But the dissolution of the council did not shelter Martin from the consequences of Alfonso’s indignation. Braccio di Montone, taking advantage of the embarrassments of the pontiff, again invaded the states of the church; and after making himself master of several towns in the ecclesiastical district, laid siege to Aquila. Alarmed by the loss of these places, and apprehensive, that should Braccio make himself master of Aquila, he would in fact keep Rome itself in a state of blockade, the pontiff applied for succour to Joanna of Naples, and by the assistance of that princess raised a considerable body of forces, which he sent to stop the career of the invader. In this expedition the army of the church was signally successful. Braccio quitting a most advantageous position, advanced to give battle to the pontifical troops in the open field, on the second day of June, 1424. The encounter of his cavalry was fierce and impetuous; but in consequence of his rashness, his army was defeated, and Braccio himself, being mortally wounded, was carried prisoner into Aquila, where he died in the course of a few hours after his arrival. His body was conveyed to Rome, and buried without the walls in unconsecrated ground. By the death of Braccio, the pontiff recovered Perugia, Assisi, and the other cities, which the successful rebellion of that chieftain had compelled him to yield to his dominion. The states of the church were now restored to tranquillity. The roads were cleared of the banditti by which they had been so long infested—the traveller journeyed without molestation or fear—the laws were respected, and peace and order succeeded to anarchy and rapine.[145] The quiet of the church was also further secured by the death of Benedict XIII., who in the beginning of this year closed his earthly career at Paniscola, at the advanced age of ninety.[146] In the summer of this year, the Pontiff having retired to Tivoli to avoid the plague, which was raging in Rome, Poggio went to Rieti, where he remained two months, entirely occupied with literary pursuits. This appears from a letter addressed by him to Niccolo Niccoli after his return to Rome, in which he laments the loss of a brother on whom he had depended as the support of his family, and especially of his mother, who was then labouring under the evils of old age and sickness.[147]
About this time Martin had an opportunity of gratifying the animosity which he entertained against the Florentines, by secretly fomenting certain disputes which had taken place between the administrators of their republic and the duke of Milan. Encouraged by the connivance of the pontiff, that prince declared war against the Tuscan state, the territories of which he menaced with a considerable army. In the course of this contest, which was singularly obstinate and bloody, the pontiff had the satisfaction of retaining in his own hands the balance of power; and of beholding the supercilious Tuscans, humbled by disasters and defeats, suing to him for assistance, and entreating his mediation for the restoration of peace. Martin, though he professed the strictest impartiality between the hostile parties, not only refused to assist the Florentines, but still continued secretly to stimulate the ambition of their adversary. Being thus disappointed in their application to the pontiff, the Florentines had recourse to the Venetians, whose dread of the growing power of the duke of Milan induced them readily to enter into an alliance with his antagonists. Animated by this accession of strength, the Florentines prosecuted the war with renewed vigour, and with such success, that the duke was glad to accept of the mediation opportunely proffered by his friend the pontiff, under whose auspices a peace was concluded at Ferrara in the year 1428.[148]
When the pontiff had declared his readiness to interpose his good offices between the contending powers, for the restoration of peace, the Florentines sent Leonardo Aretino to the Roman court, invested with the dignity of embassador of the Tuscan republic.[149] In the nomination of their representative, they gratified the wishes of Martin V. who had long entertained a great respect for Leonardo, and had in vain attempted, by the offer of considerable preferment, to induce him to enter into his service.[150] So highly did Leonardo’s constituents approve of his conduct in his diplomatic capacity, that immediately after his return to Florence, in the latter end of the year 1427, they appointed him to fill the honourable and lucrative office of Secretary or Vice-chancellor of the Florentine state. If credit may be given to his own assertion in a letter to Feltrino Boiardo, he accepted this dignity with reluctance, and lamented the imperious necessity, which compelled him, from a sense of duty, to relinquish the pleasures of literary retirement, for the cares incident to a public station.[151] His reluctance is, however, otherwise accounted for in an epistle which Poggio wrote to him on this occasion, and from which it appears, that when the office in question was first offered to his acceptance, it was proposed that the marks of dignity usually attached to it should be withdrawn; but that on his refusal to accept it on those conditions, the administrators of the government agreed to confer upon him the full honours which had been received by preceding Vice-chancellors, to which terms he acceded. When Poggio was informed that his friend was established in his new office, he congratulated him by letter on this accession to his civic honours, which, however, he observed, was, like matrimony, likely to be attended with considerable difficulty, trouble, and uneasiness.[152]
The satisfaction which Martin V. experienced in witnessing the peaceful and happy condition of that portion of Christendom, the civil interests of which were intrusted to his immediate care, was not a little lessened by the contumacy and rebellion of the Bohemian reformers. These high-spirited men had been fired with indignation, when they were informed of the sad catastrophe of their beloved apostles, John Huss, and Jerome of Prague. The censures of the church, which were fulminated against their opinions, they treated with contempt. Taking advantage of the weakness of Winceslaus, their king, they possessed themselves of several churches in Prague and its environs, where they caused the communion to be administered in both kinds, and openly defied the pope, the emperor, and the council of Constance. Upon the death of Winceslaus, their confidence in their strength, and the ardour of their zeal, impelled them to risk a contest with the power of Sigismund, his successor. Led on by the intrepid Zisca, they encountered danger without fear; and in the shock of battle, their impetuosity was irresistible. For the space of four years, the military talents of their favourite commander discomfited the armies of the emperor, who was at length reduced to the mortifying necessity of entering into a treaty with a man, whom he could regard in no other light than as an obstinate infidel, and a rebellious subject. This treaty was interrupted by the death of Zisca, who was cut off by the plague, on the sixth of October, 1424, at the castle of Priscow. After the death of this formidable antagonist, Sigismund, in hopes that the courage of the Bohemians would expire with their chieftain, again appealed to arms. But he was disappointed in his expectation. Great occasions produce great men. The heretics chose as the successor to Zisca, Procopius, an officer whose valour and skill they had frequently seen put to the proof. Procopius maintained the contest with courage, conduct, and success, and worsted the imperial forces in various engagements. The intelligence of these continued disasters filled the mind of the pontiff with vexation. Resolving to aid the emperor with the temporal and spiritual power of the church, he proclaimed a crusade against the heretics, and sent a commission to cardinal Beaufort, authorizing him, in quality of legate, to wield the sword of the church, and chastise her rebellious sons. This commission was by no means disagreeable to the turbulent spirit of Beaufort. In pursuance of the instructions which he received from the pontiff, he appropriated to the purposes of the crusade, a tenth part of the revenues which accrued from England to the Roman see.[153] With this money he raised an army of four thousand men, at the head of which he encamped in the neighbourhood of Dover, waiting for a favourable wind to pass over to Flanders. [A. D. 1429.] Here he received letters from the duke of Gloucester, regent of the kingdom, requesting him to transport his troops into France, and march to the assistance of the duke of Bedford, who was at that time hard pressed by the Dauphin. In compliance with the regent’s request, Beaufort repaired with his army to Paris, whence he soon afterwards proceeded to Bohemia. The terrors of the crusade, thus aided by the power of the cardinal legate, did not dismay the heretics, who rushed to the combat with unabated fury, and routed the army of the church. The pontiff, sensibly mortified by this disaster, and attributing the ill success of his arms to the imprudence of Beaufort, recalled that haughty prelate, substituting in his place Bartolomeo da Piacenza. The new legate was not more fortunate than his predecessor. The orthodox army still continued to experience a series of defeats. Hoping that a change of his representative might effect a change in the fortune of his arms, Martin superseded Bartolomeo da Piacenza, and committed the direction of the war to Giuliano Cæsarino, Cardinal of St. Angelo.[154]
This was one of the last acts of the pontificate of Martin V., who died on the 20th of February, 1431. Though this pontiff was unable to accomplish the extinction of heresy, he had the good fortune to witness the termination of the famous schism of the West. Benedict XII. dying at Paniscola in the year 1424, two cardinals who had adhered to him in the midst of his misfortunes, at the instance of Alfonso of Arragon elected as his successor the Canonico Egidio of Barcelona, who, accepting the empty title bestowed upon him by this diminutive conclave, assumed the appellation of Clement VII. But soon after this transaction, Martin, having composed his differences with Alfonso, sent a legate into Spain, who easily persuaded Egidio, in consideration of the gift of the bishopric of Majorca, to abdicate the vain honours which rendered him ridiculous, and to renounce all claim to the pontifical dignity. In order to prevent the cardinals who had placed the tiara on the head of Egidio from again disturbing the peace of the church by proceeding to a new election, the Italian legate caused them to be arrested and thrown into prison.[155]
Thus were the latter days of Martin V. passed in a state of tranquillity, which was disturbed only by the rumours of the distant war in Bohemia, and by a transitory revolt of the citizens of Bologna, who, after a feeble attempt to vindicate their freedom, were soon reduced to their wonted subjection. The fear of the plague, indeed, which at this period occasionally manifested itself at Rome, compelled the Pontiff to fly for safety to the neighbouring villages. When on these hasty removals his master required his attendance, Poggio devoted himself to a careful examination of the remains of antiquity, which were to be found in the places where the Papal court from time to time fixed its temporary residence. But whenever he was enabled to return to Rome, he took advantage of this period of domestic quiet to prosecute his studies.[156] He was now deeply engaged in the composition and correction of various works, and among the rest, of his dialogue on Avarice, which he submitted to the inspection of Niccolo Niccoli and others of his literary friends, in the year 1429. In the prefatory address to Francesco Barbaro, which is prefixed to this dialogue, he intimates, that he had not yet made a sufficient progress in the Greek language to be able to present to the public what was at that time held in the highest estimation—a version of any of the Græcian classics; but at the same time expresses his hopes, that this his first essay may be deemed not altogether destitute of merit. It should seem, however, that when he had given the last polish to his work, he was induced for a while to suppress it. Martin V. was impeached of the vice of avarice; and his secretary, whilst he did ample justice to the kind feelings of his master, was doubtful how far it would be prudent, by the publication of his dialogue, to run the risk of the imputation of making his sole failing the object of satirical comment.[157] Besides this, Niccolo Niccoli, in perusing the work in question, without reserve declared his opinion that it was by no means worthy of the known talents of the author.[158] Encouraged however by the flattering encomiums of Francesco Barbaro, and others of his literary friends, to whom he had communicated his manuscript, and emboldened by the consciousness which he felt, that when compared with the productions of the times, his dialogue was possessed of considerable merit, he yielded to the suggestions of scholastic ambition; and immediately after the death of Martin V. by its publication proclaimed himself a candidate for the laurel of literary fame.[159]
In the introduction to the dialogue on Avarice, Poggio intimates that Antonio Lusco, Cincio, and others of the pope’s secretaries, paying a visit to Bartolomeo di Montepulciano, the conversation after supper turned upon the character of Bernardino,[160] a famous preacher who was at that time exercising his talents at Rome. After a very favourable testimony to this preacher’s merits on the part of Lusco, Cincio observes, “In one respect both Bernardino and other preachers of the same description seem to me to fall into an error. They do not preach with a view of doing good, but for the purpose of displaying their eloquence. They are not so anxious to cure the mental diseases which they profess to heal, as to obtain the favour and applause of the mob. They learn a few phrases by heart, and utter them indiscriminately before audiences of every description. Treating of recondite and obscure matters, they soar beyond the comprehension of the vulgar, and tickle the ears of women and fools, whom they dismiss as ignorant as they found them. Some vices they reprove in such a manner that they seem rather to teach, than to correct them, and in their thirst for gain, they forget the promotion of the cause of religion.”
After various other observations have been made on the defects of the preachers of that time, Bartolomeo remarks, that though luxury and avarice are the most copious sources of vice, these failings are rarely reprehended from the pulpit; or if at any time they happen to become the subject of clerical animadversion, they are treated in a dry, jejune and ludicrous manner, without dignity of thought or energy of expression. He therefore proposes that the company then assembled should, in a friendly conversation, enter into a discussion of the nature of these vices. To this proposal Lusco assents, expressing, however, his opinion, that it will be advisable for them to confine themselves to the subject of Avarice. While they are arranging the order in which they are to deliver their sentiments, they are joined by Andrew of Constantinople, a man of great erudition, and the most respectable character. After the interchange of the customary salutations, the new guest is informed of the proposed subject of discourse, and Bartolomeo proceeds to utter an eloquent invective against Avarice. This oration being ended, Lusco replies in extenuation of that vice, and in the course of his harangue reprobates the opposite error of luxury and extravagance. Lusco’s speech displays considerable ingenuity. The most striking passages which it contains are levelled against the professors of the civil law, and against the mendicant friars, both which descriptions of men are treated with great severity. Alluding to the latter, Lusco says, “Look through the whole city—the market—the streets—the churches—and if you can find any body who professes that he wishes for no more than a bare sufficiency, depend upon it you have found a prodigious rarity. Do not cite as instances in contradiction to my assertion, those slovenly hypocritical vagabonds, who, under the pretext of religion, get their living without labour, and make their pretended poverty and contempt of worldly things a most copious source of gain. A well constituted state will not encourage these lazy rogues, but it will prefer those citizens who are willing to work for the benefit of the human race.”[161]