224 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
cause against his rival, Rabanus of Helmstatt, bishop of Spires, whom the pope had appointed archbishop of the Treves diocese. Identifying himself closely with the conciliar body, Nicolas had a leading part in the proceedings with the Hussites and went with the majority in advocating the superiority of the council over the pope. His work on Catholic Umty^y-De concoxdaiitia c.at.hoJicaf> — embodying his views on this question and dedicated to the council 1433, followed the earlier treatments^fj^ngenstein, Niehaini and Gersou- A general council, being inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaks truly and infaiirbfy. The church is the body of the^aithf ul — unitas fidelium^^^^nd is represented in a general council. The pope derives his aujUiority froni.the cpnseni^of^^^ a council has power to
dethrone him for heresy and other causes and may not be prorogued or adjourned without its own consent. Peter received no more authority from Christ than the other Apostles. Whatever was said to Peter was likewise said to the others. Alljjishops ai^Bof^qual authority and dignity^ whether their jurisdiction be episcopal, archiepiscopal, patriarchal or papal, just as all presbyters are equal. ^
In sjjite of these views, whgn the question arose as to the place of meeting the Greeks, Nicolas sided with the minority in favor of an Italian city, and was a member of the delegations appointed by the minority which visited Eugenius IV. at Bologna and went to Constantinople. This was in 1437 and from that time forward he was a ready servant of Eugenius and his two successors, ^neas Sylvius, afterwards Pius II., caTled him the Hercules of the Eugenians. vl^^neas also pronounced him a man notable for learning in all branches of knowledge and on account of his godly life.^
' John of Turrecremata, d. 1468, whose tract on the seat of authority in the Church — Summa de ecdes. et ejus auctoritate — 1450 has ah'eady been referred to, took the extreme ultramontane position. The papal supremacy extends to all Christians throughout the world and includes the appointment of all bishops and right to depose them, the filling of all prelatures and benefices whatsoever and the canonizing of saints. As the vicar of Christ, he has full jurisdiction in all the earth in temporal as well as spiritual matters because all jurisdiction of secular princes is derived from the pope quod omnium prinripmn swcularhim jurisdictionalis potestas a papa in cos derivata sit. Quoted from Gieseler, m. 5, pp. 219-227. 2 ///gf . ^y j^red. III., 409, Germ, transl. II. 227.
§ 25. NICOLAS OF CUSA. 225
Eugenius employed hisnew supiporter as^jegate to arrange terms of peace with the German Church and princes, an end he saw accomplished in the concordat of Vienna, 1447. He was rewarded^ by promotion to the college of cardiiiiils, and in 1452_was_ made bishop of Brixen in the TyisL- Here he sought to introduce Church reforms, and he travelled as the papal legate in the same interest throughout the larger part of Germany.
By attempting to assert all the mediaeval f eoffal rights of his diocese, the bishop came into sharp conflict with Siegmund, duke of Austria. Even the interdict pronounced by two popes did not bring the duke to terms. He declared war against the bishop and, taking him prisoner, forced from him a promise to renounce the old rights which his predecessors for many years had not asserted. Once released, the bishop treated his oath as null, on the ground that it had been forced from him, and in this he was supported by Pius II. In 1460 he went to Rome and died at Todi, Umbria, a few years later.
Nicolas of Cusa knew Greek and H^lmei^ and perhaps has claim to being the most universal scholar of Germany up tojiis day since Albertus Magnus. He was interested in astronomy, mathematics and botany, and, as D'Ailly had done before, he urged, at the Council of Basel, the correction of the calendar. The literary production on which he spent most labor wa§,a discussion of the problems of theologj -:- JhAopta iffnorantia- Here he attacked the scholastic method and showed the influence upon his mind of mysticism, the atmosphere of which he breathed at Deventer. He laid stress upon the limitations of the human mind and the inability of the reason to find out God exhaustively. Faith, which he defined as a state of the soul given of God's grace, finds out truths the intellect cannot attain to.^ His views had an influence upon Faber Stapulensis who edited the Cusan's works and was himself a French forerunner of Luther in the doctrine of justification by faith.
His last labors, in connection with the crusade against the
^ Fides est habitus bonus, per bonitatem data a deo, ut per fidem restaurentiir illce veritates objectives, quas intellectus attingere non potest, quoted by Schwaue, p. 100. Q