The family assembled at noon in the main room, crowding around the marchesa, who had arrived last from Bologna. All of them were fashionably turned out in long, close-fitting laced or buttoned dresses with short-waisted bodices, wide low V- necks and wide belts under the arms and breasts. The border of the marchesa's skirt was gay with brocade. Each woman wore a small fashionable dagger at her girdle. They pulled chairs into a small circle so that the girls could face their mother.
`Frederick of Austria sends you special greetings, mama,' Maria Louise said. `I had no idea you were, up to something with him,'
`I can't tell you what it means to me to see all of you together,' the marchesa replied blandly.
'And how wonderful to have a few days; away from the insatiable Spina,' Rosa murmured.
'It isn't so much that Spina is insatiable,' the marchesa observed, 'but that.he is so determined to get his money's worth.'
`He wears a different disguise each time he does it!'
'Rosa! You know he needs to feel that perhaps you are not sure that, it is he in bed with you, so that he may deny it should you bring it up later. He is a cardinal, after all.'
'Really, you don't know, any of you. Spina is so devious that he will not allow a mirror in our bedroom, because if he saw himself reflected in one of those disguises he would have to accuse me of infidelity.'
The sisters all exploded with laughter.
`Sometimes I wish I had a lover like that,' Maria Giovanna said. 'My Cosimo is so careful that he won't make love in the daytime unless the shutters and blinds are closed and the curtains are drawn. Oh, don't misunderstand, please. He is merely very, very careful about everything.'
`He has a great deal to be careful about,' the marchesa said. `What is happening in Paris, Helene?'
'Never mind Paris. Paris will keep. Please, mama, why are we all here?'
The marchesa smiled a dangerous smile. `We are going to end the schism in the Church,' she said, `and elect Baldassare Cossa as the one true pope. And we are going to be richer and more influential than ever before.'
`Have you told Cosimo we will end the schism, mother?' Maria Giovanna asked.
`It was his father's idea and they will finance everything, so that, when it is done, the Medici bank will be the only bankers for the Church and they will be the richest bankers in the world. And this time we are going to have a real share in the action – a tithe of the bank's share and a tithe of Cossa's share as pope.'
Her audience was unable to speak or perhaps they were counting. Helene found her voice first. 'No woman has ever negotiated such a fee from her protectors,' she said with awe.
`Mama is the greatest courtesan who ever lived,' Rosa said proudly.
'Oh, mama!' Maria Giovanna cried. 'You are the idol of all womanhood,'
`Where do you begin with such a task?' Maria Louise asked. 'And how do we fit into it?'
`You are the keys to it,' the marchesa said. `As Cosimo has pointed out, Cossa controls the support of the canon lawyers, the theologians and the juridical faculty of the university. They are going to publish and justify – before the fact – the decision of the cardinals of both obediences to call a council of the Church.'
`Where will it happen?' Helene asked.
`Pisa. Everything is right for Pisa on this. It is close enough by sea from France yet it is in Italy, close to Florence, for the convenience of the Medici. Right now, Cossa is organizing the Bolognese jurists to lead an embassy to Florence to secure their agreement for a council at Pisa. Cosimo has everyone prepared in Florence. Helene will need to engage the University of Paris to persuade the king to intercede with all the princes of Europe to announce their neutrality towards the present popes.'
'Yes, mama,' Helene said,
`When the two popes are neutralized and left without any partisan support, they can be backed into supporting our council for the election of a single pope. What about that, Helene? Will the university, take the position. that only a pope may call such a council or do you agree with us that one may be called by a congress of the cardinals from both obediences?'
`I think it is safe to say,' Helene answered carefully, `that the university will advise the king that the head of the Church is Christ, not any pope. The chancellor will hold, I am quite sure of it – that only the. Church can assemble a council. I shall, point out to Gerson that the Council of Jerusalem was not presided over by Peter but by its bishop, James.'
'Excellent!'
`I think what you want to-see applied here, mama, is that the right of the Church was never abrogated. That right is to be exercised not only by bishops and cardinals but by all believers who, by reason of their urgent exhortation, have the power to represent all those who work for the unity of the. Church.'
`You are, sure, dear?'
`Well, I am, sure that Gerson enjoys the pleasure of demonstrating the superiority of theology over canon-law. Oh, it will be quite legal to convoke a council without the authority or, intervention of the popes:'
`Most of the electors will side with Cossa,' Maria Louise said. 'But that still leaves Rupert, King of the Romans, who supports Gregory, and Sigismund, King of Hungary, who only wants to end the schism and who doesn't hold any opinion on anything for longer than fifteen minutes, particularly if a woman walks through the room while he is pondering it.
`Then we know how to cope with Sigismund,' the marchesa said.
But I would prefer to avoid the direct approach right now.' `There is Pippo Span,' Maria Louise said. `He is the Hungarian army general who is closest to Sigismund.' `Yes. Rosa would like him.'
`Why should I be the one to like him?'
`You know you adore young men:'
`Mama!' Rosa blushed beautifully. Rosa was the young woman her mother would have been, her mother often thought. Being a courtesan was a temporary thing in Rosa's mind, like a childish garment which is cast away when it is outgrown. Rosa wanted what mama believed that she herself would never attain. Rosa wanted love – romantic, true, pure, young love. Maria Giovanna wanted power as her lover. Maria Louise wanted property, possessions and status. Helene wanted to be ravished by intellects, and mama – wanted all of those things and had possessed them all, except love.
Servants brought in hare; cooked in a rich sweet and sour sauce of vinegar, sugar, chocolate and raisins. It was Tuscan food. There were hearts of artichoke cooked with mushrooms and cauliflower in a sauce of milk, butter and cheese. They drank old red wine made of Sangiovese grapes. The marchesa said, `The Medici must be kept far in the background on this, of course.'
Everyone sagely agreed.
`Florence wants one pope so badly,' Maria Giovanna said, `that they will agree on Pisa. And I think Gino Capponi is the man to work for the desertion of Gregory by his cardinals. He is only a Florentine, not a Sicilian, but he is nearly as devious as Spina.'
`And Benedict?' the marchesa asked.
'He has problems,' Helene said. `Seven of his cardinals, have already left him He is a difficult, stingy old man. An eighth cardinal has just disappeared. The ninth died. The tenth, Louis de Bar, who told me all this, has returned to the court in France. Only three cardinals are left and does not trust one of them,'
`Cosimo's father must know that, of course: That could be why he has chosen to act. What will Benedict do?'
'De Bar says he will raise up five more cardinals. He wants eight for his grand council at Perpignan.'
'His grand council?' the marchesa asked indignantly. `Cosimo's father must have known about that, as well. Why are people so secretive? When will his council happen?'.
'November, de Bar thinks.'