Church of Rome. These, considering that the object of the national party had been attained, gradually abandoned the party led by Hus; for not only had the university—the great centre of political life in Bohemia—fallen into the hands of the nationalists, but they shortly afterwards also obtained the municipal control over many towns.
The hopes that the Council then assembled at Pisa would undertake Church reform (hopes that at that moment were entertained by many fervent adherents of the Church of Rome) proved futile. The Council may indeed be said to have rendered the situation of the Western Church even more difficult than it had been before. The Council (1409) deposed both Gregory XII and Benedict XIII, and chose Alexander V as Pope,[1] but as the two other Popes, Gregory and Benedict, continued to be recognized in some countries, there were for a time three popes simultaneously. It is curious to note that at the same period, on the death of Rupert of the Palatinate (1401), some of the German Electors chose King Sigismund of Hungary, and others his cousin Jodocus, the Margrave of Moravia, as German king. Venceslas (as has been previously mentioned) having also claimed that title, the German kingdom had three kings at the same moment as the Roman Church had three popes. Jodocus died (1411) only three months after his election, and Venceslas and Sigismund now came to an agreement. The terms are not exactly known, as contemporary writers, entirely occupied with the ecclesiastical strife then raging in Bohemia, give little information on other matters. Venceslas, ever too confident in his treacherous younger brother, not only consented to the election of his brother as German king, but even assured him his own vote. Sigismund, on the other hand, promised to favour in every way his brother's election as Roman Emperor. Sigismund was soon afterwards, and this time unanimously, chosen as king by the German Electors (1411).
The failure of the Council of Pisa to achieve or even to attempt any reform of the Church, undoubtedly encouraged the higher clergy of Bohemia to oppose more energetically than before the reform movement in their own country. Zbyněk Zajic of Hasenburg, archbishop of Prague, had not at first been hostile to the movement in favour of
- ↑ He was succeeded in the following year by John XXIII.
