[988] Pragm. Sanct. ann. 1438 cap. 31 (Goldast. I. 403).
[989] Quoniam nostri temporis clerici sunt, heu, affectu crudeles, affatu mendaces, gestu incompositi, victu luxuriosi, actu impii, et sub vacuo sanctitatis nomine sancti nominis derogant disciplinæ (Hartzheim V. 266). The council contented itself with repeating the canons of Bâle.
[990] Lib. III. Tit. i. c. 3, in Septimo.
[991] Quicunque alii concubinas et mulieres hujusmodi, contra præsentem prohibitionem tenere præsumentes, inhabiles censeantur ad beneficia obtinenda, et in dicta curia officia hujusmodi exercenda, nec illorum capaces efficiantur, nisi inhabilitatem suam antea per dictæ sedis literas obtinuerint aboleri.—Ubi sup.
[992] Comp. Doeringii Chron. passim. Döringk was minister or head of the powerful Franciscan order in Saxony, and therefore may be considered an unexceptionable witness.
In the Polish diet of 1459, one of its leading members brought forward a series of propositions which showed the feelings entertained by the people towards papal exactions—“The Bishop of Rome has invented a most unjust motive for imposing taxes—the war against the infidels.... The Pope feigns that he employs his treasures in the erection of churches; but in fact he employs them to enrich his relations,” etc.—Krasinski, Reformation in Poland I. 96.
The councils of Constance and Bâle had produced, for a time, a spirit of great independence. John of Frankfort does not hesitate to declare that the papal authority is not binding when in opposition to the law of God—“Unde patet quod nec papalis vel et imperialis constitutio legi Dei obvians possit dici recta; nec aliquis ipsorum potest licite mandare quod sua constitutio servetur a subditis” (Johann. de Francford. contra Feymeros). According to the decisions of the Decretalists, this was rank heresy, and yet John of Frankfort was one of the leading minds of the period, and of unquestioned orthodoxy. He was a popular preacher, a doctor of theology, chaplain and secretary of the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and a bold disputant against the Hussites. He records with his own hand that, as inquisitor, he convicted and burned, July 4th, 1429, at Lüders, an unfortunate heretic who denied the propriety of invoking the Virgin and the saints. Under the skilful management, however, of Nicholas V. and Pius II. this spirit of independence died away, to again revive, in the next century, in a more determined form.
[993] Ludewig Reliq. Msctorum. XI. 415.—Under Boniface IX., at the commencement of the century, claims arising from simoniacal transactions were constantly and openly prosecuted in the court of the Papal Auditor.—Theod. a Niem de Vit. Joann. XXIII.
[994] Concil. Constantiens. Sess. XI.
[995] Steph. Infessuræ Diar. Roman, ann. 1484 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. III. 1939-40).