Bohemia the cardinal first visited King Sigismund at Nürnberg. The King, as already mentioned, made light of the recent disaster and declared that he was sure of final victory. He did not, therefore, express a favourable opinion of Cesarini’s conciliatory plans. He was on the point of starting for Italy, where his coronation depended on the favour of the Pope. He knew that Pope Eugenius was—like his predecessor—strongly opposed to general Councils of the Church, and that he was at that moment contemplating the dissolution of the Assembly at Basel. The cardinal, however, proceeded to that town and now at last assumed the presidency of the Council, which had been conferred on him by Pope Martin and confirmed by his successor. Since the spring of the year 1431 ecclesiastics from various countries had begun to arrive at Basel, though the scarcely veiled hostility of Pope Eugenius deterred many. Shortly after the arrival of Cardinal Cesarini the Council took the important step of inviting the Utraquists to appear before the assembly. On October 10 the Council addressed a letter to the clergy, nobility, and the whole Bohemian nation,[1] in which it expressed the sincere wish that peace and unity be re-established in the Church, and it invited
- ↑ This letter is published in John of Ragusa’s “Tractatus quomodo Bohemi reducti sunt ad Unitatem Ecclesiæ” (Monumenta Conciliorum Generalium Seculi Decimi Ouinti, Tom. I. pp. 135–137). It states: “Sacrosancta Basiliensis Synodus . . .: universis viris ecclesiasticis, nobilibus et toti populo regni Bohemiæ unitatem et pacem in Christo domino nostro. Compulit nos caritas Christi egredi de terra nostra . . . et venire ad locum, quem ostendit nobis Dominus pro pace ecclesiæ et salute populi Christiani. Et quid mirum si pro Christo in terra aliena peregrinari decrevimus, cum ipse Deus noster pro nobis durissimam usque ad mortem crucis peregrinationem pati dignatus sit? Si Deus ita dilexit mundum ut filium suum unigenitum daret: et nos merito ipsum diligere debemus ut pro ovibus suis, si oporteat animas nostras libenter exponamus. . . . Si sciretis quanto affectu salutem et pacem vestram optamus . . . obmissis omnibus sine mora huc properantes projiceretis vos in ulnas nostras confidentes quod a nobis, qui vos propter Christum ut nos ipsos amamus requiem animabus vestris invenire possetis. . . . Licebit omnibus libere exponere quidquid Christianae religione expedire judicaverint. . . . Rogamus autem ut viros tales mittatis super quos spiritus domini requiescere speratur; mites videlicet humiles corde pacem optantes et non quæ sua sunt quærenteas, sed quæ Jesu Christi; qui nobis et vobis et toti populo Christiano hic pacem et in futuro seculo vitam æternam donare dignetur qui vivit benedictus in secula. Amen.”
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