ivision of the Church, which had lasted so long, was now
healed. All the bells of the town pealed forth joyfully, and it is said
that a crowd of not less than 80,000 people hurried at once to the
Exchange. The emperor in his delight threw himself at the new pope's
feet; and for hours together vast numbers thronged the cathedral, where
the pope was placed on the high altar, and gave them his blessing. It
was on St. Martin's day, the 11th of November, 1417, that this election
took place; and from this the pope styled himself Martin V. But the joy
which had been shown at his election was more than the effect warranted.
The council had chosen a pope before taking up the reform of the Church;
and the new pope was no friend to reform. During the rest of the time
that the council was assembled, he did all that he could to thwart
attempts at reform; and when, at the end of it, he rode away from
Constance, with the emperor holding his bridle on one side and one of
the chief German princes on the other, while a crowd of princes, nobles,
clergy, and others, as many as 40,000, accompanied him, it seemed as if
the pope had got above all the sovereigns of the world.

The great thing done by the council of Constance was, that it declared a
general council to be above the pope, and entitled to depose popes if
the good of the Church should require it.

CHAPTER XXV.

THE HUSSITES.

A.D. 1418-1431.

The news of Huss's death naturally raised a general feeling of anger in
Bohemia, where his followers treated his memory as that of a saint, and
kept a festival in his honour. And when the emperor Sigismund, in 1419,
succeeded his brother Wenceslaus in the kingdom of Bohemia, he found
that he was hated by his new subjects on account of his share in the
death of Huss.

But, although most of the Bohemians might now be called Hussites, there
were great divisions among the Hussites themselves. Some had lately
begun to insist that in the sacrament of the Lord's Supper both the
bread and the wine should be given to all the people, according to our
Lord's own example, instead of allowing no one but the priest to receive
the wine, according to the Roman practice. These people who insisted on
the sacramental cup were called _Calixtines_, from the Latin _calix_,
which means a _cup_ or _chalice_. But among those who agreed in this
opinion there were serious differences as to some other points.

In the summer of 1419, the first public commu