and yet there is a difference between them. The associations of Lollards
were founded during a pestilence at Antwerp about the year 1300. They
were laymen who devoted themselves to the care of the sick and insane,
and specially to the burial of the dead, supplying the funds partly by
labor and partly by begging. The name was derived from the low and soft
singing of the funeral chants, but they called themselves Alexians, from
their patron, St. Alexis, and Cellites from dwelling in cells. They were
also known as Matemans, and in Germany as Nollbrüder. The word Lollard
gradually grew to have the significance of external sanctity covering
secret license, and was promiscuously applied to all the mendicants
outside of the regular Orders. The Cellite associations spread from the
Netherlands through the Rhinelands and all over Germany. Constantly the
subject of persecution, along with the Beghards, their value was
recognized by the magistrates of the cities who endeavored to protect
them. In 1472 Charles the Bold obtained from Sixtus IV. a bull receiving
them into the recognized religious orders, thus withdrawing them from
episcopal jurisdiction; and in 1506 Julius II. granted them special
privileges. The associations of Alexian Brothers still exist, devoted to
the care of the sick, and have flourishing hospitals in the United
States, as well as in Europe. (Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 461,
469.--Martini Append. ad Mosheim pp. 585-88.--Hartzheim IV.
625-6.--Addis & Arnold's Catholic Dictionary, New York, 1884, p. 886.)
[395] Miræi Opp. Diplom. II. 948 (Ed. Foppens).--D'Argentré, Coll.
Judic. I. I.
[396] Miræi Opp. Diplom. I. 429; II. 998, 1013; III. 398, 523.--Mosheim
de Beghardis pp. 43, 105, 127, 131-2.--Wadding, ann. 1485, No. 27.--B.
de Jonghe Beigium Dominican, ap. Ripoll II. 170.--Chron. Rimée de Ph.
Mousket, 28817 (Bouquet. XXII. 54).
[397] Chron. Senonens. Lib. IV. c. 18 (D'Achery II. 634-6).
The cry of "_Brod durch Gott_ was already of old usage. It was the
first German speech acquired by the Franciscans sent to Germany, in
1221, by St. Francis.--Frat. Jordani Chron. c. 27 (Analecta Franciscana
I. 10).
[398] Haupt, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1885, p. 544.--Hartzheim
III. 717; IV. 577.--Concil. Trevirens. ann. 1257 c. 66 (Martene Ampl.
Coll. VII. 114-5).--Mosheim p. 199.
[399] C. 3 Clement. V. 3.--Johann. de Ochsenstein (or of Zurich)
(Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 255-61).--Concil. Colon. ann. 1306 c. 1, 2
(Hartzheim IV. 100-2).--Vitodurani Chron. ann. 1344 (Eccard. Corp. Hist.
I. 1906-7).--Alvar. Pelag. de Planctu Eccles. Lib. II. art. 52.--Conr.
de Monte Puellarum contra Begehardos (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII.
342-3).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1356.--D'Argentré, Coll. Judic.
I. I. 377.--Nider Formicar. III. v.--W. Preger, Meister Eckart u. d.
Inquisition, pp. 45-7.--Haupt, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1885,
557-8.
[400] Nider. Formicar. III. vi.--Concil. Colon, ann. 1306 c. 1
(Hartzheim IV. 101).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1356.
Poggio states that in his time a number of ecclesiastics in Venice
corrupted many women with this theory of impeccability and of nakedness
as an evidence of a state of grace.--Poggii Dial. contra Hypocrisim.
[401] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1315.--Schrödl, Passavia Sacra,
Passau, 1879, pp. 242-3, 247, 284.
[402] Altmeyer, Les Précurseurs de la Réforme aux Pays-Bas, I.
94.--Raynald. ann. 1329, No. 71.
For the relations of Master Eckart with the Brethren of the Free Spirit,
see Preger, Vorarbeiten zu einer Geschichte der deutschen Mystik
(Zeitschrift für die hist. Theol. 1869. pp. 68-78). The fact that the
bull of John XXII., "_In agro Dominico_" (Ripoll VII. 57; cf. Herman.
Corneri Chron. _ap._ Eccard. Corp. Hist. II. 1036-7), condemning Master
Eckart's errors, has until within a few years passed as a general bull
against the Brethren, sufficiently shows the connection.
[403] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 305, 433-57.--Jundt, Les Amis de Dieu,
pp. 65-66.--Gersoni Opp. Ed. 1494, xv. Z-xvi.B.--D'Argentré, Coll.
Judic. I. II. 152.--Altmeyer, Les Précurseurs de la Réforme aux
Pays-Bas, I. 107-117, 166-188.--Acquoy, Gerardi Magni Epistolæ,
Amstelod. 1857, pp. 28, 32-5, 37-8, 40-2, 48-9, 52-4, 57-60, 69, 83,
101.--Von der Hardt, III. 107-20.--Bonet-Maury, Gérard Groot, pp. 37-8,
49-54, 62-4, 83-5.
[404] J. Tauleri Institt. c. 12.--Vitæ D. Johannis Tauleri Historia.
It is no wonder that Tauler's writings have been the subject of
contradictory opinion and action on the part of the Church. Their
tendencies to Illuminism and Quietism were recognized, and, in 1603, the
Congregation of the Index proposed to prepare an expurgated edition of
his works and of those of Savonarola, but the project was never
executed.--Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, I. 370, 469, 523,
589.
[405] Vitæ Tauleri Historia.
M. Jundt, as the result of a series of elaborate and ingenious
investigations, feels himself authorized to assume that the mysterious
Friend of God in the Oberland, who has given rise to so much discussion,
was John of Rutberg; that he was a resident of Coire, and that his final
hermitage was in the parish of Ganterschwyl, Canton of St. Gall (Jundt,
Amis de Dieu, Paris, 1879, pp. 334-42). Prof. Ch. Schmidt, however,
still considers that the mystery has not been solved.--Précis de
l'Histoire de l'Église de l'Occident, Paris, 1885, p. 304.
[406] Jundt, pp. 37-9, 60-2, 83, 106-7, 166, 313.
[407] See Rénan, Averroès et l'Averroïsme, 3e Éd. pp. 95, 144-6.
[408] Jundt, pp. 143, 164, 308-9, 312-13, 316-17.
[409] Mosheim de Beghardis p. 256.--Jundt, pp. 13, 42-3, 147, 155-60,
282-7, 347.--Nider Formicar. III. 2.--Gerson. de Exam. Doctrinarum P.
II. Consid. 3.
There is nothing improbable in the freedom of speech attributed to the
Friends of God in their interview with Gregory. Apocalyptic inspiration
was common at the period, and St. Birgitta of Sweden, and St. Catharine
of Siena, were not particularly reticent in their language to the
successors of St. Peter.
[410] Raynald. ann. 1296, No. 34.--Annal. Domin. Colmar. ann. 1290
(Urstisii Germ. Histor. II. 25).--Hartzheim IV. 54, 201.
[411] Concil. Colon, ann. 1306, c. 1, 2 (Hartzheim IV. 100-2).--Wadding,
ann. 1305, No. 12.--Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 232-4.
[412] Concil. Trevirens. ann. 1310 c. 51 (Martene Thesaur. IV.
250).--Hocsemii Gest. Pontif. Lend. Lib. I. c. 31 (Chapeaville, II.
350).
[413] C. 3, Clement. V. iii.; C. 1, III. xi.
[414] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 255-61, 268-9.--Haupt, Zeitschrift für
K.G. 1885, pp. 561-4.
Many of the decrees of the Council of Vienne were circulated at the
time, but Clement, desiring a revision, ordered them to be destroyed or
surrendered. After recasting them, they were adopted by a consistory
held March 21, 1314, and copies were sent to some of the universities;
but Clement's death, on April 20, caused new delay. John XXII. subjected
them to another revision, and they were finally published October 25,
1317.--Franz Ehrle, Archiv für Litteratur-u. Kirchengeschichte, 1885,
pp. 541-2.
The contradictory character of the provisions concerning the Beguines is
doubtless attributable to these repeated revisions.
The manner in which John of Zurich obtained the bishopric of Strassburg
is highly illustrative of the methods of the papal curia. On the death
of Bishop Frederic, the chapter divided and elected four aspirants,
among whom was John of Ochsenstein, a favorite of the Emperor Albert,
who, to secure his confirmation, sent to Clement V. his chancellor, John
of Zurich, Bishop of Eichstedt, and the Abbot of Pairis. The envoys
returned bringing papal briefs, one appointing the chancellor to the
contested see, and another filling that of Eichstedt with the
abbot.--Closener's Chronik (Chron. der deutschen Städte, VIII. 91).
[415] Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1317.--Ripoll II. 169.--Wadding, ann.
1319, No. 11; Ejusd. Regest. Johann. PP. XXII. No. 81.--Vitodurani
Chron. ann. 1317 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1785-6).--Chron. Sanpetrin.
Erfurt, ann. 1315 (Menken. III. 325).--Chron. Magdeburgens. ann. 1317
(Meibom. Rer. German. II. 337).--Chron. Egmondan. ann. 1317 (Matthæi
Analect. IV. 161).--Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 251, 269.
[416] Mosheim, pp. 189-90.--Martini Append. ad Mosheim, pp. 630-2,
638-40.--C. 1 Extrav. Commun. III. 9.--Ripoll II. 169-70.--Haupt,
Zeitschrift für K. G. 1885, pp. 517, 524.
[417] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1322.
[418] Gesta Treviror. ann. 1323 (Martene Ampl. Coll. IV. 410).--Chron.
Egmondan. (Matthæi Analect. IV. 233-4)--Vitodurani Chron. (Eccard. Corp.
Histor. I. 1814-15).
[419] Hartzheim IV. 436, 438.
[420] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 272, 298-300.--Martini Append. ad
Mosheim, p. 537.--Haupt, Zeitschrift für K. G. 1885, p. 534.--Chron. de
S. Thiebaut de Metz (Calmet, II. Pr. clxxi.).--Erphurdian. Variloq. ann.
1350 (Menken. II. 507).
[421] Vitodurani Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1833-4,
1839-40).--Dalham Concil. Salisburg. p. 157.
[422] Vitodurani Chron. (Eccard. I. 1906-7, 1767-8).--Ullman, Reformers
before the Reformation, Menzies' Translation, I. 383.
[423] Conrad, de Monte Puellar. contra Begehardos (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII.
342).--Mosheim de Beghardis p. 307.
[424] Carl Müller, Der Kampf Ludwigs des Baiern mit der römischen Curie,
Tubingen, 1879, I. 234 sqq.
When that bold thinker, Marsiglio of Padua, endeavored, for the benefit
of his patron, the Emperor Louis, to introduce into Germany the
principles of the Roman jurisprudence which had enabled the French
monarchs to triumph over their feudatories and to become independent of
the Church, he handled the subject of the persecution of heresy in a
manner which has led some writers to regard him as an advocate of
toleration. This is an error. It is true that he denies all Scriptural
or apostolical authority for the temporal punishment of infractions of
the divine law, and asserts that Christ alone is the judge thereof, and
his punishments are reserved for the next world, but this is only to
serve as a premise to his conclusion that the persecution of heresy is a
matter of human law, to be ordained and enforced by the secular ruler.
Though the heretic, he argues, sins against the divine law, he is
punished for transgressing a human law; the priest has nothing to do
with it, except as an expert to determine the commission of the crime,
and has no claim upon the consequent confiscations (Defensor. Pacis P.
II. c. ix., x.; P. III. c. ii. Conclus. 3, 30). All this is simply part
of his general scheme to exclude the Church from control in secular
affairs. Louis was never in a position to give these theories practical
effect; they had no influence either on the current of opinion or on the
course of events, and are only interesting as an episode in the
development of political thought.
[425] Werunsky Excerpta ex Registris Clement. VI. et Innoc. VI.,
Innsbruck, 1885, pp. 8, 40, 63.--Schmidt, Päbstliche Urkunden und
Regesten, Halle, 1886, p. 383.
[426] Boccaccio, Decamerone, Giorn. I--Alberti Argentinens. Chron, ann.
1348-9 (Urstisius, II. 147).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.
1248.--Aventinus, Annal. Boiorum Lib. VII. c. 20.--Grandes Chroniques V.
485-6.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1348-9.--Froissart, Lib. I. P.
ii. ch. 5.--Meyeri Annal. Flandr. ann. 1349.--Henrici Rebdorff. Chron.
ann. 1347.--Alberti Argent. de Gestis Bertold. (Urstisius, II.
177).--Mascaro, Memorias de Bezes, ann. 1348.--Gesta Treviror. ann.
1349.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V.
253-4).--Erphurd. Variloq. ann. 1348-9 (Menken. II. 506-7).
Accusations such as were brought against the Jews were no new thing. In
1321 all the lepers throughout Languedoc were burned on the charge that
they had been bribed by the Jews to poison the wells. Doubtless torture
was employed to obtain the confessions which were freely made. The story
went that the King of Granada, finding himself hard pressed by the
Christians, gave great sums to leading Jews to effect in this way the
desolation of Christendom. The Jews, fearing that they would be
suspected, employed the lepers. Four great councils of lepers were held
in various parts of Europe, where every lazar-house was represented
except two in England; there the attempt was resolved upon, and the
poison was distributed. King Philippe le Long was in Poitou at the time;
when the news was brought him he returned precipitately to Paris, whence
he issued orders for the seizure of all the lepers of the kingdom.
Numbers of them were burned, as well as Jews. At the royal castle of
Chinon, near Tours, an immense trench was dug, and filled with blazing
wood, where, in a single day, one hundred and sixty Jews were burned.
Many of them, of either sex, sang gayly as though going to a wedding,
and leaped into the flames, while mothers cast in their children for
fear that they would be taken and baptized by the Christians present.
The royal treasury is said to have acquired one hundred and fifty
thousand livres from the property of Jews burned and exiled.--Guillel.
Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1321.--Grandes Chroniques V. 245-51.--Chron.
Cornel. Zantfliet. ann. 1321.
[427] Amalr. Augerii Hist. Pontif. Roman. ann. 1320 Muratori, S. R. I.
III. II. 475.--Johann. S. Victor. Chron. ann. 1320 (Ib. p. 485).--Chron.
Anon. ann. 1330 (Ib. p. 499).--Pet. de Herentals ann. 1320 (Ib. p.
500).--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1320.--Grandes Chroniques, V.
245-6.--Cronaca di Firenze ann. 1335 (Baluz. et Mansi IV.
114).--Villani, Lib. XI. c. 23.--Lami, Antichità Toscane, p. 617.
Venturino was acquitted of the charge of heresy, but his free speech
offended the pope; he was forbidden to preach or hear confessions, and
was sentenced to live in retirement at Frisacca, in the mountains of
Ricondona (Villani l. c.). He died in 1346, at Smyrna, whither he had
gone as a missionary. He had preached with wonderful success in all the
countries of Europe, including Spain, England, and Greece. His face,
when preaching, shone with celestial light, and his miracles were
numerous (Raynald. ann. 1346, No. 70).
[428] Erphurdian. Variloq. ann. 1349.--Chron. Magdeburgens. ann. 1348
(Meibom. Rer. German. II. 342).--Alberti Argentinens. Chron. ann.
1349.--Closener's Chronik (Chron. der deutschen Städte, VIII. 105
sqq.).--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1348--Hermann. Corneri Chron. ann.
1350.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1349.--Grandes Chroniques, V.
492-3.--Froissart, Liv. I. P. II. ch. 5.--Gesta Treviror. ann.
1349.--Meyeri Annal. Flandriæ ann. 1349.--Chron. Ægid. Li Muisis (De
Smet, Corp. Chron. Flandr. II. 349-51).--Henr. Rebdorff. Annal. ann.
1347.
[429] Alberti Argentinens. Chron. ann. 1349.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug.
ann. 1348.
[430] Von der Hardt. T. III. pp. 95-105.
[431] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1348.--Hartzheim IV. 471-2.--Meyeri
Ann. Flandr. ann. 1349.
[432] Raynald, ann. 1353, No. 26, 27.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.
1356.--Naucleri Chron. ann. 1356.--Hartzheim IV. 483.
[433] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 333-4.
[434] Mosheim de Beghardis, pp. 335-7.--Chron. Magdeburg. (Leibnitii
Scriptt. R. Brunsv. III. 749).--Herm. Korneri Chron. (Eccard. II.
1113).--Cat. Prædic. Prov. Saxon. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI.
344).--Böhmer, Regest. Karl IV. No. 4761.
[435] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 343-55.
[436] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 356-62.--Mosheim suggests that the
distinction between the houses of the Beghards and the Beguines probably
arose from the former being larger and situated in the cities, the
latter smaller, more numerous, and scattered among the towns and
villages.
[437] Chron. Magdeburg. (Leibnitii S. R. Brunsv. III. 749).--Herm.
Corneri Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. III. 1113-4).--Raynald. ann. 1372,
No. 34.--Ripoll II. 275.--Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 380-3.
[438] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 368-74, 378-9.--Böhmer, Regest. Karl. IV.
No. 4761.
[439] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 364-66.--Martini Append. ad Mosheim pp.
541-2.
[440] Cat. Prædic. Prov. Saxon. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 344).--Raynald.
ann. 1372, No. 33, 34.--Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 388-92.--Martini
Append. ad Mosheim pp. 647-8.
[441] Martene Thesaur. II. 960-1.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene
Ampl. Coll. V. 293, 301-2).--Raynald. ann. 1372, No. 33.--Meyeri Annal.
Flandriæ ann. 1373.--Mag. Chron. Belgic. ann. 1374.--Trithem. Chron.
Hirsaug. ann. 1374.--P. de Herentals Vit. Gregor. XI. ann. 1375
(Muratori S. R. I. III. ii. 674-5).
[442] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 394-8.--Haupt, Zeitschrift für K.G. 1885,
pp. 525-6, 553-4, 563-4.--Hæmmerlin Glosa quarumd. Bullar. per Beghardos
impetratar. (Basil. 1497, c. 4 sqq.).
[443] Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 26-7.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann.
1392.--Jundt, Les Amis de Dieu, p. 3.--Haupt, ubi sup. p. 510.
[444] There has recently been discovered at St. Florian, in Austria, an
epistle written in 1368 by the Waldenses of Lombardy to some of their
German brethren on the occasion of the withdrawal of certain members of
the sect, who alleged in justification that the Waldenses were ignorant,
that they had no divine authority, and that they were mercenary.
Evidently the local church had appealed to the Lombards as to a central
head, for an answer to these accusations, and the reply, together with a
rejoinder by one of the apostates, throws valuable light upon the
current beliefs of the sectaries. It appears that they carried their
origin back to the primitive Church, claiming that their predecessors
had opposed the reception of the Donation of Constantine, and that when
Silvester refused to reject the perilous gift a voice sounded from
heaven, "This day hath poison been spread in the Church of God." As
they were unyielding, they were driven out and persecuted, since when
they had preserved the genuine tradition of the Church in obscurity and
affliction. They asserted that Peter Waldo had been ordained to the
priesthood, and that they possessed full authority, transmitted from
God, but nothing is said as to the apostolical succession, and the
apostate, Sigfried, reproaches them with only hearing confessions and
sending their disciples to the Catholic churches for the other
sacraments. There is no word as to transubstantiation, which must
therefore have been an accepted doctrine among them, and their frequent
quotations from Augustine and Bernard show that they admitted the
authority of the doctors of the Church. They allude to two Franciscans
who had recently joined the sect, to a priest who had done so and had
been burned, and to a Bishop Bestardi, who, for the same offence, had
been summoned to Rome, whence he had never returned.--Comba, Histoire
des Vaudois d'Italie, I. 243-55.
[445] Index Error. Waldens. (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 340).--Petri Herp
Annal. Francofurt. ann. 1389 (Senckenberg Select. Juris II. 19).--Gudeni
Cod. Diplom. III. 598-600.--Serrarii Hist. Mogunt. Lib. v. p.
707.--Hist. Ordin. Carthus. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 214).--Modus
examinandi Hsereticos (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 341-2).
John Wasmod subsequently wrote a tract against the Beghards which has
been printed by Haupt (Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, 1885, pp.
567-76). Its chief interest lies in its attributing to the Beghards the
tenets of the Waldenses. There is no allusion to pantheism, to union
with God, to refusal of the sacraments, to the denial of hell and
purgatory. Either he confounds the sects, or else the Waldenses
concealed themselves under the guise of Beghards, or else there were
among the Beghards a certain number who constituted a church separate
from that of Rome without adopting the distinctive principles of
Amaurianism. Wasmod tells us that they do not easily receive applicants,
whose obedience they test by making them eat putrid flesh, drink water
foul with maggots, etc., at the risk of their lives. One of their
strongest arguments is found in the corruption of the Church, which is
thus deprived of the power of the keys. Distinctively referable to
Beghardism is the assertion that these heretics are greatly favored and
defended by the magistrates of the cities; and not very flattering to
Rome is the explanation that the bulls in favor of the Beguines were
obtained by the use of money.
[446] Gretseri Prolegom. c. 6 (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 292).--Refutat.
Waldens. (Ib. p. 335).--P. de Pilichdorf. c. 15 (Ib. p.
315).--Wattenbach, Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. 1886, pp. 49-9,
51.
[447] Wattenbach, op. cit. pp. 49-50, 54-55.--Flac. Illyr. Cat. Test.
Veritatis Lib. XV. pp. 1506, 1524; Lib. XVIII. p. 1803 (Ed. 1608).
[448] W. Preger, Beiträge, pp. 51, 53-4, 68, 72.--P. de Pilichdorf c. 15
(Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 315).
[449] Hoffmann, Geschichte der Inquisition, II. 384-90.--C. Schmidt,
Real-Encyklop. s. V. Winkeler.
[450] Martini Append, ad Mosheim pp. 652-66, 674-5.--Mosheim pp. 409-10,
430-1.--Hartzheim V. 676--Haupt. Zeitschrift für K. G. 1885, pp. 565-7.
[451] Mosheim de Beghardis pp. 225-8, 383-4.--Martini Append, ad Mosheim
pp. 656-7.--Herm. Corneri Chron. ann. 1402-3 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. II.
1185-6).--Raynald. ann. 1403, No. 23.
[452] Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet ann. 1400 (Martene Amplis. Coll. V.
358.)--Haupt. Zeitschrift für K. G. 1885, pp. 513-15.--Chron.
Glassberger ann. 1410 (Analecta Franciscana II. 233-5).--Martini Append.
ad Mosheim p. 559.--Mosheim p. 455.--Serrarii Lib. V. (Scriptt. Rer.
Mogunt. I. 724).
In 1399 an outbreak very similar to that of the Flagellants took place
in Italy, stimulated by a pestilence which was ravaging the land. The
pilgrims were known as _Bianchi_, from the white linen vestments which
they wore, and they first brought to popular notice the "Stabat
Mater," which was their favorite hymn. The only reference to
flagellation, however, is that in Genoa they were joined by the old
fraternities of the Verberati or guilds, founded in 1306, which publicly
used the scourge. The Archbishop of Genoa and many of the Lombard
bishops lent the movement their countenance; universal peace was
proclaimed, enemies forgave each other, and even the strife of Guelf and
Ghibelline for a moment was forgotten. When we are told that twenty-five
thousand Modenese made the pilgrimage to Bologna, we can readily
understand why suspicious rulers, such as Galeazzo Visconti and the
Signory of Venice, forbade the entry of their states to such armies.
Boniface IX. probably felt the same alarm when the movement reached
Rome, and the whole population, including some of the cardinals, put on
white garments and marched in procession through the neighboring towns.
He caused one of the leaders to be seized at Aquapendente; the free use
of torture brought a confession that the whole affair was a fraud, and
the poor wretch was burned, when the movement collapsed.--Georgii Stella
Annal. Genuens. ann. 1399 (Muratori, S. R. I. XVII. 1170).--Mattæi de
Griffonibus Memor. Historial. ann. 1399 (Ib. XVIII. 207).--Cronica di
Bologna ann. 1399 (Ib. XVIII. 565).--Annal. Estens. ann. 1398 (Ib.
XVIII. 956-8).--Conrad Urspurgens. Chron. Contin. ann. 1399.--Theod. a
Niem de Schismate, Lib. II. c. 26.
[453] Nider Formicar. Lib. III. c. 2.--Haupt, Zeitschrift für K. G.
1885, pp. 510-11.--Gersoni de Consolat. Theolog. Lib. IV. Prosa iii.;
Ejusd. de Mystica Theol. speculat. P. I. consid. viii.; Ejusd. de
Distinct, verar. Vision. a falsis, Signum V.
[454] Baluz. et Mansi I. 288-93.--Altmeyer, Les Précurseurs de la
Réforme aux Pays-Bas, I. 84.
[455] Theod. Vrie, Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib. IV. Dist. 13.--Marieta,
Los Santos de España, Lib. XI. c. xxviii.--Gobelini Person. Cosmodrom.
Æt. VI. c. 93.--Chron. S. Ægid. in Brunswig (Leibnitii S. R. Brunsv.
III. 595).--Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte, II. III.
317-18.--Herm. Corneri Chron. ann. 1416 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. II.
1206).--Andreæ Gubernac. Concil. P. IV. c. 11 (Von der Hardt VI.
194)--Chron. Magdeburgens. ann. 1454 (Meibom. Rer. German. II.
363).--Haupt, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1887, 114-18.--Herzog,
Abriss. II. 405.
In 1448, when pestilence and famine in Italy brought men to a sense of
their sins, the eloquence of Frà Roberto, a Franciscan, excited
multitudes to repentance, and the streets of the cities were again
filled with Flagellants, disciplining themselves and weeping (Illescas,
Historia Pontifical, II. 130).
[456] Conc. Constant. Decret. Reform. Lib. III. Tit. X. c. 13; Tit. V.
c. 5 (Von der Hardt, I. 715-17).--Hemmerlin Glosa quarund. Bullar. (Opp.
c. d.).--De Rebus Malthæi Grabon (Von der Hardt, III. 107-20).
[457] Von der Hardt, IV. 1518.--Concil. Salisburg. XXXIV. c. 32 (Dalham,
Concil Salisb. p. 186).
[458] Hemmerlin Glosa quarund. Bullar; Ejusd. Lollardorum
Descriptio.--Nider Formicar. III. 5, 7, 9.
[459] Concil. Herbipolens. ann. 1446 (Hartzheim V. 336).. Mosheim de
Beghardis pp. 173-9, 190, 194-5.--Addis and Arnold's Catholic
Dictionary, p. 73.
[460] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1460.--.Hartzheim V. 464, 507, 560,
578.--Wadding, ann. 1492, No. 8.--Martini Append, ad Mosheim p. 579.
[461] Concil. Senens. ann. 1423 (Harduin. VIII. 1016-17).--.Ullumnn's
Reformers before the Reformation, Menzies' Transl. I. 383-4.--Flac.
Illyr. Catal. Test. Veritatis Lib. XIX. p. 1836 (Ed. 1608).--Comba,
Histoire des Vaudois d'Italie, I. 97.--Hoffmann, Geschichte der
Inquisition, II. 390-1.
[462] Wattenbach, Sitzungsberichte der Preuss. Akad. 1886, pp. 57-8,
[463] Hist. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 71-2 (s. 1. 1648). Camerarii
Hist. Frat. Orthodox, pp. 116-17 (Heidelbergæ, 1605).--Ripoll
III. 577.]
[464] Ullmann, op. cit. I. 195-207.--Æn. Sylvii Epist. 400 (Opp. 1571,
p. 932).--Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum II. 115-28 (Ed.
1690).--Freber et Struv. II. 187-266.--Wadding. ann. 1461, No.
5.--Ripoll III. 466.--Chron. Glassberger ann. 1462.
[465] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1476.--Ullmann, op. cit. I. 377 sqq.
[466] D'Argentré I. II. 291-8.--Ullmann, op.cit. I. 258-9, 277-94,
356-7.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1479.--Conr. Ursperg. Chron.
Continuat. ann. 1479,--Melanchthon. Respons. ad Bavar. Inquis.,
Witebergæ, 1559, Sig. B 3.
[467] Ripoll IV. 5.--Synod Bamberg. ann. 1491, Tit. 44 (Ludewig Scriptt.
Rer. Germ. I. 1242-44).--D'Argentré I. II. 342.
[468] Pauli Langii Chron. Citicens. (Pistorii Rer. Germ. Scriptt. I.
1276-6.)--Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte II. IV. 532
sq.--Herzog, Abriss, II. 397-401.--Spalatini Annal. ann. 1515 (Menken.
II. 591).--Eleuth. Bizeni Joannis Reuchlin Encomion (sine nota. sed c.
ann. 1516).--II. Corn. Agrippæ Epist. II. 54
[469] Ripoll IV. 378.--Lutheri Opp., Jenæ, 1564, I. 185 sqq.--Henke,
Neuere Kirchengeschichte, I. 42-6.
[470] Dubrav. Hist. Bohem. Lib. 14 (Ed. 1587, pp. 380-1).
[471] Palacky, Beziehungen der Waldenser, Prag, 1869, p. 10.--Potthast
No. 11818.
Palacky (pp. 7-8) conjectures that these heretics were Cathari, but his
reasoning is quite inadequate to overcome the greater probability that
they were of Waldensian origin. He is, however, doubtless correct in
suggesting that the allusion to princes and magnates may properly
connect the movement with the commencement of the conspiracy which
finally dethroned King Wenceslas I. in 1253. Wenceslas was a zealous
adherent of the papacy and opponent of Frederic II., and the connection
between antipapal politics and heresy was too close for us to
discriminate between them without more details than we possess.
[472] Wadding. ann. 1257, No. 16.--Potthast No. 16819.--Höfler, Prager
Concilien. Einleitung, p. xix.
[473] Palacky. op. cit. pp. 11-13.--Schrödl, Passavia Sacra, Passau,
1879, p. 242.--Dubravius (Hist. Bohem. Lib. 20) relates that in 1315
King John burned fourteen Dolcinists in Prague. Palacky (ubi sup.)
argues, and I think successfully, that this relates to the above affair
and that there were no executions.
[474] Wadding. ann. 1318, No. 2-6.--Ripoll II. 138-9, 174-6.--Gustav
Schmidt, Päbstliche Urkunden und Regesten, Halle, 1886, p.
105.--Raynald. ann. 1319, No. 43.
[475] Palacky, op. cit. pp. 15-18.--Flac. Illyr. Catal. Test. Veritatis
Lib. XV. p. 1505 (Ed. 1608).--Raynald. ann. 1335, No. 61-2.--Wadding.
ann. 1335, No. 3-4.
[476] Krasinsky, Reformation in Poland, London, 1838, I. 55-6.--Raynald.
ann. 1341, No. 27.
[477] Werunsky Excerptt. ex Registt. Clem. VI. pp. 28, 47.--Raynald.
ann. 1347, No. 11.
[478] OEn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 36.--Naucleri Chron. ann.
1360.--Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 2, 3, 5, 7.--Loserth, Hus und
Wicklif, Prag, 1884, pp. 261 sqq.--Werunsky Excerptt. ex Registt. Clem.
VI. pp. 1, 2, 3, 13, 25.
Dispensations for children to hold preferment were an abuse of old date,
as we have seen in a former chapter. In 1297 Boniface VIII. authorized a
boy of Florence, twelve years old, to take a benefice involving the cure
of souls.--Faucon, Registres de Boniface VIII. No. 1761, p. 666.
[479] Werunsky op. cit. pp. 89, 94, 98, 99, 102, 111, 120, 135, 136,
140, 141.--Gudeni Cod. Diplom. III. 509.--Hartzheim Concil. Germ. IV.
510.
[480] Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 2, 5, 12, 14, 26-7.--Loserth, Hus
und Wiclif, pp. 32-33, 37.--W. Preger, Beiträge, p. 51.--Flac. Illyr.
Catal. Test. Veritatis Lib. xv. p. 1506 (Ed. 1608).
[481] Mosheim de Beghardis p. 381.
[482] Loserth, Hus und Wiclif, pp. 49, 50-2.--Lechler (Real
Encyklopädie, X. 1-3).--Raynald. ann. 1374, No. 10-11.
[483] Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 33, 37-9.--De Schweinitz, History of
the Unitas Fratrum (Bethlehem, Pa., 1885, pp. 25-6).
[484] Loserth, Hus und Wiclif, pp. 54, 56-7, 63-4, 68-9.--Montet, Hist.
Lit. des Vaudois, p. 150.--Pseudo-Pilichdorf Tract. contra Waldens. c.
15 (Mag. Bib. Pat. XIII. 315).
[485] Arnold's English Works of Wyclif, III. 454-96. Cf. Væ Octuplex
(Ib. II. 380); Of Mynystris in the Chirch (Ib. II. 394); Vaughan's
Tracts and Treatises, p. 226; Trialogi III. 6, 7; Trialogi Supplem. c.
2.--Losertb, Mittheilungen des Vereines für Gesch. der Deutschen in
Böhmen, 1886, pp. 384 sqq.
[486] Trialogi II. 14; IV. 22.--Jo. Hus de Ecclesia, c. 1 (Monument. I.
fol. 196-7, Ed. 1558).--Wil. Wodford adv. Jo. Wiclefum (Fascic. Rer.
Expetend. et Fugiend. I. 250, Ed. 1690).--In the condemnation of the
innovations by the Council of Prague, in 1412, predestination is not
among the errors enumerated (Höfler, Prager Concilien, p. 72), though it
appears in the final proceedings against Huss in the Council of
Constance (P. Mladenowic Relatio, Palacky Documenta. p. 317).
[487] Raynald. ann. 1377, No. 4-6.--Lechler's Life of Wickliff,
Lorimer's Translation, II. 288-90, 343-7.--Loserth, Hus und Wiclif, pp.
101-2, 121.--Palacky Documenta Mag. Johannis Hus, p. 189, 203, 313,
374-6, 426-8, 467.--Harduin. Concil. VIII. 203.--Von der Hardt III. XII.
168; IV. 153, 328.--Jo. Hus Replica contra P. Stokes (Monument. I. 108
_a_).--Höfler, Prager Concilien. p. 53.
[488] Loserth, op. cit. pp. 79, 114, 161 sqq.--Mittheilungen des
Vereines für Gesch. d. Deutschen in Böhmen, 1886, 395 sqq.--Jo. Hus
Monument. I. 25_a_, 108_a_.--Nider Formicar. Lib. III. c. 9. fol.
50_a._--Von der Hardt IV. 328.--Gobelin. Personæ Cosmodrom. Ætat. VI. c.
86-7 (Meibom. Rer. German. I. 319-21).
[489] Loserth, op. cit. pp. 13, 75-8, 98-100.--Jo. Hus Monument. II.
25-52.
Even Æneas Sylvius (Hist. Bohem. c. 35) speaks of Huss as distinguished
for the purity of his life; and the Jesuit Balbinus says that his
austerity and modesty, his kindness to all, even to the meanest, won for
him universal favor. No one believed that so holy a man could deceive or
be deceived, so that the memory of the thief was worshipped at Prague as
that of a saint (Bohuslai Balbini Epit. Rer. Bohem. Lib. V. C. V. p.
431).
[490] Palacky Documenta, pp. 3, 56.--Berger, Johannes Hus u. König
Sigmund, p. 5.--Loserth, op. cit. pp. 82, 98-100, 103-5, 111-12,
270.--Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 43-6, 51-3, 57, 60, 61-2.--Hist.
Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. p. 29.
Wickliff continued to the end to be the chief authority of the Hussites.
A half a century later he is appealed to by both factions into which
they were divided. See Peter Chelcicky's reply to Rokyzana, in Goll,
Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder, II.
83-4.
[491] Loserth, pp. 105-6.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 345-6, 363-4.
[492] Loserth, op. cit. pp. 106-10, 123-4.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 181,
347, 350--62.--Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 64-70.--Raynald. ann. 1409,
No. 89.
[493] Æneæ; Sylv. Hist. Bohem. c. 35.--Loserth, op. cit. p.
137.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 184-5, 342-3.--Palacky, Beziehungen, pp.
19-20--Jo. Hus Monument. I. 2-3.
[494] Loserth, op. cit. pp. 120, 123-4.--Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp.
5, 15, 18, 31, 32, 46, 57.
[495] Loserth, op. cit. pp. 121-3, 130.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 19-21,
191, 233.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky p. 319).--Jo. Hus Disputatio
contra Indulgent. (Monument. I. 174-89); Ejusd. contra Bull. PP. Joannis
(Ib. I. 189-91); Ejusd. Serm. XXII. de Remissione Peccatorum (Ib. II.
74-5).
[496] Loserth, op. cit. p. 131.--Palacky Documenta, p. 640.--De
Schweinitz, Hist. of the Unitas Fratrum, pp. 41-2.--Stephani Cartus.
Antihussus c. 5 (Pez Thesaur. Anecd. IV. II. 380, 382).
[497] Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 73, 110.--Loserth, op. cit. pp.
132-5.--J. Hus Monument. I. 17; Ejusd. de Ecclesia c. 14 (Monument. I,
223. Cf. Wicklif. de Eccles. c. 18, _ap._ Loserth, p. 188).--Palacky
Documenta, pp. 458, 464-66.
[498] Höfler, Prager Concilien, pp. 73-100.--Loserth, op. cit. pp.
142-5.--Palacky Documenta, p. 510.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky
Documenta, p. 246).
[499] Von der Hardt IV. 313.
[500] Leonardi Aretini Comment. (Muratori S.R.I. XIX. 927-8). --Harduin.
VIII. 231.--Theod. a Niem Vit. Joann. XXIII. Lib. II. c. 37 (Von der
Hardt II. 384).--Palacky Documenta, pp. 512-18.
For the confusion existing in Germany, caused by the Schism, see Haupt,
Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte, 1883, pp. 356-8.
[501] Jo. Fistenport. Chron. ann. 1415 (Hahn. Coll. Monum. I.
401).--Dacherii Hist. Magnatum (Von der Hardt V. II. 50).--Theod. a Niem
Vita Joann. XXIII. Lib. I. c. 40 (Ib. II. 388).--Nider Formicar. Lib. V.
c. ix.
[502] Stephani Cartus. Dial. Volatilis c. 11, 14, 21 (Pez Thesaur.
Anecd. IV. II. 465, 473, 492).--The three sermons prepared for this
purpose are printed in Huss's works (Monument. I. 44-56). The first is
on the sufficiency of the law of Christ for the government of the
Church: the second is an elaborate exposition of his belief; the third
on Peace, in which he attributes the schisms and troubles of the Church
to the pride and greed and vices of the clergy.
[503] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky Documenta, p. 237).--Von der Hardt IV.
754.--Jo. Hus Monument. I. 2-4, 57, 68.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 70, 73.
[504] Richentals Chronik des Constanzer Concils p. 76 (Tübingen,
1882).--Jo. Hus Epistt. iii. vi. (Monument. I. 57-8).--Monument. I. 4_a_
[505] Richentals Chronik p. 58.--Jo. Hus Epistt. iv. vi. vii. (Monument.
I. 58-9).
[506] Hus Epistt. v. vi. (Monument. I. 58).--Monument. I. 4 _b._--Laur.
Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. ann. 1414 (Ludewig Reliq. MSS. VI.
124).--Palacky Document. p. 170.--Richentals Chronik pp.
76-77.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 247-8).--Naucleri Chron. ann.
1414.
[507] Richentals Chronik p. 77.--Jo. Hus Monument. I. 5 _b._--Von der
Hardt IV. 22, 32, 212.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky Document. pp.
246-52).
The special rigor of confinement near the latrines was well understood.
In 1317, when John XXII. delivered some Spiritual Franciscans to their
brethren for safe-keeping, Friar François Sanche "_posuerunt fratres in
quodum carcere juxta latrinas_."--Historia Tribulationum (Archiv. für
Litteratur-u. Kirchengeschichte, 1886, p. 146).
[508] Von der Hardt IV. 11-12, 22.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, p.
251).
[509] Palacky Documenta, p. 238.--Von der Hardt IV. 12, 28.--Richentals
Chronik p. 76.--Jo. Hus Epist. lvii. (Monument. I. 75).--Mladenowic
Relatio (Palacky, p. 253).
[510] Von der Hardt IV. 189, 209.
Berger's labored collection of safe-conducts and their comparison with
the one given to Huss (Johann Hus u. König Sigmund pp. 180-208) prove
nothing but his own industry. Huss went to Constance as an excommunicate
to defend himself and his faith. Sigismund. knowing this, gave him a
safe-conduct without limitation or condition. The only contemporaneous
documents with which this can fairly be compared are those offered by
the council and by Sigismund to John XXIII. when they summoned him back
to Constance, May 2, 1415, and the one offered by the council to Jerome
of Prague, April 17. Of these the first was limited by the clause
"_justitia tamen semper salva_," the second by "_in quantum idem
dominus rex tenetur sibi dare de jure et servare alios salros conductus
sibi datos_," the third by "_quantum in nobis est et fides exegit
orthodoxa_" (V. d. Hardt IV. 119, 143, 145). No ingenious reasoning can
explain this away. The allusion in Sigismund's safe-conduct to other
letters already given by him to the pope refers to those which John had
required of him and of the city of Constance before he would trust
himself there (Raynald. ann. 1413, No. 22-3). These the council set
aside as coolly as it did that of Huss.
Sigismund, as we shall see, had no power to give a safe conduct that
would protect a heretic, but Berger's argument that he therefore could
not have designedly issued an unlimited one to Huss (Berger, op. cit.
92-3, 109) is worthless in view of his readiness, which Berger freely
concedes (p. 85), to enter into engagements which he knew he could not
fulfil. From his indignation it is evident that he was unacquainted with
the niceties of the canon law; but even if he were, his giving the
letters is easily explicable by the fact, which Berger has well pointed
out (pp. 100-1), that Huss's certificates of orthodoxy, obtained in
August, were laid before him (Palacky Document, p. 70). He could thus
easily persuade himself that there was no risk of his pledge causing him
trouble. It was of the greatest moment to him that Huss should be
reconciled to the Church, and to a man of his temperament it was
inconceivable that Huss's delicate conscientiousness would in the end
render martyrdom inevitable.
Hefele (Conciliengeschichte VII. 234), following Palacky, calls
attention to the absence, in the letter of the Bohemian magnates to the
council, September 2, 1415, of any reproach for violating the
safe-conduct, and he argues thence that they admitted that it could not
protect Huss from judgment as a heretic. So little is this the case that
they emphatically declare that Huss was not a heretic, and if there is
no allusion to the safe-conduct this is evidently attributable to their
referring to certain previous letters to Sigismund which the council had
ordered burned, and which they defiantly desired to be considered as
embodied and repeated in the present one (Monument I. 78). Anything they
might have to say on the subject must have been said in those letters,
which presumably were the occasion of the projected decree of September
23, 1415, punishing as fautors of heresy all who vilified Sigismund for
permitting the violation of his safe-conduct.
[511] Martene Thesaur. II. 1611.--Von der Hardt II. x. 255; IV.
26.--Palacky Documenta, p. 612.--Berger, Johann Hus u. König Sigmund,
pp. 133, 136.--Fistenport. Chron. ann. 1419 (Hahn Collect. Monument. I
.404).--Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legationibus (Monument. Conc. General.
Sæc. XV. T. I. pp. 531, 536-7, 595-6, 612-13, 662-73, 680-4, 688-93,
695-7).--Thomæ Ebendorferi Diar. (Ib. p. 767).--Jo. de Turonis Regestr.
(Ib. pp. 834-5).
Even in France Sigismund was reproached for surrendering Huss after
giving him a safe-conduct, and was accused of disregarding other
engagements of the same kind.--(Martene Ampl. Coll. II. 1444-5.) Yet had
he persisted he would have been liable to excommunication and heavy
penalties as an impeder of the Inquisition; and had he carried out his
threat of forcibly liberating Huss, under the bull _Ad extirpanda_ he
would have been punishable by perpetual relegation and the forfeiture of
all his dominions (Mag. Bull. Rom. Ed. Luxemb. 1742, I. 92, 149).
[512] Von der Hardt IV. 32, 311-13, 329.--Martene Thesaur. II.
1611.--Berger, Johann Hus u. König Sigmund, p. 138.--Palacky Documenta,
541, 543, 546-53.--Jo. Hus Epistt. xxxiii., liv., lix., lx.(Monument. I.
68-9, 74-77).--Mladenowic Relat. (Palacky, p. 314-15).--Narr. Hist, de
Condemnatione (Monument. II. 346 _a_; Von der Hardt IV. 393).--Ægid.
Carlerii Lib. de Legat. (Monument. Concil. Gen. Sæc. XV. Tom. I. p.
435).--Martene Ampl. Coll. VII. 174-6, 179-83.--Jo. de Turonis Regestrum
(Monument. Con. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p. 860).
The incident of Sigismund's blush has been disputed by some recent
writers. It is a matter not worth controversy, but as the only evidence
to his credit in the whole affair it may be hoped to be true.
[513] Richentals Chronik p. 78.--Von der Hardt IV. 313, 521-22.--Chron.
Glassberger ann. 1415.--Martene Ampl. Collect. VIII. 131-33. Cf. Noel
Alexander's justification of the decree of September 23 (Hist. Eccles.
Ed. Paris, 1699. T. VIII. p. 496).
It is customary with modern Catholic writers to stigmatize as a
Protestant calumny the assertion that the Church held the doctrine that
faith is not to be kept with heretics. See, for instance, Van Ranst,
Regent of the College of Antwerp, in his "Historia Hæreticorum" (4th.
Ed. Venet. 1759, p. 263), together with his ingenious endeavor to argue
away the case of Huss. I have already alluded to this subject (Vol. I.
p. 228), and have shown that it was a recognized principle of the Church
that faith and oaths pledged to heretics were void. It has also been
seen how the efforts of the popes procured the insertion in the public
law of Europe of the principle that suspicion of heresy in the lord
released the vassal from the most binding engagement known to the Middle
Ages--the oath of allegiance (Lib. V. Extra, VII. xiii. § 3). When thus
the basis on which society itself was founded was destroyed by heresy
all minor pledges were necessarily invalidated. The Church did not allow
this to become obsolete. When, in 1327, John XXII. sentenced the Emperor
Louis of Bavaria as a heretic, he not only released all his vassals from
their oaths of allegiance, but declared void all compacts and agreements
made with him (Martene Thesaur. II. 702, 775-6, 791). So, in 1463, when
it pleased Pius II. to declare George Podiebrad a heretic, he released
the communities of Breslau and Namslau from their allegiance, and
excommunicated all who should lend their aid or service to their monarch
(Æn. Sylvii Epist. 401); and when Frederic III. asked him to compel
Breslau to submit to George, he replied by arguing that heresy dissolved
compacts as effectually as death (Martene Ampl. Coll. I. 1598-99). When,
in 1469, Paul II. again declared George a heretic he pronounced that
each and every obligation, promise, and oath made to that heretic was
null and void, for faith was not to be kept with him who kept not faith
with God. Acting under this, when George released from prison Wenceslas
of Biberstein, on bail of six thousand florins furnished by John and
Ulric of Hazemburg, the papal legate Rudolph incontinently ordered the
bailors neither to surrender the accused nor to pay the forfeit (Ludewig
Reliq. MSS. VI. 77).
The play upon the double meaning of the word faith by which this was
epigrammatically justified was seriously accepted by Christendom. In
April, 1415, Fernando of Aragon wrote to Sigismund earnestly
remonstrating with him for the delay in judging Huss, and expressing the
hope that the safe-conduct would not be allowed to protect him
"_quoniam non est frangere fidem in eo qui Deo fidem
frangit_."--Andreæ Ratisponens Chron. ann. 1414 (Pez Thesaur. Anecd.
IV. III. 626.--Palacky Documenta, p. 540).
All statutes and laws impeding the free action of the Inquisition,
directly or indirectly, were null and void _ipso jure_, as we have
repeatedly seen above (see also Farinaccii de Hæresi Quæst. 182 No. 76);
and what Sigismund could not have done at the head of the Imperial Diet,
he certainly could not do by a simple safe-conduct, and no
ecclesiastical jurisdiction was bound to respect it.
If the Church thus disregarded the pledges of laymen, it was equally
unmindful of its own when heretics were concerned. Even late in the
sixteenth century the bull _Multiplices inter_ of Pius V. annulled all
letters of absolution and decrees of acquittal for heresy issued by
inquisitors, bishops, popes, and even by the Council of Trent, showing
how scant was the ceremony customarily used in such cases, and how
completely suspicion of heresy deprived a man of all rights (Lib. V. in
Septimo III. x.).
Even without this general principle, however, there would have been no
difficulty in soothing Sigismund's scruples of conscience, if,
perchance, he had any. The system of the mediæval Church so completely
confused the ideas of right and wrong that the ordinary notions of
morality were superseded. The power of the keys was such that a papal
dispensation could release any one from an inconvenient vow or promise,
no matter how binding might be its form. Sigismund's father, Charles,
when Margrave of Moravia, was released, in 1346, by Clement VI. from a
troublesome oath which he had taken (Werunsky Excerptt. ex Regist. Clem.
VI. p. 44); and the sin of perjury was one for which the popes were
accustomed to grant efficacious pardons when it was committed in their
interest (Ludewig op. cit. VI. 14). It was deemed only a reasonable
precaution in compacts for the parties to pledge themselves that they
would not seek a release by a papal dispensation (Hartzheim IV. 329;
Preger, Der kirchenpolitische Kampf unter Ludwig dem Baier, p. 59).
Sigismund, in the case of Huss, admitted that his pledge was dissolved
by heresy and a dispensation was superfluous, but it could have been had
for the asking. In view of these facts all attempts to argue away the
betrayal of Huss are useless, nor is it possible to accuse the good
fathers of Constance of conscious bad faith. They but accepted and
enforced the principles in which they were trained.
[514] Mandata Synodalia ann. 1390 (Höfler, Prager Concilien, p.
40).--Æn. Sylvii. Hist. Bohem. cap. 35.--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell.
Hussit. ann. 1414 (Ludewig Reliq. MSS. VI. 125, 128-9).--Von der Hardt
III. 335 sqq.; IV. 288-91, 334, 342.--Jo. Hus Monument. I. 42-44, 62,
72.
The relentless obstinacy with which the Church of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries refused the use of the cup to the laity at the cost
of Christian unity and unnumbered troubles is perhaps the most
impressive example on record of the perversity of sacerdotalism in
sacrificing essentials to non-essentials. No one denied that in the
early Church communion in both elements was administered to all the
faithful, as it continued to be without interruption in the Greek
Church. The refusal of the cup to the laity was originally a Manichæan
custom, in imitation of the corresponding ancient Izeshne rite of the
Mazdeans. Communion in one element thus became a mark of heresy, and was
condemned as such by Leo the Great (Leon. PP. I. Serm. XLII. cap. 5),
about the middle of the fifth century, and again towards its end by
Gelasius I., whose decretal on the subject is embodied, without comment
or contradiction, by Gratian in the Decretum (P. II. Dist. ii. c. 12),
showing that it was still good law in the twelfth century.
When, however, in the tenth and eleventh centuries the belief in
transubstantiation became the accepted dogma of the Church, the supreme
veneration felt for the consecrated elements naturally gave rise to the
necessity of the utmost care in handling them and to excessive dread as
to any accidents which might occur to them; and the penitentials grew
full of all manner of penalties inflicted on priests who, through
carelessness, let fall a crumb of the body or a drop of the blood, for
which, by forged decretals of the early popes, a false antiquity was
claimed (Decreti III. ii. 27). Of course the liquid was much more
subject to these accidents, and to decomposition, than the solid, and
the ministering priests were sorely tried to avert such profanation and
its consequences to themselves. At first they adopted the ready
expedient of dipping the host in the wine-and-water, and thus
administering both elements together, which was conducive both to safety
and comfort. This innovation was condemned by the Church, but was
suppressed with great difficulty. Under Gregory VII. the author of the
Micrologus devotes a chapter to its prohibition (Micrologi c. 19). In
1095 the great Council of Clermont forbade it, except in cases where it
was demanded by prudence or necessity for the avoidance of accidents
(Conc. Claromont. ann. 1095, c. 28); and some twenty years later Paschal
II. laid down the rule that it was only admissible in the communion of
infants and the sick who could not swallow the bread (Paschal PP. II.
Epist. 535). In a Bohemian document dating about the close of the
twelfth century the priest carrying the viaticum to the dying is
directed to dip the wafer in the wine so as to avoid accidents and yet
be able to administer both elements (Höfler, Prager Concilien,
Einleitung, p. ix.). When this resource was denied, while the veneration
of the sacrament as the flesh and blood of Christ continued to develop,
the custom was gradually introduced of restricting the laity to the
solid element, in administering which there was less liability to
accident, while the priest continued to partake in both. About 1270
Thomas Aquinas tells us that in some churches the bread only is given to
the laity, as a matter of prudence, to avoid spilling, and his
dialectics are equal to the task of proving that both body and blood are
contained in the wafer (Summa III. lxxx. 12). The convenience of the
innovation led to its extension, but it was left to the individual
churches, and no authoritative decree was issued withdrawing the cup
from the laity until the Bohemian controversy led to the action of the
Council of Constance. How universal the custom had become without
authority of law is shown by the special privilege granted, about 1345,
by Clement VI. to John, Duke of Normandy, son of Philip of Valois, to
receive both elements (Martene Ampl. Coll. I. 1456-7). When the question
was exhaustively debated before the Council of Basle, the orator of the
council, John of Ragusa, freely admitted that the Hussite practice was
in accordance with the traditions of the Church, but argued that it
could be changed if convenience or other reasons demanded it (Harduin.
Concil. VIII. 1712, 1740); and the Cardinal of St. Peter told William,
Baron of Kostka, the Bohemian chief, that the cup was refused to
children and common people simply as a precaution, adding. "If you were
to ask of me I would give it, but not to the careless" (Petri
Zaticensis Liber Diurnus; Mon. Concil. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p. 315). The
final decision of the Council of Basle, in December, 1437, admits that
there is no precept on the subject, but lay communion in one element is
a laudable custom, the law of the Church, and not to be modified without
authority (Conc. Basiliens. Sess. XXX.; Harduin. VIII. 1234). How
thoroughly indefensible the Church felt its position to be, yet how
arbitrarily and despotically it was resolved to enforce that position,
is most clearly shown by the inquisitor Capistrano, in 1452, when he
heard that the cardinal legate, Nicholas of Cusa, was thinking of giving
Rokyzana a hearing on the subject at Ratisbon. Capistrano expressed his
mind freely to the legate: "If we excuse the heretics we condemn
ourselves.... I have always avoided a debate with the Bohemians under
the ordinary rules, for they study to justify their heresy from the
ancient Scriptures and observances, and they have a perfect knowledge of
the texts, which certainly are numerous, in favor of communion in both
elements." Capistrano then quotes to the legate the bulls of Nicholas
V. sent to him, in which the Bohemians are denounced as schismatics,
heretics, and disobedient to the Roman Church, pointedly adding that the
disciple is not above the teacher, nor the servant superior to the
master; he had never read in the law that heretics were to be rewarded,
but were to be sharply punished with confiscation and the bitterest
penalties (Wadding. Annal. ann. 1452, No. 12). So it had come to this,
that those who admittedly followed the practices of the Church current
until the thirteenth century were to be condemned and exterminated as
heretics. Disobedience was heresy, and Rome, for a century, endeavored
to convulse Europe on this simple punctilio.
An episode of this question was the communion of infants. This was the
practice of the early Church (Cyprian. de Lapsis c. 25), and St.
Innocent I. and St. Gelasius I. had both declared that as soon as
infants were baptized the sacrament was necessary to secure them eternal
life (Innocent PP. I. Epist. XXX. c. 5; Gelasii PP. I. Ep. VII.). The
epistle of Paschal II., quoted above, shows that this was still
customary in the twelfth century, but the same causes which led to the
withdrawal of the cup from the laity induced the withholding of the
sacrament from infants, who were liable at any moment unconsciously to
commit sacrilege with the body and blood of Christ. In their enthusiasm
for the Eucharist the Bohemians naturally recurred to infantile
communion, and their obstinacy in this gave the fathers of Basle
infinite trouble. After the reconciliation of 1436 the question still
remained disputed. The feeling about it is well defined by the Bishop of
Coutances, legate of the Council of Basle in Prague, who was
horror-stricken when, April 28, 1437, Rokyzana administered communion to
a number of infants, and one of them ejected the wafer from its mouth,
forcing Rokyzana quietly to replace it. This incident was evidently
regarded as the most convincing argument, and the terms in which it is
alluded to show how profound was the terror which it was expected to
create (Jo. de Turonis Regestrum; Monument. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p.
863). At the Council of Constance it was gravely argued that if a layman
allowed the wine to moisten his beard he ought to be burned with his
beard (Von der Hardt III. 369). Gerson was not quite so absurd, but he
did not shrink from alleging such reasons as the expensiveness of wine
and its liability to turn sour (ib. 771 sqq.). In 1391, when John
Malkaw, in preaching against the concubinary priesthood, hotly declared
that he would rather place reverently on the ground a consecrated wafer
than violate his vow of chastity, Böckeler, the Strassburg inquisitor,
in trying him, made this the ground of a charge of heresy with respect
to the sacrament of the altar (Haupt, Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte,
1883, pp. 366-7).
In older times the Church had felt no such exaggerated reverence for the
elements. In 646 Pope Theodore, when he excommunicated Pyrrhus, the
refugee Patriarch of Constantinople, mingled consecrated wine from the
cup with the ink with which he signed the sentence; and in 869 the
Council of Constantinople adopted the same device in condemning
Photius.--Chr. Lupi Dissert. de Sexta Synodo c. V. (Opp. III. 25).
As a matter of course the vilest stories were circulated to inspire the
faithful with abhorrence for the Bohemian innovations. It was said that
the wine was consecrated in bottles and barrels; that the sectaries held
conventicles in cellars, where they would partake of it to intoxication
and then commit all manner of sexual abominations (Laur. Byzyn. Diar.
Bell. Hussit,; Ludewig VI. 129-30).
[515] Palacky Documenta, pp. 194-204, 506.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky,
p. 252).
The council itself recognized that its proceedings were inquisitorial.
In the sentence of Jerome of Prague it uses the phrase "_Hæc sancta
synodus Constantiensis in causa inquisitionis hæreticæ pravitatis per
eamdem sanctum synodem mota_."--Von der Hardt IV. 766.
[516] Palacky, pp. 204-24.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, p.
254).--Martene Thesaur. II. 1635.--Jo. Hus Epist. xlviii. (Monument. I.
72).
[517] Epist. xxxii. (Monument. I. 68).--Von der Hardt IV. 20-8.--Jo. Hus
Monument. I. 39-41.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 276-8, 303, 318).
Already in 1411 Huss energetically disclaimed to John XXIII. belief in
remanence and in the vitiation of sacraments (Palacky, p. 19. Cf. pp.
164-5, 170, 174-85).
[518] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 252-3).--Palacky, pp. 73, 174,
318, 560.--Von der Hardt IV. 308, 420-8.
[519] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky. pp. 253, 323).--Von der Hardt IV.
188, 212, 289.--Epist. xlix. (Monument. I. 73 _a_).
[520] Von der Hardt IV. 47.--Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, p.
255).--Palacby, p. 541.--Jo. Hus Monument. I. 7, 29-42.--Epistt. xi.,
xxvii., xxx., xxxi., xxxii., xxxvi., xlvii., li., lii., lvi. (Monument.
I. 60, 65-9, 72-5).--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig Reliq.
MSS. VI. 128-9).
[521] Epist. lii. (Monument. I. 75).--Theod. a Niem de Vit. Joann.
XXIII. Lib. III. c. 5.--Raynald. ann. 1419, No. 5.
[522] Jo. Hus Monument. I. 118, 128.--Epist. xliii. (Ib. 71
_a_).--Palacky Documenta, pp. 60, 185, 523-8.--Mladenowic Relatio
(Palacky, p. 301).
[523] Von der Hardt IV. 100, 118, 136, 153, 189, 209, 212-13, 288-90,
296, 306.--Martene Thesaur. II. 1635.--Harduin. VIII. 280.--Mladenowic
Relatio (Palacky, pp. 256-72).
[524] Epistt. xliii., xlvii. (Monument. I. 71, 72).--Von der Hardt IV.
291, 306-7.
[525] Jo. Hus Monument. I. 25 _b._--Von der Hardt IV. 307,
311-29.--Epistt. xii., xv., xxxvi. (Monument. I. 60-2, 69),--Palacky,
pp. 275, 308-15.
The attempt to deny to Huss the inalienable privilege of recantation was
based upon a mistranslated passage of his Bohemian address to his
disciples, in which he was made to assure them that if he was forced to
abjure, it would only be with the lips and not with the heart (Palacky,
pp. 274, 311). In such matters the council was at the mercy of Huss's
Bohemian enemies.
[526] Von der Hardt IV. 432-33.
[527] Huss was by no means the first to suffer from this technical
necessity of confession in abjuring. In the case of the English
Templars, William de la More, Preceptor of England, and Humbert Blanc,
Preceptor of Aquitaine, refused to abjure because they would not confess
to heresies which they had never entertained.--Wilkins, Concil. II. 390,
393.
[528] Epistt. xxx., xxxi., xxxii. (Monument. I. 67-8).--Von der Hardt
IV. 342-5.
[529] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, p. 309).--Epistt. xxvii., xxix.,
xxx., xxxviii., xxxix., xl., xli. (Monument. I. 63-66, 67, 70).--Von der
Hardt IV. 329-30.--Palacky, pp. 225-34.
[530] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 316-17).--Von der Hardt IV.
345-6, 386.--Palacky, p. 560.
To appreciate properly the extent of the concessions offered to Huss it
is necessary to bear in mind the elaborately careful formulas of
abjuration which the inquisitors were accustomed to use, so as to allow
no loophole for the avoidance of the penalties of relapse, and to force
the penitent to betray his fellow-heretics. See Modus Procedendi
(Martene Thesaur. V. 1800-1).--Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolosan. p.
215.--Bern. Guidon. Practica pp. 92-3 (Éd. Douais).
[531] Mladenowic Relatio (Palacky, pp. 318-21).--Von der Hardt IV.
389-96, 432-40.--Harduin. VIII. 408-10.--Richentals Chronik p.
80.--Richental says that Huss was delivered to the secular arm with the
customary adjuration for mercy, but the text of the sentence as printed
by Von der Hardt contains no such clause. It may well have been omitted
at Sigismund's request, as he had already incurred sufficient obloquy,
but the same omission is noticeable in the sentence of Jerome of Prague
(Von der Hardt IV. 771).
[532] Richentals Chronik pp. 80-2.--Von der Hardt IV. 445-8.--Mladenowic
Relatio (Palacky, pp. 321-4).--Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 36.--Laur.
Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 135-6).--Andrew Ratispon. Chron.
(Pez Thes. Anecdot. IV. III. 627).
[533] P. d'Ailly (Theod. a Niem) de Necess. Reform. c. 28, 29 (Von der
Hardt I. VI. 306-9).--Theod. Vrie Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib. VI. Dist.
11; Lib. VII. Dist. 3 (Ibid. I. 170-1, 181-2). It is simply a lack of
familiarity with the ecclesiastical jurisprudence of the Middle Ages
that has led historians to regard the cases of Huss and Jerome as
exceptional. Even so well informed an authority as Lechler does not
hesitate to say "Hussens Verbrennung war, mit dem Massstab des
damaligen Rechts gemessen, ein warer Justizmord" (Herzog's
Real-Encyklop. VI. 392).
[534] Loserth, Huss u. Wiclif p. 156.--Epistt. lxi., lxii., lxiv.
(Monument. I. 77-9, 81).--Von der Hardt IV. 489-90, 494-7.--Palacky
Documenta, pp. 580-4, 593-4.--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig
VI. 136).
The temper of the Bohemians had been excited, a few days before the
burning of Huss, by the news that in Olmütz a student of Prague named
John, described as a zealous follower of God, had been, within the short
space of twelve hours, arrested, tortured, convicted, and
burned.--Palacky Documenta, p. 561.
[535] Von der Hardt IV. 634-91, 756.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 63, 336-7,
408-9, 417-20, 506, 572.--Loserth, Mittheilungen des Vereins für Gesch.
der Deutschen in Böhmen, 1885, pp. 108-9.--Schrödl, Passavia Sacra, pp.
284-5.
[536] Von der Hardt IV. 103-5, 134_bis_.--Palacky Documenta, p.
541-2.--Richentals Cronik, p. 78.--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. ann.
1415 (Ludewig VI. 132).
[537] Von der Hardt IV. 119, 134, 139, 142, 148-9, 216-18.
[538] Richentals Cronik p. 70.--Theod. Vrie Hist. Concil. Constant. Lib.
VI. Dist. 12.--Theod. a Niem de Vita Joann. PP. XXIII. Lib. III. c.
8.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 596-9.
[539] Von der Hardt IV. 501-7.--Richentals Cronik p. 79.--In the final
official articles drawn up against Jerome by the _Promotor Hæreticæ
Pravitatis_, his absolute refusal to write to Bohemia, after promising
to do so, is made a special point of accusation. Yet his letter to that
effect, of September 12, is still on record, and in his last defiant
address to the council he speaks of having written it under fear of
burning, and now desires to withdraw it (V. d. Hardt IV. 688, 761).
[540] Von der Hardt III. IV. 39; IV. 634-91.--Laur. Byzyn Diar. Bell.
Hussit (Ludewig VI. 137-8).
[541] Von der Hardt IV. 600-1, 732-33, 748-56.
[542] Von der Hardt III. 64-9.
[543] Ibid. IV. 754-62.
[544] Von der Hardt III. 55-60; IV. 763-71.--Theod. Vrie Hist. Conc.
Constant. Lib. VII. Dist. 4.
[545] Von der Hardt III. 64-71; IV. 771-2.--Richentals Cronik p.
83.--Theod. Vrie Hist. Conc. Constant. Lib. VII. Dist. 3.--Laur. Byzyn.
Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 141).--Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 36.
[546] Chron. Glassberger ann. 1416.
[547] Palacky Documenta, pp. 566-7, 572-9, 602-3.--Von der Hardt IV.
528, 609-12, 724, 781-2, 823-40.--Æn. Sylvii. Hist. Bohem. c.
35.--Theod. a Niem Vit. Joann. PP. XXIII. Lib. III. c. 12.
[548] Epistt. lxiii., lxv. (Jo. Hus Monument. I. 79-80, 82).--Palacky
Documenta, pp. 611-14, 621.--Ludewig Rel. MSS. VI. 69.--Stepbani Cartus.
Epist. ad Hussitas P. I. c. 5 (Pez Thesaur. Anecd. IV. II. 521).
[549] Von der Hardt IV. 1077-82, 1410-13.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 652-4.
Doubtless there was much ill-treatment of such of the clergy as remained
faithful to Rome. In 1417 Stephen of Olmütz complains that they were
driven from their benefices, beaten, and slain.--Steph. Cartus. Epist.
ad Hussit. P. I. c. 3 (Pez Thesaur. Anecd. IV. II. 517).
[550] Von der Hardt IV. 1514-18.--Palacky Documenta, pp. 676-77.
[551] Von der Hardt IV. 1518-31.--Palacky pp. 684-6.
[552] Palacky Documenta, pp. 631-2, 633-8, 654-6, 679.--Laur. Byzyn.
Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 138-9).--Jo. Hus Monument. II.
364.--Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation. (Monument Concil. General. Sæc.
XV. T. I. pp. 385-6).
[553] Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. pp. 142-44).--Æn.
Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 36, 37.
[554] Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 145-52,
154-56).--Hist. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 37-8.--Camerarii Hist.
Frat. Orthod. p. 49.
[555] Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation. (Mon. Concil. General. Sæc. XV.
T. I. p. 387).--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 152-4,
157-8, 168, 172).
[556] Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 159).--Raynald. ann.
1420, No. 13.--Hist. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 39-40.--Ægid. Carlerii
Lib. de Legation. loc. cit.
There was warning also to the democratic party among the Bohemians in
the vengeance taken by Sigismund on citizens of Breslau who had been
concerned in an uprising similar to that of Prague. On March 7 he caused
twenty-three of them to be beheaded.--Bezold, König Sigmund und die
Reichskriege gegen die Husiten, München, 1872, p. 37.
[557] Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 161-3, 167-70,
181).--Andreæ Ratispon. Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 2147).--Schrödl,
Passavia Sacra, p. 289.--Naucleri Chron. p. 933 (Ed. 1544).--Hist.
Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 43-44.
[558] Palacky, Beziehungen, pp. 20-1.--Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c.
41.--Dubravii Hist. Bohem. Lib. 27.
[559] Laur. Byzyn. Diar. Bell. Hussit. (Ludewig VI. 202-7).--Palacky,
Beziehungen, p. 31.--J. Goll, Quellen u. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte
der Böhmischen Brüder, Prag, 1882, II. 10-11, 57-60.--Hist. Persecut.
Eccles. Bohem. pp. 46-8.--Palacky, Præf. in Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. p.
xx.
[560] Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation. (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I.
p. 389).--Epistt. lxvi. lxvii. (Jo. Hus Monument. I. 82-4).--Laur.
Byzyn. Diar. (Ludewig VI. 175-81).
[561] Conciliab. Pragens. ann. 1421 (Hartzheim V. 199-201). Cf. Johann.
de Przibram Profess. Cath. Fidei (Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. pp. 501 sqq.).
[562] Jo. de Turonis Regestrum (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p. 833,
858).
Yet these Puritans were represented to Europe in the papal bulls for the
crusades as not only subverting all political and social order, but as
condemning marriage and abandoning themselves to all manner of license
and bestiality.--Martini PP. V. Bull. _Permisit Deus_, 25 Oct. 1427
(Fascic. Rer. Expetendarum et Fugiend, II. 613).
[563] Jo. de Turonis Regestrum (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. pp. 843,
858, 865).--Wratislaw, Diary of an Embassy from George of Bohemia,
London, 1871.
[564] Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 35; Ejusd. Epist. 130 (Opp. Ed. 1571,
p. 678).--Pet. Zatecens. Lib. Diurnus (Monument. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T.
I. p. 352).--Concil. Bituricens. ann. 1432 (Harduin. VIII. 1459).--Goll,
Quellen u. Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der Böhmischen Brüder, I. 106.
[565] Goll, Quellen u. Untersuchungen, II. 40-1.--Preger, Beiträge zur
Geschichte der Waldesier, pp. 68-71.--Laur. Byzyn. Diar. (Ludewig VI.
183-4, 194-202).--Johann. de Przibram Profess. Fidei (Cochlæi Hist.
Huss. p. 507).--Huss, Sermo de Exequiis (Monument. II. 50).
See also Æneas Sylvius's statement of the identity between the
Waldensian and Hussite teachings (Hist. Bohem. c. 35).
[566] Laur. Byzyn. (loc. cit. p. 195).--Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 19-27,
249-51, 596-99.--Jo. de Turonis Regest. (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I.
p. 842, 846).--Jo. de Ragusio Tractatus (Ibid. T. I. pp. 272-4, 278,
285).--Goll, Quellen, II. 17-18, 61-1.--Æn. Sylvii Epist. 130 (Ed. 1571,
p. 661).
Even Rokyzana, in 1436, was with great difficulty forced to express his
disbelief in the remanence of the substance of the bread.--Jo. de
Turonis Regest. (loc. cit. pp. 426-7). Yet nothing can exceed the
strength of his affirmation of the existence of the body and blood, in
his _Tractatus de Septem Sacramentis_ (Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. pp. 473-4).
In view of the exaggerated superstitious adoration of the Eucharist by
the Calixtins, the assertion of Cardinal Giuliano, in 1431, that the
Hussites were wont to manifest their contempt for it by trampling it in
the blood of the slain, is a good illustration of the stories invented
to stimulate popular abhorrence (Cochlæi op. cit. p. 240).
[567] Herburt. de Fulstin Statut. Regni Poloniæ, Samoscii, 1597, p. 191.
[568] Balbin. Epit. Rer. Hung. pp. 475-6.--Sommersberg Silesiac. Rer.
Scriptt. L. 75.--A popular rhyme of the period described:
"Meissen und Sachsen verderbt, Oesterreich verhergt,
Schliesien und Laussnitz zerscherbt, Mähren verzerht,
Bayern aussgenehrt, Böheimb umbgekehrt."
(Balbin. p. 478.)
[569] C. Constant. Decr. _Frequens_ (Von der Hardt IV. 1435).
[570] Ludewig Reliq. MSS. XI. 385, 409.
[571] Concil. Senens. ann. 1423 (Harduin. VIII. 1015).
[572] Jo. de Ragusio Init. et Prosec. Conc. Basil. (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc.
XV. T. I. pp. 28-30, 32-35, 53-61, 64).--Concil. Senens. (Harduin. VIII.
1025-6).--Act. Conc. Basil. (Harduin. VIII. 1108-10).--Raynald. ann.
1425, No. 3, 4.
John of Ragusa was the delegate of the University of Paris to Siena, and
subsequently played an active part at Basle.
[573] Jo. de Ragusio Init. etc. (Mon. Con. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. pp.
66-7).--Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. pp. 237-9.
The repulsion of the papacy for general councils was not unnatural. On
June 3, 1435, the Council of Basle, with virtual unanimity, abrogated
the annates and decreed that in future no charges should be made for
sealing collations and confirmations of sees and benefices, except the
scrivener's moderate fees. The Bishops of Otranto and Padua protested in
the name of the pope, and finding this unheeded arose and left the
council, followed by a few others, while the rest gave themselves up to
rejoicing and thanking God.--Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation, (op. cit.
I. 568).
[574] Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 15-18.--Chron. Concil. Zantfliet (Ibid.
V. 425-7).--Jo. de Ragusio Tractatus (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. pp.
135, 138).
[575] Harduin VIII. 1575-8.--Raynald. ann. 1431, No. 26.--Epist. Card.
Juliani (Æn. Sylv. Opp. Ed. 1571, pp. 66-9).
The letter of Cardinal Giuliano and Æneas Sylvius's Commentaries on the
Council of Basle were subsequently put in the Index Expurgatorius
(Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, I. 40).
[576] Hemmerlin Lollardor. Descriptio.--Duverger, La Vauderie dans les
États de Philippe le Bon, Arras, 1885, p. 24--Harduin. VIII. 1141,
1172-82, 1263, 1280, 1582. 1606.--Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 80-2.
[577] Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 131-33.--Pet. Zatecens. Lib. Diurn.
(Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p. 304-5, 324, 328-31, 348).--Naucleri
Chron. ann. 1434.
[578] Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de Legation (Ibid. T. I. pp. 447-71,
495-7).--Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 305-40, 356-415, 698-704.--Hartzheim
V. 768-9.--Kukuljevic, Jura Regni Croatiæ, Zagrabiæ, 1862, I.
192.--Batthyani Legg. Eccles. Hung. III. 419. The question of infantile
communion affords an illustration of the skilful casuistry of the
orthodox. After the reconciliation, when Sigismund was ruling in Prague,
infantile communion was forbidden by the legate of the council, on the
ground that the Compactata only guaranteed the privilege to those who
had been accustomed to it, and that infants born since then were
therefore not entitled to it.--Jo. de Turonis Regest. (Mon. C. Gen. Sæc.
XV. T. I. p. 865).
[579] Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 710-19.--Harduin. VIII. 1604,
1650-2.--Ægid. Carlerii Liber de Legationibus (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV.
T. I. pp. 522, 529-39, 544).--Raynald. ann. 1435, No. 22-3.--Naucleri
Chron. ann. 1434.
The democratic insubordination characteristic of the Taborites is seen
in an incident occurring in September, 1433. Procopius sent a detachment
to invade Bavaria, and appointed as leader a captain named Pardus. The
men mutinied before setting out, and, on Procopius interposing, one of
them felled him to the ground with a blow on the head with a stool. The
man who struck him was elected leader, and under his guidance the
Taborites lost two thousand of their best veterans.--Ægid. Carlerii l.c.
pp. 466-7.
The reduction to serfdom of the Bohemian peasantry, in 1487, may be
regarded as the final result of the overthrow of the Taborites.
[580] Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 354-6.--Ægid. Carlerii Lib. de
Legationibus (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. pp. 368-9, 516-17, 519,
595, 597, 600, 632-4, 662-4, 674-6, 678, 684-6, 688).--Th. Ebendorferi
Diar. (Ib. pp. 767-9, 776-9, 782-3).--Jo. de Turonis Regest. (Ib. 834-5,
837-8, 848, 868).
[581] Th. Ebendorferi Diar. (loc. cit. 82).--Jo. de Turonis Regest. (Ib.
821-22).--Naucleri Chron. ann. 1436.
[582] Jo. de Turonis Regest. (loc. cit. pp. 862, 865).--Æn. Sylvii Hist.
Bohem. c. 59.--Naucleri Chron. ann. 1437.
[583] Æn. Sylvii Epist. lxxi. (Opp. inedd. _ap._ Atti della Accademia
dei Lincei, 1883, p. 465).--Jo. de Turonis Regest. (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc.
XV. T. I. pp. 855, 857).--Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp.
57-8.--Naucleri Chron. ann. 1436, 1438.
Concil. Basiliens. Sess. XXX. (Harduin. VIII. 1244).--Petitiones
Bohemorum (Fascic. Rer. Expetend. et Fugiend. I. 319, Ed.
1690).--Martene Ampl. Coll. VIII. 942-3--Æn. Sylvii Epist. 101 (Ed.
1571, p. 591).--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V.
445).--De Schweinitz, Hist. of Unitas Fratrum, pp. 91-2, 94.
[584] Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 58.--Ejusd. Epist. xix. (Opp. inedd. p.
397).--Raynald. ann. 1448, No. 3-5.
[585] Ægid. Carlerii. Lib. de Legation. (Monument. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV.
T. I. pp. 691, 694).--Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. Lib. XII. ann.
1462.--Wadding, ann. 1452, No. 1-4.--Raynald. ann. 1446, No. 3, 4; ann.
1447, No. 5-7.--Harduin. VIII. 1307-9.
The papal view of the permission to use the cup, as set forth by Pius
II. (Æneas Sylvius) in 1464, was that it was only conceded to those
accustomed to it until the Council of Basle should decide the question.
Had this been observed those who used it would in time have died out,
and it was an infraction of the agreement to give it to children and new
communicants, through whom the custom was perpetuated.--Æn. Sylvii
Epist. lxxi. (Opp. inedd. pp. 465).
[586] Loserth, Mittheilungen des Vereins für Gesch. der Deutschen in
Böhmen, 1885, pp. 102-4, 107.--Wadding. ann. 1436, No. 1-11.--Ægid.
Carlerii. Lib. de Legation. (Mon. Conc. Gen. Sæc. XV. T. I. p. 691).
[587] Wadding. ann. 1437, No. 6-12.--Synodd. Strigonens. ann. 1450, 1480
(Batthyani Legg. Eccles. Hung. III. 481, 557).
[588] Wadding. ann. 1437, No. 13-21; ann. 1438, No. 12-16; ann. 1439,
No. 41-6; ann. 1440, No. 7; ann. 1444, No. 44; ann. 1446, No.
10.--Herburt de Fulstin Statuta Regni Poloniæ, Samoscii, 1597, p.
192.--Raynald. ann. 1446, No. 10.--Theiner Monument. Slavor. Meridian.
I. 394.
[589] Æn. Sylvii. Epistt. 130, 246-7, 259, 404 (Ed. 1571, pp. 667,
782-3, 788, 947).--Wadding. ann. 1455, No. 2; ann. 1456, No. 11-12.
In George Podiebrad's letter of 1468 to his son-in-law Matthius
Corvinus, complaining of his treatment by the Holy See, he says, "In
truth there were formerly in Bohemia many errors concerning the
sacrament, and also concerning the ornaments and vestments in
administering the rite, and the veneration of saints, but by divine
grace these have been so reduced that there is scarcely any difference
now existing with the Roman Church. By comparing what was customary
thirty or forty years ago with the present, it will be seen that little
remains to do in comparison with what has been accomplished."--D'Achery
Spieileg. III. 834.
A notable part of this retrogression occurred in 1454, when edicts were
issued in the name of Ladislas, with the consent of Rokyzana, ordering
that the epistles and gospels, in the canon of the mass, should be
recited in Latin and not in the vulgar tongue; that confession should be
a prerequisite to communion; that children should not receive communion
without due preparation; that the blood of the Eucharist should not be
carried beyond the churches for fear of accidents; that no one should
administer it without letters authenticating his priesthood; that no
marriage should be celebrated without banns published in full
church.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet. ann. 1454 (Martene Ampl. Coll. V.
486-7).
[590] Wadding. ann. 1451, No. 1-16; ann. 1452, No. 34.
[591] Wadding. ann. 1451, No. 17-20; ann. 1452, No. 18, 26; ann. 1453,
No. 2-8.
[592] Wadding. ann. 1451, No. 24-36; ann. 1452, No. 1, 12,--Sommersberg
Silesiac. Rer. Scriptt. I. 84-5.--Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. Lib. X. ann.
1451.
[593] Wadding. ann. 1452, No. 2-4, 13-14.--Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. Lib.
XI. ann. 1452.
[594] Chron. Glassberger ann. 1452.
[595] Wadding, ann. 1453, No. 9-10; ann. 1254, No. 12-13, 17-19--Chron.
Cornel. Zantfliet (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 486-7).--Æn. Sylvii Epist. 404
(Ed. 1571, p. 947).
[596] Wadding, ann. 1254, No. 7-12; ann. 1255, No. 2-7--Æn. Sylv. Epist.
405 (p. 947).--Ejusd. Epistt. xxxix.-xliii., xlvi., lviii., lx. (Opp.
inedd. pp. 415-24. 426-9, 440-1, 448).
[597] Wadding, ann. 1455, No. 8-13; ann. 1456, No. 9-12.
[598] Wadding. ann. 1456, No. 16-67, 83-4.--Æn. Sylv. Hist. Bohem. cap.
lxv. Six several attempts were made, at various times, to canonize
Capistrano, but the fates were against it. The earlier efforts were
neutralized by the opposition of the legate, Nicholas of Cusa, and the
jealousy of the rival orders of Dominicans and Conventual Franciscans.
Repeated requests came from Germany, but they remained unheeded. In 1462
urgent letters were written by Frederic III., the Margrave of
Brandenburg, and innumerable bishops and magistrates of cities from
Cracow to Ratisbon; these were intrusted to a Franciscan friar to take
to Rome, but he died on the road, and confided them to a knight of
Assisi. The latter brought them to his home, and then departed for
Germany, where he died. The trunk containing them was piously preserved
by his descendants until, towards the middle of the seventeenth century,
Wadding chanced to see it, and took the letters to Rome, in the hopes of
their still accomplishing their object. At the inquest held by Leo X. a
classified record of the miracles wrought by the thaumaturge shows, of
dead brought to life, more than thirty; of deaf made to hear, three
hundred and seventy; of blind restored to sight, one hundred and
twenty-three; of cripples and gouty persons cured, nine hundred and
twenty, and miscellaneous cases innumerable. This resulted in his
admission to the inferior order of the Blessed, to be worshipped by the
Franciscans of the diocese of Capistrano. In 1622 Gregory XV. enlarged
his cult to the whole Franciscan Order; and in 1690 Alexander VIII.
enrolled him in the calendar of saints.--Wadding, ann. 1456, No. 114-22;
ann. 1462, No. 29-78.--Weizfäcker, ap. Herzog's Real Encyklop. s. v.
[599] Wadding, ann. 1457, No. 5, 10; ann. 1461, No. 1-2; ann. 1465, No.
6; ann. 1467, No. 5.
[600] Æn. Sylvii Epist. 162, 324, 334-5, 337-40, 356, 369, 387 (Ed.
1571, pp. 714, 815, 821-22, 825, 831, 837, 840).--Ejusd. Hist. Bohem. c.
71-2.
Pius II. did not hesitate to publish to Christendom a positive assertion
that George poisoned Ladislas, and said that, though the facts were
obscure, the Viennese physicians in attendance attributed his death to
poison.--Æn. Sylv. Epist. lxxi. (Opp. inedd. p. 467).
[601] Æn. Sylvii Hist. Bohem. c. 69.--Ejusd. Epist. lxxi. (Opp. inedd.
pp. 461-70).--Ejusd. Tractatus (Ib. pp. 566, 581).--Raynald. ann. 1457,
No. 69; ann. 1458, No. 20-8; ann. 1459, No. 18-23; ann. 1463, No.
96-102.--Cochlæi Hist. Lib. XII.--Dubrav. Hist. Bohem. Lib.
30.--Wadding, ann. 1462, No. 87.--Pii PP. II. Bull. _In
minoribus_.--Sommersberg Silesiac. Rer. Scriptt. II. 1025-6,
1031.--Wadding, ann. 1456, No. 12; ann. 1469, No. 4, 6.--Ludewig Reliq.
MSS. VI. 61.--Martene Ampl. Coll. I. 1598-9.--D'Achery Spicileg. III.
830-4.--Ripoll III. 466.
[602] Raynald. ann. 1468, No. 1-14.--Chron. Glassberger ann.
1468.--Dubrav. Hist. Bohem. Libb. XXX.-XXXI.--Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. Lib.
XII. ann. 1471.
[603] Wadding, ann. 1460, No. 55; ann. 1462, No. 87; ann. 1471, No. 5;
ann. 1475, No. 28, 37-9; ann. 1489, No. 21; ann. 1491, No. 8,
78.--Chron. Glassberger ann. 1463, 1466, 1479, 1483.--Dubrav. Hist.
Bohem. Lib. XXXI.--De Schweinitz, Hist. of Unitas Fratrum, p.
168.--Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp. 72-3.--Georgisch Regest. Chron.
Diplom. III. 158.
[604] Æn. Sylvii Epist. 130 (Ed. 1571 pp. 661-2).
[605] Goll, Quellen u. Untersuchungen, I. 10, 32-33, 92, 99; II. 72,
87-88, 94.--De Schweinitz, Hist. of Unitas Fratrum, pp. 111-12, 159,
204-5.--Von Zezschwitz, Real-Encyklop. II. 652-3.--Hist. Persecutionum
pp. 58-60, 90.--Palacky, Die Beziehungen der Waldenser, pp.
32-33.--Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp. 59-66.--For the Calixtin views
on the Eucharist see the treatises of Rokyzana and of John of Przibram
in Cochlæi Hist. Hussit. pp. 474, 508; also the latter's articles
against Peter Payne (Ib. 230).
When the Brethren undertook to explain their views on the Eucharist they
become somewhat difficult to understand. The bread and wine became the
body and blood, and they would have believed it had the bread been
stone, but still the substance remained, and Christ was not
present.--Fascic. Rer. Expetend. et Fugiend. I. 165, 170, 174, 183, 185.
[606] Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp. 84-9.--Hist. Persecut. p.
65.--Von Zezschwitz, I. c. p. 653-4.
[607] Wie sich die Menschen u.s.w. (Goll, II. 99-100).--Das Buch der
Prager Magister (Ib. 104-5).
The Calixtins had the same trouble about the apostolic succession. A
letter from the Church of Constantinople, in 1451, warmly urging union,
and offering to supply spiritual pastors, shows that overtures had been
made to the Greek Church to remove the difficulty; but apparently the
Bohemians were not prepared to cut loose definitely from Catholicism
(Flac. Illyr. Catal. Test. Veritatis, Lib. XIX. p. 1834-5, Ed. 1608).
The trouble was renewed after the death of Rokyzana. At length, in 1482,
Agostino Luciano, an Italian bishop, came to Prague in search of a purer
religion, and was joyfully received. He served them until 1493, when he
died. Then Filippo, Bishop of Sidon, came, but after three years he was
recalled by the pope. In 1499 a mission was sent to Armenia, where some
of them were ordained.--Hist. Persecutionum pp. 95-6.
[608] Goll. op. cit. II. 101.--De Schweinitz, op. cit. p. 156,
200-1.--Édouard Montet, Hist. Litt. des Vaudois, pp. 152, 156.
[609] De Schweinitz, op. cit. pp. 122-7, 172-5, 180-1.
[610] Hist. Persecut. Eccles. Bohem. pp. 63-66, 73-4.--Ripoll III.
577.--Camerarii Hist. Frat. Orthod. pp. 104-22.--De Schweinitz, op. cit.
170, 225-6.--Von Zezschwitz, Real-Encyklop. II. 656-7, 660.
[611] Parkman's Montcalm, II. 144-5.--I owe to the kindness of Bishop De
Schweinitz the statistics of the Moravian Missions.
[612] Hauréau (Bernard Délicieux, p. 194) prints the bull of 1210 (Doat,
XXXII. fol. 60), contained in the above, but has apparently overlooked
the subsequent and far more significant one. The earlier bull also
appears in T. V. p. 40, of the Regestum Clementis PP. V. just issued in
Rome.
In the same publication, received too late for reference to be made in
the proper place (see above, p. 78), there arc several letters throwing
light on the troubles of Bernard de Castanet, Bishop of Albi. In 1307
two of his cathedral canons, Sicard Aleman and Bernard Astruc, accused
him before the pope of numerous crimes. Berenger, Cardinal of SS. Nereo
and Achille, to whom the matter was referred, after examining the
articles of accusation, suspended him from all his functions during an
investigation. "Executors" were ordered to proceed to Albi to take
testimony, giving three months to the prosecution, then two to the
defence, and finally two more to the prosecution in rebuttal. A
vicar-general was appointed, July 31, to take charge of the see, and
three procurators to collect its revenues. One of the "executors" was
Arnaud Novelli, Abbot of Fontfroide, whom we have seen (p. 87)
replacing, by order of Philipe le Bel, the bishop in his inquisitorial
capacity. Arnaud was soon afterwards appointed vice-chancellor of the
curia; this, with other impediments, delayed the investigation, and on
November 20 two additional months were granted to the prosecution.
Nothing apparently came of the trial except that it probably quickened
Bernard's desire to abandon his thorny seat. There is a papal brief of
October 31, 1308, addressed to Bertrand de Bordes as Bishop of Albi, in
which Bernard is alluded to as late of Albi and now of Puy (Ibid. T. II.
pp. 52, 165; T. III. pp. 3, 255).
[613] Gui II., Bishop of Cambrai from 1296 to 1305.
[614] Philippe de Marigny, Bishop of Cambrai in 1306, transferred to
Sens in April, 1310, in time to burn the Templars who retracted their
confessions.
[615] In the Register of Clement V., received since the text of this
volume was in type, there is a brief addressed September 3, 1310, to the
Inquisitor of Langres ordering him to proceed vigorously against the
heretics of that diocese who have been reported by the bishop as
multiplying so that, unless prompt measures are taken, grave injury to
the faith is to be apprehended. The nature of the heresy is not
described, but it was probably that of the Brethren of the Free Spirit
which Marguerite la Porete had been disseminating throughout that
region.
The incident has further interest as showing how completely the French
episcopate had transferred to the Inquisition its jurisdiction over
heresy, in spite of its renewed activity at the moment in the affair of
the Templars.