Page:The life & times of Master John Hus by Count Lützow.djvu/260

 ment of John XXIII. He declared that he was prepared of his own accord and for the good of the church to descend from the throne of St. Peter if the two claimants to the papacy, who had been deposed and condemned as heretics by the Council of Pisa, would in a manner and at a time which he would determine in accordance with the members of the council, renounce the titles which they had usurped. This declaration, and another which John afterwards submitted, were considered insufficient, and a document drawn up by members of the council and transmitted to the pope by Sigismund was rejected by him. He declared that the wording of the document presented to him was almost identical with that of the document containing the renunciation of Gregory XII., between whose case and his own there was, Pope John maintained, a very considerable difference. Finally, on March I, John XXIII. accepted and signed a document which contained a formal renunciation of the papal throne. He declared that of his own free will and for the sake of the peace of the church, he entirely renounced all claims to the papal throne, and that he made no other condition except that Peter of Luna and Angelo Correr, known in their obediences as Benedict XIII. and Gregory XII., should do likewise. This renunciation was received with universal rejoicings, and when John XXIII. on the following day solemnly confirmed it by his oath in the cathedral before the members of the council and the emperor, all present burst into tears.

Baldassare Cossa—as he now again became—though “entrapped,” as he would have expressed it, and daunted for a moment, was by no means at the end of his resources. It has already been mentioned that Cossa had on his journey to Constance met Duke Frederick of Austria, and that a thorough understanding had sprung up between them. This was of greatest importance to the pope, as the territory of the Habs-