152 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
buried in Constance, the bishop of Winchester, uncle to the English king, and John Gerson, the chief representative of the University of Paris. Zabarella was the most profound authority on civil and canon law in Europe, a professor at Bologna, and in 1410 made bishop of Florence. He died in the midst of the council's proceedings, Sept. 26, 1417. Fillastre left behind him a valuable daily journal of the council's proceedings. D'Ailly had been for some time one of the most prominent figures in Europe. Hallum is frequently mentioned in the proceedings of the council. Among the most powerful agencies at work in the assemblies were the tracts thrown off at the time, especially those of Diedrich of Nieheim, one of the most influential pamphleteers of the later Middle Ages.^
Tlie_subjects_ which the council was called together to discuss were the reunion of the Church under one pope, aijd Church reforms. 2 The action against heresy, including t]ie condemnation of John Huss and Jerome of Prag, is also conspicuous among the proceedings of the council, though not treated by contemporaries as a distinct subject. .Erom the start, John lost support. A sensation was made by a tract, the work of an Italian, describing John's vices both as miyi and pope. John of Ragusa and Fillastre recommended the resignation of all three papal claimants, and this idea became more and more popular, and was, after some delay, adopted by Sigismund, and was trenchantly advocated by Nieheim, in his tract on the Necessity of a Reformation in the Church.
From the very beginning great plainness of speech was used, so that John had good reason to be concerned for the tenure of his office. December 7, 1414, the cardinals passed propositions binding him to a faithful performance of his papal
1 Finke, p. 183, calls him the " greatest journalist of the later Middle Ages." The tracts De modis uniendi, De difficultate rcfvrmatiouis, Dc necessitate reformationis are now all ascribed to Nieheim by Finke, p. 133, who follows Lenz, and with whom Pastor concurs as against Erler.
2 In hoc generali concilio agendum fuit de pace et xinione perfecta ecclesice, secundo de reformatione illius, Fillastre's Journal, in Finke, p. 164. Hxc synodus . . . pro exstirpatione prcesentis schismatis et unioiie ac reformatione ecdesice Dei in capite et membris is the council's own declaration, Mansi, XXVII. 585.
§ IC. THE COUNCIL OP CONSTANCE. 1414-1418. 153
duties and abstinence from simony. D'Ailly wrote against the infallibility of councils, and thus furnished the ground for setting aside the papal election at Pisa.
From November to January, 1415, a general disposition was manifested to avoid taking the initiative — the noli me tangere policy, as it was called. ^ The ferment of thought and discusssion became more and more active, until _the._firstjiotabl^ ^inciplejwa^Jaid down early in February, 1415; namely, the rule rec[uiriiig^ the vote to be by nation^. The purpose was to_pvercome the vote of the eighty Italian bishops and doctors who were committed to John's cause. The action was taken in the face of John's opposition, and followed the precedent set by the University of Paris in the government of its affairs. By this rule, which no council before or since has followed, except the little Council of Siena, 1423, England, France, Italy, and Germany had each a_ single vote in the affairs of the council. In 1417, when Aragon, Castile, and Scotland gave in their submission to the council, a fifth vote was accorded to Spain. England had the smallest representation. In the German nation were included Scandinavia, JPoland, and Hungary. The request of the cardinals to have accorded to them a distinct vote as a body was denied. They metwith the several nations to which they belonged, and were limited to the same rights enjoyed by other individuals. This rule seems to have been pressed from the first with great energy by the English, led by Robert of Salisbury. Strange to say, there is no record that this mode of voting was adopted by any formal conciliar decree. ^
The nations met each under its own president in separate places, the English and Germans sitting in different rooms in the convent of the Grey Friars. The vote of the majority of the nations carried in the public sessions of the council. The right to vote in the nations was extended so as to include the doctors of both kinds and princes. D'Ailly advocated this course, and Fillastre argued in favor of including rectors
1 Apud Uliquos erat morbus " noli me tangere,'''' Fillastre's Journal, p. 164.
2 See Finke, Forschrmgen, p. 81. Richental, pp. 50-53, gives a quaint ac count of the territorial possessions of the five nations.