61
On 30 April, the prelates of the four nations and the secular princes I and nobles of the empire and Christendom assembled at the Franciscan cloister in a long throne room, where Sigismund stood in judgement. It was an exquisitely staged proceeding. Sigismund stood in the refectory, with his back to the door and chatted with the envoys from Milan, Genoa, Florence and Venice, who looked over his shoulders at the door; While they talked, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Burggraf Frederick of Nuernberg and Count Nicholas Gara appeared at the door, as, if the king's meeting with them was merely accidental, leading the saddened Duke Frederick, who kneeled three times at the entrance to the room. When the four men approached Sigismund, he turned casually in the direction of the stares of the Italian envoys. All petitioners kneeled.
`What is your offering?' the king said distantly
'Here has come for your mercy,' Ludwig said, ‘our cousin Frederick, Duke of Austria. He will submit to you, and swear, do and keep what is said in this letter which was written here according to an agreement with your royal mercy.'
‘Relative,’ Sigismund said to Frederick, `are you really willing to do this?'
The young duke mumbled in a broken voice, pleading for grace humbly.
`I ask the King to pardon him,' Ludwig said,. `while knowing that because he has scorned your royal majesty and the council, he hereby makes over to the king's grace and power his body, his land and his people, all that he has. He promises moreover to bring back Pope John from where the king has confined him, provided, for honour's sake, that no injury befall the pope's body or his goods.'.
Sigismund held out his hand to Frederick and said, `It grieves me that you have committed this fault.'
The duke's letter was read aloud. Sigismund spoke to the envoys.
`You see how one can be mistaken?' he asked them. `You thought that the Dukes of Austria were the greatest lords in the German countries. Now you see what the King of the Teutons can do. I am the mighty ruler over not only the Austrian princes but overall other princes, lords and towns.'
The Duke of Austria swore and subscribed to a deed whereby he made over all his lands from Alsace to the Tyrol to the king. He contracted to bring the pope back to Konstanz and himself to remain as a hostage until his promises were fulfilled. Sigismund asked him to swear to that. Frederick lifted his hand. The Bishop of Passau gave him the oath; which he repeated in a shaking voice, `I will swear it, keep it, abide by it, and undertake nothing against it.'
Sigismund turned away from them again and immediately proceeded with the auction of the Austrian possessions, which went, piece by piece, to the highest bidder. He sent out his delegates in all directions to take possession of the duke's lands. He needed the money.
The Austrian towns in Upper Swabia as well as all towns in the county of Tyrol refused to swear allegiance to the king.
61
On 2 May, Pope John was summoned to appear before the council within nine days. He was cited as a heretic, a schismatic, a simoniac, and as being incorrigibly immoral. On Thursday, 9 May, the envoys from Konstanz arrived in Freiburg to take their prisoner to the council. They were Frederick, Burggraf of Nuernberg, and the Archbishops of Besancon and Riga, with a troop of 450 horsemen.
Everyone in Cossa's official household had deserted except Count Weiler, Bocca, Luigi Palo and of course, myself. Father Fanfarone had departed immediately upon receiving his generalship of the Franciscan order. It was a sorry train for the spiritual lord of Christendom. Cossa received the envoys and promised to accompany them to Konstanz, but the nine days allowed for his appearance elapsed and still. he, delayed his departure.
The Burggraf refused to lay his hands upon the Lord's Anointed. `We are only here to protect the escort,' he told his military staff. At last the pope agreed to be moved. They got under way on 19 May, getting as far as the ancient town of Radolfzellat the end of the Zeller See, where the pope put up at an inn. `We must keep them off balance,' he said to me. `The council must become as a. flock of chickens in a burning coop. Let them wear themselves out.'
As the pope had not appeared within the time allowed, at the ninth general session of the council,, Cardinal D'Ailly requested that Cossa be suspended, that evidence be taken, and that the process for his deposition proceed. Five prelates were sent to the door of the church to call out for Pope John to appear. They returned to the assembly to say that they had received no reply. A body of thirteen commissioners was appointed to take evidence and, by the next day, eleven witnesses had already been examined. From their testimonies, it was sufficiently proved that Pope. John XXIII had dissipated the Church's goods, had practised all manner of simony, and had caused scandal and confusion to Christendom to such an extent that he deserved to be deposed from the spiritual and secular control of the Church. There was no evidence of heresy, they said.
A decree of the pope's suspension was read out to the assembly by the Patriarch of Antioch.,
In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost – amen. Since we have surely known that Pope John XXIII, from the time of his accession until now, has scandalously misgoverned the Church, has through his damnable life and infamous conduct given evil example to the people, has notoriously by simony distributed bishoprics; monasteries, priories and other Church benefices, has wasted the property of the Church at Rome and other churches, has neglected all admonition and still continues to oppress the Church, we therefore declare the aforesaid Pope John XXIII to be suspended from all spiritual and secular control, hereby prohibit him from exercising same, and we direct that a programme for his deposition be introduced. At the same time, any further obedience to him on the part of the faithful is hereby forbidden.'
Helene MaCloi's body was found on the steps of St. Stephen's church, Konstanz, early on the morning of 20 May. Her neck had been broken.
The body was taken to the house of Konrad of Hof, where Chancellor Gerson lived as the guest of two Dukes of Lorraine. Her sister, Maria Giovanna, was notified and came at once to the place, weeping, with Bernaba Minerbetti. Within moments, Cosimo di Medici was there. He brought a guard of thirty armed men. The family mourned until nightfall.
The funeral was held the following morning. By sundown, Cosimo had sent Maria Giovanna and the guard out of the city to Florence. Cosimo did not explain to her what he thought had happened. He told her she was in gravest danger and that she must, for the love of God and her life, do as he commanded.
62
After the examination of many bishops, priests and curials by the commission charged with investigating Cossa, an indictment of Pope John XXIII was presented before the council. Eleven articles concerned his misconduct in Konstanz, mainly having to do with his seduction of wives and daughters. Simony, the most serious charge, occupied twenty-five articles. Three times, in the indictment he was charged with the murder of Pope Alexander V. A miscellany from the past included adultery with his brother's wife, unchastity with nuns and virgins and sodomy. He was charged with disposing of the 1460 year-old head of St John the Baptist, property of the nuns of St Sylvester, Rome, to an unknown buyer in Florence for 50,000 gold florins, with the oppression of the poor, with tyranny, extending to sentences of death and banishment, with neglect of the admonitions of cardinals, the, French ambassadors and the King of the Romans. All these were written in the blackest ink, but the only article which related to his heresy said that he did not believe in the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the dead.
