CH. XI.]

THE THREAT OF CRUSADE.

331

put to the lips of the Bohemians by the bull of Martin V. If the council had studied measures of exasperation instead of conciliation, they could not more wisely have calculated on the result. They were continually strengthening the party whom they sought to defeat.

The threat of a crusade, thrown out by the council, as well as the pope and emperor, and employed alike to overawe Wenzel and his subjects, however exasperating it might be, was by no means to be lightly treated. If sincere zealots for the papacy had become more rare than in a former age, their place in the ranks of invasion could be well supplied by the banditti and soldiers of fortune, who stood ready to engage in any feasible work of plunder,none the less prompt that a pontiff lent them the sanction of his authority, and covered their violence with his absolution.

Indeed, at this very juncture the pope published a crusade against the Moors, at the solicitation of the king of Portugal. John XXIII. had employed similar measures against his enemy Ladislaus, king of Naples. Europe had not yet forgotten-was not likely soon to forget the merciless cruelties of the crusade against the Albigenses. Ruthless havoc and indiscriminating massacre had changed the garden of Southern France into an uninhabited desert. The very name of crusade-notwithstanding the schism. and decline of the papacy-was still terrible. But even the danger of its fulmination against the Bohemians, did not shake their purpose, or their stead fast adherence to their convictions. Its only effect

was to aggravate their indignation-already glowing with scorn and defiance against the council.

2

It was to no purpose that Martin V. sent John Dominic, one of his cardinals, as legate into Bohemia. The legate could effect nothing. The bull that had preceded him had done its work. Dominic threw up his mission in despair, and returned to report his ill success. He wrote to Sigismund and the pope that the Bohemians could only be brought back and reduced by force of arms. Tongue and pen were no longer weapons with which to vanquish them. Instead of receding from their position, they had only assumed its responsibilities more boldly. The churches they demanded were granted them by the feeble monarch. It would not have been safe to refuse. His half-threatening remark to Nicholas of Hussinitz-who spoke on this occasion in the name of his countrymen-that he was twisting a rope for his own neck, had only served to cause him to with draw from Prague to his own estates, where he could strengthen himself and his party in all security. Zisca (April 15) soon after appeared before the king, at his summons addressed to the Hussite leaders to meet him unarmed; but he came with a body of men fully equipped for battle. "Here we are, all armed, sire," said he, "according to your orders, to . shed the last drop of our blood against your enemies, if we may but know who they are." Zisca's

L'Enfant, 590. Bower says (iii. 204) that John Dominic was sent as legate to Bohemia, by Martin V., after the arrival of the latter at Geneva. The pope reached this city June

11, 1418, so that Dominic's mission could not have been discharged before July or August of that year.

2

Fleury, xxvi. 359.

'L'Enfant, 591. Fleury, xxvi. 891.

CH. XI.]

VIOLENCE OF THE LEGATE.

333

boldness secured his impunity. If the king had cherished hostile intentions, they were for the time abandoned. He did not care to confront such resolution and energy as the Hussite leader had shown.

But this course, pursued by the reform party-wise as it was in its very boldness-was induced in part, undoubtedly, by the manner in which Dominic had discharged his mission. Instead of gentle measures, which alone could have succeeded, he showed himself true to the spirit which had dictated the papal bull. At Slany, a few leagues from Prague, he entered one of the churches of the Hussites, and finding upon the altar a box, which probably contained the cups used by them in the celebration of the eucharist, he dashed it to the earth, and ordained that the former methods of worship should all be resumed. Not content with this, he is said, in conjunction with the Archbishop Conrad, to have burned a preacher and a layman at the same place. Nothing more was necessary to drive the Hussites to desperation. Such a premonition of the significance of the bull, was not lost upon them. Zisca knew well how to take advantage of it. No personal violence was offered to the legate, but he was everywhere greeted with doggerel songs, reproaches, invectives, ridicule, and insult. Threats were made against his life, unless he withdrew at once from the kingdom. It is more than possible that if he had not taken so plain a hint, they would have been executed. One thing, however, he had learned, that nothing short of the imperial power could bring the Bohemians back to their allegiance to the pope. It remained to be seen

whether even this would suffice. Dominic himself returned from Bohemia to accompany the emperor into Hungary, where his efforts against the opinions of the reformers are said to have been more successful.

CHAPTER XII.

FUTILE ISSUE OF THE COUNCIL. ITS DISSOLUTION.

MARTIN V. ANNOUNCES HIS ELECTION. RECEPTION OF THE ANNOUNCEMENT. THE KING OF ARAGON DISSATISFIED. - FAVORS BENEDICT. THE REFORMATORY COLLEGE.- CONCORDATS. MEASURES FOR REFORM. DISSATISFACTION. -THE SPANISH NATION.-PARODY OF THE MASS.-PRESENTED TO THE POPE. OTHER COMPLAINTS. MARTIN V. EAGER TO RETURN TO ITALY.-GREEK CHURCH. THE EMPEROR. WANT OF MONEY. - DISAPPOINTMENT. — LANGUAGE OF GERSON. — KING OF POLAND. - VOLADIMIR. HIS PROTEST.SIMONY OF MARTIN V. THE EMPEROR'S QUESTION. — ANXIETY OF MEMBERS TO LEAVE. HUMILIATION OF THE COUNCIL.LIBERALITY OF MARTIN V. IN GRANTING INDULGENCES. THE EMPE

ROR'S DISSATISFACTION.

THE KING OF POLand Aggrieved. — THE FRENCH CONCORDAT, - ENGLAND. SPAIN. — ITALY. - MARTIN V. LEAVES CONSTANCE.

-

JAN. 1, 1418-APRIL 28, 1418.

THE Council was now approaching the close of its proceedings. With the election of Martin V. the interest in its continuance at once began to decline. The prospects of reform were more hopeless than ever; for it was soon seen that the election had only given a head to its enemies.

The new pontiff showed much alacrity in the announcement of his election.1 He wrote to the universities, and the different states and kingdoms, a circular letter, in which he attributes the choice that had been made to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. The reception of his letter was not everywhere

1 L'Enfant, 599.