Page:The religious life of King Henry VI.djvu/122

96 they have despised and rebelled against their head. And what we marvel at more is that they have set aside the present hope for peace and concord between the Lord Eugenius and themselves, for which the Roman Emperor and other lovers of peace will not cease to work, and which, as far as possible, We are determined to labour for in conjunction with other princes and ecclesiastics who desire it."

In a letter which King Henry wrote at this time to Theodore, Archbishop of Cologne, he tells him that he is devoting himself heart and soul to the work of securing peace and union, which is so necessary for the Church and for the whole world, and he gladly includes in this the peace between England and France. He has long and earnestly laboured, he says, for the peace of the Church, and there is nothing he more desires.

He addressed the Emperor Sigismund in the same sense, imploring him to prevent the schism threatened at Basle. He laments the evil treatment of the Pope by those who, in spite of the closure of the Council and the protests of the Cardinals present, had