Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/124

 him and Pope Gregory XII., the second successor of his former patron. Pope Gregory had appointed his nephew to the wealthy bishopric of Bologna, the revenues of which Cardinal Cossa refused to renounce. Deadly enmity sprang up between the cardinal and the pope, who excommunicated him, stating “that notorious facts proved that the disciple (alumnus) of perdition, Baldassare Cossa, formerly cardinal deacon of St. Eustachius, formerly apostolic legate, had with other sons of iniquity revolted against the pope and the mother-church of God, that he had treated with contempt the worship of God, neglected the ceremonies of the Christian religion, and seized the sword of Satan and that of tyrannical power.” Cossa retaliated without delay. Carrying out a plan he had perhaps previously conceived, he granted his protection to the council assembled at Pisa, which, in the disturbed state in which Italy then was, could hardly have met had it not been for the strong military force that was under Cossa’s command. Through his influence Pope Alexander was elected, and, as already mentioned, Cossa shortly became his successor. As Pope John XXIII. he resumed his former Italian policy, endeavouring in a manner not dissimilar from that afterwards employed by Caesar Borgia to carve out a kingdom for himself in that land. His most dangerous opponent was King Ladislas of Naples. It was by attempting to raise money for the purpose of a crusade against Naples that John XXIII. became the cause of disturbances in the distant city of Prague. When, on the repeated invitation of the Emperor Sigismund, Cossa reluctantly proceeded to Constance, his former good fortune seems to have forsaken him. A thorough Italian, he appears out of his element in northern lands.

After noticing briefly the general state of European politics, dominated as it was entirely by the schism, reference must again be made to Hus. In Bohemia, as elsewhere, the schism was the almost exclusive object of public interest. It has