162 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
The Western Church was again unified under one head. But for the deep-seated conviction of centuries, the office of the universal papacy would scarcely have survived the strain of the schism. 1 Oddo Colonna, the only member of his distinguished house who has worn the tiara, was a subdeacon at the time of his election. Even more hastily than Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, was he rushed through the ordination of deacon, Nov. 12, of priest, Nov. 13, and bishop, Nov. 14. He was consecrated pope a week later, Nov. 21, Sigismund kissing his toe. In the procession, the bridles of Martin's horse were held by Sigismund and Frederick the Hohenzollern, lately created margrave of Brandenburg. The margrave had paid Sigismund 250,000 marks as the price of his elevation, a sum which the king used to defray the expenses of his visit to Benedict.
Martiji at once assumed the presidency of the council which since John's flight had been filled by Cardinal Viviers. Measures of reform were now the order of the day and some headway was made. The papal right of granting indulgences was curtailed. The college of cardinals was limited, to 24, \vith the stipulation that the different parts of the church should liave a proportionate representation, that no monastic order should have more than a single member in the college, and that no cardinal's brother or nephew should be raised to the curia so long as the cardinal was living. Schedules and programmes enough were made, but the question of reform involved abuses of such long standing and so deeply intrenched that it was found impossible to reconcile the differences of opinion prevailing in the council and bring it to promptness of action. After sitting for more than three years, the delegates were impatient to get away.
As a substitute for further legislation, the so-called conroof of the Kaufhaus, but that as soon as Martin was elected, thousands of greenfinches and other little birds took their places and chattered and sang and hopped about as if approving what had been done,
1 Catholic historians regard the survival of the papacy as a proof of its divine origin. Salerabier, p. 395, says, "The history of the great Schism would have dealt a mortal blow to the papacy if Christ's promises had not made it immortal."
§ 16. THE COUNCIL OP CONSTANCE. 1414-1418. 163
cordats were arranged^ These agreements were intended to regulate thejcdatinns iJjJie^.pa(3y^jQdJ:he nations one with the_otlier. There were four of these distinct compactsrbne with the Frenc]j, and one with the Gerni^n nations, each to be valid for five years, one with the English to be perpetual, dated July 21, 1418, and one with the Spani^lijiation, dated May 13, 1418.1 These concordats set forth rules for the appointmjint of the cardinals and the restriction of their number, limited, the right of papal reservations and the collection of annates and direct taxes, determined what causes might be appealed to Rome^nd took up other questions. They were the foundation of the system of secret or open treaties by which the papacy has since regulated its relations with the nations of Europe. Gregory VII. was the first pope to extend the system of papal legates, but he and his successors had dealt with nations on the arbitrary principle of papal supremacy and infallibility. The action of the Council of Constance lifted the state to some measure of equality with the papacy in the administration of Church affairs. It remained for Louis XIV., 1643- 1715, to assert more fully the Galilean theory of the authority of the state to manage the affairs of the Church within its territor}^, so far as matters of doctrine were not touched. The first decisive step in the assertion of Galilean liberties was the synodal action of 1407, when France withdrew from the obedience of Benedict XIII. By this action the chapters were to elect their own bishops, and the pope was restrained from levying taxes on their sees. Then followed the compact of the Council of Constance, the Pragmatic Sanction adopted at Bourges, 1438, and the concordat agreed upon between Francis I. and Leo X. at the time of the Reformation. In 1682 the French prelates adopted four propositions, restricting the pope's authority to spirituals, a power which is limited by the decision of the Council of Constance, and by the precedents of the Galilean Church, and declaring that even in matters of faith the pope is not infallible. Although Louis,
1 See Mirbt, art. Konkordat, in Herzog, X. 705 sqq. Hardt gives the concordats with Germany and England, I. 1056-1083, and France, IV. 155 sqq. Mansi, XXVII. 1189 sqq., 1193 sqq.