A Trembling Upon Rome

by Richard Condon

  By order of Sigismund, sealed letters were affixed to the cathedral door at the upper court, and at the door of St Stephen's church, summoning Frederick before the royal court. The king commanded all secular lords, knights, vassals and mercenaries to go to war against the duke's possessions. Mobilization was ordered in the imperial cities and stockpiling of food, provisions, rifles and gunpowder. The first expedition, made up of troops from Konstanz, Biberach, Ueberlingen, Pfullendorf and Buchorn, Kempten and other places, was sent out against Frederick's possessions in the Thurgau The duke's Swiss confederates refused to break their fifty years of peace with his family, but the Tyrol seized the opportunity.; Patriarchs, bishops and counts all produced their claims against Frederick. Within eight days, 437 lords and cities had sent in their cartels of defiance.

  So many Letters of Feud arrived at Schaffhausen that the pope was appalled by their number: He was on his way to church on Black Thursday when a messenger brought him the news of the mobilization for war. Without hesitation, he told the cardinals that each man was to shift for himself He turned back to the castle. The next morning, when he asked them to join him in flight, every cardinal, including the pope's own nephew, but excepting, myself, declined. They were frightened of being made prisoners by Duke Frederick, who had sworn to make the pope and his cardinals pay for the war which had been forced upon him.

  On Good Friday, clad in his pontifical robes, Pope John left Schaffhausen and rode twenty-four miles in a driving rain as far as Waldshut. Ten miles more the next morning got our papal party to the castle at Gross-Laufenburg, in the bishopric of Basel, where the Rhine separates the Jura from the Swabian range.

  `We have to decide the way to get out of here safely to France,' Cossa said to me over a hearty dinner before going to bed with the Angioni twins,, whom Bernaba had been thoughtful enough to send to Schaffhausen for his pleasure.

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  Although the council abandoned respect for Cossa's feelings at its fifth general session on that Easter Saturday, he could not have said that the form was not observed. The delegates; passed a resolution which read `Whoever,; of whatever condition or dignity he be, even of the papal, shall obstinately refuse to obey the decrees of this council, shall be liable to penitence and to punishment, even though secular aid have to be invoked.'

  The actual method of punishment of all who had left Konstanz without permission was made over to Sigismund; who was also asked to write to Pope John offering him a safe conduct for his return to Konstanz.

  At last the Swiss, who had to be threatened with being placed under ban of empire, agreed to take arms against the duke on the conditions that they might retain every place that they conquered and that the King of the Romans would not make peace with the duke without including them in it. The war could now proceed with brutal surety. Frauenfeld and Winterthur in the Thurgau were taken. The Duke of Austria was in despair.'

  `How could I ever have believed that he was a true pope?' he wailed upon the bosom of his mother, who had been sent in a clamouring rush by the family to persuade him to surrender, in the hope that at least something could be saved by negotiations with Sigismund.

  'A pope is a pope,' she said comfortingly. `How could you know what kind of a man he would turn out to be?'

  At dawn on Easter Day, Pope John XXIII crept out of Laufenberg, disguised as a forester, carrying a bow and arrow, and began the journey through the deep snow of the Black Forest to the city of Freiburg. His five faithful friends were with him Geofreddano Bocca, his cook; Count Abramo Weiler, his physician; Luigi Palo, his squire; Father Fanfarone, his chaplain; and his last remaining cardinal, which is to say, myself, Franco Ellera. On the first night we reached Todtnay in the Weisenthal. The next day we passed Muggenbrunn and made sanctuary at the Dominican Cloister at Freiburg im Breisgau, arriving on the night of 10 April. Freiburg had been held by the Austrian dukes since the summer of 1368.

  Within two days, those of the curia who had straggled after Cossa arrived in the town and were struck by its beauty and by the elegance of its broad streets and squares, its fountains and runlets. No cardinals came but there were bishops, chamberlains and other officers of the court who were still in train.

  Cossa sent a letter to the Duke of Burgundy, who had been so profuse with his gifts of wine at Konstanz during the winter, and who had so joyously and respectfully sent a bodyguard to meet him in Alsace. At Konstanz, his ambassadors had been in the pope's confidence and they had urged him to race to Avignon, to settle there under the duke's protection. Cossa sent another letter, to the council. It was a message from one combatant to another which told the assembly that he was still willing to resign, but that the war against the Duke of Austria must cease and that he, Baldassare Cossa who was Pope John XXIII, must be appointed cardinal legate in perpetuity for the whole of Italy, with Bologna and Avignon ceded to him, with an annual pension of 30,000 gold florins, secured on the cities of Venice, Florence and Genoa, and with perfect freedom from account for any of his actions; in the past or the future.

  While he awaited replies, he showed his gratitude for the loyalties and friendship of the men who had been, at his side since he left Procida thirty-five years before. He bestowed upon his physician. Count Abramo Weiler, now ninety-one years old, the Archbishopric of Cologne and the administration of the diocese of Pederdorb. He made Geofreddano Bocca and Luigi Palo bishops who would rule over Bohemian dioceses and receive their benefices no matter where they might choose to live. He made Father Fanfarone a general of the Franciscan order. `I could not do less,' he said to me simply, 'but you have served me more truly than anyone-in my life. Tell me what you want, Franco, and you will have it if it is mine to give.'

  'I want to go back to Bologna,' I told him.

  'I am working on that,' Cossa answered.

  The Swiss overran the Aargau. They took Mellingen and Sursee. Baden was besieged. All the Duke of Austria had left out of a vast domain was the Black Forest,. Breisgau and the. Tyrol. Sigismund had an army of 40,000 men in the field against him.

  Sixteen hours before Cossa's letter reached the Duke of-Burgundy, the messenger of the Council of Konstanz reached him with Sigismund's version The. Duke of Burgundy was a very unsentimental politician who had assassinated his cousin to get where he was. When Sigismund's letter explained that the pope had made a fatal move which had cost him his place and his influence, Burgundy no longer wanted to have anything to do with Cossa. When Cossa's letter arrived; the duke repulsed it with great indignation and dispatched ambassadors to Konstanz to deny any possibility that he would cooperate with the disgraced pope.

  `I should have known,' Cossa said when he was told of the duke's rejection, `that anyone who would kill his own cousin to get ahead couldn't be relied on.'

  `Mavbe, it's the other way round,' Franco Ellera said. `Maybe we are the ones who can't, be relied on.'

  'How can you say that? I am the pope. All Christendom relies on the pope.' He grinned, sardonically. `Look at the deal that idiot turned down. Everything being equal, with the pope making Burgundy the centre, of the world and the focus of the church, that would have given him more power than the King of France. But he didn't know what was good for him.'

  `Maybe we're finished,' I said.

  `Maybe you're right., Maybe I'm more unpopular than I think. But nobody can discharge a pope. That's the lever we have and I'm going to use it to set us up for the rest of our lives.'

  `What can you do?'

  `I have to agree to resign. There is no other way. To persuade me to agree, they have to pay me. It's simple.'

  'No. We can't win this one.'

  `Cosimo has all, my money and most of the Church's. ' We have to get a lock on Cosimo, because money is the big lock he has on Sigismund and the council.'

  `How do you get a lock on Cosimo?'

  'We kill Decimals daughter Helene Macloi.' `What is she to Cosimo?'

  `Decima, Cosimo's true instrument, is gone. He knows I did that.

  He doesn
't know how or when, but he knows I got rid of her. Two of her daughters are dead. He knows Sigismund wouldn't do anything to harm Pippo Span: What were two women to Sigismund? Pippo Span was his greatest friend. Pippo Span had saved his life, twice. So Cosimo has reasoned that I arranged that.'

  `Cossa, tell me, please. What does all, this have to do with Cosimo?'

  `He loves Maria Giovanna;, He, loves her almost as much as he loves that bank. When they see Helene MaCloi dead, and her sisters and their mother dead before her, it will come to them that Maria Giovanna is next unless he does something:'

  'You mean you disposed of the marchesa and her two daughters so that you would be able to handle Cosimo di Medici if it came to it.’

  Cossa shrugged. 'Cosimo owed me He wronged Me. He trapped me in the papacy, but I must have him in the background as my ally if I am to come out of this with anything. Tell Palo to kill her. Now as soon as he can get to Konstanz. Bernaba will set her up for him.'

  On 27 April, Duke Frederick, prodded and petted by his mother, urged on by his family, and threatened with cousinly violence by Duke Ludwig of Bavaria Ingolstadt, decided, at last, to deliver the pope to Sigismund as a peace offering… His troops took Cossa from the outraged monastery at Breisach to Umkirch to meet a deputation of cardinals, who set before him the alternatives of honourable resignation or disgraceful deposition. Cossa took a night for reflection, enticing the absent innkeeper's wife into bed with him. In the morning, he told the cardinals that he was willing to resign. but not at Konstanz. He would resign in Burgundy; Savoy or Venice – always providing a fitting reservation was made for his future.

  Twelve guards watched him by day; twenty-four by night, from the end of April in Freiburg. The town was densely occupied by imperial troops. The pope was the prisoner of Sigismund, King of the Romans.

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  On 30 April, the prelates of the four nations and the secular princes I and nobles of the empire and Christendom assembled at the Franciscan cloister in a long throne room, where Sigismund stood in judgement. It was an exquisitely staged proceeding. Sigismund stood in the refectory, with his back to the door and chatted with the envoys from Milan, Genoa, Florence and Venice, who looked over his shoulders at the door; While they talked, Duke Ludwig of Bavaria-Ingolstadt, Burggraf Frederick of Nuernberg and Count Nicholas Gara appeared at the door, as, if the king's meeting with them was merely accidental, leading the saddened Duke Frederick, who kneeled three times at the entrance to the room. When the four men approached Sigismund, he turned casually in the direction of the stares of the Italian envoys. All petitioners kneeled.

  `What is your offering?' the king said distantly

  'Here has come for your mercy,' Ludwig said, ‘our cousin Frederick, Duke of Austria. He will submit to you, and swear, do and keep what is said in this letter which was written here according to an agreement with your royal mercy.'

  ‘Relative,’ Sigismund said to Frederick, `are you really willing to do this?'

  The young duke mumbled in a broken voice, pleading for grace humbly.

  `I ask the King to pardon him,' Ludwig said,. `while knowing that because he has scorned your royal majesty and the council, he hereby makes over to the king's grace and power his body, his land and his people, all that he has. He promises moreover to bring back Pope John from where the king has confined him, provided, for honour's sake, that no injury befall the pope's body or his goods.'.

  Sigismund held out his hand to Frederick and said, `It grieves me that you have committed this fault.'

  The duke's letter was read aloud. Sigismund spoke to the envoys.

  `You see how one can be mistaken?' he asked them. `You thought that the Dukes of Austria were the greatest lords in the German countries. Now you see what the King of the Teutons can do. I am the mighty ruler over not only the Austrian princes but overall other princes, lords and towns.'

  The Duke of Austria swore and subscribed to a deed whereby he made over all his lands from Alsace to the Tyrol to the king. He contracted to bring the pope back to Konstanz and himself to remain as a hostage until his promises were fulfilled. Sigismund asked him to swear to that. Frederick lifted his hand. The Bishop of Passau gave him the oath; which he repeated in a shaking voice, `I will swear it, keep it, abide by it, and undertake nothing against it.'

  Sigismund turned away from them again and immediately proceeded with the auction of the Austrian possessions, which went, piece by piece, to the highest bidder. He sent out his delegates in all directions to take possession of the duke's lands. He needed the money.

  The Austrian towns in Upper Swabia as well as all towns in the county of Tyrol refused to swear allegiance to the king.

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  On 2 May, Pope John was summoned to appear before the council within nine days. He was cited as a heretic, a schismatic, a simoniac, and as being incorrigibly immoral. On Thursday, 9 May, the envoys from Konstanz arrived in Freiburg to take their prisoner to the council. They were Frederick, Burggraf of Nuernberg, and the Archbishops of Besancon and Riga, with a troop of 450 horsemen.

  Everyone in Cossa's official household had deserted except Count Weiler, Bocca, Luigi Palo and of course, myself. Father Fanfarone had departed immediately upon receiving his generalship of the Franciscan order. It was a sorry train for the spiritual lord of Christendom. Cossa received the envoys and promised to accompany them to Konstanz, but the nine days allowed for his appearance elapsed and still. he, delayed his departure.

  The Burggraf refused to lay his hands upon the Lord's Anointed. `We are only here to protect the escort,' he told his military staff. At last the pope agreed to be moved. They got under way on 19 May, getting as far as the ancient town of Radolfzellat the end of the Zeller See, where the pope put up at an inn. `We must keep them off balance,' he said to me. `The council must become as a. flock of chickens in a burning coop. Let them wear themselves out.'

  As the pope had not appeared within the time allowed, at the ninth general session of the council,, Cardinal D'Ailly requested that Cossa be suspended, that evidence be taken, and that the process for his deposition proceed. Five prelates were sent to the door of the church to call out for Pope John to appear. They returned to the assembly to say that they had received no reply. A body of thirteen commissioners was appointed to take evidence and, by the next day, eleven witnesses had already been examined. From their testimonies, it was sufficiently proved that Pope. John XXIII had dissipated the Church's goods, had practised all manner of simony, and had caused scandal and confusion to Christendom to such an extent that he deserved to be deposed from the spiritual and secular control of the Church. There was no evidence of heresy, they said.

  A decree of the pope's suspension was read out to the assembly by the Patriarch of Antioch.,

  In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost – amen. Since we have surely known that Pope John XXIII, from the time of his accession until now, has scandalously misgoverned the Church, has through his damnable life and infamous conduct given evil example to the people, has notoriously by simony distributed bishoprics; monasteries, priories and other Church benefices, has wasted the property of the Church at Rome and other churches, has neglected all admonition and still continues to oppress the Church, we therefore declare the aforesaid Pope John XXIII to be suspended from all spiritual and secular control, hereby prohibit him from exercising same, and we direct that a programme for his deposition be introduced. At the same time, any further obedience to him on the part of the faithful is hereby forbidden.'

  Helene MaCloi's body was found on the steps of St. Stephen's church, Konstanz, early on the morning of 20 May. Her neck had been broken.

  The body was taken to the house of Konrad of Hof, where Chancellor Gerson lived as the guest of two Dukes of Lorraine. Her sister, Maria Giovanna, was notified and came at once to the place, weeping, with Bernaba Minerbetti. Within moments, Cosimo di Medici was there. He brought a guard of thirty armed men. The family mourne
d until nightfall.

  The funeral was held the following morning. By sundown, Cosimo had sent Maria Giovanna and the guard out of the city to Florence. Cosimo did not explain to her what he thought had happened. He told her she was in gravest danger and that she must, for the love of God and her life, do as he commanded.

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  After the examination of many bishops, priests and curials by the commission charged with investigating Cossa, an indictment of Pope John XXIII was presented before the council. Eleven articles concerned his misconduct in Konstanz, mainly having to do with his seduction of wives and daughters. Simony, the most serious charge, occupied twenty-five articles. Three times, in the indictment he was charged with the murder of Pope Alexander V. A miscellany from the past included adultery with his brother's wife, unchastity with nuns and virgins and sodomy. He was charged with disposing of the 1460 year-old head of St John the Baptist, property of the nuns of St Sylvester, Rome, to an unknown buyer in Florence for 50,000 gold florins, with the oppression of the poor, with tyranny, extending to sentences of death and banishment, with neglect of the admonitions of cardinals, the, French ambassadors and the King of the Romans. All these were written in the blackest ink, but the only article which related to his heresy said that he did not believe in the immortality of the soul or the resurrection of the dead.

  Three hundred of Sigismund's Hungarian troops, took the pope to the prison in the castle of Gottlieben, where John Hus was held prisoner under the wardership of the Count Palatine and one of the two foremost protectors of Pope Gregory XII. Within one hour of Cossa's arrival, at Gottlieben, Cosimo di Medici was brought into his damp dark cell and the warders were sent away.