gate Cesarini. The Hussites, it was said, would
think that the Church was afraid to face them; the laity would accuse the
clergy of shirking reform; in short, this failure of the councils would
produce disastrous effects. In vain did the pope explain his reasons and
yield certain points; the fathers would listen to nothing, and, relying on
the decrees of the council of Constance, which amid the troubles of the
schism had proclaimed the superiority, in certain cases, of the council
over the pope, they insisted upon their right of remaining assembled,
hastily beat up the laggards, held sessions, promulgated decrees,
interfered in the government of the papal countship of Venaissin, treated
with the Hussites, and, as representatives of the universal Church,
presumed to impose laws upon the sovereign pontiff himself. Eugenius IV.
resolved to resist this supremacy, though he did not dare openly to
repudiate a very widespread doctrine considered by many to be the actual
foundation of the authority of the popes before the schism. However, he
soon realized the impossibility of treating the fathers of Basel as
ordinary rebels, and tried a compromise; but as time went on, the fathers
became more and more intractable, and between him and them gradually arose
an impassable barrier.

Abandoned by a number of his cardinals, condemned by most of the powers,
deprived of his dominions by _condottieri_ who shamelessly invoked the
authority of the council, the pope made concession after concession, and
ended on the 15th of December 1433 by a pitiable surrender of all the
points at issue in a bull, the terms of which were dictated by the fathers
of Basel, that is, by declaring his bull of dissolution null and void, and
recognizing that the synod had not ceased to be legitimately assembled. It
would be wrong, however, to believe that Eugenius IV. ratified all the
decrees coming from Basel, or that he made a definite submission to the
supremacy of the council. No express pronouncement on this subject could be
wrung from him, and his enforced silence concealed the secret design of
safeguarding the principle of sovereignty.

The fathers, who were filled with suspicion, would only allow the legates
of the pope to preside over them on condition of their recognizing the
superiority of the council; the legates ended by submitting to this
humiliating formality, but in their own name only, thus reserving the
judgment of the Holy See. Nay more, the di