CATASTROPHE
caused trouble to many Popes, most particularly to Boniface at Anagni. Welcomed by the world as a saviour of unity, he received the threefold crown in the Cathedral of Constance. The ceremony was of such splendour that even Rome had seldom seen the equal.
Exactly a hundred years before ths re:\^!:-.ni of Luther, this Pope rode through a German city; and at his side the Roman King and the Prince-Elector of Brandenburg walked through the deep mud holding the bridle reins of his steed. The Papacy was saved, but the man who was now Pope did not save the Church. The spirit and the mission of the Council, which came to a close in 1418, had been com- mitted into faithless hands. The fact that his fascinating character had won over everyone helped little or not at all to reform the Church in all its members. He went to Florence and from there, by diplo- macy and military action, succeeded in liberating the Papal States from the power of Naples and wild robber bands. The Eternal City and the surrounding territory afforded a picture of misery as a result of the war and famine which had been visited upon them. In Sep- tember, 1424, the Pope made his entry through the Porta del Populo. He took up residence in the Vatican and rebuilt ruined churches, in- cluding the Basilica of the Lateran which had long before been de- stroyed by fire, and as a Pope-King established the monarchical unity of his temporal power.
For more than a hundred years afterward Papal policy remained intimately bound up with the lesser fortunes of Rome and Italy. The axis of this policy became the Papal States, the emphasis on which increased as rime went on, because though the universal Church had the power to levy taxes, the triumph of nationalist particularism formed part of the troubles which necessarily confronted the spiritual head of a territorial monarchy obliged to pay soldiers, maintain a court, support cardinals and embassies, and become the builder and benefactor of his city. Martin V soon proved to be an able regent of the temporal power and an equally slothful shepherd of his flock. Neither as Pope nor as prince was he fond of the councilar idea. This was a threat to the monarchical character of the Church, and every reform it sponsored diminished the income with which alone he could balance his budget. But the nations were so persistent in demanding the continuance of the work begun at Constance that the Pope was
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