No matter what Sigismund said, it was the way he said it which had the power to put Cossa to sleep: Cossa told me he had never met a man as boring as Sigismund. He did not listen to, and most certainly took no heed of, anything Sigismund had to say about Hus – which was a pity, as it turned out, because Cossa and Hus, in their own strange ways, had a great deal in common about their views on a pure Christian religion. Hus called the priests of Bohemia heretics because they took fees for confession, communion, baptism in his sermons, Hus said they had `lacerated the minds of the pious, extinguished charity and rendered the clergy odious to the people`. Hus also defended the teachings of Wyclif, a reformer who was anathema to all rulers. Hus was not only a reformer, but a patriot, and kings have reason to be suspicious of patriots.
Gradually, the talk at Lodi would get back to business. Sigismund was certain that the council would demand the resignations of all three popes but that, of course, the college would immediately reelect Cossa. His Holiness 'smiled wistfully, saying that must be so, but until that happened only he was pope, inasmuch as the other two men had been deposed, and that he would preside at all council sessions so that Christendom could be assured of the reform of the Church. Cossa considered that this one fact was his lock upon the council.
The. king inquired of his staff if there were no city near the German frontier which belonged to the Holy Roman Empire. Count Ulrich of Teck recommended Kempten in southern Swabia. Count Eberhard of Kellenberg agreed that Kempten would be good. I sat at the pope's right hand and rumbled out my authority in the special voice I had developed for my cardinalate. `As Cardinal of Fribourg, I know this region,' I said in tones which brooked no opposition. `I can tell you that Kempten is woefully lacking g in facilities for the delegations, troops and for the immense number of travellers which this council will attract.' I turned slightly to face the Holy Father. `I would recommend to His Holiness the town of Konstanz, which has the advantage of being situated on the Rhine and on the Bodensee. King Rupert made his army headquarters there and they found ample shelter and food. Also, everything may be bought there and at trifling cost.'
The king turned his beaming face upon the pontiff; his eyes shining with his good fortune. Konstanz was the very city which Pippo Span had been pressing upon him. Maria Louise had told him all the details about it with tingling iciness: Now the pope's own cardinal had brought Konstanz forward! He had won every point! He would shine through history as the saviour of Christendom!
`Your Holiness,' he said humbly, `Konstanz, the recommendation of your cardinal, is entirely acceptable to me.'
`Is there a bishopric in Konstanz?' Cossa asked me mildly.
`Yes, Holy Father.'
The pope pored over the large map on the table before him. The king guided his eyes with a tracing finger. `Ah ' Cossa said.
I see. It is indeed at the centre of Europe. Very well. We agree that the council should be held there.'
When Sigismund's party had dispersed, when Cossa and I were alone in the large anteroom off the meeting room, Cossa smiled brilliantly and said, 'We made ourselves about three hundred and eighty thousand gold florins today, merely as side-money from the Council of Konstanz. You are a cardinal after my own heart.' Just as Carlo Pendini's gold had pulled Cossa into the papacy, so did the beckoning of all the money to be made in Konstanz pull him into that destiny.
On 9 December 1413, Pope John XXIII promulgated his bull for the convocation of a General Council of the Holy Church to begin on All Saints Day, 1 November 1414, proclaiming that he would be present. On the evening of 9 December, Sigismund paid over to the Marchesa di Artegiana the fee for her services. Then a contract was signed between them by which he agreed to provide Maria Louise with a town house in Prague and one at Buda, grant her the right to travel with him as his consort when Queen Barbara was not required to appear for occasions of state, made provision for her raiment, jewels, furs, shoes and clothes, with a guarantee of 300 golden florins to be paid to her each month following a. capital payment of 5000 florins should they separate before the end of the-five-year contract. The king's hand trembled with thrift-shock and passion as he signed the document.`I believe she is coming -around to liking me,' he said to the marchesa.
She patted his arm. `I hope you will make her very happy,' she answered.
44
Sigismund was unhurried at Lodi. He was a roving post-barbarian who commanded Hungarian and German killer-rustics, and he enjoyed having the Pope of all Christendom at his disposal for as long as he wished to protract it. He would come back to Hus, which had had no connection with the agenda of the meeting, because it was an area in which he could, seem more knowledgeable about the Church than its pontiff `Did you know;' he would ask, `that the University of Paris has been in correspondence with the Archbishop of Prague about John Hus?'
Cossa was agonizingly bored with Sigismund. Frequently he wondered, in his desperate idleness, if Sigismund could be mentally arrested. `Hus' he answered without interest. `The Bohemian you excommunicated.' `Oh, yes?'
`For not attending. the Council of Rome?' `I don't remember him.'
`As I will inherit the Bohemian throne, I somewhat resented the slur on a future subject. The fact is, the French are certain to make a major thing of Hus at the council.'
`Why the French?"
‘They are drawn to heresy.'
'The business of any council of the Church is the extermination of heresy,' Cossa replied. He would not, he knew, be able to stand much more of this idiot's country-fair German accent: The fellow spoke Latin by whining it through his nose. How did Maria Louise put up with him? He must be paying her a fortune. The king, on his side, thought that if he closed his eyes he would have to believe that he was listening to a Neapolitan street hoodlum. Such a majestic language as Latin, as educated Germans and Luxembourgers spoke it, was not intended to be coarsened by the accents of an alley pimp, which was how he heard all Italian speech. How could they have elected a pope who spoke as commonly as this one – though, of course, the college of cardinals was made up mainly of coarse Italians. `I think I should tell you about John Hus, Holiness,' Sigismund said. `He is a fellow who cannot accept authority. When he argues for the reform of the Church, he is really only objecting to the qualities of his superiors.'
'That describes every reformer. You, for instance.'
`Hus is also overly patriotic for a priest. Bohemia, which has been ruled by my family for a long time, is divided against itself. It is all a swarm of Czech nobility and. peasants against Teuton nobility and peasants… The Teuton peasants, already half-German, are up all night clearing forests and making farms. They work the silver mines. They establish towns. They bring prosperity.'
Cossa moaned lightly to himself: Why must this man always sound like, a comedian? he thought. `It is getting late; Sigismund,' he said. He caught Maria Louise's eye, clenching his jaws and popping his eyes:, She moved closer to Sigismund, forcing the king to move his relentless gaze away from the pope, which gave Cossa the chance to close his mind to the king's verbal clatter.
`The entire thing is a hatchwork of, ironies,' Sigismund said. `My father founded the University of Prague on the models of Paris and Bologna and the mockery is that that was where Hus learned to concoct his poisons against the Church and state.' He was forcing Cossa to face what reform would mean. `Yet Hus has much right on his side. The Church is too wealthy. It has too many prelates. It is corrupt. It is licentious. Simony abounds and the clergy are sucked into depravities. Hus demanded reform. You sent Cardinal Colonna to Prague and had him excommunicate Hus for contumacy -which was begging the whole question. What I seek, as you may well imagine, is to clear up such despicable rumours about the country I may soon rule. What we must do, therefore, is to have our council examine Hus for heresy. But to be examined he must get to Konstanz. To him get to Konstanz, I would need to give him a safe conduct. I can't do that, however, unless you relieve him of the ban of excommunication.'