formed into a mere confirmatory reference, and the sense of the passage became, that the prerogatives enumerated there belonged to the Pope, and were also contained in the ancient Councils. And the decree of Union has since been printed in this corrupted form in the collections of canons, and elsewhere.1 After the departure of the Greeks, Eugenius severely denounced the Synod of Basle in his Bull issued from Florence, but this censure only touched the sessions held after its prorogation, and the "false interpretation put upon the decrees of Constance."2 In this reserved. and tortuous document he did not venture to make any direct attack on the decrees of Constance, then so highly reverenced throughout the Christian world, but he tried to damage their credit by observing that they Greek may excuse him for saying, on the authority of a young man, that καὶ καὶ may be translated by "etiam." Launoy, Bossuet, Natalis Alexander, De Marca, the Jesuit Maimbourg, and Duguet, have long since exposed the fraud. But in the Greek version, sent directly from Florence by the Pope to the King of England, all the words after "primacy over the whole Church" are missing, so that there is reason to suspect an interpolation even in the Greek text. Brequigny has shown (Mémoires de l'Académ. des Inscr. t. 43, p. 306 sqq.) how suspicious are all the copies of the decree of Union, nine in number, now extant, except the British. None of them are original documents. The five original copies have disappeared. 1 [It is also printed in some theological manuals, and often quoted for controversial purposes, with the words about the canons of Councils suppressed altogether.-TR.] In the Decretal "Moyses Vir Dei." Cf. Concil. (ed. Labbé), xiii. 1030. had been passed during the time of the schism by one Obedience only, and after the departure of Pope John. Yet it was not the loss of his infallibility through these decrees that so deeply grieved him. That he had already recognised. Torquemada had made him say in the former Bull (Deus novit) that the Pope's sentence must always take precedence of that of a Council, except in what concerned questions of faith, or rules necessary for the good of the whole Church, and in that case the decision of the Council must be preferred.1 § XXVI.-The Papal Reaction. The French nation assumed the most dignified and consistent attitude in view of the altered condition of the Church and the renewal of the schism. In 1438 the King opened a mixed assembly of ecclesiastics and laymen at Bourges. The deputies both of the Pope and the Council of Basle were heard, and it was decided to receive the decrees of the Council, with certain modifications required by the circumstances of France. Thus originated the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, which included the freedom of Church elections, the principle of the superior authority of General Councils, and the 1 See Concil. (ed Labbé), xii. 537. rejection of the disorderly proceedings of the Curia, with its expectancies, reservations, appeals, and manifold devices for extorting money. It was the first comprehensive codification of what have since been called the Gallican Liberties. Detested at Rome, it became the butt for the attacks of every Pope after Eugenius IV., until at last Leo X. succeeded in abolishing it by the Concordat of 1517, in which the Pope and the King shared the spoils of the French Church; the lion's share falling, however, to the King. England, involved at the time in political troubles, neglected to take a side. Few only would acknowledge the Savoyard Pope, even if they would not resolve on giving up the Council. Alfonso, King of Aragon and Naples, hitherto the main support of the Council of Basle, but who had now been won over by the large offers of the Pope, recalled his bishops, and together with the Venetians, who were the countrymen of Eugenius, was his great support in Italy. The German nation, under the lead of the Electors, maintained neutrality between the Synod of Basle and the Pope, but in a sense practically favourable to the Council; and they solemnly accepted its decrees of reformation in 1439 at the imperial Diet of Mayence, whereby Germany bound itself, like France, to the recognition of the doctrine of Church authority laid down in the canons of Constance.1 There was no man of mark in all Germany at that time who expected any good from the Court of Rome for the Church or for his country. Most of the clergy, the Universities of Vienna, Erfurt, Cologne, Louvain, and Cracow, besides Paris, the sovereigns and their counsellors, and all the people, were for the Council and its doctrine against the Papal system. 2 But Eugenius understood well how to gain over converts to his side, by bestowing privileges and grants of all kinds, and for this he was much more favourably situated than the Council, which was bound by its own principles, and the decrees it had published, and had little or nothing to give in the way of dispensations, privileges, and exemptions, but was obliged to confine itself within the limits of the ancient Church, while Eugenius, according to the tradition of the Curia, was not bound to the laws of the Church. To the Duke of Cleves he gave such important ecclesiastical 1 See, for the document of acceptance, Koch, Sanctio Pragmat. Germ. p. 93. 2 Launoy (Opp. vi. 521 seq.) has had their judgments printed from Parisian manuscripts. rights, at the expense of the bishops, that he made him master of the Church and the clergy of his country, so that it became a proverb, "The Duke of Cleves is Pope in his own land." As early as 1438, Eugenius had not only deposed and anathematized the members of the Council, but laid Basle under interdict, excommunicated the municipal council, and required every one to plunder the merchants who were bringing their wares to the city, because it is written, "The righteous hath spoiled the ungodly." For a long time, indeed, his acts produced no result; there was too strong a feeling in favour of the Council, which had shown so sincere a desire to benefit the Church. For some years the Electors vacillated in their policy between Rome and Basle. At last their decision came, in 1446. King Frederick, acting under the advice of his secretary, the accomplished rhetorician Æneas Silvio Piccolomini, sold himself to Pope Eugenius, who could offer him more than Felix, since the latter was bound to the decisions of the Council. The generous Eugenius pledged himself to pay the King 100,000 florins for his journey, together with the imperial crown, assigned tithes to him from all the German 1 Teschenmacher, Annal. Clivia (Francof. 1729), p. 294. |