said, " is the glory of God, the cause of the Faith and of
the Church, and the salvation of human society. A large
proportion of the heretics maintain that all things ought to
be in common, and that no tribute, tax, or obedience should
be rendered to superiors ; a doctrine by which civilization
would be annihilated and all government abolished. They
aim at the forcible destruction of all Divine and human
rights, and it will come to pass that neither kings and
princes in their kingdoms and dominions, citizens in their
cities, nor even people in their own houses, will be secure
from their insolence. This abominable heresy not only
attacks the Faith and the Church, but, impelled by the devil,
makes war upon humanity at large, whose rights it assails
and destroys."*
On the death of Urban VI. (October 15, 1389), the four
teen Cardinals of his obedience assembled in Rome for the
election of a new Pope. This was the first vacancy of the
Holy See which had occurred since the outbreak of the
Schism. The French Court endeavoured to prevent an
election, but the Roman Cardinals, perceiving that Clement
VII., with whom the Schism began, had no intention of
retiring, did not consider it consistent with their duty to
deliver the Church completely over to the Avignon Anti-
Pope. Accordingly, on the 22nd November, 1389, a new
Roman Pope, Boniface IX. (1389-1404) was chosen, who,
in order to defend himself against the oppressive exactions
by which Clement VII. was exhausting the countries subject
to his obedience, was compelled to resort to new financial
expedients.t Under him, Rome lost her last relics of
municipal independence. The opposition of the University
* Palacky, Urkundl. Beiti age zur Geschichte des Husitenkrieges
(Prag, 1873), i., 309-314; Bezold, 52-53.
t Phillips, v., 573 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 165
of Paris was unable to hinder a fresh election on the death
of Clement VII., in 1394, and the astute Pedro de Luna
took the name of Benedict XIII. The numerous endeavours ^
for unity made during this period form one of the saddest
chapters in the history of the Church.* Neither Pope had
sufficient magnanimity to put an end to the terrible state of
affairs, and all efforts to arrange matters were, without
exception, frustrated, till it seemed as if Christendom
would have to get accustomed to two Popes and two
Courts. On the death of Boniface IX. the Roman Cardinals
elected Cosimo dei Migliorati, a Neapolitan, aged sixty-
five, henceforth known as Innocent VII.
The short Pontificate (1404-1406) of this ardent lover of
science and the arts of peace is, however, deserving of
notice as exemplifying the interest taken by the Papacy in
intellectual culture, even under the most adverse circum
stances, f In order duly to appreciate the merits of the
pacific Innocent VII. in this matter, we must realize the
troubled state of Rome, and the perplexities in which he
was involved by the policy of King Ladislaus of Naples
and the machinations of the crafty Anti-Pope. Amidst
difficulties so immense, Innocent VII. formed the project
of rescuing the Roman University, founded by Boniface
VIII., from the decay into which it had fallen during recent
years of confusion. On the ist of September, 1406, he
* Regarding the attempts at union, see especially Hefele, vi.,
703 et seg., who, however, gives rather a set of extracts from docu
ments than a critical history. Schwab s Monograph on Gerson
(especially 118 et seq.) y and that of Tschackert on Pierre d Ailly
(91 et seq.), are also worthy of attention. These works, however,
throw little light on many important points. It is much to be
wished that someone would undertake a thorough in/estigation of
this much-neglected period.
"f Reumont, in., i, 294.
166 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
issued a Bull,* declaring his intention of bringing back to
Rome the study of the Sciences and liberal Arts which,
even apart from their utility, are the greatest ornament of
a city. He therefore summoned to the Roman Univer
sity the most competent Professors of every Science. Not
merely Canon and Civil Law, but also Medicine, Philosophy,
Logic, and Rhetoric were to be studied in this school.
"Finally," says Innocent VII., "that nothing may be want
ing to our Institution, there will be a Professor who will
give the most perfect instruction in the Greek language
and literature."
The terms of the Bull, and the enthusiastic praise of the
Eternal City with which it concludes, reflect the increasing
influence of the Humanistic tendency! in the Roman
Court. " There is not on earth/ it says, " a more
eminent and illustrious city than Rome, nor one in which
the studies we desire to restore have longer flourished, for
here was Latin literature founded ; here Civil Law was
committed to writing and delivered to the nations; here
also is the seat of Canon Law. Every kind of wisdom and
learning took birth in Rome, or was received in Rome from
the Greeks. While other cities teach foreign sciences, Rome
teaches only that which is her own."
But a few months after the publication of this Bull
Innocent VII. died, and accordingly everything was brought
to a standstill.];
The times were certainly little favourable to the Muses,
* On Innocent VII. s plan for the restoration of general studies
in Rome, see Denifle, Universitaten, i., 312.
t See Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 649, who attributes the compo
sition of this remarkable document to Poggio. It is given in
Raynaldus, ad an. 1406, N. 2, and in Renazzi, i., 273-274.
J Niem., ii., 39. Innocent VII. s endeavours to reform the Court
are mentioned by Gobelin Person, vi., 88 ; Niem., ii., 41.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 167
and yet Humanism continued to advance and make its
way into the Papal Court. From the beginning of the
fifteenth century we find Humanists in the Papal service
no longer isolated individuals, as during the Avignon
period, but in great and ever-increasing numbers, and
among them, some whose appointment throws a melancholy
light on the circumstances of the time. The most striking
instance of this kind is that of the well-known Poggio, who
became one of the Apostolic Secretaries during the
Pontificate of Boniface IX. Poggio held this very lucrative
post under eight different Popes, and at the same time
filled other offices. For half a century he was employed,
with sundry interruptions ; but his frivolous nature was
incapable of any real affection for the Church or for any
one of the Popes whom he served.* He certainly wrote a
violent invective against Felix V., the Pope of the Council
of Basle, but it would be a mistake to suppose that his
pen was guided by zeal for the Church. This may,
indeed, be measured by the manner in which he wrote of
the death of Jerome of Prague. t His animosity to Felix V.
was simply and solely because the Roman Court, by
which he lived, was threatened ; he was doubtless as
indifferent to the contest between the two Popes as to the
heresy of the Hussites.
That such a man should have been able to retain his
position in the Papal service is to be explained by the sad
confusion consequent on the Schism. From the moment
when the Parisian Doctors, with their ready pens, and the
learned men of many other Universities had taken part
in the conflict which was distracting Christendom, the
Popes were compelled to look about them for new literary
champions, and the frequent negotiations for the restoration
* Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 7 et. seq.
f See supra, p. 30.
168 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of unity made it absolutely necessary that they should
have men of talent and education at their disposal. The
Humanists offered themselves to meet the need, and
many of them eagerly sought lucrative places in the Papal
Chancery. This, however, cannot excuse the imprudence
with which some of the Popes gave appointments to
adherents of the false Renaissance. But in this case, as in
many others, circumstances must be taken into account, if
we would form a correct judgment. Humanism had
already attained great political importance. The time had
come when political discourses and state papers, clothed in
the grand periods of Ciceronian Latin, exercised an
irresistible influence over readers and hearers, producing
their effect rather by the beauty of the form than by the
substance, or, at any rate, by means of the form
obtaining an easier access for the meaning.* When, even
in the smaller Courts, the style of the new school was
adopted, how could the Papal Chancery have remained
behind ?f The Humanists had raised themselves to the
position of leaders of public opinion ; they were well aware
of it, and often assumed Imperial airs.J The Papacy
* Korting, i., 293, see 449 ; Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 346 ; Woltmann,
ii., 132 ; Ottenthal 63 ; and Miintz, La Renaissance, 82 et seg.
t The care which the Popes, even in the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, bestowed on the Latinity of their Briefs is pointed out by
Delisle in the Bibl. de 1 Ecole des Chartes, ser. iv., t. iv. (Paris,
1858), p. 30.
J The estimate entertained by the Humanists of their own powers
is shown in the haughty answer given by the banished Filelfo to
Cosmo de Medici : " Cosmo uses dagger and poison against me ;
I use my mind and my pen against him. I do not want Cosmo s
friendship, and I despise his enmity." It is curious also to
observe the trouble which Cosmo took to destroy Filelfo s work " On
Banishment," which condemned him and his family to the contempt
of posterity. Voigt (i., 2nd ed., 367) remarks that "the notion
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 169
surrounded on all sides by enemies, was obliged, like the
other powers of Italy, to take these facts into account. The
terror which the Humanists could inspire even in the most
powerful tyrants, is evidenced by an expression of Duke
Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan : " A letter of Coluccio
Salutato s," he said, "can do more injury than a thousand
Florentine knights." The effects of the letters written by
this most bitter enemy of the Popes must have been deeply
felt by Gregory XL, and were doubtless long remembered
by his successors.* Another circumstance is also to be
taken into account. Elaborate discourses were so much
the fashion that they seemed indispensable on such
occasions as the conclusion of a peace, the reception of an
Embassy, or any public or private solemnity. Courts and
Governments and, in some cases, even wealthy families had
their official orators. In the present day music is almost
always the accompaniment of a feast; at that time a Latin
discourse was the best entertainment that could be provided
for a company of cultured men.f It will easily be under
stood that the Popes deemed it impossible to do without a
literary man like Poggio, whose pen was readier than that
of any of his contemporaries.
In the time of Innocent VIL, Lionardo Bruni, whose
that his pen could dispense disgrace or immortality was no mere
phantom of Filelfo s conceited brain, but was held by many other
highly-educated men." Another appropriate example is given by
Voigt, i., 2nd ed., 528 et seq., see 451. In regard to Poggio, Ves-
pasiano da Bisticci (Mai, i., 550) declares that his pen was
universally dreaded.
* See the words of Eugenius IV., which we shall give later on.
In proof of Salutato s animosity against the Papacy, we may refer to
his Epist. Ed. Rigacci, i., 100, 177-181 ; ii., 29 ; ed. Mehus
(Florence, 1741), 131.
f Villari, i., 103 ; see Schnaase, viii., 2nd ed., 528, and Paulsen
170
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
name has been repeatedly mentioned in these pages,
entered the Papal service. Unlike Poggio, he was an
adherent of the Christian Renaissance. The circum
stances of his appointment are characteristic* of the
time. Bruni was recommended to the Pope by Poggio and
Coluccio Salutato, and Innocent VII. wished at once to
nominate him as Papal Secretary. But an adverse party
at the Roman Court objected to Bruni s appointment on
the ground of his too great youth, and supported another
candidate. It so happened that, at this very time, important
Papal briefs had to be prepared with the greatest possible
haste, and the Pope offered the post as a reward to the
candidate who should best acquit himself of the task. The
drafts of the briefs were read in a Consistory before the Pope
and the Cardinals, and Bruni gained a decided victory over
his rival. From the first year of the Pontificate of Innocent
VII., whose example was afterwards followed by Eugenius
IV., Nicholas V., and other Popes,t we find the well-known
Pietro Paolo Vergerio installed as Secretary in the Roman
Court.J The marvellously rapid growth of the influence of
this school in Rome appears in the fact that this Humanist
was appointed to deliver a discourse on the Union of the
Church before the Cardinals assembled in Consistory pre
vious to the election of Gregory XII., and that he was not
afraid to say very hard things. Subsequently, it became
* Papencordt, 495, gives authorities.
f Papencordt, loc. tit., brings this particularly forward.
J See C. A. Combi, Memorie sul Epistolario di P. P. Vergerio
(Venezia, 1880).
" Mihi quidem videtur, si nunc voluntate Dei Petrus et Paulus
resurgerent a mortuis, hue intra venientes Ecclesiam hanc non re-
cognoscerent : opinor ne magis earn pro sua reciperent quam ipsi
reciperentur a nobis. Nam nisi bulks haberent (in quibus ipsi
nihil habent nisi effigiem), non haberetur eis fides; vix autem
habere fidem possent, si quidem eis neque argentum esset neque
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 1 71
more and more the custom to employ the Humanists, on
account of their superior cultivation, in the service of the
Popes, both in the Chancery and in Diplomatic situations,
and the time was not distant when classical proficiency was
the surest road to ecclesiastical preferment. Under
Innocent VII. s successor, Gregory XII. (1406-1415), fresh
Humanists, amongst whom was Antonio Loschi of Vicenza,
were won to the service of the Papal Court. He composed
a new formula for the official correspondence, with the
object of introducing a Ciceronian style of Latin. Although
he was not able completely to overcome the difficulties in
volved in the legal nature of the formulas, yet it is the
opinion of competent judges that a marked improvement
in the Latinity of the Court, especially in those documents
less fettered by legal phraseology, is to be dated from his
time. Flavio Biondo, one of the most laborious and
virtuous of the younger generation of secretaries, expressly
said that Loschi had been his instructor in the duties of his
office.*
But it is now time to return to the troubles of the Schism.
The crisis was drawing near. It came in the Pontificate of
Gregory XII. f
aurum," etc. " Cavete, patres conscripti," says Vergerio in another
passage, u ne dum urbem custoditis, orbem amittatis et pro exiguo
temporali dominio universa spirituaiis obedentia depereat ; " and
again, " Si praesentem occasionem negligitis spe unionis omnino
sublata nova statuentur decreta, insoliti excogitabuntur articuli,
inveterabitur res ista quemadmodum schisma Graecorum." The
discourse has been published by C. A. Combi in the Archivio Storico
per Trieste, 1 Istria ed. il Trentino (Roma, 1882), i., 360-374.
* Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 20. See Giov. da Schio, Sulla vita e sugli
scritti di A. Loschi Vicentino (Padova, 1856), 106.
f H. V. Sauerland, Gregor XII. von seiner Wahl bis zum
Vertrage von Marseille in the Hist. Zeitschr., xxxiv., 75. As to
the validity of the election of Gregory XIL, see Heinrich, Dogm.
172 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
During the earlier years of the Schism, efforts had been
made to establish the legality of the one, and the illegality
of the other Pope, by means of arguments founded on
history and on Canon Law, but in consequence of French
intrigues the question had only become more and more
obscured. As time went on, conscientious men, who
anxiously strove to understand the rights of the case, were
unable to decide between claims which seemed to be so
equally balanced, while in other cases passion took no
account of proofs, and power trampled them under foot.*
Despair took possession of many upright minds. The
Schism seemed an evil from which there was no escape, a
labyrinth from which no outlet could be found. f The path
of investigation which, by the lapse of timej and in conse
quence of the prevailing excitement, had necessarily be
come more and more difficult, seemed to lead no further.
The University of Paris, which suffered much from the
discord of Christendom, now sought to assume the leader
ship of the great movement towards unity. In 1394 her
members were invited to send in written opinions as to the
means of putting an end to the Schism. In order that all
might express their opinions with perfect freedom, it was
decided that the documents should be placed in a locked
Theol., ii., 419. Raynaldus (ad an. 1406, n. 13) is wrong in giving
the 2nd December as the day of election ; the correct date (3oth
November) is known from the *Letter of the Cardinals to Louis of
Savoy, d.d. Romse in palatio apost. die xi. assumptions praefati
domini nostri, x vero decemb. Orig. Mat. eccl. cat. 45. Mazzo,
9, n. n, in the State Archives at Turin.
* Raumer Kirchenvers, 17-18.
f Gerson, Opp. ii., 22. See Flathe, ii., 62.
J " Jam desunt morte plures qui facta viderunt,
Deficient omnes,"
tf. infra, p. 173. Note J, the above-mentioned poem by Langen-
stein, v., 622-623. Cod. 320 of the University Library at Breslau.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 173
chest in the Church of St. Mathurin. The general feeling on
the subject is manifested by their number, which amounted
to ten thousand.* Their examination was to be the work of a
Commission formed of members from all the Faculties of
the University. Three propositions emerged from this
mass of documents. The first was the voluntary retirement
of the two Popes (Cessio). The second the decision of the
point of law by a commission selected by the two Popes
(Compromissio). The third, an appeal to a General Council. t
The University recommended the voluntary retirement of
both Popes as the simplest and safest course, and as ren
dering a fresh election of one whom both parties would
acknowledge, possible. J The endeavours to restore unity
* Schwab, 128. As to the power and authority of the University
of Paris, see Budinsky, 18 et seq. Good advice was not wanting. An
immense number of learned writings treated, sometimes at great
length, of the means of suppressing the Schism. For a notice of
some which I found in Rome see the Appendix (No. 14).
f This proposal had been made before (see p. 126), but at first
the Anti-Pope and his party, and afterwards Urban VI., would not
hear of it. See Hefele, vi., 668 et seq.
J Langenstein, in his Invectiva contra monstrum Babylonis,
1393 (University Library, Breslau, Cod. 320), had already urgently
recommended the resignation of both Popes, v. 822 et seq.
sponte renunciet unus
Intuitu Christi spernens insignia papas
Jam potius quam talia tantaque scandala fiant.
Qui prius hoc faceret Christo gratissimus esset :
Promptus ad hoc placitum sit quilibet ergo duorum.
Coluccio Salutato also, in a letter written in 1398 (in Martene
Thesaur., ii., 1155-1165), expresses himself strongly against Com
promise and Council, and in favour of the resignation of both
Popes : " Hunc modum, hanc viam non humanam sed divinam,
sanctissimam, optimarn, tutam, certam sine scrupulo et sine mur-
muratione commendo." The *" Dialogus de tollendo schismate, "
by Giovanni di Spolelo, given in the Appendix (No. 14) also advo
cates the Resignation. Cod. 44, G. Library of St. Peter s at Rome.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by this means were carried to their further point undei
Gregory XII., after the failure of the French scheme of
forcibly * imposing peace on the Church by the common
action of all the western powers. They seemed at first in
Gregory s case to promise success, but all hopes of the
kind soon proved delusive.f
III. THE SYNODS OF PISA AND CONSTANCE,
1409-1417 (1418).
THE election of Gregory XII. was due in great measure to
the belief that he was earnestly bent on the restoration of
unity to the Church, and, in the earlier days of his Pontifi
cate, he certainly seemed full of enthusiasm for this great
cause. He assured those around him that, notwithstanding
his age, he was ready, for the sake of unity, to meet
Benedict,! even if he had to take the journey on foot with
a staff in his hand, or to cross the sea in an open boat. In
his Encyclical, as well as in other Briefs, he expressed him
self in a manner which seemed to leave no doubt that the
Schism would soon be at an end. He wrote to the Anti-
Pope to the effect that the strife for their respective rights
* See on this subject Theodor Miiller s treatise: Frankreichs
Unionsversuch, 1393-1398 (Giitersloh, 1881).
f Sauerland, loc cit.
J See the treatise of Sauerland, 90, note i, cited supra, p. 171.
The Encyclical is to be found in Martene, vii., 730-733. See
Raynaldus, ad an. 1406, N. 16. The Brief which he gives, addressed
to the Duke of Cleves, is dated " X. die ab assumptione nostra,"
which is to be read " XII. die ; " the same mode of expression is to
be found in the similar Brief of Gregory XII. to Louis of Savoy and
Francis Gonzaga, the originals of which I saw in the State Archives
at Turin (Mat. eccl. cat. 45, Mazzo 9, N. 12) and in the Gonzaga
Archives at Mantua.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 175
ought to cease, and that they should imitate the woman
mentioned in Old Testament history, who preferred to give
up her real claim to the child rather than consent to have
it divided.* Accordingly, when in his answer to this
epistle Benedict XIII. offered to abdicate t on the same con
ditions as Gregory, the restoration of unity to the Church
appeared to be certain. But the appearance was decep
tive. The embassy which France sent to both Popes to
inquire more closely into their intentions, soon made it
plain that Gregory XII., who was greatly under the
influence of his relations, was as little in earnest in his
expressions as was Benedict. The rejoicing of Gerson J
was premature. The meeting-place of the Popes was a
subject of much dispute, and various proposals were made,
but the meeting never took place, although Gregory XII.
and Benedict XIII. came within a few miles of each
other.
Contemporary writers and modern historians are agreed
in laying on Gregory XII. s nephews and the Archbishop
Giovanni Dominici of Ragusa the chief blame for his con
duct in not resigning. The hatred with which they con
sequently were regarded by the promoters of union is
* The Epistle to Benedict (Raynaldus, ad an. 1406, N. 14. 15)
was from the pen of Lionardo Bruni.
t Raynaldus, ad an. 1407, N. i, 2.
J See Schwab, 194-195. For the causes of Gregory s change
see Hefele, vi., 761-767 et seq. Bauer attempts to justify Gregory.
Gregor XII. und das Pisaner Concil in the Laacher Stimmen
(1871), i., 479-498; see also Hofler, Ruprecht 433, and Magister
Hus und der Abzug der Deutschen Professoren und Studenten aus
Prag. (Prag., 1864) 205.
Siebeking, 16. Siebeking (3) is mistaken in placing the
death of Dietrich von Nieheim in 1417 during the Council. The
real date (as Rattinger in the Literar. Rundschau, 1875, P- 2I 4
shows) is March 22, 1418.
176 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
manifested in a satire preserved by Dietrich von Nieheim.
It purposes to be a letter from Satan to Giovanni of
Ragusa, and is full of ironical allusions to personal
peculiarities, to various occurrences, and some revolting
practices and manners. It is interesting also as an
example of that medley of ecclesiastical, scriptural, and
heathen ideas which was so popular at this period. This
letter must have been written in March, 1408. ft con
cludes by exhorting Giovanni Dominici to continue his
opposition to Gregory s resignation, and tells him what he
is to expect in another world. Satan, he is informed, has
had the hottest place made ready for him in the lowest
depths of eternal Chaos, between Arius and Mahomet,
where other supporters of the Schism are most anxiously
awaiting him. " Farewell, and be as happy as was our
dear son Simon Magus, " * are the last words of this
curious document.
Gregory s altered attitude in regard to the question of
union naturally awakened the greatest uneasiness among
his Cardinals, and a party adverse to him was formed in
the Sacred College. In order to counterbalance their
influence, Gregory, forgetful of the promise he had made
in the Conclave, decided to create new Cardinals. There
were stormy discussions at Lucca, but they did not detei
the Pope from actually nominating four Cardinals. Seven
of those belonging to his Court then withdrew to Pisa,
and issued two proclamations, by which the breach with
Gregory was rendered final. In the first an appeal was
made from an ill-informed to a better-informed Pope, to
Jesus Christ, to a General Council and to a future Pope.
* See Siebeking, 15-20. For an account of the MSS. copies of
the Satire see Rattinger in the Hist. Jahrb., v., 166 et seq. Other
missives from the Devil are mentioned by Hartwig, ii., 9, note i.
St, Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 177
The second called on the Princes of Christendom to give
their support to the movement in favour of union. *
The relations of Benedict XIII. with France also under
went a considerable change at this time. The conviction
that this Pope, who before his election had professed the
greatest zeal for union,t had no real desire for the termina
tion of the Schism was gaining ground, and on the i2th
January, 1408, the King informed him that France would
make a declaration of neutrality, if unity were not restored
by the Feast of the Ascension. Benedict replied by a
simple reference to the ecclesiastical penalties incurred by
disobedience to the Pope.J In the end of May, France
solemnly disowned the authority of Benedict, an example
which was soon followed by Navarre, and also by
Wenceslaus and Sigismund, the Kings of Bohemia and
Hungary. A great national Synod was then held in
France, and the principles, in accordance with which the
affairs of the Church were to be administered during the
period of neutrality, were determined. It was also decided
that the benefices of those who should still acknowledge
Benedict were to be forfeited.
These violent measures broke the power of Benedict,
whose Cardinals came to an understanding with those
who had deserted Gregory XII. As if the Holy See
had really been vacant, they at once began to assume the
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1408, N. 9 and 8. See Hefele, vi., 777, 778,
note.
f See p. 10 of Th. Miiller s treatise, to which we have already
referred, supra, p. 174. Note *
J The letter is given in Martene Collect., vii., 770, and Bulaeus,
v., 152-154. The negotiations regarding the renunciation of
obedience in the French National Councils of 1398 and 1406 are
described in detail in Erler s Treatise, 4-20.
See Piickert, 30-31. Regarding the revolutionary character
of the French measure, see Laacher Stimmen, i., 344.
N
I 7 8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
position of lawful rulers of the Church, and formally sent
out proclamations convening a Council, which was to be
assembled at Pisa* on the Feast of the Annunciation of oui
Lady, March 25, 1409. Both Popes now endeavoured, by
summoning Councils of their own, to counteract the rebel
lion of the Cardinals, but the Council of the latter, although
its convocation was, according to the canonical decisions of
the time, absolutely illegal, took place and became ex
tremely important.
The increasing desire for the restoration of unity will not
alone suffice to explain this astonishing fact. The Synod
of Pisa (1409), according to Catholic principles, was, from
the outset, an act of open revolt against the Pope.f That
such an essentially revolutionary assembly should decree
itself competent to re-establish order, and was able to com
mand so much consideration, was only rendered possible
by the eclipse of the Catholic doctrine regarding the
primacy of St. Peter and the monarchical constitution of
the Church, occasioned by the Schism. J The utter con
fusion in theological ideas and the dangerous nature of the
anti-papal tendency, partly due to the teaching of Occam and
Marsiglio, which prevailed in the principal countries of
Christendom at this time, can only be fairly estimated by a
* See Sauerland, 44. Strictly speaking, the Cardinals of each
obedience summoned a separate Council, yet from the beginning
those who assembled met as a single body, without regard to their
divers obediences. See Hinschius, in., 363 and 365.
t See Gregorovius, vi., 3rd edit., 577-578, who observes that the
theory asserted at Pisa of the superiority of the Council over the
Pope " was the first great practical step towards liberating the world
from the rule of the Pope, and was actually the Reformation." The
Pisan Synod is condemned by other Protestants, e.g., by Flathe, ii.,
95, and by Lenz, Drei Tractate, 2.
J See Schwane, Dogmengesch. der mittl. Zeit " (1882), 557 et
stq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 179
comparison of the theories set forth with the doctrine of the
Church.
It was the will of Christ that the whole Church should
have a single, visible head, so that, by the mutual connec
tion of all the members among themselves, and by the
subjection of all these members under one head, the most
perfect unity should subsist.* Therefore, a short time
before His Ascension, our Saviour, according to His
promise (St. Matt, xvi., 17-19), appointed the Apostle
Peter, after his threefold profession of love, to be His
Vicar on earth, the foundation and centre of the Church,
the shepherd of " the lambs and the sheep," that is to say,
of the whole company of the redeemed on earth, as related
by St. John (xxi., 15 et seq.).
The primacy conferred on St. Peter, according to the
teaching of the Church,t is not merely a primacy of pre
cedence and honour, but one of supreme jurisdiction, of
complete spiritual power and authority. Inasmuch as
Christ committed this power immediately and directly to
St. Peter, he holds it for the Church, but not from her; he
is not her representative and delegate, but her divinely-
appointed head.
Neither the Primacy nor the Church is a transitory insti
tution. St. Peter was Bishop of Rome, there he died a
martyr s death under Nero. It is an article of the Catholic
Faith, that all his prerogatives and powers are by Divine
appointment transmitted to his lawful successors in the See
* Ecclesiae unitas in duobus attenditur, scilicet in connexione
membrorum Ecclesiae ad invicem seu communicatione, et iterum
in ordine membrorum ad unum caput. . . . Hoc autem caput est
ipse Christus, cujus vicem in Ecclesia gerit Summus Pontifex.
S. Thorn. Aqu., Summa theol., ii., 2, q. 39, a. i.
t See Hettinger, Fundamental-Theologie, ii., 156 et seq.; also
Phillips, v., 6 et seq.
180 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
of Rome. This plenitude of power was from the first con
tained in the Papacy, but was, of course, manifested only
in such measure as the needs of the Church and the cir
cumstances of the time required.* " Like every living
thing, like the Church herself," says a modern ecclesiastical
historian, " the unique and incomparable institution of the
Papacy has its historical development. But this takes
place according to that law which underlies the very life
of the Church herself, the law of evolution, of growth from
within. The Papacy must share all the destinies of the
Church, and take part in each phase of her progress." f
The Bishops of Rome, as direct successors of the Prince
of the Apostles, according to Catholic teaching, possess by
Divine appointment the plenitude of episcopal power over
the Universal Church. Supreme, full, and lawful spiritual
authority over all the faithful is theirs. In virtue of this
supreme authority, all her members, including Bishops, are
subject to the Pope ; subject, whether we view them as
isolated individuals, or as assembled in Council. Far from
subjecting the Pope to a Council, the early Church held it
as a principle that the supreme authority could be judged
by no one. A General Council cannot exist without the
Pope or in opposition to him, for, as head of the Church,
he is the necessary and essential head of the General
Council, whose decrees receive their oecumenical validity
solely from his confirmation. As supreme legislator, the
Pope can, in matters of discipline, revise and change the
decrees of a General Council, as well as those of his prede
cessors. Former ecclesiastical legislation forms a precedent
for his action, in so far as he, being the superior, is by his
own example to show respect to the law. The power of
the Primacy also contains, comprehended within itself, the
* See Heinrich, ii., 236 et seq.
t Dollinger, Kirche und Kirchen, 31-32.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. l8l
supreme judicial power. Appeal may accordingly be made
to him in all ecclesiastical matters ; there is no appeal from
his judgment to another tribunal ; the plenitude of power
over the Universal Church, conferred on the Holy See, is
limited by nothing but Divine and natural law.*
The Schism, attacking as it did the very centre of unity,
brought discussion as to the position of the Pope in the
Church into the foreground. In a period of such agitation,
the discussion inevitably assumed a revolutionary character
most dangerous to the Church. A multitude of theories,
more or less openly opposed to her teaching, were brought
forward, intensifying the confusion by their abandonment
of the solid legal foundations. Many men, who were other
wise strongly attached to the Church, were carried away by
these anti-papal tendencies. f
Things had come to such a point that besides the new
theory of the superiority of the Council over the Pope,
views were asserted and maintained which completely
denied the unity of the Church and the divine institution of
the Primacy. It was said that it mattered little how many
Popes there were, that there might be two or three or ten or
twelve ; or that each country might have its own indepen
dent Pope. Again, it was suggested that it might be the
will of God that the Papacy should be for a time, or even
permanently, divided, as the Kingdom of David had been,
* Hettinger, Fundamental-Theologie, ii., 151, 183-191.
f For instance, Abbot Ludolf of Sagan, the brave champion of
the ancient teaching of the Church against the Hussites, zealously
defends the clearly unlawful Synod of Pisa against various attacks.
Loserth, Beitrage, 369, 392, 439 et seq. The pre-eminence of the
Council over the Pope appeared to him undoubted (see Cap. xlvi.
of his Tractatus de longsevo schismate, loc. tit., 445). A similar
confusion of ideas appears in a letter written in 1408 by the
General of the Carthusians, Stefano Macone, whom we have already
mentioned (see Tromby, vii.; app. clxxxi-clxxxiii.).
182 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and after the example of human governments which are
subject to change. Certainty regarding the will of God
was deemed unattainable, but it was thought possible that the
efforts to restore unity might really be in opposition
to it.*
This last opinion, which may be considered as a con
sequence of Occam s teaching, was strongly controverted by
Heinrich von Langenstein in his " Proposition of Peacef for
the Union and Reformation of the Church by a General
Council," written in 1381. He looks on the Schism as a
thing permitted by God, who, in His wisdom, which con
stantly brings good out of evil, had not prevented this great
misfortune, but would have it bring about the right and
necessary reform of the Church. For the accomplishment
of this great work he considers that a General Council
must be held.
The new and extravagant system which Langenstein put
forth in this " Peace Proposal/ in order to furnish a
theoretical justification for the Convocation of a General
Council, is important from its bearing on future events. It
is briefly as follows : No especial weight is to be attached
to our Lord s institution of the Papacy. The Church
would have had a right to appoint a Pope if He had not
done so. If the Cardinals should have chosen a Pope who
does not suit the Church, she had the right to revise the
work of her agents, and even to deprive them of her com
mission. For the power to elect the Pope rests originally in
the Episcopate, and reverts to it if the Cardinals cannot, or
will not elect ; or if they abuse their right of election. The
criterion, by which all acts of Church and State are to be
judged, is whether they do, or do not promote the general
* Authorities are to be found in Schwab, 122-133, an d Tschac-
kert 5. See Hiibler 371, note 19.
t Maurenbrecher, Studien, 307. See Creighton, i., 41.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 183
good. A prince who, instead of preserving the State,
would ruin and betray it, is to be resisted as an enemy ;
the same course should be pursued in the Church. Neces
sity breaks the law ; indeed, even renders its breach a
duty. In the present instance of the Schism, however,
Langenstein goes on to say, it is by no means necessary to
resort to this expedient. Laws are given that human
actions may be ordered and measured thereby, but as these
actions are innumerable, they cannot be completely com
prehended by any law, and therefore, if we would not run
counter to the will of the lawgiver, we must look to the
spirit rather than to the letter. In the interpretation of every
law we must be mindful of the Aristotelian principle of
equity (eTneiKeia). To apply these general notions to the
present case, it is not of the essence of a General Council
that it should be summoned by the Pope ; in extraordinary
cases this may be done by temporal princes. The authority
of the Council stands higher than that of the Pope and the
Sacred College, for of the Church alone is it said that the
gates of hell should not prevail against her.*
J Consilium pacis de unione ac reformatione Ecclesiae in Concilio
generali quaerenda, v.d. Hardt, ii., 3 et seq. See Schwab, 121-124.
Erler., 22. Hartwig, i., 50-55; ii., 28-31. To the MSS. here
cited we have to add Cod. 72, Folio of the Town Library at
Cologne. See Hiibler, 363-365, who distinguishes three phases in
the literature prior to the Council of Constance : The theories of
necessity, the doctrine of subtraction, and the Pisan Council. The
opinion that nothing but a General Council could terminate the
Schism was also maintained by Langenstein in his *Epistola pacis.
See Hartwig, i., 42 ; ii., 27-28. I have seen the following copies
of this MS. : I. Innsbruck, University Library, Cod. 129, f. i49a-
1 595 (breaks off in the middle). 2. Mayence, Town Library, Cod.
241. 3. Paris, National Library, Cod. lat., 1462 (== Colbert, 811),
f. 74-85b(only fragments); Cod. lat., 14644 (= St. Victor, 277),
f. 142-1616. Cod. St. Victor, 343, cited by Oudin, iii., 1263, I
have been unable to find.
College
184 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
These theories, by which Langenstein broke with the
whole existing system, soon became widely diffused.
Henceforward this most dangerous* doctrine of the natural
right of necessity was the instrument used in all efforts to
put an end to the Schism, f Not very long after the
appearance of the " Peace Proposal," we find Langenstein s
view maintained by another German theologian, Conrad
von Gelnhausen. His argument is chiefly directed against
those " who are never weary of repeating that, even if all
the Prelates of the Church came all together, without the
authority of the Pope they would form no Council, but
merely a Conventicle." The Papacy, according to this
writer, is an official position whose authority is derived
from the unanimous will of the faithful. Infallibility resides
in the whole Church. The individual Pope is fallible,
whence it evidently follows that a Council may be lawfully
assembled without his authority. J
Langenstein s principles had the greatest influence on the
mind of Jean Gerson. This is shown in the remarkable
New Year s Sermon which he preached at Tarascon, in 1404,
before Pope Benedict XIII. The constitution of the
Church, like every ecclesiastical law, has, he maintained,
peace for its object. If a law no longer fulfils this purpose
* " No law, no State would be secure," writes Zimmermann, 8,
" if this doctrine were generally received."
f Lenz, Drei Tractate, 93. The further development of this
idea in the fugitive literature of the day is treated of by Hiibler,
364 et seq.
J Schwab, 124-126. Hartwig i., 60. Lorenz ii., 2nd ed., 313.
Budinsky, 123. The language of Matthausde Cracovia, Bishop of
Worms, in his book De squaloribus Romanse Curiae (printed by
Walch, Mon. medii aevi i., 3-100) is yet more radical than that of
Conrad von Gelnhausen. See Budinsky, 151, and the Correspon-
denzblatt der Deutschen Alterthumsvereine, 1873, n. 7. See also
Zimmerman, 9-10. Hiibler, 364 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 185
it is ipso facto repealed. Every means of putting an end to
the Schism would be lawful, and the best means would be
a General Council.*
It is easy to understand that Benedict XIII. was greatly
offended by this discourse. An opposition to its principles
also arose among the French theologians and was expressed
in the Assembly held in Paris in I4o6,t where Guillaume
Filastre, the future Cardinal, absolutely denied the right of
a General Council to judge or condemn the Pope. Pierre
d Ailly lamented the manner in which certain members of
the University of Paris spoke of the Pope, and declared it
unlawful to renounce allegiance to Benedict, inasmuch as
obedience is not to be refused even to a Pope suspected of
heresy. It cannot, in fact, be denied that the theory which
permitted such a course, made revolution permanent, for
the Pope would be subject, not merely to the judgment of
the Church, but to the subjective estimate of the individual. \
In the meantime, objections to the new theories of Church
government were little heeded ; faith in the Divine right of
the Primacy had been shaken to its foundations ; the dis
tress of the Church became more and more intolerable, and
the general confusion greater. The attempt to decide
between the claims of the different Popes was abandoned,
and, as the proposals of abdication and of compromise had
proved impracticable, the idea of an appeal to force gained
ground ; the great object was to find some way of getting
rid of the Schism. Dignitaries of the Church, as, for
example, Pierre Leroy, the Abbot of Mont St. Michel,
openly proclaimed it lawful to disobey a Pope who misused
his power. The Parisian Professor Plaoul declared both
Popes to be obstinate schismatics, and consequently
* Schwab, 171-178. Zimmermann, 15.
t See Schwab, 186 et seq., and Erler, 24-40.
J Hiibler, 371, and Zimmermann, 13.
1 86 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
heretics, adding that all their adherents were to be looked
upon as promoters of heresy and schism. The extreme
urgency of the case, in his opinion, justified the King in
summoning a Council, and even made it his duty to do so,
and to use all possible means for the removal of the Schism;
for, as Plaoul further explained, the obligation of peace,
being based on divine and natural law, takes precedence of
all constitutions, and annuls all contrary obligations, even
oaths. If the Pope hinders peace it becomes necessary to
separate from him.*
Theories of this revolutionary description were not con
fined to France. In Italy, the Republic of Florence, which,
especially since the election of Gregory XII., had been most
zealous in its endeavours to promote the " holy cause of
peace/ f decided, in 1 408, that, under existing circumstances,
neutrality or indifference in regard to both Popes was the
best expedient. J In Prague, a German Dominican Friar,
Johann von Falkenberg, called Pope Gregory a heretic.
He ascribed to the Cardinals the right of deposing their
Lord, without admitting that the Pope might deprive them
of their dignities. In like manner the celebrated Canonist,
* Schwab, 186-188. Tschackert, 124-128. Erler, 19, 22-23.
Regarding Plaoul, see Kervyn de Lettenhove in Froissart, xvi., 278
et seq.
f Commission! di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, i., 153. Salvi, xx., and
Reumont, ii., 1213.
J Archives des Missions Scientifiques (Paris, 1865), S6r. ii., t.
ii., 440 ; Commissioni, i., 156, and Desjardins, i., 52-53.
*Tractatus magistri Johannis Walkemberg (see Schulte, Quellen
ii., 382) ord. prsedicat. prof. s. theol. de renunciacione pape, Cod.
x., c. 25, f. 267-270. University Library, Prague (see Hofler^
Ruprecht, 411), and in Cod. n. 269, f. 338-344, of the Eichstiitt
Library. In the Prague MS. the treatise concludes as follows :
u *Et Gregorius data eius pertinacia hereticus est censendus, omne
quod ab eo data eius pertinacia actum est vel fuerit, debet omnino
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 187
Zabarella, who afterwards became a Cardinal, sought to
raise the Sacred College to the position of a standing
governing committee in the Church, and thereby to secure
for it the lion s share in the contemplated changes. The
treatise* in which he put forward this idea is most impor
tant, as it gives us for the first time the Council theory in
all its fulness. Zabarella ascribes the plenitude of power
to the Church, and consequently to the General Council as
her representative. The Pope, in his view, is only the
highest servant of the Church, to whom the executive
power is entrusted. Should he err, the Church must set
him right ; should he fall into heresy, or be an obstinate
schismatic, or commit a notorious crime, the Council may
depose him. The Church, or the General Council, cannot
sit permanently, and therefore the Pope commonly wields
the supreme power. He can, however, issue no decree
binding on the whole Church without the consent of the
Cardinals, and, if he should differ from them, the Council
must decide the matter, It is to be summoned by the
Pope, or, in the event of a schism, or of his refusal to
summon it, notwithstanding urgent necessity, by the
College of Cardinals. If this body is unable or unwilling
to act, the duty devolves on the Emperor.t The scope of
cassari. Nee potuit cardinales novos creare nee eciam antiques
privare, et ergo trepidare timore non debent cardinales, ubi timor
nullus est, sed confiso in eo, cuius res agitur, . . . inceptum debent
perficere et exstirpare schisma antiquatum per electionem unici et
indubitati pastoris, successoris Petri et vicarii veri Dei et veri
hominis Jesu Christi, qui semper benedictus est et gloriosus in
secula seculorum. Amen."
* Published by Schardius, De jurisdictione imperiali (Basilese.
1566), 688-711, composed in the summer of 1408. See Lenz,
Drei Tractate, 71, note 2.
t Zimmermann, 15-16, thus sums up the tenor of this remark
able treatise, whose extreme importance had already been noticed
by Lorenz, ii., 2nd ed., 318.
1 88 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the General Council was also widely extended. Learned
Canonists, like Abbot Pierre Leroy, of Mont St. Michel,
taught that the Pope can never alter its decisions, and is
bound to acknowledge them, even if they should concern
the faith or the general welfare of the Church.*
Revolutionary views of this kind predominated in the
Council of seditious Cardinals assembled at Pisa, but they
were not allowed to pass uncontroverted. Among their
most zealous opponents was the noble King Rupert. He
saw that the path in which the Cardinals were engaged,
could never lead to unity, but rather to a " threefold division,
and to still greater discord and humiliation for the Church
and Christendom/ f To avert this fresh disaster, he sent a
special embassy to Pisa to state his serious objections to
the proceedings of the Cardinals. The Ambassadors
argued that obedience might not be renounced for the sake
of obtaining union, inasmuch as it is not lawful to do evil
that good may come ; that the Cardinals could not them
selves depart from unity in order to unite others ; that it
belonged to the Pope alone to summon a General Council ;
that Pope Gregory had been acknowledged and presented
to Christendom by the Cardinals as duly elected, but that
if his election had been unlawful, their own position must
be doubtful. J They further contested the legality of a
union of the two colleges, inasmuch as the Cardinals of one
party could alone be recognized as lawful.
These and other considerations were, however, unheeded
by the Assembly at Pisa. Delusive hopes of union held
* Hiibler, 378, 380. Zimmermann, 16. Erler, 33
f Janssen, Reichs-correspondenz, i., 142 ; compare 145.
} " Si dubitant de Papatu Gregorii, quare simili ratione non
dubitant de suo Cardinalatu ? "
Raynaldus, ad an. 1409, n. 13-18. Mansi, xxvi., 1188-1256.
See Hofler, Ruprecht, 436 et seg., and Hefele, vi., 858 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 189
the better sort captive, and blinded them to the intrigues
of Baldassare Cossa, who was leading the Council according
to his own interests, and turned a deaf ear to all representa
tions regarding the injustice of these proceedings towards
both Popes.* Since many Universitiesf and learned men
expressed their agreement with the new theories, the Synod
of Pisa disregarded all canonical scruples, and boldly
assumed authority over the two Popes, of whom one must
necessarily have been the lawful head of the Church. In
vain did Carlo Malatesta, the loyal adherent of Gregory
XII., endeavour, even at the last moment, to bring about
an understanding between him and the Synod. In vain
did this Prince, who was distinguished for his Humanistic
culture, and was the noblest of his race,J represent to the
Cardinals, that their new way might indeed speedily lead to
an end, but that the end would be a threefold division in
stead of unity. The Synod of Pisa having in its first
session declared itself to be canonically summoned and
oecumenical, representing the whole Catholic Church, then
proceeded to the trial and deposition of Benedict XIIL
and Gregory XII. No one seriously believed the assertion by
which the Council supported its action. It was declared to
be a matter of public notoriety that Benedict XIII. and
Gregory XII. were not merely promoters of the Schism,
but actually heretics in the fullest sense of the word, be
cause by their conduct they had attacked and overturned
* Hofler, Ruprecht, 448.
f The opinion of the University ot Bologna, which, however,
does not in any way touch the principal objections taken from the
Corpus juris canonici, is published by Martene-Durand, Coll. vii.
894-897. See Tschackert, 153 etseq., where are also particulars as
to the views of Gerson and d Ailly.
J Yriarte, 46 ; see 54-62.
Hefele, vi., 863. "
i go
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the article of faith regarding the One, Holy, Catholic and
Apostolic Church. Having thus invented a basis of
operations, the Synod of Pisa proceeded with feverish haste
to the most extreme measures, from which they might
reasonably have been deterred by their knowledge that
Gregory and Benedict had each an important body of
followers, and that the forcible repression of both parties
could not be deemed possible.* Without further negotia
tions with the two Popes, neither of whom had appeared
at Pisa, their deposition was decreed, and a new election
ordered. The elevation on the 26th June, 1409, of the
aged Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Petros Filargis, a
Greek, who took the name of Alexander V., t was the result.
* Such is the opinion of Hefele, vi., 902.
f This Pope has lately found a Greek biographer : Md pKO v Pwieprj
IffTOpiKal MtXerat. 6 r E\X;j> Tlairas *A\tavdpos E ; To Bjairio> Kai
* fr EaffiXeia Zvvodos. Ev AOfivais, 1881. Alexander V. was no more a
lawful Pope than the Council of Pisa was a lawful Council. For
as Hergenrother (ii., I, 65) observes, the Council of Pisa was not
summoned by the whole Church, nor by a legitimate Pope, nor was
it generally acknowledged ; it was too much under the influence of
France, whose Government, in March, 1409, had promised the
Cardinals its support for the Pope to be elected " who will receive
his confirmation from the Princes and Bishops." The Cardinals
had no right to summon a General Council, especially during the
life-time of the lawful Pope, and Gregory XII. had hitherto been
such. " Either," proceeds Hergenrother, " Gregory was, or was
not legitimate before the Council took place. If he were legiti
mate, he did not cease to be so by the decision of a headless
assembly ; if he were not, neither were the Cardinals who elected
Alexander V., and their new election was invalid and unlawful. In
the first nineteen sittings the Council had no Pope without a
Pope there is no Oecumenical Council. No right existed by which
the Pope (if really legitimate, see p. 120, note f, supra) could be de
posed ; if Gregory broke his word, he sinned, but he did not forfeit
his Pontificate. If there was no right to depose the Pope there
HISTORY OF THE POPES. igi
Instead of two Popes there were now three, for the
sentence of the Synod of Pisa had in no way affected the
allegiance of the States which recognized Gregory XII. or
Benedict XIII. The Assembly which was to have restored
unity, had only increased the confusion. Such was the
deplorable result of the removal of the established basis of
unity. As Pierre d Ailly had sadly foreseen,* the Council of
Cardinals added another and a far more dangerous evil to
those which already existed ; it created a second Schism,
and showed itself absolutely incapable of accomplishing
the much longed for reform of ecclesiastical affairs. Reform
and union alike came to nothing at Pisa.f
Alexander V. died on the 3rd May, 14104 The
Cardinals immediately elected as his successor Baldassare
Cossa, who assumed the name of John XXIII (1410-1415).
Of all the miserable consequences of the disastrous Synod
of Pisa, this election was the worst. John XXIII. was not,
indeed, the moral monster his enemies afterwards endea
voured to represent him, but he was utterly worldly-minded
and completely engrossed by the temporal interests, an
astute politician and courtier, not scrupulously con
scientious, and more of a soldier than a Churchman. ||
was no right to appoint a new one." I do not speak of the litera
ture regarding this question, as Hergenrother has given a full
account of it (iii., 351 etseq.)
* Tschackert, 152.
f Zimmermann, 18-22.
J See *Acta Consist, in the Consistorial Archives of the Vatican
(see Appendix n. 16). The description of the embalming of the
Pope s body by the celebrated physician Pietro di Argelata has
been handed down to us. See Medici, Compendio storico della scuola
anatomica di Bologna (Bologna, 1857), p. 40.
Dollinger, ii., i, 296.
|| Hergenrother s opinions, ii., 67. Similarly Reumont (ii., 1 1 50-
1151) : "Whatever this man may have been, he was not the moral
I 9 2 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
No help for the distracted Church was to be hoped for from
him. All eyes, therefore, turned to the powerful and right-
minded Sigismund, the King of the Romans, who was
necessarily most deeply interested in the termination of the
Schism, inasmuch as his Coronation as Emperor in Rome
could not take place until Western Christendom was again
united under one spiritual head.* He did not disappoint
the hopes which were fixed upon him, for the termination
of the Schism and the restoration of unity to the Church in
the West were in great measure his work.
The mischief wrought by the Synod of Pisa could not,
however, check the ever-increasing belief that peace could
only be restored by a General Council. Its very fruitless-
ness drove the more ardent to extreme measures for the
deliverance of the Church from the three-headed Papacy.
A scandal so terrible made men long for union at any price.
The belief that the Emperor, or the King of the Romans
w r as bound, as Protector of the Church, to summon a
General Council, came more and more prominently forward.
It was forcibly expressed by Dietrich von Nieheim, the
author of a work " On the ways of uniting and reforming
monster the Council of Constance endeavoured to represent him.
There is no need to heap guilt upon him invidiously and gratuitously,
as many of his contemporaries have done, while smarting under the
suffering he had caused them. John XXIII. was the incarnation of
the spirit of worldliness which, long before his time, had led the
Papacy terribly astray, and it is like a sign of an overruling
Providence that the Master of anti-ecclesiastical tendencies and of
purely political ends should attain the summit of power, at the
moment when the conscience of Christendom rose against the
lowering of the highest office, and the degradation of the most
exalted institution on earth." See also Hefele, vii., 9 et seq., 130-
131, note i, and Reumont in the Theolog-Literaturblatt, 1870, p.
748.
* Aschbach, i., 372.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 193
the Church by means of a General Council" (1410), long
falsely attributed to Gerson.* Dietrich here distinguishes
two Churches ; the particular and private Apostolic Church,
and the Universal Church which, as the Society of all the
faithful, has received immediately from God the power of
the keys. Her representative, the General Council, is there
fore above the Pope, who is bound to obey her ; she may
limit his power, annul his rights, and depose him. If the
existence of the Church is in danger, she is, according to
Dietrich, dispensed from the moral law. The end of unity
sanctifies all means : craft, deception, violence, bribery,
imprisonment, and death. For all law is for the sake of
the whole body, and the individual must give way to the
general good.f Dietrich founds his chief hopes on a power
ful Roman Emperor or King. " Until there is," he says,
" a just, mighty, universal Roman Emperor or King, the
Schism will not only continue, but will, we must fear, con
stantly grow worse." And as, in his opinion, the removal
of the Schism and the holding of a General Council cannot
* The authorship of this work is established by Lenz, Drei
Tractate aus dem Schriftencyclus des Konstanzer Concils (Mar
burg, 1876). It was first published by von der Hardt from a
Helmstadt MS., and by him pronounced, without any proof, to be
from Gerson s pen (i., Pars v., 68-143). Dollinger (Lehrbuch, ii.,
i, 298, note i) was the first to express a doubt as to the accuracy
of this idea, and the researches of Schwab (482 et seq.) showed the
doubt to be well-founded. Schwab, however, attributed it to the
Italian Benedictine, Andrea da Randulfo, and this view was adopted
by Hiibler (383, note 40), Lorenz (ii., 2nd ed., 319 et seq.) and
others. Ritter (Bonner Theolog. Liter. Bl., 1877, 396) sees in the
daring sentences of the treatise " De modis " the intellectual
characteristics of A. da Randulfo, while Zimmermann (25) is
inclined to agree with Lenz.
f Hiibler, 383-385, who observes that in these maxims ecclesi
astical " Salut public " culminates, and calls to mind Machiavelli s
" Principe."
O
IQ4 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
be expected without the King of the Romans, he is bound,
under pain of grievous sin, to bring about its meeting.
Sigismund understood how to turn to account the temper
of the time, which found expression in the remarkable work
of Dietrich von Nieheim. He also knew how to overcome
the great obstacles which stood in the way of the Council.
Fortune favoured him in a remarkable manner. The
conquest of Rome by King Ladislaus (June, 1413) had com
pelled John XXIII. to escape to Florence, where so
dangerous a visitor had not been very cordially welcomed.
As -the Pope was in urgent need of protection and aid
against his enemy, he gave his Cardinal-Legates, Challant
and Zabarella, ample powers to come to an understanding
with the King of the Romans, who was then at Como, as
to the time and place of the Council. After lengthened
resistance on their part, Sigismund succeeded in obtaining
their consent to the selection of Constance, a German City,
as the place of its assembly. This point settled, he hastened
to complete the matter, and on the 3Oth October, 1413,
informed all Christendom that, in agreement with Pope
John, a General Council would be opened at Constance on
the ist November in the following year, and solemnly
invited all Prelates, Princes, Lords, and Doctors of
Christendom to attend.* John XXIII., who was completely
powerless, had no choice but to submit to Sigismund s
will ; on the gth December he signed the Bull which
convened a General Council at Constance, and promised
* Bzovius, ad an. 1413, n. 7, von der Hardt, vi., i, 5-6. See
Lenz, 49. While these pages were being printed, Kagelmacher s
Filippo Maria Visconti und Konig Sigismund appeared (Berlin,
1885). In contradiction to the views which have hitherto prevailed,
this author endeavours to prove that the position of Sigismund in
relation to the Council was not accidental, but ,the result of
strenuous and conscious effort on his part (p. 4).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. IQ5
himself to be present. As soon as this decisive step had
been taken by the Pisan Pope, Sigismund wrote to Gregory
XII. and Benedict XIII., inviting them to come to the
Council, and also to the Kings of France and Aragon,
calling upon them to do everything in their power to ensure
the accomplishment of the important object it had in
view. *
When John XXIII., in his extremity, made up his mind
to consent to the convocation of the Council at Constance,
he hoped by this act to establish a certain right to direct
it, with the assistance of his numerous Italian prelates, more
or less in accordance with his own views. Any such hopes,
however, proved utterly fallacious, and, if we may believe
the Chronicler Ulrich von Richental, who tells us that at
the sight of the Lake of Constance John exclaimed " This is
how foxes are caught ! " even before he set foot in the
city, where the Councilf was to be held, he had become
fully aware of the danger which threatened him. There
was, indeed, ample ground for his apprehensions ; a feeling
most unfavourable to him had become general, and the;
complete failure of the Council of Pisa had at the same
time driven the leaders of the party of union to the adop
tion of revolutionary opinions. The important treatise of
Dietrich von Nieheim " On the ways of uniting and reform
ing the Church by means of a General Council," which we
have mentioned, had already given expression to the pre
vailing sentiment. The author attacks the worldly-minded
* Aschbach, i., 376.
f U. v. Richental, 25. The words spoken by John XXIII. to
Bartolomeo Valori are also remarkable. When the latter warned
the Anti-Pope of the dangers attendant on a Council held in a
foreign country, he replied : " I am aware that the Council is not
in my favour ; but how can I contend against my fate ? " Vita di
B. Valori in Arch. stor. Ital., iv., i, 262.
196 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Popes and their Courts in the most ruthless manner. Their
sins are painted in the darkest colours, while he hardly
alludes to those of the rest of the clergy. If his work
does not contain the full and perfect truth, it nevertheless
bears important testimony to the predominant tone of mind
at the period. Few contemporary writings as clearly
show how low the first dignity of Christendom had
fallen in the eyes of the friends of reform, and how
its bearers had come to be despised.* The hostility
of the party adverse to John XXIII. soon manifested
itself at Constance in the most unmistakable manner.
It gained new strength from the arrival of Sigismund, and
its first great result was the new mode of voting by nations,f
carried through in opposition to the Italians by the Ger
mans, English, and French. Events unfolded themselves
with marvellous rapidity after the arrival of the King of the
Romans, and John s prospects became more and more
gloomy. An anonymous memorial, addressed to the Fathers
of the Council and containing most serious charges against
the Pisan Pope, produced great effects. His bearing from
the beginning of the Council had been irresolute, and now
he lost heart altogether. In dread of judicial proceedings,
he solemnly promised to give peace to the Church by an
absolute surrender of the papal power, if Gregory XII. and
Benedict XIII. would likewise abdicate. But this step was
not taken freely or in good faith. Meanwhile the language
of the party of reform became more and more decided.
John, who was kept well informed of all that passed by his
* Schwab, 492. Lenz, Drei Tractate, 91, also points out that
Nieheim s pictures and opinions are exaggerated. Zimmerman,
29; Siebeking, 14, and Hist. Jahrb., v., 166, mention other bitter
satires and witticisms of the period.
t There does not seem to have been any formal decree of the
Council on this matter. See Schmitz, 13, and Tschackert, 206.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 197
spies,* at last came to the conclusion that nothing but bold
and sudden action could save him, and on March igth,
1415, with the connivance of Duke Frederick of Austria,
he fled " on a little horse " to Schaffhausen,f disguised as
a messenger.
The deed was one of desperation, and occasioned the
greatest confusion and alarm amongst those assembled at
Constance. The Italians and Austrians left the city and
gathered round their Princes ; merchants, fearing a riot,
packed up their wares, and the Burghermaster called the
citizens to arms.
During this stormy episode, the party which looked on a
definite limitation of Papal rights as the only means of sup
pressing the Schism and reforming the Church discipline,
gained the upper hand. The General Council was to effect
this limitation, and accordingly it was held that the Pope
must be subject to its jurisdiction ; many, indeed, would
have rendered this subjection permanent. J With charac
teristic precipitation it was decided in the third, fourth, and
fifth Sessions that a General Council could not be dissolved
* Niem, Vita Johannis XXIII. , in von der Hardt., ii., 389.
t See U. v. Richental, 62. For the date of March 19, see
Guasti, Gli avanzi dell Archivio di un Pratese vescovo di Volterra,
in the Arch. Stor. Ital., 4 Serie (1844), xiii., 206. In the City
Archives of Strasburg (AA 138), I found in a *letter of Count Pala
tine Louis to Strasburg (Geben zu felde vordem heiligen crutz nach
Cristi geporte in dem viertzehenhundersten u. funffzehenden jare
off den samsstag nach des heiligen cruces tag invencion = May 4)
the following description of the Anti-Pope : They are " schen nach
einem der ein walche und nit dutsche und auch ein feisster man
sy, er habe an pfaffen oder leyen cleidere."
J Werner, iii., 706. He shows (703 et seq.) that the theory of the
superiority of the Council to the Pope had been opposed by the
supporters of the Papal power in the earliest stage of the negotia
tions for the removal of the Schism.
ig8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
nor prorogued by the Pope without its own consent ; that
the present Council continued in full force after the flight
of the Pope ; that everyone, even the Pope, must obey the
Council in matters concerning the faith and the extirpation
of the Schism, and that it had authority over the Pope as
well as over all Christians.*
By these decrees a power which had not been instituted
by Christf was constituted supreme over the Church, and
this was done in order to provide the Assembly of Con
stance with a theoretical basis on which to act indepen
dently of the Pope. But, although defended by d Ailly and
Gerson, they never received the force of law. They
proceeded from a headless Assembly, which could not be an
(Ecumenical Council since it was not acknowledged by any
Pope, while one of the three must certainly have been the
lawful head of the Church. Moreover, the method of pro
cedure, by a majority of votes, had no precedent in the
ancient Councils, and these decrees were carried against
the Cardinals by a majority composed in large part of
unauthorized persons. It was evident, then, that they could
only be regarded as an act of violence, an expedient to put
an end to the existing confusion. It was possible, indeed,
to interpret the words, asserting the supremacy of the
Council over the Pope, in a sense which limited their appli
cation to the Schism of the day, and they were thus
understood by many, both at the time and afterwards. But,
in the intention of their authors, their signification was
general and dogmatic, and amounted to the introduction of
a new system, subversive of the old Catholic doctrine. No
dogmatic importance, however, can possibly be attached to
* For the authentic text of the Decree see J. Friedrich in the
Sitzungsber. der Munch. Akad. Phil.-histor. Kl. 1871, p. 243-
251.
f Phillips, i., 250-251.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. IQ9
them. The Assembly of Constance was no General, or
representative, Council of the Church, and they never re
ceived Papal confirmation.* The great mistake of those
assembled at Constance was to take that which may have
seemed a matter of necessity under extraordinary circum
stances, as a general rule for all times, and to consider it
possible that a General Council could be held without the
Pope, and in opposition to him, an idea as extravagant as
would be the supposition that a body without a headf could
be a living organism. The necessary consequence of this
attempt to carry out reforms by means of the Episcopate
alone was, as a modern Canonist J well observes, that in the
next century many denied the authority of both Pope and
Bishops.
The firmness and prudence of Sigismund had been the
chief means of frustrating the attempt made by John XXIII.
to disperse the Assembly at Constance, and the fate of this
Pope was soon decided. He had already been arrested and
confined in Radolfzell, and, after a trial, was, on the 2gth
May, solemnly and formally deposed ; utterly broken in
spirit, he submitted without remonstrance to the sentence
of the Synod.
* The opinion given in the text is shared by Hergenrother ; see
his Anti-Janus, 129-130, and Kirchengesch. ii., 1-78. See also
Dollinger, Lehrbuch, ii., i, 303-307. Phillips, i., 250^ seq.; iv.,
435 & seq. Dux, i., 165 et seq. Schulte, System, 183. Hettinger,
Fundamentaltheologie, ii., 188. Regarding the attitude of Martin
V. towards the decree of the Supremacy of Councils, see Zimmer
man, 66-68.
t Hefele, i., 2nd ed., 54-555 vii -> IO 4 37 2 -373- Alzog, ii.,
loth ed., 33 et seq. See also Chmel., Friedrich, iv., i, 450, and
Dux i., 251 et seq.
% Phillips, iii., 324.
In order to restrain John XXIII. from further intrigues, King
Sigismund handed him over to the Count Palatine Louis, to
200 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The deposition of John XXIII. nullified the work of the
Synod of Pisa, and brought things back to the position they
had occupied, before it had decreed the deposition of
Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII. The election of a new
Pope ought logically, therefore, to have taken place, but
such a measure would not have advanced matters a step,
and accordingly the Synod was in an untenable position *
when Gregory XII. solved its difficulties by his magnani
mous resolution to abdicate. The way in which this was
done is of the highest significance, and must by no means
be viewed as a concession in non-essentials to the assembled
Bishops. Gregory XII., the one legitimate Pope, sent his
plenipotentiary, Malatesta, to Constance, where the pre
lates of his obedience had already arrived, and now sum
moned the Bishops to a Council. His Cardinal-Legate,
who had made his entry into the city as such, read
Gregory s Bull of Convention to the assembled .Bishops,
who solemnly acknowledged it. Malatesta then informed
this Synod, which Gregory XII. had constituted, of his
abdication (4th July, 1415). His summons had given the
Synod a legal basis ; the Bishops of the third obedience
gradually joined it, while Benedict XIII., with but three
Cardinals, fled to the fortress of Peniscola, thus proclaiming
whom, as Judge of the Empire, his custody naturally belonged, and
whose aversion to John removed all apprehension of his liberation.
Louis had him brought to the Palace, and there the unfortunate
man was surrounded by German keepers, with whom he could only
communicate by signs. He employed himself in writing verses on
the transitory nature of all earthly things. In 1418, when Louis
had fallen out with Sigismund, he set the deposed Pope free for a
ransom of 38,000 florins. See Hausser,i., 277-278, and Arch. Stor.
Ital., iv., 429 et seq. In the year 1418 there were many who did
not consider the forcible deposition of John XXIII. to have been
lawful. Leon. Aretinus, Comment. 930-931.
* Phillips, i., 256.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 2OI
himself a schismatic before the whole Church. The Holy
See was, therefore, now acknowledged and declared to be
vacant, and it became possible to proceed to the election
of a successor to Gregory XII.*
" If even we admit the proposition," observes the
Canonist f from whom we have taken the above account,
" that Gregory XII. s fresh convocation and authorization
of the Council were a mere matter of form, this form was
the price to which he attached his abdication ; and it meant
nothing less than that the Assembly should formally
acknowledge him as the lawful Pope, and accordingly
confess that its own authority dated only from that moment,
and that all its previous acts in particular those of the
fourth and fifth Sessions were devoid of all oecumenical
character. The recognition of Gregory XII. s legitimacy
necessarily included a similar recognition of Innocent VII.,
Boniface IX., and Urban VI., and the rejection of Clement
VII. and Benedict XIII."t
* Loc. cit., 256-257. " The favourable result obtained at Con
stance," observes R. Bauer (Laacher Stimmen, 1872, ii., 187),
" was not the consequence of a course of action like that which
had been pursued at Pisa. When the same line was pursued at
Constance, there was every reason to fear that a fourth Pope might
be added to the three who already existed, and that the vicious
circle of events might repeat itself indefinitely. The magnanimous
conduct of Gregory XII., and the upright, unwearied, if not in all
respects prudent, zeal of Sigismund, did far more under God to
avert this terrible misfortune than any of the efforts of the Council."
t Phillips, iv., 437-438. See also Creighton, i., 224, and Abert,
47-
% The formal deposition of Benedict XIII. by the Council took
place on the 26th July, 1417. For the previous fruitless negotia
tions for union see Aschbach, ii., 141 et seq. Hefele, vii., 244 <?/
seq. See Bellinger, Materialen, ii., 377 et seq. Schmitz, 27 et seq.^
shows that Benedict XIII. was supported in his obstinacy by French
influence. Maimbourg (Hist, du schisme d Occident, ii., 297)
202 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
In gratitude for the concession which he had made, the
Council conferred upon Gregory XII. the Cardinal Bishopric
of Porto, with the permanent Legation of the March of
Ancona, and rank second only to that of the Pope ; he did
not, however, long enjoy these dignities, as he died on the
i8th October, 1417. His last words were, "I have not
understood the world, and the world has not understood
me."*
From the resignation of Gregory XII. till the election of
Martin V. the Apostolic See was vacant, and the Church
was ruled by the Council to which the Cardinals belonged.
The Council, during this period, undertook the administra
tion and temporal government of the States of the Church,
a remarkable fact, which clearly proves them to be the
property of the whole Church. f
After the burning of John Huss (July 6th, 1415) matters
regarding the third point of the great programme of the
Council the reform of the Church in her head and members
principally occupied its attention. The great majority
of the Assembly were of one mind as to the need of reform.
" The whole world, the clergy, all Christian people, know
speaks of Benedict XIII. as "un des plus grands hommes de son
siecle " ! !
* Capelletti, Storia di Venezia, v., 334. The speedy death of
Gregory was regarded as a sign that he had been the true Pope,
God not having permitted that another Pontiff should be elected
during his lifetime. See Salvi, cxliii. For an account of Gregory s
grave, see F. Raffaelli, II monumento di P. Gregorio XII. ed i suoi
donativi alia Cattedrale Basilica di Recanati (Fermo, 1877).
f See Mathieu, 415. Theiner-Fessler, 30 et seq.\ see also 32
et seq., evidence of the reasons which prevented the right of exercise
of the temporal power in the States of the Church, at that time
devolving on the Cardinals. The Council confirmed Cardinal
Isolani as temporal and ecclesiastical Vicar of Rome. See Arch.
della Soc. Rom., Hi., 403.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 203
that a reform of the Church militant is both necessary and
expedient," exclaims a theologian of the day. " Heaven
and the elements demand it ; it is called for by the Sacrifice
of the Precious Blood mounting up to heaven. The very
stones * will soon be constrained to join in the cry." But
while this necessity was generally recognized, the members
of the Council were neither clear nor unanimous in their
views as to the scope and nature of the reform. Various
measures were proposed, especially for the amendment of
the Papal Court, but few of them were practicable.t When
the details came to be considered the countless difficulties
which ultimately rendered the labours of the Council in
this matter so ineffectual became more and more apparent.
Contemporary writings clearly show the existence of a
widespread dislike of the higher clergy, not only amongst
the laity, but also amongst the inferior ecclesiastics. An
immense number of absolutely revolutionary discourses
preached at Constance by monks and clergy of the lower
ranks, bear witness to this feeling.J The Cardinals were
detested by the majority of those who formed the Assembly
at Constance, and they had repeatedly to complain of
grievous slights put upon them. The treatment which
they had to expect may be gathered from the singular fact
that on the iyth April, 1415, a Prelate brought forward a
proposal for their exclusion from all deliberations regarding
Union and Reform. It was not indeed carried, but it
showed the Cardinals the greatness of the danger which
threatened them. They dexterously met it by an effort to
get the matter into their own hands, and in the end of
* Matth. Roeder in Watch, ii., 34-35.
f Zimmermann is also of this opinion, 44.
J Zimmermann, 2Q.
See W. Bernhardt, Der Einfluss des Cardinal-Collegs auf die
Verhandlungen des Constanzer Concils, Leipziger Diss., 15.
204 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
July moved that a Committee should be appointed to
deliberate on the reform of the Church. The opposition
aroused by this step was overcome by the eloquence of
d Ailly. The Cardinals motion was passed, and the first
Committee was appointed, between the 26th July and the
ist of August. It consisted of eight deputies from each
nation, and three Cardinals.* The conflict of various
interests made it impossible to come to any agreement on
the most important questions. In the autumn of 1416
negotiations came to a complete standstill. Some powerful
impulse was wanted to keep up the interest in the Council,
which flagged more and more, wearied out by the
monotony of interminable discussions. f
In regard to the smallness of the results achieved by it,
a Protestant J writer has justly observed : " Few perhaps
lacked goodwill, but all lacked courage to begin the con
flict against the network of interests which covered all the
ground. If the work were once seriously undertaken, it
was hard to see where it might end."
The resistance naturally offered by the Conservative
element to any change in the constitution of the Church,
exercised a great influence on the cause of reform. This
struggle absorbed all energies, and divided the Council
into two camps at a time when united action alone could
have led to success. Another circumstance also came into
play.
The Constitution of the Church is an organic body, and
a reform of one part must necessarily react on the whole.
The chief aim of by far the greater number at Constance
was the removal of special pressing abuses, and the
* Ibid., 20.
t Hiibler, 16. See Schwab, 648, 671.
J Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 42. The measures taken by the Council
for the reform of the Benedictines are mentioned by Evelt, 129.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 205
protection of special concerns. Considerations of the
general good were postponed to those regarding particular
interests/* No party would begin by reforming itself;
each wished for reform in the first place at the cost of
another. Unanimous action was out of the question in this
conflict of parties.
We must also give due weight to the influence of
national and political interests. Church and State, in the
views of that time, were by no means unconcerned with
each other. Civil and ecclesiastical life were most closely
bound together, and, as a necessary consequence, every
effort to reform the Church awakened national and political
opposition. The removal of abuses by reverting to a
simple principle, was, under these circumstances, impos
sible ; t relations were so entangled that every change was
like a Revolution. " Church Reform," to quote the words
of a modern historian, " was the Tower of Babel ; every
imaginable language was spoken in the Assembly, and
opinions w r ere as numerous and as conflicting as the
nationalities gathered together at Constance." J
The conflict of interests was intensified by the system of
division into nations adopted in the Council, which opened
the door to party spirit and national jealousy. This new
organization of the Assembly, though framed with the sole
purpose of counteracting the preponderance of the Italian
* Schwab, 670, see 647.
f Lenz, 156. In Germany especially it had already been proved
that the Empire could not be reformed without a reform of the
Church, while a reform of the Church could not be accomplished
without that of the Empire. See Hofler, Ruprecht, 56 and 408.
How the cry for the reform of the Church was joined with that for
the reform of the Empire we learn from the Informationes Pilei
archiepiscopi Januensis in Dollinger, Malerialen, ii., 301 et seq., and
other sources.
} Caro, 5.
St, Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
206 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
prelates, was in great measure responsible for the failure
of the work of reform. Even those, who looked with
sympathy on the introduction of new modes of deliberation
and voting, acknowledge this fact.* "The reform which
one nation desires, another rejects," wrote Peter von
Pulka,f the Envoy of the University of Vienna. Under
these circumstances, it was impossible to foresee how long
the Church would remain without a head, if, according to
the wishes of Sigismund and the German nation, the
election of a new Pope was to be deferred until the reform
had been accomplished. Discussions of a most violent
nature soon arose on this question. The struggle was at
last concluded by a compromise, which the aged Bishop of
Winchester, the uncle of the King of England, brought
about.J According to its terms, a Synodal Decree was to
give assurance that, after the election, the reform of the
Church should really be taken in hand ; those Decrees of
reform, to which all the different nations had already given
their consent, were to be published before the election,
and the mode of the election was to be determined by
deputies.
Accordingly, on the gth of October, 1417, in the thirty-
ninth General Session, five Decrees of reform, on which
the nations had agreed, were published. The first con
cerned the holding of General Councils, which were hence
forth to be of more frequent occurrence ; the next was to
be held in five years ; the following one, ten years later ;
and after that, one every ten years. The second Decree
enacted precautionary measures against the outbreak of a
* O. Richter in his treatise cited in the History of Eugenius IV.,
P- 5-
t See Archiv fiir CEsterreichische Geschichte, xv., 57.
J Further information regarding- the Bishop of Winchester s
mission may be found in Lenz, 172 et scq., and Caro, 94 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 207
fresh Schism ; the third required every newly-elected Pope,
before the proclamation of his election, to lay before his
electors a profession of his faith. The remaining Decrees
limited the translation of Bishops and Prelates, and
abolished the Papal rights of spotia and procuration.
Regarding the election of a new Pope, it was agreed on
the 28th of October that, for this time, thirty other Prelates
and Doctors, six from each nation, should be associated
with the Cardinals present at Constance. This decision, as
well as the Decree for securing reform, was immediately
published in the fortieth General Session, on the 3oth
October. The Decree was to the effect that, before the
dissolution of the Council, the new Pope was, with its
co-operation, or with that of deputies of the nations, to
take measures for ecclesiastical reform, especially in
reference to the Supreme head of the Church and the
Roman Court.*
The Conclave began on the evening of the 8th November,
1417, in the Merchants Hall at Constance, which is still
visited by every traveller, and on St. Martin s Day the
Cardinal Deacon Oddone Colonna came forth as Pope
Martin V.f
* See Hiibler, 33 et seq. Hefele, vii., 321 et seq.
f The first account of this Conclave from original sources is
given by Lenz, 181-195. See Caro, 95, note 2. C. Scheu s work,
Conclave in Konstanz (Radolfzell, 1878) is of little value. On the
23rd December, 1417, Martin V. informed his brother Lorenzo of
his election as Pope, which had taken place on the nth November
" hora quasi decima." * The original of this letter : " Dil. filio nob.
viro Rentio de Columna germano nostro," is in the Colonna Archives
at Rome (Hi. B. B. xvL, n. 5). See Theiner, Cod. ii., 219 et seq.,
where a similar letter to Viterbo and Corneto is given.
BOOK n.
THE RESTORATION OF THE PAPAL POWER AND ITS
STRUGGLE WITH THE COUNCIL THE ORIGIN OF
THE RENAISSANCE IN ROME, 1417-1447.
I. MARTIN V. (1417-1431).
THERE was indeed cause for the unbounded rejoicings over
the restored unity of the Church, which re-echo through the
pages of the ancient chronicles of this period.* " Men
could scarcely speak for joy," says one of these writers.
The Church had again a head the great Western Schism
was at an end. These nine and thirty years of division
were the most terrible crisis the Roman Church had passed
through during the long centuries of her existence. An
uncompromising opponent of the Papacy has acknowledged
that any secular kingdom would have perished; yet so
marvellous was the organization of this spiritual dynasty,
and so indestructible the idea of the Papacy, that the Schism
only served to demonstrate its indivisibility. f
The new Pope, a man in the full vigour of life, belonged
to one of the highest and most powerful families of Rome ;
he was distinguished by his simplicity, temperance, purity,
*Von der Hardt, iv., 1483. See ^Egidius of Viterbo s*
*" Historia viginti saeculorum," Cod. C. 8. 19, f. 277 of the Angelica
Library in Rome. A copy of the * " Historia " is to be found in a
MS. in the library at Dresden. See Schnorr v. Karolsfeld, Hand"
schriften der Dresd. Bibl., i., 364.
t Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 620.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 209
knowledge of Canon Law, and many other virtues, and had
kept comparatively aloof from party questions. Without
in any way sacrificing his dignity, he had been on friendly
terms with all those assembled at Constance. The
despatches of Ambassadors present at the Council speak
with the highest praise of the gracious bearing of the Pope.
This noble Roman, in fact, seemed to combine all the
qualities that could enable him worthily to fill his high posi
tion.*
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 after
wards 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.f 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
* See Aschbach, ii., 300. Finke in the Strassburger Studien
(1884), ii., 424. Gregorovius, vi., $rd ed., 622. For an account
of the family of Colonna, see Litta, f. 55 ; A. Coppi, Memorie ecc. ;
Reumont, Beitrage, v., 3 et seq., 399 et seq., and Th. Wiistenfeld in
the Gott. Gel-Anz., 1858, N. 102 et seq. In a *letter to the Secre
tary of the city of Strasburg, dated Constance (1417), November
17, Heinrich Kilbt says of Martin V. : " Post ejus assumptionem
non bibit nisi de vino meo quod est Elsaticum." The original is
in the City Archives at Strasburg AA. 166.
t See Schwab, 662-670, and Hiibler, 42 et seq. V. de la Fuente,
434 et seq.
P
210 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
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. 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 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 States of the Church could only be defended by
mercenary troops ; the Court and the Cardinals were a cause
of great expense ; a large outlay was needed for the Lega
tions, and all these things were bound up with the
centralized organization of the Church, which no one wished
to attack. A Pope could not preside in Apostolic!
simplicity over Bishops who kept up a princely state. f
It must also be added that Italian affairs urgently demanded
the speedy return of the Pope to Rome.
The delay of the reform, which was dreaded by both
clergy and laity,J may be explained, though not justified,
by the circumstances we have described. It was an un
speakable calamity that ecclesiastical affairs still retained
the worldly aspect caused by the Schism, and that the much-
needed amendment was again deferred.
Sigismund made every effort to induce Pope Martin V.
to take up his abode in Germany ; Basle, Mayence, and
Strasburg were proposed to him as places of residence, and
the French begged him to live in Avignon, as so many of
his predecessors had done. But Martin would not on any
account become dependent on a foreign power, and firmly
* Such is the opinion of Dollinger, ii., i., 313.
t W. Wattenbach, Geschichte des Romischen Papstthnms.
J See p. 30 of the above mentioned treatise of W. Bernhardt
(p. 203, supra).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 211
declined all these proposals. In the absence of its chief
Pastor, the inheritance of the Church was, he said, rent and
despoiled by tyrants; the City of Rome, the head of
Christendom, was devastated by pestilence, famine, sword,
and revolt ; the Basilicas and the shrines of the Martyrs
were, some of them, already in ruins, and others about to
fall into that state. In order to prevent complete destruc
tion, he must go ; he begged them to let him depart. The
Roman Church being the head and mother of all churches,
in Rome alone is the Pope at his post, like the pilot at the
helm of the vessel. *
The condition of the States of the Church undoubtedly
demanded the return of the Pope, and Martin V. acted
prudently in resolving to make his way back to Italy and to
his native city. Amidst the rejoicings of the people, he
journeyed through Berne to Geneva. Here he heard of
the disturbances which had broken out in Bohemia in con
sequence of the burning of Huss, and received the oath of
allegiance of the Avignon Ambassadors. On the yth
September, 1418, it was determined to transfer the Papal
Court to Mantua.f On his way, Martin V. tarried in
*Platina, Vita Martini V., 653. See * " Historia viginti ssecu-
lorum," by ^Egidius of Viterbo, Cod. C. 8. 19, f. 278 of the
Angelica Library in Rome. The French desired not only that the
Pope should reside in France but also that the next Council should
be held there. See Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, i., 292-
The Epistola di Alberto degli Albizzi a Martino V. (Bologna, 1863),
18 et seq., 23, urged his speedy return to Rome: "Voi siete
aspettato a Roma, " it says, " non solamente dagli Italiani, ma da
tutti quegli che hanno reverenzia al venerabile nome di Cristo."
tThe Pope s departure from Constance took place on the i6th
May, 1418, the Council having been closed on the 22nd April. For
an account of the journey of the Pope see Contelorius, 12 et seq. ;
Raynaldus, ad an. 1418, n. 36 with Mansi s note, and the * Acta
consistorialia of the Consistorial Archives in the Vatican (Appendix
No. 1 6).
212 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Milan and consecrated the High Altar of the Cathedral.
An inscription in the interior over the great portal, and a
medallion of the Pope in the gallery of the choir, com
memorate this circumstance.*
The Pope remained in Mantua from the end of October,
1418, until the following February. The critical position of
affairs in the States of the Church then compelled him to
spend nearly two years in Florence. He lived in the
Dominican Monastery of Santa Maria Novella, where the
apartment prepared for him long bore the name of the
Pope s Hallf (Sala del Papa). Here Baldassare Cossa
(John XXIII.), having been at length released from his
captivity, came humbly to throw himself at the feet of the
Pope, showing more dignity in adversity than he had done
in prosperity. Martin received him kindly, and appointed
him Cardinal Bishop of Tusculum (June 23, 1419), but on
the 22nd December, 1419, he died, so poor that there was
hardly enough to pay the legacies he left!{ The costly
monument erected to this unhappy man by Cosmo de j
Medici is still to be seen in the Baptistery at Florence. His
* Beneath the monument is an inscription from the pen of the
Humanist Giuseppe Brippi in praise of the Pope. There are several
mistakes in Kinkel s (2929) otherwise admirable essay on this
monument ; he gives Briccius as the name of the composer of the
epitaph, and considers the memorial to have been erected a short
time after the death of Martin V. From the Annali della Fabbrica
del Duomo di Milano, ii., 73-74 (Milano, 1877), however, it appears
that the date is 1437 ; the inscription is printed in the Annali, and
also given by Palatius, 486, and Ciaconius, ii., 824.
f Reumont, Beitrage, iv., 304. L. Landucci, Diario Fiorentino,
ed. J. del Badia (Firenze, 1883), 2, 357.
J See L. Aretinus, 930 et seq. Ciaconius, ii., 831. Fabronius,
Cosmus, ii., 10. Ajazzi, Ricordi storici di Filippo di Cino Rinuc-
cini dal 1282 al 1460 (Firenze, 1840), Iviii. Arch. stor. Ital., iv.,
429 et seq. Reumont, Lorenzo de Medici, i., 2nd edit., 14.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 213
recumbent statue rests on a sarcophagus beneath a canopy,
and the short but pregnant inscription declares that " The
body of Baldassare Cossa, John XXIII. , once Pope, is
buried here." "This tomb," a modern historian observes,
" is the boundary mark of an important epoch in the life of
nations, the monument of the great Schism and also the
last grave of a Pope out of Rome."*
The better Martin V. became acquainted with the con
dition of affairs in his native land, the more clearly did he
perceive that nothing was to be accomplished by violence.
Rome and Benevento were now in the hands of Queen
Joanna of Naples. Bologna was an independent Republic,
and other portions of the States of the Church had been
usurped by individuals. The Pope had to deal with this
hopeless situation by diplomatic measures. In the first
place he succeeded in coming to an understanding with the
Queen, to whom he promised the recognition of her rights
and his consent to her coronation, which was performed by
the Cardinal-Legate Morosini, on the 28th October, 1419;
Joanna, on her part, bound herself to support the Pope in
the recovery of the States of the Church, and to grant con
siderable fiefs in her kingdom to his brothers. f In conse
quence of this agreement, Joanna, on the 6th March, 1419,
ordered her General, Sforza Attendolo, to evacuate Rome.J
By the mediation of the Florentines, Martin V. succeeded,
in February, 1420, in coming to terms with the daring
Condottiere, Braccio di Montone, who controlled half
central Italy, and passed for one of the ablest military
leaders of his day. Braccio, as Vicar of the Church,
* Gregorovius, Grabmaler, 84.
t A. Coppi, 1 68. Minieri-Riccio, ii., i, 64-65 ; seep. 227, infra
et seq. Morosini s journey from Mantua to Naples took place
according to the *Acta consistorialia, on the ist December, 1418.
J Minieri-Riccio, ii., i, 58-59,
214 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
retained Perugia, Assisi, Todi, and Jesi, in consideration
for which he gave up his other conquests, and in July, 1420,
constrained the Bolognese to submit to the Pope. It was
at length possible for Martin V. to proceed to his capital;
he left the city of Florence on the gth September, 1420,
reached Rome on the 28th, and made his solemn entrance
into the Eternal City on the 3oth. The people enthu
siastically welcomed him as their deliverer.*
Martin V. found Rome at peace, but in such a state of
misery that, as one of his biographers observers, " it hardly
bore the semblance of a city/ t The world s capital was
completely in ruins, its aspect was deplorable, decay and
poverty met the eye on every side. Famine and sickness
had decimated its inhabitants and reduced the survivors to
the direst need. The towers of the nobles looked down
upon foul streets, encumbered with rubbish and infested
with robbers both by night and by day. The general
penury was so extreme that, in 1414, even on the Feast of
Saints Peter and Paul, no lamp could be lighted before the
Confession of the Prince of the Apostles ij A chronicler
* Infessura (Eccard, Corp. hist., ii., i, 1873) gives the 29th
September as the day of entry. I think, however, that the state
ment of the *Acta consistorialia is to be preferred. Regarding the
derisive verses on the Pope sung in Florence, see Cipolla, 380;
they were not the special ground of his departure (ibid., 384, N. 2).
Mathieu, 417 et seq., shows that the Pope was occupied about the
restoration of the States of the Church even before his arrival.
f Vita Martini V., in Muratori, iii., 2, 864.
J Muratori, xxiv., 1043. Fresh light is thrown on the fearful
state of Rome at this period by the Biography of St. Frances of
Rome, lately published by Armellini ; see xiii.-xiv., 2, 4-5, 8, etc.,
and Adinolfi, Portica di S. Pietro, 89, 184 et stq., 188 et seq. In
1402 the Servite Fathers of San Marcello were obliged to sell their
Convent Library in order to procure the absolute necessaries of life ;
see Serapeum, ii., 320. The poverty into which St. Peter s fell in
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 215
relates that many of the clergy had neither food nor
raiment, from which the sad condition of the rest of the
people may be imagined.
The city in which these poor creatures lived consisted of
a few miserable dwellings scattered through a great field
of ruins. Many monuments which had survived the
calamities of the Avignon period, had been destroyed
during the terrible years of the Schism. Amongst these
was the Castle of St. Angelo, which, in the spring of 1379,
was demolished, all but the central keep, containing the
room where was the grave of Hadrian.* The other relics
of antiquity had met with the same barbarous treatment.
Manuel Chrysoloras, who was in Rome towards the end of
the fourteenth century, wrote word to his Emperor at Con
stantinople, that scarcely any ancient sculpture remained
standing; it had been used for steps, for door-sills, for
building and for mangers for beasts ; the colossal figures
of the Dioscuri were the only specimens of the work of
Phidias and Praxiteles to which he could still point. If any
statues were found, they were mutilated or completely
destroyed as heathen ; moreover, the ancient edifices were
used as quarries for building materials, and for burning into
lime.t The other structures in the City had also suffered
dreadfully during the vicissitudes of the Schism ; most of
the houses had fallen, many churches were roofless, and
the early days of the Schism appears from the *Martyrologium
benefactorum Basilicas Vaticanae, Cod. 57 H. of the Library of St.
Peter s.
* Boniface IX. caused St. Angelo to be rebuilt in the form of a
tower by Niccolo d Arezzo; and this remarkable memorial, " whose
history is a picture of Rome in the camera obscura " (Gsell-Fels,
Rom., ii., 468), preserved this form until the explosion of a powder
magazine in 1497. See Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 493 et seq., 661.
f Papencordt, 493. See Reumont, iii., i, 3 et seq. (Rom. nach
dem Schisma.)
2l6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
others had been turned into stables for horses.* The
Leonine City was laid waste ; the streets leading to St.
Peter s, the portico of the church itself, were in ruins, and
the walls of the City were, in this quarter, broken down,
so that by night the wolves came out of the desolate
Campagna, invaded the Vatican Gardens, and with their
paws dug up the dead in the neighbouring Campo Santo.f
Such was the condition of Rome at the time when
Martin V. returned ; everything, so to speak, had to be
restored. The Pope devoted himself to the work before
him with a zeal and resolution which revealed the born
Roman. Even while at Florence, he had appointed a Com
mission to superintend the restoration of the Roman
churches and basilicas, and had furnished considerable
sums for the purpose. J The work was commenced in good
earnest, after he had taken up his residence in Rome ; he
began with those things which were most necessary. The
public parts of the Vatican, as, for instance, the Consistorial
Hall and the Chapel, as well as the Corridor connecting
the latter with the Loggia of Benediction, were repaired,
and windows were put in everywhere. The first thing to
be done in the city was to clear away the filth and rubbish,
which filled the streets and poisoned the air. Martin V.
accordingly revived the ancient office of Overseer of the
Public Thoroughfares (Magistri viarum) by appointing
two Roman citizens, whose duty it was to make the
streets again passable. At the same time he gave them
* Diarium Antonii Petri (an eye-witness), in Muratori, xxiv.,
977 979> 985, 1003 et seq. t 1008, 1009, 1010, ion, 1014, 1031,
1035, 1050.
t See the evidence of a * document from the Archives of the
Campo Santo at the Vatican, of which we shall say more in the
History of Eugenius IV.
J Miintz, La Renaissance, i., 8-9.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 21 7
absolute powers of expropriation and demolition, available
against all previous appropriation of public spaces and
buildings, and all grants of exemption, even when they
were protected by the threat of excommunication. Strong
measures were taken against the brigandage which had
become a real plague* in the City and its neighbourhood.
We find documents in which mention is made of the
regulation of prisons ; and a Papal Minister of Police,
under the name of " Soldanus," appears on the scene. f For
the sake of example, some of the robbers nests in the
neighbourhood of Rome were razed to the ground. The
frugal Pope did not care to keep up a large standing
army ; even the Body-Guard for the defence of the Palace
was very modest. It consisted chiefly of subjects J of the
Pope, and was the predecessor of the Swiss Guard. A
strong tower was built at Ostia to prevent smuggling, and
to serve as a watch tower against pirates and enemies by
sea.
Of all the buildings in Rome, the Pope made the
neglected churches the object of his special care. Perceiv
ing the impossibility of himself providing for them all, he
turned to the Cardinals and urged them to restore their
titular churches ; the appeal was not made in vain.|| The
Pope himself undertook the parochial churches and the
* Roma stava molto scoretta e plena di ladri," writes Infessura,
1 1 22, adding that the bandits did not spare even the poor pilgrims
who came to Rome.
t Kinkel, 2929-2930. Miintz, i., 12-14, 16-17, N. 6. Theiner,
Cod. dipl. Hi., 290-291. Bull, iv., 716-718.
J "Pedites de Interamne," Miintz, i., 14. See Theiner, Cod.
dipl. iii., 269-270. Martin V. s frugality in the matter of soldiers
was held up to Calixtus III. in a * Poem which I found in Cod. 361
(f. 4) of the Riccardi Library at Florence.
Kinkel, loc. cit. Guglielmotti, ii., 134 et seq,
|| Details are given by Miintz, i., 2, N. 3.
2l8 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
chief basilicas, and did everything on a magnificent scale.*
He contributed the enormous sum of 50,000 golden florins for
a new roof to St. Peter s ; the portico was also completely
restored, and, according to some accounts, decorated with
paintings representing the lives of St. Peter and St. Paul.f
Martin V. s restorations in St. John Lateran, the cathedral
church of the Popes, were even more important. This
noble basilica, which had been terribly injured by fire, was
newly roofed with wood and floored with a beautiful inlaid
pavement, the ruinous churches of the more distant parts
of the City and neighbourhood being, for this purpose,
despoiled of their porphyry, granite, and serpentine. For
the painting of the walls of the nave he summoned the
famous Gentile da Fabriano, who was employed here from
the year 1427. Vittore Pisanello was afterwards associated
with him. Gentile was munificently paid by the Pope ; he
received a yearly salary of three hundred golden florins,
while Bevilacqua, of San Severino, the cannon-founder and
engineer, had only a hundred and twenty ; and, at a subse
quent period, the justly-celebrated Fra Angelico da Fiesole
received but two hundred. The mural paintings in the
Lateran, which were completed under Eugenius IV., were
unfortunately destroyed by damp during Pisanello s life
time. They were, however, seen by the eminent painter
Roger van der Weyden, when he made a pilgrimage to
* Regarding the means by which the resources were obtained,
see v. Ottenthal in the Mittheilungen, v., 440-441. *A Brief,
addressed by Martin V. to the Archbishop of Tarantaise, and the
Bishop of Maurienne and Bellay, dated Rome, 1429, April 24th,
desires that a third part of the funds derived from fines imposed
upon ecclesiastics should be applied to the restoration of the Roman
churches. I found this document in the State Archives at Turin,
Mat. eccl., 42. Mazzo, i, N. 17.
t Miintz, i., 9-12. See Contelorius, 17 ei seq., and Mazio, 19.
See also Miintz in the 5th Vol. of the Mem. d Archeol. et d Hist.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 219
Rome and visited the Lateran basilica in the jubilee year
of 1450 ; on which occasion he pronounced Gentile to be the
first among Italian painters.*
Masaccio, the great Master of the Tuscan School, in the
first half of the century, and teacher of the later painters,
was also attracted to Rome by Martin V. In Vasari s time,
two of his works, a Madonna and a painting of Pope
Liberius with the features of Martin V., were still to be
seen in the Church of Sta. Maria Maggiore.f
Afterwards, during the peace with which Martin s pru
dence blessed the States of the Church, the financial position
of Rome improved and the walls of the capital were re
stored, the Palace of the Conservators was rebuilt, and
many gates and bridges over the Tiber were placed in a
proper condition. Martin V. erected for himself a modest
Palace on the western slope of the Quirinal, near the Church
of the Holy Apostles Saints Philip and James, and this was
his favourite residence from the fourth year after his arrival
in Rome. He also built a strong and stately castle in the
picturesque village of Genazzano, which is. situated on a
tufa rock at the beginning of the ^Equi and Hernici
hills, at no great distance from Palestrina, the ancient
stronghold of the Colonna family, and there the Pope and his
nephews often spent the summer.^ But, with these two ex
ceptions, the works which he accomplished were rather
works of restoration, imperatively demanded by the cir
cumstances of his time, than original creations.
* Miintz, i., 14-16, 31. Kinke), 2930. Reumont, iii., i, 374,
515. Crowe-Cavalcaselle, iv., 115. Rasponus, 31, 38, 52, 87-88.
Miintz, La Renaissance, 58. For a just estimate of Gentile see
Woltmann-Wormann, ii., 210.
t Reumont, iii., i, 375. Vasari-Lemonnier, iii., 158.
J Miintz, i., 16-18. Kinkel, /<?<:. cit. See Contelorius, 35.
Kinkel, loc. cit. For an account of medals with the inscrip
tion " Dirutas ac labantes urbis restaur. eccies.," see Bonanni,
220 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
It would, however, be a mistake to suppose that Martin
V. was devoid of the taste for splendour. On the contrary,
while his frugal mode of living laid him open to the imputa
tion of parsimony,* he made a great point of appearing
with the utmost magnificence in religious ceremonies.f
While at Florence, he ordered a richly embroidered cope
and a golden tiara, whose beauty was spoken of after the
lapse of a hundred and fifty years. For the tiara eight
delicately wrought little golden figures between leaves of
the same metal were supplied by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and a
costly clasp for the cope, representing our Saviour giving
His blessing. But the regular commissions which the Pope
gave for certain constantly-recurring occasions did even
more for the encouragement of artists than those of so
exceptional a nature. Caps and swords of honour were
presented each New Year to Princes or other distinguished
personages ; every Cardinal received a ring on his creation,
and golden roses were bestowed each year on Laetare
Sunday, hence called Rose Sunday, on Princes or eminent
men, and ladies of high rank, churches, or municipalities
whose loyalty the Pope desired to secure. These roses had
golden stems, and were set with precious stones. We must
also mention the many richly-embroidered banners, bear
ing the arms of the Pope and the Church, and sometimes
the figures of Saints, which were generally given to ensign-
202 1, and Venut ; , 4. Martin restored the churches of Velletri
(Borgia, 351-352), and encouraged the restoration of other
churches. See his * Bull of May i4th, 1421, in regard to the
Church of St. Dominic at Venice (its site is now occupied by the
Public Gardens). The original is in the State Archives at Venice,
Bolle pontif.
* Commission! di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, ii., 249, 303. St.
Antoninus, xxii., c. 7, 3. See Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed.,
24, and Palacky, iii., 2, 519 note.
t Vita Martini V., in Muratori, iii., 2, 860,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 221
bearers and Captains of the Church. Martin V. was obliged
to go to Florence for almost all these things. Art could not
flourish in a city so impoverished as Rome had become,
and there was no demand for it. But the impulse given
by his munificence could not fail in time to tell on the
Eternal City.* The Papal mint at this time attained a
* Miintz, i., 18-30; ii., 309-312. Kinkel, loc. tit. Woltmann-
Wormann, ii., 255. Arch. stor. Lomb. (1878), v., 800. Further
particulars about the Golden Roses are to be found in Moroni, lix.,
in et seq. ; Gatticus, 19, 20, 82 ; Cancellieri,De secret., 534, 1792 ;
Delicati, Diario di Leone X. (Roma, 1884), 108 et seq., and the
Monographs of A. Baldassarri (Venezia, 1709), and C. Cartari
(Roma, 1681), which are founded on the rich ancient literature.
See also Cod. Vatic., 8326 : *Memorie sopra la rosa d oro e sua
instituzione e benedizione, Vatican Library. Golden Roses are pre
served in the Clugny Museum in Paris, and in the rich Chapel
at Munich. I have to thank the kindness of Prebendary Dr.
Friedrich Schneider, of the Cathedral of Mayence, for the following
additional authorities and notices in regard to the Golden Roses :
Durandus, Rationale divin. Officior., lib. vi., c. 53, n. 8 et seq. (ed.
Lugd., 1568, p. 311 et seq.). Catalani in the Pontificale Rom. (ed.
Paris. 1851), ii.. 563. Card. Poli. Exegesis de . . . rosa. Otte,
Kunstarchiiologie, i., 4th ed., 250, N. 6. Gueranger, L AnnSe
Liturg. Careme, p. 373. The " Hallische Heilthum " of Albert of
Brandenburg, which was afterwards transferred to Mayence, pos
sessed one of these Roses. Illustrations of its contents are given in
a splendid Codex in the Castle Library at Aschaffenburg. In the
little book of wood-cuts " Das Hallische Heilthum " there is a
picture of it (copied in Otte, loc. cit.\ In the Cod. Aschaff., No. i,
there is a coloured picture of it, natural size, with the following
legend : " Zum erstenn wird ewer lieben und andacht. getzeigt
eyne Rosse, gemacht vonn Golde, Byesem, Balsam unnd Eedelnen
gesteynnen, dye hat gesegnet unnd gebenedeyett gotseliger gedech-
tnus der allerheyligste in got vater unnd Herr, unsser Herr Leo
aufs gotticher vorsichtigkeit der zehende Babst dess nahmens zur
mitfastenn und dormitt begabet unsernn gnedigstenn Herrn den
Cardinal zu eyner besundern ehre dyesser Stifftkirchenn der
Heyligen Sanct Moritz und Marien Magdalenenn allhyer zu Halle.
222 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
degree of excellence which it never lost, even during the
subsequent decay of taste.*
Notwithstanding the solicitude with which Martin V.
watched over every branch of the administration, the
recovery of the Eternal City was extremely slow. The
work of destruction had been so terrible, that, even in the
days of his successor, a historian described Rome as a
city of cowherds.f Yet it cannot be denied that a general
change for the better set in from the time that the Papacy
was again permanently established there. Martin V. devoted
his whole attention to the restoration of prosperity and
order, and it was no flattery which bestowed on him the
name of the Father of his country. J The political indepen
dence of the city of Rome was indeed at an end, but it
retained ample liberty of action in all internal affairs.
Martin V. left the municipal constitution of his native city
absolutely untouched ; by his desire, the rights and privileges
of Rome were recorded by the Secretary of the Senate,
Niccol6 Signorili, in a book, of which copies are preserved
Neyget ewer Hertz nnd Heppt unnd entufahet. dormit dye Benedey-
unge." This Rose is also lost.
* Reumont, iii., i, 426. See Cinagli, 42-44. The volumes of
Registers belonging to the reign of Martin V. bear witness to the
stability and quiet which had replaced the previous confusion ; they
become more numerous, and are divided into regular series, which
become more connected. Sickel in the Mittheilungen, vi., 311.
See v. Ottenthal, Bullenregister, p. 41.
t Vespasiano da Bisticci, Eugenio, iv. (Mai. Spicil., i., 21).
See Fabronius, Cosmus, ii., 86.
J Regarding the Pope s unwearied care for Rome, see also
1 Epinois, 402 et seq., and Morichini, 232.
Papencordt, 469. Mathieu, 419. The *extracts ex regesto
dominorum conservatorum tempore Martini V.,S.P." in Cod. iv.,
60 of the Borghese Library in Rome, are of great value in relation
to the internal history of the City at this period.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 223
in several of the Roman Archives and Libraries.* The
Romans easily forgot their loss of political independence,
beneath the sway of a Pope whose one object was to heal
the wounds inflicted on their unhappy city during the pro
longed absence of his predecessors. He showed how
much could be accomplished by an energetic Prince : even
the plague of brigandage, which has always been so pre
valent among the races of Latin origin, seemed to have
been completely banished from the States of the Church
by his vigorous measures. " In the time of Martin V.,"
to quote the words of a Roman chronicler, " a man might
travel by day or by night through the country, miles away
from Rome, with gold in his open hand."t " So great were
the quiet and peace all through the States of the Church,"
says a biographer of the Pope, "that one might have
imagined the age of Octavianus Augustus to have
returned."!
But Martin V. not only laid the foundations of the
restoration of the Eternal City, but also those of the Papal
* The most ancient copy of Niccolo Signorili s (" Pop. Rom.
secretarius ") work, " De juribus et excellentiis urbis Romae " is in
the Colonna Archives, but is not Signorili s autograph. See de
Rossi in the Studi e documenti (1881), ii., 2, 84, N. i (see also
de Rossi, " Le prime raccolte di antiche inscriz, 7, and Bullet.
1871, p. 4). Later copies are in the Borghese and Corsini
Libraries in Rome (see Lammer, Zur Kirchengesch., 132), and also
in the Vatican Libraiy (Cod. Vatic., 3536; see Cancellieri, De
Secret., 782-783 ; in Cod. Vatic., 7190 there is only a fragment),
and Cod., I.C., N. 35, of the Brancacciana Library at Naples.
t Memoriale di Paolo di Benedetto di Cola dello Mastro dello
Rione de Ponte, Cronache Rom., i. See Infessura, 1122.
J Muratori, iii., 2, 866. The author of the other Biography of
Martin, also given by Muratori, although very unfriendly towards
the Pope, is constrained to admit : " Item suo tempore tenuit
stratas et vias publicas securas, quod non fuit auditum a ducentis
annis et circa," loc. dt. y 858.
224 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
monarchy, and his action in this respect is of the highest
importance. The Schism had utterly disorganized the
States of the Church ; they existed only in name, a
motley mixture of governments, constitutions, rights,
privileges, and usurpations. The task which devolved on
the new Pope was little short of superhuman, but he under
took it with a courage and energy which were equalled by
his skill and prudence. He has the great merit of having
been the first to prepare the way for transforming this con
glomeration of communities and provinces, with their par
ticular rights, heterogeneous constitutions and indefinite
pretensions, into a united monarchy. He limited and
curbed the power of the independent princes who ruled
the cities, a hundred years before they were completely
done away with. It has been justly observed that his
labours would have been still more effectual, if a con
sistent course had been pursued in the States of the
Church, and if the unquiet and troubled rule of his suc
cessor had not in great measure destroyed what he had
accomplished.*
Circumstances favoured the Pope to a remarkable degree.
The man from whom he might have apprehended the ruin
of all his projects, Braccio di Montone, who had threatened
to compel the Pope to say mass for a bajocco, died in the
June of 1424. In consequence of his death, which was a
cause of great rejoicing in Rome, Perugia, Assisi, Jesi,
and Todi again submitted to the direct authority of the
Holy See. From this moment may be dated the steady
growth of Papal power, which was also favoured by the
family feud that divided the great house of Malatesta, and
by the fact that many cities were weary of the galling
* Reumont, Beitrage, v., 53. The manner in which Martin V.
entered into the details of the government of the States of the
Church, is shown by Reumont, iii., i, 68.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 225
yoke of their tyrants.* Martin s course for the next few
years was a series of successes. Imola, Forll, Fermo,
Ascoli, San Severino, Osimo, Cervia, Berinoro, Citta di
Castello, Borgo San Sepolcro and many other cities
gradually submitted to him.f Bologna, which had been
brought into subjection by Braccio di Montone, again
revolted in 1428. The gates of the Palace were burst
open, the Palace itself was plundered, and the Papal
Legate constrained to fly. By the mediation of the
Venetians and Florentines, terms were made in the follow
ing year between the Pope and the revolted Bolognese.
Both Martin and his Ambassador, Domenico Capranica,
evinced great moderation and forbearance in the negotia
tions, for even after the second insurrection they allowed
the city to retain its own constitution. J
Martin V. also strengthened his temporal power by
family alliances. By the union of his niece Caterina with
Guido da Montefeltre, he won that powerful house com-
* L. Aretinus, 932.
f Reumont, iii., i, 63-64. Sugenheim, 317 et seq. Balan, v.,
88 et seq.
J See Cronica di Bologna, 623, and Ghirardacci, Istoria di
Bologna, T. iii., lib. 30. Cod. 768 of the University Library at
Bologna. See Quirini, Diatriba, ccxvi. Ruggerius, xxiii., and
113-114. Catalanus, 17. Cronica di Ronzano e Memorie di
Loderingo d Anda!6 (Bologna, 1851), 58, 109-110. For some
account of the mediation of the Florentines, see *Nota ed informa-
tione a voi Maestro Agostino Romano, generale de frati Here-
mitani, ambasciadore del commune di Firenze al Santo Padre ecc.
Marzo, 1438 [st. Flor.], Cl. x., dist. i., n. 23, f. 74~75> State
Archives at Florence. Fresh disturbances broke out in Bologna in
July, 1430. See Eroli, Erasmo Gattamelata da Narni (Roma,
1876), 21 et seq. Fermo also rebelled in 1428. See Fracasetti,
Mem di Fermo, 38.
Q
226 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
pletely to his interests.* His sister Paola was married to
Gherardo Appiani, Lord of Piombino, and endowed with
lands.f The Pope provided for his relations in the most
munificent manner.
It has been the custom to condemn the " excessive
nepotism " of Martin V. with great severity, but the cir
cumstances of the time diminish the blame that may be due
to him in this respect. These circumstances cast the Pope
upon his nephews for aid, for when he came to Italy, a
landless ruler whom the urchins in the streets of Florence
derided in their songs, where could he look for support
except to his relations ? Little was to be expected from
the other Roman nobles, whose strongholds were like nests
of robbers, and whose life was one of wild warfare ; from
the leaders of mercenary bands, who were wont to leave
their troops in the lurch, if their own safety required it or
the hope of richer gain attracted them ; or, again, from
Queen Joanna of Naples, the most inconstant of women.
It cannot be denied that the affection of Martin for his
family was inordinate, but self-preservation, even more than
family affection, was the motive which impelled him to seek
the exaltation of the Colonnas.J In the midst of a power
ful and quarrelsome aristocracy, at the head of a hopelessly
distracted State, in an unquiet city always ready for revolt
and riot, it was but too natural that Martin V., if he wished
to keep a firm footing, should lean on his kindred and
increase their power.
* Ugolini, i., 223. Other projects of marriage for Caterina are
mentioned by Osio, ii., 105 tt seq.
t Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, ii., 160.
J Gregorovius agrees in this opinion (vii., 3rd ed., ii.). See A.
Coppi, 167 et seq.^ and the Riflessioni sopra il nepotismo in the Civ.
catt. 1868, ii., 395 tt seq.
See Villari, i., 54.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 227
The aggrandizement of the Colonna family began when
Queen Joanna, in return for her recognition and coronation,
invested the two brothers of the Pope with important
Neapolitan fiefs. On the I2th May, 1418, Giordano
Colonna was created Duke of Amalfi and Venosa, and on
the 3rd of August, 1419, Prince of Salerno ; the other
brother, Lorenzo, became Count of Alba, in the Abruzzi.*
At a later date, we find him also in possession of Genazzano
in the ^Equi Hills, which is full of reminiscences of the
Colonnas. Death soon carried away both Giordano and
Lorenzo from their riches and honours ; the latter was
miserably burned in the tower of one of his castles in 1423,
and Giordano died of the plague in the following year,
leaving no heir.f By his marriage with Sveva Gaetani,
Lorenzo left three sons, Antonio, Odoardo, and Prospero.
Antonio became Prince of Salerno and head of the family,
Prospero was a cardinal, and Celano and Marsi fell to
Odoardo. t
The Neapolitan fiefs were but a portion of the landed
possessions which the Colonna family acquired by means of
Martin V. Great additions were made to the considerable
estates they already enjoyed in the near and remote neigh
bourhood of Rome ; the stronghold of Ardea, the ancient
capital of the Rutuli, Marino, which commanded the
shortest route to the south, Nettuno, beautifully situated on
* A. Coppi, 1 68. Minisri-Riccio, ii., i, 64-65. *Queen
Joanna s command to Marc Antonio di S. Angelo, Count of Salerno,
to put Giordano Colonna in possession of the Principality, is dated
1420, March n, Colonna Archives, iii. BB.,xxxv., No. 9.
f See Poggii Epist. ed. Tonelli, i., 116. Platina (688) com
mends the resignation with which Martin V. bore the loss of his
brother.
J Litta, loc. tit. See Carinci, Lettere 124. et seq., regarding
Sveva Gaetani.
228 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the shores of the Mediterranean, Astura, which formerly
belonged to the Frangipani, Bassanello in the Sabine
valley of the Tiber, Soriano in the territory of Viterbo,
Paliano in the valley of the Sacco, afterwards the most
important of their strongholds, Frascati, Petra Porzia and
Rocca di Papa were all conferred by the Pope on his
kindred, and most of these castles were exempted from the
salt tax, the hearth tax, and all other taxes whatever."*
The list we have given, although not a complete one,
shows that Martin went beyond the bounds of justice and
the necessity of circumstances, in favouring his relations.
The honours and riches heaped upon the Colonnas excited
the jealousy of the other ambitious nobles of the States of
the Church, and more especially that of their hereditary
foes, the Orsini. Martin V. was prudent enough to treat
this powerful family with the utmost consideration. Even
before his arrival he had invested them with the vicariate
of Bracciano for three years,t and he afterwards endea
voured to secure their goodwill by the marriage of his niece
Anna with Gianantonio Orsini, Prince of Tarento.J
* Reumont, Beitrage, v. , 54 et seq. See Contelorius, 55.
Ratti, 29. Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., ii. The castle of Frascati
and the fourth part of the ruined stronghold of Petra Porzia, were
sold to the Prince of Salerno by the Lateran Chapter on the 3Oth
December, 1423. Lateran Archives, FF. i., 47.
t *Bull of Martin V., d.d. Florentine Cal. Sept. A 11 (1419,
Sept. i): " Dil. filiis nob. viris Francisco, Carolo et Ursino de
Ursinis domicellis Romanis, etc." There is a copy in the Liber
bullarum (ii., A. T. xxxix.) of the Orsini Archives in Rome.
Gregorovius (vii., 3rd ed., 12) seems to think that it has never
been published, but this is a mistake, as it is given by Theiner (Cod.
ii., 242 et seq.}.
J Litta, loc eft. The extraordinary power of the Princes of
Tarento is mentioned by Antonius praepositus Forosempronii in a
*letter to Paola Gonzaga, dated 1428 Dec. 10, in the Gonzaga
Archives at Mantua, E, xxv., N. 3.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 22g
The life of Martin V. was simple and regular ; the only
recreation he cared for was to retire to the delicious soli
tude of his family property, when the heat of summer or
some pestilential epidemic made Rome insupportable.
Sometimes he visited other spots in the neighbourhood of
the Eternal City, on several occasions making a lengthened
sojourn at Tivoli. In his later years, he showed a marked
preference for the Castle of Genazzano. He repeatedly
varied his place of abode in Rome ; in the earlier years of
his Pontificate spending the winter months at the Vatican,
and the summer and autumn at Sta. Maria Maggiore. In
May, 1424, he removed to the newly-erected Palace of the
Holy Apostles, which henceforth became his favourite resi
dence. In the autumn of 1427 Martin V. went for a short
time to the Lateran, which shows that at least some rooms
there must have been restored.*
His energy as a reformer was displayed in the sphere of
religion, no less than in that of politics. Very soon after
his return to Rome he took measures against the heretical
Fraticelli,t who were at work chiefly in the Marches ; he
endeavoured to reform the clergy of St. Peter s, and to do
away with the worst abuses at the Court. J In the early
* Valuable information regarding the Pope s various places of
residence is given by Poggio s letters (ed. Tonelli, i.), and especially
by the *Acta consistorialia, in the Consistorial Archives of the
Vatican. The above particulars are derived from these sources.
See also Pagi, iv., 513^ seq.
t See Raynaldus, ad an. 1418, N. n; 1424, N. 7; 1426,
N. 18 ; 1428, N. 7-8. Wadding, x., 101 et seq. Bull., iv., 6go
et seq. Bernino, iv., 72-73. Petrini, Mem. Prenest., 170. Baldas-
sini, 132-135. Moroni, Ixxvii., 79. With regard to the Pope s
solicitude for the integrity of the Faith, see the numerous docu
ments in Wadding (vol. x.) and the remarkable **Brief to the
Chapter of Tournay. Regest, 359, f. 17. Secret Archives of the
Vatican.
\ Raynaldus, ad an. 1421, N. 22. Zimmermann, 78.
230 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
part of his Pontificate, he made constant efforts not only to
protect the clergy from the aggressions of the temporal
power, but also to amend their lives. As time went on,
other interests unfortunately became predominant, and
withdrew him more and more from the work of reform.
The remarkable energy which he manifested in this cause
during the first half of his reign* has, however, been little
appreciated.
Martin V. also sought to increase devotion to the relics
existing in the Eternal City, and carefully provided for
their fitting custody. t A new and precious relic, the body
of St. Monica, the mother of the great St. Augustine, was
brought to Rome, from Ostia, by his desire. He caused its
arrival to be celebrated by a special solemn function, at
which he himself offered the Holy Sacrifice. Afterwards
he addressed a striking discourse to the Augustinian
Hermits whom he appointed guardians of the sacred
remains, and to the assembled crowd. A passage in this
discourse has a peculiar interest, inasmuch as it proves
* See Raynaldus, ad an. 1424, N. 3 et seq. ; 1425, N. 19. Zim-
mermann, loc. cit. Hefele, vii., 409 et seq. Schieler, 251. Regarding
Martin s efforts for the reform of the religious orders, see also
Pirro, Sicilia sancta, ii., 984. Bullarium, iv., 678-679, 689-690,
6()7 et seq., 702 et seq., 732-747. For an account of monastic
reform in Bavaria (1426), see the document cited by Geiss, Gesch.
der Pfarrei St. Peter (Miinchen, 1868), p. 37. On the 23rd June,
1420, Martin V. issued from Florence an *Ordinance for the
restoration of discipline in the monasteries of men and women in
the dominion of the Pfalzgraf Ludwig of the Rhine. State
Archives of Lucerne (Section, Archives of the Franciscans). On
the 29th April, 1421, he entrusted the Cardinal of St. Mark
(Guillaume Filastre) with the visitation of the Abbey of Springiers-
bach and the restoration of regular observance in the Augustinian
Order : see *Cod. D., xv., d., 1. f. 17 et seq., of the Town Library
at Tr&ves.
\ Raynaldus, ad an. 1424, N. 13.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 231
Martin V. to have been completely uninfluenced by the
Humanistic tendencies of his day. After describing the
virtues of St. Monica, her sweetness, her patience, her
maternal solicitude, which found its reward in the holiness
of such a son, he exclaims, " then, while we possess
Augustine, what care we for the sagacity of Aristotle, the
eloquence of Plato, the prudence of Varro, the dignified
gravity of Socrates, the authority of Pythagoras, or the
skill of Empedocles ? We do not need these men ; Augus
tine is enough for us. He explains to us the utterances of
the prophets, the teaching of the Apostles, and the holy
obscurity of Scripture. The excellences and the doctrine
of all the Fathers of the Church and all wise men, are
united in him. If we look for truth, for learning, and for
piety, whom shall we find more learned, wiser, and holier
than Augustine ? " After this discourse, which may be
considered as St. Monica s Bull of Canonization, Martin V.
proceeded to place the precious remains in a sculptured
sarcophagus of white marble. This had been provided, at
great cost, by Maffeo Veggio, a pious Humanist, and two
noble Roman ladies also gave three silver-gilt lamps, which
were lighted before the sacred relic and kept burning night
and day.*
We must not omit to mention that the Pope took great
* See Bougaud, Hist, de Ste. Moniqile (Paris, 1883), p. 500-
506. For the Pope s Sermon, see Bibl. pontif., i6i,and Fabricius-
Mansi,v., 35. This latter (p. 16-17), also notices Veggio s writings
in honour of St. Monica ; see Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii. (2nd ed.),
42. Many MSS. copies of these are to be found in Rome. I
observed: (i) *Cod. Urbin., 59, f. 307-3 14b : M. Vegii de vita et
officio beatae Monicse liber; f. 3i4b-33ib: M. Vegii de vita et
obitu beatae Monicse ex verbis S. Augustini. (2) S. Momcae trans-
lationis ordo per M. Vegium Eugenii papas datarium descriptus.
Item de S. Momcae vita et eius officium proprium. Cod, S., 5-3 5^
of the Angelica Library in Rome.
232 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
pains to promote Devotion to the most Holy Sacrament of
the Altar. His Brief on this subject is a beautiful example
of his piety.*
The great Jubilee, which he proclaimed for the year 1423,
must also have done much to encourage religious feeling.
Unfortunately but scanty notices of this important event
have been handed down to us, and it has therefore been
supposed that few pilgrims came to Rome to gain the
proffered Indulgence. This, however, is a mistake. The
Humanist Poggio, in one of his letters, complains that
Rome was " inundated by Barbarians," that is to say, by
non-Italians, who had thronged there for the Jubilee, and
had "filled the whole City with dirt and confusion." The
Chronicle of Viterbo also speaks of the great number of
" Ultramontanes " who had hastened to Rome to gain the
Jubilee Indulgence. f
The following year brought St. Bernardine of Siena, one
of the greatest saints and preachers of his age, to Rome.
This hero of unworldliness and self-sacrificing charity had
devoted himself to the care of the sick during the great
plague of 1400, when he was but twenty. He afterwards
preached penance to the Roman populace, who had grown
wild and lawless during the absence of the Popes. A pure
and saintly life gave double power to his words, and the
success of his preaching was immense. Bloody feuds
which had lasted for years, were brought to an end, atone
ment was made for great crimes, and hardened sinners
were converted. " On the 2ist June, 1424," writes the
Secretary of the Senate, Infessura, " a great funeral pile of
playing-cards, lottery tickets, musical instruments, false
hair, and other feminine adornments, was erected on the
* The text of this Bull is given by Raynaldusad an. 1429,^ 20.
t Epist. Poggii, ed. Tonelli, i., 86. Niccola della Tuccia, 52.
See Appendix, No. 17.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 233
Capitol, and all these things were burned. * A few days
later a witch was also unhappily burned, and all Rome
crowded to the sight.*
In 1427, St. Bernardine came again to Rome to clear
himself of the charge of heresy, of which he had been
accused to the Pope. The occasion was as follows : when
the Saint entered a city, he had a banner carried before
him on which the Holy Name of Jesus was painted, sur
rounded by rays. It was set up near the pulpit when
he preached ; sometimes also, when speaking of the Holy
Name, he held in his hand a tablet, on which it was written
in large letters visible to all. By his earnest persuasion
many priests were induced to place the Name of Jesus over
their altars, or to have it painted on the inner or outer walls
of their Churches ; and it was inscribed in colossal letters
outside the Tow r n Hall in many Italian Cities, as, for
example, in Siena, where it is to be seen to this day.
St. Bernardine s enemies had accused him to the Pope
on account of this veneration paid to the Holy Name,
misrepresenting the facts. As might have been ex
pected, the investigation which Martin V. instituted,
resulted in his triumphant justification ; the Pope per
mitted him to preach and display his banner wherever
he chose. Moreover, in order to manifest his innocence
the more clearly in Rome, where he had been slandered,
* Infessura, 1123 (in Eccard, ii., p. 1874). The Cronache
Romane (10) give a similar account of St. Bernardine s labours in
Rome, assigning 1442 as the date. Probably this is a mistake for
1424, the year fixed by Raynaldus, ad an. 1424; N. 18, Wadding, x.,
So, and Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 9. The year 1421 in Reumont
(iii., i, 69) is evidently a misprint. Regarding the witch, see also
Armellini, Fr. Romana, 2, and Le Streghe in Roma. Storiella di
S. Bernardino da Siena non mai fin qui stampata (Imola, 1876).
Roman sorcery in the fourteenth century is described in Bertolotti s
article in the Rivista europ., 1883, Agosto 16.
234 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Pope himself, with his assembled clergy, made a
solemn procession in honour of the Name of Jesus
amidst universal rejoicings.* He also commanded the
Saint to preach in St. Peter s, and then in other Churches
in the Eternal City. For eighty days St. Bernardine devoted
himself to these Apostolic labours, which were crowned
with the greatest success, JEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, after
wards Pope Pius II., writes : " All Rome flocked to his dis
courses. He frequently had Cardinals, and sometimes even
the Pope himself, amongst his audience, and all with one
voice, bore witness to his marvellous power and success. "f
* See Wadding, x., 113 et seq.; Bull., iv., 730-731 ; J. P. Tous-
saint, Leben des hi. Bernardin von Siena, quellenmassig dargestellt
(Regensburg, 1873), 63 et seq., 88, 97 et seq., and Allies, 127 et seq:
In some places, for example in Camajore, St. Bernardine promised
the people that they should be defended from the plague as long
as they honoured the Name of Jesus, and as a fact Camajore
was untouched by the epidemic even during the terrible year of
1449 ; see *Cronache di Camaiore, copiate dall originale, lib. 4, c.
3. MSS. S. Laurent, in Lucina, No. 57; now in the Victor
Emanuel Library at Rome.
t See J. P. Toussaint, loc. cit., 100. In 1427, Martin V. wished
to make St. Bernardine Bishop of Siena (Pecci, 316), but the
Saint steadfastly declined the honour. There are many editions of
his numerous and valuable writings (see Jeiler in the Freib.
Kirchenlexikon, ii., 2nd ed., 442), but in regard to completeness
and critical accuracy, they leave much to be desired. Recently,
greater attention has happily been bestowed on these works in Italy.
In 1853, Milanesi published Prediche volgari di S. B. d. S.
(Siena, 1853). L. Banchi s Prediche volgari di S. B. dette nella
Piazza del Campo, Tanno 1427 (Siena, 1880), Vol. i., is also well
worthy of notice. Among other publications on the subject are
(i) Novellette, Esempi Morali e Apologhi di S. B. d. S. (Bologna,
1868) ; (2) Del modo di recitare degnamente Tufficio divino.
Lettera inedita di S. B. d. S., published by L. Maini (1872) (very
rare ; written on occasion of a Priest s first Mass) ; (3) Novelle
inedite di S. B. d. S. (Livorno, 1877). Let me here observe that
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 235
St. Bernardine can only be regarded as a passing guest
in Rome, but St. Frances of Rome belonged completely to
the Eternal City.* Even before the days of Martin V., the
charity of this noble Roman lady had been actively en
gaged in alleviating the miseries of her native City. The
congregation which owes its origin to her zeal, and which
still flourishes under the name of " Oblate di Tor de
Specchi," was founded in the year 1425, during the Ponti
ficate of Martin V.
From her childhood, St. Frances had been in the habit of
frequenting the old Church of Sta. Maria Nuova, at the
Forum, which was served by the Benedictines of the Mount
of Olives (Olivetans). In prosperity and adversity she
had always kept up this pious custom, and was daily to be
found there in company with other Roman ladies of rank,
her friends and imitators. Here one day she proposed to
her companions that they should adopt a common rule of
in the Chigi Library in Rome there is a precious coffer (Cod. C. vi.,
163), lined with red velvet, containing an autograph MS. of forty-
four of the Saint s sermons ; these have already been pub
lished, but the MS. gives a number of variations, which are noted
(by Kircher) on an accompanying sheet. The sermon which I
have mentioned, p. 18 supra, as found in the Library of the Brera
at Milan, is not published. I saw unpublished letters of the Saint s
in the Library at Siena : note especially Cod. T. iii., 3.
* The life of St. Frances of Rome was written by her second
Confessor, Giovanni Mattiotti, parish priest of Sta. Maria in Traste-
vere, and by Maria Maddalena of Anguillara, Superioress of the
Oblates ; see Acta Sanct., ix., Martii, ii. The first-mentioned
Italian work, which was probably intended for the private use of the
early Oblates, was published by Armellini in 1882. Of later Bio
graphies, I may mention those by Lady G. Fullerton (London,
1855). Ponzileoni (Torino, 1874), and J. Rabory (Paris, 1884).
The last author has drawn his information from the Acts of the
process of Canonization, and Ponzileoni takes the Archives of Tor
de Specchi as his authority.
St, Uicbael s College -
Scholastic s LLiary
236 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
life, such as could be observed by people living in the
world, and thus share in the merits of the Olivetans. The
ladies welcomed the idea, and the General of the Order
soon consented that, under the name of " Oblates of St.
Mary/ they should be affiliated to the monastery of Sta.
Maria Nuova, and participate in the prayers and merits
of the Monks. The deep veneration entertained for St.
Frances by all her companions, the works of mercy which
they performed in common, and their regular visits to the
Church of Sta. Maria Nuova, where they received Holy
Communion on all feasts of Our Lady, at first constituted
their only bond of union.
Such was the origin of the congregation of the Oblate
di Tor de Specchi, which was afterwards confirmed and
solidly established by Eugenius IV. The name of Oblate
has reference to the simple vow made by those who
enter; the offering of themselves for works of piety;
while the surname is derived from an extensive building at
the foot of the hill of the Capitol, once the home of the
Specchi family. St. Frances bought this house, and
established the Community in it, and after the death of her
husband, Lorenzo Ponziani, she humbly sought admission
as an ordinary postulant into her own foundation. Not
withstanding her opposition, she was elected Superior.
The Community lived in great poverty; the means which
the first Oblates had brought with them were expended in
the purchase of the house and the erection of a little
chapel. St. Frances had indeed made over to the congre
gation two vineyards which she possessed outside the city,
but the small return which they brought in bore little
proportion to the needs of the Sisters, who went through
the streets of the city and the hospitals like ministering
angels, dispensing consolation and alms. Death overtook
the Saint, not amidst her Oblates, but in her former palace
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 237
in the Trastevere, where she had gone to take care of her
son in his serious illness. Here, surrounded by a multi
tude of devout persons, she died, on the gth March, 1440,
at the age of fifty-six, after a life spent in prayer, con
templation, and works of mercy. The mortal remains of
the " poor woman of Trastevere," as St. Frances loved to
be called, were laid in Sta. Maria Nuova. In 1608, when
she was canonized by Paul V., the Church took the name
of Sta. Francesca Romana. Anyone who has been in
Rome on the gth March, and has visited her tomb, round
which eighteen bronze lamps are burning, or gone to the
venerable Convent of Tor de Specchi, and seen the
chamber with pointed windows which she inhabited for
four years, and which is now a chapel, will be able to bear
witness that the memory of this noble Roman lady and
model Christian matron,* is still deeply revered.
As soon as Martin V. felt that his position in Italy was
more firmly established, he turned his attention to the
restoration of Papal supremacy abroad. The abolition in
France and England of the Anti-Papal legislation, conse
quent on the confusion of the time, was one of his special
objects, and in France his efforts were crowned with
success. In February, 1425, the young King Charles VII.
published an Edict by which the rights of the Pope were
completely restored. t Martin V. also zealously defended
the liberties of the Church against the Governments of
Portugal, Poland, and Scotland, and against the Republics
of Venice and Florence.! His energetic resistance to any
* See Lady G. Fullerton, loc. cit. Reumont, iii., i., 68 et seq.,
484. For some notice of Roman memorials of St. Frances see also
" Katholik," 1884, ii., 523^ seg., 531 el seq. The dress of the
Oblates is very simple, and is probably that worn by widows in the
fifteenth century.
t See Creighton, ii., 24 et seq.
} See Raynaldus, ad an, 1427, N. 19; 1429, N. 15 etc. Zim-
KJUt JULfcAVUWvU O V-/V/lJ.C/CiVJ
Scholastic s Library
238 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
interference with her rights was manifested when Charles
of Bourbon, Count of Clermont, ventured to imprison
Martin Gouge de Charpaigne, his Bishop. Almost as soon
as the tidings reached the Pope he made the greatest
efforts to procure the Prelate s liberation, and after a time*
he was successful. His resistance to the Conciliar move
ment was equally resolute.
According to the decisions of the Synod of Constance,
Councils were henceforth to be held at appointed periods.
The extraordinary remedy which had hitherto been
employed only in desperate crises or at rare intervals,
and which could prove beneficial only under such circum
stances, was to be brought into constant use. Instead of
once in a century, or, at most, once in fifty years, it was
now to be resorted to every five or ten ! f The aim of this
innovation was to substitute constitutional for monarchical
government in the Church.
Martin V. was absolutely opposed to any attempt of the
kind, and from his point of view he was no doubt perfectly
right. Erroneous ideas regarding the constitution and
position of a Council were at this time widely diffused,
threatening the very foundations of the Papal power, and
it was his duty to consider how they might be set right.
The endless disputes as to whether the Pope or the
Council was to have the first place in the Church, and the
pretensions of the Synods of Pisa and Constance to dictate
to the Pope, had not only filled him with distrust, but
mermann, 75 et seq. Bellesheim, i., 282 et seq. I found in Cod.
i., 75 and 76, f. 86-87 of the Borghese Library, ** Briefs addressed
by Martin to the clergy of Florence and to the Rulers of the Re
public, dated Rome, 1427, Jan. 2 and 4.
* Gallia Christiana (Paris. 1720), ii., 291 et seq., App. 98-99.
See in Appendix, N. 18 * Charles of Bourbon s Letter taken from
the above-named Codex in the Borghese Library.
t Hofler, Roman.- Welt, 157.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 239
inspired a real horror of the very name of a Council.* He
could not, however, venture openly to oppose the move
ment, and accordingly summoned a Council to meet in the
year 1423 at Pavia. Circumstances were most unfavour
able for such an assembly. England and France were
engaged in a bloody conflict, Germany was laid waste by
the Hussites, and war with the Moors was raging in
Spain. f It was evident that the Council, which opened at
Pavia in April, 1423, could not be numerously attended.
In June it had to be transferred to Siena, on account of an
outbreak of the plague, and here it soon became plain that
its purpose in regard to the Pope was identical with that
of the Council of Constance, and that those principles and
ideas which had so seriously imperilled the monarchical
character of the government of the Church and the
authority of the Pope, and had occasioned the deposition
of John XXIII., were again asserting themselves. Matters
were made yet worse by the hostile attitude of King
Alfonso of Aragon, who endeavoured to incite the Council
against the Pope. Martin V. accordingly made the small
attendance of Prelates and their divisions a pretext for
suddenly dissolving it. On the yth March, 1424, in the
evening, his Legates secretly posted up a Decree, to the
effect that by virtue of the Pope s authority it had been
dissolved on the 26th of February, and that all Arch
bishops, Bishops, and others were strictly forbidden to
attempt its continuance ; and, having done this, they hastily
* " In immensum nomen concilii abhorrebat," writes Giovanni
di Ragusa (Mon. Concil., i., 66). The Duke of Milan (Osio, ii.,
267) and ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini speak in similar terms ; see
Hefele, vii., 405. How, in the face of such witnesses, 1 Epinois
(404) can say that Martin V. wished for the Council is incompre
hensible.
t Zimmermann, 70-71. Creighton, ii., 16,
240 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
left the city.* Before the publication of the Decree,
Basle had been selected as the place of meeting for a
fresh Synod, and the Pope had confirmed the choice.f
The Council of Basle was not to meet for seven years ; a
thorough reform of ecclesiastical affairs might in this
interval have been undertaken, but Martin allowed the
precious time to pass by almost in vain, as far as that
important work was concerned. The reformatory Pro
visions of the Bull which he published J on the i6th May,
1425, were certainly admirable, but they were far from
being sufficient, and we do not hear that they were really
carried into effect. In the Pope s justification it must
indeed be alleged, that the restoration of the States of the
Church fully occupied him, and that this restoration was a
matter of urgent importance. The events of the preceding
century, the consequences of the sojourn of the Popes at
Avignon, had proved beyond all doubt the necessity that
the Holy See should possess temporal sovereignty, and be
established on its own territory. Yet in Rome itself at
least, Martin V. ought to have remedied the most crying
abuses, and his negligence on this point can neither be
excused nor denied.
* Mon. Concil, i., 56. See Raynaldus, ad an. 1424, N. 5, and
Pecci, 310 et seq.
t It is not to be wondered at that Martin V. consented to the
selection of a German city for the next Council, considering that
he was threatened with a French one. The experience of the last
ten years had shown the French to be much more Anti-Papal than
the Germans. Hefele, vii., 406.
J This document, from which Contelorius (20-22) and after him
Raynaldus, only give an extract, is printed in full in Dollinger s
Beitrage, ii., 335-344-
That the territorial policy of Rome has become a necessity
since the time of Martin V. is asserted even by Dr. M. Lenz
(Histor. Zeitschr. N. F. xiv., 267), who certainly cannot be charged
with any partiality for the Papacy.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 241
The picture which confidential letters, especially the
reports of Envoys of the Teutonic Order to their Superiors,
the Grand Masters in Prussia, give of the state of things
in Rome at this period, is a very gloomy one. In the year
1420, one of these Envoys wrote to Prussia: " Dear Grand
Master, you must send money, for here at the Court all
friendship ends with the last penny." In another letter,
the writer says that it is impossible to describe all the
devices used in Rome to get money ; that gold is the only
friend and the only means for getting any business done.
In a report of the year 1430 we read: "Greed reigns
supreme in the Roman Court, and day by day finds new
devices and artifices for extorting money from Germany,
under pretext of ecclesiastical fees. Hence much outcry,
complaining, and heart-burnings among scholars and
courtiers ; also many questions in regard to the Papacy
will arise, or else obedience will ultimately be entirely
renounced, to escape from these outrageous exactions of
the Italians ; and the latter course would be, as I perceive,
acceptable to many countries."*
It is possible that certain statements in these reports are
to be rejected, f or considered as exaggerated, yet on the
whole, the picture they present must be a true one, for
Swiss, Poles, and even Italians of that day have all borne
similar testimony.:):
* Voigt, Stimmen, 94 et seq., 98-103 ; see 108 ft seq., ii$et seq.,
I2oetseq., 126 et seq., 144 et seq., 156, 170, 173.
t In regard to the noble Westphalian, Hermann Dwerg (Protono-
tary under Martin V.), we give an original document which shows
the justice of this observation ; see infra, pp. 243-244.
J See Reber, F. Hemmerlin, 72, 214 et seq., 331. Caro, Gesch.
Polens, iii., 524. Gesch. Blatt. f. Magdeburg (1883), xviii., 70.
In the year 1429, Giacobino da Iseo wrote to the King of the
Romans : " E como saviti, in corte de Roma, cum el denaro se
obtene quello se vole intieramente." Osio, ii., 418.
R
242 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
It has repeatedly been asserted that the Roman Court
has assumed a more and more Italian character ever since
the time of Martin V.* This, however, is quite a mistake,
for at the very period in question the composition of the
Papal Court was eminently international, and may be said
to have in this respect reflected the image of the Universal
Church. Spain, France, England, Germany, and Holland are
all represented. Even during the Avignon exile the inter
national character of the Papal Court had not been com
pletely lost. In one of the volumes containing the registers
of Gregory XL we have a list, drawn up by his command,
of the Court officials at Avignon at the time of the departure
of the Court (September, 1376). The immense number of
German names in this list is very remarkable. f We are
also indebted to two Germans in the Papal service, Dietrich
von Nieheim and Gobelinus Persona, for the best descrip
tions of the changeful times of the Schism.
The number of foreigners in Rome in the time of Martin
V. was very large, and among them were a great many
Germans, who held positions at the Papal Court and in
various administrative and legal offices in the Chancery,
Datary, Penitentiary, Apostolic Chamber and Rota.J
* e.g., Droysen, ii., i, 152.
f *Regesta Gregorii xi. Annus, viii., pars unica, torn. 32 et
ultimus, f. 429-506 : Liber cortesianorum et civium existentium in
civitate Aven. post recessum Rom. Curiae facius de mandalo. Smi.
N. D. Gregorii P. xi. Secret Archives of the Vatican. I have to
thank my friend, Dr. A. Pieper, for pointing out this interesting
notice to me. See also Denifle-Ehrle, Archiv., i., 627-630.
} Bangen, Die Romische Curie (Minister 1855), and Phillips in
the fifth volume of his Kirchenrecht treat at length of these Courts.
Martin V. gave a more settled form to the Chancery and Datary.
See also Reumont, iii., i, 271 et seq., 505 et seq., and Ottenthal,
Bullenregister, etc., 44 et seq., 84 et seq., 96 tt seq. It was all the
easier for foreigners in those days to obtain positions in the Papal
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 243
During the whole of the fifteenth century, foreigners
Netherlanders, Frenchmen, and afterwards Spaniards
formed the majority in the Papal Chapel.*
Some of the foreigners filled most influential positions ;
the important post of Master of the Sacred Palace (Counsel
lor of the Pope in all theological and legal questions), for
example, was, from the time of Martin V. to that of Calixtus
III., held three times by a Spaniard, once by a German,
Heinrich Kalteisen from the Rhenish provinces, and once
by an Italian.f
Hermann Dwerg (in Latin, Nanus), like Nieheim and
Persona, of Westphalian origin, was Protonotary in the time
of Martin V., and much esteemed at his Court. He enjoyed
the special favour and confidence of the Pope, and, as
Envoy of the Teutonic Order, was freely admitted to his
presence during his illness, when even a Cardinal rarely
ventured to appear. At the time of his death, on the I4th
December, 1430, Dwerg had the reputation of being one of
the richest, most influential, and most highly respected men
in the Eternal City.f But amidst all his riches he retained a
Court, inasmuch as the proceedings were then carried on in Latin,
a custom which continued until the year 1480; see Voigt, Stim-
men, 154.
* See E. Schelle, Die Papstliche Sangerschule in Rom genannt
die Sixtinische Kapelle (Wien, 1872), 214, 258. Ambros, ii ,
455. Miintz, La Renaissance, 471. Cf. the valuable work of F.
X. Haberl, Bausteine fur Musikgeschichte. I. Wilhelm du Fay
(Leipzig, 1885), especially p. 55. The erudite author gives a list
of very interesting notices of the Papal Singers from 1389 to 1442.
t See Catalanus, De Magistro s. palatii, 83 et seq. With regard
to the great importance of the position, see Phillips, v., 545.
J Voigt, Stimmen, 78. For a further account of Dwerg, see
Evelt s Essay : Gelehrte Westfalen am Papstl. Hofe in der ersten-
halfte des fiinfzehnten Jahrh. Zeitschrift fur Wesphalische Ges-
chichte, third series, i., 284, 298, and the Articles in the Histor.
polit. Bl. and in the Pick schen Monatschrift cited infta, p. 244,
note*
244 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
spirit of evangelical poverty and was a most devout priest.
His will, which is still preserved in his native town of Her-
ford, bears witness to his piety, his pure love of God and
of the Church, and his generous unselfishness. It also
shows that all the splendour of his position beyond the Alps
never alienated his heart from his German home. Begin
ning with a prayer, he desired that his funeral should be
simple, and that no monument should mark his resting-
place ; then he disposes of his property principally for the
benefit of his native town and of the University of Cologne,
in which he founds two scholarships, leaving a house in
Herford and the sum of 10,000 florins to defray the expense.
Another house which he possessed in Herford he appoints
to be an asylum for the poor. He bequeaths 400 Rhenish
dollars to each of the principal churches of his native town,
as an endowment for a mass to be said in each, and " to
that of Saints John and Denis, in which, " he says, " the
bodies of my parents repose, 200 more." Two hundred
dollars are to be employed in the completion of the tower
of this church. His books are left to the church at Pusinna.
His truly Catholic will concludes with these words, "What
ever is left over of my goods and possessions, my executors
are to distribute secretly amongst the poor, remembering
the account they will have to render to God."*
* H. Dwerg aus Westfalen (Histor. polit. Bl.), 1850, xxv., 803-
807. SeeEvelt, Rheinlander und Westfalen in Rom., 421 et seq. ;
Reber, 365, and Bianco, Die Universitat und das Gymnasium zu
Kb ln (Koln 1850), ii., 148 et seq. Dwerg also gave to the Church
of Sta. Maria dell. Anima a vineyard, etc. ; see Liber benef., 219.
Conrad von Soest was honoured by the special confidence of
Martin V., and summoned to Rome. See Zeitschr. fiir Westfal.
Gesch., third series, i., 257 and 287 et seq., for some account of the
Westphalian Johannes von Marsberg, who had great influence
with Eugenius IV. Meinardus, in the Archives N.F. x., 40 et seq.,
speaks of Albert Kock and Joh. Rode of Bremen, both of whom
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 245
The Germans were greatly favoured by Nicholas V. as well
as by Martin V. Nicholas V. indeed deemed it impossible
to do without them, and in 1451, when the plague had
carried off almost all the German Abbreviators, he desired
the Envoy of the Teutonic Order to bring before him the
names of a number of his countrymen,* whose virtues and
abilities might fit them to fill the vacant posts.
The number of German tradesmen, artizans, and crafts
men, settled in Rome in the fifteenth century, strikes us as
even more surprising than that of the officials employed
in the Court. In the nineteenth century thousands of
Germans yearly leave their homes for America ; at that
period, Italy, with its great and wealthy cities and, above
all, Rome, exercised a similar attraction. We find Germans
occupying all manner of positions in Rome ; they were
merchants, innkeepers, money changers, weavers, gold and
silver-smiths, book copiers and illuminators, blacksmiths,
bakers, millers, shoemakers, tailors, saddlers, furriers, and
barbers.f While German prelates occupied the highest
positions at the Roman Court, German bankers and
merchants, especially those from Bavaria and the Nether
lands, became prominent in the commercial life of the city.
The earliest printers in Rome were Germans.!
filled distinguished positions in the Papal administration.
Respecting Germans in Rome consult also Burckhardt, i., 3rd ed.,
331., and Dacheux, Geiler de Kayserberg (Paris, 1876), p. 113.
* Voigt, Stimmen, 81.
t According to ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini, in 1446 almost all
the innkeepers in Rome were Germans. See Muratori, Hi., 2, 880.
Some idea of the number of inns may be formed from the fact that
in the time of Eugenius IV., in the Borgo alone, there were sixty
inns and taverns. Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 677.
I Kerschbaumer, 66. A. de Waal, Priestercollegium, 2. Anz.
fur Kunde Deutscher Vorzeit, xvi., 75 et seq. Evelt, Rheinlander
und Westfalen in Rom., 417 et seq., 425. A future volume of this
246 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
That the German colony during the fifteenth century was
extremely numerous and important is evidenced by the
fact that the shoemakers of that nation formed a special
guild, whose statutes were confirmed by Eugenius IV. in
1439, and that even its journeymen bakers had a guild of
their own. The Statute Book of the shoemakers, dating
from the end of the fifteenth century, is still preserved.
The ancient list of members up to the end of that
century contains, according to Monsignor de Waal,
one thousand one hundred and twenty names, to which,
by the year 1531, one thousand two hundred and
ninety more were added, so that within a century,
more than two thousand four hundred shoemakers
had entered the brotherhood. They had their special
guildhall, with a chapel dedicated to Saints Crispin and
Crispinianus, and to this day the stonework over the
door bears the inscription " House of the true German
Shoemakers."* There were many more German than
Italian master bakers settled in Rome at the beginning of
the sixteenth century. They formed a joint guild, presided
over by two Consuls, one of whom was German, and the
other Italian. The journeymen, or " Peckenknechte," had
also their confraternity with its special chapel in the
Church of the Anima, and a chaplain of its own. In the
work will speak of the German printers. Meanwhile, see Grego-
rovius, . vii., 3rd ed., .513.^ ^,,.and Janssen^i., n. A German
" architector," Wilhelm Queckels, is mentioned by Miintz (i., 31),
who also gives a notice of a German painter who worked for
Nicholas V. See Vol. ii., Book I., Chapter V., of the present work.
* A. de Waal, Nationalstiftungen, 13. The ^Statute Book of
the shoemakers, which is beautifully written on parchment, names
" Hansfoltz von heilpronnen, Marx von chommyn, Kiintze miil-
franke von der niioven stad, Henrich griimholzeln von wilheym," as
the founders, " anfengener " of the brotherhood. It is in the
Archives of the Campo Santo al Vaticano.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 247
year 1425 an agreement was drawn up between masters
and journeymen, in regard to work and wages. At a later
period they combined to found a " School," or guildhall,
near the little Church of St. Elizabeth, where they hence
forth assembled for the worship of God, and for consulta
tion on matters affecting their common interests ; they also
erected a hospital there.*
The Germans who sojourned for a while in Rome were
far more numerous than those who actually made their
home there. An historian, who has the merit of being the
first to investigate the subject thoroughly, says that u No
nation has in all times kept up such an intercourse with
Rome as the German ; no other has in peace and in war
exercised such influence on the fate of the city and of the
Papacy; an influence sometimes evil, but more often
salutary and happy; no other has enjoyed so large a share
of the paternal care and affection of the successors of St.
Peter." t Countless German pilgrims have left no trace
behind them in Rome, but the authenticated number of
those who visited the city of the seven hills in the
fourteenth and fifteenth century is very considerable. In
the Confraternity books of the Anima and of the Hospital
of Sto. Spirito there are long lists of German names, some
of them belonging to the highest ranks of society, and
similarly, in the ancient Martyrology of St. Peter s, among
the benefactors for whom anniversary services are to be
held on appointed days, Germans are mentioned on almost
every page, and also Bavarians and many Hungarians. J
* A. de Waal, Nationalstiftungen, 13.
t A. de Waal, Nationalstiftungen, i.
J A. de Waal, Priestercollegium, 2-3. Dudik, i., 79 et seq.
Regarding the Martyrologium benefactorum, etc., SQQsufra, p. 215,
and Dudik, loc. cit., 78 et seq. Monsignor de Waal, who has kindly
allowed me access to his extracts, is about to. bring out a history of
248 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Considering the difficulties of the journey, the number of
pilgrims who went to Rome in the fifteenth century is
surprising. Many made the pilgrimage of their own free
will, but in many cases it was imposed as a penance, or
undertaken as such. Others, again, who had been at the
Italian Universities and had there become acquainted with
Romans of high position, afterwards followed them to the
capital of Christendom. Then, if we also take into account
Papal confirmations, nominations, dispensations, appeals,
reserved cases, and absolutions, we may form some idea of
the immense number of persons whom business attracted to
Rome.* Flavio Biondo,the Humanist, estimates the ordinary
number of pilgrims to Rome during Lent or Eastertide at
forty to fifty thousand, and at the time of a Jubilee they
were much more numerous. f
The immense intercourse of other nations with Rome
was the origin of the many national foundations in the
Eternal City for the reception and care of weary and sick
pilgrims. J The Popes bestowed many privileges and
favours upon all these institutions. In Rome, the common
home of all Christians, everyone was to feel welcome, and
to find among his own fellow countrymen provision for all
his temporal and spiritual necessities.
the Campo Santo al Vaticano, which will throw great light on these
subjects.
* Kerschbaumer, 3-4. See also Evelt, Rheinlamler, 432.
f Blondus, Rom. Inst., iii., at the end. Gregorovius (vii., 3,
3rd Ed., 618) hardly credits this number. According to Kersch-
baumer s estimate (20), the Anima yearly received from three to
five thousand pilgrims ; the exact date unfortunately is not given.
Regarding the Jubilees, see supra, p. 35, and Chapter III. of the
First Book of Vol. ii.
J All the national foundations in Rome considered it their duty
also to assist according to their abilities their poor fellow country
men who were settled there. See de Waal, Bohm. Pilgerhaus, 55.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 249
A survey of these various foundations of the fourteenth and
fifteenth centuries shows the German nation again in the
foremost place. The still flourishing Institutions of the Anima
and the Campo Santo date from the fourteenth century.
The origin of the Pilgrim s Hostelry of Our Lady at the
Campo Santo, near St. Peter s, is unfortunately wrapped in
obscurity. Most probably it is the continuation of the
ancient school of the Franks, which was founded by
Charles the Great and Pope Leo III., on the southern side
of St. Peter s, and whose church and buildings had
gradually passed into the possession of its Chapter. Not
withstanding the change of ownership, which must have
taken place during the Avignon period, the Canons of St.
Peter s by no means denied the historical claim of the
German nation to their ancient foundation, and made no
difficulties when some Germans undertook the erection of
a new hospice and church within the domain of the School
of the Franks, but nearer the Basilica. They seem, indeed,
to have made over to them the remains of some former
buildings. The hospice was placed under the patronage of
Our Lady. The end of the choir of its little church is still
standing. More exact details regarding this hospice are
not as yet forthcoming; the only information we possess is
derived from a brief of Pope Calixtus III., in the year
J 455> which says that Germans had founded it a longtime
before, in their solicitude for their fellow countrymen.* Its
origin has been assigned to the beginning of the fourteenth
century, and even to the Jublilee year of 1300, but this is un
certain. There is no doubt, however, regarding the founda-
* A. de Waal, Nationalstiftungen, 6. The latter development
of the hospice of the Campo Santo will be spoken of under the
reign of Nicholas V. The *Brief of Calixtus III., dated Rome,
1455, iv., Non. Sept. (=Sep. 2), A primo, is in the Archives of
the Campo Santo al Vaticano,
250 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
tion of a second German hospital in the interior of the City,
in the Jubilee year, 1350.* The Church of Sta Maria dell
Animaf is familiar to all German visitors to Rome. Johann
Peters, of Dortrecht, and the celebrated Dietrich von Nieheim
were its real founders. The former, whose long residence
in Rome in the service of Pope Boniface IX. had given
him every opportunity of knowing the needy and forlorn
position of pilgrims, in the year 1386 made a vow that he
would found a hospice for the Germans. To this object he
devoted three houses which he possessed in the Rione
Parione; the middle one was to be a chapel, and the other
two for the separate lodging of men and women. The
hospice owes its organization and the Papal approbation of
the Brotherhood connected with it to Dietrich von Nieheim.
He himself drew up its first statutes, and besides bestow
ing on it during his lifetime many gifts, left to it in his will
seven houses, a vineyard, and other property.J
* See Liber benefact, ii., 16.
f This foundation was placed under the Patronage of Our Lady,
Advocate of the Poor Souls in Purgatory, and was called B. Mariae
animarum. Later on the title was shortened into " de anima "
(Italice dell anima), hence its common name of " Anima."
Kerschbaumer, ii. The idea underlying the name is visibly ex
pressed in the coat of arms adopted by the hospice in 1569. On
the breast of the imperial eagle the Blessed Virgin sits between two
naked figures, who represent the Souls in Purgatory and turn
supplicatingly to her. The two-headed eagle, which spreads its
wings about the Madonna, symbolizes the protection extended by
the Emperor to the German National Hospice. A reproduction of
the seal adorns the cover of Kerschbaumer s book.
J See Kerschbaumer, 7-8, 10 (Bull of Boniface IX., dated
1399, Nov. 9) ; Sauerland, 34 et seq., 51, 58 ; Liber benefact., 218,
263 ; de Waal, Nationalstiftungen, 8 et seq., and H. Houben s
treatise, which I shall presently cite. The will of Dietrich von
Nieheim is published by Sauerland (70-72). When Kerschbaumer
wrote his excellent work, the valuable records collected by A. Flix,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 251
Pope Boniface IX. had granted an Indulgence of seven
years and seven quarantines to all who should contribute
to this benevolent work. The conditions were thus
furnished for the erection of a Brotherhood, according to
the common practice of the Middle Ages when a work of
great general utility, especially if it had also a religious
character, was to be accomplished. By the erection of
the Confraternity which took place either at this time, or it
may be previously, the supporters of the Anima entered
into a bond of spiritual union, those who enjoyed the
benefits of the hospice being bound to pray, or, if priests,
to say Mass for its Founders and Benefactors. The Book
of this Confraternity, a small folio of 291 pages, written on
parchment, and bound in red leather, with a clasp, is still
preserved in the Archives of the Anima. It begins in the
year 1463 with names taken from older lists, and is con
tinued until 1653. The number of members inscribed
exceeds three thousand, more than a third part of whom
were ecclesiastics, and about half belong to the fifteenth
century.*
The German Hospice of the Anima enjoyed the peculiar
favour of Popes Innocent VII. and Gregory XII. ; they
in great measure from the Archives of the Anima, were not
accessible ; by the kindness of Dr. C. Janig, the present Rector, I
was permitted in 1876 to examine these papers, which are now
preserved at the Anima, and I intend some day to publish some
documents on the subject, which may serve to supplement the
information given by Houben in his " Studie iiber Th. v. Nieheim "
(Katholik, 1880, i., 57 et seq.).
* See Kerschbaumer, 59 et seq. ; Dudik, Iter, i., 73-76; Evelt,
Rheinlander, 415 et seq., 427 etseq., and Kellner in the Histor.-polit.
Bl. Ixxvii., 211 et seq. The Confraternity book was discovered
in 1851, and printed in 1875 at the Propaganda, at the expense of
the Anima. Liber confraternitatis B. Marias de Anima Teutoni-
corumdeUrbe (Romae, 1875).
252 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
confirmed its foundation, placed it under the protection of
the Papal Vicar, and granted to it the parochial right of
free burial and a special cemetery. On account of its
increasing importance, its church was, during the reigns of
Martin V. and Eugenius IV., enlarged by the addition of
the two houses which had hitherto served for the male and
female pilgrims, and thus two aisles were added to the
nave. It is evident that by this time further space must
have been acquired so as to allow of this extension of the
church, without prejudice to the accommodation for
pilgrims ; its property continued to increase, for in the
year 1484 it owned twenty-two houses.*
Other German foundations were also made in the
fifteenth century. By a deed dated August 2nd, 1410,
Nicolaus Herici, priest of the Diocese of Kulm and Chap
lain of the Church of S. Lorenzo in Paneperna, gave two
houses in the Rione Regola for the use of poor Germans.
This hospice at first bore the name of St. Nicholas, and
afterwards that of St. Andrew. In 1431 its administration
was united with that of the Anima. In the middle of the
century a Convent of German nuns of the Order of
S. Francis was also founded in Rome, and rapidly became
very flourishing. We must not close the list of German
foundations without mention of the hospital near the
Church of San. Giuliano de j Fiaminghi,t destined for the
* Kerschbaumer, 12 et seq. 22. Sauerland, 36 et seq. De Waal,
Nationalstiftungen, 9. H. Houben, loc. tit., 59 et seq. By a * Bull,
dated 1444, Dec. 8, (there is a Copy in the Archives of the Anima)
Eugenius IV. granted the right of administering the Holy Sacra
ments. In a future volume of this work we shall speak of the
erection of the present church, and of the favour shown to the
Institution by Julius II. and Leo. X.
t Further details are given by De Waal, Nationalstiftungen, 13,
14, and Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., iii., 3, 518 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 253
benefit of Flemings and Walloons, and dating from the
days of the Crusades.
The other nations of Christendom also possessed charit
able institutions for their own pilgrims in the Eternal City.
The little Church of St. Bridget, on the Piazza Farnese,
preserves the memory of the House for Swedish Students
and Pilgrims which the Saint established (fi373). The
Bohemian Pilgrims House, with St. Wenceslaus for
its Patron, is about equally ancient, and it seems pro
bable that Charles IV., when in Rome for his coronation,
first conceived the idea of its foundation ; an old tradition
indeed says that the hospice originally occupied the very
house where, disguised as a pilgrim, he spent the last days
of the Holy Week in 1355.* The Document, however,
which records its actual opening, bears date March, 1378,
and informs us that in the year 1368, during his second
sojourn in Rome, Charles IV. had bought a spacious house,
not far from the Campo di Fiore,f and devoted it to the
reception of all poor, needy, and sick pilgrims from
Bohemia, Moravia, and Lower Silesia. J The Papal Con
firmation was not given till the ist August, I379, the
delay being probably due to the troubled state of the
times, which, together with the disturbances in Bohemia,
* A. Belli, Delle case abitate in Roma da parecchi uomini illus-
tri (Roma, 1850), 63. De Waal, Bohm. Pilgerhaus, 20. The
Coronation of Charles IV. as Emperor took place on Easter Day in
the year 1355. An original document concerning this hospice,
dated 1439, * s to be f un d in Frind, 461-462.
f Now Via de Banchi Vecchi, 132.
J De Waal, Bohm. Pilgerhaus, 25 et seq., 28 et seq. (p. 33, 1371
is a misprint for 1378).
De Waal, loc. df., 36 et seq., 38 et seq. Martin V. confirmed
the disposition of his predecessor ; see Pangerl, Zur Geschichte des
Bohm. Hospitals in Rom., in the Mittheilungen fiir Gesch. der
Deutschen in Bohmen (1874), xii., 207.
254 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
brought about the ruin of this house. From an inscription
which still exists, we learn that its restoration was under
taken by Heinrich Roraw in 1457.*
The celebrated Dietrich von Nieheim built a house for
poor priests from Ireland, and a national hospice for English
pilgrims was founded in 1398, in the Via de Sta. Maria di
Monserrato. This was changed into a college t for the
education of priests of that nation by Gregory XIII., as but
few pilgrims came to Rome from England in his time. A
noble Portuguese lady, Juana Guismar, who came to visit
the holy places in Rome about the year 1417, established
an institution for female pilgrims of her own nation.
Twenty years later this hospice was enlarged by Cardinal
Antonio Martinez de Chiaves, of Lisbon, and a church was
built adjoining it under the title of St. Antonio de Porto-
ghesi. The restoration of the Hungarian Pilgrims House
from a state of complete ruin had already been undertaken
in the time of Martin V.J In the Jubilee year of 1450,
Alfonso Paradinas, Bishop of Rodrigo, erected a Spanish
Hospital, which, with its Church, was dedicated to St.
James the Apostle and St. Ildephonsus (San Giacomo degli
Spagnuoli). In the neighbourhood of Chiesa Nuova was a
hospital for pilgrims and sick persons from the Kingdom"
of Aragon, to which at this period Sicily belonged ; it had
been founded in 1330 by two pious ladies from Barcelona,
and was subsequently united with the Hospital of San
* A facsimile of this inscription, which has hitherto been given
incorrectly (even by Reumont, ii., 1211), is to be found in de Waal,
loc /., 71.
t Beschreibung von Rom., iii., 3, 428. Regarding the house
built by Nieheim, see Sauerland, 51.
J Bull. Vatic., ii., 81. Miintz, i., 2 et seq.
See Beschreibung von Rom., iii., 3, 302 and 380. After the
union of the Kingdoms of Aragon and Castile, the well-known
Spanish Church of Sta. Maria di Monserrato (with the hospital)
was built.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 255
Giacomo. The little Church of San Pantaleone, near the
Tiber, whose site is now occupied by the magnificent
Church of St. John* (San Giovanni de Fiorentini), was
bestowed by the Chapter of San Celso on the Brotherhood
of the " Pieta della nazione Fiorentina," a confraternity
which had its origin during the terrible outbreak of the
plague in 1448.
The generosity of Nicholas V. provided for the erection
of a church and hospital for the Dalmatians and Illyrians
in 1453; this foundation (San Girolamo degli Schiavoni)
was enlarged in the time of Sixtus IV. and is still extant.
At the prayer of Cardinal Alain, Calixtus III., in the year
1456, assigned a Church, Sant. Ivone de Brettoni, to the
Bretons, and a hospital for the sick and for pilgrims of
that nation was afterwards built near it (1511). It may
here be observed that a number of new foundations, similar
to these which we have mentioned, came into being in the
time of Sixtus IV. Churches, attached to national hospices,
were, during his Pontificate, granted to the Lombards,
Genoese, French, and others.f "There is," says one
acquainted with the Eternal City, " something beautiful
in these National Churches. Far from his fatherland, the
wanderer, in meeting with so many familiar names, feels
that he is at home. In San Giovanni de Fiorentini we are
entirely surrounded by Florentines, in San Carlo al Corso
* Reumont, Hi., i, 437. Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., iii., 3,
432 and 410.
t See Beschreibung der Stadt Rom., iii., 3, 267, 268, 269, 371.
Reumont, iii., I, 437 et seq. The deed of foundation of the Illyrian
Hospital, dated 1453, is given by Theiner, Mon. Slav., i., 523.
The Venetians had San Marco, which Cardinal Barbo built ; the
Lucchesi, Sta Croce e Bonaventura ; the Genoese and Bergamaschi,
San Bartolomeo. Hospitals were attached to almost all of these
churches. Before the " Reformation " there was a Scottish
hospice in Rome, not far from the Church of Sant. Andrea delle
Fratte. Bellesheim, ii., 221.
256 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
by Lombards, in San Marco by Venetians, and in Santa
Maria dell Anima by Germans, and the subjects of the
Low Countries. This peculiarity forms no small part of
the charm of Rome."*
The Humanists who, during the time of the Schism, had
made their way into the Papal Court, formed a distinct, and
in many ways incongruous, element in a body composed of
ecclesiastics.
Personally, Pope Martin V. kept completely aloof from
the movement. In order to understand the position which
the representatives of the literary Renaissance nevertheless
attained at his Court, we must remember that the Council
of Constance had given an immense impulse to Humanism.
The world had never before beheld an assembly at once so
numerous and intellectually so brilliant, and this latter fact
gave it a weight far beyond that derived merely from
numbers. The opportunities of intercourse between
learned and cultivated men, afforded by these Councils,
exercised an important influence on general civilization,
and especially on the Renaissance in literature.f "The
Council of Constance," as the Historian of Humanism
observes, " inaugurates a new epoch in the history of the
search throughout Europe for Manuscripts, while the im
petus given to the interchange of thoughts between different
nations by the two great Synods of Constance and Basle
cannot be exaggerated. The dawn of Humanism, north of
the Alps, dates from this period." J
* Neue Romische Briefe von einem Florentiner, i., 128. At
that period, and even later, Rome was not a merely Italian, but in
some sense a cosmopolitan, City, in which all peoples met in the
communion of the One Church, and preserved their national
peculiarities under the protection of the Pope.
t See Leo, Gesch. des Mittelalters (Halle, 1830), ii., 706.
J Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 236-237; ii., 2nd ed., 246.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 257
Among the Papal Secretaries present at the Council of
Constance were many Humanists. The most remarkable
of them were the learned Greek, Manuel Chrysoloras, who,
however, died (15 April, 1415) soon after his arrival; the
well-known Lionardo Bruni, who also was but a short
time at the Council, and Poggio. Among the non-official
Humanists who came to Constance, we may mention the
Poet Benedetto da Piglio, Agapito Cenci, and the jurists,
Pier Paolo Vergerio and Bartolomeo da Montepulciano.
With the assistance of the two latter, Poggio, much wearied
by the endless theological discussions, began to search the
libraries of Reichenau, Weingarten, St. Gall, and other
monasteries in the neighbourhood, for manuscript copies
of the Latin classics. It is to the honour of Germany that
these precious memorials of antiquity were preserved in
some of her cloisters.*" The recommendations with which,
as Papal Secretary, Poggio was furnished, enabled him to
gain access to the most jealously-guarded collections, and
to bring to light a number of classical masterpieces. f The
delight occasioned among his fellow-countrymen by these
discoveries cannot be described, and the self-esteem in
which the Humanists had never been deficient, was notably
increased. This was manifested on the occasion of the
Enthronement of Martin V., when they claimed precedence
for the Secretaries over the Consistorial Advocates, and
were, it appears, successful. J
* Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 506.
f See Voigt, Wiederbel., i., 2nd ed., 237 et scq.^ and Bursian, 91
et seq.
J Voigt, loc. tit., ii., 2nd ed., 25. At the Council of Basle,
where Humanism certainly played a more important part than it
had done at Constance (see Bursian, 93), the Protonotaries wished
to take precedence even of the Bishops ! This was not accorded
to them, but the question was not nally settled till the Congress at
S
258 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Evidently this action of the Humanistic Secretaries dis
pleased the Pope, and it may have been one of the reasons
why he never, in any way, favoured them. He certainly
saw that they were necessary to him, and employed many
of them in his service, which Poggio entered in the year
1423. The critical state of affairs at the opening of
Martin s Pontificate had induced this remarkable man to
seek his fortunes in England. His hopes were sadly dis
appointed, and, turning his back on the "land of Bar
barians," he again repaired to Rome. Within a short
time after his arrival there, he was able to inform his
friends that he had found little difficulty in obtaining the
position of Papal Secretary.*" It is hard to understand
how Martin V., who was so exceedingly strict in regard to
the moral conduct of his dependents, could admit a man of
Poggio s character into his service. For the new Papal
Secretary was what he had ever been. He himself tells us
how, when the dull day s work at the Chancery was over,
he and his friends amused themselves by telling disedifying
stories. They called their meeting-place " the forge of
lies," and we may form a fair estimate of Poggio from the
fact that, at the age of fifty-eight, he published a selection
of these anecdotes. The frivolous, absolutely heathen spirit
of this partisan of the false Renaissance is but too plainly
manifested in this work. With the exception of a few
jests which are harmless, it is entirely made up of coarse
innuendoes and scandalous and blasphemous stories. All
ecclesiastical things and persons are turned into ridicule ;
priests, monks, abbots, hermits, bishops, and cardinals
appear in motley procession, and Poggio has a tale to tell
Mantua. Further details on this matter will be given in a future
volume of this work.
* Poggii Epist. ed., Tonelli., i., 87.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 259
of each. Naturally, the monks come off worst. Jokes and
ribaldry of this description formed the evening amusement
of the men whose pens were employed in the composition
of the Papal Bulls and Briefs.* When Valla produced his
" Dialogue on Pleasure " in this circle, he knew his
audience. These doings were carefully concealed from
the Pope, whose name was by no means f respected in
their conversations. The reproach, however, remains, that
such men were his servants and were retained in his
employment. The improvement in the Latinity of the
Papal documents was too dearly purchased at the cost of
such scandal.
At the time of the re-organization of the Court, and even
before Poggio had entered his service, Martin V. had
nominated Antonio Loschi, Secretary. The selection of
this man, who was repeatedly sent on embassies, was
disastrous, for he, too, belonged to the false Renaissance.!
The versatility of the Humanists made their position at
Court more and more secure. They were of use on every
occasion ; in the composition of Bulls and Briefs as well
as in that of purely political documents, at the receptions
of Princes and Ambassadors, and when appropriate dis
courses were required, either for festival or funeral. It was
thought well to treat men who rendered such varied ser
vices with extreme consideration^
* Voigt, loc tit., ii., 15 ; see 416 et seq. Regarding the Facetisc,
see also Landau, Novellen, 68, and Villari, i., 98 et seq.
t Poggius in conclusione Libri Facetiarum. Opp. 491.
J See, besides, Schio s Monograph cited above, supra, p. 171,
note*. Voigt, loc. at., ii., 2nd ed., 19, 21, and Ottenthal, 75.
See Schnaase, viii., 534, and Miintz, La Renaissance, 82.
Voigt, loc. tit., i., 2nd ed., 256 et seq., tells us that Poggio obtained
from the cloister of Hersfeld a newly-discovered MS. of Tacitus,
by promising, in return, to bring to a happy conclusion an inter
minable lawsuit in which it was engaged at Rome.
260 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
By nominating a number of distinguished men to the
Sacred College, and by effacing the last traces of the
Schism, Martin V. conferred great benefits on Christen
dom. These two subjects demand a more detailed investi
gation.
The number of the Cardinals had greatly increased
during the time of the Schism, for each one of the oppos
ing Popes had formed a College of his own, and Popes and
Anti-Popes alike had endeavoured to strengthen their posi
tions by a liberal use of the hat. Urban VI., created sixty-
three Cardinals, the Anti-Pope Clement VII., thirty-eight.
The three successors of Urban VI. appointed thirty-three ;
Benedict XIII., twenty-three ; Alexander V. and John
XXIII,, forty-four.* Of all these there were but twenty-
eight living at the time of the election of Martin V. This
number, however, was in the opinion of the majority of the
Assembly at Constance, excessive ; and with the view of
increasing the power of the Sacred College so as to
counterbalance that of the Pope, the Synod decided that
for the future it should consist of twenty-four members.
This measure was a decided attack on Papal rights, and
was all the less justified, inasmuch as naturally the Cardinals,
who had survived the stormy period of the Schism while
-the holder of the Papacy had been changed, had, unlike the
Pope, become more powerful than ever. The regulations
of the Council regarding the qualifications of Cardinals
and the representation of the different nations in the
highest senate of Christendom, were, however, beneficial. f
Martin V., on whom devolved the difficult task of doing
justice to the Cardinals of both obediences, and who also
received into the Sacred College five former adherents of
* Phillips, vi., 223.
t Reformacte Martins V., art. i; see Hubler 128 ; Hinschius
*> 337-
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 261
Benedict XIII., was so moderate in making appointments
that at the time of his death there were but nineteen
Cardinals. Although fully resolved to do away with their
undue ascendancy, he from the first proceeded in this
matter, as in all others, with the greatest prudence. Almost
six years elapsed before any creation took place (July 23rd,
1423), and the names of the two then chosen for the
dignity, Domingo Ram and Domenico Capranica, were
only made known in a secret Consistory to the Cardinals :
the publication was reserved till a later period, and accord
ingly in the open Consistory no mention was made of the
creation.* Three years later, on the 24th May, 1426,
Martin V. for the second time created Cardinals. On this
occasion the nomination of Ram and Capranica was con
firmed, and Prospero Colonna and Giuliano Cesarini were
created. The Consistorial decree concerning this secret
nomination is extant,t and is signed by all the Cardinals ;
it expressly provides that in case the Pope should die before
the publication of these four Cardinals, this is to be con
sidered as equivalent to publication, and they are to oe
admitted to take part in the election of his successor.
The Pope personally informed Capranica of his nomination,
but strictly forbade him in any way to let his elevation be
known. In order, however, to set him completely at ease
on the subject, he admitted him to the ceremony of kissing
the feet, followed by the customary embrace from the older
Cardinals. : Of the ten new Cardinals actually published
* These two Cardinals were creati, sed non publicati. Phillips
(vi., 273) and Hinschins (i., 341) are mistaken in considering
this act of nomination as identical with the reservation in petto, for
in the latter case the names of those selected were kept absolutely
secret. See Moroni, ix., 303 et seq., and the learned treatise of
Catalanus (265 et scq.} : De cardinalibus creatis nee promulgatis.
t Catalanus, 167-168.
J Catalanus, 12, 194.
262 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
on the 24th May, 1426, three were French (Jean de la
Rochetaillee,* Louis Allemand, and Raymond Mairose,
Bishop of Castres), and three Italian (Antonio Cassini,
Ardicino della Porta, and Niccolo Albergati). The others
were an Englishman (Henry Beaufort), a German (Johann
von Bucca, Bishop of Olmiitz), a Spaniard (Juan Cervantes),
and a Greek (Hugo of Cyprus). f
Even before his creation of Cardinals in 1426, Martin V.
had published admirable regulations for the reform of the
Sacred College, which at that time was composed of
Prelates who had belonged to three different obediences.
In order that their light may again shine before the world,
and that they may be fit for the management of the
affairs of the Church, this Constitution exhorts the Cardinals
to be distinguished above all other men by moral purity ;
to live simple, upright, holy lives, avoiding not only
evil, but even the appearance of evil; to walk humbly, and
not to be haughty in their bearing towards other Prelates
or priests. They are to govern their households with due
care, and to see that their retainers are chaste and honour
able in their conduct. They are not to seek after Court
favour, or the patronage of Princes, but, undistracted by
* This Prince of the Church was especially distinguished by his
legal knowledge, and had great influence with Martin V. See
Voigt., Stimmen, 122, and Reumont in Janitschek s Repertor. viii.,
i 5 8.
t See Ciaconius, ii., 841 et seq. ; Cardella, 37 et seq. ; Eggs, 33
et seq. ; Suppl., 172 et seq.; Frizon, 474 et seq. Regarding H.
Beaufort, see Folkestone-Williams, Lives of the English Cardinals
(London, 1 868), ii., 70- no. The 23rd of June has been often given
as the day of creation, but this date is wrong, for the one we have
mentioned in the text, with the further fact that the publication was
on the 25th and the assignment of the titles on the 27th of May,
is to be found in the *Acta consistorialia in the Consistorial Archives
of the Vatican.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 263
worldly interests, to consecrate themselves with their whole
souls to the service of God.*
That such admonitions should be needed implied the
existence of deplorable abuses in the highest Senate of the
Church. How, indeed, could it have been otherwise?
The Schism had disorganized the Sacred College, and
produced a baneful spirit of independence. Martin V. s
projected restoration of the Papal power naturally involved
a change in this state of things, but, if we are to rely on the
account given by an Envoy of the Teutonic Order, it
would seem that the Pope went too far in his endeavours to
repress the autonomy of the Cardinals. In a letter written
in 1429, this Envoy gives the following particulars
regarding his audience of the Pope : " When the Lord
Bishop of Courland presented me to the Pope and to
the Cardinals, they received me kindly and gave me good
words ; but little or nothing followed, for when the
opponents of the Order came to them, they give them
the same. Five Cardinals de Ursinis, Arelatensis, de
Comitibus, who was Protector of the Order and is ncrv
Legate at Bologna, Rhotomagensis, and Novariensis are
well inclined towards it and towards myself personally.
But they dare not speak before the Pope, save what he
likes to hear, for the Pope has so crushed all the Cardinals
that they say nothing in his presence except as he desires,
and they turn red and pale when they speak in his
hearing."t This treatment was resented by the Cardinals,
and its evil consequences became manifest immediately
after the death of Martin V.
* See Bellinger, Beitrage, ii., 334 et seq.
f Voigt, Stimmen, 73-74, and ynea Silvio, Hi., 520, note i.
The names of these Cardinals were Orsini, Louis Allemand, Arch
bishop of Aries, Lucio Conti, Jean de la Rochetaillee, Archbishop
of Rouen, Ardicino della Porta, Bishop of Novara.
264 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Early in November, 1430, Martin s last creation ot
Cardinals took place. A Spaniard (Juan Casanova) and a
Frenchman (Guillame de Montfort) were nominated, and
Ram, Prospero Colonna, Cesarini, and Capranica were
published. The titular Churches of the last four were San.
Giovanni e Paolo, San. Giorgio in Velabro, St. Angelo in
Pescaria, and Sta. Maria in Via Lata.* As it was the
custom to send the red hat only to Cardinals occupying
important legations, Capranica, who was at this time
Legate in Perugia, did not receive it. Authentic
evidence regarding these proceedings is preserved ;
nevertheless, more recent historians have involved them
in the greatest perplexity.f To this circumstance
was due the difficulty experienced by Capranica in
inducing Eugenius IV., after the death of Martin V., to
recognize his position as Cardinal. This Pope, influenced
by his enemies and falsely advised, denied him his dignity,
and he was forced to repair in haste to the Council of
Basle to assert his rights. J
The action of Eugenius was unjust, and all the more
* Ciaconius, ii., 864 et seq. Frizon, 482 et seq.
t See Catalanus, 20 et seq. The authentic testimonies here
adduced are (a) Martinus V., " Dil. fil. Dominico S.M. in Via
lata diacono cardin." (jubet Capranicam esse administratorem
ecclesise Firmanae), 169-270. () Congratulatory letters from
Cardinals Albergati, Colonna, and Cesarini, dated Rome, 1430,
November nth, iQth, and 3151,10 Cardinal Capranica, 172-175.
(c) Testimony of Cardinals Branda, Carillius, and Cesarini,
193-197.
J See Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 20-21, and the extremely rare
monograph of Catalanus, 28 et seq. Voigt had not access to this,
of which, as far as I know, there are but two copies in Rome.
The Constitution " In eminenti," issued by Eugenius IV. in
his dispute with Capranica, and deciding that the name and dignity
of Cardinal are acquired when the Insignia are conferred, and that
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 265
unfortunate, inasmuch as notwithstanding his youth,
Capranica was one in every Tespect worthy to be a
member of the Sacred College. All his contemporaries
are unanimous in their praise of this noble Roman, who
combined deep piety with great learning.* In the course
of this history we shall often have to refer to his valuable
services. He died at the very moment when his elevation
to the Papacy was a certainty. Had Martin V. created no
Cardinal but Capranica, the highest praise would still be
due to him, but all the others whom he raised to the
purple were worthy of the dignity. " Martin V.," says a
writer who is generally little ready to speak in favour of a
Pope, " has the real merit of having placed in the Sacred
College men whose virtue or culture soon won high esteem
in the Church." f
Among the Cardinals appointed by Martin V., Giuliano
Cesarini undoubtedly stands next to Capranica in regard to
talent and capacity. Cesarini (born 1389, 71444), like
many a great man, raised himself from poverty by his own
industry. His biographer, Vespasiano da Bisticci, tells us
that, when a student at Perugia, he lived on alms and
collected candle-ends in order to be able to study by night.
one who has been nominated cannot, before the ceremony of the
opening of his lips, take part in the election of a Pope, was revoked
by Pius V., and justly, for it is in contradiction to the origin and
principle of the Cardinalate. See Phillips, vi., 272 et seq., and
especially Catalanus, 31 et seq., 304-319.
* Sea Vespasiano da Bisticci in Mai, i., 185 et seq. ; Voigt,
Stimmen, 89-90, and the *Oratio funebris prima die exequiarum
domini card. Firmani, " edita per Nicolaum prassulem Ortanum,"
etc. (Cod. Vatic., 5815, Vatican Library), of which we shall after
wards have to speak.
t Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 22. Vespasiano da Bisticci wrote
of Martin V. : "I cardinal!, che fece nel suo pontificate, tutti
furono uomini singulari." Mai, Spicil, i., 221. See also St.
Antoninus, Chronic., xx., 2, c. 7 3.
266 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
After taking his Doctor s degree, he became Professor of
Canon Law at Padua ; Capranica, only his junior by two
years, and Nicholas of Cusa were amongst his pupils.
Cardinal Branda, in whose house he lived, brought him to
Rome, where he soon won the favour of Martin V. The
Pope proved his high esteem by entrusting to him two
tasks of exceptional difficulty : that of inducing the German
Princes to undertake a Crusade against the Hussites, and
that of presiding as Legate at the Council of Basle. " In
Cesarini," to quote the biographer of Pius II., " were
united all the natural gifts and all the talents which mark
the born ruler. Admiration was his, although he sought it
not. A lasting impression was made on everyone w r ho
approached him, and there was an irresistible charm in his
intellectual and beautiful features. He was grave and
dignified in the presence of Princes, affable and genial
with men of low degree. In social intercourse, the
Cardinal seemed to give place to the man, and in the
discharge of the high duties of his office, the man of the
world, to the Prelate. His zeal for the Faith and for
the Church, and his courteous manners, his deep and solid
learning and his humanistic culture, his impassioned
eloquence and the easy flow of his conversation, seemed
each in turn to be a part of his nature. "* Vespasiano da
Bisticci eannot say enough in praise of his piety and purity
of life. From him we learn that the Cardinal always slept
in a hair shirt, fasted every Friday on bread and water,
spent part of every night with his chaplain in the church,
and every morning went to confession and said Mass.f
* Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 50. See Abert, 89 et seq. Bezold
(Husitenkriege, Hi., 101 et seq.) counts Cesarini among the most
illustrious ornaments of the later mediaeval Church.
t Cesarini s chaplain was a German; see Mai, Spicil, i., 171-
172. The German Secretary of another Cardinal is named in the
Liber benef., 227.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 267
Cesarini s generosity was boundless ; he gave all he had
for the love of God, and no one went away from him
unheard. The remembrance of his own early hardships
made him take a special interest in poor and gifted youths.
He sent them at his expense to study at Perugia, Bologna,
or Siena, and provided in the most ample manner for all
their needs. As Cesarini would not accept any benefice
besides his Bishopric of Grosseto, the exercise of such
liberality would have been impossible but for the simplicity
of his own mode of life. More than one dish never
appeared on his table ; the wine which he drank was but
coloured water. His care for his household was most
touching. On one occasion when all its members at once
were taken ill, he went to see them all every morning and
evening, to make sure that no one wanted for anything.
Even the stable-boy was daily honoured by the Cardinal s
visit. He was full of the most ardent zeal for all the
interests of the Church, especially for reform, for the con
version of Jews and heretics, and for the union of the
Greeks. Cardinal Branda used to say that if the whole
Church were to become corrupt, Cesarini by himself would
be able to reform it. " I have known a great many holy
men," says the worthy Vespasiano da Bisticci, " but
among them none who w r as like Cardinal Cesarini ; for five
hundred years the Church has not seen such a man !"*
* Vespasiano da Bisticci, G. Cesarini, in Mai, Spicil, i., 171.
In connection with this sketch, which is evidently the work of a
loving hand, see the writers cited by Ciaconius (ii., 86 1 et seq.) and
Eggs (83 et seq.), to whom may be added Joh. Nider ; see Weiss,
Vor der Reform., 99. Regarding Cesarini s action at Basle,
Reumont, iii., i, 309, says : " Prudent and just men of later days
have characterized his conduct in most critical moments, when he
had to stand between Pope and Council, as independent and
honourable. He had to guard against demands from both sides,
whose dangers no one could better estimate, for he was well
acquainted with Rome and Germany alike."
268 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
An essential feature in the description of Cesarini would
be wanting if we omitted all mention of his relation to
Humanism. Like Capranica,* he was a warm friend of
classical studies. "To them/ it has been said, " he owed
those graces of mind and speech which so enhanced his
physical advantages." Cicero, Lactantius, and St. Augus
tine were his models.f Cesarini was overwhelmed with
business, and he was poor even after he had been pro
moted to the purple. Vespasiano da Bisticci saw him sell
duplicates from his library in order to give alms ; con
sequently it was impossible for him to come forward as the
generous patron of Humanism, but his interest in these
studies was so great that even on his journeys as Legate
he found time to search diligently for old manuscripts.
This we learn from Cardinal Albergati, who shared his
tastes.
Niccolo Albergati, though less cultivated than Cesarini,
held constant intercourse with the partisans of the new
studies, and did what he could to further them. Filelfo,
Poggio, yEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, and especially Tom-
maso Parentucelli, enjoyed his favour. J Albergati, who had
entered the austere Carthusian Order and afterwards become
Bishop of his native city, Bologna, was a model of all
priestly and episcopal virtues. When created a Cardinal,
in his humility he assumed no armorial bearings, but simply
a cross, an example which was followed by his old com
panion, Parentucelli, on his elevation to the Papacy. The
high dignity to which Albergati had been promoted did not
interfere with his observance of his Rule. He slept upon
* In reference to Capranica s Humanistic studies, see the *funeral
discourse, cited supra, p. 265, note*, Cod. Vatic., 5815, f. 15,
Vatican Library.
t Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 216.
J See Ruggerius, xxxiv., and Nicholas V., chapter I of Vol. ii.
See Frediani, Niccolo V., 226, 2*7.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 269
straw/ never ate meat, wore a hair shirt, and rose at mid
night to pray. " Entrusted with numerous and arduous
Embassies, this Cardinal furnished an example of the
combination of the greatest prudence in difficult matters of
worldly policy with a perfect uprightness and integrity of
character."*
Antonio Correr, Cardinal of Bologna, was also a man of
great worth. To quote the words of Vespasiano da Bisticci,
" Messer Antonio, of the House of Correr, a nobleman, and
nephew of Pope Gregory XII., led a holy life, and, like
Pope Eugenius, in his youth entered a religious Order in
an island of Venice called San Giorgio in Alga. He was
led to take this step by the boundless zeal for the Christian
Faith and for his own salvation, which filled his soul. After
he had spent many years in the Order, it came to pass that
his uncle was elected Pope (1406) and determined to make
him a Cardinal, although he would not leave his monastery
for anything in the world. At last, being constrained by
the Pope, he consented on one condition : this was that
Messer Gabriel (Condulmaro), who afterwards became Pope
Eugenius, should also receive the purple, and the Pope
agreed that it should be so for his sake.f After both had
* Denina, Staatsveranderungen von Italien (translated by Volk-
mann [Leipzig, 1772], ii., 636). Albergati went as Ambassador
three times to France (1422, 1431, and I435) tnree times to
Lombardy (1426, 1427, and 1430), and also three times to Basle
(1432, 1434, and 1436); see Freib. Kirchenlexikon, i., 2nd ed.,
408. Voigt (Enea Silvio, i., 84) enumerates the older and more
recent Biographies of Albergati ; to which may be added : Fan-
tuzzi, Scritt. Bol., i., 99-133, and Const. Ruggerius, Testimonia de
b. Nic. Albergato (Romoe, 1744); the last work is important on
account of the documents from the secret Archives of the Vatican
which it contains.
t Vespasiano s description is at variance with contemporary
accounts ; see Raynaldus, ad an. 1408, n. 9 tt seq. ; L. Bnmi epist.,
ii., 21 ; Niem, Nem, vi., 33 ; Mansi, xxvii., 95, 96.
270 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
become Cardinals, Messer Antonio and all who belonged
to his household lived most virtuously and were a pattern
to others. The Cardinal held, as benefices, two abbeys,
one in Padua and the other in Verona. In both of these
he introduced the Observance of the rule and gave a part
of the revenues to the monks, reserving to himself only
what was needed for his support. He also provided that,
after his death, both should belong to the religious, free
from all charges. He lived in piety and holiness to the
age of eighty, and when Pope* Eugenius returned from
Florence to Rome, resolved to leave the Court and retire
to his Abbey at Padua. After he had dwelt there for
some time, he undertook to set his affairs in order. Year
by year he had kept an account of the sums which he drew
from his benefices. One day he summoned to his dwelling
the Procurators of the two monasteries and caused all his
property to be gathered together in a great hall; he had
an inventory taken of his plate, books, household furniture,
and even of his clothes, and every separate article valued.
After this had been done he sent for his account books, in
w r hich the revenues received from his benefices were
entered, and, by his command, a list of the objects before
him, with their valuation, was written at the opposite side
of the page. He then told one of the Procurators that he
might take the books and half of the silver plate and of the
other objects, as he had arranged them. He addressed the
like request to the other Procurator, with the words :
Take and carry away what belongs to you. In this
manner, before leaving the apartment, he disposed of all
his goods, and kept nothing but a chalice, a vestment, and
four silver vessels. After all this was finished, he said to
the Fathers of the two monasteries: f l have had various
goods delivered to you whose value amounts to so much;
so much have I drawn from the benefices bestowed upon
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 2JI
me. If I had more, I would give it to you ; have patience
with me and pray to God for me. The monks were above
measure astonished at the Cardinal s action, and thanked
him most warmly. But he rose from his seat and said :
1 Thanks be to God for that which He has ordered. Lords
and Prelates may learn from this Cardinal that it is better
for a man himself to do what is to be done than to entrust
it to his heirs. He lived four months after this distribution
of his property. He paid his servants their wages every
month and gave them clothing twice a year. He \vould
not be a burden to anyone, and left bequests to his servants
and for pious purposes as his conscience suggested. He
ended his days like a Saint. I learned all this from his
nephew, Messer Gregorio, who was present at the division
of his property and deserves all credit. Such Prelates of
God s Church are worthy of everlasting remembrance.""*
( It was of inestimable importance to the Church to have
again men of such piety, learning, and activity, employed in
the Supreme Council of the Pope men who were con
vinced that they were bound by their own example to
quash the accusations made against the clergy, and to meet
the ever-increasing pressure of the new intellectual culture,
by themselves taking part in the restoration of classical
literature and of the sciences. "f
Besides those of whom we have spoken, Humanism had
other patrons in the Sacred College. Honourable mention
is due to Branda Castiglione, Cardinal of Piacenza, a man
* Vespasiano da Bisticci, Card. Antonio de Coreri, in Mai,
Spicil, i., 158-161. See Reumont, Beitriige, iv., 314 et seq. The
collection of MSS., which he had made at considerable cost, was
presented by Cardinal Correr to the monastery of S. Giorgio in
Alga ; see M. Foscarini, Dei Veneziarii raccoglitori di codici, in the
Arch. Stor. Ital., v., 265.
t Reumont, loc. tit.) iv., 318.
272 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
noted for his simplicity, and to the nephew of Martin V.,
Cardinal Prospero Colonna. The latter possessed a library
of some importance, and to him Poggio dedicated his table-
talk regarding avarice, a sure sign that among men of
letters he was not notorious for this vice.*
But the most zealous promoter of literature and art in
the Rome of that day was the rich Cardinal Giordano
Orsini. He had pictures of the Sibyls painted on the
walls of his reception-room, with inscriptions containing
their prophecies of Christ. f He spared no trouble or cost
in forming a valuable collection of manuscripts of the
Greek and Latin classics. Amongst other treasures which
it included were the Cosmography of Ptolemy, acquired by
the Cardinal in France, and a precious Codex, with twelve
hitherto unknown Comedies of Plautus, purchased from
Nicholas of Treves, a German dealer in manuscripts. The
Cardinal himself endeavoured to restore the corrupt text
of these Comedies, and intended to publish them, with
some verses composed by Antonio Loschi. Poggio, who
on this account was denied access to the manuscript,
revenged himself by describing the Cardinal as a selfish
hoarder of treasures which he could not appreciate. Time,
* Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nd ed., 29 ; see i., 2nd ed., 237,
261. In regard to Cardinal Branda, see also Keiblinger, i, 1120
et seq. Before the arrival of Martin V. in Rome, Branda had the
Crucifixion and scenes from the life of St. Catherine painted by
Masolino, the master of Masaccio, in a chapel at the left hand
entrance of the nave of San Clemente ; see Reumont in d. Jahrb.
f. Kunstwissensch, iii., and Woltmann-Wormann, ii., 139 et seq.
See also Miintz, La Renaiss., i., 33. Regarding the libraries founded
by Branda in Pavia (1489) and Castiglione, see Magenta, i., 346-
347; and for Pavia, see also F. Denifle, Universitiiten, i., 814.
t See Epist. Poggii, lib. xi., ep. 41, ed. Tonelli, iii., 118. The
Cardinal s Palace stood in the Via papale at the corner of Via di
Monterone. See Adinolfi, Via papale, 90 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 273
however, proved that the judgment of the irritable philo
logist was unfounded. Before his death (1438), Cardinal
Orsini devoted his literary treasures to the general good,
by making them over to the library of St. Peter s. There
were in all 254 Codices, most of them extremely valuable.*"
Considering the unwearied labour and the large amount
of money expended in the formation of this collection, the
high praise bestowed on the Cardinal by Lapo da Castig-
lionchio, in the dedication of his translation of a Biography
of Plutarch, is not unfounded. " In the irreparable loss,"
he says, " which we have suffered by the destruction of so
many works of antiquity, my only comfort is that Provi
dence has bestowed you upon our age. You are the first
for many centuries, who has endeavoured to revive the
Latin tongue and in great measure succeeded. In your
declining years, you have undertaken most costly and
dangerous journeys to far distant places, in order to find
the buried treasures of antiquity. You alone have rescued
many great men of former days from oblivion, and have
brought to light not only unknown works of known
authors, but also works by writers whose names we had
never yet heard or read. By your exertions such a multi
tude of useful writings have been brought together as are
enough to give occupation to the learned men of more
than one city."t
* See Reumont, iii., i, 306-307. In reference to Cardinal
Orsini s Library, see Pistolesi, II Vaticano, ii., 185 et seq. Mig-
nanti, Istoria della Basilica Vatic., i., 104-105 ; Dudik, i., 82 ;
and Cancellieri, De secret., 906-914 : Inventarium librorum domini
Jordani Card. Ursin., etc.
f Menus, Epist. Trav., 397. See Meiners, 300-301. Cardinal
Orsini, who had already taken a prominent position in the Council
of Constance (Aschbach, ii., 310), was sent to Germany by the
Pope in 1426 to combat the Hussite heresy. On the nth May
he came to the Reichstag at Nuremberg; see Deutsche Reichstags-
T
2/4 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The crowning point of Martin V. s work of restoration
was the removal of the last traces of the unhappy Schism,
and his labours for this object were unwearied and wide
spread. The Spanish peninsula necessarily claimed his
chief attention : Benedict XIII. had died at Peniscola in
the November of 1424, clinging to the very end to his
usurped dignity. One of the last acts of this obstinate
man had been the appointment of four new Cardinals ; in
1425 three of these, probably instigated by King Alfonso,
elected yEgidius Munoz, a Canon of Barcelona, who called
himself Clement VIII. To complete the Comedy of the
Schism, Jean Carrer, a Frenchman and one of Benedict
XIII. s Cardinals, on his own independent authority, elected
a new Pope, who took the name of Benedict XIV.* Both
of these elections were ridiculous rather than dangerous,
and Clement VIII. would, like Benedict XIV., have vanished
from the page of history, leaving no trace behind, had not
political circumstances given him an importance which by
no means belonged to him as an individual. Alfonso V.
of Aragon was a bitter enemy of Martin V., because
the Pope did not support his pretensions to the Kingdom
of Naples, but acknowledged his rival Louis of Anjou.f
Clement VIII. was a useful tool in Alfonso s hands for the
purpose of causing constant annoyance to the Pope.
Reconciliation with this monarch was an indispensable
preliminary to the extirpation of the Anti-Papal succession,
but the prospect in this direction was at first very dis
couraging.
-acten (Gotha, 1883), viii., 482. His nomination and his depar
ture from Rome took place respectively on the i7th February and
i gth March; see*Acta consist, in the Consistorial Archives of
the Vatican.
* See Cardinal Carrer s letter to the Count of Armagnac in
Martene, Thes. nov., ii., 1714 et seq.
f See V. de la Fuente, 441, 470 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 275
As early as January, 1425,* before the election of
Clement VIII., Martin V. had entrusted Cardinal Pierre de
Foix, a very skilful diplomatist, and a relation of Alfonso s,
with an Embassy to Spain.f But the King of Aragon had
assumed an attitude which at once rendered all negotiations
impossible. He forbade his subjects to hold any inter
course with Rome, prohibited the publication of Papal
Bulls, and let the Cardinal-Legate know that in the event
of his presuming to enter his Kingdom, he would have his
head cut off.J The Anti-Pope was, by the command of
Alfonso, solemnly crowned.
The rupture with Rome was thus made definite. It was
then expected that the Governments of France and England,
who were much irritated against Martin V. regarding the
question of the Council, would join the new Schism. The
Pope and his court were in consternation. Happily this
* The Cardinal s appointment to this Embassy took place on the
8th January, 1425, and he left Rome on the 2nd March ; see *Acta
consist, in the Consistorial Archives of the Vatican.
| The principal sources of information regarding Cardinal de
Foix s Embassy are his *Acta legationis cited by Raynaldus, (ad an.
1425 N. i, ad an. 1427 N. 21, ad an. 1429 N. 2-6), Bzovius (ad an.
1426 N. 5, ad an. 1427 N. 13 et sej., ad an. 1430 N. i), and Con-
telorius (4, 24,32 et seq.), without mention of the place where they
are to be found. According to Wadding (x., 86), this important col
lection of Documents is preserved in the Secret Archives of the
Vatican. I found, in the Borghese Library in Rome, Cod. i., 552,
another copy brought from the Library of Paul V. : " * A.cta legationis
Petri tit. S. Stephani in Coelimonte presbyt. Cardinalis de Fuxo
nuncupati, qui per Martinum V. P. M. missus est ad Alphon-
sum Arag. regem pro estirpando Panischolen. schismate,
A D nl 1425.
J See the *Letter of the Florentines to Marcello Strozzi, dated
1426, July 4th, in which letters from Valencia of the loth, i2th,
^2nd, 25th, and 26th June are quoted. Cl. x., dist. 3, N. 4, f.
9ib. State Archives at Florence.
" *In Roma il Papa colla corte di tal novella e molto sbigot-
St, Miohaers_Coll8go
Scholastic s Library
276 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
danger was averted, and Count Jean d Armagnac alone took
part in the revival of the deplorable Schism of Peniscola.
, On the 1 5th July, 1426, Martin V. summoned King
Alfonso to Rome to answer for his support of the Anti-
Pope and his other attacks on the liberty of the Church."*
This measure did not fail to produce an effect* Alfonso
perceived that many, even among his own subjects, dis
approved of his schismatical position and dreaded ex
communication and interdict. The wary King may also
have seen that he could only be a loser by his isolation
from the rest of Europe, and that, in the end, more was to
be gained from Martin V. than from the powerless Clement
VIII. He accordingly sent an Embassy to Rome and pro
mised to admit the Legate into his kingdom. Cardinal de
Foix hereupon undertook his second mission to Spain, and
was received with all honour. His ability and wise modera
tion, seconded by the efforts of King Alfonso s Secretary,
Alfonso (Alonso) de Borja, succeeded in the year 1427 in
laying the foundations of an agreement between him and
Martin V. The Cardinal then returned to Romef to give
an account of his proceedings, bringing the Pope letters
from the King, in which he declared himself ready to render
obedience and to forsake the Schism. The outbreak of
the plague in Rome, in 1428, caused some delay in the
negotiations, but early in the year 1429 Cardinal de Foix
went a third time to Aragon and brought the whole affair
to a happy conclusion. The King made complete submis-
tito, perchb vede che in processo potrebbe seguire la sua distruc-
tione," wrote Francesco Viviani to Lodovicho di Ser Viviano hon.
podesta del ponte di Sacho on the i5th July, 1426. Carte Strozz.,
241, f. 46. State Archives at Florence.
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1426, N. 1-7.
t See Wadding, x., 132 ; see 138 for the Cardinal s third
journey.
HISTORY OF THE. POPES. 277
sion, and called on Clement VIII. to resign, which he
readily did (26th July, 1429).* The pseudo-Cardinals
solemnly went into conclave at Peniscola, and elected
Martin V. Pope,f and so this attempt at a Schism ended
as absurdly as it had begun. Count Jean d Armagnac,
whom Pope Martin V. had excommunicated in 1429, made
his submission and was absolved in the following year.J
And thus Martin V. succeeded in completely restoring the
unity of the Church after it had been for two and fifty years
rent by Schism.
His Pontificate, although marked by this happy event, was
in other respects by no means unclouded. The affairs of
Bohemia, where the Hussite heresy had widely spread,
caused him grave anxiety. Before the dissolution of the
* See Pagi, iv., 498, 502. Hefele, vii., 417-419. Alonso de
Borja was rewarded for his services by the Bishopric of Valencia.
yEgidius Muiioz became Bishop of Majorca (fi446, Dec. 28).
See Villanueva, xxi., 61. V. de la Fuente, 442. For Carrer s fate see
Martene, Thesaurus, ii., 1748 et seq.
| See Aguirre, Collectio concilior. Hispanic (Romse, 1694), iii.,
-649 et seq. Villanueva, v., 365 et seq.
% The sentence against the Count d Armagnac is given in
Raynaldus, ad an. 1429, N. n. The citation of the Count in Cod.
T M 7, 13 of the Angelica Library, which Erdmannsdorffer seems
to suppose unpublished, is to be found in Baluze, Miscell., ed.
Mansi (Lucae, 1762), iii., 419-423. The said Count was absolved
(see v. Ottenthal) at the intercession of Count Amadeus of Savoy,
" (prsesertim dil. filii nobilis viri Amadei ducis Sabaudie pro ipso
comite intercedente) ". See Martin s *Bull " Quoniam illius," dated
Rom^e, 1430, Apr. 7. The original is in the State Archives at
Turin. Mazzo, 10, No. 16.
The apostasy of Conrad, Archbishop of Prague, had taken
place in 1421, and was the most grievous wound ever inflicted on
the Catholic Church in Bohemia. Palacky, iii., 2, 218. Conrad
was suspended on the i3th August, 1421 see *Acta consist, in
the Consistorial Archives of the Vatican but was not solemnly
excommunicated and deposed until 1426.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Council of Constance he called alike upon the dignitaries
of the Church and upon the Secular Authorities to enforce
the legal penalties against this heresy. On the ist March,
1420, he published a Bull in Florence, calling all Christen
dom to arms for the " extirpation of the Wycklifites,
Hussites, and other heretics."* Martin V. held to his
purpose of overcoming the Bohemians by force with all
the tenacity and persistency of his nature, and would not
hear of negotiations with these heretics, who constituted a
danger not only to the Church, but to the very foundations
of civil society. t
The complete failure of the Crusade against the Hussites,
and its result in stimulating the demand for the Council
which was so greatly dreaded by the Pope is a matter of
history. J The pressure began towards the end of the year
1425^ when Ambassadors from the King of England ap-
* Palacky, iii., i, 405; 2, 90. Urkundl., Beitrage, i., 17-20.
The historian of Bohemia remarks in reference to the above pas
sage : " The ever-prudent Court of Rome no doubt wished by this
reserve to prevent the religious question becoming also a national
one ; but the effort was in vain."
f The thoroughly revolutionary tendency of the Hussite move
ment was most plainly recognized in Rome (see supra, p. 163).
According to v. Bezold (p. 53 et seq.), " the idea of a general flood
of revolution, imperilling the monarchical principle, goes far beyond
the usual limited meaning of heresy, and shows us that the Hussite
movement was already considered as no merely ecclesiastical or
national matter, but as one world-wide in its aim, and as affecting
society and the state no less directly than it affected the Church."
J Besides Palacky, see in regard to the war with the Hussites, C.
Giiinhagen,Die Hussitenkampfe der Schlesier 1420-1435 (Breslau,
1872) ; v. Bezold, Konig Sigismund und die Reichskriege gegen
die Husiten, in three parts (Miinchen, 1872-1877), and Huber,
Gesch. Oesterreichs, ii., 445 et seg.
The exact date (27th November, 1425) is learned from Brown,
Fascicul, i., 17. Giovanni di Ragusa (Mon. concil. i., 65) says in
HISTORY OF THE POPES, 2JQ
peared before Martin V., pray ing and requiring that, within a
year at furthest, he would open the Council at Basle, under
take the reform of the Church, and appear in person with
all his Cardinals. At this audience, an English Prelate said
bluntly to the Pope : If the abuses of the Church are not
removed by Your Holiness, the necessary reforms will be
taken in hand by the secular powers."* On the lyth Decem
ber, the Pope answered the Ambassadors in a Consistory,
defended the course of action which he had hitherto pur
sued, and declared that it was not now opportune to shorten
the period decided upon at Siena.t In July, 1426, it was
reported that an Embassy from the French King had gone
to Rome to demand the holding of the Council. J Sub
sequently the Dominican, Giovanni di Ragusa, came to
Rome for the same object.
In face of this pressure, which was not always sincere,
Martin V. s attitude was one of the greatest reserve. Long
consultations were daily held by the Cardinals in the latter
part of the year 1429, but he uttered not a word on the
subject. || The party which looked on the Council as the
universal remedy for all evils became more and more
uneasy. The Council became almost a mania, especially
more general terms, " Post dictam vero Senensis concilii disso-
lutionem non completo biennio."
* Propositio M. Wiliielmi Sulbury Abbatis Belli-loci ad P. Mar-
tinum V. pro. acceleratione futuri concilii, in Brown, i., 19-21.
f Commissioni di Rinaldo degli Albizzi, ii., 515.
J *Letter of the Florentines to Marcello Strozzi, Ambassador
in Venice, dated 1426, July 4th, Cl. x., dist. 3, N. 4, f. 92, State
Archives at Florence.
Mon. concil., i., 65.
|| See the *Despatches of Francesco de Cattavensis to Giovanni
Francesco de Gonzaga, dat. Rome, 1429, Dec. i5th. Gonzaga
Archives at Mantua.
280 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
among the learned men of the universities."* With many
of them, indeed, the object was, not the return of the
Bohemians to the Faith or the reform of the Church, but a
transformation of her constitution to the prejudice of the
Papacy, and this it was that alarmed Martin V.
The most unscrupulous measures were employed by this
party. On the morning of the 8th of November, 1430,
placards were posted up on the Papal Palace and on
many other public places in Rome, asserting the necessity
of the Council, and threatening the Pope, that if he did not
shortly summon it, obedience would be withdrawn and he
would be deposed.f The sensation caused was immense ;
no one knew who were the authors of the placards, although
mention was made in them of two princes, by whose desire
they were put up.J According to Giovanni di Ragusa, from
this time forth the friends of the Council in Rome became
more confident, and urged the matter on the Pope himself.
On the ist January, 1431, he appointed Cardinal Cesarini
Legate of the Apostolic See for the forthcoming crusade
against the Hussites. A month later he also decided that
this Cardinal, who was on the side of reform, should
preside over the Council at Basle, from the moment of its
meeting, and should undertake its guidance. Two Bulls
were prepared for Cesarini, the first of which authorized
him to open the Council and preside over it ; and the
second, in case of necessity, to dissolve it or transfer it to
* Hergenrother, ii., 1,93.
t Mon. concil., i., 65-66.
J In Rome suspicion fell on Prince Frederick of Brandenburg
and his son-in-law Prince Louis of Brieg ; other people, certainly
unfairly, suspected Albert of Austria. Bezold (in, 85) does not
decide the question as to the origin of the placards, but considers
the deed of the 8th November to be in perfect accordance with the
character and the bold and secret policy of Frederick.
Theiner, Mon. Hung., i., 206 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES; 281
another city. The latter Bull, which has come down to us
through Giovanni di Ragusa,* clearly indicates the attitude
which Martin V. intended to assume towards the Council.
He justly apprehended further encroachments on the Papal
authority, which had already been seriously impaired by the
Schism, but before the necessity for extreme measures had
arisen, he died of apoplexy on the 2gth February, 143 i.f
Martin V., " the second founder of the Papal Monarchy,
and the Restorer of Rome/ was buried in the Lateran,
where his monument, erected in the time of Eugenius IV.,
is still to be seen, with his effigy in bronze and an inscrip
tion from the pen of the Humanist, Antonio Loschi, who
describes him as " the happiness of his age " (temporum
suorum felicitas).J
This praise is not unmerited, for whatever Martin may
have had to answer for in the way of inordinate love for
his relations and of evasion of the demands for reform, it is
certain that during the period of his Pontificate, Rome and
the States of the Church enjoyed an amount of prosperity
which had not been their lot for more than a century before
his accession, and which contrasted favourably with their
condition in the troubled reign of his successor. This
Colonna, who was highly endowed with a peculiar capacity
for ruling, a keen understanding, political sagacity and
determination, has the unquestioned merit of inaugurating
the restoration of the spiritual and temporal power of the
* Mon. Concil., i., 67. See Abert, 80.
f See ^Cardinal Antonio Correr s letter to the Florentines,
written on the day of the Pope s death. Appendix, N. 19, from
Cod. E., vi., 187 of the Chigi Library in Rome.
J Rasponus, 77. See Papebroch, 440 ; Reumont, iii., i, 484-485,
and Miintz, La Renaiss, i., 15. Palatius, 483; Ciaconius, ii., 828;
Tosi, tav., 66; Litta, f. 55, and Rohault de Fleury, Le Latran au
moyen-age (Par., 1877), P 1 - J S.
Such is also the opinion of Reumont, Beitrage, iv., 328 ; v., 56.
282 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Papacy after years of confusion ; of giving back to the
Eternal City her ancient splendour, and to the States of
the Church their importance, and of procuring for them a
golden age of peace. This is undoubted, even though we
may agree with Cardinal yEgidius of Viterbo, in lamenting
that from henceforth virtue was too often sacrificed to the
acquisition of power and wealth.*
II. EUGENIUS IV., 1431-1447.
The failings of Martin V. entailed much suffering on his
successor, the virtuous and austere Eugenius IV. A re
action against the mode of government of the departed
Pope, whose rigour towards his Cardinals and whose
favour towards his kindred had been alike excessive, began
in the Conclave. The Cardinals sought once for all to
protect themselves from the possibility of treatment such
as they had experienced, by drawing up a kind of Capitula
tion, in which rules for the conduct of the future Pope were
laid down. It was not the first time that such an attempt
had been made, for a document is still preserved in which
the Cardinals assembled in Conclave in 1352 imposed con
ditions on the Pope about to be elected. f After making a
* See the opinion of ^Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini (Comment, de
reb. Basil, gest.), in Fea, Pius, ii., 38, and Billii Hist. rer. Mediol.,
in Muratori, xix., 141-142. The passage from the *"Historia
viginti soeculorum " of ^Egidius of Viterbo is as follows :
" Atque hie quidem schismatum et calamitatum finis idemque
concordiae et glorise initium fuit, quae res etsi externis opibus
ornamentisque ecclesiam auxit, internis minuit ac prope exspoliavit ;
auctis enim gazis ac potentia honesti virtutisque interiit auctoritas,
luxus sumptusque adaucti sunt, omnium vitiorum genera excrevere,"
etc. Cod. C. 8, 19 of the Angelica Library in Rome.
f Raynaldus, ad an. 1352, N. 25-27. Hinschius (i., 270) remark,
that the Capitulation of 1352 is the first of its kind, must be set
aside, if the statements made in a document of the sixteenth
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
certain provision for the maintenance of his dignity, they
assigned to themselves all emoluments, and to him all
charges.* Innocent VI., the able Pontiff who came forth
from this Conclave, and who had himself, as Cardinal, sub
scribed the Capitulation, annulled it as uncanonical, because
the Cardinals in Conclave had gone beyond their powers in
drawing it up, and as rash, because it ventured to limit by
human statutes and definitions that plenitude of power
which God Himself had committed to the Holy See, in
dependently of all foreign will or consent. f The attempts
of the College of Cardinals to provide themselves with a
kind of Golden Bull were thus frustrated, three years before
Charles IV. bestowed one on the German Electors. J
century, recently published by Dollinger (Beitrage, iii., 343), be
confirmed. It gives a short retrospect of the history of Election-
Capitulations, and asserts that the custom dates from the Conclave
in which Boniface VIII. was chosen, and had been handed on since
from Conclave to Conclave. In any case Voigt (Enea Silvio, iii., 520)
is incorrect in assigning the origin of the limitation of the papal
monarch by Election-Capitulations to the Epoch of the Councils
* J. Gorres, in the Histor-polit. Bl., xvi., 331.
f Bullarium, iv., 506-508. Gorres, loc. tit. Canonists hold that
the observance of such Capitulations, which have been only forbidden
since the time of Innocent XII., Const. " Romanum decet " (1692),
must necessarily rest with the conscience of the Pope. See Hergen-
rother, iii., 348. See also the interesting *Treatise of Clemens
Tosius, addressed to Alexander VII. Cod. J., ii., 31, f. 425 et seq.
of the Chigi Library in Rome.
J Hofler, Zur Kritik und Quellenkunde der ersten Regierungs-
jahre Karls, v. (Wien, 1878), part 2, 58, where a special section
treats of the Capitulations of the Popes. It is strange that the
Capitulation of 1431 is not here mentioned. Regarding the
Election-Capitulations at the time of the Schism, see Bauer in
the Laacher Stimmen (1871), i., 480 et seq. Hiibler (69) and
Tschackert (258) treat of the project, originated at the Council of
Constance, of binding the Pope by a formal compact of an absolutely
legal character.
284 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The Capitulation of 1431 went, in some respects, even
further than that which had been framed before the election
of Innocent VI. The Pope, according to its terms, was to
reform the Roman Court " in its Head and its members/
and not to transfer it to another place without the consent
of the majority of the Sacred College ; he was to hold a
General Council, and by its means to reform the whole
Church ; in the appointment of Cardinals, he was to
observe the prescriptions laid down at Constance ; he w r as
not to proceed against the person or property of any one of
the Cardinals without the consent of the majority of the
body, nor to diminish their power of testamentary dis
position. Moreover, all vassals and officials of the States
of the Church were to swear fealty to the Sacred College,
which was to possess the half of all the revenues of the
Roman Church, and the Pope was not to undertake any
important measure in regard to the States of the Church
without its assent."*
These articles, which Eugenius IV. immediately pub
lished in a Bull, gave a new government to the States of
the Church and materially limited the temporal power of
the Pope. But the altered state of things was of short
duration. t
According to the description given by Vespasiano da
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1431, N. 5-7.
t Dollinger, Kirche und Kirchen, 519. In regard to that con
dition of the Capitulation, by which the Pope gave the Cardinals
possession of half of the income of the Roman Church, Aschbach
(iv., 15) most justly observes that it rendered the reformation of
the Holy See increasingly difficult ; and yet these very Cardinals
made Eugenius swear that he would follow the course on which
Martin V. had entered in the Convocation of the Council of Basle,
and would proceed with the work of Church reform, while, at the
same time, they required that he should make no concession which
could be prejudicial to the Papal dignity or to the Roman Court,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 285
Bisticci, Pope Eugenius was tall, of a handsome and
imposing presence, thin, grave, and dignified in his bear
ing. He made such an impression on those around him;
that they hardly ventured to look at him. During his
sojourn at Florence he seldom went out, but when he
appeared in public, his aspect inspired such reverence that
most of those who beheld him shed tears. " I remember,"
continues this writer, " that once, at Florence, during the
time of his exile, Pope Eugenius stood on a tribune erected
near the entrance to the monastery of Sta. Maria Novella,
while the people, who filled the Piazza and the neighbour
ing streets, gazed on him in silence. When the Pope
began the Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini/
nothing was heard but loud sobbing, so overwhelming was
the impression made by the majesty and the piety of the
Vicar of Christ, who, in truth, seemed to be He whom he
represented. "
Vespasiano further informs us that Eugenius manner of
life was most simple ; he drank no wine, but only water
with sugar and a little cinnamon. His repast consisted of
one dish of meat, with vegetables and fruit, both of which
he liked ; he had no fixed hour for meals, so his servants
always kept something ready for him. He willingly
granted audiences when his business was done ; was very
generous, and gave alms most bountifully; accordingly, he
was always in debt, for he did not value money and kept
nothing for himself. One day a poor Florentine citizen,
Felice Brancacci, appealed to the Pope for assistance.
Eugenius sent for a purse filled with florins and bid him
take as many as he liked. As the man timidly took but a
few, the Pope laughed and said : " Take plenty ; I give
you the money gladly." He parted with money as soon as
he received it.
Four monks and a secular priest, all of them excellent
286 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
men, were constantly with the Pope. Two of the monks
were Benedictines, and two belonged to his own Order,
that of the Augustinian Hermits. He recited the Divine
Office with them daily, rising regularly for matins. When
he awoke from his sleep, he had one of the books which
lay near his bed given to him, and read for an hour or two,
sitting up, with the book lying on a cushion before him
between two candles. The sanctity of his life won
universal veneration. Some of his relations came to him*
but they received no part of the temporal goods of the
Church, for he held that he could not give away that which
did not belong to him.*
Nevertheless, the Pontificate of Eugenius IV. was not a
happy one. His hasty and over-violent measures against
the relations of his predecessor at once involved him in a
serious contest with the powerful house of Colonna, during
which a conspiracy to surprise the Castle of St. Angelo by
* Vespasiano da Bisticci (identical with the anonymous author
cited by Raynaldus, ad an. 1447, N. 13), Eugenius IV., in Mai,
Spicil., i., 18-21. The generosity of the Pope is mentioned by
Miintz, i., 54 et seq. 1383 is given as the date of Gabriel Con-
dulmaro s birth ; (Condulmaro, not Condelmieri or Condelmero,
was his patronymic; see Cicogna, Iscriz. Venez., iv., 259). He
belonged to a noble Venetian family, but early resolved to renounce
the riches of this world and devote his life entirely to God and to
the Church. After the death of his father, he entered the Augus
tinian Monastery of S. Giorgio in Alga, near Venice, a religious
house, whose name holds an honourable place in the history of that
city for the valuable work done by its inmates during the later
years of the Schism (Reumont iii., i, 73). His maternal uncle,
Pope Gregory XII., conferred on him many ecclesiastical dignities,
the Bishopric of Siena, and finally the purple (1408). See Abert,
Eugen IV., 20-66. The election of Eugenius took place in the
monastery of Sta. Maria sopra Minerva ; see Cancellieri, Notiz,
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 287
a nocturnal attack was discovered and suppressed in
Rome.*
Almost as soon as this sanguinary struggle had been
concluded and the pride of the Colonnas humbled, fresh
disturbances of a far more dangerous character broke out.
The attendance at the Council which had been opened at
Basle on the 23rd of July, 1431, was very scanty, and on
the 1 8th of December in the same year, Eugenius IV.
issued a Bull dissolving it, and transferring it to Bologna,
where it was again to meet after the lapse of a year and a
half. Incorrect information and fear of the growing power
of Councils induced the Pope to take this momentous step,
which was a grievous mistake, prematurely revealing his
extreme distrust of the Council, before any act or decision
of that body had occurred to justify it.f Those who were
* For a further account of this dangerous conspiracy, see Vita
Eugenii, in Muratori, iii., 2, 869. Infessura, 1124. Blondus,
Dec. iii., lib. iv., 458 et seq. Platina, 672. Two **Despatches of
Francesco de Cattabeni and Matteo de Conradi, dated respectively
Rieti, 1 43 1, July 7, and Urbino, 1431, July 12 (both in the Gonzaga
Archives at Mantua), are also interesting. I shall give them later
on, in connection with a ^Discourse by Bartolomeo Zabarella, of
which I have obtained a copy through the kindness of Father H.
Schmid. The Discourse (**Sermo contra fratrem Thomam
priorem, qui fuit degradatus Rome et suspensus ad furcas et
tandem divisus in iv. partes, factus per Barth. de Zabarellis, Archi-
episcop. Spalatan. qui sentenciavit et degradavit eundem.) is in
Cod. 4 (saec. xv.), f. i84ab of the Library of Kremsmiinster.
f Ashbach, iv., 29. Even John of Palomar, although attached
to the Papal cause, in his Quaestio cui parendum est an S.D.N.P,
Eugenio IV. an concilio Basil, tamquam superiori (Dollinger,
Beitrage, ii., 420), admits that the Bull dissolving the Council pro
ceeded " ex falsis inform ationibus," and that the dissolution tended
"in perniciem ecclesise," and that accordingly opposition might be
offered to the Bull until the Pope, being better informed, withdrew
it; but he adds: "Sed ex causa rationabili et manifesta potest
concilium a Papa dissolvi nee aliqua lege contrarium statui posset,"
288 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
assembled at Basle evaded the public reading of the Bull
of Dissolution on the i3th of January by absenting them
selves from the place of meeting, and, on the 2ist of the
month, published an Encyclical Letter, addressed to all the
faithful, announcing their determination " to continue in
the Council, and, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, to
labour at the task committed to it."*" The secular powers
at once came forward and promised the little Assembly
their aid and protection, the menaces of Eugenius were un
heeded, and the partisans of the Synod became more
numerous. At this epoch the idea of a General Council
exercised a strange fascination on men s minds. It was
looked upon as the cure for all the ills of the Church. If
the disastrous Schism had been happily healed by this
means, would it not be equally efficacious in the matter of
reform ?f
The great victory gained by the Hussites at Taus, in
which the cross of the Legate Cesarini and the Papal
Bull proclaiming the Crusade fell into the hands of the
heretics, had the effect of giving fresh weight and power to
the Council. The humiliating defeat of the Crusading
army produced a general and most painful impression, and
contributed more than anything had yet done to strengthen
and extend a conviction of the futility of the line of action
hitherto pursued against the Bohemians, and of the neces
sity, not merely of ecclesiastical reform, but of amicable
negotiation with the Hussites. J These two measures seemed
practicable only by means of the Council, and therefore the
gifted Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini urged the Pope to recall
the Bull which dissolved it unfortunately his efforts were
* Mansi, xxix., 237-239.
t Birck, 14.
See Palacky, iii., 3, 4 et seq., and v. Bezold, iii., 158 et seq.
The candid, ardent, and powerful words addressed by Cesarini
to the Pope on January I3th, 1432, are given without a date in the
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 289
in vain, for Eugenius would not yield. In order to defend
themselves from the Pope, the members of the Synod of
Basle, who were sure of King Sigismund s protection, pro-
ceeded to re-assert the revolutionary resolutions by which
the Council of Constance had been declared superior to the
Pope (February 15, 1432). Measures of a yet more hostile
character soon followed. On the 2gth of April the Pope
and his Cardinals were formally summoned to Basle, and
threatened with proceedings for contumacy, in the event of
their failure to appear within a period of three months.
This was a decided step towards the revolution, for which
Nicholas of Cusa sought to furnish a scientific justification
in his treatise " On Catholic Unity."* An order published
Fascil. rerum expetend. ac fugiend. (Colonise, 1537), f. 27-32, and
in Brown, Fasc., i., 54. John of Segovia inserts the letter in full in
his Historical work : Mon. Concil., ii., 95-107 (the date is given?
but the text does not exactly agree with that of the Fasciculus) :
" Si concilium dissolvitur, quid dicent haeretici ? Nonne insulta-
bunt in nostros et sicut proterviores ? Nonne ecclesia fatebitur se
esse victam, cum non ausa fuerit exspectare ilios, qui vocaverat ?
. . . Quid dicet universus orbis, cum hoc sentiet ? nonne iudicabit
clerum esse incorrigibilem et velle semper in suis deformitatibus
sordeseere ? Celebrata sunt diebus nostris tot concilia, ex quibus
nulla secuta est reformatio. Expectabant gentes, ut ex hoc
sequerelur aliquis fructus ; sed si sic dissolvatur, dicetur quod
irridemus Deum et homines et quod, cum iam nulla spes supererit
de nostra correctione, irruent merito laici in nos more Husitarum.
. . . Nunquam fuisset celebratum aliquod concilium, si huiusmodi
timor invassisset corda patrum nostrorum, sicut invadit vestra."
* Kraus, 447. Scharpff (Nic. von Cusa, i., 32-112, and Nic. von
Cusa als Reformator, 69 et seq.} is far too lenient in his judgment
of the treatise, " De concordantia catholica." See on the other
side, Gieseler, ii., 4, 62, and Brockhaus, 15. The former observes
with some reason, that the work in question contains propositions
"which threatened the Papacy in its fundamental principles. 3 For
the rest, the investigations as to the meaning of the whole work are
inconclusive. See Schwab, in the Theol. Lit. Bl., 1867, p. 628-629.
W
2QO HISTORY OF THE POPES.
on the 26th of September, 1432, facilitated its accomplish
ment, by admitting representatives of the lower ranks of
the clergy to the Council in such overwhelming numbers,
that the higher ecclesiastics were completely deprived of
that moderating influence in such assemblies which un
doubtedly belonged to them.*
It is impossible to justify the course taken by the Synod
of Basle, which soon overstepped all bounds in its opposi
tion to Eugenius IV. At Constance, doubts regarding the
legitimacy of one or other of the Popes may in some
degree have excused adherence to the false theories by
which a way of escape from an intolerable position was
sought. The Basle Assembly now extended the Decrees
to the case of an undoubted Pope, whose position was
universally acknowledged. In its resistance to him, it
assumed the proud title of an QEcumenical Council, assem
bled and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and endeavoured
to make the extraordinary power, which the Synod of Con
stance had exercised under the pressure of extraordinary
circumstances, a precedent of general application. The
pretension of a handful of prelates and doctors to represent
the whole Catholic Church, would at other times have been
ridiculed ; now, they might count on success, partly be
cause of the confusion of opinion on such matters due to
the Schism, and partly because of the credit which Court
favour and effectual negotiations with the Hussites had won
for their Assembly. f The danger which threatened the
* O. Richter, Die Organisation und Geschaftsordnung des
Easier Concils. Inaugural-Dissertation (Leipzig, 1877), 35. See
also Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 102 et seq., who portrays the action of
the clerical Democrats extremely well.
t This is Hergenrother s opinion, ii., I, 97. Phillips speaks in
similar terms (iv., 450 et seq.). See also Dollinger s satirical
picture of the proceedings at Basle (Lehrbuch, ii,, I, 320 et seg.y.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 2QI
Papacy and the Church was of incalculable magnitude, for
if the Basle resolutions were carried into effect, the over
throw of the divinely-established constitution of the Church
was inevitable ; the Vicar of Christ became merely the first
official of a Constitutional Assembly. If priests dealt in a
similar manner with their Bishops and the faithful with
their priests, the dissolution of the whole Church would be
the necessary consequence.*
The Synod had entered on a course which was leading
to a new Schism, and this was clearly perceived in Rome.
The gravity of the whole position, the continued excite
ment in the States of the Church, combined with the
opposition to the Pope s line of conduct which had arisen f
" Instead of displaying practical energy," says Hefele (Tub. Quart-
alschr., 1847, P- 73) > " the members of the Council of Basle, as if
possessed by some spirit of mischief, kept constantly returning to
questions of principle, and speculations as to the relation between
Pope and General Council."
* So says Weiss, iii., 2nd ed., 1404. See Dux, i., 250. Not
content with overthrowing the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, in
June, 1432, the Assembly of Basle also made an attempt to deprive
him of the exercise of his temporal sovereignty by appointing a
new Legate and Governor for Avignon and Venaissin (Mansi,
xxix., 34-36.)
t See Aschbach, iv., 84. Voigt, Stimmen, 75, and A. Kluckhohn,
Herzog Wilhelm III., der Protector des Easier Concils (in the
Forschungen, ii., 559). St. Frances of Rome had also through
her confessor besought the Pope to come to terms with the Council.
His account of the matter (dated 1432, April 3) is interesting.
" E stando anche in extasi la beata me disse da parte dello apostolo
San. Thomao assai parole le quale non scrivo per la prolixita. Ma
in substantia disse che io andassi ad Papa Eugenio da parte dello
Signore, che li dicessi che se unissi collo consiglio da basilea perche
era pericolo della scisma, et che de ci6 se consigliassi con servi de
Dio insiemi colli cardinali, et quella determinatione che se faceva
colli bervi di Dio se facessi. Advenga che piu altre fiate in extasi
la beata me disse da parte dello Signore che io andassi allo dicto
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
in the Sacred College, at last induced Eugenius IV. to
yield, and to enter into negotiations with the Council.
Its overweening pretensions would have frustrated all
attempts to arrange matters, had it not been for the
exertions of Sigismund, who was crowned Emperor at
Rome on the 3ist May, 1433. The Pope recalled the
Decree dissolving the Council, and, reserving his own
rights and those of the Apostolic See, acknowledged it as
(Ecumenical in its origin and proceedings (i5th December,
I 433)> i n a Bull which, although it went to the utmost
possible limit of concession, did not expressly confirm the
Anti-Papal resolutions previously adopted by the Synod.*
This Bull was, so to speak, extorted from the Pope by the
extreme dangers which at the time threatened his position
in Italy .f
The very soul of all the Anti-Papal conspiracies was
Duke Filippo Maria Visconti, of Milan. The Venetian
Pope had incurred the hatred of this tyrant from the very
beginning of his reign, by showing favour to his enemies
the Republics of Venice and Florence. { Eugenius con-
Pontefice Papa Eugenio, che lo ammonissi de certe cose o vero li
recordassi. Onde andando io ad fare la ambasciata, et esso non
apprezzando lo dicto fui ammonito che non ce andassi piu, et che
lo lassassi nello suo volere. Disse anche che se pregassi molto il
Signore perche lanime non periscano per lo male lo quale se
apparecchiava." Armellini, Vita, 85-86.
* See Phillips, ii., 267; iv., 453. Hergenrother, ii., i, 103 */ seq.
Ealan, v., 114.
t Turrecremata, De ecclesia, i., ii., c. ico, p. 238.
} See Cipolla, 394 et seq., and L. Banchi, Istruzioni ad ambas-
ciatori Senesi e relazioni di essi alia republica 25 et seq. The
Florentines expressed their joy immediately after the Election of
Eugenius IV. Their * letter of congratulation to the newly-elected
Pontiff, dated 1430 (st. Flor.) March 5, contains the follow ing words,
"Gratulamur etiam nobis et civitati nostre, quod ea persona subli-
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 293
test with the Council furnished the Duke of Milan with a
welcome opportunity of avenging himself on the Pope,
by inducing his Condottieri Niccolo Fortebraccio and
Francesco Sforza to invade the unquiet States of the
Church. Both of these leaders professed to be acting by
the command of the Council of Basle.* Fortebraccio,
supported by the Colonna family,t made a rapid advance
to the very gates of Rome ; Eugenius fled to St. Angelo,
then to San. Lorenzo in Damaso, and lastly to the
Trastevere.f Some of the Cardinals thought the Pope s
cause quite desperate, and left the Eternal City. The
Savelli openly joined the Pope s enemies; among the
great Roman families, he had only some of the Orsini and
Conti on his side. His contemporary Flavio Biondo says,
" it is shorter to reckon those who remained true than
those who fell away."
In this extremity, being without any steadfast allies,
and surrounded by enemies, Eugenius IV. resolved to
yield to the demands of the Assembly at Basle.
mata est, que nos et civitatem nostram unice semper dilexit," etc.
Cl. x., dist. i., No. 31, f. 31. State Archives at Florence.
* In the Proclamation to the inhabitants of Macerata, Sforza
says : " lo son venuto per commandamento del Santo Concilio, el
quale essendo pienamente informato de la cattiva vita di Eugenio
PP., ut ipse dicit, e de li mail modi per lui continuamente tenuti
ecc." Compagnoni, 324. Regarding the letters in which Forte
braccio styles himself s. synodi et s. matris ecclesiae capitaneus
generalis, see Arch. stor. Ital., xvi., i., 366-367.
t Eugenius IV. published a Bull on the Qth October, 1433,
excommunicating the Colonnas ; see Theiner, Cod. iii., 322. The
Council then commended them to Gentile Orsini s protection ; see
the ** letter addressed to him by the Basle Synod, d.d. Basileae,
xv., Cal. Jan. A a nat. dom., 1434. The original is in the
Orsini Archives in Rome, ii., A. xiv., No. 6 1 a.
J Cronache Romane, 4.
See Papencordt, 473.
294 -HISTORY OF THE POPES.
After his reconciliation with the Council the Pope endea
voured to free himself from foes nearer home. In March,
1434, a treaty was concluded with Sforza, in virtue of which
this brave leader, the most distinguished General Italy had
known since the days of Julius Caesar, and the greatest
statesman of his time,* was appointed Vicar in the March
of Ancona and Standard Bearer of the Church. Eugenius
IV. also sought to come to an understanding with Forte-
braccio, but his advances were contemptuously repelled, and,
in conjunction with Niccolo Piccinino, Visconti s General,
the Condottiere laid waste the neighbourhood of the Eternal
City. Meanwhile emissaries from Milan, Piccinino, the
Colonna family, and, it may be, also from the Council, were
busily at work stirring up the Romans against the Pope.
Their success was greatly facilitated by the conduct of
Cardinal Francesco Condulmaro, who met the Roman
deputies when they came to complain of the miseries of
constant warfare and of the ruin of their property, with the
scorn of a Venetian noble. f
On the 2gth May, 1434, the Revolution broke out in
Rome ; the Capitol was stormed, the Pope s nephew im
prisoned, and finally a Republic proclaimed. Eugenius
IV. now resolved to fly.J On the 4th June he rode, in the
garb of a Benedictine monk, to the banks of the Tiber,
where a boat received him ; he was recognized as he was
sailing away, and a shower of stones was thrown at him.
Lying in the bottom of the boat and covered with a shield
* Sugenheim, 320.
t Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 43. Papencordt, 474.
J Blondus gives a graphic picture of these events, Dec. III., vi.
(Opp. ii., 481-484) ; see Masius, 45. The Florentines had already
offered their City to the Pope, in December, 1433 5 see *Nota ed
informatione a te Felice Brancacci ambasciadore . . . al santo
padre, d.d. xiii. di Decembre, 1433. CJ x., dist. i, N. 33, f.
88, se%. State Archives at Florence.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
295
he escaped uninjured to Ostia ; a galley thence conveyed
him to Pisa and Florence, and, like his predecessor, he
took up his abode there in the Dominican Monastery of Sta.
Maria Novella.*
The Roman Republic was of short duration ; after the
flight of the Pope the Eternal City became a prey to com
plete anarchy. The palace in the Trastevere where
Eugenius IV. had been living and the Vatican were
plundered by the populace, who also robbed the Papal
Courtiers.f Baldassare d Offida, the Papal Castellan, held
the Castle of St. Angelo, and with his artillery overawed
the adjacent parts of the City. The new Government at
the Capitol was bad and thoroughly incompetent ; the rulers
only despoiled the City, J and many who had hoped that the
overthrow of the Papal power would inaugurate a golden
age, were grievously disappointed. The Romans soon
perceived that nothing could be worse than the rule of
their own people, and that the " freedom " of the city,
which had been forsaken by most of its foreign inhabitants,
brought with it nothing but evil. A great desire for the
* Eugenius IV. arrived in Florence on the 23rd June, 1434-
The instructions for the Deputation sent to welcome him (*Nota
ed informatione a voi Mess. Francesco Castellani, Mess. Carlo
Federighi, Agnolo di Filipo Pandolfini, Ridolfo Peruzi, Bartho-
lomeo Ridolfi, Andrea di Rinaldo Rondinelli, Agnoli di Neri di
Mess. Andrea Vettori e Piero Bruneleschi) is dated June i6th. Cl.
X. dist. i, n. 33, f. 119, b. seq. State Archives at Florence.
t See Niccola della Tuccia, 142; Theiner, iii., 325, and *a
Brief addressed by Eugenius IV. to " Petro Nardi capell. ac. s.
palatii causar. audit, et Rudolfo ord. heremit. min. poenitentiario
necnon Thomce canonico S. Mariae Transtib. de Urbe," d.d. Pisis
anno inc. dom. 1434, quinto-decimo Cal. Julii Pontif. anno iv.
Copy from the Chartul. S. Mariae Tianstib. in Cod. Vatic. 805, i, f.
104-105.
} See Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 48.
Niccola della Tuccia, 146-147-
2 g6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Pope s return filled men s minds, but Eugenius thought him
self safer in his exile at Florence than in his capital, and
sent Giovanni Vitelleschi, Bishop of Recanati, to the States
of the Church as his representative. In October, 1434,
when he entered Rome, the people rose up with the cry :
" The Church ! the Church ! " and the Papal authority was
soon re-established.
Vitelleschi is one of the most remarkable figures of his
time. He belonged to a family of note in Corneto, bore
arms in his youth under Tartaglia, but entered the ecclesi
astical career after the accession of Martin V. He had,
however, no vocation to the priesthood, and his elevation
to the See of Recanati can only be accounted for by the
existing confusion of spiritual and temporal affairs. He
was a brave knight, but no pastor of souls, and, even under
the mitre, he retained the character and manners of a Con-
dottiere. In the field, his courage and military skill were
unsurpassed by any leader of the day. Had he not been
bound to the service of the Church, he would have won both
glory and power, as did Sforza, Niccolo Piccinino, and
others. He was ambitious, crafty, avaricious, and cruel, yet
there was something magnificent about him, and he was
determined and brave.* This man, who, according to
Infessura, struck all who saw him with fear, now went forth
with dauntless energy, not merely to humble the foes of the
Pope in the States of the Church, but to destroy them with
fire and sword. The first to feel the weight of his iron
hand was the ancient race of Vico, who had always been at
variance with the Pope. The City Prefect, Giacomo da
Vico, the last of the family, was compelled to surrender his
* I have borrowed the sketch of Vitelleschi s character from Papen-
cordt s remarkable work (477). See also Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 49
et seq.^ and Reumont, iii., I, 93 et seq.> 485 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES;
297
Castle of Vetralla, brought to trial, and then beheaded.
Eugenius IV. then raised Francesco Orsini to the rank of
Prefect of the City, at the same time greatly restricting the
jurisdiction of the office by appointing the Vicecamerlengo
Governor of the City and its territory, with authority in
matters of police and criminal cases.*
Vitelleschi s first successes were rewarded by his eleva
tion to the dignities of Patriarch of Alexandria and Arch
bishop of Florence. During his absence a fresh insurrec
tion, in which the Conti, Colonna, Gaetani, and Savelli took
part, broke out in Rome. The Patriarch, as Vitelleschi
now called himself, at once hastened back to execute
bloody vengeance on the offenders. The Castles of the
Savelli and Colonna were forcibly taken and destroyed;
and Palestrina, the principal fortress of the latter family,
was also compelled to surrender on the iSth August, 1436.7-
On his return to Rome he was received with honours such
as hitherto had been rendered to none but Popes and
Emperors. Senate and people determined to erect an
equestrian statue of him in marble on the Capitol, with
the inscription, " To Giovanni Vitelleschi, Patriarch of
Alexandria, the third Father of the City of Rome, after
Romulus." Winter brought him back to his native City of
Corneto, where he built himself a palace which, notwith
standing its present fallen condition, is one of the most
imposing examples still remaining in Italy of the transition
* See Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 51-52. Papencordt, 476-477.
Ciampi on N. della Tuccia, 407 et seq. The decree in favour of Fr.
Orsini is in Contelorius, De praef., 559. I have seen in the Carte
Strozz., in, f. 153, in the State Archives at Florence, an ^original
letter from "Jacobus de Vico almae urbis praefectus" to the City
of Siena, dated Civitavecchia, 1426, May 26.
t See Pelrini, Mem. Prenest., 175 et seq., 448. Coppi, Mem.
Col., 200.
298 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
from the Gothic to the Renaissance period of architec
ture.*
With the spring of the following year (1437) the work of
vengeance against the tyrants of the Campagna began
anew. In the end of March workmen were sent to Pales-
trina with orders to raze the city to the ground. The
terrible work went on for forty days, and even the churches
were not spared.f In the struggle for the throne of Naples,
Vitelleschi, by the command of Eugenius, espoused the
cause of Anjou, against Alfonso of Aragon, who harassed
the States of the Church from the South and kept up open
relations with the Pope s enemies. The Patriarch took
Antonio Orsini, Prince of Tarento, the most powerful of
Alfonso s partisans, prisoner, and the Pope acknowledged
this service by creating him Cardinal (August 9th, I437)-J
His other military enterprises in the Kingdom of Naples
were unsuccessful, and he returned to the States of
the Church to resume his merciless warfare against their
tyrants. Lorenzo Colonna had taken Zagarolo by surprise
in 1439. On the 2nd of April the Cardinal stormed the
place, and had it levelled to the ground ; fresh struggles
with Niccolo Savelli and the Trinci in Foligno followed.
Vitelleschi was again victorious ; the whole territory from
Civitavecchia to the Neapolitan frontier was in his power ;
* Papencordt, 479. See Petrini, 448-452. Coppi in Atti dell
Accad. Rom. di Archeol., xv., 328. N. della Tuccia, 55, N. 161,
168, 171 ; see also Atti dei Lincel., Serie iii., i., 324-325. A good
engraving of the Vitelleschi Palace at Corneto is given in Miintz,
La Renaissance, 165.
t The doorposts of the Cathedral of Palestrina are still to be seen
at the entrance of the Vitelleschi Palace. The destruction of the City
probably took place without the knowledge of the Pope. See Petrini,
177, 455-456.
| Cardinal Capranica protested against his elevation. See Cata-
lanus, 68, 218-225.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 299
four thousand horsemen and two thousand foot soldiers
were constantly in readiness to quell any resistance.
In Rome the Cardinal ruled with a despotism hitherto
unknown ; the Romans, weary of endless disquiet, forgave
everything because he maintained order; even his deeds of
cruelty were excused. " Never, up to the present day/
says the simple-minded Paolo di Liello Petrone, "has any
one done so much for the welfare of our City of Rome ; if
only he had not been so cruel ; although he was almost
compelled thereto on account of the corruption which
prevailed in Rome and its neighbourhood to such a degree,
that murders and robberies were committed by the citizens
and peasants by night and by day."* In order to restore
the Leonine City, Vitelleschi, following the example of
Romulus, sought to re-people this devastated quarter by
granting to it the privileges of asylum for criminals and
freedom from taxes, and civil autonomy.f The power of
the Cardinal was at its height when he suddenly fell.
This event is veiled in the deepest obscurity; it is more
than probable that the Florentines had a hand in it. His
enemies allied themselves with Antonio Rido, the Castellan
of St. Angelo, whose relations with Vitelleschi were
strained to the utmost. On the i9th March, 1440, Rido
had an interview with Vitelleschi, who had everything in
readiness for a fresh expedition to Umbria, on the Bridge
of St. Angelo. Rido kept the Cardinal in conversation
until his troops had passed over. Then, at a given signal,
the narrow door leading to the Borgo was shut, a chain,
* Muratori, xxiv., 1122. See P. G. P. Sacchi jr. in N. della
Tuccia, 171.
t See Bull. Vatic., ii., 92. Adinolfi, Portica, 54. Vitelleschi
also provided for the Hospital of Santo Spirito, *" 1440, April 2nd,
f J. Vitelleschi, qui plurima et gratissima servitia hospitali et ordini
S. Spiritus fecit." Cod. Vatic., 7871, f. 48, Vatican Library.
300 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
which had secretly been placed in readiness, was drawn
across the bridge, and Rido s soldiers pressed forward to
seize Vitelleschi. In vain did the Cardinal with his
followers endeavour to fight his way through. He was
wounded, dragged from his horse, and shut up in St.
Angelo ; his soldiers, on hearing the tidings, would have
stormed the castle, but Rido managed to appease them by
the publication of a Papal warrant for his arrest, the
genuineness of which they were unable to test. A fort
night later (2nd April) the Cardinal was a corpse."*
Such are the actual facts of the case, and everything else
is more or less uncertain. The words written by a con
temporary chronicler are still essentially true; no one
knew on what grounds Vitelleschi had been taken prisoner,
or who had given orders for his arrest, or if the real cause
of his death had been violence or poison. f
The question whether Eugenius IV. consented to the
imprisonment of his favourite is one which cannot be
answered with certainty ; yet many historians have affirmed
that he did, and it is most probable that Rido s action was
not altogether spontaneous and independent. Yet, if we
may believe his own letter to the Florentines, written
immediately after the arrest which is doubtful this
opinion cannot be maintained. Rido here declares that
Vitelleschi repeatedly endeavoured to wrest the fortress
* See Papencordt, 480-481, where the original sources of in
formation are very well put together. To these must now be added
the narrative of P. G. P. Sacchi jr, published by Ciampi (N. dclla
Tuccia, 172), and the important *letter of Rido to the Florentines
(see Appendix No. 20), which I discovered in the State Archives of
Florence.
t Cronaca Riminese, 937. Gregorovius (vii., 3rd ed., 73 et seq.)
says, * it is probable, although not proved, that Vitelleschi himself
was a traitor." Reumont (Hi., i, 97 f.), 1 Epinois (417); and
Cipolla (405 et seq.), speak more cautiously.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 301
from him, to the great detriment of the Church and of the
Pope, that he knew the Cardinal to be an open enemy of
the Pope, and that, therefore, he had on that very day taken
him prisoner, but without the permission of Eugenius, whom
he could not inform beforehand for want of time. This
remarkable letter concludes by saying " 1 have done to him
what he undoubtedly desired to do to me."*
This single document, taken by itself, is not sufficient to
decide the question positively, yet it is calculated to shake
our confidence in the often-repeated assertion that
" Eugenius consented to the imprisonment of his favourite. "t
A complete explanation of the complicated events of this
period can only be furnished by further researches in the
Archives.
The Pope was too much in the power of the Florentines
to condemn Vitelleschi s imprisonment, and Rido was at
once promoted to high dignity. It would seem that proofs
of the treasonable designs attributed to the Cardinal were
not forthcoming, for in subsequent Briefs the Pope
repeatedly speaks of him as his " beloved son." In a Brief
to the inhabitants of Corneto, his imprisonment is repre
sented as the accidental consequence of dissensions between
him and Rido, and then Scarampo s nomination as Legate
is announced without comment. This document contains
no word of complaint against Rido, who, like Vitelleschi,
is styled by the Pope " beloved son," but there is a passage
which seems directly to contradict the supposition that the
latter had wished to found a State for himself.J Scarampo,
like his predecessor, was a worldly-minded Prelate ; he had
* See the text in Appendix No. 20, from the original in the State
Archives in Florence.
t Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 74.
J See in Appendix No. 21, the text of the Brief which bears date
3rd April, 1440, and is preserved in the Archives of Corneto.
302 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
formerly been a physician, and it is said that Eugenius
owed his recovery from an illness to his care. Under
Vitelleschi, he followed the career of arms, later on he took
orders, was made Archbishop of Florence, and soon after
his appointment as Vitelleschi s successor, was raised to
the purple (July i, 1440).*
Pietro Barbo, son of Nicholas Barbo and Polyxena
Condulmaro, sister to Eugenius IV., was at the same time
created Cardinal. Barbo was extremely fond of splendour,
very generous, learned in Canon law, and an enthusiastic
collector of ancient coins and gems ; in a later portion of
this work we shall speak of his collections and of his palace.
A bitter and lasting feud existed between him and
Scarampo.
Scarampo s government of Rome was as severe as that
of Vitelleschi, but he did far more for the restoration of the
afflicted city, and has justly been praised for his efforts to
raise the Romans from the sloth into which they had fallen,
and to make of them civilized beings. f
The flight of Eugenius IV. to Florence the last event of
the kind until the flight of Pius IX. had, especially in one
respect, consequences of a far-reaching nature. J
The whole intellectual training of Eugenius, who, even
while he occupied the Papal throne, never ceased to be the
* See Ciaconius, ii., 919 et seq.\ Eggs, iii.-iv., 129 et seq. ;
Reumont, iii., i, 488 et seq.} Chroniche Anconit.,ed. Ciaverini, i,
1 66 ; Marini, Archiatri, i., 143, and Cancellieri, Notizie di alcune
celebre promozioni e specialmente di quella del card. L. Scarampo in
the Effem. lett. di Roma (Roma, 1822), viii., 29 el seq.
t See Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 616. Miintz, i., 36. The wealthy
Scarampo also collected antiques ; see Miintz, Precurseurs, 40 et seq.,
108, 128.
% Eugenius IV. was the twenty-sixth Pope who had been compelled
to flee from Rome. See the enumeration in Cod. 36, D. 2, f. 394 of the
Corsini Library in Rome
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 303
austere monk, tended to keep him untouched by the
Renaissance movement, but he was by no means indifferent
to the progress of science, and had given proof of his zeal
in this matter by his re-establishment (1431) of the Roman
University, which " had been completely ruined by the
misfortunes of the time, and the disunion of the Church."*
He also encouraged artists, and was well disposed to carry
on the work of Martin V., but the Roman Revolution of
1434 suddenly interrupted every effort of the kind.
Pope Eugenius IV. s choice of Florence, the home of
revived art and the intellectual centre of Humanism in
Italy, as his abode, was a matter of the greatest importance.
The Pope and his Court, by their lengthened sojourn theref
and by the negotiations with the Greeks, were brought into
the closest contact with the Renaissance; and the vehement
discussions which soon afterwards broke out in regard to
the Councils, compelled him to secure the services of skilful
pens, so as to fight his opponents with their own weapons.
The years spent in Florence, however, were of more weight
than all besides. It was impossible to live in the very
home of the Renaissance and remain insensible to its
influence. This was, however, a time of probation for the
Humanistic Secretaries of the Pope. The sources of
* See Savigny, iii., 319, 321. Renazzi, i., 116 et seq. F. Denifle
(Universitaten, T. i, p. 213) says with reason : "It is an ineffable
glory for the name of Eugenius IV. to have assisted in the work of
restoration of the Roman University."
t Eugenius IV. arrived at Florence on the 23rd June, 1434, and
remained there until April, 1436, when he went to Bologna.
Shortly before his departure he consecrated the Cathedral, whose
cupola had been completed by Brunelleschi two years before. See
C. Guasti, La Cupola di St. Maria del Fiore (Firenze, 1857), 9,
37, 89. On the 27th January, 1439? Eugenius returned to Florence
for the Council and stayed there until the 7th March, 1443 (not the
end of I442,_as von Ottenthal, 29, states). See Graziani, 526 n
304 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
remuneration failed, and in consequence many members of
the Court left their Master. Among the few who remained
faithful was Flavio Biondo/* who had been appointed Apos
tolic Secretary early in the year 1434. In his simplicity,
modesty, and purity of life this hard-working man, who
was a representative of the Christian Renaissance, forms a
consoling contrast to the unprincipled Poggio and his
fellows.f The Pope had a great regard for him, and
Biondo, on his side, manifested his gratitude by dedicating
to Eugenius IV. his historical description of the City of
Rome (" Roma Instaurata "). This is in some respects a
very remarkable work, being the first topographical
account of the Eternal City founded on a systematic use
of documentary sources of information. It is also full of
original, though often mistaken, ideas. Biondo is, in fact,
the founder of a special branch of science that of topo
graphy. J His book abounds in information regarding
Christian Rome. Unlike Poggio, from whose " Wander
ings through Rome" all allusion to this aspect of the
Eternal City is carefully excluded, Biondo, the Christian
Humanist, brings it prominently forward. With Petrarch,
he believes that the majesty and glory of Rome stand on
another and surer foundation than the vanished pomp of
Capitol and Palatine, the renown of her Consuls and Legions.
At the end of the third book he gives a complete list of the
principal churches, chapels, and holy places. He justly prizes
the sanctuaries and relics of Our Lord, the handkerchief of
* Regarding his appointment see Wilmann s account, derived
from the Archives in Gott. Gel. Anz., 1879, p. 1495-1497.
t Masius, 21, tells us how Biondo kept aloof from Poggio.
Biondo s epitaph, which has often been given incorrectly, is to be
found in Casimiro, 265 et seq., as well as in the places named by
Masius (5).
J See Masius, 49 et seq. Jordan, Topographic der Stadt Rom
im Alterthum (Berlin, 1878), i., i, 77.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 305
St. Veronica, and the shrine, Domine quo vadis, and those of
the Apostles and Martyrs, as the peculiar and inalienable
treasure of Rome. The thought of the glorious remains
preserved in the Eternal City consoles him for the ruin
which meets him on every side. An intelligent interest in
Christian antiquity pervades the whole work, which, at its
commencement, undertakes to point out the sanctuaries of
the martyrs, and especially to inform its readers where and
by whom the churches were built. Accordingly, through
out the whole of the first volume, which follows the topo
graphical order, the churches are introduced together with
the edifices of ancient Rome. The restoration of eccle
siastical buildings, accomplished by the zeal of Eugenius
IV., is repeatedly mentioned in terms of the highest praise ;
and other works are not unnoticed, as, for example, the
magnificent completion of the Palace of San Lorenzo in
Lucina, whose foundations had been laid in 1300, and
whose construction had been carried on by many successive
Cardinals ; also the rebuilding of the bridges connecting
the Island of the. Tiber with the rest of Rome, by order of
Eugenius IV, It will be seen that Biondo may fairly claim
the title of founder of Christian and mediaeval topography.*
To give an account of all the Humanists who entered the
Papal service during the Pontificate of Eugenius IV. does
not fall within the scope of the present work.f We need
only remark that their number was surprisingly great and
that, notwithstanding the Pope s austerity, little or no
regard was paid in their selection to Christian conduct or
to religious sentiments. At this time, indeed, the
antagonism which afterwards appeared was still latent, and
the partisans of the Christian and Heathen Renaissance
* Piper, Einleitung, 668-669. See also Reumont, iii., i, 312;
and Burckhardt, Cultur, i.,-3rd ed., 226-227.
f See Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 32-44.
X
3 6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
associated freely with one another. The literary gatherings
which took place every morning and evening at Florence,
in the vicinity of the Papal residence, with Manetti,
Traversari and Parentucelli included also Poggio and Carlo
Marsuppini, who on his death-bed scorned the consolations
of Religion.*
The decision with which Eugenius forbade Valla s return
to Rome, when he sought forgiveness and offered his
services and his measures against Beccadelli s disgraceful
book, prove, nevertheless, that he did not practically ignore
the dangers of the heathen Renaissance. It is probable
that he would have opposed it in a far more energetic
manner, had not the contest with the Council of Basle taxed
all his powers to the utmost, and made the greatest con
sideration towards the Humanists with their ready pens a
necessity. The Pope feared them, because, as he once
observed, they were not w r ont to pass over an injury, and
because they could avenge themselves with weapons which
were hard to parry. f Humanistic studies were warmly
encouraged in this Pontificate, as they had been in the pre
ceding one, by Cardinals Giordano Orsini (11438), Alber-
gati (71443), Giuliano Cesarini (11444), Prospero Colonna,
and Domenico Capranica. The last-named Cardinal had a
choice library of two thousand volumes, which he generously
* See supra p. 27. According to Voigt, the dignity of Papal
Secretary was in the case of Marsuppini purely honorary, and he
may never have drawn up a document for the Chancery.
t -^Egidius of Viterbo has preserved this saying of the Pope s.
*Historia viginti sseculorum : " Amavit hie viros doctos per-
multisque liberalis adniodum fuit dictitans doctorum virorum non
modo amandam eruditionem, sed etiam indignationem formidan-
dam quippe qui impune laedi non soleant : telis illos armatos esse
quae vitari non possint." Cod. C. 8, 9, f. 286 of the Angelica
Library in Rome.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 307
opened to all students.* Gerardo Landriani (ti445)
another patron of the Humanists, was raised to the purple
by Eugenius IV. at the Council of Florence. He had a
valuable library of classical works, many of which were rare .
His learning was justly esteemed, and the discourses which
he made before the Council of Basle and as Ambassador to
the King of England, were transcribed, and regarded as ele
gant compositions. t This Cardinal was on friendly terms
with Marsuppini, Poggio, and even Beccadelli, a circum
stance which gave no offence to their contemporaries. It
became more and more the custom to flatter the Humanists
on account of their literary services. Those were the days
when the ascetic Albergati held constant intercourse with
half-heathen wits, and the pious Capranica welcomed
Poggio s letters and addressed him as his " very dear
comrade."!
Besides these Cardinals we must mention Bessarion as
a diligent collector of books, a laborious author, and a
friend and patron of scholars. He was the protector of all
the learned Greeks who had any reason to apply to the
Papal Court.
It is not easy to pronounce a general judgment as to the
circumstances which prepared the way for the Pontificate
of the first Humanist who ever mounted the Papal Throne,
yet we may safely say that the contact of Pope and Court with
the vigorous literary life of Florence had in some respects
a very beneficial effect. On the other hand, however, it
was undoubtedly one of the contributing causes of that
predominance of Humanists in the Roman Court which, in
* Catalanus, 129.
t Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nded., 31.
J See Catalanus, 262.
Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 29-31. Vast, Bessarion, 165 et seq. See
infra p. 319, et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
itself, and still more on account of their heathen tendencies,
awakened grave apprehensions.*
The Italian troubles consequent on the exile of Eugenius
were small compared with those provoked by the Assembly
at Basle. Neither the fact of his compliance nor his
defenceless positionf availed to soften the hearts of the
bitter enemies of the Papacy in that City. The reconcilia
tion had been only apparent, and the feelings of the
majority were unchanged, so that the fanatical partizans of
the Council soon gained the upper hand. Their leader was
Cardinal Louis Allemand of Aries, and their object was to
make the Council permanent and endow it with all the
attributes of sovereignty, judicial, administrative, legisla
tive, and executive, with the Pope as its more or less
necessary appendage. J Instead of the reform of the
ecclesiastical abuses, which in many countries had reached
a fearful pitch, the diminution of the Papal authority and
the destruction of the monarchical character of the Church
became the chief business of the Synod.
A decree abolishing at one blow all annates, pallium-
fees, taxes, and other charges was issued by this Assembly,
and was well calculated to provoke a desperate struggle
between the Pope and the Council. A Protestant his
torian remarks that this " decree, even if in itself just
and necessary, was, with such extensive provisions, at this
moment, a party measure of extreme violence. The Pope,
with a portion of his Court, was in exile at Florence, and
* Reumont, iii., i, 314.
t " Stava in Firenze," writes Nic. della Tuccia, 144, "senza
corte e senza cardinal!."
J Hergenrother, ii., i, 106-107. Hefele, vii., 583 tt seq., gives a
full account of the intrigues of this party.
.. For the decrees of reform published by the Council, see
Hefele, vii., 593 et seg.
HISTORY OF THE POPES, 309
dependent on the alms of his allies. He was more than
ever in need of money for subsidies to the troops, by
whose help alone he could recover for himself, and for the
Church, the territories which had been wrested from her or
had revolted against her. And, at this very time, his last
source of revenue was cut off. In vain did the Papal
Legates ask how the officials of the Court were to be paid,
embassies kept up, exiled prelates supported, and heretics
and enemies of the Church overcome. It seemed as if the
Council counted on the Pope s disobeying its decree and
thus giving fresh occasion for judicial proceedings. There
was a tone of irony in the discourses which were con
stantly made in praise of Apostolic poverty, and in the
suggestion that the Pope, undisturbed by temporal cares,
could live entirely for the service of God. At Constance,
the abolition of the annates had been demanded, but in
view of the Pope s defenceless position, deferred. This
consideration was at that time an act of forbearance, now
it was a duty."*
Further decrees against the Pope soon followed. They
were so prejudicial to the undoubted rights of the Holy
See that Eugenius IV. was constrained to address a
memorial to all the European Powers, making bitter com
plaints of the unheard of presumption of the Synod. It
had, he says, degraded his Legates by arbitrarily limiting
their authority ; made their presidency merely nominal by
resolving that its decisions should be published by others
and without their consent ; transformed itself into a head
less body; subjected the Pope, by a false interpretation of
* Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 76-77. See also Raumer, 129-130
Aschbach, iv., 356-357; Birck, 7, and Zhishman, 93 et seq. The
Protestant C. A. Menzel says (vii., 127) that the proceedings of
the Council were calculated to reduce the sole Ruler of the Church
to the position of a mere servant of the Council.
310 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Constance decrees, to the censorship of the Synod, in a
manner unknown to former times ; undertaken an immense
amount of business, and involved itself in discussions
altogether foreign to its proper object ; given away many
benefices; erected commenda; granted Papal dispensa
tions ; demanded for itself the annates refused to the
Pope ; assumed the right of dealing with cases reserved to
the Holy See ; and suppressed the Prayer for the Pope in
the Liturgy. The undue extension to private persons of
the right of suffrage, in direct opposition to the ancient
custom of Councils, is justly viewed by the Pope as the
chief source of all this confusion. Measures adopted at
Constance with a view to the unanimcus decision of the
great question of the Schism, a matter of universal con
sequence were made applicable to all cases and extended
in their scope. With a fallacious appeal to this isolated
example, an assembly, the majority of whose members
were men of no real weight, proceeded to deal with affairs
of the utmost importance, gave forth as the decisions of a
General Council decrees which had been drawn up in an
unlawful and precipitate manner, and endeavoured to over
turn the constitution of the Church. For these reasons the
Pope deemed that it was time for princes to recall their
Bishops and Ambassadors from Basle, and so render
possible the assembling of another and better-disposed
Council.*
The complaints of Eugenius, who was unwilling to let
his high dignity become a mere shadow, were fully justified,
for the conduct of the clerical democracy at Basle went
beyond all bounds. The majority of the Assembly con
sisted of Frenchmen, and offered no opposition to any
measure directed against the exiled Pope ; the most
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1436, n. 2, 16. See Dollinger, ii., i, 331.
Hergenrother, ii., i, 108. Creighton, ii., 127.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 311
fanatical party seized every opportunity of "making him
feel their power and ill-will.* Their real object was
declared with admirable candour by the Bishop of Tours
in one of the Sessions in the following words : " We must
either wrest the Apostolic See from the hands of the
Italians, or else despoil it to such a degree that it will not
matter where it abides." f The Council \vould have pro
ceeded yet further in this direction but for a crisis
occasioned by the negotiations for union with the Greeks.
The history of these negotiations shows that the Pope
alone sincerely sought for union. The Greek Emperor
used the idea as a talisman to procure aid against the
Turks ; the members of the Council of Basle hoped by its
means to gain a fresh victory over the Pope, and, by a
great success, to recover their hold on public opinion,
which was threatening to turn against them.J The choice
of the place where the Union Council should meet led to
fresh discord between the Pope and the Assembly at
Basle. In its Session of the yth May, 1437, an important
decision was arrived at. The Anti-Papal party, led by
Cardinal Louis Allemand of Aries, had, shortly before this
Session, so strengthened itself by the admission of a
number of ecclesiastics from the neighbourhood of Basle,
that it could command a majority. Amidst violent opposi
tion it decided that Basle should be the place of meeting,
or, if this city were not convenient for the Greeks,
* Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 109. Dollinger, ii., i, 330. See Dux,
i., 288 et seq., and Lederer, 61.
f ^Eneas Sylvius, Commentarius, ed. Fea, 62. For an account
of the French efforts to re-establish the Avignon Papacy, see Hefele,
vii., 603-604.
J This is Pichler s view, i., 389. See Zimmermann, 89 et seq. y
and Zhishman s unfortunately uncompleted work on the negotiations
for Union, 18 et seq.^ 125 et seq.
312 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Avignon, or some city in Savoy, and also that a general
tithe should be levied on Church property to meet the
necessary expenses. A minority of the Assembly, includ
ing Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini and the most esteemed
among the Prelates, voted for the selection of Florence or
Udine, which had been proposed by the Pope."*
The Pope approved of the decision of the minority, and
did everything in his power to hinder the execution of the
Decree of the majority. He saw plainly the object of the
contemplated transfer of the Council from Basle to Avignon
to be the establishment of the Roman Court under French
protection in the latter city, after his death or deposition.
This purpose explains the obstinacy with which Cardinal
Louis Allemand and his followers held to Avignon in spite
of the objections of the Pope, ever mindful of the disastrous
results of the sojourn of his predecessors in that city,
and of the Greeks, which were founded on its great
distance from their country. The objections of the Greeks
frustrated all negotiations between them and the Cardinal s
party, while the superior skill of the Papal diplomatists
completely won them over to the side of their master, f
The Pope s success provoked his adversaries at Basle to
the utmost, and on the 3rd July, 1437, they issued a monitum,
in which, after pouring forth a torrent of accusations against
him and even laying all the political miseries of the States
of the Church to his charge, they summoned him to appear
before their tribunal. A Bull, published on the iSth
* Aschbach, iv., 369. Zhishman, 168 et seq., Hefele, vii., 645
et seq. The two decrees were read at the same time, the two
parties standing opposite each other in the Cathedral in an attitude
so hostile that a bloody encounter was to be apprehended at .any
moment !
t Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 129. Hefele, vii., 648 et seq., 654
et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 313
September, was the Pope s reply to this summons ; it
declared that the six years duration of the Council of Basle
had produced a surprisingly small result. He made known
to all Christendom its evil doings, and should it undertake
any measures against him and the Cardinals, or persist in
its adherence to the monitum, he required its immediate
removal to Ferrara, a city which had been named by the
Greeks and which he approved. On the publication of the
Bull, the Synod was at once to discontinue its labours,
except in regard to Bohemian affairs, which might proceed
for thirty-one days more. In any case, however, on the
arrival of the Greeks and their ratification of the selection
of Ferrara, the Pope transfers the Council to that city, and
there, in presence of the new Synod and before the whole
world, he will justify his conduct and clear himself from the
accusations made against him at Basle. At the same time
he annulled the transfer of the Council to Avignon, sum
moned all who had a right to be present to meet at
Ferrara, and formally made the removal to that city known
to all the citizens of Basle and to all the illustrious
Universities."*
The Synod declared this Bull invalid, and threatened the
* Hefele vii., 650-651. The sterility of the Basle Council, com
plained of by Eugenius IV., is thus described by ^Eneas Sylvius in
his Commentarius, ed. Fea, 62 : " Ceterum in communi de
moribus, de pietate, de iustitia, de modestia cleri ac populi nihil
agebatur. Pluralitas beneficiorum, quia multos tangebat, pro-
hiberi nunquam potuit. Habitus episcopates, qui apud Alemannos
leniusculi (leviusculi ? ) sunt, reformari non valuerunt nee arma
prohibita sacerdotibus nee venationes aut aucupationes non fastus
mmius sublatus ; quamvis Julianus aurea mulis fraena subtraxerit
lege manuali, quae paucibus mensibus duravit. Non prohibita
sumptuosa prandia, non famulatus laicalis, non pecuniaria iudicia,
non multitudo ignorantium sacerdotum. Sola reformatio sancta
videbatur, si sedes apostolica nuda relinqueretur."
314 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Pope with suspension and deposition. In vain did Cardinal
Cesarini once more endeavour to make peace. In a long
and fervent discourse, he earnestly entreated the members
of the Synod to lay aside all hatred and strife and meet the
Greeks/* and send ambassadors to them. Should the
Greeks refuse to come to Basle, Avignon, or Savoy, he
urged concession to their wishes, inasmuch as union was
the principal matter and the place but a secondary con
sideration. He also insisted on reconciliation with the
Pope, lest they should become a laughing-stock to the
Greeks. But his words fell upon deaf ears, and with his
numerous friends he left Basle.f
The learned Nicholas of Cusa and other distinguished
theologians also at this time separated themselves from the
Council, and espoused the cause of the Pope. They have
been severely blamed for the step and accused of want oi
principle. But, as the historian of these events very justly
observes, " is it impossible that a man should enthusiastically
cling to a party as long as he is fully persuaded of the good
ness, justice, and usefulness of its aims and proceedings, and
when he sees it enter on an evil course and persist in it in
spite of all warnings, should sever himself from it and
oppose it ? Is not this the duty of every honourable and
truth-loving man ? The estimable Cardinal Cesarini and
the great Nicholas of Cusa were warm partisans of the
Council of Basle as long as they believed it to be animated
by zeal for the improvement of the condition of the Church,
for the conversion of those in error and for the restoration
of peace and unity. When, however, it became more and
more evident that no true regard for the welfare of the
Church, but paltry obstinacy and party feeling, ruled its
* The Greeks had embarked in November, 1437, in ships
furnished by the Pope. See Zhishman, 215-218 et seq.
t Hefele, vii., 653-657.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 315
decisions ; when the hatred of the majority of its members
for the Pope had made Schism with all its terrible conse
quences imminent, these men considered themselves bound
to abandon the cause of the Synod, and thereby, as far as in
them lay, avert the threatened calamity."*
While the Synod of Basle thus lost its best ad
herents, the Council, which had been opened at Ferrara
on the 8th January, 1438, by Cardinal Albergati, at once
attained the greatest importance. On the 4th March
the Greek Emperor, John Palaeologus, appeared with a
numerous train of Greek dignitaries and theologians,
amongst whom were Mark of Ephesus, Bessarion of
Nicaea, and Gemistos Plethon ; four days later the Greek
patriarch Joseph followed. Eugenius IV. had been there
ever since the end of January, and immediately after his
arrival had convened the members of the Assembly to a
solemn Congregation in his private chapel, laid before
them the state of his relations with the Synod of Basle,
and exhorted them to begin the work of reformation by
their own amendment. t
The negotiations with the Greeks dragged on for more
than a year, and often it seemed as if the Assembly would
disperse without accomplishing its end. Political neces-
* Hefele in Aschbach s Kirchenlexikon, i, 498. See Histor.
polit. Bl. xii., 599 et seq. ; Hofler in d. Munch. Gel. Anz. 1848, p.
478 et seg., 482 ; and Dux, i., 166-168 ; ibid.) 227 et seq., 233 et seq.
concerning the subsequent labours ot Cusa in the cause of Eugenius
and for the cardinal point of ecclesiastical organization. The cele
brated J. Nieder also left Basle at the beginning of the year 1436 ;
see Schieler, 368.
t Cecconi, St. del Cone, di Firenze (1869), i., 208. Hefele, vii.,
663. The latter justly observes : "The advice was excellent, for
while many talked more than enough about improvement, no results
were to be seen ; Eugenius had already written to the Basle Synod
that good examples and deeds were needed, not words."
3 1 6 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
sities at last induced the Greeks to give way, and in July,
1439, tne union, which proved but a temporary one, was
effected at Florence, the Council having been in the mean
while transferred to that city.* A document in which the
conditions of union were laid down, was signed on the 5th
July, 1439, by all the ecclesiastical dignitaries present in
Florence, with the exception of some bitter opponents
among the Greeks, and on the 6th July it was solemnly
read in the Cathedral. It is still preserved as one of the
most precious treasures of the Laurentian Library.
The Pope hastened to make the good tidings known
throughout Christendom, and to appoint public prayers
and processions, in order to thank God for the happy
event, and implore Him to perfect His work, and bring the
proud barbarian nations also beneath the yoke of the
Christian Faith, f
The success obtained by Eugenius was indeed immense,
for, even if the hatred of the Greek to the Latin nations
made the union continue to be rather one on paper than a
living reality, yet it was the accomplishment of that which
had long been deemed impossible; a Schism, before whose
extent and danger even the Papal Schism seemed small,
had been dogmatically healed, and the great boon of a
reconciliation, which it was hoped would be world-wide,
* The plague only furnished a pretext for the removal of the
Union Council to Florence. Frommann (25 et seq.} shows that
Eugenius IV. desired the migration purely on financial grounds,
Florence having most liberally provided the necessary resources,
not, however, without some prospect of advantage and guarantee for
repayment.
t See Raynaldus, ad an. 1439, N - 9 anci ChmeK, Mat., i., 2, 51-52.
(Letter of the yth July to Duke Frederick of Austria, beginning
with the words : " Gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax homi-
nibus bonse voluntatis.") The Latin and Greek text of the Decree
of Union, after the copy in the Laurentian Library, has been pub-
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 317
was due to the persecuted Pope.* It was difficult at
that period to form an opinion as to the duration of the
union, but there was a more or less general impression
that the submission of the Greeks would tend to the exalta
tion of that Papal authority which the Council of Basle had
set at naught.f
The dogmatical decision regarding the extent of the
Papal power, embodied in the Union Decree of the Council
of Florence, was of extreme importance to western
Christendom, which had not yet recovered from the effects
of the great Schism. An (Ecumenical Council J now pro
nounced the Pope to be the head, not merely of individual
Churches, but of the Church Universal, to derive his power,
not from the will of the faithful, but immediately from
Christ, whose Vicar he is ; and to be not only the Father,
but also the Teacher, to whom all Christians owe sub
mission^ The publication of this decision, which has
become the essential foundation of the theological develop
ment of the doctrine of the Primacy, was a mortal blow to
the very root of the Schism. ||
Apart from their dogmatic aspect, these negotiations with
lished with explanations by C. Milanesi in the Giornale storico
degli Archivi toscani (Firenze, 1857), i., 196 et teg.
* Hofler, Roman- Welt, 208.
t Creighton, ii., 192-193.
% See Heinrich, ii., 413 et seq.
Hergenrother, ii., i, 201 ; 1 1 1, 390 et ssq. See ibid., Staat und
Kirche, 968 et seq., and Hefele, vii., 741-761. The literature
treating of the pretended falsification of some copies of the Union
decree in the passage concerning the Primacy, is here brought for
ward and examined.
|| Lederer, Torquemada, 13. The Constitution " Moyses,"
published in September, 1439, by Eugenius IV., breathes a con
sciousness of increased power, and condemns the revolutionary
proceedings of the Council of Basle in the strongest terms.
318 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the Greeks hold an important place in the history of
literature and civilization. The results of the new intellec
tual intercourse between East and West, between Greek
and Latin culture, were immense, especially in the promo
tion of the study of the Greek language and the introduc
tion of the Greek philosophy, both of which had hitherto
been almost unknown to Western Christendom.
On the Roman Court the influence exercised was an
abiding one, and tended to give the Humanist element a
power even greater than that which it had already attained.
Eugenius IV. required men who were able to translate
Greek, and to hold personal interviews and disputations
with the representatives of the Greek Church, and accord
ingly, although himself untouched by the spirit of the
Renaissance, he was constrained to take a number of
eminent Greek scholars, who were Humanists, into his
service. These men were fully employed, to judge from
Guarino s declaration that from the time of the arrival of
the Greeks he had not enjoyed a quiet hour. The official
interpreter in the disputations was Niccolo Sagundino of
Negroponte, a man of business rather than a scholar.* It
was during the progress of these long-drawn negotiations
with the Greeks that Tommaso Parentucelli, one of the
noblest representatives of the Christian Renaissance, gave
those brilliant proofs of his knowledge of theological
literature, which attracted the attention of the Pope and
thus paved the way for his own subsequent elevation to the
supreme dignity. t
The Greek Bessarion, and the Camaldolese monk, Ambro-
gio Traversari, the special favourite of Eugenius, whom we
* See Voigt, Wiederbelebung, ii., 2nded., 118.
t Parentucelli likewise distinguished himself in the negotiations
for union with the Armenians, Jacobites, and Ethiopians. See
Mai, Spicil., i., 30.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
319
have already mentioned, took a yet more important part in
these proceedings. To the latter belongs the honour of
having drawn up the Act of Union in both languages ; it is
plain, however, from careful investigation that Bessarion s
share in the composition of this document was consider
able.*
Bessarion, a great man and a great scholar, has been
justly regarded as the last Greek of note before the
complete downfall of his nation.f He was born at
Trebizond early in the fifteenth century, and was of
humble origin. After studying for some time at Con
stantinople he entered the Basilian Order in 1423, and in
the same year went to the Peloponesus and zealously
applied himself to philosophy and mathematics under the
guidance of Gemistos Plethon. His natural aversion to
anything extreme and exclusive, either in conduct or in
science, made the office of mediator and peacemaker
peculiarly congenial, and gave him a special fitness for
the management of the difficult negotiations regarding
union. He passed rapidly through the different grades c r
ecclesiastical promotion until he became Archbishop of
Nicaea, and as such accompanied the Greek Emperor to
* See Studien und Forschungen iiber das Leben und die Zeit des
Cardinals Bessarion, 1395-1472. Abhandhungen, Regesten und
Collectaneen von Wolfgang von Goethe, i. Die Zeit des Concils
vonFlorenz, i. Printed as MS. (Jena, 1871).
t Von Hase in Ersch-Gruber, Encykl., Section i, Vol. IX., p. 295.
Materials for a Biography of Bessarion have been well put together
by Voigt (n, 2nd ed., 124, note). Raggi s Commentario sulla vita
del card. B. (Roma, 1844), dedicated to Cardinal Mario Mattei, is,
in my opinion, of no value. Vast s work (Paris, 1878) is far from
satisfactory. I have not been able to get a sight of Sadov s Mono
graph, published in St. Petersburgh, 1883 (see Revue des quest, hist.,
1884, Janv, p. 271). Regarding Bessarion s relations to Grottaferrata,
see Rocchi, La Badia di S. Maria di Grottaferrata (Roma, 1884).
320 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Italy. His moral worth and persuasive eloquence made a
deep impression on all who saw him in Ferrara and
Florence. After the happy conclusion of the union,
Bessarion went for a short time to Greece, but soon
returned to Italy, where he joined the Latin obedience, and
on the 1 8th December, 1439, was raised to the purple,
together with Archbishop Isidore.* He was now commonly
known by the name of Nicenus, while Isidore was called
Ruthenus. Bessarion s proceeding has been the subject
of severe and most unjust censure. But this step
seems amply accounted for both on personal and external
grounds, if we regard it as a consequence of the Union of
the Churches and the attendant negotiations, nor does it
involve any change either of opinion or belief. Bessarion s
subsequent bearing towards his former associates was uni
formly noble and generous. f With a heart full of the
ideal of that union which unfortunately was to prove so
short-lived, he strove in his new country to promote the
study and appreciation of Greek learning, and became its
able Humanistic exponent.J He also studied Latin, and
was zealous in his labours for the Church, for the cause of
* On this occasion no less than seventeen new Cardinals were
created. Besides the two Greeks whom we have mentioned, there
were five Italians (Joannes ex comitibus Taleacottii, Nicolaus de
Acciapacio, Georgius Fliscus, Gerardus Landrianus, and Albertus
de Albertis), four Frenchmen (Reginaldus de Chartres, Ludovicus
de Lucemburgo, Joannes Juvenis and Guillelmus de Estouteville),
a Spaniard (Joannes de Turrecremata), an Englishman (Joannes
Kemp), a German (Petrus a Schaumberg), a Portuguese (Antonius
Martini de Clavibus), a Pole (Sbigneus Olesnicius), and a Hun-
gariun (Dionysius Zechus). See Ciaconius, ii., 900-919. Frizon,
483 et seq.
t Dux, in Aschbach s Kirchenlexikon, i., 698-699. See Weiss,
Vor der Reformation, 101.
J Dux, loc. cit
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 321
learning and for his own unhappy nation. We shall have
hereafter to speak of the many difficult missions which the
Pope entrusted to Bessarion, as well as of his self-sacrificing
efforts on behalf of his countrymen. As Reformer of the
Basilian Order and Protector of the two great Mendicant
Orders, the Greek Cardinal rendered the most valuable
service to the Church. His ample income was nobly
employed in the furtherance of learning, the acquisition of
manuscripts and the maintenance of needy scholars. His
Palace was a place of meeting for all the most distinguished
Greek and Italian literary men, and the circle of Humanists
whom he drew around him took the form of an academy, in
which the philosophy of Plato and all other branches of
learning and science were discussed in familiar conversa
tion.* The Cardinal gave further practical proof of his
hearty interest in the Renaissance by his translation into
Latin of many Greek authors, by his splendid defence of
Plato against the Aristotelian, George of Trebizond,t and
by the establishment of a library unequalled in Italy for the
number and value of its manuscripts ; especially after the fall
of Constantinople, the zeal of the collector was guided and
* Gregorovius, vii., 3rded., 543. See Vast, 165 et seq., 298 et seq.
Hase(297) says: " Bessarion s power of gathering around him such
men as Flavio Biondo, Filelfo, Poggio, L. Valla, Campano, Perotto,
Dom. Calderino,Platina, etc., who accompanied him, after the classic
manner, when he walked abroad, and spoke of him in their writings
with peculiar esteem, although the opinions held by some amongst
them differed widely from his own, is a proof of his social talent and
of an amount of true culture beyond that which mere learning can
bestow." Adinolfi, ii., 24, gives an account of Bessarion s house in
Rome.
\ "In calumniatorem Platonis" is the title of the Latin transla
tion in four books (see Vast, 347). The Greek original, in three
books, is preserved in the Vatican Library in Rome. See v. Hertling
in der Literar. Rundschau, 1875, p. 91, N. i.
Y
322 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
stimulated by his patriotism. If his country was to be
desolated by barbarians, he wished at least to rescue the
intellectual works of the ancient Greeks from destruction,
and accordingly made it his business to search diligently
after rare books.* His appointment by the Pope in 1446
as Visitor of the Basilian Monasteries in Italyf was ex
tremely favourable to the accomplishment of his purpose.
By degrees he got together about nine hundred manuscripts,
whose value he estimated at fifteen hundred ducats. Four
years before his death he presented this library to the
Republic of Venice, the ancient link between East and
West. His motive for this magnanimous action was the
consideration that, notwithstanding all his liberality, the
library, while in his possession, could benefit but a limited
number of readers, whereas in Venice its treasures would
be open to all scholars. J The Philosopher Gemistos
Plethon, Bessarion s master, ranks next after him among
the Greeks who took part in the Union Council. The
energies of this gifted but passionate man \vere, however,
directed rather to the spread of the Platonic Philosophy
than to the cause of union, and he left behind him abiding
traces of his work in Italy. His burning words inflamed
the soul of Cosmo de Medici, and gave birth to his plan for
* Voigt, ii., 2nd. ed., 131.
| Bessarion also turned his new position to account by founding
schools of learning.
{ Geiger, Renaissance, 112, whose statement that Bessarion had
spent 30,000 ducats on his library requires correction. Gregorovius,
vii., $rd ed., 543 makes the same mistake. Works treating of the
fate of Bessarion s Library (now included in the Marciana) are
mentioned in Reumont, iii., i, 511. See also Vast, 373 et seq.
Gregorovius, however, was not acquainted with E. G. Vogel s essay :
"Bessarion s Stiftung oder die Anliinge der St. Marcusbibliothek in
Venedig," published in the Serapeum (1841), ii., 90 et seq., 97
et seq., 138 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 323
the revival of this philosophy in Italy. Marsiglio Ficino,
the man selected by Cosmo for the execution of his pur
pose, says in his translation of the works of Plotinos :
" The great Cosmo, at the time when the Council assembled
by Pope Eugenius IV. was sitting in Florence, was never
weary of listening to the discourses of Plethon, who, like a
second Plato, held disputations on the Platonic Philosophy.
The eloquence of this man took such hold upon him and
animated him with such enthusiasm, that he firmly resolved
to found an Academy at the first favourable moment."*
Soon after the conclusion of the Council, Plethon
returned to his home, happily without having imparted his
heathen opinions to the Italians, whom he regarded as
uncultivated barbarians. t
The union with the Greeks was soon followed by others,
but unfortunately in most cases these were only caused by
the pressure of necessity, and accordingly had no real
stability. On the 22nd November, 1439, Eugenius IV. had
the satisfaction of concluding a treaty with the Armenian
Ambassadors for the union of their Church with that ot
Rome.J In 1443 union with a portion of the Jacobites
followed. The movement among the Eastern Christians
* See Reumont, Lorenzo, i., 2nd ed., 402.
f " Plethon," Hertzberg informs us (ii., 493) , " had in his heart
completely abandoned Christianity. His ideal was a heathen
form of worship tinged by neo-platonic theosophy, his system
was a precipitate of neo-platonic theories, with a mystical and
theurgical colouring." To the literature mentioned by Hertzberg
may be added Fr. Schultze s monograph, G. G. Pletho und seine
reformatorischen Bestrebungen (Jena, 1874), which shows 1450,
not 1452, to have been the date of Plethon s death. See also
Geiger, 109 etseq. Voigt, ii., 2nd ed., 119 et seq. Norrenberg, ii.,
22. Haffner, 680. Hettner, 173 et seq. Yriarte, 261 (regarding
the grave in Rimini).
J See Bullar, v., 44-51, and Theiner, Mon. Slavor., i., 381.
See Hefele, vii., 796 et seq. Pichler, ii., 493.
324 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
continued for the next few years. In the spring of 1442
the Council was removed from Florence to Rome, where it
held two Sessions (3oth September, 1444, and yth August,
1445), principally occupied with the union of the Orientals.
On the yth August, 1445, Eugenius published a Bull giving
thanks to God that, after the return of the Greeks,
Armenians, and Jacobites, the Nestorians and Maronites
had now also given ear to his admonitions, and had
solemnly professed the immaculate Faith of the Roman
Church. He declared that the Maronites and Chaldeans
were no longer to be styled heretics, nor was the name of
Nestorian to be applied to the latter body.* A year before
the date of this Bull, King Stephen of Bosnia had entered
the Catholic Church, and his example had been followed
by his relations and by the most distinguished of the
Bosnian magnates. f Before the end of the Pontificate of
Eugenius IV. the East appeared to be almost entirely
united to Rome. Unfortunately the union was more
apparent than real, and was but partial ; nevertheless the
general success of these negotiations gave fresh support
to the Papal power amid the enemies which beset it on
every side.J
Few Popes have done so much as Eugenius IV. did for
the East, and although it soon became evident that most of
the Greeks had no real desire for union, he persevered in
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1445, n. 21-22. Pichler, ii., 544-545.
Regarding the Maronites see Kuntsmann, Tub. theol. Quartalschr.,
1845, P- 45 etseq.
f See Klaic, 370-372. Theiner, Mon. Slav., i., 388-389, and
Balan, Chiesa Catt. e gli Slavi, 184, 237-239.
J Frommann, 22. A. Dillmann (Ueber die Regierung,
insbesondere die Kirchenordnung des Konigs Z. J. (Berlin, 1884),
69-70), and Pichler (ii., 505) show that King Zara Jacob of
Ethiopia took no part in the attempts to bring about the union of
his Church with that of Rome.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 325
his efforts to stem the tide of Turkish encroachment, and
to secure the duration of the Byzantine Empire.*
Lower Hungary as far as the Theiss, Sclavonia, and the
whole of the district between the Save and the Drave, were
devastated with fire and sword by the Turks in the spring
of 1441. The Hungarian hero, John Hunyadi, who, in
acknowledgment of his faithful services, had been created
Duke of Transylvania and Count of Temesvar, happily for
Christendom undertook the command in the southern
frontier cities of the kingdom, and by his skill and energy
successfully repelled repeated attacks of the Turks. The
Pope meanwhile did all in his power to promote the war
against the Infidels. He wrote touching letters to the
western Princes, describing the sad position of the
Christians in the East and promising many favours to those
who should take part in the crusade. At the beginning of
the year 1442 he published an Encyclical letter, in which,
after mentioning his own poverty, he exhorted and required
all archbishops, bishops, and abbots to pay a tithe from all
their churches, monasteries, and benefices for the prosecu
tion of the war against the Turks ; he himself, he added,
would give a good example to all Christendom in this
matter, which concerned the welfare of the Church, and
would devote the fifth part of the whole revenues of the
Apostolic treasury to the equipment of the army and fleet. t
He sent Cardinal Cesarini as legate to Hungary, to restore
peace in that kingdom as speedily as possible; and also
* See Frommann, 189 et seq., 204 et seq., 208 et seq., from *Cod.
xvi., 85 of the Barberini Library in Rome. From 1441 to 1445
Eugenius IV. also laboured for the deliverance of Rhodes ; see
Raynaldus ad an. 1445 N. 18-19; Wadding, xi., 210 et seq.;
Frommann, 208 et seq., 211, and Delaville Le Roulx, Les Archives,
&c., de 1 ordre de St. Jean de Jerusalem a Malte (Paris, 1883), 29.
f See Zinkeisen, i., 598 et seq., 607.
326 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
desired Bishop Christopher of Corona to urge all the Princes,
Lords, and Cities in the adjacent Provinces of Moldavia
and Wallachia, Lithuania and Albania to be united amongst
themselves and to do battle with their common enemy.
The preparation of a fleet was begun at Venice at a great
cost*
The effects of Cesarini s eloquence were soon visible in
the pacification of Hungary and the preparations which
were made for a great campaign against the Turks ;
unfortunately, however, the majority of the western Princes
remained indifferent to the Pope s appeal. Poland and
Wallachia alone responded by providing two auxiliary corps,
composed of infantry and cavalry, and undertaking to pay
them for half a year. The lower orders manifested the
utmost enthusiasm for the defence of Christendom and
hastened in great numbers to Hungary, and the Pope
endeavoured to forward the enterprise by subsidies.f
In June, 1443, the crusading army went forth, headed by
King Wladislaw and Hunyadi and accompanied by Cardinal
Cesarini and George Brankovvitsch, the fugitive King of
Servia. The expedition began most prosperously ; the
army passed unopposed through Servia, defeated the Turks
in a great battle at Nisch (3rd November), reached Sofia,
crossed the mountain pass between the Balkan and the
Ichtimaner Sredna Gora at Mirkovo, and proceeded to
Zlatica. Here its progress was arrested by the Janissaries
and, as winter had set in, it was decided that it should then
retreat, and resume the campaign in the following year.J
The terrible defeat they had experienced in the year 1443,
* Guglielmotli, i., 163 et seq. Zinkeisen i, 608. Regarding
Cesarini s Mission, see Palacky, iv., i, 126, andTheiner, Mon. Slav.,
i, 382-383-
t Zinkeisen, i., 6 10 et seq., 657, note.
J Hertzberg, ii., 511. Zinkeisen, i., 611-621.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 327
and the consequent insurrection of the Albanians under
George Kastriota (Skanderbeg), combined perhaps with
the tidings that a very warlike spirit was manifesting itself
in the west, induced Sultan Murad III. to make proposals
of peace to the Hungarians, and, notwithstanding the
remonstrances of the Cardinal Legate Cesarini, a ten years
truce was concluded at Szegedin, in virtue of which
Wallachia continued in the possession of Hungary and
Bulgaria in that of the Porte, while Servia reverted to
Brankowitsch, Neither of the contending powers were
henceforth to cross the Danube.*
Before the conclusion of this peace, which politically
was a great mistake, the crusading fleet had sailed for the
Levant. This fleet had been brought together chiefly by
the exertions of the Pope ; the Venetian galleys were led
by Luigi Loredano, while the command of the whole
squadron was entrusted to the Apostolic Legate and
Cardinal Francesco Condulmaro. The Turkish Ambas
sadors had hardly left Sofia when letters from the fleet
arrived, urging the immediate advance of the army,
inasmuch as Sultan Murad, \\\i.h all his forces, had retired
into Asia, and Europe was completely free from Turkish
troops. The fleet expected to be able to hinder the return
of the enemy from Asia, and it seemed as if the moment
had come when the whole country might be subjugated by
a small body of troops, and the infidels driven back to
their own land. The King of Hungary was reminded of
his promises to the Princes of Christendom, and the efforts
which they on their side had made to fulfil their engage
ments, f
The eloquence of Cesarini induced the Hungarians to
* Zinkeisen, i., 626.
f Guglielmotti, ii., 163. Zinkeisen, i., 658 671.
Kchael s College
3 chelae tic s Library
328 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
break the truce which had just been concluded. 3 * The
consequences were most disastrous, for the Sultan set out
for Europe with a great army, and the Christian fleet was
unable to hinder him from crossing the Hellespont. t The
assistance which the Hungarians had expected from
several quarters, especially from Albania, failed to arrive,
and their consternation was extreme. With a force of
only thirty thousand men they nevertheless advanced, and
in the beginning of November reached the shores of the
Black Sea. Here the Sultan with his army met them, and
on the loth of November the battle of Varna resulted
in the complete discomfiture of the Christians. King
Wladislaw fell on the battle-field, and Cardinal Cesarini
was murdered in his flight.
While these bloody wars were going on in the east of
Europe, the struggle between the Pope and the Council
continued in the west. The success obtained by
Eugenius IV. at Florence had exasperated the Assembly
at Basle, w r hich now proceeded to desperate measures.
The suspension of Pope Eugenius IV., pronounced on the
24th January, 1438, was, at the instigation of the Cardinal
of Aries, followed, on the 25th June, 1439, by a formal
sentence of deposition, and he was declared to be a heretic,
on account of his persistent disobedience to the Council.
The ambitious Duke Amadeus of Savoy was elected Anti-
* See Raynaldus, ad an. 1444, N. 5. Zinkeisen, i., 671 et seq.
Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 338. According to Palacky (iv., i, 126),
" not only Cesarini, but also Eugenius IV., and almost all the neigh
bouring nations of Christendom, considered the moment favourable
for the complete expulsion of the Turks from Europe, and opposed
the peace." Regarding Varna, see Kohler, die Schlachten bei
Nikopolis und Varna (Breslau, 1882).
f Genoese vessels were supposed to have assisted the Turks in
their passage. See Guglielmotti, ii., 165. Zinkeisen, ii., 685-686.
Cipolla, 516.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 329
Pope on the 5th November, 1439, by one Cardinal and
eleven Bishops/* and took the name of Felix V.
Instead then of promoting reform the Synod of Basle
had brought about a new Schism. This was the necessary
consequence of the attempt to change the monarchical
constitution of the Church. This Anti-Pope, the last
whose name appears in the History of the Papacy, failed
to attain any considerable importance, although the Basle
Assembly gave him a power of levying annates, such as
the Roman Court had never claimed.
The guilt of the new Schism was visited on its authors.
The sympathy of both princes and people was transferred
from the schismatics at Basle to Eugenius. Many even
who had little in common with the Pope now espoused his
cause from a horror of Radicalism and disunion.f From
this moment the spiritual power of the Synod steadily
declined. Felix V. did immense injury to its adherents.
Personally no one trusted him, and his rapacity alienated
men s minds from him and from his party.J
The attitude now assumed by the Germans and French
was a very peculiar one ; they recognized the Synod in
* Hefele, vii., 662 et seq., 779, 785. As to the previous life of
Felix V., see Sickel in the Sitzungsberichten der Wiener Akad. ,
hist. KL, xx., 186 et seq. Revue des quest, hist. (1866), i., 192
203. Only seven Bishops were present at the " deposition " of
Eugenius IV. " So shameless a perversion and abuse of natural
order and positive justice had never yet been known in the Church,"
says Dollinger (ii., i, 339). I found an original copy of the Bull
of deposition (on parchment with a leaden seal) in Cod. K., ii., f.
427 of the Vallicellana Library in Rome.
t Reumont, iii., i, 102.
J Brockhaus, 33 et seq., 39 et seq., 79. See Hagen, iii., 453-
The *Bullarium of Felix V. is preserved in the Archives of Genoa.
There is a copy in eight volumes in the State Archives at Turin ;
see Nachrichten d. hist. Commiss., ii., 105 ; and Christophe, i.,
35-
330 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
its decrees of reform, which fell in with their wishes, but
at the same time they acknowledged the authority of the
"deposed" Pope. Both nations shrank from a Schism,
but neither was disposed to give up the apparent advan
tages gained by the Council.
Very few princes really acknowledged Felix V. Duke
Albert of Bavaria-Munich, one of the first to take this step,
was influenced by his brother Dr. Johann Grunwalder, a
natural son of Duke John. He was made a Cardinal by
Felix V., and endeavoured to manifest his gratitude by
writing in favour of the Anti-Pope and against neutrality.*
Duke Albert of Austria, and Stephen, Count Palatine of
Simmern and Zweibriicken, with the Dukes of Savoy and
Milan also espoused the cause of Felix.t
For a long time the Basle Schismatics counted on the
support of King Alfonso of Aragon. This prince had
quarrelled with Kugenius, because he favoured the claim of
his rival, Rene, Count of Anjou, to the crown of Naples.
Alfonso, however, did not formally acknowledge the Anti-
Pope, and, while his ambassadors treated simultaneously
with Eugenius IV. and Felix V., watched the course of
events, ready to declare himself for whichever of the two
might offer him the largest concessions. J In 1442 he at
* For further details regarding Griimvalder, who died Bishop of
Freisingon the 2nd December, 1452,866 Allg. Deutsche Biographic,
x., 60 ; Voigt,Enea Silvio, i., 310 et seq., and E. Geiss, Gesch. der
Stadtpfarrei St. Peter in Miinchen (1868), 30-50. I found the
*Tractatus contra neutralitatem, editus per dominum Jo.G rim wait
card. tit. S. Martini in montibus, in Cod. 224, f. looa-ioSb in the
Library of the Monastery at Einsiedeln. Neither Geiss nor Voigt
was acquainted with this Treatise.
f Gregorovius (vii., 3rd ed., 71) is mistaken in supposing that
Visconti held aloof from Felix V. ; see Magenta, i., 331 et seq.> and
Osio, iii., N. 226.
J Regarding the relations of Eugenius IV. to Alfonso, see K.
Haebler in d. Zeitschr. fiir allg. Gesch. (1884), i.. 831 et seq.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 331
length gained a complete victory over Rene, and took
possession of Naples (June 12, 1442).
This decided success compelled Eugenius IV., whose own
dominions were harassed by the warlike and insatiable
Condottiere, Francesco Sforza,* to accede to all the con
ditions proposed by Alonso de Borja, Bishop of Valencia,
on behalf of the crafty Alfonso, who constantly threatened
to acknowledge the Anti-Pope. Accordingly a treaty was
concluded by Cardinal Scarampo with Alfonso, on the I4th
of June, 1443, at Terracina, and confirmed by the Pope on
the 6th of July. The King hereby engaged to recognize
Eugenius IV. as the lawful Pope, to abstain from any inter
ference with the liberties of the Church, to provide ships
for the war with the Turks, and to furnish five thousand
men for the expulsion of Francesco Sforza from the March
of Ancona. The Pope, on his side, confirmed the King s
adoption by Joanna II. of Naples, granted him investiture
of the kingdom of Naples, and the possession for life, in
return for an insignificant tribute, of the cities of Benevento
Alfonso desired his subjects to render no obedience either to the
Papal Bulls or the Decrees of the Council ; he wished to maintain
a strict neutrality. See his Decree of 1442, in V. de la Fuente,
577-578.
* Regarding the position of the Pope at this time, see Borgia,
Benevento, iii., 363 et seg. The *Instructio praeclari militis
domini Thorns de Reate ituri ad praesentiam summi pontificis pape
Felicis quinti, etc., shows that Francesco Sforza endeavoured to
sell his services to the Anti-Pope. The document bears date 1443,
April i. There is a copy in the State Archives at Turin (Milanese,
Mazzo, ii., N. 9). On the 3rd of August, 1442, Sforza had been
declared a rebel; see Raynaldus, ad an. i442,N. n. On the 2nd of
September, 1443, an order was sent to Ancona, forbidding the city
to receive Sforza or give him provisions, and requiring it to return
to its obedience to the Church. I found the document relating to
this matter, d.d. Senis sub anulo nostro secreto die ii. Septemb.
1443, in the City Archives at Ancona (Lib. croc. parv. f. 2).
332 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and Terracina, in the Papal territory. Other considerable
privileges were also bestowed on the King, and subse
quently (July 15, 1444) the Pope recognized the right of
succession of his natural son, Ferrante. The skilful
diplomacy of Alonso de Borja was rewarded by his
elevation to the purple (May 2, 1444).*
The Pope s position was completely altered by this
treaty, which secured to him predominance in Italian
affairs and superiority over the Council of Basle. t Alfonso
at once recalled his subjects from that Assembly, which
hereby lost some of its most important members, and
amongst them the learned and influential Archbishop
Tudeschi of Palermo, whom Felix V. had made a Cardinal. J
The Duke of Milan, whose prelates had already been
required to leave Basle, now espoused the cause of
Eugenius.
There was now no obstacle in the way of the Pope s
return to his true capital. The time of trial was over, and,
after an exile of nearly ten years, on the 28th September,
1443, Eugenius victoriously re-entered Rome.
He was joyfully welcomed by the people, who had long
since perceived what a wilderness Rome without the Pope
must become. It had indeed fallen into a state of ruin
and decay almost equal to that in which Martin V. had
found it in 1420. Its inhabitants, wearing cloaks and
heavy boots, appeared to strangers like the cowherds of the
* Raynaldus, ad an. 1443* N - l ~ l i T 444, N. 21. Borgia,
Benevento, Hi., 368 et seq. Osio, Hi., 288-289. Sends, " Monarchia
Sicula" (Freiburg, 1869), 95. The Codex in the Corsini Library
in Rome here cited, containing f. 417 et seq., *" De regno Sicilian
. documenta varia ex autographis regestis," now bears the
number: 34, C. 14*
t Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 84.
J Hefele, vii., 808. See Fiala, 378.
See ^En. Sylvius, Europa, c. 58.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 333
Campagna* The ancient monuments were being burned
for lime, and the marble and precious stones stolen from
the churches. Cows, sheep, and goats wandered about
the narrow, unpaved streets. In the Vatican quarter the
wolves ventured by night into the cemetery near St.
Peter s and dragged the corpses from their graves.f The
Church of San Stefano was roofless, and those of San
Pancrazio and Sta. Maria in Dominica were ready to fall.J
Even during his absence, the Pope had taken part in the
government of the City, and on his return he at once began
the work of restoration, in which he was ably seconded by
Cardinal Scarampo.
About this time Eugenius had the satisfaction of seeing
Scotland abandon the Synod of Basle. On the 4th Novem
ber, 1443, the Parliament assented to the decree of the
Provincial Council, rejecting Felix V. and unconditionally
acknowledging the authority of Eugenius IV. || The
partisans of the Schism were severely punished, and thus
the dissensions which the new Schism had aroused in that
* See the evidence given by Reumont, iii., i, 23.
t *" Cum olim ipso campo clause non existente corpora fidelium,
quae humabantur in cimiterio dicti campi, saepenumero reperta
fuissent a lupis exhumata nee essent qui taliter exhumata iterum
sepelirent aut dicti campi custodiam haberent, tempore fel. reg.
Eugenii papae IV. praed. nostri quondam Fredericus Alamanus
. . . quandam domunculam in ipso campo propriis sumptibus
construxit et omnia bona sua in usum et fabricarn dicti campi
dedicavit." *Brief of Paul II., addressed to "Dominic. Ep.
Brixien. nostro in spiritualibus in urbe vicario et dil. fil. Georgio de
Cesarinis canon, basil, princ. Apostolor. de urbe," d.d. Romae ap.
S. Marcum, 1466, August. 24, in *Liber primus scripturar. Archi-
confraternit. b. Marias Campi Sancti. Archives of the Campo
Santo al Vaticano.
J See Piper, Einleitung, 668.
Miintz, i., 36.
|| Acts of Parliam. of Scotl., ii., 33. Bellesheim, i. ; 292-293.
334 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
country, and of which Walter Bower has left us a striking
picture, were healed.* The Florentines and Venetians,
formerly the political friends and supporters of Eugenius,
were greatly irritated by his unlooked-for change in regard
to the Neapolitan question, and now became his opponents.
From vindictive motives they took part with Francesco
Sforza, who, after a brief period of reconciliation, was again
in open conflict with the Pope. The struggle with the
crafty Condottiere continued throughout the rest of
Eugenius pontificate, but at last he was victorious, and a
few days before his death, had the satisfaction of knowing
that all the March of Ancona, with the exception of the
town of Jesi, had been wrested from his enemy. f
The Pope also gained a complete victory over the Schis
matics in Basle ; the defection of the powerful Alfonso had
inflicted a serious blow on the Assembly, and a death-like
torpor soon crept over it. No more public sittings were
held, and it only dealt with matters of secondary import
ance, such as disputes about benefices. J
It had long been evident that the Synod could by no
* Scotichronic, 1., xvi., c. 6 : " Per quos in ecclesia Dei maxima
scandala, et in diversis, maxime in Scotia, augerunt dissidia, dum
alter ab altero dissidet, dum regnum et sacerdotium dissentit, dum
alter alterum excommunicat, alter alterius excommunicationem,
aut ex causa, aut e tempore, praeiudicio contemnit, dum alter in
alterum excommunicandi auctoritale magis forte ex suo libito
quam ex iustitise respectu, potitur, auctoritas illius, qui dedit potes-
tatem ligandi atque solvendi, omnino despicitur."
f Sugenheim, 328 et seq.
{ Hefele, vii., 809. Palacky, iv., i, 129. The forty-fifth and
last solemn Session took place at Basle on the i6th May, 1443, and
it was then decided, that after the lapse of three years a new Council
should be held at Lyons. The idea of transferring the Synod to the
latter City had already been broached in the spring of 1436 ; see
the information gathered from the Lyons Archives by J. Vaesens
in the Revue des quest, hist., xxx., 561-568.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 335
means reckon on the unconditional support of the two
principal powers of Western Christendom, France and
Germany. We have already mentioned the peculiar posi
tion which these nations had occupied since the year 1438.
After the Basle Synod had, on the 24th January, 1438,
pronounced a sentence of suspension against Eugenius IV.,
neither Germans nor French had shown the slightest in-
O
clination to take part in a proceeding which must neces
sarily have thrown Christendom back into a deplorable
state of confusion. But, on the other hand, they were not
disposed completely to give up the Council, or its so-called
decrees of reform. Accordingly, while adhering to
Eugenius IV. as the lawful Head of the Church, they
adopted a portion of these decrees. In France this \vas
done by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (yth July,
1438), which almost entirely deprived the Pope of any
influence in the ecclesiastical affairs of the kingdom, and
reasserted the supremacy of the Council over the Papacy.*
From March, 1438, Germany also had taken up a similar
semi-schismatical position, which threatened serious danger
to the Papacy. In the interval between the death of
Sigismund and the election of Albert II., the German
Electors, assembled at Frankfort-on-the-Maine,had declared
their neutrality, that is to say, their determination for the
time being, to hold aloof from the contest, and neither to
take part with the Pope nor the Council. They had
further agreed, that, within the ensuing six months, they
would, together with the future king, deliberate on the
means of terminating the strife, and that, in the meantime,
* Ordonnances des rois de France de la troisieme race par M.
de Vilevault (Paris, 1782), xiii., 267-291. See Hefele, vii., 764 ;
Guettee, Hist, de 1 Eglise de France (Lyon, 1851), vii., 405-435 ;
R. Bauer in the Laacher Stimmen (1872), iii., no et seq., and H.
Jervis, Hist, of the Church of France (London, 1872,) i., 97.
336 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
they would maintain the regular jurisdiction in their
dioceses and territories.*
This so-called neutrality of the Holy Roman Empire, which
was by no means free from an anti-papal bias,f was, a year
later, asserted at the Diet of Mayence. It, however,
accepted, with certain restrictions and additions agreeable
to the German princes, a number of decrees depriving the
Pope of his essential rights (26th March, 1439)4
The Mayence declaration differed widely from the step
which had been taken in France, and fundamentally from
the Pragmatic sanction of Bourges. At Mayence a mere
declaration had been made, the acceptance of the Basle
Decrees, but in France, an administrative ordinance had
been issued. The Ambassadors of King Charles had indeed
entered into negotiations at Basle, in order to obtain the
approval of the Council for the Pragmatic sanction, but
even before that had been granted, Decrees with additions
were everywhere promulgated, and courts and officials were
instructed to see to their execution, to decide any con
troversies which might arise regarding them, to protect
ecclesiastics and laymen in the enjoyment of the benefits
* Miiller, Reichstagstheatrum unter K. Friedrich v. (Jena,
1713), 31. Binterim, vii., 166. Piickert, 55 el seq., 64 et seq.,
73 etseq., 86 et seq. The history of the Schism shows that the
idea of neutrality was not, as Voigt (i., 154) seems to suppose, a
novelty. See also Birck, 13 et seq.
t Hagen, Deutsch. Gesch., iii., 457.
J See Gieseler, ii., 4, 83 ; Voigt, Enea Silvio, i., 161, and Birck,
17 ; the last author observes : " The principal aim of these Basle
Decrees was the gratification of the ambition of the Bishops, the
bestowal of greater privileges upon them and the diminution of the
rights of the Pope. Resistance to Papal authority was at this time
a mere cover for selfish aims, a time-serving shield, behind which
self-interest, lawlessness, and the craving for yet greater independ
ence, sought and found convenient shelter."
Piickert s work (97 et seq.) has the great merit of putting this
matter in a clear light.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 337
they conferred, and to inflict exemplary punishments on
those who should oppose them. Such executive and penal
provisions, although essential to the existence of a law, have
no place in the Mayence Document, and it is a great in
accuracy to apply to it the name of a " Pragmatic Sanc
tion." The Germans also deferred making any effort to
obtain the approval of the Council, which had already been
asked by and granted to the French.
In the latter half of the year 1439, German neutrality
took a more definite form, but it never proved to be in any
way a basis for the settlement of ecclesiastical affairs.
This was primarily the fault of the electors, who, instead of
enforcing the observance of the policy they had adopted,
both violated it themselves and suffered their subjects and
the members of their families to do the same.* Accordingly
the proclamation which had been made with a view of pre
serving the Holy Roman Empire from division and con
fusion was thoroughly ineffectual. Factions were formed
even among the Germans. In many cases, near neighbours,
and even the Bishop and Chapter of the same Diocese, took
different sides in the conflict between the Pope and his
opponents. Several sees were claimed by two rival
Bishops, and from the same pulpit discourses were frequently
heard at one time against Eugenius, and at another against
the partisans of the Council. f
* Piickert, 140.
f Hefele, vii., 777. Piickert, 119 et seq., 138 et seq. The
words of ^neas Sylvius Piccolomini regarding neutrality are well
known. " It will," he wrote to Cardinal Cesarini, " be difficult to
do away with it because it is profitable to many. This new bait of
neutrality is attractive, because anyone who has rightly or wrongly
assumed possession of anything cannot be deprived of it, and
because the Ordinaries can bestow benefices according to their
pleasure. Believe me, it is not easy to snatch the prey out of the
jaws of the wolf."
Z
338 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Repeated efforts were naturally made by each of the
contending powers to put an end to the neutrality. The
diplomatic struggles which ensued, ultimately resulted in
the victory of Eugenius, who succeeded in winning over
Caspar Schlick, the powerful Chancellor of King Frederick
III., and finally the King himself.*
Having secured the adhesion of the head of the Empire,
the Pope, who had a powerful supporter in Philip of
Burgundy, thought that the time had come to strike a
decisive blow in Germany, and so to put an end to all
further hesitations. He accordingly issued a Bull, deposing
the Archbishop-Electors of Cologne and Treves, who were
the principal partisans of the Synod in the Empire, and
bestowed their dignities on relations of the Duke of Bur-
gundy.f But this proceeding, which was hasty, and, from a
political point of view, imprudent, J was violently opposed by
the German Electors. In March, 1446, they assembled at
Frankfort-on-the-Maine and decided to call upon Eugenius
to acknowledge the Decrees of Constance and Basle regard
ing the Supremacy of Councils, to summon one to meet in
* Frederick III. s recognition of Eugenius was rewarded by :
i. The right to the first prayers, to a tithe from all ecclesiastical
benefices in Germany, and to the patronage of a hundred benefices
in the hereditary estates of Austria. 2. The right for life to make
presentations, in case of vacancy, to the Bishoprics of Trent, Brixen,
Coire, Gurk, Trieste, and Pedena. 3. The right for himself and his
successors to propose to the Holy See fitting persons for the visita
tion of the monasteries in his hereditary States, and also a certain
sum of money. See Chmel, Materialen, i., 2, 191 et seq., and Gesch.
Friedrich IV., ii., 38 et scq. Voigt., Enea Silvio, i., 346 et ^.,355
et seq. Piickert, 247 et seq.
t Piickert, 241 et seq.
J The great mistake of Eugenius was to suppose the power of a
German Monarch to be like that of the French King, sufficient to
impose his will on all the Princes of his realm. Chmel, Friedrich
IV., ii., 388. See also Dux, i., 264
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 339
a German City within the next thirteen months, to revoke
all recent measures incompatible with neutrality, and un
conditionally to ratify the decisions of the Council of
Basle, accepted by the Germans in 1439. In case o f tne
failure of Eugenius to comply with their demands, the
Electors threatened to recognize the authority of the
Synod.* A deputation, whose leading spirit was Gregory
Heimburg, Syndic of Nuremberg, was despatched to Rome
to make the desires of the Electors known to the Pope.
This man, affecting what he wished to pass off as German
honesty and plain spokenness, was unbearably insolent and
rude. In a work, written about this time, he stirred up his
countrymen to join the Schism and shake off the Papal
yoke.f
The answer returned by Pope Eugenius to the Electors
was of an evasive character. He referred the decision of
the matter to the Diet of the Empire, and adhered to his
resolution regarding the deposition of the two Archbishops.
The Diet had been summoned to meet at Frankfort on the
ist September, 1446, and the Bishops Tommaso Paren-
tucelli of Bologna, and Jean of Liege, together with Juan de
Carvajal and Nicholas of Cusa appeared there as Ambassa
dors from Rome, yEneas Sylvius Piccolomini having in the
meantime convinced the Pope of the necessity of conces
sion. The Cardinal of Aries attended on behalf of the
Basle party.
* Piickert, 256 et scq. Hefele, vii., 816 et seq. The alternative
of joining the party of the Synod was, however, to be provisionally
kept from the knowledge of the Pope. Piickert, 259.
t Dollinger (Lehrbuck, ii., i, 334). See also the weak Mono
graph of Brockhaus (Leipzig, 1861), Ullmann, Reformatoren, i.,
212 et seq.; K. Hagen, Zur politischen Gesch. Deutschlands
(Stuttgart, 1842) ; Scharpff, 142 et seq., and Backmann in d. Allg.
Deutsch. Biographic, xi., 327-330.
340 .HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The violent anti-papal feeling which had already widely
gained ground in Germany found open expression in the
Imperial Diet. The position of Eugenius and even the
authority of the head of the Empire seemed at the outset to
be seriously endangered, for the Electors intended, in the
event of the Pope s non-compliance with their demands, to
declare themselves in favour of the Council of Basle, in
dependently of the King, or even in antagonism to him.*
The Cardinal of Aries deemed the victory of his party
almost a certainty, when suddenly a surprising change took
place to the great advantage of Eugenius. The principal
author of this change was /Eneas Sylvius Piccolomini,
Secretary in the Chancery of King Frederick III., the very
man who, but a year before, had, in conjunction with Schlick
and Carvajal, won his royal master to the side of the Pope.
Among the notable figures of the Renaissance age,
^neas Sylvius is certainly one of the most brilliant and
one of those best known to us.f A most prolific author
and indefatigable letter-writer, he has left to posterity the
means of closely following every phase of his life.J
He was born on the i8th October, 1405, at Corsigniano,
near Siena. His family belonged to the ancient nobility
* Hefele, vii., 821 et seq. For an account of the Frankfort Diet
see Chmel, Friedrich IV., n, 392-398; Piickert, 276-296; Ross-
mann, Betrachtungen, 387-393, and Janssen, Reichscorrespondenz,
"., 9-95-
f Reumont, from the Gesch. Aachens im fiinfzehnten Jahr-
hundert, in the Zeitschr. des Aachener Gesch.- Vereins (1882), iv.,
170.
J The learned work of Voigt is founded on these materials and
on almost all others that have come under our notice, but is unfor
tunately disfigured by the " extreme harshness " of his judgment ;
see Reumont, iii., i, 491 ; Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 215 ; Vahlen in d.
Sitzungsberichten, der Wiener Akad., hist. Kl., Ixi., 371, and
Miintz, Precurseurs, 104.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 341
of that city, but had fallen into poverty, and accordingly
his youth was passed amid privations. At an early
age he went to the University of Siena to study law, for
which, however, he had but little taste, while the classical
literature fascinated him. Cicero, Livy, and Virgil were his
favourite authors. He scarcely allowed himself time for
food or sleep, but pored day and night over these books
which he had borrowed from friends. To avoid putting
them to inconvenience, he copied out the most celebrated
works, and made extracts from others.* After a time, he
went to Florence to prosecute his studies and became the
disciple of Filelfo.
When he had spent two years in Florence, he was
induced by his relations to return to Siena and attend
lectures on jurisprudence, the only result of which, how
ever, was an increased aversion for lawyers. In his
twenty-seventh year his talents attracted the attention of
Cardinal Capranica, who w r as passing through Siena on his
way to Basle, and he became his secretary. The circle
into which he was introduced at Basle, in the spring ot
1432, was one most unfriendly to Pope Eugenius IV., and
this circumstance had much influence on his after-life.
Capranica, who was destitute of fortune, was soon recon
ciled to Pope Eugenius IV., t and ^Eneas Sylvius passed
* Voigt, i., 12.
f The reconciliation between Eugenius IV. and Capranica took
place on the soth of April, 1434. The conditions were most
favourable to Capranica, whose dignity was confirmed ; see the
Document in Catalanus, 202 et seq.; also p. 212 et seq.\ Trans-
sumptum privilegii D. N. Eugenii restituentis et reintegrantis Rev.
D. Card. Firmanum ad omnes dignitates. The relations between
them were again disturbed by Capranica s courageous protest
against the elevation of Vitelleschi, but this was a passing cloud.
Eugenius IV. knew how to value the grand qualities of Capranica,
and repeatedly took him into his counsels.
342 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
from his service into that of Bishop Nicodemus of Freising
Bishop Bartoloineo of Novara, and finally of Cardinal
Albergati.. The period of his connection with the latter,
although comparatively short, was one which tended
greatly to polish and to direct his brilliant intellect,* and
also brought him into contact with the noble Tommaso
Parentucelli, afterwards Pope Nicholas V. He accom
panied Albergati on several journeys, and was sent by him,
in 1438, on a secret mission to Scotland. On his return
from this dangerous expedition, he no longer found his
patron at Basle, and, instead of rejoining him, determined
to remain there, and was soon drawn into the violent
agitation against Eugenius IV.
His happy nature, his talents, and his Humanistic culture
soon won for him many friends among the members of the
Council, and his eloquence attracted general attention.
He was employed by the Council as Scriptor, Abbreviator,
and Chief Abbreviator, was a member of the commission
of dogma, and took part in several embassies. He viewed
the conflict between the Pope and the Council with the in
difference of an adherent of the heathen Renaissance, but
used his pen against Eugenius IV.
His happiest hours were spent in Basle, in a little circle
of friends, like himself, of studious tastes and of lax
morality. It is impossible to say how far this atmosphere
of heathen Renaissance was responsible for his opposition
to the lawful Pope, but there can be no doubt that it exer
cised a considerable influence over him,f and we have
positive proof that his own moral life was deeply tainted
by the corruption which surrounded him, and that he even
gloried in his errors with the shamelessnessof a Boccaccio. J
* Reumont, Aus der Gesch. Aachens, loc. at.
f Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 217.
J See especially the notorious and much misused letter to his
father, in which he begs him to receive a little son whom a
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 343
/Eneas was not, it must be observed, at this time an eccle
siastic, and, indeed, as he openly declared in his letters,
had no intention of entering a state whose duties are so
serious.* In these same letters, the great questions of
Church policy which then agitated society are treated with
much levity.
When the Synod of Basle called a new Schism into
existence, he took part in it, and even entered the service of
the Anti-Pope, Felix V. But his keen understanding soon
perceived that the position which the Synod had assumed
was an untenable one, and he consequently became dis
gusted with his appointment, and eagerly seized the first
opportunity of honourably escaping from a situation which
had become intolerable. The opportunity occurred in the
year 1442, when he accompanied the Ambassadors of the
Council to the Diet of Frankfort. By the intervention of
Bishop Sylvester of Chiemsee he was presented to King
Frederick III., who offered him a place in the Royal
Chancery. The offer was joyfully accepted, and his con
nection with Felix V. came to an end. When Frederick
III. passed through Basle on the nth November, 1442, on
the occasion of his coronation, /Eneas joined his suite and
went with him to Austria, f
This step brought down upon him a torrent of abuse.
Bretonne woman had borne him (epist. 15). See on this matter
Janssen, An meine Kritiker, 141 et seq., and Rohrbacher-Knopfler,
217. Another illegitimate child of /Eneas died early (Voigt, i.,
289). The little account then made of faults of this kind is well
known ; in princely families of Italy the succession of illegitimate
children was often permitted, and marriage and its rights were
widely trampled under foot (see Burckhardt, Cultur, ii., 3rd ed.,
210 et seq.).
* In 1444 he confessed to one of his friends that he shrank
from entering the ecclesiastical state: " Timeo enim con-
tinentiam."
t He had already visited this country in 1438 j see Bayer, 8.
344 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The Historian of the city of Rome, however, judges it with
his accustomed calmness and moderation. " A change of
party," he writes, " whatever be the circumstances under
which it takes place, always provokes detraction, and a
man who had written so much and had been so unreserved
in regard to his own personal feelings and the events of
his private life, must necessarily have laid himself, in many
ways, open to those who were ready to take hold of every
word, even in his most confidential letters, that would swell
the list of his sins. His character was by no means perfect.
The versatility of his intellect must of itself have proved a
danger, even if, with his poverty, his ambition, and his
consciousness of talent, he had not been cast into a whirl
pool w r hich carried away many stronger natures. His sub
sequent confession was, whatever may be said against it,
made in all good faith. He was not influenced by mere
personal considerations, when, in the year 1442, he gave
up his position in the service of Felix V. and accepted that
offered to him in the Royal Chancery. For the moment
indeed he gained nothing by so doing, and later he might ;
like the Anti-Pope and others, have made advantageous
terms with Rome."*
Time worked a great change, not only in the political
and ecclesiastical opinions, but also in the moral character of
^Eneas : old age seems to have come upon him prematurely,
and a serious view of life took the place of his former
levity. For a long time he hesitated about entering the
priesthood, but in 1445 he resolved on the step, and actually
took it in the following year. On the 8th March, 1446, he
wrote in the following terms to a friend : " He must be a
miserable and graceless man who does not at last return to
his better self, enter into his own heart, and amend his life :
who does not consider what will come in the other world
* Reumont, iii., i, 132-133.
HISTORY OF THE POPES.
345
after this. Ah ! John, I have done enough and too much
evil ! I have come to myself ; oh, may it not be too late ! "
In the month in which these words were written he was
ordained priest at Vienna.*
^Eneas had formally made his peace with Pope Eugenius
a year before his ordination. The Chancellor, Kaspar
Schlick, had at that time sent him to Rome to confer with
the Pope regarding the holding of a Council at a fresh place.
Regardless of the warnings of those around him, he went
in the fullest confidence to the Eternal City, and was very
well received there. He could not, however, be admitted to
an audience, until he had been absolved from the censures
incurred as an adherent of the Synod and an official of the
Anti-Pope, and he felt a certain embarrassment as to meet
ing Eugenius IV., whom he had at Basle so vehemently
opposed. Accordingly, before fulfilling his mission, he
wrote an apology which is a masterpiece of style. It has
been described as the address of a vanquished king to his
captor.f
" Most Holy Father," he says, "before discharging th~
King s commissions, I will speak a little of myself. I am
aware that much has been brought to your ears regarding
me, which is neither good nor worthy of repetition. And
those who have laid accusations against me before you have
not spoken falsely. Yes, I have, during all the time I was
at Basle, spoken, written, and done many things I deny
* Voigt, i., 438 et scq. ; see 351.
f Rohrbacher-Knopfler, 218. Gregorovius (vii., 3rd ed., 156)
observes in reference to this composition : " Never, except in
ancient Athens, did the goddess of persuasion exercise such power
over men as in the time of the Renaissance. Piccolomini dis
armed Eugenius, confessed his errors at Basle in beautiful language,
and then openly went over to the side of the Pope, who thoroughly
understood his value and made him his secretary."
346 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
nothing. But my intention was not so much to injure you,
as to serve God s Church. I erred, who would deny it ?
but I erred in company with men of no small importance.
I followed Giuliano, the Cardinal of Sant. Angelo, Niccol6,
the Archbishop of Palermo, Ludovico Pontano, the notary
of Your See. These are held to be the eyes of justice, the
teachers of truth. What shall I say of the Universities and
of the other Schools, the majority of which were adverse to
You ? Who would not have erred with such men ! But
when I perceived the error of the people of Basle, then also,
I confess it, I did not at once hasten to You as did the
greater number. I rather dreaded rushing from one error
into another, for he often falls into Scylla who would avoid
Charybdis, and so I joined those who were considered
neutral. I would not pass from one extreme to another
without consideration and without delay. For three years
I remained thus with the King. But the more I heard of
the disputes between the Synod of Basle and Your Legate,
the less doubt remained on my mind that truth was with
You. I, therefore, willingly obeyed, when the King wished
by my intervention to open for himself a way to Your good
ness, for I hope thus to be able to return to Your favour.
Now I stand before You, and inasmuch as I have sinned in
ignorance, I beg You to forgive me/
Eugenius answered, " We know that you have sinned,
together with many, but it is Our duty to pardon him who
confesses his error : Holy Mother Church is inexorable to
one who denies his fault, but never refuses absolution to
the penitent. You have now returned to the truth.
Beware of ever again forsaking it, and seek Divine Grace
by good works ! Your position is one in which you can
defend the truth and serve the Church."
^Eneas Sylvius did not disappoint the expectations of the
Pope, for he succeeded in breaking up the League of
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 347
Electors, which was a danger alike to the Pope and the
King of the Romans. He privately persuaded the Elector
of Mayence, the representative of the Elector of Saxony
and two Bishops to separate themselves from the Con
federacy and join Frederick III.* On the 22nd September,
these electors and bishops united with the Deputies of the
King of the Romans in a secret declaration that the Pope s
answer was a sufficient basis for the restoration of peace to
the Church, and mutually bound themselves to hold fast to
this opinion. On the 5th October, strengthened by the
addition of fresh adherents, they held a second consultation,
preparatory to the recognition of Eugenius.f On the nth
October, the Imperial Diet was prorogued, a measure which,
as usual, merely concealed but did not heal the existing dis
union. Many more bishops and princes were won over by
the unwearied efforts of King Frederick and the Margrave
Albert of Brandenburg, so that at the end of 1446,
messengers started for Rome from all parts of Germany ;
sixty met at Siena and travelled together by Baccano to
the Eternal City.J
On the yth January, 1447, John of Lysura, representing
the Elector of Mayence, Chancellor Sesselmann, represen
ting the Elector of Brandenburg, and yEneas Sylvius and
Procopius von Rabstein, as Delegates from the King of
the Romans, arrived in Rome, and were very honourably
* It is well known that ^neas Sylvius Piccolomini (Hist. Frid.,
iii., 128 et seq., Comment, ed. Fea, 98), openly asserts that he had
gained over the confidential Counsellors of the Elector of Mayence
by a bribe (2OOofl.) Piickert in his work of electoral neutrality
(281-284) treats the story of bribery as a fable, but his arguments
against it are not conclusive ; see Hefele, vii., 827, and B. Bayer,
62 et seq.
f Piickert, 280 et seq., 294.
J See yneas Sylvius report of the Embassy in Muratori, iii., 2,
880 (also in Baluze, Misc., vii., 525 et seq., and Koch, 314 et seq.)
348 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
received. The Pope at once granted them a solemn
audience, and y^neas Sylvius brought forward the claims
of the Germans in so eloquent and able a manner, that all
who heard him praised his power and his prudence, and
foretold for him a brilliant future.* " We come/ he said,
"to bring peace, and the German princes desire peace, but
they also make certain demands, and unless these demands
are granted, wounds cannot be healed, nor peace attained.
The first is that a General Council, the time and place of
which are still, to be decided, shall be summoned. The
second, that You in writing confirm that acknowledgment
of the authority and pre-eminence of General Councils
representing the Church Militant, which has been made by
Your Ambassadors. The third, that the grievances of the
German nation be redressed; and the fourth, that the
deposition of the two Electors be revoked. "f
The dangerous illness of the Pope J and the opposition
of a portion of the Sacred College, made the negotiations
which ensued both tedious and difficult. A happy con
clusion was, however, arrived at, and expressed in four
* See the remarkable letter of the Abbot of San. Galgano, written
on the 23rd January, 1447, which I found in the State Archives at
Siena (Appendix, No. 24).
f Martene, Vet. Mon., viii., 980-988. Mansi, Orat. Pii, ii., 108
et seq.
\ The different phases of the illness which attacked Eugenius IV.
on the day after he had given audience to the German Ambassadors
(i2th January, 1447), are detailed at length in a set of *letters
written by the Abbot of San. Galgano, who was at the time in Rome
on a Mission from the Republic of Siena. See the text in
Appendix, No. 23, 25-30. I found the originals of these letters in
the Chigi Library, Rome, Cod. E., vi., 187.
Scarampo and the Cardinals Carvajal and Parentucelli, who
had been created on the i6th December, 1446, were in favour of
the acceptance of the Concordat.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 349
Papal documents, bearing date the 5th and yth February,
1447, and forming what is known as the Concordat of the
Princes. The demands of Germany were, with some
abatements, granted in principle, but the concessions were
made in a vague and guarded manner. * After the
Ambassadors had received these Bulls, they gathered
round the bed of the sick Pope, " who, on that day, had in
some degree come to himself, and was able to attend to
business ; " on their knees took the oath of obedience, and
afterwards, in open Consistory, solemnly repeated their
declaration (yth February). f Those who, by means of
their plenipotentiaries, took part in this Concordat, were :
the King of the Romans, acting on his own behalf and on
that of the Crown of Bohemia, the Electors of Mayence
and Brandenburg, the Margrave Albert, acting for himself
and his brother John, Duke William of Saxony, and the
Landgrave Louis of Hesse, together with the Bishops of
Halberstadt and Breslau, and the Grand Master of the
Teutonic Order.J
This event caused immense joy in Rome alike amorg
the clergy and the populace. Although but a portion of
the German nation had promised obedience to the Pope,
the rejoicings were as great as if the entire Holy Roman
Empire had made complete submission. All the bells of
the city rang out, bonfires were lighted, and solemn pro
cessions were made to give God thanks for so great a
benefit.
The submission of those German Princes, who still per-
* See Hefele s ample analysis (vii., 830835).
t The great Archbishop of Florence, St. Antoninus, was one of
the witnesses of this important proceeding ; see his Chronicon, iii.,
t. 22, c. n, 17.
J Report of the Saxon Ambassador, H. Engelhardt, in Piickert,
350 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
sisted in their opposition, was now a mere question of
time, and the cause of the Synod of Basle was definitely
lost in Germany. Eugenius issued a special Bull,* declaring
that in the concessions which he had made to Germany,
moved by his anxiety for the welfare of the Church,
though unable through illness to investigate the matter as
thoroughly as he would have desired, he had not intended
in any way to compromise the rights or the authority of
the Apostolic See. On the 23rd February he died, con
soled by the knowledge that the Schism had lost its
power, and that the Church was again resuming her
sway.f
Looking back on the Pontificate of Eugenius IV., we
* Dated 5th February, and published by Raynaldus, ad an. 1447,
N. 7.
t See ^Eneas Sylvius account in Muratori, iii., 2, 889 et seq.
Regarding the tomb of Eugenius, see Gregorovius, Grabmaler,
87 et seq. A view is given in Tosi, Tav., 129. According to
Vespasiano da Bisticci, " Eugenio IV." (in Mai, Spicil. x., 23), the
Pope exclaimed when on his death-bed : " O Gabriello, quanto
sarebbe suto meglio per la salute dell anima tua, che tu non fussi
mai suto n& Papa ne Cardinale, ma fussiti morto nella tua religione ! "
These words have often been quoted in a spirit of partisanship, but
Balan (v., 154) rejects them on the ground that they do not appear
in the other accounts of the Pope s death ; they are, to say the least,
of doubtful authenticity, and in connection with the actual circum
stances of the case, it seems improbable that they should have been
spoken. For, as even Janus (354) admits, Eugenius died victorious
over the Council and over Germany. Granting, however, that the
Pope may, in a fit of despondency, have used these words, there is
nothing in them to justify the inference drawn by Janus (loc. /.),
and after him by Gregorovius, of " remorse " for the means which
he had employed. The Pope might have felt remorse for the large
concessions made to the Germans, and for this very reason he
published, on the 5th February, the important Bull which we have
mentioned.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 351
must say, with ^Eneas Sylvius, that it is marked by an
uncommon measure of prosperity and of misfortune, and
that the two are pretty equally balanced.* Prosperity
would have greatly preponderated if the Pope had shown
more moderation and prudence in his proceedings, t
vEneas has, in a few words, given an admirable sketch
of his character. " He was magnanimous, but without
moderation ; his actions were guided by his desires rather
than by his powers. "J Yet it was a time when the per
plexed state of ecclesiastical and political affairs rendered
prudence in a special degree necessary. Even at the
moment of Eugenius accession the position was critical
enough, for the long-postponed question of Church reform
cried for solution, and the Hussite heresy, which daily
assumed a more alarming aspect, was not to be repressed
by force of arms, and had to be rendered harmless by con
ciliatory means. Eugenius was partly the victim of
circumstances, but it cannot be denied that, with his utter
want of political experience, he often made matters worse
by imprudence and obstinacy. As years went on, how
ever, his opponents became convinced of the firmness of
his principles, and from 1438 he was in many important
matters successful. Considering the countless obstacles
in his way, his successes are not to be estimated by an
ordinary standard. He entered on the struggle for the
restoration of Papal authority with but a small body of
* Muratori, iii., 2, 891 (Baluze, Misc., vii., 547)- Chmel
(Friedrich IV., ii., 410-412) has brought together the opinions of
many contemporaries regarding Eugenius.
t See Frommann, Kritische Beitrlige zur Gesch. der Florentiner
Kircheneinigung (Halle, 1872), 23.
J Baluze, Misc., vii., 547. Frommann, 7 oc. tit. See also Monrad.
Michelsen, p. 22 et seq.
Aschbach, iv., 17.
352 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
loyal adherents, and, although without resources, and
forsaken alike by ecclesiastical and temporal princes, he
carried it on with unwearied energy until the victory was
won.* The victory was not indeed complete, but its con
sequences were most important. At the time when
Eugenius became Pope, the Schism had diffused even
among the noblest sons of the Church false doctrines
regarding the Papal Primacy and a tone antagonistic to
the chief Pastor of the Church ; when he died, the men of
most importance were on the side of Rome ;t the opponents
of the Apostolic See and of the monarchical constitution
of the Church, in short all the anti-ecclesiastical elements,
had sustained a notable defeat ; the attempt to change the
Pope into a mere phantom-ruler, a sort of Doge,J had
come to nought ; and the greatest conflict which a Council
had ever waged against Rome, was practically decided in
favour of the Holy See.
High praise is unquestionably due to Eugenius for
his absolute freedom from nepotism, || and his bitterest
opponents have never ventured to impugn the purity of his
life.!" His unwearied activity in works of charity is also
worthy of grateful remembrance.
Eugenius IV. was, in the fullest sense of the word, a
* Zhishman, 21.
t The list of adversaries whom Eugenius IV. saw return to their
allegiance contains names of great eminence : Cardinals Capranica,
Cervantes, and Cesarini, Nicholas of Cusa, and yneas Sylvius
Piccolomini.
J Raumer, Kirchenversamml., 131, thus characterizes the efforts
made at Basle.
Juan de Segovia in the Mon. concil., ii., 63.
|| Gregorovius, vii., 3rd ed., 94.
Tf " Attenta integritatis vitae et sanctitatis vitae fama," are the
words of the Encyclical of the Basle Synod, issued on the 2ist
January, 1432, Mansi, xxix., 237. See Zhishman, 22.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 353
father of the poor and the sick, to whom, according to
Paolo Petrone, " he gave liberal alms, and he portioned
many needy young maidens." St. Frances of Rome, who
at this time filled the Eternal City with the splendour of
her holiness, found in the Pope a generous promoter of
her pious and benevolent undertakings.* The Hospital of
Santo Spirito, which had fallen into decay, was an object
of special care to Eugenius. He rescued the institution
from its pecuniary difficulties, restored the ruined buildings,
and put an end to irregularities which had arisen in the
Confraternity, so that he really deserves to be considered
as its second founder. He plainly declared that " if
the Master General of the Order (at that time his own
nephew, Pietro Barbo) did not fulfil his duty, he would
take the burden on his own shoulders, and himself act
as Master General and Superior of the Hospital, deeming
such a charge by no means incompatible with the dignity
of the Tiara. t In order to give a fresh impulse to
the Confraternity, he became a member on the loth April,
1446, and undertook to contribute a certain sum yearly.
* Sec Lady G. Fullerton, St. Frances of Rome, 124 et seq. The
kindness shown by Eugenius IV. to poor people and to convents is
mentioned in terms of high praise by George of Trebizond in the
*Oratio edita et pronunciata apud S. Pontificem Eugenium papam
quartum de laudibus eius. Cod. 487, f. 3, in the Court Library at
Vienna.
t H. Brockhaus, Das Hospital Sto. Spirito zu Rom im
fiinfzehnten Jahrhundert, in Janitschek s Repertorium (1884), vii.,
282-283. See P. Saulnier, De capite sacri ordinis Sti. Spiritus
dissertatio (Lugduni, 1649) 5 Azzurri, I nuovi restauri del archios-
pedale di Sto. Spirito in Saxia (Roma, 1868), and Morichini, 100,
in tt seq. See also the *Istoria dell opere pie di Roma, race, da
Camillo Fanucci Senese, in Cod. E. in, 4, f- 13 of the Casanate
Library in Rome. There is an account of the aid given by Eugenius
IV. to the Sto. Spirito in *Cod. Vatic., 7871, f. 52. Vatican
Library.
A A
354 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
The Pope s example was followed by many Cardinals, among
whom were Francesco Condulmaro, Giovanni Tagliacozzo,
Niccol6 Acciapacci, Giorgio Fieschi, Bessarion, Antonio
Martini, Jean le Jeune de Contay, d Estouteville, Torque-
mada, Scarampo, and Alfonzo Borgia, who afterwards
became Calixtus III.*
The " visita graziosa," after the plan of an ancient
institution in the Church, was, we are told, established in
the time of Eugenius IV. Twice every month Magistrates
and Overseers of the poor visited the prisoners and ques
tioned each of them separately ; when occasion offered they
mitigated punishments ; they brought about agreements
between debtors and creditors, and, in many cases, set
prisoners at liberty. The Popes, who have so often taken
a prominent part in promoting the welfare of humanity,
the progress of civilization and the exercise of benevolence,
were also among the first to interest themselves in the
* *Liber confraternitatis Sti. Spiritus in the Archives of Sto.
Spirito (T. 32), begins, f. i, with Eugenius Bull " Salvatoris nostri,"
d. d. 1446, viii. Calend. April ; f. 2 has the following words : " In
nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti. Incipit liber confraternitatis
Sti. Spiritus et Stae. Marie in Saxia de urbe," after which are the
autograph entries : " Ego Eugenius catholic, ecclesie episcopus
dono annuatim ducat, auri principals (the number is unfortunately
effaced). Ego Franciscus episc. Portuen. Card. Venet. et R. E.
vicecancell Ego Johannes (episc. card). Prsenestin. major
penitent. Ego Nicolaus tit. S. Marcelli Card. Capuanus. Ego
Card, de Flisco. Ego B[essarion] basilicse, xii. Apost. presbyt.
Supra et infrascripti rev. d. cardinales intraverunt fraternitatem
predictam hodie x. Aprilis 1446, coram prefato S.D.N. scripserunt
se manibus propriis eadem hora qua D.N. intravit et se manu
propria scripsit." f. 2b : " Ego Antonius tit. S. Crisogoni. Ego
Johannes tit. S. Laurentii in Lucina. Ego Guillelmus tit. S.
Martini in montibus. Ego Johannes tit. S. Marie Transtib. L.
Card. Aquiles. tit. S. Laurentii in Damaso. Ego. Card. Valent. tit.
iv. Coronator."
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 355
improvement of prisons and the alleviation of the lot of
prisoners, remembering that the proper aim of punishment
is not retaliation, but the amendment of the criminal, or at
least the protection of society from further injury.*
One aspect of this reign demands special consideration,
because it has been made the occasion of serious charges
against Eugenius IV. It is true that the general reform of
ecclesiastical affairs was not carried out during his pontifi
cate, but have those who blame him asked themselves
whether such general reform was possible ?
A very clear-sighted contemporary, who was also a
thorough friend of reform, answers in the negative. The
celebrated Dominican, Master John Nider, held a general
reform of the Church in its head and its members to be a
practical impossibility. He believed experience to have
shown that only a partial reform was possible, and, in his
chief work, the " Formicarius," he endeavoured to support
this opinion. He draws a lesson from the custom of the
ants who build themselves a city composed of many little
dwellings, which they protect in their way from heat anc!
from rain with sticks and leaves. " Herein/ . he explains,
"they are the emblems of those who belong to the General
Council, and especially of the Prelates ; for they, as far as
in them lies, have charge to reform the City of the Church
Militant in its several orders, where it has suffered damage,
that is to say, to instruct men in the way of serving God, to
defend them from the heat of passions and the assaults of
enemies, and in word and deed so to behave themselves
that they may deserve to be specially led in this by the
Spirit of God. Now, alas ! it is all very different." The
Councils of Constance and Basle, Nider continues, have
made it their special business to reform the Church in its
* Neue Romische Brief e, i., 146 et seq., 1 50 et seq. See Morichini,
783 et seq.
356 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
head and members. Much was said, particularly at Basle,
about the Church ; the Council called itself, in the title of
almost all its Bulls, a Council of reform, it even established
a Commission of reform, " and for six whole years the
amendment of the various ranks of the clergy has been dealt
with, but we have not perceived any result." Is there any
hope of a general reformation of the Church in its Head
and its members ? " I have/ answers Nider, " absolutely
none in the present time, or in the immediate future ; for
goodwill is wanting among the subjects, the evil disposi
tion of the prelates constitutes an obstacle, and, finally, it
is profitable to God s elect to be tried by persecution from
the wicked. You may see an analogy in the art of build
ing. An architect, however skilful he may be, can never
erect an edifice unless he has suitable material of wood or
stone. And if there is wood or stone in sufficient quantity,
but no master-builder, there will be no proper house and
dwelling. And, if you knew that a house would not be
fitting for your friend, or, when built, would be a trouble to
him, you certainly w r ould be prudent enough not to build it.
Apply these three instances to the total reformation of the
Church, and you will perceive its impossibility. However,
I have no doubt that a partial refcrmation of the Church in
many of its conditions and orders is possible.""*
Eugenius IV. adopted this course; he began the work of
reform in the only way which was, under the circumstances,
possible or profitable, by the amendment and regeneration
of the Religious Orders and then of the clergy. f The
terrible storms which broke over the Papacy often interfered
with the accomplishment of his excellent purposes ; never
theless, during the whole of his Pontificate he devoted the
* Schieter, Joh. Nider, 188-189.
t As early as July 6th, 1431, Eugenius IV. wrote to John Duke
of Brittany ; " *Nos enim reformationem cleri semper dum
essemus in minoribus optabamus et ad papatum assumpti ad earn
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 357
greatest attention to the improvement of the morals of ths
secular and regular clergy. Reform was constantly talked
of at Basle, but very little was done to carry it out. Truly
pious and priestly-minded men were wanting. The very
fathers who spoke most constantly of the simplicity of the
Apostolic Church were seen hunting and hawking, fully
accoutred and attended by a long train of lay retainers, or
feasting at sumptuous banquets.* Eugenius IV. took the
reform of the Roman clergy in hand in 1432, and continued
the work even during the time of his exile.f After his
return to Rome he looked closely to the maintenance of
discipline amongst them.J Vespasiano da Bisticci gives a
detailed account of the manner in which he reformed the
monasteries of Florence and its neighbourhood during his
long sojourn in that city. It was Eugenius purpose to
totis affectibus anhelamus, et nisi nos ad curas alias necessarie
distraxisset turbatio nobis illata per nonnullos rebelles ecclesiae
huiusmodi reformation! magnum iam principium dedissemus, quod
tamen cito per Dei gratiam superatis iis difficultatibus faciemus."
I found this letter, which, as far as I know, has not yet been published,
in Cod. i., 75-76, f. 8ab of the Borghese Library, Rome.
* See Voigt., Enea Silvio, i., no, and Schieler, 349, 351.
t See Bullar., v., 6-10 : Ordinances for the reform of the clergy
of the City of Rome, 1432, Feb. 23. Ibid. 16-17, a Bull contra
simoniacae pravitatis reos eorumque mediatores, dated 1434, May
18. Eugenius specially insisted on the removal of the secular
Canons from the Lateran, and replaced them by regular Clerks ;
see *Brief of 8th February, 1439, m tne Lateran Archives.
J See his * ^Letters to the Bishops of Aquila and Bologna
regarding the reform of the clergy at the Lateran, dated Rome,
1445. Nono Kal. Januar. A xv., Reg. 377, f. 2965. Private
Archives of the Vatican.
Mai, Spicil., i., 10 et seq. Many proofs of the promotion of
monastic reform by Eugenius IV. are given in Wadding, x. and xi.
See Bull. ord. praedic., iii. Weiss, Vor der Reformation, 23 et seq.,
has some good remarks on the monastic reform of the fifteenth
century.
358 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
restore strict observance in all monasteries, but adverse
circumstances hindered the accomplishment of his plan.
In connection with his zeal in this matter, we may mention
his special affection for St. Bernardine of Siena and St.
John Capistran ; almost as soon as the former of these holy
men had breathed his last, the process for his canonization
was introduced.*
Eugenius IV. was not unmindful of the interests of art
and artists ; in fact, he gave them every encouragement pos
sible in those troublous days.
Recent investigations have thrown much light on the
Venetian Pope s relation to art, and the matter is especially
worthy of attention, because in some sense he prepared the
way for his great successor. Although it is a mistake to
consider Eugenius IV. as the first of the line of Renaissance
Popes, t yet it is true that he prepared the way for it, and
his action in this respect is more apparent in the domain of
art than in that of literature.
Like Martin V., Eugenius IV. was most simple and
modest in his own manner of living, but deemed no
splendour too great where the worship of God was con
cerned. The tiara which Ghiberti made by his order must
have been a very marvel of magnificence ; the gold
employed in it alone weighed fifteen pounds, and the
precious stones and pearls five and a half more. The value
of these jewels rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and pearls
(amongst which were six of the size of a hazel-nut) was
estimated by the Florentine goldsmiths at eight and thirty
thousand golden florins. The exquisite w r orkmanship of
Ghiberti added to the worth of this costly tiara ; the little
figures and ornaments which adorned it were made by his
own hand ; in front our Lord was represented seated on a
throne and surrounded by a choir of angels ; at the back
* Wadding, xi., 233 tt seq. See Vol. ii., Book I., chapter III.
t Gregorovius, Grabmiiler, 2nd ed., p. 86.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 359
was the Blessed Virgin, also enthroned and attended by
angels ; four medallions contained the Evangelists, and the
band at the base was decorated with cherubs.* That the
exiled Pope should have displayed such magnificence may
be explained by the fact that the tiara was destined to be
worn at the solemn ratification of the union with the
Greeks, an act which was considered as an immense victory
won by the Papacy, at the very moment when the Council
of Basle was doing its utmost to destroy it.
In the eternal city, Eugenius IV. also followed the example
of his powerful predecessor by taking special care of the
restoration of the churches, without, however, forgetting
the other buildings, the gates, the walls of the city, and the
bridges. By his command works of restoration were
undertaken at St. Peter s, St. Paul s, Sta. Maria Maggiore,
Sta. Maria sopra Minerva, Sta. Maria in Trastevere, Sto.
Spirito in Sassia, and in the Lateran.f In the last-named
church the frescoes representing scenes from the life of St.
John the Baptist, begun in the time of Martin V. by Gentile
da Fabriano, were finished by Vittore Pisanello.J Even
while in exile, Eugenius managed to contribute considerable
sums of money for these purposes; in 1437-1438 alone, he
gave more than three thousand ducats. The Pantheon, an
* Miintz, i., 36, 53. Kinkel, 29, 56. The above description of
the tiara is taken literally from the able work of Miintz, who justly
observes in regard to Eugenius love of splendour : " On reconnait
le Venitien a cet amour du luxe, de la couleur;" (i., 36).
t Miintz, i., 38 et scq., 48 et seq., 50 et seq. Rasponus, 31, 93.
In this reign, as in Martin V. s, comparatively few new buildings
were erected. " Quand nous aurons cite le palais de la Monnaie, le
presbytere du Latran et, en dehors de Rome, le palais de Bologne,
nous en aurons a peu pres epuise la liste." (Joe. /., 32). For the
edifices built by the Cardinals, see Reumont, iii., i, 376-377-
J Miintz, i., 46-47. See v. Ottenthal in the Mittheilungen, v.
441.
Loc. tit., i., 37.
360 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
ancient heathen building, which had long served as a church,
was restored, its splendid pillars were cleared to the base,
and the entrance and floor paved with Travertine marble.
On this occasion were discovered two basalt lions of
Egyptian workmanship, which Pius VII. afterwards placed
in the Egyptian Museum of the Vatican, and a wonderful
porphyry basin, supposed at that time to be the Sarco
phagus of Agrippa ; it now adorns the splendid monument
of Clement XII. in the Lateran.*
We have already spoken of the influence which his pro
longed sojourn at Florence, the centre of the Renaissance,
exercised on Eugenius IV., but to complete the picture of
his life we must again return to the subject.
In Florence, Eugenius saw the first gate made by Ghiberti
for the Baptistry, and it seems most probable that the
sight of this masterpiece suggested to him the idea of
ordering a similar work for the principal church in Rome.
Accordingly the Florentine architect, Antonio Averulino
surnamed Filarete, was commissioned to make new bronze
gates for St. Peter s. They were put up on the 26th June,
1445, and still adorn the central entrance. Although their
workmanship cannot bear comparison with that of Ghiberti,
they are worthy of notice as clearly exhibiting that evil
influence of the Renaissance, of which we shall hereafter
have to speak. In his work, which was destined for the
principal entrance of the noblest church in the world,
Filarete had, to use the mildest term, the bad taste to place,
together with the figures of our Saviour, His Virgin Mother
and the Princes of the Apostles, and amid representations
of the great religious acts of Eugenius Pontificate, not
only busts of the Roman Emperors, but also the forms of
Mars and Roma, of Jupiter and Ganymede, Hero and
Leander, of a Centaur leading a nymph through the sea, and
* Loc. tit., i., 34-35. Plattner-Bunsen, iii., 3, 346. R. Schoner,
Das Romische Pantheon (Allgemeine Zeitung, 1883, N. 336).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 361
even of Leda and the swan ; the composition is in keeping
with the contemporary poems of the Humanists, where the
names of Christian Saints and of heathen gods* are pro
miscuously intermingled.
It is curious that the same Pope who had these gates put
up at S. Peter s, took Fra Angelico da Fiesole, the most
devout of Christian artists, into his service, and employed
this great matter, in whose works the mystical tendency of
Italian art reaches its climax, in the decoration of his new
chapel of the Blessed Sacrament in the Vatican. t Hardly
any fact could be better calculated to modify a hasty con
demnation of the encouragement given to the Renaissance
by the Popes. The first period of the Renaissance was
one of striking contrasts, not only in the domain of litera
ture, but also in that of art, and from these very contrasts
the Pontificate of the successor of Eugenius derives its
distinctive character.
* Hetlner, 73, 171. See Piper, Christl. Mythologie, i., 292 et
seq., 362,. 425, 435, 4445 ii- 542, 644. Meyer, Kiinstlerlexikon,
i., 472. Miintz, Precurseurs, 90-94 ; and H. v. Tschudi, " Filarete s
Mitarbeiter an den Bronzethiiren von St. Peter," in Janitschek s
Repertorium (1884), vii., 291-294. We must, however, bear in
mind that, in the days of which we are writing, people were not
shocked, as they would now be, with incongruities of this kind.
f Miintz, i., 91. It is worthy of remark that Eugenius IV., who
had sojourned for a long time in the Dominican Monastery at
Florence (Joe. <://., i., 34), brought forward artists of this Order.
Regarding the Dominican, Antonio of Viterbo, see the notice of N.
della Tuccia (206), which Miintz has overlooked. From this
notice it appears, that the wooden gates for S. Peter s carved by
Antonio were almost finished at the time of the death of
Eugenius IV.
Gaol s College
rustic s Library
APPENDIX.
UNPUBLISHED DOCUMENTS AND EXTRACTS
FROM ARCHIVES.
PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS.
The documents here brought together are only intended
to corroborate and complete the text. It did not form part
of che plan of my work to furnish an actual collection of
Archives. I have given as accurately as I could the place
where each is to be found. From considerations of space,
my explanatory observations have been made as few and
as brief as possible. As a rule, I have retained the spell
ing, punctuation, &c., of the text ; such alterations as I
have made in regard to capital letters and punctuation do
not require justification. All emendations of any import
ance are mentioned, but slight mistakes and obvious mis
prints are corrected without remark. Additions are
marked by brackets, and incomprehensible or doubtful
passages by a note of interrogation, or the w r ord "sic."
Those which I have omitted as beside my purpose, either in
my first copy, or later, when preparing for the press, are
indicated by dots ( . . . ).
i. Pope Gregory XI. to Giovanni Fieschi, Bishop of
Vercelli*
I374> August 9,
Villeneuve, in the Diocese of Avignon.
Venerabili fratri episcopo Vercellensi salutem, etc.
* Cf. supra, p. 54. For the sake of brevity, instead of giving
the descriptive titles of this and the following documents, I refer to
the place in the text where they are mentioned.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 363
Pervenit ad nos, quod liber seu volumen, qui vocatur
Trogus Pompeius/* ubi historie parcium orientalium diffuso
lepore context! feruntur, in Vercellensi urbe repertus est.
. . . Et quia dictus liber nimium est sensibus nostris
acceptus et longe acceptior, si eum presencialiter habere-
mus, fraternitatem tuam rogamus interne, quatenus circa
invencionem ipsius absque mora impendere studeas operam
efficacem eumque ut speramus inventum ad nos per fidelem
delatorem non differas destinare, nobis proinde plurimum
placiturus. Datum Novis, Avinion. dioc. v. id. aug. anno
quarto. Regest. 270, f. 199. Secret Archives of the
Vatican.
2. Pope Gregory XL to Bernardo Cariti, Canon of
Parish
1374, August u,
Villeneuve, in the Diocese of Avignon.
Dilecto filio Bernardo Cariti canonico Parisiensi, apos-
tolice sedis nuntio salutem, etc.
Discretioni tue tenore presencium iubemus expresse,
quatenus in loco Serbone Parisiis perquiri facias diligente.
in librariis eius pro libris Tullii Ciceronis scriptis in cedula
presentibus interclusa. Et si quidem eos vel aliquos aut
aliquem eorum inveneris, prout alias scimus inventos esse,
illos facias pro nobis per intelligentes scriptores illico
exemplari et exemplatos quamprius poteris ad nos per
fidelem delatorem destinare procures, cautus ut in illis
nullam committas negligentiam vel defectum. Dat. Novis,
Avinion. dice. iii. id Aug. pontificatus nostri anno quarto.J
* Cf. Marini, Archiatri, ii., 21. Salutato also commissioned a
friend of his to search for the Pompejus Trogus, of which he knew
from Justinus. Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 209.
t Cf. supra, p. 54-
J On the Bibliographical wealth of Paris, and later researches for
Cicero s writings in France, see Voigt, Wiederbelebung, 2nd ed., 2,
33 6 34i.
364 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
3. Pope Gregory XL to Lucca*
1375, Aug. 10, Villeneuve, Avignon.
Gregorius episcopus servus servorum del. Dilectis filiis
regiminibus et communi civitatis Lucan[e] salutem et
apostolicam ben.
Gravibus et diversis pariterque iniustis querelis Floren-
tinorum seii eos regentium nuper verbo et scripto
dolentur auditis eis qui in detestabilem superbiam videntur
efferri et contra Sanctam Romanam ecclesiam, eorum et
cunctorum fidelium matrem, cornua elationis erigere ac se
immergere nonnullosque alios secum in precipitium trahere
moliuntur, respondemus per nostras litteras, quarum
tenorem inclusum presentibus dilectioni vestre volumus
esse notum, sinceritatem vestram rogantes attentius et
hortantes quatinus tanquam viri redimiti prudentia, fide
constantes et devotione preclari nullis vos permittatis
adulationibus decipi, nullis seditionibus corrumpi nullisque
comminationibusteneri ad hiis, qui vostram quietem turbare
et devotionem depravare forsitan niterentur et vicinorum
suorum libertatem in servitutem redigunt, quando possunt,
sed columpne prefate ecclesie, que libertatem vestram
optat et querit tanquam devotissimi filii hereatis. Datum
apud Villamnovam Avinionen. dioc. iv. id. aug., ponti-
ficatus nostri anno quinto.
FRANCISCUS.
Orig., with leader seal, Lucca, State Archives, Arm. 6,
n. 379-
4. The Republic of Florence to the Romans.^
1376, Jan. 4, Florence.
Romanis. Magnifici domini fratres nostri carissimi.
Deus benignissimus cuncta disponens et sub immutabilis
* See supra, p. 102.
t See supra p. 109. This remarkable letter is undoubtedly from
the pen of the Florentine Chancellor Coluccio Salutato (fi4o6, May
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 365
iusticie ordine nobis incognito res mortalium administrans,
miseratus humilem Italiam ingemiscere sub iugo abomin-
abilis servitutis, suscitavit spiritum populorum et erexit
oppresses contra fedissimam tirannidem barbarorum. Et,
ut videtis, undique pari voto excita demum Ausonia liber-
tatem fremit, libertatem ferro viribusque procurat. Quibus
nos requirentibus in tarn preclaro proposito ac tarn
favorabili causa nostra subsidia non negamus. Que
cuncta vobis tanquam publice libertatis autoribus ac patri-
bus credimus ad iocunditatem accedere, cum cognoscantur
ad maiestatem Romani populi et vestrum naturale proposi-
tum pertinere. Hie enim libertatis amor olim Romanum
populum contra regiam tirannidem impulit et ad abrogan-
dum imperio decemvirum, illam ob compressionem Lucretie,
istud ob damnationem Virginie concitavit. Hec libertas
Oratium Coclitem solum contra infestos hostes ruituro
obiecit in ponte. Hec Mutium sine spe salutis in Porsen-
nam immisit et proprie manus incendio stupendum regi
omnique posteritati prebuit admirandum. Hec duos Decios
sponte devote morti et gladiis hostium consecravit. Et ut
singulos mortales vestre civitatis ingentia lumina dimitta-
4) ; see Voigt, Wiederbelebung, i., 2nd ed., 202, n. 2. It confirms
the remarks madeby Voigt, loc. /., 204-206, and Reumont, ii., 984 ;
Hi., i, 290, regarding the redundant and declamatory style of the
celebrated Secretary of State. Gherardi (Guerra dei Florentini, vii.,
i, 223), and Gregorovius (vi., 3rd ed., 446-447) have already given
some passages from it. The latter and Voigt, who follows him,
(loc. /.), are mistaken in mentioning the 6th January as the date.
Gregorovius (vi., 3rd ed., 448-449) gives a translation of the
Florentines letter of the ist February, 1376, which immediately
followed the above appeal and is couched in the same pompous
tone. Both letters are mentioned by Balan (iv., 395, n. 2).
Cipolla (159) speaks of that written on the 4th January as " una
lettera bollentissima colle allusione classiche che ricordano i dis-
corsi di Cola."
366 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
mus, hec sola fecit ut Romanus populus, rerum dominus et
victor gentium, innumerabilibus victoriis totum orbem,
sanguinem etiam suum effundendo, peragraverit. Ob
quod, fratres carissimi, cum omnes ad libertatem naturaliter
incendantur, vos soli ex debito hereditario quodam iure
obligamini ad studia libertatis. Quid erataspicere nobilem
Italiam, cuius iuris est ceteris nationibus imperare, tarn seva
pessundari servitute ? Quid erat videre hanc fedam bar-
bariem prede et sanguini Latinorum seve crudelitatis
nixibus* inhyantem per miserum Latium desevire? Quo
circa insurgite et vos, o inclitum nedum Italic caput sed
totius orbis domitor populus, contra tantam tirannidem
fovete populos, expellite abominationem de Italic finibus
et libertatem cupientes protegite, et si quos vel ignavia vel
iugum fortius ac durius sub servitute continet, excitate.
Hec sunt opera vero Romanorum. Nolite pati per in-
iuriam hos Gallicos voratores vestre Italic tarn crudeliter
imminere. Nee sinceritatem vestram seducant blandicie
clericorum, quos scimus vos privatim et publice ambire
suggerereque vobis, quod placeat et velitis statum ecclesie
sustinere, offerentes papam curiam Romanam in Italiam
translaturum et in magno verborum lenocinio vobis quern-
dam optabilem urbis statum ex adventu curie designantes.
Denique hec omnia hue redeunt, hoc concludunt : facite
Roman!, quod Italia serviat, opprimatur et conculcetur et
hi Gallici dominentur. An potest vobis aliquod proponi
lucrum, aliquodve precium deputari quod preponendum sit
Italice libertati ? Quid plura? an potest levitati barbare
aliquid credi ? Aut de gente instabili certum aliquid
opinari ? Pridem Urbanusf quanta spe perpetui incolatus
reduxit curiam ? et quam subito, seu natural! vicio et
levitate, seu sacietate Italic, seu Galliarum suarum desiderio
* "Nexibus" in the Vienna Codex,
t Urban V. See supra p. 95.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 367
hoc tarn constans propositum commutavit? Addite, quod
summum pontificem trahebat in Italiam sola civitas Perusina,
quam, cum omnibus Tuscie urbibus videatur excellere,
sedem sibi continuam preparabat ; et si quid humano
commercio lucri poterat cum hac gente sperari, totum a
vobis erat, si recte respicitis, affuturum. Nunc autem
desperatis rebus offerunt, quod facturi non erant. Et ideo,
fratres carissimi, considerate ipsorum facta, non verba ; non
illos enim vestra utilitas, sed dominandi cupiditas in Italiam
evocabat. Nolite decipi in nectare verborum, sed prout
diximus* Italiam vestram, quam compte progenitores vestri
universe orbi multa impensa sanguinis prefecerunt, saltern
nolite pati barbaris et externis gentibus subiacere. Dicite
nunc, imo repetite ex publico consulto illud incliti Catonis
dictum : nolumus tarn liberi esse quam cum liberis vivere.
Datum Florentie die quarta ianuarii XIV. ind. Nos autem
communem nostrum omnemque nostram militarem potentiam
ad beneplacita vestra paratum offerimus, in vestri nominis
gloriam transmissuri. Council of Florence State Archives.
Cone. Florence, State Archives. Signor. Car. Miss, XV.,
40. Cop. Court Library, Vienna, Cod. lat. 3121, f. 6ja-6]b.
5. Pope Gregory XL to Osimo.^
1377, Feb. 12, Rome.
Gregorius episcopus servus servorum dei Dilectis filiis
confaloniero, prioribus ac consilio et communi civitatis
nostre Auximane, salutem et apostolicam benedictionem.
Litteram vestram in forma brevis nobis directam benigne
recepimus, in vestreque fidelitatis constantia tanto maiori
exultamus gaudio, quanto ipsa fidelitas in tribulationis
tempore sincerior invenitur, vosque proinde letari debetis,
quod celebre nomen vobis acquiritis et apostolice sedis
* The Vienna MS. has " diximus," the Florentine " duximus."
t See supra, p. 102.
368 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
amorem et favorem promeremini potiores. Confortationis
igitur spiritum, sicut habuistis hactenus, habere conemini
continue in futurum. De damnis autem et tribulationibus
vestris vobis paterne compatimur et super eis remedia, que
possumus, adhibemus scribimusque dilecto filio nostro
Roberto,*" basilice XII. apostolorum presbytero cardinal!,
apostolice sedis legato, ac venerabili fratri nostro Petro,f
episcopo Conchensi, provincie nostre Marchie Anconitane
et nobis et ecclesiae Romanae rectori, ac dilecto filio Hugoni
de RupeJ militi, quod super custodia arcis Auximane
studeant celeriter providere. Scribimus etiam dilecto filio
nobili viro Silvestro Bude militi et aliis Britonibus
secundum tenorum presentibus interclusum. Super
restitutione autem et ampliatione vestri comitatus, licet
multam sedis gratiam mereamini, aliud nunc non
respondemus, nisi quod periculosum est ex diversis
causis, isto tempore tales facere novitates. Nihilom-
inus tamen vos taliter commendatos habere proponimus,
quod poteritis merito contentari.^f Datum Romae apud S.
Petrum II. id. februar., pontificatus nostri anno septimo.
FRAXCISCUS.
* Robert, Cardinal of Geneva, who afterwards became the Anti-
Pope Clement VII.
t D. Pedro Gomez Barroso. See Noticias de todos los ilmos.
seiiores obispos que han regido la didcesis de Cuenca por Fr.
Muiioz y Soliva (Cuenca, 1860), 123-127, and Compagnoni, 229,
237, 241, 242 et seq., 247 ; the account given by the latter is very
confused, and in some particulars quite incorrect.
J " Mareschallus curiae Romance " under Clement VI. and
Gregory XI. Further particulars regarding him are given by
Baluze, i., 883 et seq., 1193 ; ii., 671 et seq., 740 et seq.
See Muratori, xvi., 1096.
IT The documents indicated by Cecconi {2^ et seq.) show how
Osimo was rewarded. Cecconi also mentions the foregoing letter,
but with the erroneous date of Feb. 4. The * letter of Gregory
XI. calling upon Osimo to give a good example to the other subjects
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 369
[fn verfo :]
Dilectis filiis confalonerio, prioribus ac consilio et com-
muni civitatis Auximane.
Original on parchment in the Archives at Osimo.
6. Pope Gregory XI. to Florence*
I377> J uli I5 Anagni.
Gregorius episcopus servus servorum dei.
Populo civitatis Florencie spiritum consilii sanioris.
Pulsat mentem nostram pastoralis solercia et solicitudo
paterna, ut vos, olim devotionis filios, in tenebris nunc
sedentes et adulterinis quorundam pestilentium regentium
et antepositorum in facto guerre vigentis seductionibus et
mendosis fictionibus obfuscates, veritatis detegendo
rectitudinem, piis affatibus alloquamur, ne presides ipsi,
veneno detractionis infecti et ambitionis cupidine turpiter
excecati, assumpto mendacii spiritu falsis eorum persua-
sionibus vos in profundum malorum precipites secum
trahant ; hii profecto rectores et antepositi, quos gloria vexat
inanis, sic elati sunt in superbia, ut luciferini cum principi-
bus sedere cupiant et in solio presidere glorie dominantis,
nullam libertatem querentes nullamque ad concives sues vel
quosvis alios caritatem habentes vel amiciciam, quicquid
fingant, adeo ceci facti cupiditatis ingluvie, ut videntes non
videant nee intelligant audientes. Sed utinam saperent et
novissima previderent ac pariter providerent. Quid autem
demeruerat apud ipsos Romana ecclesia, fidelium omnium
pia mater et magistra, in cuius gremio commune Florencid
prerogativa speciali quiescebat, et que ipsum commune, ut
de retropreteritis taceamus, proximis eciam temporibus
of the church (" bonum exemplum aliis ecclesie prefate subditis f
prebeatis"), noticed by the same author, is not dated Avignon the
5th March, but the 22nd February (for such is the signification of
viii. Cal. Mart.).
* See supra, pp. in and 114.
B B
oi s College
5 s Library
370 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
coaluit et defendit veluti pullos suos gallina sub alls, et a
servitute tirannica, cui propinquum erat, pluries ut est
notorium preservavit. Ipsi vero rectores et antepositi,
prosperitatis ipsius invidi, nulli occasione vel culpa eiusdem
ecclesie nullaque diffidatione precedentibus, quinymo
colligatione durante prioribusque nobis scribentibus, cuius-
modi scripturas studiose servamus, quod ecclesiam in nullo
offenderent nisi ipsa primitus inchoaret, repentino ictu
attrociter debachantes et insanientes, in ipsam omnes eius
terras ad rebellionis seviciem clandestinis mendaciorum
flatibus perfidisque suggestionibus concitarunt, ipsamque
insontem, suo inebriati furore ac morbo ingratitudinis
fedissime laborantes, alias inauditis affecerunt et obstin-
atione dampnabili affligere non desistunt iacturis, gravibus
iniuriis et offensis. O ceca ambicio, que nee deum timet
nee homines reveretur. O quam funesta rabies, que
tantorum cedium, incendiorum, deflorationum, stuprorum
et aliorum innumerorum et horrendorum facinorum non
metuerit causam et inicium propinare. O quam barbarica
ferocitas omni beluina crudelior, que manus sacrilegas in
christos domini, quibus olim pharaonica impietas adhuc de
proprio alimenta prebebat, extendere, bona eorum mobilia
distrahere et, quod alias per quoscunque quantumcumque
nefandos persecutores ecclesie nunquam factum fuisse narra-
tur, immobilia alienare et dei prophanare sanctuarium non
expavit. Vos autem convenimus, o popule, qui tanquam
pusillus grex ad excidium temporale et eternum supplicium
ducimini per predictos. Quid vobis profuit aut prodesse
vel quern fructum proferre potest miserabilis ista vestrorum
collisio vicinorum, qua divisis ac frementibus in se com-
munitatibus et universitatibus quamplurimis, ac patre in
filium, fratre in fratrem, cive in civem, et contra sevientibus
tot mortes, depopulaciones agrorum et infinite scandala
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 371
continue perfidorum ipsorum presidum vestrorum ministerio
perpetrantur, et tota Italia periclitationi subjicitur ac ruine,
qua eciam efficimini plebis abiectio et omni obprobrium
nationi, pro qua quidem concussione fovenda vestra corro-
ditur substancia, et figmentis fallacibus adinventionibusque
dolosis per prefatos detinemini, obstruso veritatis lumine
vinculati. Asserunt enim ut accepimus, licet falsitate
mendosa, quod ad concordiam nolumus inclinare, qui teste
pacis auctore eius vestigiis inherentes cuius vices licet
immeriti gerimus in humanis, premissis non obstantibus,
pacem semper appetivimus et nunc eciam summis desideriis
affectamus. Sed ultimate destinatis ad nos suis oratoribus
qualem nobis pacem obtulerint, audiatis. En volunt in
primis, quod rebelles nostri et eiusdem ecclesie
nee non tiranni, qui terras ipsius ecclesie dictorum
rectorum et antepositorum favore et auxilio occupa-
runt, in execrabili statu rebellionis et tirannizationis
huiusmodi impune debeant hinc ad sexennium remanere.
Volunt insuper, quod eis sit licitum, dicto durante
sexennio cum dictis rebellibus quancunque ligam et
contra quoscunque, eciam nos et dictam ecclesiam, pro
libito renovare, et pro premissis omnibus necnon dictis
iniuriis et offensis primo viginti, demum vero quinquagintas
milia florenorum singulis annis ipso sexennio perdurante
solummodo obtulerunt. Si igitur ista pacis oblatio dici
debeat, ubi primo petitur, quod nostri subditi in rebellione
persistant et tirannia roboretur, ubi secundo futura guerra
iam orditur, presagitur et aperte tractatur, ubi tertio de
tantis damnis tantisque offensis, iniuriis et iacturis talis et
tarn elusoria compensatio nobis offertur, vosmetipsi con-
siderare potestis. Et quamvis nos, qui sub spe concordie
et pacis in tota Italia, auxiliante deo, reformande, solo
nativo, amena patria, populo grato pariter et devoto ac
372 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
aliis multis delectabilibus derelictis, necnon regibus,
principibus et multis cardinalibus ecclesie predicte, contra-
dicentibus seu supplicantibus de contrario, nullatenus
exauditis, ad ipsam accessimus non sine magnis periculis,
laboribus et expensis et cum intentione firma reparandi,
si qua per officiales nostros et eiusdem ecclesie minus bene
gesta fuissent, ad multa nobis indecentia et minus honesta
zelo pacis condescendere voluerimus fueritque cum pre-
fatis oratoribus per nonnullos ex fratribus nostris cardinali
bus mediatoribus eciam et instantibus carissime in Christo
filie Johanne regine Sicilie illustris et dilectorum filiorum
ducis et communis Veneciarum ambaxiatoribus longo iam
temporis decursu tractatum, ipsi tamen oratores ad aliud
offerendum, quam superius expressum est, nunquam potue-
runt induci dicentes, se ad ampliora non habere mandatum,
sed de die in diem aliud expectare, de cuius quidem
missione nulli hucusque rumores per nos sunt habiti nee
habentur, et sic per verba ducimur sine fructu. Hec
autem vobis more benigni patris, ovem perditam solicite
requirentis, decrevimus aperire, ut de nobis oblatis per
oratores predictos meram veritatem habentes, per delira-
menta mendosa dicentium forte, alia fuisse nobis oblata,
non circumveniamini, nee ignorancia facti ultraducamini in
errorem a certo tenentes, quod nunquam parte nostra stetit,
quominus concordia fieret, neque stabit duce deo, si nobis
vera, firma et adhuc minus condecens offeratur. Levate
igitur oculos et videte, quis rei exitus de tanta humilitate
nostra et tanta vestrorum indurata superbia sit verisimiliter
secuturus, et utinam quod bonum est eligentes, que floruit
hactenus, rectorum et antepositorum predictorum callidi-
tate dampnabili nunc efflorens, adhuc patre luminum
inspirante refloreat nostris in temporibus civitas Florentina.
Scientes tamen, quod ubi nobis non offerantur alia, cunctis
. HISTORY OF THE POPES.
373
principibus, magnatibus et communitatibus orthodoxis pre-
missa pandemus, et iusticia nostra et lenitas vestrorumque
obstinata protervitas christicolis omnibus patefiat, sperantes
in domino et in devotione fidelium confidentes, quod ipse
deus innocenciam nostram ex alto prospiciens ecclesiam
sibi sponsam non derelinquet, prout nee hucusque reliquit,
finaliter indefensam.
Datum Anagnie id. iul., pontificatus nostri anno septimo.
{In verso .-]
Populo civitatis Florencie.
Original Document in State Archives, Florence.
Diplomat. Prov. Riform, Atti pubblici.*
* Mentioned by Gherardi (viii., i, 287, n. 368), and used
by Gregorovius (vi., 3rd ed., 468). The latter is wrong in giving
the 1 3th July as the date. As to the document itself, see Gherardi,
v., ii., 112, and Reumont, ii., 1008-1009, who justly observes that
Gregory XI., being perfectly acquainted with the state of affairs in
Florence, where the bow had been drawn too tight, endeavoured to
foment the popular feeling against the Magistrates, with the object
of constraining them to make peace. We learn the names of hi?
Ambassadors from the following unpublished letter, which is also
taken from the State Archives of Florence : " Gregorius episcopus,
servus servorum Dei. Prioribus artium ac vexillifero iusticie populi et
communis civitatis Florencie spiritum consilii sanioris. Habentibus
aliqua vobis parte nostra preferre dilectis filiis Ludovico de Veneciis
fratrum minorum et Johanni de Basilia fratrum heremitarum sancti
Augustini ordinum in sacra pagina professoribus oportunas securi-
conductus, quas expectabunt in Pisis, litteras prout fecimus vestris
ambaxiatoribus destinare velitis eisque et ipsorum alteri super
exponendis eisdem cum ad vos pervenerint fidem credulam
adhibere. Datum Anagnie xiii. cal. aug. Pontificatus nostri anno
septimo [1377* July 20].
\_ln verso :]
Prioribus artium ac vexillifero iusticie populi et communis
civitatis Florencie.
THEOBALDUS.
374 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
7. Pope Gregory XI. to Bertrando, Abbot of San. Niccolb
a I Lido, Venice*
[1377] Oct. 7, Anagni.
Bertrando abbati monasterii Sti Nicolai in littore prope
Venecias, apostolico collector!. Gregorius etc. Dilecte
fili. Ex quo Veneti processus nostros publicari et exequi
non curarunt,t volumus et tibi mandamus, ut per aliquem
tibi fidum processus eosdem in valvis ecclesiae sancti
Marci nocturne tempore et opportunitate captata affigi cum
clavis secrete procures, sic tamen ordinans et cautelam
adhibens, quod eiusdem rei executor huiusmodi statim ipsis
adfixis recedere valeat sine suae aliquo detrimento per-
sonae, et nihilominus processus ipsos in locis circumvicinis
facias et procures ubilibet publicari. { Datum Anagniae
die vii. octobris.
Cop. Aix (in Provence). Mejanes Library in the Hotel
de Ville. Cod. 915, f. 233.
[Recueil contenant les lettres d Innocent VI. (p. 1-112),
* See supra, p. 115.
t The Venetians even protected the Florentine merchants in
Flanders ; see the letter of thanks from the Florentines to Venice,
dated, Florentiae die vigesimo primo mensis augusti decima quarta
indictione millesimo trecentesimo septuagesimo sexto. There is a
copy in the House, Court, and State Archives in Vienna. Cod.
570 (Libri commem.), vol. viii. (resp. xi.), f. 18.
J The importance of the publication of the Papal sentence in the
merchant city of Venice may easily be conceived. I am not able
to say with certainty whether it was really carried into effect ; most
of the accounts (as for example Stefani, 145) speak in very general
terms ; Bartolomeo Cecchetti (La repubblica di Venezia e la corte
di Roma nei rapporti della religione [Venezia, 1874], 2 vol.) says
nothing on the subject ; in any case, the will of the Pope was not
at once obeyed in Venice, for in the MS. in the Library at Aix,
P- 323-324, there is a *Repetition of the said command, dated
Rome, ix. Nov. (1377).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 375
d Urbain V. (pp. 112-131) et de Gregoire XI. (pp. 131-417).
Seventeenth century copy from an old MS. At the
beginning is the coat of arms of Charles de Bachi, Marquis
d Aubais. The transcriber was a man of education, as is
evident from his observations explanatory of the letters ;
these observations chiefly refer to the publication of some
of the letters whole or in part, by Raynaldus. I have
sought in vain in the Secret Archives of the Vatican for a
portion of the letters contained in the Codex at Aix.]
8. Pope Gregory XL to the Nuncio Pietro Raffini*
[1377] Dec. 26, Rome.
Magistro Petro Raffini, archidiacono Ilerdensi, camerae
nostrae clerico et apostolicae sedis nuncio. Gregorius etc.
Dilecte fili. Sicut nuper tibi scripsimus per urgentissimas,
nos prementes indigentias nee lingua nee calamus sufficeret
explicaref Ducatus J concutitur, tribulatur Marchia, et
Romandiola permaximis discriminibus est propinqua ;
clamant armigeri propter pecuniarum defectum nil boni
penitus facientes, et cruciamur interius ultra quam sit
honestum scribere. Haec in animo recensentes ti
capitaneorum hie existentium continues non valentes audire
clamores, ideo repetitis vicibus viscerose rogando tibi
mandamus, ut in quantum statum nostrum et honorem
diligis, quantitatem illam, quae mitti debebat in fine mensis
* See supra, pp. 113 and 115.
t Almost the same expression occurs in a letter from Gregory
XI. to the Archbishop John of Prague on the 2 3rd of February,
1376, in Palacky, Formelbiicher ii., N. 92. Deutsche Reichs-
tagsacten, i., 94 A.
% Spoleto.
Gregorius XL ... de mense septembris perdidit oppidum
sancti Lupidii in Marchia . . . et oppidum s. Mariae in Giorgio
et oppidum Serrse. Spec. hist. Sozomeni Pistor. in Muratori,
Script, xvi., 1103. See Buoninsegni, 591.
376 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
proxime preteriti nee non quamcumque aliam tibi possibilem,
ultra quomodocumque non differas destinare, procurans
cum ingenti ferventique ac etiam importuna instantia tarn
apud reginalem celsitudinem et comitem camerarium quam
alibi, quod census residuum in instanti nativitate dominivel
citius habeatur, ac de cleri subsidio quidquid poteris adun-
are ; nam modicum adhuc erunt haec omnia, profluviis
debitorum et expensarum attentis.
Caeturum accepimus, quod Florentini, multos pannos
magnasque mercancias BarulunV* et Manfredoniam deferri
fecerunt, et in regno quod immediate tenetur ab ecclesia
plus quam quacunque parte mundi facta sua cum favoribus
exequuntur, quod est valde absurdum audire. Quare pro
cures cum sollicitudine quod bona huismodi et quaevis
Florentinorum alia capiantur omnino et nostri processus
realiter exequantur.f Videretur autem nobis expediens,
quod ille frater pro publicatione dictorum processuum
destinatus ad executionem dictarum mercanciarum celeriter
mitteretur. Rursus intelleximus, quod contra Robertum
de Capua, eo quod tamquam obedientiae filius prosequitur
Florentines et processus eosdem exequitur, regina turbata
est, de quo non sufficimus admirari pariter et turbari, et
praesertim quod spretis censura ecclesiastica et sententiis
tarn gravibus, ipsa vasalla peculiaris ecclesiae, neglecto
insuper iuramento, matris suae favere velit notoriis inimicis ;
super quibus studio ferventi procures remedium celeriter
* Barletta, commonly called " Barolum " in the Middle Ages
(see for example Muratori, iii., 495; xxi., 43), now an inconsider
able port with about twenty-seven thousand inhabitants.
f The Queen of Naples had at first taken harsh measures against
the Florentines. See the complaint of the Republic to the Queen,
dated 1376, Aug. 15, in Gherardi, viii., i, 273, n. 292; after-
wards she endeavoured to reconcile Florence with Gregory XI.
See Salutat. Epist. ed. Rigacc. i., 82-83, *66.
.HISTORY OF THE POPES. 377
adhiberi, omnino faciens quod nullus interveniat in supra-
dicta pecunia quam tocius destinanda defectus, si nobis
cupias in aliquo complacere.
Datum Rome die xxvi., decembris.
Cop. Aix. Mejanes Library, Cod. 915, f. 363-364.
9. Pope Gregory XL to Cardinal de Lagrange and
the Archbishop of Nar bonne*
[1378] March 2, Rome.
Dilecto filio Joanni tit sti Marcelli presb. cardinali et
venerabili fratri Joanni archiepiscopo Narbonnensi, sedis
apostolicae nunciis. Gregonus, etc. Dilecte fili ac
venerabilis frater.
Mirari cogimur, unde ista parte processerint, quse
scripsis-tis vobis relata fuisse, nam ista civitas a nostro
recessu citra in tanta quiete fuit continue sic unquam, nullo
novitatis alicuius indicio ; sed per quosdam malivolos ista
vobis ad incussionem timoris fore suggesta credimus, utvel
pacemt impediant vel declinent ad pactaeis forsitan graciora.
Est autem verum, quod quidam Antonius de Malavoltis de
certo tractatu suspectus, pro ut ante vestrum recessum
potuistis audivisse, captus et detentus, tandem plurimos
accusavit. Lucas antem de nocte fugit, quod credimus pro
meliori fuisse. Populus vero dicti Antonii confessione per-
cepta unanimi consensu voluit, quod iustitia fieret de eodem,
pro ut est factum, nam palam et publice nullo quocunque
* See supra p. 116. Regarding Cardinal de Lagrange, see
Duchesne, Hist, des card. fran9ois, i., 645 et seq.; ii., 467- The
Archbishop of Narbonne was Gregory s nephew, Jean Roger ; see
Baluze i., 830 et seq. ; ii., 778; and Gallia Christ, vi. (Paris. 1739),
94-95. Martinus de Salva, Bishop of Pampeluna, was sent with the
Cardinal and Archbishop by the Pope ; see Gallia Christ, he. cit. ;
Salutat. Epist. ii., 135, and Baluze i., 1156.
t MS. : pattern.
378 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
exorto rumore tulit sententiam capitalem ; * nos autem
divina suffragante dementia prosperae quietudinis amenitate
gaudemus, vos attente rogantes, ut omni turbatione con-
cepta et animorum fluctuacione depositis nobis commissum
negocium inconcussis mentibus prosequamini diligenter,
progressus vero ac successura quaelibet nobis assidue
rescribentes.
Datum Romae die 2, martii.
Cop. Aix. Mejanes Library, Cod. 915, f. 914-915.
10. Cristoforo di Placenza to Lodovico II. di Gonzaga,
Lord of Mantua.^
[1378] April 9, Rome.
Mag ce d ne mi, recommendacione premissa. Significo
dominationi vestre, prout alias scripsi,J quod die xxvii.
mensis marcii dominus papa Gregorius migravit ab hoc
seculo, et die octava mensis aprilis domini cardinales boni-
tate et industria Romani populi elegerunt in papam
dominum Bartholomeum archiepiscopum Barensem de
* I have only found the following notices regarding the con
spiracy, which is not mentioned by the modern historians of Rome,
(Papencordt, Gregorovius, and Reumont :) (i) Colluccio Salutato
probably alludes to it in the following words taken from a letter ad
dressed to Sir John Hawkwood, and dated Florence, 4 March, 1377
(resp. 1378) (ed. Rigaccius, ii., 146) : " Summus Pontifex indiget
gentibus pro discordia quam nupercum Romanis habet." (2.) In
the rare work of Pompeo Pellini, Dell Historia di Perugia, P. i,
Venetia, 1664, of which I made use in the National Library at
Florence, there is, f. 1206, a somewhat more ample account, but it
is impossible to substantiate its details.
t See supra, p. 121.
J *Dospatch, dated Rome, xxviii. marcii [1378]: " Die sabati
vigesima septima presentis mensis dominus noster migravit de hoc
seculo circa tertiam horam noctis." Loc. cit.
1377, April 141378, according to Gams, 856.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 379
civitate Neapolitana condescensum, utriusque juris
doctorem, in agibilibus mundi valde expertum, virum
de quo certe ecclesie sancte dei bene provisum; plura
propter nuncii frequentiam non scribo, sed factacoronacione
sua omnia, que intervenerunt, dominacioni vestre seriosus
scribere curabo.
Datum Rome nono aprilis.
[/ verso :]
Servitor vester Cristoforus de Placentia, in curia pro
curator. Mag co potenti d no suo d no Ludovico de Gonzaga
d no Mantue.
Original at Mantua. Gonzaga Archives, E xxv., 3., fasc. 7.
ii. Cristoforo di Piacenza to Lodovico II. di Gonzaga
Lord of Mantua.*
[1378] April 12, Rome.
Mag ce d ne mi, recommendacione premissa. Significo
dominacioni vestre, quod postquam vobis scripseram die
nona presentis mensis, quod habebamus papam Italicum,f
eademet die circa vigesimam secundam horam illius diei
domini cardinales dederunt sibi [sic] nomen, et vocatur
Urbanus sextus, nam primo vocabatur Bartholomaeus et
eadem [sic] archiepiscopus Barensis, regens cancellariam
domini pape loco domini cardinalis Pampilonensis,t qui
vicecancellarius est ; et bene credo, quod habetis papam,
qui vos diligat, et reddo me certum, quod ecclesia sancta
* See^//^, p. 121.
t The Italian Nationality of the new Pope was also immediately
proclaimed by Colluccio Salutato. See his letters of the 2oth April
and 6th May, in the edition of Rigaccius, ii., 161 and 167. In the
first of these he writes : " Considerantes divinam providentiam
ordinasse, quod in apostolica sede surrexerit vir iustus et a sanguine
Italico nullatenus alienus," etc.
J Pierre de Monte* rue, Cardinal under Innocent VI., t J 3 s 5-
Ciaconius, ii., 534-535*
380 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
del bene gubernabitur, et audeo dicere quod sunt C anni et
ultra ex quibus ecclesia sancta dei non habuit similem
pastorem.* Nam iste non habet attinentes, et est multum
amicus domine regine,t expertus in agibilibus mundi, sagax
et prudens, et firmiter in die pasce coronabitur in sancto
Petro,i et equitabit per terram usque ad sanctum Johanem
de Laterano et ibi pernoctabit, nam Romani omnes
indifferenter summe congratulantur de urbe, que suum
sponsum recuperavit. Mittatis ambaxiatores vestros cicius
quam poterit ad exhibendam sibi debitam reverentiam,
nam dominus Octo reversus est. . . . Datum Rome xii.
aprilis.
Servitor vester Cristoforus de Placentia, in curia pro
curator
Original in Gonzaga Archives, Mantua. E. xxv., 3,
fasc. i.
12. Cristoforo di Piacenza to Lodovico II. di Gonzaga,
Lord of Mantua.^
[1378] June 24, Rome.
Mag 06 d ne mi, recommendacione premissa. Significo
dominationi vestre, me recepisse vestras graciosas litteras
continentes, ut de statu curie nova significare vellem, ad
quarum tenorem breviter respondeo, quod mortuo domino
* See supra, p. 121. That Cristoforo was by no means
singular in hoping great things from the new Pope is evident from
a passage in a MS. in the Secret Archives of the Vatican (T. 4, de
schism., p. 80) given by Raynaldus, ad an. 1378, n. 15.
t Joanna of Naples.
J The Coronation took place at St. Peter s, on the 1 8th April
(see Niem, i., 3), not "in ecclesia s. Joannis Lateranensis," as the
passage from Cod. lat. Monac., 150, cited by Dollinger, Beitrage,
iii, 359> has it. The Pope was crowned "in capite scalarum S.
Petri ; " see Gatticus, 366.
See Phillips, v., 2, 897 et stq.
|| See supra^ p. 126.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 381
Gregorio et assumpto domino Urbano sexto ad apicem
apostolatus scripsi dominationi vestre de modo sue assump-
tionis et qualiter concorditer nemine discrepante fuit electus
et in die pasce resurrexionis cum maximis solaciis et multi-
tudine populi fuit coronatus omnibus cardinalibus ibidem
existentibus et per terrain secum equitantibus, et post
predictas litteras lacius scripsissem de hiis, que occurre-
runt, nisi [impeditus] fuisse [m] propter defectum nun-
tiorum illuc attendencium, quibus post guerras inceptas in
partibus illis multum carni. Et post coronacionem per
ipsum assumptam voluit habere dominos Hugonem* et
Thomamt fratres de Sancto Severino, comitem NolanumJ
et dominum Nicolaum de Neapoli in suos consiliares,
et secundum consilium istorum se regebat et regit, licet
in primordio sui apostolatus fuerit valde durus et precipue
dominis cardinalibus ; sed incipit innovare mores, sub-
sequenter bullam aperuit, et adhuc est aperta, duratura
* SeeBaluze, i., 1124 et seq.
f See ibid., i., 1470 et seq., and Muratori, Script., iii., 2, 726
Gregorovius, vi., 3rd ed., 482 et seq. Regarding the Sanseverino
family, see Erasmo Ricca, La Nobilta del Regno delle Due Sicilie,
Parte I. : Istoria de Feudi del Regno delle Due Sicilie di qua dal
Faro, 1859 et seq. (Also Reumont s Report in the Augsburger
Allgem. Zeitung, 1867, N, 94, Supplement.)
J Niccol6 Orsini. See Baluze, i., 1206, 1208, 1286 ; Reumont,
iii., i, 40, and Litta, fasc. Ixii.
Niccolb Spinelli, the celebrated jurist, Chancellor to Joanna,
Queen of Naples. Although a native of Giovenazzo, he was
generally known as "Nicolaus de Neapoli ; " see Baluze, i., 1455 ;
Giannone, iii., 156. The above passage throws some light on the
obscure history of the differences between Joanna and Urban VI. ;
but their real origin can only be cleared up by the discovery of
further documents. Spinelli soon became one of the most violent
opponents of the Pope, and a chief promoter of the Schism. See
Tommaseo, iv., 211.
382 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
usque ad medium mensem augusti, et omnibus pauperibus
gratiam volentibus fecit et facit, ideo quod omnium eccle-
siasticorum de omnibus nacionibus mundi maximus con-
cursus est in urbe. Subsequenter ex parte omnium
dominorum Ytalie recepit visitationem et cottidie visitatur
per plures dominos magis longinquos. Sunt eciam hie
omnes ambaxiatores pro parte lige pro pace tractanda,* et
speratur quod pax erit, quoniam dominus noster ad ipsam
multum anhelat et pars adversa similiter, et credo quod
quicquid circa predicta debebit fieri, cito terminabitur.
A modicis diebus circa domini cardinales ultramontani
novis captatis excusationibus et coloribus receperunt licen-
tiam a domino nostro, dubitantes de ayere estivo,t pro
eundo Anagniam, et dominus noster graciose eis concessit,
et a modico tempore citra videtur, quod ipsi assumpserint
spem rebellionis erga ipsum, propter quod, ut dicitur,
dominus noster ipsos fecit citari, ut certa die mensis julii
debeant in civitate Tiburtina, que distat ab urbe per
miliaria XV, ubi tune dominus noster propter calores
estivos erit, se apostolico conspectu [i] comparere.
Quid fiat, ignore, sed speratur, quod omnia sedabuntur.
Quid fiet circa premissa, dominacioni vestre intimare pro-
curabo J
Postquam presentem litteram vestre dominacioni scrip-
seram, dominus noster papa accepit litteras ab illis cardi-
nalibus, qui sunt in Avinione, multum congratulantibus de
felici promotione sua, et ultra hoc miserunt nepotem domini
cardinalis Pampilonensis et unum alium episcopum rogando
ipsum, ut velit scribere, quid facturi sint. Datum Rome
xxiv. junii.
* See Gherardi, v., 2, 121 et seq ; viii., I, 291 et seq.
f See Niem, i., 7.
J The passage omitted refers to the nomination to an Abbey.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 383
Servitor vaster Cristoforus de Placentia.*
Original at Mantua. Gonzaga Archives, E. xxv., 3,
fasc. i.
13. Giovanni di Lignano on Pope Urban VI P .f
Tractatus de electione, inthronisatione et coronatione
Urbani VI:
. . . Item quod praefatus ss raus in Christo pater et
dominus noster, dominus Urbanus PP. VI. tanquam verus,
sanctus et Justus et qui semper volebat et voluit iustitiam
tenere et servare et servari facere, crimina et vitia vitare,
exstirpare ac vitari et exstirpari facere, maxime crimen
nefandum symoniae, quo crimine sine infamia hominum
Romana curia quandoque consuevit habundare, ac etiam
volens, quod negotia quae coram eo deducerentur ac tracta-
rentur, pure, libere et gratis ac sine receptione munerum
tractarentur et expedirentur, maxime per cardinales, qui
propter reverentiam et culmen dignitatis suae debent esse
ceteris iustiores et sanctiores ac ceteris viris ecclesiasticis
et aliis bene vivendi speculum in se ipsis ostendere. Ipse
namque dominus noster papa praefatis cardinalibus et multis
aliis palam ac publice et etiam in secreto et saepe ac saepius
et iteratis vicibus dixit, asseruit et protestatus fuit, mentem
suam et animum suum super hoc expresse declarando, quod
* Other historically important letters from Cristoforo di Piacenza
are unfortunately not to be found in the Mantua Archives. In the
fasciculus (i.), containing letters from 1366-1399, are, with the
above letters from Cristoforo, nine from Giacomo della Cam-
pana (Jacobus della Campana), written in 1388 and the following
years. There is another interesting Report from Cristoforo to
Lodovico di Gonzago, dated Avignon (1376), July 17, in the State
Archives at Milan. Osio (i., 181-183) has published this ; see also
Gottlob, 1 1 6, note 2.
t See supra, p. 124, and Hofler, Aus Avignon, 10. Chevalier,
R6p. 1203, gives an account of the different works concerning
Lignano.
384 HISTORY OF THE POPES."
ipse non intendebat sustinere, quod per symoniam vel
lucrum aliquid coram eo tractaretur vel ab eo obtineretur
per cardinales vel aliquem alium ; et quod ipse non audiret
nee admitteret nee exaudiret aliquem, quern haberet sus-
pectum de symonia vel alio lucro illicito, nee placebat nee
placeret ei, quod cardinalis aliquis reciperet pensiones,
provisiones, exenia vel lucra illicita aliqua a quibusvis
personis, quia quando recipiunt vel sperant lucra aliqua,
negotia ecclesiae male procedunt. Et quod ipse dominus
noster sciebat, quod hactenus in tractatibus, qui fiebant
inter ecclesiam et inimicos ecclesiae propter talia lucra,
quae recipiebant vel sperabant tractatores, qui debebant esse
de parte ecclesiae, ipsi tractatus male procedebant pro
ecclesia, imo fuerunt impediti ita, quod ecclesia non potuit
cum suis inimicis habere pacem, quam desiderabat et ipse
dominus noster semper desideravit et desiderat. Et quod
non placebat nee placeret ipsi domino nostro, quod tales
tractatores in contra ipsis tractibus et negotiis se ingererent
vel immiscerent. Ipseque dominus noster alia salubria
monita saepe ac saepius et iteratis vicibus iisdem cardinalbus
ad reformationem bonorum suorum et iustitiae ac boni ac
salubris status ecclesiae dicebat et dixit. Et insuper etiam
saepe et saepius dixit et publicavit, quod cum sedes sua
Romana et apostolica sic et esse debeat ex institutione
divina in urbe Roma, intentio sua erat, fuit, est et esset in
eadem urbe ut plurimum residentiam facere et etiam ibidem,
quando deo placeret, mori intendebat, et quodsi aliter face-
ret, reputaret se male agere.
Copy in Cod. 269, f. 234, Eichstatt Library.
14. Roman Documents regarding the Papal Schism
of the year 13*78.
The Roman collections of Manuscripts, which are rich in
documents concerning the great Schism of 1378, have been
far less thoroughly investigated than those of Paris. The
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 385
accomplishment of such investigation does not fall within
the scope of my present work, but I think that a few notices
regarding certain documents which attracted my attention
while I was pursuing my researches in Rome may not be
unwelcome to future students.
By far the most important documents regarding the
great Schism are preserved in the secret Archives of the
Vatican in Arm. liv., n. 14-39. This collection, entitled " De
schismate Urbani VI.," refers chiefly to the beginning of
that Schism ; Raynaldus, and afterwards Bzovius (see xv.,
13), and Marini in the second volume of his " Archiatri,"
have made use of it. I copied from N. 17 (Vol iv. " De
schismate Urbani VI.") the Report of Bishop Nicholas of
Viterbo, from which I have repeatedly quoted, and I intend
by-and-bye to publish it in its entirety ; I may here give the
passage containing the Cardinal d Aigrefeuille s declaration
in favour of the validity of Urban VI. s election : *" Ivi ad
dom. card, de Agrifolio et supplicavi, quod diceret mihi
veritatem pro salute anime mee, quia non intendebam
adorare tamquam vicarium Jesu Christi non vicarium Jesu
Christi, et de hoc protestabam tamquam in die judicii mihi
redderet rationem. Ipse autem respondidit mihi : vide
non dubites, quia pro certo a tempore S. Petri citra non
sedit aliquis in sede sua magis juste quam iste. Ideo male
facis tantum tardare."
The Vatican Library also contains a large number of
documents concerning the great Schism. I noted the
following as particularly worthy of attention : Codd. Vatic.
4039, 4153, 4192, 4896, 4943, 5607, 5608 (f. H9-I3 1 are
the "Consilium pro Urbano VI." by Barth. de Saliceto*),
also Cod. D. i. 20 of the Casanatense Library, of which I
shall speak more fully elsewhere. It may be observed that
* Regarding Saliceto see Fantuzzi, Scritt. Bologn. (Bologna,
1789), vii., 272-279; and Valenlinelli, ii., 285 ct stq.
CC
386 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
the *" Dialogus de tollendo schismate" in Cod. 44 G. f. 1-7
of St. Peter s Library, to which I have referred supra, pp.
.145 and 173, is identical with that mentioned by Labbe and
Fabricius (iii., 294). Its author, Giovanni di Spoleto, was
Professor at Bologna in 1394; see Mazzetti, Rep. prof. Bol.
(1847), 1567. The work is addressed : " Ad rev. in Christo
patrem et dom. dom. Jacobum de Altovitis de Florentia
episcop. Fesulanum " (1390-1409; see Gams, 749 and Cheva
lier, 89). The passage quoted supra p. 173, runs as follows
(f. 4) : *" Immoratum tarn diu scisma per tot iam lustra que
dispendia dederit, quot inde nocumenta provenerint scan-
dala, depopulationes, ruine, fluctuationes, inconvenientia,
turbines cum tecum examinando consideraveris ex adverso
statim videbis que sancta possint ex unione commoda resul-
tare. Illinc dissensionum omnium radix fuit, tumultus varii,
dissensiones regnorum, seditiones, extortiones, excidia,
violentie, bella, tirannidis incrementum, libertatis pes-
sundatio, malefactorum impunitas, simultates, error,
infamia, furentibus ferro et ignilatius concessa licentia.
Hinc (si tamen succedet unionis bonum) concordia,
libertas," etc. Besides that in St. Peter s Library, another
MS. copy of this dialogue was, according to the catalogue,
preserved in the Borghese Library, Rome (Scr. ii., N.
57), but in the spring of 1884 it was no longer to be found
there.
15. Langenstein s " Invectiva contra monstrum Baby-
lonis" (1393).*
This poem is identical with the " Carmen pro pace,"
published by H. von der Hardt, in 1715, at Helmstedt,
from a MS. in the Wolfenbiittel Library. I was not able
to gain access to this rare edition, and accordingly quoted
from a MS. in the University Library at Breslau (Cod.
320, f. 92-103), of which, by the kind intervention of
* See supra, p. 141.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 387
Professor Laemmer, I obtained a copy. The edition
printed by von der Hardt is moreover incomplete; it
begins, according to Hartwig (ii., 33), with the words
"Vivens non vivens," that is with v. 65 of the Breslau
MS. The copy of the Invectiva in Cod. 3214, f. Sob-
gib of the Court Library at Vienna is also incomplete;
concluding at v. 640 of the Breslau MS ; Cod. 3219 of the
Court Library at Vienna, w r hich unfortunately I was not
able to examine as minutely as I wished to do, appears
to me to give a more complete and, in some ways, a
better text than the Breslau MS. A third copy of the
" Invectiva" is to be found in the Vienna Court Library
(see Denis, i., 460), and is interesting as containing a
dedication to Eckhard von Dersch, Bishop of Worms. This
dedication also occurs in a copy of the " Invectiva" in the
University Library at Wiirzburg (Cod. Mch. f. 53, fol.
i63a-i69a). I am not able to say what has become of
the MS. of the " Invectiva" cited by Fez (Thes. anecd.,
i., i, p. Ixxix.). Another copy of the poem is (see Archiv,
xi., 725,) in Cod. 5 of the Amplonian Library at Erfurt.
Lorenz (Geschichtsquellen, ii., 2nd ed., 212, note 2)
seems to consider this Erfurt MS. as distinct from the
Breslau work ; but the similarity of the opening words
leaves little room for doubt that it is really identical.
1 6. Act a consistorialia in the Archivio Concistoriale and
the Secret Archives of the Vatican.
Besides the celebrated Secret Archives, the Archives of
the ancient Dataria, of the Rota and the SignaturaGratise,*
the Vatican Palace contains another Archive full of most
valuable historical matter, which as yet has scarcely been
turned to any account ; this is the Archivio Concistoriale,
whose entrance is in the Cortile di San. Damaso. Its
precious collection of MSS. is of a strictly private cha-
* See Gottlob in the Histor. Jahrbuch, vi., 272.
388 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
racter, and is under the direct charge of the Cardinal
Secretary of State. Few have yet been fortunate enough
to obtain access to its treasures.*
The importance of the Archivio Concistoriale is evident,
if we consider that the Consistory is a solemn gathering
of the Cardinals around the Pope for the purpose of
deliberation with regard to the final sanction of certain
very weighty ecclesiastical affairs, or of performing some
act of special gravity. f
The Archivio Concistoriale owes its origin to Urban VIII.,
the same Pope who devoted special attention to the Secret
Archives of the Vatican. By the Bull " Admonet nos,"
dated Rome, " 1625, xviii., Cal. Jan. Anno, pontif. 3." of
which I saw in the Consistorial Archives a copy printed in
Rome in the year 1626, on a broadsheet, he directed that
Archives should be established for the reception of the
Acts of the Sacred College. In course of time the Con
sistorial Archives seem to have fallen into oblivion, and
are not at present in the best possible order; it is, how
ever, to be hoped that His Holiness Pope Leo XIII. will
bring about an improvement in this particular. The docu
ments are placed in fifteen large wooden chests, fourteen
of which are numbered j J an Armarium which stands at
the left of the entrance has no special mark ; in it will
* Brady, i., p. vii. : "These latter Archives are strictly private;
admission is rarely applied for, and still more rarely granted."
t See Bangen, Die Romische Curie, 75 et seq. Phillips, vii.,
288 etseq.-y Gatticus, 88, 199, 247, 251; and Moroni, xv., 187 et seq.
The principal work on the Consistory is that of Cardinal Palaeoti :
" De sacri consistorii consultationibus," Roma, 1592.
J I have endeavoured, as far as time permitted, to form at least
an approximate estimate of the number of volumes in the different
chests. The following summary may give at least a general idea
of the arrangement and the contents of the Archives : Arm. i. and
ii., c*- 90 vols. ; Processus ecclesiarum from 1564 to c*- 1700;
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 389
be found a rich collection of Acts of Conclaves, of which I
shall speak hereafter, as they do not refer to the period
dealt with in the present volume.
The late foundation of these Archives explains the fact
that the Acta Consistorialia only begin with the year 1409,*
and are imperfect. Some volumes I have been assured
were made away with by the French. In general the
volumes referring to the fifteenth century are not the
Original Acta Consistorialia, but copies made in the
time of Urban VIII. and Innocent X., and are not free from
clerical errors. The original Acts begin with the year 1517,
Arm. iii. and iv., C 3 * 100 vols. ; Processus ecclesiarum, coming
down to 1792; Arm. v., c a> 30 vols.; Processus, and also c 3 - 20
vols. Juramenta fidelitatis et profess, fidei; Arm. vi., c a - 30 vols. ;
Praeconia et propositiones (beginning with the seventeenth century ;
also some few of the time of Julius III. ; and a series of official
Reports regarding ecclesiastical matters, especially in Germany, in
the seventeenth century, some of which are very interesting and go
into the minutest details), Processus ecclesiarum of the eighteenth
century, c a 30 vols.; Arm. vii., Acta Consistorialia from 1589 to
1717, c a - 85 vols. ; the contents of Arm. viii. were inaccessible to
me as the key would not act ; it probably contains the Consistorial
Acts from 1717 to 1772; Arm. ix., Acta consist, from 1772 to
1817, c*- 60 vols.; Arm. x., Acta consist, from 1409 to 1701
(some are wanting), c 9 " 50 vols. ; Arm. xi. Acta consist, from
1523 to 1798 (some wanting), c*- 60 vols. ; Arm. xii., Acta consist,
from 1529 to 1700 (some wanting), c a - no vols. (also some
volumes of a miscellaneous nature) ; Arm. xiii. and xix. contain no
proper Consistorial Acts, and accordingly I did not further investi
gate them. Such was the arrangement in the spring of 1884, when
I worked in these Archives and drew up the above notices in the
midst of difficulties and hindrances of all kinds. If the notice is
incomplete, the shortness of the time allowed me must account for
its deficiencies ; I think, however, that even in its imperfect state
it will be welcome to many, as the first which has yet been given of
very important Archives.
* Not with Calixtus, iii., as Gottlob asserts.
3QO HISTORY OF THE POPES.
and were written under the immediate supervision of the
Vice-Chancellor of the day. The first volume of this
valuable collection, which at the period of my investigations
was placed in Armarium xi., bears the title : " Rerum con-
sistorialium Leone X. et Adriano VI. pontificibus maximis
expeditarum per me Julium de Medicis S. R. E. Vice-
cancell." It extends from March, 1517, to September,
1523. The same Armarium contains the original Con-
sistorial Acts of the time of Paul III. and Paul IV., from
which I intend to give extracts in a future volume of this
work, and also two volumes of the following transcripts
made in the days of Innocent X. :
1. Acta consistorialia ab. a 1517 die ix. mensis martii
coram Leone X., Hadriano VI., Clemente VII. et Paulo III.
summis Romanis pontificibus usque ad diem xvii Aug.
A 1 1548 ex authenticis libris Card. Vice-Cancellarii, Pars
prima T. i (ancient signature, C 1 3343).
2. Acta consistorialia ab a 1548 ad 1585 ex authenticis
libris Card. Vice-Cancellarii. Pars secunda. T. 1 1
(ancient signature, C 1 3344).
The last collection brings us down to a period from
which a great number of Consistorial Acts have been pre
served. This is due to the fact that from the sixteenth
century the Cardinals made collections of Consistorial Acts
for their own private use, and accordingly almost all
the Roman libraries as well as the MS. Collections of
Florence, Bologna, Pistoja and Paris possess documents of
this kind which in some cases are very numerous. In the
Barberini Library there are no less than eighty-one volumes
of such Acts. Laemmer, in his most valuable publication,*
and Brady (ii., 251 et seq.} have given many extracts from
these sources, and in the course of the following volumes I
* Analecta Rom. 84-85. Zur Kirchengeschichte, 26, 71-75,
136-140.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 3QI
shall often make use of the extensive transcripts from them
in my possession.*
The most precious, because the most ancient, of the Acta
consistorialia are stored up in Armarium X. My attention
was in the first place directed to the exploration of these
valuable materials, but the publication of the extracts I have
made from them must be for the present deferred; they will,
however, appear in my projected collection of docu
ments. The first volume of the collection in Armarium
X., is bound in red leather and consists of 246 pages ; it
bears the title : " Acta consistorialia ab anno 1409 ad 1433.
Alex. V., Joh. XXIII. , Martino V., Eugenio IV. pontif." The
ancient signature is somewhat illegible ; " C 1 3029 " or
" 3028," indicating that these documents and those which
we have mentioned as contained in Armarium XL, at one
time formed a series. The numbers (3029 and 3343) give
us an idea of the extent of the losses sustained by the Con-
sistorial Archives, for, of the intervening documents, I
found but one (" Liber rerum consistorialium dementis
VII. et Pauli III. S. P. C 1 3035") in the course of my
investigations.
The volume which next comes under our notice has the
Signature C 1 3029, and begins, f. I , with the following words :
" Liber provisionum sacri collegii A 1409." Besides the
nominations of Bishops, which would be of the greatest use
in a new edition of Gams " Series Episcoporum," it gives the
exact dates of the election and death of the Popes, and of
the departures of individual Cardinals and their return to the
Court, notes the appointment of the most important Legates
and the deaths of members of the Sacred College. Here and
* Brady (I., p. xvii., etseq.) gives valuable information regarding
the "Formatari, Obbligazioni," etc., now kept in the Roman State
Archives. The extracts which he has made relate solely to the
Bishoprics of Great Britain.
393 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
there a hiatus occurs, but in general the arrangement is
chronologically exact. The writer gives his name f. 86b as
Johannes Constantinopolitanus.* A good index facilitates
the use of this work, which unfortunately breaks off at the
third year of the Pontificate of Eugenius IV. The quota
tions at pp. 49, 191, 211, 213, 229, 262, 274, 275, 277,
of the foregoing text are from this volume. Brady must be
understood to speak of the Consistorial Acts of the
fifteenth rather than of those of the sixteenth century
when he says, " It should be remembered, how
ever, that Consistories are meetings where business is
transacted rather than discussed. The Consistorial Acts
are not reports of debates or summaries of political
speeches. It is but seldom that the Pontiffs or the Car
dinals opinions are recorded. The Acts are virtually a
register of Consistorial decrees, and do not profess to
furnish even a summary of the facts of contemporaneous
history, on which they were based."
The next volume begins with the year 1489 and con
cludes with 1503. Armarium X. contains a series of
volumes concerning this period and subsequent years, but
all my earnest endeavours to find among them one dealing
with the time between 1433 and 1489 were in vain. My first
idea that the deficiency might be supplied from the Secret
Archives of the Vatican seemed to be without foundation,
for I was here informed by the officials that their great
collection of Acta Consistorialia began with 1517. After
convincing myself of the correctness of this assertionf I
did not let the matter drop, and my researches were at last
* For an account of him see Catalanus, 24.
t The first of about a hundred volumes of Consistorial Acts in
the Secret Archives of the Vatican extends from 1517 to 1534.
Brady has not made use of this collection nor of the Consistorial
Acts from 1439 to 1486, of which I shall speak.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 393
crowned with success, for in Armarium XXXI., volume 52, I
discovered the Consistorial Acts from 1439 to 1486, and
thus the most serious gap was filled up. The Acts in
question commence at p. 15 of volume 52, and are without
any superscription. Clerical errors and gaps abound, and
they appear to have been extracted from a larger register.
A certain "Jacobus Radulfi dicti (S. R. E. cardin.) collegii
clericus" speaks of himself as the scribe. In his biography
of Nicholas V., Georgius often quotes : " Ephemerides sacri
consistorii per Jac. Radulphi scriptae. MSS. in Tabul.
Vatic/ A number of variations show our MS. to be distinct
from that employed by Georgius, which, it is much to be
desired, may come to light. The following citations in my
work are taken from the above-mentioned Acta Consis-
torialia, of which I shall make further use in Vol. ii.
17. The Jubilee of the year 1423*
Opinions are greatly divided, not only regarding the year
of this Jubilee, but as to the question whether a Jubilee was
really celebrated in the time of Martin V. Gregorovius
makes no mention of such an occurrence, Platner (Tabellen
derGesch. Roms [47]) and Reumont(iii., I ; p. 169) consider
it doubtful. Manni (57) also leaves the matter undecided.
But the express testimony of Niccola dellaTuccia (52, 117)
certainly proves a Jubilee to have taken place in the time
of Martin V. Moroni (ii., 111-112) supports the assertion,
but he is mistaken in supposing that the pilgrims to Rome
on the occasion were few. The grounds for the celebration
are given by Franc. Maria Febbi in what is, I believe, an un
published treatise on the Jubilees from Boniface VIII. to
Innocent X. He says (f. 44a) : " Martinus V., ut constat
litteris Pauli II. Ineffabilis providentia dat. an. 1470. xiii.,
Cal. Mai. Pont. 6. 5 reductionem Urbani VI. ratam habuit
. . et anno quolibet trigesimo tertio jubilaeum observari
* See supra, p. 232.
394 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
debere voluit, prout an. 1423 ad effectum deduci permisit,
eaque observata extitit, multis ad urbem concurrentibus eo
quod pax et tranquillitas universim esset, tantaque frumenti
ac rerum ubertate et abundantia ut onus tritrici obolis
viginti, ordei duodecim distraheretur." F. 45a: " In idem
vero prorsus collinant assertiones Sixti IV. et Julii III. in
diplomatibus indictionis jubilei et Victorellus parte 2*" in
hist. I2jubil. pag. 257, qui tamen fassus est, constitutionem
Martini V., qua jubileum indixerat, se in Archivio Vaticano
nullatenus adinvenire." *Cod. Capponi 244 of the Vatican
Library. See also the testimony of Poggio and Niccola
della Tuccia on p. 232. The latter writer mentions 1425
and in another place 1404 (52, 117) as the year of the
Jubilee. I incline to agree with Bonanni (25), Vittorelli
(257), and O. Ricci,*" who hold that it was 1423. Accord
ing to Fiala (493, Note), F. Hemmerlin also states that
Martin V. appointed a Jubilee year; 1425 is given as the
date. That the proclamation of a Jubilee was expected in
the time of Martin V. is evident from Voigt, Stimmen ; 138,
and from the Epistola di Alberto degli Albizzi, 23-24.
1 8. Pope Martin V. to Charles of Bourbon, Count of
Clermont.-\
[2427] Rome.
Martinus dilecto f [ilio] nobili viro Carolo de Borbonio,
comiti Claromontis salutem etc. Non videmus, quare tibi
amplius scribere vel si scribimus, quare te dilecturn filium
appellare debeamus, intellects obstinata duritia cordis tui
in detinendo ven. fratrem nostrum Martinum episcopum
Claromontensem, cancellarium Franciae, quern paternis
hortationibus, precibus et mandatis nostris admonitus, et
sicut accepimus per litteras carissimi in Christo filii nostri
* De Giubilei universal! celebrati negli anni santi (Roma,
1675), 52.
f See supra, p. 238.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 395
Caroli Francorum regis illustris et ab aliis fide dignis,
requisites instanter atque rogatus trina legatione solemni
praedicti regis et litteris ac nuntiis plurium aliorum prin-
cipum ac baronum, communitatum et ecclesiarum ac per-
sonarum ecclesiasticarum, dimittere noluisti et restituere
pristinae libertati, sed verba das omnibus dilatoria, studens
exquisitis coloribus excusare delictum tuum, in quo adhuc
obstinato animo perseveras, propter quod excommunicatus
iure debes de fidelium consortio segregari nee noster et
ecclesiae films nuncupari. Sed charitas nostra vincit
iniquitatem tuam, et te adhuc filium nominamus nee
volumus te inter perditos deputare, sed optamus potius
lucrari animam tuam deo et famam tuam reddere honestam
mundo, sperantes in domino, qui inspirat sancta consilia,
quod gratiam nobis dabit reductionis et pcenitentiae tuae
et liberationis ipsius episcopi, quern de manu tua quaer-
imus, prsecipientes tibi in virtute fidelis obedientiae, qua
teneris nobis, si christianus es, vicario Jesu Christi, prae-
cipue cum agatur de liberatione christorum suorum, quos
exemptos esse voluit a potestate laicorum, quatenus pr-
dictum episcopum statim restituas propriae libertati nee in
expectatione nos teneas excusationis tua, dicendo quod per
oratores tuos facies nos contentos, quos audituri non sumus,
nisi eodem episcopo liberate per te fuerit requisition!
nostrse obtemperatum, sicut nostro et ecclesiae honor!
convenit et animae tuas saluti. Et super omnia diligenter
caveas, ne quid attemptes in personam eius, tibique ita
praecipimus sub ira dei et pcena indignationis nostrae per-
petuae ac anathematis ceterisque poenis, quae sunt a iure
divino et humano contra contemnentes talia constitutse.
Et si aliquid attemptares in eum (quod avertat deus) tibi
praedicimus, quod a nobis nunquam obtinebis absolvi, dum
in apostolica sede sedebimus, sed cum tota clavium auctori-
tate et potentia contra te pro tanto scelere procedemus,
Datum Romae.
396 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Copy in Borghese Library, Rome. Cod. i., 75 and 76,
f. 81.
19. Cardinal Antonio Correr* to Florence.^
[1431] Feb. 20, Rome.
Magnifici et potentes domini priores. Licet multis
diebus superioribus quaedam fama publica hie in urbe
sermo factus fuerit de ambigua vita sanct ml domini nostri
papae, attamen non determinavimus magnificentiam vestram
per has nostras notum facere, nisi de re firma et quae in
nulla i dubietate consistat. Uno enim mense et pluri
cum praedictus dominus noster passus graviter fuisset,
postea visus fuit aliqualem convalescentiam recuperare.
Postremo die lunae proximo praeterito pro collegio car-
dinalium misit, quibus pauca verba generalia protulit ; qui
iudicatus est ab omnibus nobis malum statum habere, non
tamen talem, propter quern arbitraremur ilium ita subito
moriturum. Qui die sequenti, quae fuit dies martis, circa
horam unam diei ex apopletico morbo mortuus est.J Quo
defuncto ex omnium cardinalium consensu totum collegium
eorundem congregatum est, ad quam congregationem
* See our observations on this distinguished man, p. 269, supra.
t See supra, p. 281.
J See Graziani, Cronica, 349 ("a doi ore di notte in circa") ;
the letter of the Cardinals in Fumi, 689; Vita Martini V. in
Muratori, iii., 2, 868 (" ex apoplexia jam sumto prandio infirmatus
est et nocte sequenti paulo ante diem hie beatissimus pater et
semper memorandus pontifex Deo animam reddidit"), and the
letter of Juan Cervantes, published by Catalanus (175) ("die
martis proxime preterita ante diei ortum viam universe carnis
ingressus est "). Infessura is accordingly incorrect in saying that
the Pope s death took place " nell alba del die " (i 123), a statement
which also occurs in a letter from the Duke of Milan to King Sigis-
mund (in Osio, iii., 6). The mistake of Ciaconius (ii., 819) in
regard to the day of Martin V. s death has been corrected by
Papebroch (440).
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 397
convenerunt conservatores, capita regionum, mariscalchi
omnesque officiates urbis, etse subposuerunt libere mandatis
et singulis placitis collegii cardinalium promiseruntque
amplissime, hanc urbem se manutenere velle ad omnem
obedientiam felicissimi status ecclesiae. Qui omnes prae-
dicti recepti gratanter fuerunt a collegio praenominato, et
versa vice illis promissiones multum grate porrectae
fuerunt. Itemque princeps domini nostri praedicti nepos
misit viros venerabiles et cives egregios ad nos, qui pro
eius parte polliciti sunt, ilium consignaturum castrum s.
Angeli et singulas portas huius urbis et omnia alia ecclesiae
fortalitia ad omnen requisitionem collegii in manibus et in
omni potestate dicti collegii. Quare pro omnibus nobis
supra enarratis certificamus vos, qualiter civitas ista nullam
penitus turbationem in morte praedicti pontificis accepit.
Quinymo comprehendimus, omnes et singulos cives maxime
affectuosos fuisse ad pacificum statum ecclesiae. Estque
ad praesens in tanta pace et tranquillitate, ut qui nemo
iudicasset, quod tanta quies esse debuisset* Ista vobis ita
succinte significamus, cum opinemur, ea vos gratissir^e
debere audire, ut consultius vestro statui consulatur.
Quodammodo in antea facturi sumus, et quia celebrabimus
praedicti papae exequias, posthac elapso novem dierum
numero intrabimus conclave pro futuri pontificis electione,
quern ut eligamus pro statu s. eccl. dei convenientissimum,
velit v ra magnificentia efficaces preces apud deum porrigi
facere. Valete.
Ex urbe die 20 februarii.
\_In verso :]
Magnif. et potentibus prioribus et vexillif. iustitie com-
munis et populi civitat. Florentin.
Card lis Bononien.
* See on this subject the above-mentioned Letter of Juan Cer
vantes, dated Rome, 22nd February, in Catalanus, 175-176-
398 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Original in Chigi Library, Rome, Cod. E. vi., 187, p. 128
(Authentic, varia MSS. Senar. ab a 1077 ad. 1458).
20. Antonio de Rido to Florence.*
1440, March 19, Rome.
tjesus. Magnifici ac generosi domini mey, domini ac
gubernatores comunitatis Florentie post debitam recomen-
dationem etc. Perche le magnificentie et signorie vostre
del caxo nuovamente occorso a Roma non prenda admira-
tione ho deliberate avixarle per questa chomo monsignor el
cardinale legato de N. S. hora fa doy anni et piu, non una
volta ma piu con suo versutie et ingani a cerchado con
grandissimo detrimento de N ro S. et de s ca eclexia et mia
vergogna et dapno de levarme de le mani castelo de s co
Agnolo et piu ho cognosudo aptamente et tochado con le
mano questui esser expresso nemico de papa Eugenic al
quale io ho deliberado et zurado de esser sempre fedelle,
onde mosso io da buono amor et zielo porto a la S. Sua et
a s ca eclexia, non ho potuto patir che tanta nequitia de
questo iniquo huomo aza habuto luoco. Et in effetto Io ho
prexo et conduto in chastello de s co Anzolo et qui Io tenero
con bona diligentia et guardia a peticione de papa Eugenio
per fina che se vedera manifestissimamente li soy pessimi
fati et cative deliberatione le qualle chomo la S. de N. S.
et le magnificentie vostre havera intexe chiaramente,
chomo vedo et intendo io, bene che senza lizentia de N. S.
Io habia fato per non haver habuto tempo de notifficarlo
me rendo zerto haverano grato quello havero fato perche
Io ho fato a fin de bene rendandome zerto haver fata chossa
che sia acrissimento del stado de N. S. et de s ca eclexia et
de li amizi soy. Et etiandio ho fato a luy quello che son
* -See supra, p. 300. Regarding Rido, see also Reumont, iii., i,
487, and Arch. d. Soc. Rom., viii., 478, 559 ; and for a description
of his monument, which is still in good preservation, see Adinolfi,
i., 404-405 ; Tosi, tav., 29, gives a figure of it.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 399
zerto et e manifesto voleva far a mi. Datum Rome in
chastro s cl Anzeli de urbe die 19 marzii 1440.
Anthonius de Rido castelanus castri s cl Anzeli de urbe,
servitor vester minimus (subscripsi).
\_In verso :]
Magnificis ac generosis dominis meis dominis comunitatis
Florentie dominis meis singularissimis.
Original in the State Archives at Florence. Cl. x., Dist.
4, n. 12, f. 114.
21. Pope Eu genius IV. to Cornet o*
1440, April 3, Florence.
Eugenius P.P. IV. DiJecti filii, salutem et apostolicam
benedictionem. Proximis diebus, intellect de casu, quern
in persona dilecti filii nostri Johannis cardinalis Florentini,
apostolicae sedis legati accidere fecerunt simultates inter
praedictum cardinalem et dilectum filium castellaneum
nostrum sancti Angeli de Urbe, illico misimus ad Urbem
venerabilem fratrem L[udovicum] patriarcham Aquile-
jensem, camerarium nostrum. Quern cum sit utrique parti
amicissimus, speravimus rem ipsam et cito et optime com-
positurum. Sed cum res ipsa, quemadmodum saepenumero
contingit in aliis quse sunt magnae, non potuerat ea, quam,
credidimus, celeritate expediri, et merito timendum videatur
ne nimis diuturna legati absentia aliquod scandalum aut
detrimentum afferre possit in nostris et ecclesiae rebus;
turn etiam, cupientibus nobis atque intendentibus ad
praedictam almam Urbem de proximo nos conferre,
intelligamus expedire ut loca circumstantia bene dispon-
antur ac multa alia fieri ordinemus, quae melius commo-
* See supra, p. 301. Note x (where the 2nd is to be changed into
the 3rd of April) ; Papencordt, 481, and Gregorovius, VII., 3rd ed.
74, 78, note. I am indebted to the kindness of the Syndic of
Corneto for a copy of this letter, which unfortunately I have not
been able to collate with the original.
400 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
diusque per hunc ipsum camerarium nostrum, cui ejusmodi
rerum cura ex officio eminet, quam per alium fieri poterunt ;
idcirco ipsam opportunam et necessariam pro tempore pro-
visionem facere cupientes, praedictum venerabilem fratrem
patriarcham Aquilejensem legatum constituimus in omnibus
et per omnia, eo modo et forma, quibus erat praedictus
cardinalis Florentinus, quo die fuit detentus. Qui, si etiam
non accidisset hie casus, ea legatione diutius uti non
intendebat, cum mala detentus valetudine, et ad magnam
perductus debilitatem successorem sibi a nobis dari saepe-
numero postulaverit, quern daturi fuimus, jam est mensis,
nisi nos continuisset spes accessus nostri ad partes Urbis,
quo dictum futurum esse credidimus. Quare mandamus
vobis, ut, praedicto camerario prout praefecturae legato
plenariam in cunctis obedientiam praestetis ; talem namque
viri ipsius virtutem ab longa experientia esse cognoscimus,
ut non dubitemus, quin provintiae et vobis omnibus abunde
satisfaciat, et quieti vestrae prudenter consulat; cunctaque
alia commisimus dilecto familiari nostro Colequarto vobis
referenda, cui debebitis fidem credulitatemque plenariam
adhibere. Datum Florentiae sub anulo nostro secreto die
3 a aprilis, 1440, pontificatus nostri decimo.
BLONDUS.
Archives at Corneto. Cass. C.
22. Pope Eugenius IV. to Bologna*
1444, Dec. 9, Rome.
Eugenius papa IV. Dilecti filii, salutem et apostolicam
benedictionem. Credimus devotionibus vestris non
incognitum esse, sed longa experientia notissimum, qua
prudentia, quibus moribus, qua denique doctrina dilectus
filius magister Thomas de Sarzana, electus Bononiensis
praeditus sit, et quanta cum honestate et gravitate in hanc
usque diem vixerit. Cuius viri virtutibus consideratis
* See Vol. ii. ; Book L, Chap. I.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 401
cupientes aliquem virum honestum, gravem doctum et
bonum ac pro instruendis et ad viam salutis dirigendis
ovibus sibi commissis aptum et expertum ecclesiae
Bononiensi praeficere* desiderantesque ad illam ecclesiam
aliquem promovere, et qui dignus successor esset recolendae
memoriae quondam dilecti filii N[icolai] tituli sanctae crucis
in Jerusalem presbyteri cardinalis et qui merito devotioni-
bus vestris et universe illi populo placere posset : praedictum
Thomam omnibus venerabilibus fratribus nostris sanctae
Romanae ecelesiae cardinalibus laudantibus et nemine
dissidente, approbantibus in consistorio secreto xxvii.
praeteriti mensis novembris, ad ecclesiam Bononiensem
promovimus. Hoc ideo devotionibus vestris significare
curavimus, ut gratias deo agere possitis, qui vos tali patre
tamque diligenti et accuratissimo pastore dignos fecerit.
Non enim dubitamus, ilium bonorum et reddituum illius
ecclesiae optimum dispensatorem, cultus vero divini cele-
brandi diligentissimum praesulem futurum esse, ita ut tota
civitas et tarn pauperes quam mediocres ac optimates
merito de eo content! esse debeant. Erit igitur offitium
vestrum operam dare et efficere, ut ei vel procuratoribus
suis possessio dictae ecclesiae et jurium suorum detur cum
assignatione fructuum superioris temporis. Nam per tot
annos Bononiae stetit, ut merito civis appellari possit.
Datum Romse apud S. Petrum sub annulo nostro
secreto die nono decembris, 1444, ppntificatus nostri anno
xiv.
[A tergo:]
Dilectis filiis antianis et vexillifero iustitiae populi et
communis civitatis nostrae Bononiensis.
Copy in the Court Library, Vienna, Cod. 3121, f.
ngb.
* MS.: Bononiensis. prseficem.
D D
402 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
23. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti*)
to Siena.
1447, Jan. 19, Rome.
. . . Intorno alia canonizatione del beato Bernardino
non s e inovato altro perche la S ta di N. S. non e stata in
buona valetudine gia piu giorni sono ; t ma hora per la
gratia di dio e fuori d ogni pericolo et in buona con-
valescentia. Sollicitaremo che in luogo del card di CapuaJ
sia subrogato un altro cardinale senza 1 quale questi due
commissarii non vogliono fare nulla. La M ta del Re e
pure a Thigoli e non si puo per nisuno intendere quello
intenda fare . . . . et palesamente si dice la che S. M ta
intende essere in Toscana|| et dicono alcuni de suoi che
* See supra, p. 348. Magnificent ruins of the church of the
Cistercian Abbey of San. Galgano at Siena still remain. At p. 166
of the Codex which we have cited, a *letter of Cardinal Jean Le
Jeune (Card. Morinensis; see Ciaconius ii., 9 12-9 13), dated Rome
1450, Nov. 22, mentioned the death "rev. patris domini contis
abbatis S. Galgani fratris Marchi di Cazacontibus." The Abbot
signs himself " Conte di Cacciaconti " or " Cacciacontibus abbas
S. Galgani, orator immeritus." According to Pecci (321), the
Sienese would have preferred Cacciaconti to ^Eneas Sylvius as
Bishop of Siena.
\ After Christmas in the year 1446, the health of Pope Eugenius
IV. began to fail; his actual illness commenced on the I2th
January, 1447. The Pope was perfectly aware of its hopeless
character. See the report of the Papal Chamberlain Modestus in
Muratori, iii., 2, 902-903 ; see 882.
J Niccol6Acciapaccio(tit. S. Marcelli), Cardinal of Capua, was
banished by Eugenuis IV. at the instigation of the King of Naples ;
he did not return to Rome until after the death of that Pope ; and
himself died there on the 3rd April, 1447. Regarding this
distinguished Prince of the Church, see Ciaconius, ii., 902, and
Osio, iii., 123, 202, 239 etseq., 510, 511, 519.
Bishops Amicus, Agnifilus, Aquilanus, and Joannes de Palena
Pennenis; see Acta Sanctor. Mail, iv., 719.
|| *"Alexiu3 de Cesari, Bishop of Chiusi, informed the Sienese on
the 3rd December, 1446, that the great warlike preparations of the
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 403
esso ha mandate per alcuna gente d arme, ma come ho
dicto nulla cosa di quello che habbia animo di fare si puo
intendere dalla bocha sua et cosi dicano tutti questi signori
che anno visitato la Sua M ta se non che mostra assai nel
parlare suo essere affecto a la S ta di N.S. e a santa chiesa.
Ex urbe xix. ian. 1446 [st. fl.].
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E.vi., 187, p. 144.
24. The Abbot of San, Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti)
to Siena*
1447, Jan. 23, Rome.
In the matter of the canonization of the Blessed
Bernardine nothing can be done for the moment " perche
la S ta di N.S. non da molto audientia perche e anco debile
la S. B ne et anco e occupata in cose che richieghono celere
provisione per obviare ali scandali che potrebbono
advenire non provendendovi. Li imbasciadori de Re de
Romani e degli electori ed altri principi oltramontani sono
qua come per altra rendi avisate le M.S.V. Espose la
imbasciata in nome di tucti gli altri in concestoro segreto
lo eloquentissimo huomo poeta misser Enea Picogliuomini
ciptadino vestro ; espose in tal modo et con tanto ornato
la imbasciata in seodiosa et dispiacevole che da ongni S. e
stato sommamente commendato lo ingengno e la prudentia
sua et non dubito che in breve saranno in qualche parte
reseghuita la cipta vestra. Etsi in somma adimandano quatro
cose ciascuna piu exorbitante e odiosa alia S ta di N.S. e
generalmente a tucto collegio de cardenali e per la mala
conditione del tempo sara necessario che nella maggior
parte sieno exalditi per schifare magiori pericoli e scandali
che advenerebbono se cosi non si facesse. Ex urbe 23. ian
1446" [st. fl.]
King were directed against Pisa. (State Archives, Siena. Con-
cistoro, Lettere ad an.)
* See supra, p. 34$.
404 .HISTORY OF THE POPES.
Original in the State Archives at Siena. Concistoro
(Lettere ad an.).
25. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti)
to Siena?*
1447, Febr. n, Rome.
Da poi al ultime mie non e innovate altro se non che di
bene in meglio ongni di la B ne di N.S. megliora assaif per
modo che iermatina tenne concistoro nel quale si fecero
alcune promotioni et e quasi totalmente netto di febre,
bene & vero che per lo male grande anco debile, pure
ongni di recupera el vigor meglio et presto si spera che
sara in tucto ghuarito ; che infinite volte sia rigratiata la
potentia di misser domene dio che molti inconvenient!
sarebbero seghuiti se dio non con rendarli sanita non avesse
riparata di quali si vedevano e principii. Ex urbe xi. febr.
1446 [st. fl.]
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi., 187, p.
150.
26. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count de Cacciaconti)
to Siena. \
[1447] Febr. 14, Rome.
111. et magn., etc. Ne di passati per Giorgio fameglio di
V.S. ultimamente scripsi come la Santita di N.S. era in tal
modo megliorata che da medici et da tucti si diceva essare
f uore di pericolo ; da poi per Orbano cavalaio ricevetti el
* See supra, p. 348.
\ The improvement had begun at the end of January, as appears
also from a *Letter of the Cardinal of Aquileja to Siena, dated
Rome, 1447, January 28 (State Archives at Siena. Concistoro,
Lettere ad an.) Regarding the previous illness the letter says
" Significamus M. V., quod verum fuit S. suam aliquot superiori-
bus diebus egrotasse et aliquanto gravius, quam ceteris temporibus
consueverit."
J See wfra, p. 348.
HISTORY OF THE POPES. 405
ultima vestra de viiii d di questo et inteso che a le S.V. e
carissimo el sentere di di in di e progress! delle cose di
qua et max 6 della valitudine di N.S., unde per satisfare a
desiderii delle V.M tie non senza molestia danimo aviso le
prelibate S.V. come sabbato a sera nostro S. nelle prime
hore della nocte li venne una grandissima dibileza la quale
li duro infino a hore viiii. di nocte con grande affanno et
con movimento di corpo. Dapoi glie ritornata la febre con
fluxo per la qual cosa forte si dubita della vita sua la quale
secondo e medici sara breve se altro meglioramento non
seghue, il quale piu tosto procederebbe dalla gratia di dio
che per virtu naturale intale modo e manchato el vigore
della natura, perche pocha substantia prende et quella
pocha non ritiene. Dubitasi assai in questa revolutione
della luna. Dio dispongha, etc. ... Ex urbe xiiii. febr.,
hora. xx.
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi. ; 187,
p. 142.
27. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti)
to Siena*
1447, Febr. 16, Rome.
He had written three days before : " Dapoi continua-
mente N.S. e peggiorato et per modo sta che si stima
chomunalmente perongni persona che pocho tempo e hore
puo stare in questa misera vita e tucte le preparation! si
fano come se fusse morto. E questa sera si debbano congre-
gare e cardinal! e cosi sono tucti stati richiesti. Dio
dispongha le menti delle loro signorie di provedere la
chiesa sua di buono pastore et che le cose passino senza
novita o scandalo del quale forte si teme. La M ta de Re di
Ragona e pure a Tigholi e ongni di rinforza piu el campo.
Et ieri vi gionse el signor di Fondi ricercato dalla Sua M ta
con fanti assai et cavalli et cosi ongni giorno si fortifica
* See supra, p. 348.
406 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
piu ; non si sa quale sia 1 animo suo ; da grande sospitione
a Roman! e non minore a cortigiani ; nientedimeno la Sua
M ta a mandate a dir a piu cardenali che occorendo el caso
della morte di N.S re non intende impadronirsi a nulla ne
impedire la liberta e Pordine della creatione del nuovo
pontifice ne anco fare favore piu a uno che a uno altro ;
bene conforta loro a fare Telectione di buono pastore ;*
nientedimeno questa stantia si si longhaf e anco fare
questi provedimenti danno assai che pensare a la brigata. J
. . . Sto certificate da uno de medici che sono stati al
governo di N ro S re che e quasi impossibile ch ella Sua S ta
ci sia domatina. ... Ex urbe xvi. febr., hora xvii."
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi., 187,
p. 151.
28. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti) to
Siena. \
1447, Febr. 18, Rome.
Martedi passato gionse qua uno imbasciadore di Re di
Francia e del Dalfino, il quale fu el di med luo con N.S. assai
agravato dal male|| . . .
La S u di N.S. stette ieri in caso di morte ; da poi gli e
alterata un pocho la febre e potria essare che per la buona
diligentia che fa intorno a la persona sualf traunglara
qualche di, ma di scampo non ce niente di speranza. . . .
Ex urbe xvii. hora, xviii. febr., 1446 [st. fl.].
* After the death of the Pope, Alfonso again sent reassuring
messages to the Sacred College; see Muratori, Hi., 2, 891, and yn.
Sylvius, Hist. Frid., iii., 135.
t According to Infessura (1130), Alfonso arrived at Tivoli on
the Qth January, 1447.
J Here follows a passage regarding the concentration of troops
in Rome; see Vol. ii., Chap. I. .
See supra, p. 348.
|| For some account of this Embassy, see Chmel., ii., 422.
^[ Regarding the physicians who attended Eugenius IV., see
Marini, Archiatri, etc.
HISTORY OF THE POPES 407
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi., 187,
P- 154.
29. The Abbot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti)
to Siena.*
1447, Febr. 20, Rome.
. . [S. S ta ] cosi da poi continuamente e peggiorata
per modo che questra sera ha ricevuto el ultimo sacramentof
e per tucti si tiene che rendara o sta nocte o per tucto di
domane a la piu longha lo spirito a misser domene dio la
qual cosa debba essare molesta a ongni christiano. . . .J
Ex urbe xx. febr., 1446 [st. fl.], hora v. noctis.
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi., 187,
p. 156.
30. The Allot of San. Galgano (Count of Cacciaconti) to
Siena. ^
1447, Febr. 23, Rome.
. . . Aviso le S.V. come questa hora x a || die xxiii a
piaque al altissimo dio revocare ad se di questa misere e
fallace vita la beata anima della felice memoria del sommo
* See supra, p. 348.
t The minister of the last Sacraments was Antoninus, Arch
bishop of Florence, subsequently canonized.
J The other passages of this letter which are of any historical
importance are given in Vol. ii., Chap. I.
See supra, p. 348.
|| There are various conflicting accounts as to the hour of
the death of Eugenius IV. The *Acta consistorialia (Secret
Archives of the Vatican; see supra, p. 392) say that the Pope
departed this life " hora nona vel quasi." Modestus, the Chamber
lain (Muratori, iii., 2, 904), however, asserts that Eugenius IV.
died " interdecimam et undeeimam horam." The statement of
this well-informed witness coincides with that made by the Bishop
of Forli, who was at the time in Rome. A *letter addressed by
him to the Republic of Siena, and found by me in the State
Archives of the City [Concistoro, Lettere ad an.], contains the
following words, " Questa nocte infra le x. e xi. hore proxima
408 HISTORY OF THE POPES.
pontefice nostro papa Eugenio della cui morte ciascuno
fedele christiano sommament si debba dolere et maxime
quelli della cipta vestra. ... Ex urbe xxiii. febr., hora xi a
Original in the Chigi Library, Rome. Cod. E. vi., 187,
p. 158^159.
passato." This letter is dated Rome, 23 February, 1446 [st. fl.].
We must accordingly conclude that the death took place after the
tenth hour, but certainly before the eleventh, at which time the
Abbot of San. Galgano wrote the letter announcing the event. In-
fessura (1130) is undoubtedly in error when he says that Eugenius
breathed his last " a ore otto di notte." The eleventh hour is
mentioned in the Chronicle of Graziani (589), by S. Caffari (Arch,
d. Soc. Rom., viii., 569), and in a *Letter of " Arsinius Monachus "
to the Republic of Siena, dated Rome, 23 Febr., 1447. State
Archives, Siena. Concistoro, Lettere ad an.
St. HicHeYa College
Scholastic s Library
INDEX OF NAMES IN VOL. I.
Acciapacci, Niccolo (Cardinal),
320, n.; 354.
/Eneas Sylvius (see Piccolomini).
Agguzonis, Francesco di, 126,
n. 3; 127, n. i ; 138, n. 2.
Aigrefeuille, d (Cardinal), 118,
n. i; 385-
Ailly, Pierre d (Cardinal), 185,
191, 198, 204.
A Kempis, Thomas, 147, 149,
150, n. i.
Alain (Cardinal), 255.
Albergati Niccolo (Cardinal),
37, 54, 262, 264, 268, n. 2 ;
469, n. i ; 306, 307, 315,
342.
Albertis, Alberto de, 320, n. i.
Albizzi, Alberto degli, 211,
n. i.
Albizzi, Rinaldo degli, 27, 186,
n. 2 ; 211, n. i ; 299, n. 2.
Albornoz (Cardinal), 94.
Alexander V. (Anti-Pope), 42,
190, 191, 260.
Alexandria, Clement of, 9, 52.
Alidosio, Bertrando d , 101.
Allemand Louis (Cardinal), 262,
263, n. 2 ; 308, 311, 312,
328, 339, 340.
Ambrose (Saint), 51.
Amelius, Petrus, no, n. 3.
Amiens, Cardinal of, 115.
Amphilochius (Saint), 10.
Andrea (Blessed), 37.
Angela Caterina, 36.
Anguillara, Maria Maddalena,
235, n. i.
Anjou, Duke of, no.
Anjou, Louis of, 133, 135, 274.
Anjou, Rene of, 298, 330, 331.
Anjou, Robert of (King), 79.
Antoninus, St. (Archbishop
of Florence), 37, 52, n. 5;
100, n. i ; 122, n. i ; 139,
n. i; 265, n. 2; 349, n. 3.
Antonio ab Ecclesia, 37.
Appiani, Gherardo, 226.
Aquinas, Thomas (Saint), 179,
n. i.
Aragon, Alfonso of (King of
Naples), see Naples.
Aragon, Pedro of, 96.
Arc, Joan of, 144, n. 2.
Arelatensis (Cardinal), see Alle
mand.
Arrezzo, Niccolo d , 215, n. i.
Argelata, Pietro di, 191, n. 3.
Aristotle, 2, 40, 183, 231, 321.
Arius, 176.
Armagnac, Jean d , 274, n; 276,
277.
Aschbach, 284, n. 2.
Assisi, Francis of (Saint), 33,
n. 2.
Augustine (Saint), 2, 9, 40, 44,
51, 55, 150, 230, 231, 268.
Austria, Albert II. of (King),
280, n. 3; 330, 335.
Austria, Duke Frederick of, 92,
n. 2; 197, 316, n. 2.
Barbaro, Francesco, 40, 43.
Barbo, Pietro (Cardinal), 22,
n. 2; 52, n. 2; 255, n. 2; 302,
333>n. 2; 353.
Barletta, Gabriele, 32, n. 3.
Basil (Saint), 9, 10, n.
Bassand, Giovanni, 37.
4io
INDEX OF NAMES.
Bauer, R., 201, n. i.
Bavaria-Munich, Albert, Duke
of, 330.
Bavaria, John, Duke of, 330.
Bavaria, Louis of, 68, 74, 75,
79, 81-83, 86, 94, 138.
Bavaria, Stephen of, 92.
Beaufort, Henry, (Cardinal),
262.
Beaufort, Count de, no.
Beaufort, Pierre Roger de (see
Clement VI.) .
Beaufort, Guillaume Roger, 92,
n. 4.
Beccadelli, Antonio, 14, 15, 16,
n. i; 23-26, 306, 307.
Bellaci, Tommaso, 36.
Benedict XI. (Pope), 72, n. i.
Benedict XII. (Pope), 6, 61,
n. 3; 70, 82, 83, 85, 86,
90, 93, 99, n. 3.
Benedict XIII. (Anti-Pope), 138,
n. 3; 165, 174, 175, 177, 178,
184, 185, 189, 190, 191, 195,
196, 200, 201, 260, 26l,
274.
Benedict XIV. (Anti-Pope),
274.
Benedict (Saint), 86, 95.
Bernardine (Saint), see Siena.
Bertrando (Abbot), 374.
Bessarion (Cardinal), 307, 315,
318, 320, 321,322, 354-
Bevilacqua of San Severino, 218.
Biondo, Flavio, 171, 248, 293,
304, 305, 321, n. i.
Bisticci, Vespasiano da, 31, n.
3? 35 3 6 > n - x J 4i, 44, 47
265, 269, 271, n. i ; 284,
286, n. i; 350, n. i; 357.
Bitonto, Antonio de, 32, 33,
n. 3.
Bitonto, Niccold di, 145, n. 3.
Boccaccio, i, 4, 5, 6, 13, 53,
.342-
Bohm of Niklashausen, Hans,
155, n. i.
Bohemia, Anne of, 161.
Bologna, Catherine of (Saint),
36.
Boniface VIII. (Pope), 58, 165,
283, n.
Bonitace IX. (Pope), 120, n.
2; 142, n. i; 150, 164, 165,
167, 201, 215, n. i ; 250,
251.
Borja, Alonzo de (see Cal-
lixtus III.).
Borsano, Simone de, 117.
Bosnia, Stephen of, 96, n. 2;
324-
Bourbon, Charles of (Count of
Clermont), 238, 394.
Bower, Walter, 334.
Boyssetus, Bertrandus, no, n. 3.
Brady, Maziere, 388.
Brancacci, Felice, 285, 294,
n. 3-
Brankowitsch, George, 326.
Branda (Cardinal), 163, 264,
n. 2 ; 266, 267, 271, 272.
Brandenburg, Albert of, 347,
349-
Brandenburg, Frederick of, 280,
n. 3.
Brandenburg, John of, 349.
Breslau, Bishop of, 349.
Bridget (Saint), 97, 109.
Brieg, Louis of (Prince), 280,
n. 3.
Brippi, Giuseppe, 212, n. i.
Brittany, John, Duke of, 356,
n. 2.
Bruneleschi, Piero, 295, n. i ;
3^3, n. 2.
Bruni, Lionardo, 10, n. i ; 14,
40, 42, 43, n. i ; 169, 175,
n. i; 257.
Bruno, Francesco, 54, n. 2.
Brunswick, Otto, Duke of,
125.
Bucca, Johann (Cardinal), 262.
Bude, Silvester, 368.
Burckhardt, J., 33.
INDEX OF NAMES.
411
Burgundy, Philip, Duke of, 338.
Busch, John, 147.
Cacciaconti (see San Galgano).
Calafata, Eustochia, 36.
Calatafimi, Archangelo di, 36.
Calderino, Domenico, 321, n. i.
Callixtus III. (Pope), 217, n.
3; 243, 249, n.; 255, 276,
277, n. i; 331, 332,354.
Calvin, 78, 81.
Cambi, Giovanni, 5, n. 2.
Campano, 321, n. i.
Capistran, John (Saint), 32, 34,
36, 358.
Capranica Domenico (Cardinal),
225, 261, 264-266, 268, 298,
n. 3; 3^6,307, 34i, 352,n. 2.
Carillius (Cardinal), 264, n. 2.
Cariti, Bernard (Canon), 363.
Carrer, Jean, 274, 277, n. i.
Carried, Matteo (Blessed), 33,
n. 3 J 37-
Carvajal, Juan, 339, 340, 348,
n. 4.
Casale, Ubertino of, 8i,n. 3.
Casanova, Juan (Cardinal), 264.
Cascia, Rita of (Blessed), 37.
Cassini, Antonio, 262.
Castellani, Francesco, 295, n. i.
Castiglionchio, Lapo da, 273.
Castiglione (see Branda).
Catherine (Saint), see Bologna,
Siena, Sweden.
Cattabeni, Francesco dei, 279,
n. 5; 287, n. i.
Celle, Giovanni delle, 145, 151,
n. 3.
Cenci, Agapito, 257.
Ceredano, Pacifico di, 36.
Cervantes, Juan (Cardinal), 262,
352, n.
Cereriis, Bartolomeo de, 37.
Cesarini, Giuliano (Cardinal),
24, 54, 261, 264-268, 280,
288, 306, 312, 314, 325-328,
337, n. 2; 346, 352, n. 2.
Challant (Cardinal), 194.
Charles IV. (Emperor), 82, 86,
95, 96, n. 2; 103, n. i;
135, 136, 253, 283.
Charles V. (King of France),
126, 127, 134.
Charles Vil. (King of France),
237, 336.
Charles the Great, 249.
Charpaigne, Martin Gouge de,
238.
Chartres, R.eginaldus de, 320,
n. i.
Chiaves, Antonio Martinez de
(Cardinal), 254.
Chiemsee, Silvester of, 343.
Chivasso, Angelo di, 36.
Chrysoloras, Manuel, 215, 257.
Chrysostom (Saint), n.
Cicero, 2, 4, 26, 27, 30, 50,
n - 2; 53-5 5 167, 268, 341.
Ciriaco of Ancona, 39.
Clemangis, Nicolas de, 141, n.
4; 146.
Clement V. (Pope), 58-61, 63,
64, n.; 71, 90, 126.
Clement VI. (Pope), 6, 53, 61,
85-90, 92, 93, 94, n. 2; V 3.
Clement VII. (Anti-Pope), 103,
112, 113, 117, 127, 132, 133,
n. i ; 134, 139. l6l > l6 4>
165, 207, 260, 368.
Clement VIII. (Anti-Pope), 274-
277.
Clement XII. (Pope), 360.
Cleves, Duke of, 174, n. 4.
Cochlaus, 22, n. 4.
Cologne (Archbishop of), 338.
Colombini, Giovanni, 95.
Colonna, Antonio, 227.
Colonna, Family of, 209, n. i ;
226-228, 287, 293, n. 2; 294,
297.
Colonna, Giovanni, i.
Colonna, Giordano, 227.
Colonna, Lorenzo, 209, n. 2;
227, 298.
412
INDEX OF NAMES.
Colonna, Odoardo, 227.
Colonna, Oddone (see Martin
V.)*
Colonna, Paola, 226.
Colonna, Prospero, 227, 261,
264, 272, 306.
Comitibus, de (Cardinal), see
Conti, Lucio.
Condulmaro, Francesco (Car
dinal), 294, 327, 354.
Condulmaro, Gabriel (see
Eugenius IV.).
Condulmaro, Polyxena, 302.
Conrad (Archbishop of Prague),
277, n. 4.
Conradi, Matteo de , 287, n. i.
Constantine the Great, 18-22.
Conti, Family of, 293, 297.
Conti, Lucio (Cardinal), 263.
Corona, Christopher of (Bishop),
^326.
Corraro, Gregorio, 40, 43.
Correr, Antonio (Cardinal), 269,
270, 271, n. i ; 274, n. 2;
281, n. 2; 396.
Corsini, Pietro (Cardinal), 117,
119, n. i.
Cortese, Antonio, 23.
Corvaro, Pietro da, 82.
Cosmati, the, 70.
Cossa, Baldassare (see John
XXIII.) .
Courland (Bishop of), 263.
Cracovia ,Matthiius de, 184, n. 3.
Cusa, Nicholas of (Cardinal),
18, 266, 289, 311, 315, 339,
352, n. 2.
Cyprian, Saint, 51.
Cyprus, Hugo of (Cardinal),
262.
Cyprus (King of), 96, n. 2.
Cyrillus, 154.
Dante, i. 3, 12, 39, n. i ; 40,
58, n. 2 ; 63, 64, 72, 82, 105,
n. 2.
Dollinger, Dr. von, 76, n. i ; 78,
n.; 137, n. i; 152, n. 2 ; 193,
n. i ; 205, n. 2 ; 240, n. 3.
Dominici, Giovanni, 32, n. 3 ;
37, 49, 50, n. 2; 175,176.
Durazzo, Charles of, 136.
Dwerg, Hermann, 241, n. 2 ;
243, 244, n. i.
Engelhardt, H., 349, n. 3.
Ephesus, Mark of, 315.
Estaing, Pierre d (Cardinal),
114, n. i.
Estouteville, Guillaume d (Car
dinal), 320, n. i ; 354.
Eugenius IV., Pope, 21, 22, 24,
2 5> " i; 33> 35) 40, 44, 46,
54, 169, n. 2 ; 170, 206, n.
i; 216, n. 2; 218,236, 244,
245, n. 2; 246, 248, 252,
264, 269, 270, 281, 282, 284-
290, 292-298, 300-318, 323-
335) 337-342, 345-348, 359-
3 6l > 399 400, 404, 405, 406.
Fabriano,Costanzio di (Blessed),
37-
Fabriano, Gentile da, 218, 219,
359-
Falkenberg, Johann von, 186.
Federighi, Carlo, 295, n. i.
Felix V. (Anti-Pope), 167, 277,
n. 35 328-330.332,333)343,
344-
Feltre, Vittorino da, 40, 44-47.
Ferrante of Naples, 332.
Ferrer, Vincent (Saint), 34, 138.
Ferretti, Gabriel, 36.
Ficino, Marsiglio, 323.
Fieschi, Giorgio (Cardinal),
320, n. i; 354-
Fieschi, Giovanni (Bishop of
Vercelli), 362.
Fiesole, Angelico da, Fra
(Blessed), 37, 50, n. 3; 55,
218, 361.
Filargis, Petros (see Alexander
V.).
INDEX OF NAMES.
413
Filarete (Avetulino Antonio),
360, 361, n. i.
Filastre, Guillaume, 185, 320,
n. i.
Filelfo, Francesco, 24, 29, 30,
51, 52, n. i; 168, n. 3; 268,
321, n. i; 341.
Fliscus (see Fieschi).
Foix, Pierre de (Cardinal), 275,
276.
Fortebraccio, Niccolo, 293, 294.
Frances (Saint), (see Rome).
Frangipani, House of, 228.
Frederick II. (Emperor), 94,109.
Frederick III. (King of the
Romans), 18, n. 3; 338,
340, 343 347-
Frederick IV., 350, n. i.
Freising, Nicodemus, Bishop of,
342.
Gaetani, House of, 297.
Gaetani, Onorato, 125.
Gaetani, Sveva, 227.
Gamaleon, 155.
Gambacorti,Chiara(Blessed) ,3 7.
Gambacorti, Pietro (Blessed), 37,
n. 2.
Gaufridus, 68.
Gelnhausen, Conrad von, 184.
Geneva, Robert of (Cardinal)
(see Clement VII.) .
Ghiberti, Lorenzo, 39, n. 2 ;
220,358, 360.
Giotto. 70.
Giustiniani, Lorenzo (Saint), 37.
Gomez Barroso, Pedro (Bishop),
368.
Gonzaga, Francis, 174, n. 4.
Gonzaga, Gianfrancesco, 45,
279, n. 5.
Gonzaga, Lodovico, 121, 378,
379, 380.
Gb rres, J. von, 72, n. 3 ; 83, n.
Gregory XI. (Pope), 6, 35, 53
54, 91, 100-104, 109-116,
121, 122, 125, 126, 169, 242,
362, 363, 364, 367, 369, 374.
Gregory XII. (Pope), 42, 43,
49, 120, n. 2; 170, 171,
174-178, 186, 188-191, 195,
196, 200-202, 251, 269, 286,
n.
Gregory XIII. (Pope), 254.
Groot, Gerhard, 147, 148, 150.
Grube, Dr., 150, n. 3.
Griinwalder, Johann (Bishop),
330-
Guismar, Juana, 254.
Hadrian, Emperor, 215.
Halberstadt, Bishop of, 349.
Hapsburg, House of, 82.
Heimburg, Gregory, 339.
Herici, Nicolaus, 252.
Hesse, Louis of (Landgrave),
349-
Hohenstanfen, House of, 82,
i33 i3 8 -
Hiibler, 193, n. 2.
Hunyadi, John, 325, 326.
Huss, John, 81, 161-163, 202,
211.
Hutten, 1 8, n. 2.
Infessura, 214, n. i ; 232, 233,
296.
Innocent III. (Pope), 62.
Innocent VI. (Pope), 54, n. 2;
62, n. ; 90, n. i ; 93-95, 283,
284.
Innocent VII. (Pope), 42, 49,
120, n. 2; 165, 166, 169-
171, 201, 251.
Innocent XII (Pope), 283, n. 2.
Iseo, Giacobino da, 241, n. 3.
Isidore (Cardinal), 320.
Isolani (Cardinal), 202, n. 2.
Jandun, Jean de, 76.
Janitschek, 13, n. i and 2.
Jenzenstein, Johann von (Arch
bishop of Prague), 112, n. 2 ;
414
INDEX OF NAMES.
122, n. 3 ; 124, n. i ; 128, n.
143, n. i ; 145, 146, n. 2;
151, n. 3; 155, n. 2 ; 375.
Jerome (Saint), 9, 51.
Joachim, 154.
Joanna I. (Queen of Naples), 96,
n.2; 113, n.2; 118,125,135.
Joanna II. (Queen of Naples),
213, 226, 227, 331.
John II. (King of France), 92,
n. 4.
John XXII. (Pope), 58, 61, 64,
n. ; 70, n. 3 ; 72, 74, 76, 79,
8c, n.; 82, 83,86,90,98.
John XXIII. (Anti-Pope), 24,
42, n. 2; 189, 191, 192, n.
2 ; 194-196, 199, 200, 212,
213, 239, 260.
John (Saint, the Evangelist), 179.
Joseph (Greek Patriarch), 315.
Julian the Apostate, 7, 8, 12.
Julius II. (Pope), 55, 252, n. i.
Juvenis, Joannes (see Le Jeune)
Kastriota (see Skanderbeg).
Kalteisen, Heinrich, 243.
Kemp, Joannes (Cardinal), 320,
n. i.
Kilbt, Heinrich, 209, n. i.
Kock, Albert, 244, n.
Labassole, Philippe de, 93.
Lactantius, 268.
Ladislaus (King of Naples), 165,
194.
Landriani, Gerardo (Cardinal),
307, 320, n. i.
Laetus, Pomponius, 22, n. 2.
Lagrange, de (Cardinal), no,
n. 3; ii6,n. 3; 377.
Langenstein, Heinrich von, 141,
n. 2; 145, 154, 155, n. 2;
157, n. i; 173, n. 3 ; 183,
184, 386.
Lapo da Castiglionchio, 273.
Lecce, Roberto da, 24, 32, 33,
n. 3.
Le Jeune de Contay, Jean (Car
dinal), 320, n. i ; 354, v
Lenz, 193, n. i.
Leo III. (Pope), 249.
Leo X. (Pope), 18, n. 2; 39,
n. i ; 55, 252, n.
Leo XIII. (Pope), 61, n. 3.
L Epinois, Henri de, 132, n. 2.
Leroy, Pierre, 185, 188.
Licci, Giovanni (Blessed), 37.
Liege, Jean of, 339.
Lignano, Giovanni di, 120, n.3;
124, n. i; 131, n.; 145,
383-
Livy, 341.
Loredano, Luigi, 327.
Loschi, Antonio, 24, n. i ; 171,
259, 272, 281.
Lucemburgo (see Luxemburg).
Luna, Pedro de (see Benedict
XIII.).
Luther, Martin, 24, n. 2; 75,
n. 2 ; 81.
Luxemburg, Ludovicus de
(Cardinal), 320, n. i.
Luxemburg, Peter of (Blessed) ,
138.
Lysura, John of, 347.
Machiavelli, 20, 28, 79, 193,
n. 2.
Macone, Stephano, 144, n. 2 ;
181, n. 2.
MafTei, Timoteo, 8, n. i.
Maggi, Sebastiano, da Brescia,
37-
Mahomet, 176.
Mairose, Raimond (Cardinal),
262.
Malatesta, House of, 224.
Malatesta, Carlo, 189, 200.
Malesicco, Guido di, 134.
Malestroit, Jean de, 103.
Malkaw, Joh., 139, n. 4.
Manetti, Gianozzo, 40, 41, 43,
306.
Mantua, Marquess of, 47.
INDEX OF NAMES.
415
Marc Antonio (see Salerno).
Marca, Jacopo della (Saint), 32,
36.
Marsberg, Johannes von, 244, n.
Marsciano, Angelina di, 36.
Marsigli, Luigi, 27, n. 5 ; 69,
n. 2 ; 91, n. i ; 122, n. 3.
Marsiglio of Padua, 76-80, 81,
86, 159, 178.
Marsuppini, Carlo, 15, 27, 43,
306, 307.
Martin V. (Pope), 54, 1 99, n. i ;
202, 207-235, 237-240, 241,
n. 2 ; 242-246, 249, 252-
254, 256-266, 272, 274-282,
284, n. 2; 296, 332,358, 359,
394.
Martini, Antonio (Cardinal), 68,
320, n. i; 354-
Martini, Simone, of Siena, 70.
Masaccio, 219, 272, n. i.
Masaccio, Angelo (Blessed), 37.
Masolino, 272, n. i.
Masuccio, Guardato, 5, n. i.
Mattiotti, Giovanni, 235, n. i.
Mazzingi de Agustino, Angelo
(Blessed), 37.
Medici, Cosmo de , 8, n. i ;
23, 42, 168, n. 3; 212, 321,
323.
Medici, Lorenzo de , 41.
Meiners, 41.
Migliorati, Cosimo de (see Inno
cent VII.).
Milan, Duke of, 330, 332.
Milano, Cristoforo da (Blessed),
Moleano, Pietro di, 36.
Monica (Saint), 44, 230, 231.
Montefeltre, Guido da, 225.
Montefeltro, Federigo da, 46.
Montepulciano, Bartholomeo da,
Montfort, Guillaume de (Car
dinal), 264.
Montone, Braccio di, 213, 224,
225.
Morosini (Cardinal), 213.
Munich, Peter of, 158.
Munos, iEgidius (see Clement
VIII.).
Muradll. (Sultan), 327,328.
Mussato, Si, n. 3.
Naldi, Naldo, 41,0.
Naples (Alfonso, King of), 17,
22, 239, 274, 275, 276, 330,
331,332, 334-
Naples, Ferrante of, 332.
Napoli, Giovanni di, 32, n. 3.
Narbonne (Archbishop of), 377.
Nardi, Pietro, 295, n. 2.
Nazianzen, Gregory (Saint),
8-12.
Neri, Agnoli di, 295, n. i.
Nero, 179.
Neyrot, Antonio, 37.
Nicholas V., Pope, 8, n. i ; 23,
33 35> 3 6 > 40, 41, 44, n. 2 ;
54-56, 170, 245, 249, n. i;
255, 268, n. 3; 306, 318,
339,342, 348, n. 4.
Niccoli, Niccolo, 14, 15.
Nider, John, 267, n. i ; 315,
n- i; 355, 356.
Nieheim, Dietrich von, 122, n.
i; 137, n. i; 176, 192-195,
196, n. i ; 242, 243, 250,
254.
Noellet, Guillaume de (Cardinal),
Novara, Bartolomeo (Bishop of),
342.
Novariensis (Cardinal), see
Porta.
Occam, William, 75, 76, 86, 1 59,
178, 182.
Octavianus, Augustus, 223.
Offida, Baldassare d , 295.
Olesnicius, Sbigneus (Cardinal),
320, n. i.
Origen, n.
Orsini, House of, 70, 228, 293.
416
INDEX OF NAMES.
Orsini, Antonio, 298.
Orsini, Carlo, 228, n. 2.
Orsini, Francesco, 228, n. 2 ;
297.
Orsini, Gentile, 293, n. 2.
Orsini, Giacomo (Cardinal),
117, 124.
Orsini, Gianantonio, 228.
Orsini, Giordano (Cardinal),
263, n. 2 ; 272, 273, 306.
Orsini, Napoleone, 71.
Orsini, Orso, 228, n. 2.
Orsini, Pietro, 117.
Padua, Antony of (Saint), 33,
n. 2.
Palaeologus, John (Emperor),
96, n. 2; 311, 315, 319.
Palagio, Guide del, 69, n. 2.
Palermo, Nicholas, Archbishop
of, 346.
Pallanza, Caterina da (Blessed),
37-
Palomar, John of, 287, n. 2.
Pandolfini, Agnolodi Filipo, 295,
n. i.
Paradinas, Alfonso, 254.
Parentucelli, Tommaso (see
Nicholas V.).
Paul, Saint (Apostle), 40, 105,
i33 HO, 179.
Paul II. (Pope) (see Barbo,
Pietro).
PaulV. (Pope), 237, 275, n. 2.
Paula, Francis of (Saint), 37, 38.
Paulsen, 12, n. 2.
Pecock, Reginald (Bishop), 18.
Pelayo, Alvaro, 59, n. i; 67,
n. i ; 68, 72, 80, 98, 105,
n 2
Perotto, 321, n. i.
Persona, Gobelinus, 137, n. i ;
242, 243.
Perugia, Baldo di, 120, n. 3 ;
124, n. i.
Peruzi, Ridolfo, 295, n. i.
Pesaro, Serafina di, 36.
Peschiera, Andrea da (Blessed) ,
37-
Peter, Saint (Apostle), 105, 133,
140, 179-
Peters, Johann, 250.
Petit, Jean, 145, n. 3.
Petrarch, Francesco, 1-4, 12,27,
44, 53> 54, n. 2; 64-66, 71,
95, 97, 108, 304.
Petrone, Paolo diLiello, 299, 353.
Philip the Fair (King of Francej,
60, 108, in.
Philip VI. (King of France), 83,
84, 92, n. 4.
Piacenza, Bartolino di, 137.
Piacenza, Cristoforo di, no, n.
2 ; 112, n. i ; 116, n. 2; 121,
126, n. 2 ; 378, 379, 380.
Piccinino, Niccolo, 294, 296.
Piccolomini, -^neas Sylvius
(afterwards Pope Pius II.), 18,
n. 3; 23, 24, 29, 33, n. 2 ;
234, 239, n. i; 245, n. i ;
266, 268, 282, n. i ; 313,
n. i ; 337, n. 2; 339-341,
343-348, 350, n. 2; 351,
353, n. 2; 403-
Pietro Geremia da Palermo, 37.
Piglio, Benedetto da, 257.
Pisanello, 47, n. 3; 218, 359.
Pius II. (Pope) (see Piccolo-
mini).
Pius V. (Pope), 264, n. 4.
Pius VII. (Pope), 360.
Pius IX. (Pope), 302.
Plaoul, 185, 186.
Platina, B., 22, n. 2: 321, n. i.
Plato, 2, 16, 25, 231, 321, 323.
Plautus, 272.
Plethon, Gemistos, 315, 319,
322, 323-
Plutarch, 273.
Poggio (Bracciolini) Gian-
francesco, 15, 24, 25, 29-32,
53, 166, n. 2; 167, 169, 170,
229, n. i; 232, 257-259, 268,
272,3 4 } 3 6 > 37> 3 2 1, n. i
INDEX OF NAMES.
417
Pomponazzo, Pietro, 27.
Pontano, Ludovico, 346.
Porcaro, Stefano, 22, 23.
Porta, Ardicino della (Cardinal),
262, 263, n. 2.
Prague, Jerome of, 30, 167.
Prato, Giovanni di, 32.
Prignano, Bartholomeo (see
Urban VI.).
Pulka, Peter Von, 206.
Queckels, Wilhelm, 246, n.
Rabstein, Procopius von, 347.
Radewins, Florentius, 148-150.
Raffini Pietro, 113, n. 2; 115,
n. 2; 375.
Ragusa, Giovanni di, 279-281.
Ram, Domingo (Cardinal), 261,
264.
Randulfo, Andrea da, 193, n. i.
Renan, Ernest, 57.
Rho, Antonio da, 24.
Rhotomagensis (Cardinal), (see
Rochetaillee).
Richard II. (King of England),
134, 161.
Richenthal, Ulrich Von, 195.
Rido, Antonio, 299-301, 398.
Ridolfi, Bartholomeo, 295, n. I.
Rienzi, Cola di, 71, 87.
Rimini, Antonio di, 32.
Rinuccini, Cino da, 26, 27, n.
Ripafratta, Lorenzo da, 37.
Rochetaillee, Jean de la
(Cardinal), 262, 263, n. 2.
Rode, John (of Bremen), 244,
n.
Rolewinck, Werner, 139, n. I ;
197, n. 3.
Rome, Frances of (Saint), 37,
2I 4, n. 3; 235-237, 291,
n - 3; 353-
Rondinelli, Andrea di Rinaldo,
295, n. i.
Roraw, Heinrich, 254.
Rossellino, Bernardo, 43.
Rupe, Hugo de, 368.
Rupert (King of the Romans),
1 88.
Sacchi, P. G. P., 300, n. i.
Sagan, Ludolf of, 138, 139, n.
i ; 141, n. i; 146, n. i ; 181,
n. 2.
Sagundino, Niccolo, 318.
Salerno (Count of), 227, n. i.
Saliceto, Bartolomeo di, 119,
n. i ; 1 20, n. 3.
Saliceto, Ricardus de, 102, n 3.
Salutato, Collucio, 27, n. 5; 50,
51, n. 2 ; 54, n. 2; 109, 126,
131, n. i; 139, n. 2 ; 169,
170, 173, n. 3.
San Galgano (Abbot of), 348,
402-407.
Savigny, de, 120, n. 3.
Sarteano, Alberto da, 24, 32,33.
Savelli, Family of, 70, 293, 297.
Savelli, Niccolo, 298.
Savonarola, G., 32, n. 3; 34,
35, 50 n - 3-
Savoy, Amadeus of (see Felix
V.).
Savoy, Louis of, 172, n. i ; 174,
n. 4.
Savoy, Margaret (Princess of),
37-
Saxony, William (Duke of),
349-
Scammaca, Bernardo (Blessed),
Scarampo, Lodovico (Cardinal),
3i> 302; 33i> 333 348, n.
4; 354-
Schaumberg, Petrus a (Car
dinal), 320, n. i.
Schlick, Kaspar, 338, 340, 345.
Segovia, John of, 288, n. 4.
Sesselmann (Chancellor), 347.
Sforza, Attendolo, 213.
Sforza, Francesco, 33, n. 3 ;
293, 294, 296, 331, 334.
Siena, Bernardine of (Saint), 18,
E E
418
INDEX OF NAMES.
n. i; 24, 3 2 > 33 34, 36,
23 2 ~ 2 35 358, 402, 403.
Siena, Catherine of (Saint), 37,
63, 100, 103-110, 114, 116,
122, 124-126, 129, 131, n. i;
138, 143, 144, 272.
Siena, Silvestro da, 32.
Sigismund (King of the
Romans), 177, 192, 194, 196,
199, 200, n. ; 201, n. i ;
206, 210, 278, n. 3 ; 289,
2 9 2 > 335 347, 349-
Signa, Martino da, 5.
Signorili, Niccolo, 222.
Simmern, Stephen (Count Pala
tine of), 330.
Simonet of Lyons, 90, n. i.
Sixtus IV. (Pope), 52, n. i ;
2 55-
Skanderbeg (George Kastriota),
3 2 7-
Socrates, 231.
Soderino, Niccol6, 104.
Soest, Conrad von, 244, n. i.
Spain, Louis of, 88.
Spoleto, Giovanni da, 146, n.;
., J 73, n - 3; 386.
Strada, Zanobi da, 54, n. 2.
Strasburg, Louis (Count Pala
tine of), 197, n. i ; 199,
n. 4.
Stolberg, Friedrich Leopold
(Count), ii.
Stronconio, Antonio di, 36.
Strozzi, Marcello, 275, n. 3.
Suchenwirt, Peter, 131).
Sweden, Catherine of (Saint),
138.
Tacitus, 259, n. 4.
Tagliacozzo, Giovanni (Cardi
nal), 320, n. i; 354.
Tartaglia, 296.
Tavelli, Giovanni, 37.
Telesphorus, 152-155.
Tibaldeschi, Francesco (Car
dinal), 117, IIQ.
Torquemada, Juan de (Car
dinal), 320, n. i; 354.
Tours, Bishop of, 311.
Traversari, Ambrogio, 15, n. i ;
40-42, 306, 318.
Trebizond, George of, 353, n. i ;
421.
Treves, Nicholas of, 272.
Treves, Archbishop of, 338.
Trevisanus, Zacharias, 157, n. i.
Trinci, House of, 298.
Trionfi, Agostino, 80.
Trogus Pompeius, 53.
Tudeschi (Archbishop of Pa
lermo), 332.
Turriani, Antonius, 37.
Urban V. (Pope), 54, n. 2;
95-99, 126.
Urban VI. (Pope), 116, n. i ;
118-122, 124-131, 133-139,
142-145, 164, 173, n. 2 ;
201, 260, 383.
Urbino (Bishop of), 115.
Urceo, Antonio, detto Codro, 28.
Ursinis (see Orsini).
Valentino, Elena (Blessed), 37.
Valla, Lorenzo, 13-22, 26, 31,
4 2 > 5 1 79, 2 59> 3 6 , 3 2 i>
n. i.
Valori, Bartolomeo, 195, n. 2.
Van der Weyden, Roger, 218.
Varano, Rhodolfo da, 101, 103,
113-1-3.
Varro, 2, 27, 231.
Vasari, 219.
Vegio, Maffeo, 40, 43, 44, 231.
Vercelli, Antonio di, 32.
Vergerio, Pietro Paolo, 170,
257.
Verona, Guarino of, 24, n. i ;
43, n. i ; 318.
Veronica (Saint), 305.
Vettori, Andrea, 295, n. i.
Vico, Family of, 296.
Vico, Francisco da, 113, 116.
St, Michael s College
Scholastic s Library
INDEX OF NAMES.
419
Vico, Giacomo da, 296, 297,
n. I.
Villani, 92, n, 4.
Virgil, 44, 341-
Visconti, The, 65, n. 2.
Visconti, Bartolomeo.
Visconti, Bernabo, 100, 115.
Visconti, Cristina, 37.
Visconti, Filippo Maria, 292,
294, 33 n - 2.
Visconti, Gian Galeazzo, 169.
Vitelleschi, Giovanni (Cardinal),
296-302, 341, n. 2.
Viterbo, ^Egidius (Cardinal of),
85, n. 2; 99, n. 3; 137, n.
i; 208, n. 2; 211, n. I ; 282,
306, n. 2.
Viterbo, Antony of, 361, n. 2.
Viterbo, Nicholas of, 118, n. i ;
119, n. 2 ; 120, n. i ; 385.
Viviani, Francesco, 375, n. 4-
Viviano, Lodovico, 275, n. 4.
Volterra, Mariano da, 24.
Waal, A. de (Monsignor), 246.
Wegele, 20, n.
Weiss, A. M., 6, n. 5.
Wenceslaus (King), 135, n. i ;
177.
Wenceslaus (Saint), 253.
Wesselofsky, A., 13, n. i.
Winchester, Bishop of (see
Beaufort, Henry).
Wladislaw (King of Poland),
326, 328.
Wycliff, John, 81, 159-163.
Zabarella, Bartolomeo (Cardi
nal), 187, 194, 287, n. i.
Zara, Jacob (King of Ethiopia),
324, n. 3.
Zechus, Dionisius (Cardinal),
320, n. i.
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The history of the popes
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