God, depose the Pope.[1] It is impossible to state what princes were the authors of this strange manifesto, which largely influenced the convocation of the Council of Basel, and therefore indirectly the termination of the Hussite wars. Some writers have ascribed this document to the Archduke Albert of Austria. His lands had suffered severely through the Hussite incursions, and he also had a future claim to the Bohemian crown, as heir of his father-in-law Sigismund. Yet this conjecture appears very improbable, for the Archduke Albert fully shared that feeling of intense devotion to the papal see, which, with few exceptions, has influenced all the princes of his house from the time of Rudolph of Habsburg. The manifesto, on the other hand, though it strongly condemns the Hussites, is obviously the work of a member of the moderate, not of the intransigent party within the Church of Rome. Some Romans at the time believed the manifesto to have been drawn up by the Elector Frederick of Brandenburg and by his
- ↑
The contents of this strange proclamation are contained in a letter addressed to the chancellor of the Duke of Burgundy by a Roman correspondent. It is entitled “Conclusiones positæ in valvis palatii principis apostolorum Mercurii, VIII Novembris MCCCCXXX.
I. Prima conclusio. Fides catholica adeo est privilegiata quod est omni homini præferenda . . .
II. Secunda conclusio. Nedum ecclesiastici verum et sæculares, et maxime principes . . . adstricti sunt fidem Christianam defensare, aliter alieni a fide censendi sunt.
III. Tertia conclusio. Sicut hæreses Novatiani, Arii, Sabelli, Macedonii, Nestorii et aliorum hæreticorum per generalia concilia exsufflatæ fuerunt: ita necesse est pro eradicatione hæresis Hussitarum concilium de mense proximo Martii inevitabiliter celebrare.
IV. Quarta conclusio. Cum celebratio concilii generalis sit medium necessarium extirpandi dictam hæresin quisquis Christianus. . . . obnoxius est promovere . . . celebrationem concilii generalis fiendam dicto tempore.
V. Ubi papa vel cardinales desistant promovere aut velint impedire celebrationem concilii generalis dicto tempore fautores hæresis sunt censendi.
VI. Sixta conclusio. Ubi papa in proximo mense Martii concilium generale . . . non incipiat quod præsentas tunc in concilio jure divino sicut sunt obnoxii ei primo obedientiam nomine totius Christianitatis subtrahere, et omnes Christicolæ tenentur præsentibus in concilio generali parere.VII. Si appareat papam et cardinales nolle promovere concilium . . . ex potestate concilio data a Deo, concilium contra non promoventes tenebitur procedere ad illius vel illorum privationem et depositionem . . . et alias pœnas a jure statutas contra fautores hæresis.—Marténe et Durand, as above, VIII. pp. 48–49.
