the mediaeval idea of ecclesiastical face to face with imperial unity.  The second was the definition of the indeterminate and ever-widening authority which the Popes asserted over the kingdoms and the Churches of the West.  The third was the eradication of heresies which were rending Christendom asunder and threatening to destroy that ideal of unity in creed to which the Middle Ages clung with not unreasonable passion.  The fourth was a reform of the Church, considered as a vital element of Western Christendom, in its head and in its members.

The programme, very indistinctly formulated by the most advanced thinkers of the age, and only gradually developed by practice into actuality, was a vast one.  It involved the embitterment of national jealousies, the accentuation of national characteristics, and the complication of antagonistic principles regarding secular and ecclesiastical government, which rendered a complete and satisfactory solution well-nigh impracticable.  The effort to solve these problems had, however, important influence in creating conditions under which the politico-religious struggles of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were conducted.[17]

The first Council, opened at Pisa in 1409, was a congress of prelates summoned by Cardinals for the conclusion of the schism.  It deposed two Popes, who still continued to assert their titles; it elected a third, Alexander V., who had no real authority.  For the rest, it effected no reform, and cannot be said to have done much more than to give effect to those aspirations after Church-government by means of Councils which had been slowly forming during the continuance of the schism.

The second Council, opened at Constance in 1414, was a Council not convened by Cardinals, but by the universal demand of Europe that the advances of the Papacy toward tyranny should be checked, and that the innumerable abuses of the Church and Papal Curia should be reformed.  It received a different complexion from that of Pisa, through the presidency of the Emperor and the attendance of representatives from the chief nations.  At Constance the Papacy and the Roman Curia stood together, exposed to the hostile criticism of Europe.  The authority of a General Council was, after a sharp conflict, decreed superior to that of the Bishop of Rome.  Three Popes were forced to abdicate; and a fourth, Martin V., was elected.

[Footnote 17:  The best account of the Councils will be found in Professor Creighton’s admirable History of the Papacy during the Reformation, 2 vols.  Longmans.]

The Council further undertook to deal with heresy and with the reform of the Church.  It discharged the first of these offices by condemning Hus and Jerome of Prague to the stake.  It left the second practically untouched.  Yet the question of reform had been gravely raised, largely discussed, and fundamentally examined.  Two methods were posed at Constance for the future consideration of earnest thinkers throughout