As the great doctor, I walked to the high open windows and stared out at the fountain playing in the patio. I dropped my voice an octave to increase its awful authority and, running my hand through my beard, I said, `I will help you. I will discuss the treatment with your father. He will give the medicine to you. You must find a way to give it to the king.'
She took up my hand and kissed it, covering it with her grateful tears.
Dott. Bazoni came to me that evening. He said, `We will never know how to thank you, my lord.'
`Dear colleague,' I answered him. `They are the victims of their lives. How could I not do anything I can?' I went to my baggage and rummaged about in a small case. I brought a vial to Bazoni. `They are not the first to deny having the pox. This potion will paralyse the guilt which lets the king deny the truth. If he refuses direct treatment, then science has to find ways to persuade him to be treated. Your daughter must, put this into his wine and make certain he drinks it. Make certain – absolutely certain – that she understands that there is only enough here to effect one, cure. The king must have all of it.'
But my daughter her own treatment.'
'Ah, but she needs no persuasion. She wants sound children. You shall treat her as you will treat him after this medicine has persuaded him that he must be treated.'
`I see, I see. Yes. But how can we ever thank you?'' By serving science,' I said.
The marchesa and I with our escort, departed from Perugia that night within an hour after Dott. Bazoni had left the villa. By evening Elvira Bazoni was dead from the poison and her father had killed himself by opening his veins. A hammock and a chair were prepared for the dying Ladislas. He was carried from Perugia to Rome, to the church of St Paul outside the city walls, thence to the river beside it, and placed upon a racing galley which sped to Naples. He died on 6 August 1414. Cosimo di Medici, the seekers for the reform of the Church and Pope John XXIII were freed of an enemy. I had made it possible for my friend to go forward to Konstanz with his back protected, and the Marchesa di Artegiana was richer by 20,000 florins, including her fee from the grateful Medici bank…
46
The tremendous news swept Bologna that Ladislas: was dead and that the papal troops had captured Rome. An hysteria of elation shook the city. Cossa seized upon the opportunity to cancel all plans for the Council of Konstanz. `Rome is returned to us,' he said to the marchesa. `At long last, as Christendom expects of him, the pope will reign from the Eternal City. There will be no need to have the Council in Konstanz. I have never trusted the idea, because councils breed reformers, but I was threatened by Ladislas. Now Ladislas is dead, I don't need Sigismund. I shall proclaim that Konstanz is postponed indefinitely.'
`You must go to Konstanz,' the marchesa said, grimly.
`Are you deaf?'
`Are you in your dotage?'
'Konstanz is nothing but a trap. They will take everything away from us if we go there.
'You are over-excited,' Cossa. You have forgotten that you have summoned the leaders of Christendom, prelates and princes, the great bankers and the businessmen, the owners of Europe, to a great council which you have long since proclaimed. Even if there were any logic to it and your notion that Konstanz is a trap is not logical – there is no way to turn such men back now. Whether you go there or remain in Rome, the council will be held.'
He stared at her dumbfounded. `I cannot see what could be better for the Medici: than to have me firmly on the throne of St Peter, but I have long since given up trying to keep up with either of you."
'There is four hundred and fifty thousand gold florins to be made out of Konstanz. Have you forgotten that? My share is only ten per cent. When the bank loan interest has been paid on the money which bought all the leases for us, you will make nearly four hundred thousand gold florins while you consolidate your position, with, the princes, of Europe.'
`You and Cosimo always look out for me, don't you, Decima?'
`You must be very tired Cossa You know I would die for you. You know Cosimo is your best friend, and surely you can see that only if you preside over every meeting of that council will your interests in the Church be, protected. The pope has proclaimed a universal council of the Church. It. will begin in just a few months' time. If you are not there, the first thing the reformers will do – and there will be nothing Cosimo or anyone else can do to stop them – will be to call upon the council to depose you.'
'But I would be the pope in Rome!' he said hoarsely. `They could never dig me out of Sant Angelo, and during the months they tried to do such a thing the people of Christendom would rise up and march upon Rome to bring them down.'
'The world is changing,' she sighed. `Nations act in their own interests now.'
.'I cannot go; to Konstanz, Decimal' -
`If you deny the council; my dearest, there is no way that anyone or anything can help you. Listen to me, my darling. Do you think the princes, who will arrive at Konstanz with separate armies will care one whit about discussing the affairs of the Church? There will be hundreds of private concerns which will smother every question concerning the Church. The French will be at Konstanz to secure the conviction of the Duke of Burgundy for the tyrannicide of the Duke of Orleans. The King of Poland and the Teutonic knights will merely be moving their conflict to Konstanz. The Swedes will be seeking another canonization of their Brigid. The English king will look for official justification of his newest invasion of France. The Count of Cleves and the Lords of Rimini want to be created dukes. Every nation is shouting for the reform of coinage to stop the floods of bad money. The Julian Calendar is a complete confusion because it doesn't conform to solar facts. The great imperial towns are groaning under the burden of exorbitant tolls. Sigismund seeks the glory of organizing help for the Greeks against the advancing Turks. The burgesses of Lubeck have risen against their magistrates and banished them. All these causes and many, many more will bring huge sums of money to Konstanz to win their cases. Are you going to turn your back upon such a treasury of gold in which you rightfully have the lion's share? Europe has so much oil its plate which cannot be swallowed, much less digested, that the council will hardly have time to discuss religion, much less the reform of the Church. And remember this, Cossa, Giovanni di Bicci di Medici and his son Cosimo have only one cause the unity of' the Christian Church under the papacy of John XXIII.
Cossa and I sat up half the night discussing what be should do. I read everything wrong. The way I saw it, he had sent me to join the marchesa at Chur so that I could have indirect knowledge of his real plans which, for whatever reason, he could not discuss with me openly. This, in the end, is what must happen to all such devious people. I am not excusing myself I had been around Cossa's deviousness all my life, so I should have been able to grasp what he really meant, even if he didn't know: what he meant himself. I decided that he merely wanted me to provide him with reasons for going to Konstanz which he could store with all the other reasons he had accumulated. I agreed therefore with the marchesa that he could not cancel the council which he had had announced from every pulpit in Christendom. Then I said to him, `Konstanz will have its great advantages for us Cossa. The heads of nations and states and their ambassadors will attend this meeting because their national interests are involved. If you invite him, there is no way that the young Duke of Milan can stay away. Either he or his envoys must be there, but if you invite him for special honours then he must go to Konstanz and, once he enters your house there, he will be at your mercy.’