Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/176

 archbishop shared the king’s desire for tranquillity, and perhaps under more favourable conditions their efforts might have been successful. Albik or Albert of Unicov, then about fifty-four years of age, could already look back on a long career. He had begun life as a law-student at Prague, and had obtained academic honours. As was often the custom of scholars at that period, he afterwards travelled for a considerable period. He spent some time at the University of Padua, where he obtained the degree of doctor of law. Somewhat later he applied himself to the study of medicine and acquired the reputation of being one of the greatest physicians of his time. He had recently become a widower, was the father of several children, and had taken vows shortly after the death of his wife. He had through his medical practice acquired a very large fortune, and he accepted the dignity of archbishop mainly by wish of the king, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. The reference in the chronicle quoted above to the large sum Albik had spent to become archbishop refers to a very large gift which he made to Pope John XXIII. That pontiff, as Dr. Tomek writes, would without large payment never have renounced his claim to appoint a successor to Archbishop Zbynek. That the claim of Albik prevailed over even that of the rich and unscrupulous Bishop of Litomysl, who was also a candidate, is probably not due to his greater munificence. It is an appalling proof of the universal prevalence of simony at this period that the contemporary chroniclers always allude to bribery as having decided elections among the clergy, and hardly seem to take other motives into account. In the present case it is, however, very probable that King Venceslas may have used his great influence to prevent the election of his bitter enemy, John “the iron,” to the archbishopric of Prague.

It was natural to hope that the election of Albik, an elderly, conciliatory, opulent, well-intentioned man, whose home life was irreproachable, would at least cause a respite in the theo-