*

from the year 1408, used his most zealous endeavours to withdraw the university of Prague from the jurisdiction of Gregory XII., whom the kingdom of Bohemia had hitherto acknowledged as the true and lawful head of the

clergy in general, who were warmly attached to the interests of Gregory, were greatly exasperated at these proceedings. Hence arose a violent quarrel between the incensed prelate and the zealous reformer, which the latter inflamed and augmented, from day to day, by his warm exclamations against the conduct of the court of Rome, and the corruptions that prevailed among the sacerdotal der.

ous proceeding prepared the way for the de- || with vehemence against the vices that had cor gradation of John, who, during the twelfth rupted the clergy of all denominations; nor session, was unanimously deposed from the was he singular in this respect; for such re pontificate, on account of several flagitious monstrances had become very common, and crimes that were laid to his charge, and more were generally approved by the wise and the especially for the scandalous violation of a so-good. Huss, however, went still farther; and, lemn engagement which he had taken about the beginning of the council, to resign the papal chair, if that measure should appear necessary to the peace of the church; which engagement he broke some weeks after by a clandestine flight. In the same year (1415,) Grego-church. The archbishop of Prague, and the ry sent Charles de Malatesta to the council to make, in his name, a solemn and voluntary re- || signation of the pontificate. About two years after this, Benedict was deposed by a solemn resolution of the council, and Otto de Colonna raised, by the unanimous suffrages of the cardinals, to the high dignity of head of the church, which he ruled under the title of Martin V. Benedict, who still resided at Perpignan, was far from being disposed to submit either to the decree of the council which deposed him, or to the determination of the cardinals with respect to his successor. On the contrary, he persisted until the day of his death, which happened in the year 1423, in assuming the title, the prerogatives, and the authority of the papacy. And when this obstinate man was dead, a certain Spaniard, named Giles Munoz, was chosen pope in his place by two cardinals, under the patronage of Alphonso, king of Sicily, and adopted the title of Clement VIII.; but this sorry pontiff, in 1429, was persuaded to resign his pretensions, and to leave the government of the church to Mar-versity of Prague.* He also multiplied the tin V.

V. If, from the measures that were taken in this council to check the lordly arrogance of the Roman pontiffs, we turn our eyes to the proceedings against those who were called heretics, we shall observe in this new scene nothing worthy of applause, but several things, on the contrary, that can only excite our indignation, and which no pretext, no consideration, can render excusable. Before the meeting of this council, great commotions had been excited in several parts of Europe, and more especially in Bohemia, by contests on religious subjects. One of the persons that gave occasion to these disputes was John Huss, who lived at Prague in the highest reputation, both on account of the sanctity of his manners, and the purity of his doctrine, who was distinguished by his uncommon erudition and eloquence, and performed, at the same time, the functions of professor of divinity in the university, and of ordinary pastor in the church of that famous city. This eminent ecclesiastic declaimed

* On the 29th of May, 1415. On the 26th of July, 1417. A Bohemian Jesuit, who was far from being favourable to John Huss, and who had the best opportunity of being acquainted with his real character, describes him thus: "He was more subtle than eloquent; but the gravity and austerity of his manners, nis frugal and exemplary life, his pale and meagre countenance, his sweetness of temper, and his uncommon affability toward persons of all ranks and conditions, from the highest to the lowest, were much more persuasive than any eloquence could be." Bee Bohuslaus Balbinus, Epitom. Hist. Rer. Bohem. ib. iv cap. v. p. 431.

VI. Such were the circumstances that first excited the resentment of the clergy against John Huss. This resentment, however, might have been easily calmed, and perhaps totally extinguished, if new incidents of a more important kind had not arisen to keep up the flame and increase its fury. In the first place, he adopted the philosophical opinions of the Realists, and showed his warm attachment to their cause, in the manner that was usual in this barbarous age, even by persecuting, to the utmost of his power, their adversaries, the Nominalists, whose number was great, and whose influence was considerable in the uni

number of his enemies, in 1408, by procuring, through his great credit, a sentence in favour of the Bohemians, who disputed with the Germans concerning the number of suffrages to which their respective nations were entitled in all points that were carried by election in the university. That the nature of this contest may be better understood, it will be proper to observe, that this famous university was divided, by its founder Charles IV., into four nations, namely, the Bohemians, Bavarians, Poles, and Saxons; of which, according to the original laws of the institutions, the first had three suffrages, and the other three, who were comprehended under the title of the German nation, only one. This arrangement, however, had not only been altered by custom, but was entirely inverted in favour of the Germans, who were vastly superior to the Bohemians in number, and assumed to themselves the three suffrages which originally belonged to the latter. Huss, therefore, whether animated by a principle of patriotism, or by an aversion to the Nominalists, who were peculiarly favoured by the Germans, raised his voice against this abuse,

* See the Literæ Nominalium ad Regem Franciæ Ludovicum VI., in Baluzii Miscellan. tom. iv. p. 534, where we read the following passage: "Legimus Nominales expulsos de Bohemia eo tempore, quo hæretici voluerunt Bohemicum regnum suis hæresibus inficere.-Quum dicti hæretici non possent disputando superare, impetraverunt ab Abbisseslao Wenceslao) principe Bohemiæ, ut gubernarentur studia Pragensia ritu Parisiensium; quo edicto coacti sunt supradicti Nominales Pragam civitatem re'inquere, et se transtulerunt ad Lipzicam civitatem, et ibidem erexerunt universitatem solemnissimam

man pontiffs, the bishops and monks: but this freedom was deemed lawful in these times, and it was used every day in the council of Constance, where the tyranny of the court of Rome, and the corruption of the sacerdotal and monastic orders, were censured with the utmost severity. The enemies, however, of this good man, who were very numerous, coloured the accusation that was brought against him with such artifice and success, that, by the most scandalous breach of public faith, he was thrown into prison, declared a heretic, because he refused to obey the order of the council, which commanded him to plead guilty against the dictates of his conscience, and was burned alive on the 6th of July, 1415; which dreadful punishment he endured with unparalleled magnanimity and resignation, expressing in his last moments the noblest feelings of love to God, and the most triumphant hope of the accomplishment of those transporting promises with which the Gospel fortifies the true Christian at the approach of eternity. The same unhappy fate was borne with the same pious fortitude and constancy of mind by Jerome of Prague, the intimate companion of John Huss, who appeared at this council with the generous design of supporting and seconding his persecuted friend. Terrified by the pros

and employed, with success, the extraordinary || with extraordinary vehemence against the Ro credit he had obtained at court, by his flowing and masculine eloquence, in depriving the Germans of the privilege they had usurped, and in reducing their three suffrages to one. The issue of this long and tedious contest* was so offensive to the Germans, that a prodigious number of them, with John Hoffman, the rector of the university, at their head,† retired from Prague, and repaired to Leipsic, where Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, erected for them, in 1409, that academic institution which still subsists in a flourishing state. This event contributed greatly to render Huss odious to many, and, by the consequences that followed it, was certainly instrumental in bringing on his ruin; for no sooner had the Germans retired from Prague, than he began not only to inveigh with greater freedom than he had formerly done against the vices and corruptions of the clergy, but even went so far as to recommend, in an open and public manner, the writings and opinions of the famous Wickliffe, whose new doctrines had already made such a noise in England. Hence an accusation was brought against him, in 1410, before the tribunal of John XXII., by whom he was solemnly expelled from the communion of the church. He treated, indeed, this excommunication with the utmost contempt, and, both in his conversation and his writings, exposed the disor-pect of a cruel death, Jerome at first appeared ders that preyed upon the vitals of the church, and the vices that dishonoured the conduct of its ministers; and the fortitude and zeal which he discovered on this occasion were almost universally applauded.

willing to submit to the orders of the council, and to abandon the tenets and opinions which it had condemned in his writings. This submission, however, was not attended with the advantages he expected from it; nor did it deliver him from the close and severe conper-finement in which he was kept. He therefore resumed his fortitude; professed anew, with an heroic constancy, the opinions which he had deserted for a while from a principle of fear, and maintained them in the flames, in which he expired on the 30th of May, 1416.*

VII. This eminent man, whose piety was truly fervent and sincere, though his zeal, haps, was rather too violent, and his prudence not always equally circumspect, was summoned to appear before the council of Constance. Obedient to this order, and thinking himself secured from the rage of his enemies, by the safe conduct which had been granted to him by the emperor Sigismund, both for his journey to Constance, his residence in that city, and his return to his own country, John Huss appeared before the assembled churchmen, to demonstrate his innocence, and to prove that the charge of his having deserted the church of Rome was entirely groundless. And it may be affirmed with truth, that his religious opinions, at least in matters of importance, were conformable to the established doctrine of the church in this age.§ He declaimed, indeed,

Many learned men have endeavoured to investigate the reasons that occasioned the pronouncing of such a cruel sentence against Huss and his associates; and, as no adequate reasons for such a severe proceeding can be found, either in the life or opinions of that good man, they conclude that he fell a victim to the rage and injustice of his unrelenting enemies. And indeed this conclusion is both natural and well-grounded; nor will it be difficult to show how it came to pass, that the reverend fathers of the council were so eagerly bent upon burning, as a heretic, a man who neither deserved such an injurious title, nor such a dreadful fate. In the first place, John Huss had excited, both by his discourses and by his writings, great commotions in Bohemia, and had rendered the clergy of all ranks and Historians differ much in their accounts of opinions of that great man in relation to the papal the number of Germans that retired from the uni-hierarchy, the despotism of the court of Rome, and versity of Prague upon this occasion. Eneas Syl- the corruption of the clergy; for, in other respects, it vius reckons 5000; Trithemius and others 2000. Duis certain that he adhered to the most superstitious bravius 24,000; Lupatius 44,000; Lauda (a contempo- doctrines of the church, as appears from various rary writer) 36,000. passages in two sermons which he had prepared for the council of Constance.

Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who was bribed by both of the contending parties, protracted instead of abridging this dispute, and used to say with a smile, that he had found a good goose, which laid every day a considerable number of gold and sil. ver eggs. This was playing upon the word Huss, which, in the German language, signifies a goose.

See Laur. Byzinii Diarium Belli Hussitici, in Ludewig's Re iquiæ Manusciptorum, tom. vi. p. 127.

It was observed in the preceding section, that John Huss adopted with zeal, and openly recommended the writings and opinions of Wickliffe; wut this must be understood of the writings and

The translator has here inserted into the text the long note (a) of the original, which relates to the circumstances that precipitated the ruin of these two eminent refiners; and he has thrown the citations therein contained into several notes

*

orders extremely odious in the eyes of the peo- || the sin against the Holy Ghost,* and exhibited ple. The bishops, therefore, together with the most miserable spectable of inhuman bi the sacerdotal and monastic orders, were very gotry to the Christian world. The aversion sensible that their honours and advantages, which John Huss, and Jerome, his companion, their credit and authority, were in the greatest had against the Germans, was a third circum danger of being annihilated, if this reformer stance that contributed to determine their unshould return to his country, and continue to happy fate. This aversion they declared pubwrite and declaim against the clergy with the licly at Prague, on all occasions, both by their same freedom which he had formerly exercis- words and actions; nor were they at any pains ed. Hence they left no means unemployed to to conceal it even in the council of Constance, accomplish his ruin; they laboured night and where they accused them of presumption and day, formed plots, bribed men in power; they despotism in the strongest terms. † The Ger used, in short, every method that could have mans, on the other hand, remembering the afany tendency to rid them of such a formidable front they had received in the university of adversary. It may be observed, secondly, Prague, by the means of John Huss, burned that in the council there were many men of with resentment and rage both against him great influence and weight, who looked upon and his unfortunate friend; and, as their influhemselves as personally offended by him, and ence and authority were very great in the demanded his life as the only sacrifice that council, there is no doubt that they employed could satisfy their vengeance. Huss, as has them, with the utmost zeal, against these two been already mentioned, was not only attach- formidable adversaries. Besides, John Hoffed to the party of the Realists, but was pecu- man, the famous rector of the university, liarly severe in his opposition to their adversa- whom Huss had been the occasion of expelling ries. And now he was so unhappy, as to be from that city, together with the Germans, brought before a tribunal which was principal- and who in consequence thereof became his ly composed of the Nominalists, with the fa- most virulent enemy, was consecrated bishop mous John Gerson at their head, who was the of Misnia, in 1413, and held in this council zealous patron of that faction, and the mortal the most illustrious rank among the delegates enemy of Huss. Nothing could equal the vin- of the German church. This circumstance dictive pleasure the Nominalists felt from an was also most unfavourable to Huss, and was, event that put this unfortunate prisoner in without doubt, ultimately detrimental to his their power, and gave them an opportunity of satisfying their vengeance to the full; and ac- The circumstances now mentioned, as concordingly, in their letter to Louis, king of tributing to the unhappy fate of this good man, France, they do not pretend to deny that are, as we see, all drawn from the resentment Huss fell a victim to the resentment of their and prejudices of his enemies, and have not the sect, which is also confirmed by the history of least colour of equity. It must, however, be the council. The animosities that always confessed, that there appeared one mark of hereigned between the Realists and Nominalists,||resy in the conduct of this reformer, which, acwere at this time carried to the greatest excess cording to the notions that prevailed in this ¡maginable. Upon every occasion that offer- century, might expose him to condemnation ed, they accused each other of heresy and im- with some shadow of reason and justice; I piety, and constantly had recourse to corpora! || mean, his inflexible obstinacy, which the church punishments to decide the dispute. The No- of Rome always considered as a grievous minalists procured the death of Huss, who was heresy, even in those whose errors were of lita Realist; and the Realists, on the other hand, tle moment. We must consider this man, as obtained, in 1479, the condemnation of John called before a council, which was supposed of Wesel, who was attached to the opposite to represent the universal church, to confess party. These contending sects carried their his faults and to abjure his errors. This he blind fury so far as to charge each other with

cause.

*In the Examen mentioned in the preceding note, we find the following striking passage, which may show us the extravagant length to which the dis putes between the Nominalists and Realists were now carried:-" Quis nisi ipse diabolus seminavit illam zizaniam inter philosophos et inter theologos, ut tanta sit dissensio, etiam animorum, inter diversa opinantes? Adeo ut si universalia quisquam realia negaverit, existimetur in Spiritum Sanctum peccavisse; imo summo et maximo peccato plenus creditur contra Deum, contra Christianam religionem, contra

*The bribery and corruption that were employed in bringing about the ruin of John Huss, are manifest from the following remarkable passages of the Diarium Hussiticum of Laur. Byzinius: "Clerus perversus, præcipue in regno Bohemiæ et marchionatu Moraviæ, condemnationem ipsius (Hussi) contributione pecuniarum et modis aliis diversis procuravit, et ad ipsius consensit interitum." "Clerus perversus regni Bohemiæ et marchionatus Moraviæ, et præcipue episcopi, abbates, canonici, plebani, et religiosi, ipsius fideles ac salutiferas admonitiones, ad-justitiam, contra omnem politiam, graviter deli hortationes, ipsorum pompam, simoniam, avaritiam, fornicationem, vitæque detestandæ abominationem detegentes, ferre non valendo, pecuniarum contributiones ad ipsius extinctionem faciendo procurarunt." † See Baluzii Miscell. tom. iv. p. 534, in which we find the following passage: "Suscitavit Deus doctores catholicos, Petrum de Alliaco, Johannem de gersono, et alios quam plures doctissimos homines Nominales, qui, convocati ad concilium Constantiense, ad quod citati fuerunt hæretici, et nominatim Hieronymus et Johannes-dictos hæreticos per quadraginta dies disputando superaverunt."

See the Examen Magistrale et Theologicale Mag. Joh. de Wesalia, in Ortuini Gratii Fasc culo rerum expeten 1. et fugiendar. Colon. 1535

quisse. Unde hæc cæcitas mentis nisi a diabolo, qu: phantasias nostras illudit?" We see by this pas sage, that the Realists charged their adversaries (whose only crime was the absurdity of calling universal ideas mere denominations) with sin against the Holy Ghost, with transgression against God, and against the Christian religion, and with a violation of all the laws of justice and civil polity.

† See Theod. de Niem, Invectiva in Joh. XXIII. in Hardtii Actis Concilii Constant. tom. ii. p. 450 Improperabat etiam in publico Alamannis, dicen do, quod essent præsumptuosi, et vellent ubique per orbem dominari--Sicque factum fuisset sæpe in Bohemia, ubi volentes etiam dominari Alamann violenter exinde repulsi et ma e tractati fuissent.

nbstinately refused to do, unless he was pre-as an odious and detestable heresy; but both viously convicted of error; here, therefore, he the name and person of the author were resisted the authority of the catholic church, spared, on account of the powerful patrons, demanded a rational proof of the justice of the under whose protection he had defended that sentence it had pronounced against him, and pernicious doctrine. John, duke of Burgundy, intimated, with sufficient plainness, that he had, in 1407, employed a band of ruffians to looked upon the church as fallible. All this assassinate Louis duke of Orleans, only brother certainly was most enormously criminal and of Charles VI. king of France. While the intolerably heretical, according to the general whole city was in an uproar, in consequence opinion of the times; for it became a dutiful of this horrible deed, Petit vindicated it in a son of the church to renounce his eye-sight, public oration, in presence of the dauphin and and to submit his own judgment and will, with- the other princes of the blood, affirming, that out any exception or reservation, to the judg- the duke had done a laudable action, and that ment and will of that holy mother, under a it was lawful to put a tyrant to death, “in firm belief and entire persuasion of the infalli- any way, either by violence or fraud, without bility of all her decisions. This ghostly mo- any form of law or justice, and even in opposi ther had, for many ages past, followed, when- tion to the most solemn contracts and oaths ever her unerring perfection and authority were of fidelity and allegiance." It is, however, to called in question, the rule which Pliny observ-be observed, that by tyrants, this doctor did not ed in his conduct toward the Christians: mean the supreme rulers of nations, but those "When they persevered, (says he, in his let-powerful and insolent subjects, who abused ter to Trajan,) I put my threats into execution, their opulence and credit to bring about meafrom a persuasion that, whatever their con- sures that tended to the dishonour of their fessions might be, their audacious and invinci- sovereign and the ruin of their country.* The ble obstinacy deserved an exemplary punish-university of Paris pronounced a severe and ment.""*

rigorous sentence against the author of this pernicious opinion; and the council of Constance, after much deliberation and debate, condemned the opinion without mentioning the author. This determination, though modi

was not ratified by the new pontiff Martin V., who dreaded too much the formidable power of the duke of Burgundy, to confirm a sentence which he knew would be displeasing to that ambitious prince.t

X. After these and other transactions of a like nature, it was now time to take into consideration a point of greater importance than had yet been proposed, even the reformation

VIII. Before sentence had been pronounced against John Huss and Jerome of Prague, the famous Wickliffe, whose opinions they were supposed to adopt, and who was long since dead, was called from his rest before this spirit-fied with the utmost clemency and mildness, ual tribunal; and his memory was solemnly branded with infamy by a decree of the council. On the 4th day of May, in 1415, many propositions, invidiously culled out of his writings, were examined and condemned, and an order was issued to commit all his works, together with his bones, to the flames. On the 14th of June following, the assembled fathers passed the famous decree, which took the cup from the laity in the celebration of the eucha-of rist; ordered "that the Lord's supper should be received by them only in one kind, i. e. the bread," and rigorously prohibited the communion in both kinds. This decree was occasioned by complaints that had been made of the conduct of Jacobellus de Misa, curate of || the parish of St. Michael at Prague, who, about a year before, had been persuaded by Peter of Dresden, to administer the Lord's supper in both kinds, and was followed in this by several churches. The council, being informed of this matter by a Bohemian bishop, thought proper to oppose with vigour the progress of this heresy; and therefore they enacted the statute, which ordered "the communion to be administered to the laity only in one kind," and which obtained the force and authority of a law in the church of Rome.

IX. In the same year, the opinion of John Petit, a doctor of divinity at Paris, who maintained, that every individual had an undoubted right to take away the life of a tyrant, was brought before the council, and was condemned

*Plin. Epist. lib. x. ep. 97. "Perseverantes duci Jussi. Neque enim dubitabam, qualecumque esset quod faterentur, pervicaciam certe et inflexibilem obstinationem debere puniri."

† Byzinii Diar. Huss. p. 124.

Some historians have erroneously represented Petit as a lawyer. See Dr. Smollet's History of England.

the church in its head and in its members, by setting bound to the despotism and corruption of the Roman pontiffs, and to the luxury and immorality of licentious ecclesiastics. It was particularly with a view to this important object, that the eyes of all Europe were fixed upon the council, from a general persuasion of the necessity of this reformation, and an ardent desire of seeing it happily brought into execution. Nor did the assembled fathers deny, that this reformation was the principal end of their meeting. Yet this salutary work had so many obstacles in the passions and interests of those very persons by whom it was to be effected, that little could be expected, and still less was done. The cardinals and dignified clergy, whose interest it was that the church should remain in its corrupt and disordered state, employed all their eloquence and art to prevent its reformation; and observed, among other artful pretexts, that a work of

*This appears manifestly from the very discourse of Petit, which the reader may see in L'Enfant's History of the Council of Pisa, tom. ii. p. 303.* See also August. Leyseri Diss. qua Memoriam Joh. Bur gundi et Doctrinam Joh. Parvi de Cæde per Duel. lium vindicat.

† Boulay, tom. v.-Argentre, Collectio Judicior. de novis Erroribus, tom. i. part ii.-Gersonis Opera edited by M. Du-Pin, tom. v.-Bayle's Diction. tom. iii.

See also the same author's History of the Council of Constance, book iii. sect. xix

such high. moment and importance could not || crees that were enacted by its authority, that be undertaken with any prospect of success, the assembled fathers were in earnest, and until a new pontiff should be elected. And, firmly resolved to answer the end and purpose what was still more shocking, Martin V was of their meeting, Eugenius was much alarmed no sconer raised to that high dignity, than he at the prospect of a reformation, which he employed his authority to elude and frustrate feared above all things; and beholding with every effort that was made to set this salutary terror the zeal and designs of these spiritual work on foot, and made it appear most evi- physicians, he twice attempted the dissolution dently, by the laws he enacted, that nothing of the council. These repeated attempts were was more foreign from his intention than the vigorously opposed by the members, who reformation of the clergy, and the restoration proved by the decrees of the late assembly, of the church to its primitive purity. Thus and by other arguments equally conclusive, this famous council, after sitting three years that the council was superior in point of auand six months, was dissolved, on the 22d day thority to the Roman pontiff. This controverof April, 1418, without having effected its chief sy was terminated in November, 1433, by the ostensible object; and the members postponed silence and concessions of the pope, who, in to a future assembly of the same kind, which the following month, wrote a letter from Rome, was to be summoned five years after this period, expressing his approbation of the council, and that pious design of purifying a corrupt church, his acknowledgment of its authority.* which had been so long the object of the expectations and desires of all good Christians.

XI. Not merely five years, but almost thirteen, elapsed without the promised meeting. The remonstrances, however, of those whose zeal for the reformation of the church interested them in this event, prevailed at length over the pretexts and stratagems which were employed to put it off from time to time; and Martin summoned a council to meet at Pavia, whence it was removed to Sienna, and thence || to Basil. The pontiff did not live to be a witness of the proceedings of this assembly, being carried off by a sudden death on the 21st day of February, 1431, just about the time when the council was to meet. He was immediately succeeded by Gabriel Condolmerio, a native of Venice, and bishop of Sienna, who is known in the papal list by the title of Eugenius IV. This pontiff approved all the measures of his predecessor, in relation to the assembling of the council of Basil, which was accordingly opened on the 23d of July, 1431, under the superintendence of Cardinal Julian Cesarini, who performed the functions of president in the place of Eugenius.

The two grand points, proposed to the deliberation of this famous council, were, the union of the Greek and Latin churches, and the reformation of the church universal, both in its head and in its members, according to the resolution that had been taken in the late council; for that the Roman pontiff, or the head of the church, and the bishops, priests, and monks, who were looked upon as its members, had become excessively corrupt, and that, to use the expression of the prophet in a similar case, the whole head was sick and the whole heart faint,' were matters of fact too striking to escape the knowledge of the obscurest individual. On the other hand, as it peared by the very form of the council, by its method of proceeding, and by the first de

*

XII. These preliminary measures being finished, the council proceeded with zeal and activity to the accomplishment of the important purposes for which it was assembled. The pope's legates were admitted as members, but not before they had declared, upon oath, that they would submit to the decrees that should be enacted in it, and more particularly that they would adhere to the laws of the council of Constance, in relation to the supremacy of general councils, and the subordination of the pontiffs to their authority and jurisdiction. These very laws, which the popes beheld with such aversion and horror, were solemnly renewed by the assembly in 1434; and in the following year, the Annates (as they were called) were publicly abolished, notwithstanding the opposition that was made to this measure by the legates of the Roman see. On the 25th of March, 1436, a confession of faith was read, which every pontiff was to subscribe on the day of his election; it was voted that the number of cardinals should be reduced to twenty-four; and the papal impositions, called Expectatives, Reservations, and Provisions, were annulled. These measures, with others of a like nature, provoked Eugenius

*The history of this grand and memorable council is yet a desideratum. The learned Stephen Baluze, (as we find in the Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, tom. vi. p. 544,) and after this council; but neither of these valuable writers him M. L'Enfant, promised the world a history of performed that promise.* The acts of this famous assembly were collected with incredible industry, in a great number of volumes, from various archives and libraries, at the expense of Rodolphus Augustus, duke of Brunswick, by the very learned and laborious Herman von der Hardt. They are preserved, as we certainly deserve to be drawn from their retreat, and are informed, in the library of Hanover; and they published to the world. In the mean time, the curious may consult the abridgment of the acts of this ap-code use in this history, as also the following aucouncil, published at Paris, in 1512, of which I have thors: Æneæ Sylvii Lib. duo de Concilio Basiliensi.— Edm. Richerius, Histor. Concilior. General. lib. iii. cap. 1.-Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antiquæ, tom. iv. p. 447.

* By the form of the council, Dr. Mosheim undoubtedly means the division of the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, &c. into four equal classes, without any regard to the nation or province by which they were sent. This prudent arrangement prevented the cabals and intrigues of the Italians, whose bishops were much more numerous than those of other nations, and who, by their number, might have had it in their power to retard or defeat the laudable purpose which the council had in view, had things been otherwise ordered.

* Dr. Mosheim has here fallen into an error: for L'Enfant did in reality perform his promise, and composed the History of the Council of Basil, which he blended with his history of the war of the Hus sites, on account of the connexion between these subjects, and also because his advanced age prevented his indulging himself in the hope of being able to give, separately, a complete history of the council of

Basil.