ness and zeal he defended the independence of the council and its superiority over the pontiff, we have al- ready mentioned in the article on Basle, Council op (q. v.). Suffice it to say here that, had the wise and far-seeing policy of the legate been allowed to l)e car- ried out in the name and with the full consent of the Roman pontiff, the Hussites would have been redeemed, and the Church of Rome been spared the reductions which she suffered in the 16th century, and which even now threaten her very existence. See Old Catholic Church. Annoyed and distracted by the opposition of Eugenius, the president hardly knew how to dispose of the Bohemian cpiestion, and the Hussites, doubting the sincerity of the cardinal, received every advance with distrust, and misinterpreted every utterance of Julian ; till it finally became evident to both parties that their mission was fruitless, and that it had only opened an- other and a still more intricate chapter in the history of this long and eventful controversy. See Hussites. But if Julian liad battled for reform within the Church, and had boldly argued in favor of the council's suprem- acj' over the incumbent of the papal chair, he had yet faithfully adhered to the Roman pontificate ; and when, as he believed, the fathers of the Church determined to deprive Eugenius of a portion of his support, he as ear- nestly defended the pontiff's cause, and suddenly the council found itself at variance with its able president, and the Church threatened with a greater schism than she had ever yet endured. It is true Julian had been one of the prime and most zealous leaders in abolishing the annates (q. v.), but he stanchly insisted with the same zeal for some compensation from other sources; and when he found the council indisposed to meet his views, he quickly changed front, and became one of Eugenius's most outspoken adherents. The breach had opened in February, 1437 ; in September, the arrival of a papal bull ordering a synod at Ferrara to consider the question of uniting the Eastern and Western churches obliged Julian to resign the presidency, and on Jan. 9, 1438, he quitted Basle, and, after a short visit to Rome, hastened to Ferrara. See Florence, Council of ; Fe- lix V. This sudden change of Julian from an opponent to an adherent of the Eugeiiian party has led historians to doubt the sincerity of the cardinal; but when we consider that Julian's great object was the union of the Eastern and Western churches, the healing of schisms within either, and a thorough reformation to suit the ^vants of the day, this action explains itself to us as really the natural development of those great princi- ples of ecclesiastical policy upon which Julian had acted from the beginning ; and " while the advocates of the pope were rejoicing over the immediate fruits of a suc- cessful duplicity, that vigorous and impulsive mind, which had guided the intellectual strength of Christen- dom in the freest and most enlightened council that had assembled since the apostolic age, was preparing itself for a future of more enduring triumph. The long and dreary night of schisms and controversies seemed nou' far spent, and the day of strength and reunion was at hand. How sublime was the prospect now opening upon an earnest and sanguine mind ! The restoration of the Church to its first beauty and integrity ; its ref- ormation In' the recovery of its first estate, and of that spirit which made it one in Christ; the overthrow of the infidel and the enemy of the Church by a warfare of whose glories the earlier Crusades would become but a faint prophecy ; the extension of the power of the pa- pacy over all Christendom, and the restoration of the episcopacy to its pristine beauty under the one univer- sal patriarch— these were the most prominent features of this vision of things to come. We cannot wonder that, with such a view before him, the great reformer of the Church at Basle laid down the work of reforma- tion to take up tliat of union ; and while keeping still, as the rule of all his labors, the truth proclaimed st Constance, 'There can l)e no real union without refor- mation, nor true reformation without union,' he fell back
JULIAN CESARINI
1092
JULIUS AFRICANUS