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1305–1590] by the great jubilee of 1423. At the same time the crowning reward of his labours was the effacing of the last traces of the schism. He prosecuted successfully the conflict with the adherents of Benedict XIII., who, till the day of his death clung to the remnants of his usurped authority (see ). An attempt on the part of Alphonso V. of Aragon to renew the schism failed; and, in 1429, the Spaniard was compelled to give up his anti-pope, Clement VIII. Count John of Armagnac, whom Martin had excommunicated as a protector of schismatics, was also driven to make submission. Martin rendered the greatest service by his admission of a whole series of distinguished men into the College of Cardinals; but he was less fortunate in his struggles against Hussitism. His death took place on the 20th of February 1431, and the inscription on his grave—still preserved in the Lateran church—styles him “the felicity of his age” (temporum suorum felicitas).

The Colonna pope was followed by the strict, moral and pious Gabriel Condulmaro, under the title of Eugenius IV. His pontificate was not altogether happy. At the very first, his violent and premature measures against the Colonna family, which had received such unbounded Council of favour from his predecessor, embroiled him in a sanguinary feud. Far worse, however, were the conflicts which Eugenius had to support against the Council of Basel—already dissolved on the 18th of December 1431. At the beginning, indeed, a reconciliation between the pope and council was effected by Sigismund who, on the 31st of May 1433, was crowned emperor at Rome. But, as early as the 29th of May 1434 a revolution broke out in Rome, which, on the 4th of June, drove the pope in flight to Florence; where he was obliged to remain, while Giovanni Vitelleschi restored order in the papal state.

The migration of Eugenius IV. to Florence was of extreme importance; for this town was the real home of the new art, and the intellectual focus of all the humanistic movements in Italy. At Florence the pope came into closer contact with the humanists, and to this circumstance is due the gradual dominance which they attained in the Roman Curia—a dominance which, both in itself, and even more because of the frankly pagan leanings of many in that party, was bound to awaken serious misgivings.

The Italian troubles, which had entailed the exile of Eugenius IV., were still insignificant in comparison with those conjured up by the fanatics of the Council in Basel. The decrees enacted by that body made deep inroads on the rights of the Holy See; and the conflict increased in violence. On the 31st of July 1437 the fathers of Basel summoned Eugenius IV. to appear before their tribunal. The pope retorted on the 18th of September by transferring the scene of the council to Ferrara—afterwards to Florence. There, in July 1439, the union with the Greeks was effected: but it remained simply a paper agreement. On the 25th of June 1439 the synod—which had already pronounced sentence of heresy on Eugenius IV., by reason of his obstinate disobedience to the assembly of the Church—formally deposed him; and, on the 5th of November, a rival pontiff was elected in the person of the ambitious Amadeus of Savoy, who now took the title of Felix V. (See, and ) Thus the assembly of Christendom at Basel had resulted, not in the reformation of the Church, but in a new schism! This, in fact, was an inevitable sequel to the attempt to overthrow the monarchical constitution of the Church. The anti-pope—the last in the history of the papacy—made no headway, although the council invested him with the power of levying annates to a greater extent than had ever been claimed by the Roman Curia.

The crime of this new schism was soon to be expiated by its perpetrators. The disinclination of sovereigns and peoples to a division, of the disastrous consequences of which the West had only lately had plentiful experiences, was so pronounced that

the violent proceeding of the Basel fathers alienated from them the sympathies of nearly all who, till then, had leaned to their side. While the prestige of the schismatics waned, Eugenius IV. gained new friends; and on the 28th of September 1443 his reconciliation with Alphonso of Naples enabled him to return to Rome. In consequence of the absence of the pope, the Eternal City was once more little better than a ruin; and the work of restoration was immediately begun by Eugenius.

During the chaos of the schism, France and Germany had adopted a semi-schismatic attitude: the former by the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (June 7, 1438); the latter by a declaration of neutrality in March 1438. The efforts of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini brought matters into a channel more favourable to the Holy See; and an understanding with Germany was reached. This consummation was soon followed by the death of Eugenius (Feb. 23, 1447). No apter estimate of his character can be found than the words of Aeneas Silvius himself: “He was a great-hearted man; but his chief error was that he was a stranger to moderation, and regulated his actions, not by his ability, but by his wishes.” From the charge of nepotism he was entirely exempt; and, to the present day, the purity of his life has never been impugned even by the voice of faction. He was a father to the poor and sick, in the highest sense of the word; and he left behind him an enduring monument in his amendment and regeneration, first of the religious orders, then of the clergy. Again, the patronage which he showed to art and artists was of the greatest importance. All that could be done in that cause, during this stormy epoch, was done by Eugenius. It was by his commission that Filarete prepared the still-extant bronze work of St Peter’s, and the Chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the Vatican was painted by Fiesole.

On the death of Eugenius IV. the situation was menacing enough, but, to the surprise and joy of all, Tomaso Parentucelli, cardinal of Bologna, was elected without disturbance, as Pope Nicholas V. With him the Christian Renaissance ascended the papal throne. He was the son of a physician from .Sarzana, who was not too well endowed with the gifts of fortune; and the boy, with all his talents, could only prosecute his studies at great personal sacrifices. He was possessed of a deep-seated enthusiasm for science and art, of a sincerely pious and idealistic temperament, and of an ardent love for the Church. After his ordination, his great learning and stainless life led him to office after office in the Church, each higher and more influential than the last. Not only did he love the studies of the humanist, but he himself was a Christian humanist. Yet among all his far-reaching plans for the encouragement of art and science, Nicholas V. had always the well-being of the Church primarily in view; and the highest goal of his pontificate, which inaugurated the Maecenatian era of the popedom, was to ennoble that Church by the works of intellect and art. It is astonishing to contemplate how much he achieved, during his brief reign, in the cause of the Renaissance in both art and literature. True, his designs were even greater, but his term of government was too short to allow of their actual execution. A simply gigantic plan was drawn out, with the assistance of the celebrated Alberti, for the reconstruction of the Leonine City, the Vatican and St Peter’s. The rebuilding of the last-named was rendered advisable by the precarious condition of the structure, but stopped short in the early stages. In the Vatican, however, Fiesole completed the noble frescoes, from the lives of St Stephen and St Lawrence, which are still preserved to us. Nicholas, again, lent the protection and encouragement of his powerful arm to science as well as art, till the papal court became a veritable domain of the Muses. He supported all scientific enterprises with unlimited generosity, and the most famous savants of all countries flocked to Rome. Yet it is surprising—and scarcely excusable—that Nicholas, while selecting the men whom he considered necessary for his literary work, passed over much which ought to have aroused grave suspicion in his mind. Thus the active humanistic life, called into existence by the enthusiasm of the pope, was not without its dark side. Quite apart from the fact that