year fourteen 'nine, for the establishment
of unity and good religious order in the
church. Upon the opening of the Council
of Pisa, Jean Charlier, better known as
Gerson, Chancellor of the Church and
University of Paris, addressed to it his
essay on the Unity of the Church. Gerson
spoke for a large part of the best intellect
of Europe, active in labour towards church
reform. He maintained that as the schism
of the church came of corrupt life in its
head and members, reformation must come
of humility and prayer. Gerson and the
University of Paris held the whole church
to be bound by what they regarded as
essentials of theology, but were so tolerant
of variation on points of less moment that
they hoped by admitting a diversity of
ceremonial, to reunite the Eastern with the
Western Church. Such reformers opposed
the pope's doctrine that he only could call
a council. Their argument was, that any
prince or Christian might move the church
to assemble in the name of Him who said
where two or three are gathered together
in my name, there am I in the midst of
them. Such a council, they said, could
give to the church a new head, universally
acknowledged, and could ordain those
reforms of discipline which might put new
life into its members. In doing that which
was most meet for a particular occasion,
pope or council, they said, must look always
to the spirit rather than to the letter of the
law; must act according to eternal principles
of justice. The two popes were not
represented at a council, which they would not
recognise, since it was called by authority
not papal. They were deposed and the
Archbishop of Milan, elected sole pope,
became Alexander the Fifth. He and the
cardinals were pledged to employ
themselves upon the reformation of the church,
and, for consideration of the means, a
General Council was appointed to meet three
years later. The work of the Council of Pisa,
from which guidance into peace and unity
had been expected, was confined to the
election of a third pope: who increased not
only the confusion, but also the scandal in
the church. For, he owed his rise to a
cardinal ex-pirate, Balthazar Cossa, the
most infamous man of his order, whose
influence came of vast wealth ill-gotten,
whose ambition was unscrupulous, and
whom it suited at that time to place a
creature of his own upon the vacant throne
of Christendom. A year afterwards, when
Alexander the Fifth died, it was widely
believed that the Cardinal Balthazar Cossa
had given his friend one more step of
promotion, and sent him to heaven as soon as
he was himself disposed to fill his place in
this world. The belief shows what was
thought of this man, who, in fourteen 'ten,
as John the Twenty-third, inherited the
pledge to labour for a reformation of life in
the church.

Driven from Rome by Ladislaus, of
Naples, Pope John found an ally against
him in the new emperor, Sigismund. This
German ally he then sought to please by
conceding what could not in any case have
been much longer deferred: the meeting of
a true reformatory council. Little as he
wished that such a council should be held
within the bounds of the emperor's power,
he yet had to consent to its meeting in the
free German city of Constance. Pope John,
therefore, and Emperor Sigismund,
summoned the Council of Constance to meet
there, in November, fourteen 'fourteen. As
neither of the other popes would
recognise John, the number of infallible
heads contradicting one another was
now three. The new council declared
itself to be simply a continuation of the
Council of Pisa, and provided for the
influence of independent thought in its
deliberations. It had not sat four months, before
it received accusations of deep crime against
Pope John: who, with the perils of an
inquiry hanging over him, then played with
forms of abdication until, in the disguise of
a groom, he fled from Constance. The
council then affirmed the principles
maintained by Chancellor Gerson, and declared
the pope to be subject to a church assembly.
John of Antioch and others argued, in vain,
that the pope's authority was absolute,
unaffected by his personal character, and
irresponsible, except to God: even though
he should send multitudes to hell. Pope
John was caught, tried, and deposed, for his
acts as pope, with threat of further trial
for his private crimes. Pope Gregory was.
humoured into abdication. Benedict, though
obstinate, was deserted by his followers, and
remained pope only in his own esteem. A
reform committee was considering how to
amend church discipline. While it sat, open
traffic in the goods of the church was the
daily business of many, and the great gathering
of clergy caused the streets of Constance
to be crowded with loose women. The
Germans, who were most instant for
reformation of church discipline, urged that the
first consideration of the council should be
to amend the lives of the clergy. The next
business should be to elect a pope, when