158 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
ceeded to try John XXIIJ. on seventy charges, which included almost every crime known to man. He had been unchaste from his youth, had been given to lying, was disobedient to his parents. He was guilty of simony, bought his way to the cardinalate, sold the same benefices over and over again, sold them to children, disposed of the head of John the Baptist, belonging to the nuns of St. Sylvester, Rome, to Florence, for 50,000 ducats, made merchandise of spurious bulls, committed adultery with his brother's wife, violated nuns and other virgins, was guilty of sodomy and other nameless vices. ^ As for doctrine, he had often denied the future life.
When John received the notice of his deposition, which was pronounced May 29, 1415, he removed the papal cross from his room and declared he regretted ever having beeji elected pope. He was taken to Gottlieben, a castle belonging to the bishop of Constance, and then removed to the castle at Heidelberg, where two chaplains and two nobles were assigned to serve him. From Heidelberg the count Palatine transferred him to Mannheim, and finally released him on the payment of 30,000 gulden. John submitted to his successor, Martin V., and in 1419 was appointed cardinal J)ishop of Tusculuni;J)ut survived the appointment only six months. John's accomplice, Frederick of Austria, was deprived of his lands, and was known as Frederick of the empty purse — Friedrich mit der leeren Tasche. A splendid monument was erected to John in the baptistery in Florence by Cosimo de' Medici, who had managed the pope's money affairs.
While Jq1iii!s eass. was being decided, the trial of John Hus§. j^.as undeiLJB^ay. The proceedings and the tragedy of Huss' death are related in another place.
J^Lhii-XXIII.,wM-Q-Ut_Qf the way. T^sx popes remained,
1 Hardt, IV. 196-208 ; Mansi, XXVIII. 662-673,715. Adam of Usk, p. 306,
•says. Our pope, John XXIII., false to his promises of union, and otherwise
guilty of perjuries and murdei-s, adulteries, simonies, heresy, and other
excesses, and for that he twice fled in secret, and cowardly, in vile raiment,
by way of disguise, was delivered to perpetual imprisonment by the council.
§ 16. THE COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE. 1414-1418. 159
Gregory XII. and Benedict XIIL, who were facetiously called in tracts and addresses Urrorius, a play on Gregory's patronymic, Angelo Correr,^ and Maledictus. Gregory promptly resjgnedjjblius respecting his promise made to the council to resign, provided John and Benedict should be set aside. He also had promised to recognize the council, provided the emperor should preside. The resignation was announced at the fourteenth session, July 4, 1415, by Charles Malatesta and John of Ragusa, representing the Roman pontiff. Gregory's bull, dated May 15, 1414, which was publicly read, " convoked and authorized the general council so far as Balthazar Cossa, John XXIII., is not present and does not preside." The words of resignation ran, " I resign, in the name of the Lord, the papacy, and all its rights and title and all the privileges conferred upon it by the Lord Jesus Christ in this sacred synod and universal council representing the holy Roman and universal Church.'' Gregory's cardinals now took their seats, and Gregory himself was appointed cardinal-bishop of Porto and papal legate of Ancona. He died at Reca^natij^near Ancona, Oct. 18, 1417.. Much condemnation as Angelo Correr deserves for having temporized about renouncing the papacy, posterity has not withheld from him respect for his honorable dealing at the close of his career. The high standing of his cardinal, John of Ragusa, did much to make men forget Gregory's faults. v^i\ e.t'^Jl^Q^ ^^ Luna \yas oXajdjiferent mind.^ Every effort was made to bring him into accord with the mind of the councilmen in the Swiss city, but in vain. In order to bring all the influence possible to bear upon him, Sigismund, at the council's instance, started on the journey to see the last of the Avignon po^^es face to facfi. The council, at its sixteenth session, July 11, 1415, appointed doctors to accompany the king, and eight days afterwards he broke away from Constance, accompanied by a troop of 4000 men on horse.
^Sigismund and Benedict met at Narbonne, Aug. 15,and. at Perpignan, the negotiations lasting till December. The
1 This name is given to Gregory constantly by Nieheim in his De schismate.
2 The document is given in Hardt, IV. 380. See, for the various documents, Hardt, IV. 192 sq., 346-381 ; Mansi, XXVII. 733-745.