Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/177

 logical strife which was absorbing all interest in Bohemia. Events in distant Italy brought on a crisis which was more serious than any of the former disturbances in Bohemia. It has already been mentioned that, immediately after his election to the papal throne, John XXIII. strove with his entire indomitable energy to carve out for the papacy, or rather, perhaps, for himself, a temporal dominion in Italy. Here, however, the diavolo cardinale found a dangerous antagonist in Ladislas, King of Naples, an adventurer of a type somewhat similar to his own. Claiming to uphold the cause of Pope Gregory XII., Ladislas invaded the papal states and menaced Rome, where Pope John had then established his residence. The pope therefore decided to proclaim a crusade against his Italian rival. The name of crusade, so venerable at its origin, had long been perverted to give a false impression of sanctity to very unholy and worldly warfare waged by ambitious popes against temporal rulers. It was only the complete and ignominious failure of the so-called crusades against Bohemia which caused the name to fall into oblivion. Bohemia had in earlier days, because of its geographical position, not greatly attracted the papal tax-gatherers. There was, however, no hope that such an exemption would continue at a time when the papal crown was claimed by three rival pontiffs, each of whom could only rely on the financial support of a comparatively limited extent of country. On December 2, 1411, a decree of John XXIII. declared Pope Gregory XII. and his ally Ladislas, King of Naples, to be heretics, and granted a plenary indulgence to all who took part in the war against Ladislas or contributed to the expenses of the campaign. It has often been stated that this was at that period a very usual occurrence, and that it is surprising that Hus should have raised objections to such a decree. Whatever may have been the case in other countries, in Bohemia such proceedings were exceptional. This fact, unnoticed by foreign writers, is