`Whoever,; of whatever condition or dignity he be, even of the papal, shall obstinately refuse to obey the decrees of this council, shall be liable to penitence and to punishment, even though secular aid have to be invoked.'
The actual method of punishment of all who had left Konstanz without permission was made over to Sigismund; who was also asked to write to Pope John offering him a safe conduct for his return to Konstanz.
At last the Swiss, who had to be threatened with being placed under ban of empire, agreed to take arms against the duke on the conditions that they might retain every place that they conquered and that the King of the Romans would not make peace with the duke without including them in it. The war could now proceed with brutal surety. Frauenfeld and Winterthur in the Thurgau were taken. The Duke of Austria was in despair.'
`How could I ever have believed that he was a true pope?' he wailed upon the bosom of his mother, who had been sent in a clamouring rush by the family to persuade him to surrender, in the hope that at least something could be saved by negotiations with Sigismund.
'A pope is a pope,' she said comfortingly. `How could you know what kind of a man he would turn out to be?'
At dawn on Easter Day, Pope John XXIII crept out of Laufenberg, disguised as a forester, carrying a bow and arrow, and began the journey through the deep snow of the Black Forest to the city of Freiburg. His five faithful friends were with him Geofreddano Bocca, his cook; Count Abramo Weiler, his physician; Luigi Palo, his squire; Father Fanfarone, his chaplain; and his last remaining cardinal, which is to say, myself, Franco Ellera. On the first night we reached Todtnay in the Weisenthal. The next day we passed Muggenbrunn and made sanctuary at the Dominican Cloister at Freiburg im Breisgau, arriving on the night of 10 April. Freiburg had been held by the Austrian dukes since the summer of 1368.
Within two days, those of the curia who had straggled after Cossa arrived in the town and were struck by its beauty and by the elegance of its broad streets and squares, its fountains and runlets. No cardinals came but there were bishops, chamberlains and other officers of the court who were still in train.
Cossa sent a letter to the Duke of Burgundy, who had been so profuse with his gifts of wine at Konstanz during the winter, and who had so joyously and respectfully sent a bodyguard to meet him in Alsace. At Konstanz, his ambassadors had been in the pope's confidence and they had urged him to race to Avignon, to settle there under the duke's protection. Cossa sent another letter, to the council. It was a message from one combatant to another which told the assembly that he was still willing to resign, but that the war against the Duke of Austria must cease and that he, Baldassare Cossa who was Pope John XXIII, must be appointed cardinal legate in perpetuity for the whole of Italy, with Bologna and Avignon ceded to him, with an annual pension of 30,000 gold florins, secured on the cities of Venice, Florence and Genoa, and with perfect freedom from account for any of his actions; in the past or the future.
While he awaited replies, he showed his gratitude for the loyalties and friendship of the men who had been, at his side since he left Procida thirty-five years before. He bestowed upon his physician. Count Abramo Weiler, now ninety-one years old, the Archbishopric of Cologne and the administration of the diocese of Pederdorb. He made Geofreddano Bocca and Luigi Palo bishops who would rule over Bohemian dioceses and receive their benefices no matter where they might choose to live. He made Father Fanfarone a general of the Franciscan order. `I could not do less,' he said to me simply, 'but you have served me more truly than anyone-in my life. Tell me what you want, Franco, and you will have it if it is mine to give.'
'I want to go back to Bologna,' I told him.
'I am working on that,' Cossa answered.
The Swiss overran the Aargau. They took Mellingen and Sursee. Baden was besieged. All the Duke of Austria had left out of a vast domain was the Black Forest,. Breisgau and the. Tyrol. Sigismund had an army of 40,000 men in the field against him.
Sixteen hours before Cossa's letter reached the Duke of-Burgundy, the messenger of the Council of Konstanz reached him with Sigismund's version The. Duke of Burgundy was a very unsentimental politician who had assassinated his cousin to get where he was. When Sigismund's letter explained that the pope had made a fatal move which had cost him his place and his influence, Burgundy no longer wanted to have anything to do with Cossa. When Cossa's letter arrived; the duke repulsed it with great indignation and dispatched ambassadors to Konstanz to deny any possibility that he would cooperate with the disgraced pope.
`I should have known,' Cossa said when he was told of the duke's rejection, `that anyone who would kill his own cousin to get ahead couldn't be relied on.'
`Mavbe, it's the other way round,' Franco Ellera said. `Maybe we are the ones who can't, be relied on.'
'How can you say that? I am the pope. All Christendom relies on the pope.' He grinned, sardonically. `Look at the deal that idiot turned down. Everything being equal, with the pope making Burgundy the centre, of the world and the focus of the church, that would have given him more power than the King of France. But he didn't know what was good for him.'
`Maybe we're finished,' I said.
`Maybe you're right., Maybe I'm more unpopular than I think. But nobody can discharge a pope. That's the lever we have and I'm going to use it to set us up for the rest of our lives.'
`What can you do?'
`I have to agree to resign. There is no other way. To persuade me to agree, they have to pay me. It's simple.'
'No. We can't win this one.'
`Cosimo has all, my money and most of the Church's. ' We have to get a lock on Cosimo, because money is the big lock he has on Sigismund and the council.'
`How do you get a lock on Cosimo?'
'We kill Decimals daughter Helene Macloi.' `What is she to Cosimo?'
`Decima, Cosimo's true instrument, is gone. He knows I did that.
He doesn't know how or when, but he knows I got rid of her. Two of her daughters are dead. He knows Sigismund wouldn't do anything to harm Pippo Span: What were two women to Sigismund? Pippo Span was his greatest friend. Pippo Span had saved his life, twice. So Cosimo has reasoned that I arranged that.'
`Cossa, tell me, please. What does all, this have to do with Cosimo?'
`He loves Maria Giovanna;, He, loves her almost as much as he loves that bank. When they see Helene MaCloi dead, and her sisters and their mother dead before her, it will come to them that Maria Giovanna is next unless he does something:'
'You mean you disposed of the marchesa and her two daughters so that you would be able to handle Cosimo di Medici if it came to it.’
Cossa shrugged. 'Cosimo owed me He wronged Me. He trapped me in the papacy, but I must have him in the background as my ally if I am to come out of this with anything. Tell Palo to kill her. Now as soon as he can get to Konstanz. Bernaba will set her up for him.'
On 27 April, Duke Frederick, prodded and petted by his mother, urged on by his family, and threatened with cousinly violence by Duke Ludwig of Bavaria Ingolstadt, decided, at last, to deliver the pope to Sigismund as a peace offering… His troops took Cossa from the outraged monastery at Breisach to Umkirch to meet a deputation of cardinals, who set before him the alternatives of honourable resignation or disgraceful deposition. Cossa took a night for reflection, enticing the absent innkeeper's wife into bed with him. In the morning, he told the cardinals that he was willing to resign. but not at Konstanz. He would resign in Burgundy; Savoy or Venice – always providing a fitting reservation was made for his future.
Twelve guards watched him by day; twenty-four by night, from the end of April in Freiburg. The town was densely occupied by imperial troops. The pope was the prisoner of Sigismund, King of the Romans.
