men at arms, when they advanced nearer Bourdeaux, and took the church
of St Severin, which is but a bow-shot distant from that city. There
they quartered themselves, and in the course of the night placed a
strong ambuscade among the vineyards close to the town--for the vines
there are as high as an arbour--and on the morrow pretended to decamp.
The Bourdelois, seeing this, sallied out in great numbers, to the
amount of full two thousand, and were surprised by those in ambush,
when a sharp conflict took place, which lasted a long time, for it was
desperately contested by each party; but the French were superior in
numbers,--and the English were forced to retire into Bourdeaux, after
leaving about eight hundred dead on the field.
Large detachments of men at arms were now posted round Bourdeaux,
who destroyed, without opposition, that part of the country, which
was abundant in all things,--for until then, it had been a long time
without suffering the miseries of war.
In consideration of these valuable services, and for his courageous
actions, the king of France pardoned Roderigo de Villandras all the
offences and evil deeds he had done against him. However, in the course
of a year, the English reconquered the greater part of these places
that had been won from them.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 22: Soulac,--a small town near Bourdeaux.]
[A.D. 1439]
CHAP. XXVII.
POPE EUGENIUS SENDS BULLS TO DIVERS PARTS OF EUROPE.--THEIR TENOUR.
At the commencement of this year, pope Eugenius published bulls against
the members of the council at Basil, the tenour of which was as follows.
'Eugenius bishop, and servant of the servants of God. Every example
from the Old and New Testaments admonishes us not to pass over in
silence, or to leave unpunished, crimes and misdemeanours,--more
especially such as may bring on slander against, or cause a division
among, the people committed to our charge. Should we delay pursuing
and avenging those faults which have given just offence to God, we
should most certainly provoke the divine Wisdom to anger; for the delay
of pursuing crimes deserving punishment, according to the judgements
of the holy fathers of the church, would be sinful. Those also who
contemn the divine commands, and are disobedient to paternal ordinances
according to our holy institutions, deserve the severest chastisements,
to make others ashamed of similar conduct, that fraternal concord may
rejoice, and all take warning from such examples.
'Should we be remiss in our vigour or solicitude for the welfare of the
church, its discipline would perish through our indolence, which would
be of the greatest injury to all good and true Christians. To cut off,
therefore, the unsound flesh from the sound,--to separate the scabby
sheep from the rest, that the whole flock be not infected, is a duty
imposed upon us; for as that glorious doctor St Jerome says, 'Arius,
when at Alexandria, was but a spark of fire,--but, from not being
instantly extinguished, the flame was increased, and spread throughout
Christendom.'
'It was for this cause that our Saviour gave to the bishop of Rome
the keys, to bind and unbind such as wandered from the ways of truth,
that they may be constrained to return by the bonds of correction and
obligation. We may say, therefore, of the apostolical authority, that
when in the judgement of the church, it has consigned those over to
Satan who have led others into error, it has exerted its power for the
salvation of their souls, and to teach others not to blaspheme.
'The blessed pope Sixtus says, 'We keep in our remembrance that we
govern under the name of that church in which our greatest pleasure is
to glorify our dear Saviour JESUS CHRIST, whose faith nourishes not
heresy but totally destroys it. For this reason, we hold it unlawful
to exert our powers, except when the interest of the whole church shall
call for it.
'In truth, during the latter days, our very beloved sons master Hutin
de la Plante, doctor of laws, master John de Plato, doctor of laws,
and master Venture du Chastel, licentiate,--all of them presidents at
the congregation of the general council of the holy church, the second
enjoying the office of proctor, and the last procurator of the said
council,--have exposed before us the account of the lamentable quarrels
that have taken place in the said council, in these words: 'Most holy
and reverend father, although this sacred and œcumenical general
council has been legally assembled for the preservation of the peace
of the catholic and apostolical roman church, which the blessed Holy
Spirit, under the person of our Lord, in the book of Canticles, plainly
points out, by saying, 'My dove, my undefiled, is but one: she is the
only one of her mother: she is the choice one of her that bare her.'
'St Paul demonstrates the union of the church, and the sacredness of
this union, by calling it the body, soul, and hope, of our vocation:
one Lord, one faith, one baptism,--by baptism, one God; and as the
blessed St Cyprian says, she is the head, a fruitful mother, and,
as spouse to JESUS CHRIST, as pure and unadulterated, chaste and
holy. The same Cyprian declares, in another place, that there is no
ecclesiastical ordinance that does not maintain the unity of the
Christian church. Pope Pelagius affirms the same from the words of the
blessed St Austin a celebrated doctor in the church, and that it has an
apostolical throne, irradiated by a succession of bishops.
'Nevertheless, from the commencement of this church, the wickedness
and wanton conduct of mankind have ever sought to deny and destroy the
peace thereof,--against which wickedness, according to the authority of
the holy fathers, divine vengeance has been excited. Whoever therefore
shall dare sacrilegiously, and with diabolical intention, to deny this
spotless unity, the sacred canon points him out as an enemy to the
church, and declares that he cannot have God for his father, unless
he hold the unity of the universal church; for, since CHRIST died for
the church, the church is the body of CHRIST--there can therefore be
no doubt but that he who divides the church is guilty of dividing and
tearing asunder the body of JESUS CHRIST.
'When Dathan and Abiran formed a schism against the honour of God,
Divine vengeance caused the earth to open and swallow them,--and their
adherents perished by fire from heaven. The more inseparable the holy
sacrament is with the union of the church, the greater guilt do they
incur who attempt to divide them,--and who, leaving the legal spouse of
the church choose to follow a false doctrine.
'Examples of similar wickedness, and the punishments that ensued, are
displayed in the book of Kings; for when the Jews made a distinction
between the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the other ten tribes,
and, laying aside their lawful king, elected another, the lord was
indignant against the seed of Israel, and held them in derision: he
also turned away his face from them.
'The anger of God is always excited against such as create schisms and
division. When the prophet was sent to Jeroboam to reproach him for his
sins, and to foretel to him the vengeance that God would take on him
and on his race, God forbade him to taste meat or drink with Jeroboam.
The prophet however, disobeyed the commandment, and in consequence, on
his return was attacked by a lion, who slew him on the road. From these
instances, as St Jerome says, no one can doubt but that the crime of
schism will be severely punished by God.
'For some time past, and since the holy general council at Constance,
this pernicious schism has laboured to afflict the church of God, and
the Christian religion, not only in regard to individuals, but whole
cities and provinces have suffered persecution for a length of time, to
the ruin of their souls; but at last, through the ineffable mercy of
God, and by the labours of many kings and princes, as well secular as
ecclesiastic, and of many universities and other loyal Christians, this
abominable schism was put an end to.
'The church was then believed to enjoy that perfect peace which every
one desired, as well by the election of the late well beloved pope
Martin as after his decease by the undoubtedly canonical and legal
choice of your holiness to the apostolical throne. But we are now
constrained to exclaim with the prophet Jeremiah, 'We have looked for
peace, but behold tribulation!' and also with Isaiah, 'We have looked
for light, and behold darkness!' for several children of perdition, few
in number, and of little authority in the council of Basil, have done
their utmost, by force and deceit, to put end to these flattering hopes.
'This council had been transferred from Basil to Florence[23], in the
laudable expectation, (so much wished for by every sect of Christians)
of the union of the eastern and western churches and went on for some
time, through your authority, with vigour.
'When those before mentioned, who had remained at Basil, had failed
in their promises to the Greeks, and perceived from the leaders of
the oriental church, that the most noble prince and emperor, John
Paleologus, together with Joseph, of happy memory, patriarch of
Constantinople, and numbers of prelates and dignitaries of the eastern
church were about to attend the œcumenical council at the place
appointed by your holiness, and that you, with a multitude of prelates
and churchmen, were already gone thither at great expense,--in order to
prevent the emperor from meeting you at this council, these aforesaid
persons published a detestable monitory against your holiness and
against our reverend lords the cardinals of Rome.
'This not having the desired effect of putting an end to the intentions
of the emperor to come to Florence, they published a suspension of
your holiness from the functions of the papacy. Notwithstanding these
iniquitous and sacrilegious proceedings, by your labour and care,
together with the energy of the council, and by divers arguments and
disputations, every attempt was made to remove this schism between the
eastern and western churches, which had lasted five hundred years.
'At the head of these disturbers of the union of the church was that
most disloyal and diabolical Amadeus, late duke of Savoy, who had
long before premeditated what he executed, through the instigation
of several accursed men and women, who, laying aside all religion,
have been converted to Satan by the wicked delusions of devils, who,
in common language, are called Sorceresses Frangules, Straganes, or
Vaudoyses, of whom there are numbers in this country.
'By such means, he has for a long time been seduced from the right
faith; and in order that he might be elected as the monstrous and
deformed head of God's church, he put on the frock of a hermit, _aux
avichoix_[24], of a most false hypocrite, that under cover of sheep's
cloathing, he might indulge his wolfish appetite, confident that,
in process of time, his adherents in the council of Basil (many of
whom were his subjects and the idols of this new Beelzebub) would
constitute and elect him pope in opposition to your holiness, the
undoubtedly-true vicar of God and legal successor to St Peter, to the
profanation and pollution of the Christian church.
'An unbounded ambition has induced the execrable Amadeus to undertake
this diabolical project, which, according to the apostle, is the
servitude of devils; and by the advice of a blasphemous synagogue of
abandoned men, the stinking abomination of all Christendom, who have
deputed for electors certain men, or rather devils disguised under
the figures of men, who (like the idol of Nebuchadnezzar) elevated
themselves in the true church of God.
'This Amadeus, in consequence of his profane election, which he gained
by means suited to his vast ambition, felt no remorse, or horror, in
clothing himself with a papal vesture, and in exercising the powers of
a roman pontiff, causing himself to be reverenced as such.
'He has neither been ashamed nor afraid to send his bulls sealed,
to divers parts of the world, in which he styles himself Pope Felix
V. proclaiming himself thus the most wretched man on earth, and
endeavouring to scatter abroad the poison of his pestilent mind.
'Now most holy father, and most sacred council, what should we first
seek or demand, or by what tears and groans may we deplore such an
unfortunate event, and wipe away the horrid disgrace that must ensue
from it to the church? for the greatness of the offence is more than
language can express. But we know, most holy and sacred father, that
no delay must arise to provide a remedy against the complainings of
our dear mother the church, your legal spouse, who, having enjoyed a
short peace is again constrained to cry out and lament the loss of it,
to the reverend members of this council, saying,--'Have mercy on me,
each of you, my friends: my bowels are filled with bitterness, for
lions destroy the vineyard of the God of sabaoth,--and the church, the
unsullied robe of JESUS CHRIST, is rent asunder by the wicked. Let God
now arise and destroy his enemies.' And thou, holy father, as these
things are manifest, and so notorious that they can no longer be
concealed, exert thyself in conjunction with this council: judge the
cause of thy spouse,--and have in remembrance the reproach cast on thy
children.
'O, most powerful, gird the sword on thy thigh, and verify the words
of the Psalmist: 'I will pursue mine enemies, to destroy them, and
will not return until I shall have laid them all under my footstool,
that they no more disturb my peace.' Such transgressions ought to be
punished with the utmost severity to prevent any from imitating them in
future.
'The words of Moses, the friend and servant of God, should be
repeated to the people of Christendom: 'Depart, all of you, from the
tabernacles and towns of the wicked.' Attend to the example of thy
blessed predecessor, who according to a general council of the church
at Ephesus, condemned Dioscorus and his followers to banishment in
Calcedonia[25].
'Follow the examples of the holy bishops who have preceded thee on the
sacred throne, who have ever exterminated the enemies of God and of his
church, from the communion of devout and loyal Christians, and punished
them likewise according to their deserts. Avenge, therefore, this new
schism that has arisen to thy personal wrong and to that of the roman
church, as well as to the slander of all Christendom, and call to thy
aid the powers of this holy œcumenical council to excommunicate from
the pale of the church, by the authority of GOD, and of St Peter and
of St Paul, all the wicked aforesaid, and more especially that grand
heresiarch Amadeus, this new antichrist in the church of God, together
with all their abettors, and those who have so daringly and illegally
taken upon themselves the part of electors. Let them be cast out as the
antichrist, and invaders and destroyers of all Christendom, and never
on any account, admit them to thy presence. Let them and their heirs be
deprived of all ecclesiastical and worldly dignities, and be condemned
to a perpetual sentence of excommunication. Let them be confounded
with the wicked, and feel the indignation of the blessed apostles St
Peter and St Paul, whose church they presume to disturb. May their
habitations become a desert and may no one inhabit their tabernacles!
May their children become orphans, and their wives widows, and their
existence become so heavy, through misery, that death may be looked
to for relief from a life of torment! May all hands be raised against
them, and the elements oppose them, and public vengeance be poured
on them; and, like Coran, Dathan and Abiran, may the earth open and
swallow them up alive! In short, should they not speedily turn from
their wickedness, and sufficiently and satisfactorily expiate their
sins against the holy and universal church, may they be condemned by
the just judgment of God to infernal darkness and perpetual torments!
'We and all true Christians having in abomination such heresies, detest
this accursed heresiarch and such like antichrists; and thou vicar and
lieutenant of JESUS CHRIST and of his holy church, (whom we confess,
and with devout reverence obey) may the grace of God, all-powerful,
protect thee always, and, through his eternal mercy, lead thee to joys
everlasting! "Amen."
'We, therefore, having had the fullest and most authentic accounts of
the great impiety which has been committed, are much grieved thereat,
as may readily be supposed, from the enormity of the offence and more
particularly in regard to Amadeus the antipope, whom we have ever held
in the most affectionate love and charity, attending to all his prayers
and requests; but, at the same time, we are determined to exert our
powers to resist such heresies, according to the duties of our pastoral
office.
'Since therefore, we have been so publicly called upon in the face of
the church, we shall lose no time, with the help of God to crush these
heresies in the bud, lest they may expand to greater lengths; and with
the aid of this holy council, we will propose remedies according to
the ordinances of the church. In consequence of what has been said and
requested by the proctor and procurator of the holy council, we will
examine whether it is consonant to divine and human laws, and agreeable
to the decrees of our apostolical chamber; and although the truth of
the charges be sufficiently notorious, yet for greater caution, and
with the approbation of the holy council, we have commissioned divers
intelligent persons to inquire into all these matters, and to report
the result of their inquiries, without favour or affection to either
party, to us and to the holy council.
'These commissioners having made a diligent inquisition into what
regarded the schism and the division between us and the council of
Basil, reported the same most faithfully to the council assembled in
congregation synodal,--and the facts were by them made so clear and
public that we might without fearing the scandal of wicked tongues,
have condemned those sinful men according to the ordinances of the
church; but the synod in imitation of the divine mercy which wishes
not for the death of a sinner, but would rather that he repent and
live, have determined to resort to the means of conciliation, that they
may have time to leave their wicked ways, and if they return to the
bosom of the church, we shall receive them like to the prodigal son,
and with paternal charity embrace them.
'Let therefore, the antipope, Amadeus, and his adherents, renounce
their errors, and we will receive them through the mercy of our
God, who has shed his blood for the redemption of sinners and the
edification of his church, with our whole heart; and so soon as they
shall desist from their wicked and scandalous excesses, they will be
accepted of us and this sacred council with paternal affection, when
they shall appear, as they are bounden so to do, before it.
'But should the love of justice and virtue be unable to withdraw them
from their sins and wickedness, we admonish them on the reverence and
obedience they owe to our holy church, to turn from their evil ways, on
pain of excommunication for their heresies, and of being condemned to
other penalties; and we strictly command and enjoin, that Amadeus, this
antipope, do, within fifty days from the date of these presents, lay
aside his title of pope of Rome, and all others appertaining thereto,
and that henceforth he do not presume to exercise any of the functions
attached to the papacy in any manner whatever.
'The aforesaid electors and adherents to this antipope are strictly
forbidden, under pain of being prosecuted by the apostolical chamber
for schism, henceforward to favour or support the said antipope in any
way whatever; and we order them to acknowledge us as the true bishop
of Rome, vicar of God, and the legal successor to the holy apostles St
Peter and St Paul,--the which, we as their father and pastor of their
souls, expect them to obey, and appear before us at the time fixed on.
'Should the aforesaid antipope, Amadeus, and his followers,
contumaciously refuse obedience, within the said fifty days, we will
that they suffer every penalty attached to their disobedience; but
should it be otherwise, we are desirous of their appearance personally
before us and the holy council precisely within fifteen days after the
said term. Should that day be a feast-day, then on the day following,
to hear from each of them their reasons for having thus acted; and
we now summon them to appear before us on the day specified, on pain
of being declared heretics, guilty of high treason, and sentenced to
punishment for these crimes; and we shall then proceed to pass such
sentences as their contumacy may require, according to the strict
letter of the law, and as they may be found deserving.
'That these our summons may be fully made known to them, we shall order
copies thereof to be attached to the doors of the new church of our
Lady in Florence, that ignorance of them may not be pleaded,--and we
shall otherwise make them as public as possible.
'We also will, and ordain, by our apostolical authority, that this our
bull be personally served on each of the principal delinquents, and
proclaimed in every large town. To prevent any of them from excusing
themselves from obeying these summons, under pretence that the court
of Rome and the place where the council is held are not safe for them,
and that they would run risks of their personal safety by going and
returning thence, we, by these presents most earnestly exhort all
patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, and other prelates, whether attached
to monasteries or to churches, all dukes, earls, princes, knights,
and others, of whatever degree, together with their lieutenants, and
all commonalties whether of towns, castles, or townships, to suffer
the aforesaid persons to travel to the court of Rome, and to return
thence without molestation in person or effects. All who shall in the
smallest degree, infringe on these our orders will incur our highest
displeasure; and should any one attempt it, he will be in danger of the
anger of God and of his holy apostles St Peter and St Paul.
'Given at Florence, at our public synodal session, in the new church
of our Lady at Florence, in which city we are now resident, the 10th
day of April, in the year of the incarnation 1439, and in the 10th year
of our pontificate.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 23: This council, the eighteenth general council was first
held at Basil, and, after many quarrels had arisen between it and the
pope, he transferred it first to Ferrara, and thence to Florence, for
the better accommodation of the Greeks. Many of the members of the
council, however, remained at Basil, deposed pope Eugenius, and elected
Amadeus duke of Savoy pope, under the name of Felix V.
See Hist. des Conciles, L'Art de Verifier les Dates, &c. &c.]
[Footnote 24: _Aux avichoix._ Denys Sauvage, in his annotations
seems as much puzzled about this word as I have been. He says, that,
'avichoix' may perhaps mean advice or counsel,--and adds that the whole
of this bull is full of faults, from his not having a latin one to
correct it by.
I have endeavoured to find it in Dumont's Corps Universel Diplomatique.
There is in that collection a bull of pope Engenius, dated Florence,
November 1439, condemning the acts of the council at Basil toward the
pope. It is indeed a decree of the council of Florence; but it has not
any resemblance to this bull, for it was issued to annul the celebrated
decree of the council of Basil, declaring the powers of a general
council superior to those of the pope.]
[Footnote 25: This was not a general council. It was held at Ephesus in
the year 449. The reigning pope was St Léon.--See L'Art de Verifier les
Dates.]
CHAP. XXVIII.
SIR JOHN DE LUXEMBOURG, IN CONSEQUENCE OF BEING IN THE ILL GRACES
OF THE DUKE OF BURGUNDY, SENDS LETTERS TO THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN
FLEECE.
From reports that had been made to the duke of Burgundy injurious to
sir John de Luxembourg, count de Ligny he was greatly displeased with
him, and chiefly because he retained in his towns and castles large
bodies of men at arms, who made frequent inroads on his subjects and
country. Sir John, having been informed of this, sent letters to
exculpate himself to the knights-companions of the Golden Fleece, the
contents of which were literally as follows.