to remember that the use
of the sacramental cup was allowed in Bohemia for two hundred years,
while in all other churches under the Roman authority it was forbidden.

Soon after the meeting of the council of Basel, the pope, whose name was
Eugenius IV., grew jealous lest it should get too much power, and sent
orders that it should break up. But the members were not disposed to
bear this. They declared that the council was the highest authority in
the Church, and superior to the pope; and they asked Eugenius to join
them at Basel, and threatened him in case of his refusal. Just at that
time Eugenius was driven from Rome by his people, and therefore he found
it convenient to try to smooth over differences, and to keep good terms
with the council; but after a while the disagreement broke out again.
The pope had called a council to meet at Ferrara, in Italy, in order to
consult with some Greeks (at the head of whom were the emperor and the
patriarch of Constantinople) as to the union of the Greek and Latin
Churches; and he desired the members of the Basel council to remove to
Ferrara, that they might take part in the new assembly. But only a few
obeyed; and those who remained at Basel were resolved to carry on their
quarrel to the uttermost. First, they allowed Eugenius a certain time,
within which they required him either to appear at Basel or to send some
one in his stead; then, they lengthened out this time somewhat; and as
he still did not appear, they first suspended him from his office, then
declared him to be deposed, and at length went on to choose another pope
in his stead (Nov. 17, 1439).

The person thus chosen was Amadeus, who for nearly thirty years had been
duke of Savoy, but had lately given over his dukedom to his son, and had
put himself at the head of twelve old knights, who had formed themselves
into an order of hermits at Ripaille, near the lake of Geneva. The new
pope bargained that he should not be required to part with the long
white beard which he had worn as a hermit; but after a while, finding
that it looked strange among the smooth chins of those around him, he,
of his own accord, allowed it to be shaved off. But this attempt to set
up an antipope came to very little. Felix V. (as the old duke called
himself on being elected) was obliged to submit to Eugenius; and the
council of Basel, after dwindling away by degrees, and being removed
from one place to another, died out so obscurely that its end