"1

Germans, broke out at the Imperial Diet at Frankfort in 1454, and later, when the question of contributions for the war against the Turks was raised. Nobody was willing to trust a word said by them or their ambassors, since the extortion of money was the only thing aimed at. "All," says Æneas Silvius, who was soon as Pope to experience similar treatment, "cursed the Emperor and the Pope, and treated the legates with contempt." But the summoning of a General Council was still sometimes talked of at these Diets, and the very notion had become such a bugbear of the Popes, that they made it a primary condition in their dealings with some German princes, as, e.g., with Diether of Isenberg, that they should never moot the question. Meanwhile every appeal to a General Council was promptly visited with excommunication in the most decisive manner by Pius II.

At the close of his life, the Emperor Frederick seems to have repented of his share in this work of destruction. The instructions he gave his ambassador for the Diet at Frankfort, in 1486, contain words to the effect that he knew what immense sums passed to Rome in the shape of annates, indulgences, and the like, and

1 Pii Commentar. a Joh. Gobellin (Fef. 1614), p. 22.

what abject obedience and subjection to the Papal See the German nation had exhibited, above all others. These services were received thanklessly and haughtily by the Pope, Cardinals, and Court officials, and the German nation was contumeliously treated in all dealings, from the highest to the lowest, so that it would be against the common nature and reason of mankind to endure such piteous treatment any longer. It was therefore to be impressed on the princes that they should no longer show obedience and submission to the Pope, in order that the German nation might no more be despised and humbled beyond all others."

Felix (the Antipope) was now induced by the French King to resign, and was made the chief Cardinal, with extensive jurisdiction over several dioceses. The remnant of the Synod of Basle, which had at last been driven to Lausanne, dissolved itself, and the Cardinal of Arles, that "adept in iniquity and son of perdition," as Eugenius had termed him, was restored without ever retracting any of his principles. This did not prevent Clement VII. from canonizing him after his death, "since his sanctity had been proved by miracles, and he had always led a heavenly, chaste, and blameless life."

1 Schlözer, Briefwechsel, x. 269.

§ XXVII.--Temper and Circumstances of the Fifteenth Century.

Some time had elapsed after the disastrous year 1446, before it was understood in Germany that all hope of reforming the Church by means of Councils was at an end. Even so late as 1459, men could not and would not believe in this utter wreck of all schemes of reformation. The Carthusian Prior, Vincent of Axpach, thought that if but one king would issue safe-conducts for the assemblage of a Council in his dominions, and but one bishop were to summon it, it would meet in spite of the reclamations or anathemas of the Court of Rome; and that was the last remaining hope, for the experience of the last fifty years proved that no help could be looked for from the See of Rome. It was a far worse error than the Hussite heresy, to deprive the Church of General Councils, which are its best possession. And Vincent then relates how Eugenius succeeded in alluring over nearly all the educated to his side by the offer of benefices.1 An anonymous German writer, as early as 1443, had also lamented this falling away of the learned, such as Nicolas Cusa and Archbishop 1 Pez, Codex Epistol. iii. 335.

Y

Tudeschi. "The Roman harlot has so many paramours drunk with the wine of her fornications, that the Bride of Christ, the Church, and the Council representing her, scarcely receive the loyal devotion of one among a thousand. And yet Germany, in the person of its Emperor, has been worse used by the Popes than any other kingdom; the German Emperor alone was compelled, in accordance with 'legendary and forged decretals,' to swear obedience to the Pope.'

At last, at the very moment of its dissolution, the much-abused Synod of Basle had obtained a conspicuous satisfaction; Councils were still held in such high esteem in Rome, even after the death of Eugenius, that the new Pope, Nicolas V., by advice of the Cardinals, issued a Bull, declaring all documents, processes, decrees, and censures of his predecessor against the Council void and of no effect, even though issued with the approval of the Council of Ferrara or Florence, or any other.2 They were to be regarded as having never existed, and were expunged from the writings of Eugenius as com

1 Tractat. missus March. Brandenburg. 1443. See MSS. of vol. 31 of Hardtisch collection in the library of Stuttgart. What is said of the decretals is surprising at that early date. Yet Nicolas of Cusa also had just then for the first time recognised the spurious character of certain Isidorian decretals.

2 See Bull Tanto Nos, in the Jesuit Monod's Amadeus Pacif. (Paris, 1626), p. 272.

pletely as the Bulls of Boniface VIII. against France and the French king had been expunged on a former occasion by command of Clement v.1 And thus the principles of the two reforming Councils, on the superiority of General Councils to Popes, completely triumphed after all; the attempts of Eugenius, acting under inspiration of Cardinal Torquemada, to bring the Synod of Constance into bad odour, were entirely foiled, and the Curia itself bowed to the superior claims of a General Council. As regards the reforming decrees of the Fathers of Basle, so far as they prejudiced the power and finances of the Curia, they were surrendered to destruction, but the dogmatic decisions of the Pope's inferiority to a Council, on which they were based, remained untouched.

Pius II., indeed, who in his former position of rhetorician and scholar had defended the interests of the Synod of Basle, made the most desperate attempt to directly condemn the decisions of Constance, which hung like a Damocles-sword over the uneasy heads of the Court officials, and disturbed their enjoyment of Papal autocracy. But public opinion was too emphatically on the side of the Council, and he not only

1 The Bull says, "Tollimus, cassamus, irritamus et cancellamus."