A Trembling Upon Rome

by Richard Condon

  On each side of the walls of the great rectangular room the Blaca frescoes depicted the same infants grown into the glowing, beauty of their childhood, all trooping away from the garden; entrance, but as they came nearer the main door they were each seen as having grown into youthful maturity, striding out to find the precious moments of their lives. It hadn't been like that in reality, but it gave them joy to see that that was how mama wanted it to be remembered.

  The family assembled at noon in the main room, crowding around the marchesa, who had arrived last from Bologna. All of them were fashionably turned out in long, close-fitting laced or buttoned dresses with short-waisted bodices, wide low V- necks and wide belts under the arms and breasts. The border of the marchesa's skirt was gay with brocade. Each woman wore a small fashionable dagger at her girdle. They pulled chairs into a small circle so that the girls could face their mother.

  `Frederick of Austria sends you special greetings, mama,' Maria Louise said. `I had no idea you were, up to something with him,'

  `I can't tell you what it means to me to see all of you together,' the marchesa replied blandly.

  'And how wonderful to have a few days; away from the insatiable Spina,' Rosa murmured.

  'It isn't so much that Spina is insatiable,' the marchesa observed, 'but that.he is so determined to get his money's worth.'

  `He wears a different disguise each time he does it!'

  'Rosa! You know he needs to feel that perhaps you are not sure that, it is he in bed with you, so that he may deny it should you bring it up later. He is a cardinal, after all.'

  'Really, you don't know, any of you. Spina is so devious that he will not allow a mirror in our bedroom, because if he saw himself reflected in one of those disguises he would have to accuse me of infidelity.'

  The sisters all exploded with laughter.

  `Sometimes I wish I had a lover like that,' Maria Giovanna said. 'My Cosimo is so careful that he won't make love in the daytime unless the shutters and blinds are closed and the curtains are drawn. Oh, don't misunderstand, please. He is merely very, very careful about everything.'

  `He has a great deal to be careful about,' the marchesa said. `What is happening in Paris, Helene?'

  'Never mind Paris. Paris will keep. Please, mama, why are we all here?'

  The marchesa smiled a dangerous smile. `We are going to end the schism in the Church,' she said, `and elect Baldassare Cossa as the one true pope. And we are going to be richer and more influential than ever before.'

  `Have you told Cosimo we will end the schism, mother?' Maria Giovanna asked.

  `It was his father's idea and they will finance everything, so that, when it is done, the Medici bank will be the only bankers for the Church and they will be the richest bankers in the world. And this time we are going to have a real share in the action – a tithe of the bank's share and a tithe of Cossa's share as pope.'

  Her audience was unable to speak or perhaps they were counting. Helene found her voice first. 'No woman has ever negotiated such a fee from her protectors,' she said with awe.

  `Mama is the greatest courtesan who ever lived,' Rosa said proudly.

  'Oh, mama!' Maria Giovanna cried. 'You are the idol of all womanhood,'

  `Where do you begin with such a task?' Maria Louise asked. 'And how do we fit into it?'

  `You are the keys to it,' the marchesa said. `As Cosimo has pointed out, Cossa controls the support of the canon lawyers, the theologians and the juridical faculty of the university. They are going to publish and justify – before the fact – the decision of the cardinals of both obediences to call a council of the Church.'

  `Where will it happen?' Helene asked.

  `Pisa. Everything is right for Pisa on this. It is close enough by sea from France yet it is in Italy, close to Florence, for the convenience of the Medici. Right now, Cossa is organizing the Bolognese jurists to lead an embassy to Florence to secure their agreement for a council at Pisa. Cosimo has everyone prepared in Florence. Helene will need to engage the University of Paris to persuade the king to intercede with all the princes of Europe to announce their neutrality towards the present popes.'

  'Yes, mama,' Helene said,

  `When the two popes are neutralized and left without any partisan support, they can be backed into supporting our council for the election of a single pope. What about that, Helene? Will the university, take the position. that only a pope may call such a council or do you agree with us that one may be called by a congress of the cardinals from both obediences?'

  `I think it is safe to say,' Helene answered carefully, `that the university will advise the king that the head of the Church is Christ, not any pope. The chancellor will hold, I am quite sure of it – that only the. Church can assemble a council. I shall, point out to Gerson that the Council of Jerusalem was not presided over by Peter but by its bishop, James.'

  'Excellent!'

  `I think what you want to-see applied here, mama, is that the right of the Church was never abrogated. That right is to be exercised not only by bishops and cardinals but by all believers who, by reason of their urgent exhortation, have the power to represent all those who work for the unity of the. Church.'

  `You are, sure, dear?'

  `Well, I am, sure that Gerson enjoys the pleasure of demonstrating the superiority of theology over canon-law. Oh, it will be quite legal to convoke a council without the authority or, intervention of the popes:'

  `Most of the electors will side with Cossa,' Maria Louise said. 'But that still leaves Rupert, King of the Romans, who supports Gregory, and Sigismund, King of Hungary, who only wants to end the schism and who doesn't hold any opinion on anything for longer than fifteen minutes, particularly if a woman walks through the room while he is pondering it.

  `Then we know how to cope with Sigismund,' the marchesa said.

  But I would prefer to avoid the direct approach right now.' `There is Pippo Span,' Maria Louise said. `He is the Hungarian army general who is closest to Sigismund.' `Yes. Rosa would like him.'

  `Why should I be the one to like him?'

  `You know you adore young men:'

  `Mama!' Rosa blushed beautifully. Rosa was the young woman her mother would have been, her mother often thought. Being a courtesan was a temporary thing in Rosa's mind, like a childish garment which is cast away when it is outgrown. Rosa wanted what mama believed that she herself would never attain. Rosa wanted love – romantic, true, pure, young love. Maria Giovanna wanted power as her lover. Maria Louise wanted property, possessions and status. Helene wanted to be ravished by intellects, and mama – wanted all of those things and had possessed them all, except love.

  Servants brought in hare; cooked in a rich sweet and sour sauce of vinegar, sugar, chocolate and raisins. It was Tuscan food. There were hearts of artichoke cooked with mushrooms and cauliflower in a sauce of milk, butter and cheese. They drank old red wine made of Sangiovese grapes. The marchesa said, `The Medici must be kept far in the background on this, of course.'

  Everyone sagely agreed.

  `Florence wants one pope so badly,' Maria Giovanna said, `that they will agree on Pisa. And I think Gino Capponi is the man to work for the desertion of Gregory by his cardinals. He is only a Florentine, not a Sicilian, but he is nearly as devious as Spina.'

  `And Benedict?' the marchesa asked.

  'He has problems,' Helene said. `Seven of his cardinals, have already left him He is a difficult, stingy old man. An eighth cardinal has just disappeared. The ninth died. The tenth, Louis de Bar, who told me all this, has returned to the court in France. Only three cardinals are left and does not trust one of them,'

  `Cosimo's father must know that, of course: That could be why he has chosen to act. What will Benedict do?'

  'De Bar says he will raise up five more cardinals. He wants eight for his grand council at Perpignan.'

  'His grand council?' the marchesa asked indignantly. `Cosimo's father must have known about that, as well. Why are people so secretive? When will
his council happen?'.

  'November, de Bar thinks.'

  `Then we can't hope to be first. So we must be the biggest all means, Maria Giovanna, help Gino Capponi to persuade those old men to desert. You are so good with old: men.'

  `Yes, mama.' Maria Giovanna wanted to be all the things her mother was. She wanted mama's instant brutality, the impatience of her greed, the sensations of her lusts, and her knowledge. Maria Giovanna often dreamed of hearing her mother's last will being read, to learn with exaltation that mama had left to her eldest daughter her soul.

  `What of Ladislas's new war?’

  'The new war will help everything,' the marchesa said contentedly. `It will show Cossa as the strongest of all of the cardinals, the only actual defender of the Church, out on the field of battle risking his life while the rest of them ponder the schism: in Pisa.'

  23

  The tiny, stately, neat-as-a-button Pope Benedict XIII descended with grace and splendour from the castle of Perpignan to the church de la Real to open his grand council on 15 November 1408. His nine cardinals were present, with four, patriarchs, three archbishops, thirty-three bishops and many prelates from Gascony, Savoy and Lorraine, Had there not been a royal prohibition on attendance at the council, there. would have been many more from France. Some did come in disguise to elude the guards set to stop them on the roads. Including the foreign ambassadors, there were fewer than 300 people present. The pope himself celebrated the mass, the Dominican Bishop of Oleron preached and King Martin of Aragon was the protector.

  The first and second sessions were ceremonial but, at the opening of the third, Benedict rose and spoke on the importance of ecumenical councils, regretting that the Babylonian confusions of the time prevented him from calling one while he was under the domination of France. He had assembled this council, he told them, to reform the Church and to terminate the unfortunate schism. He explained that, in order to refute the lies which had been spread against him, he had written a full account of all of his works to date, which Cardinal de Chalant would now read.

  It took from the third to the ninth session to get through the accounting.

  On 21 November, the pope asked for the advice. of the assemblage as to his future conduct towards the resolution of the great schism, feeling that he might safely trust them with this inasmuch as the majority present were as Spanish as he was. The answers were supposed to be forthcoming on the 12 December but, due either to the difficulty of the question or to the long deliberation necessary, there was no reply until 1 February 1409. By that time, most of the members attending the council had departed. Only ten were left. They resolved that Benedict was free from all reproach for heresy or schism but that he should send a delegation to the forthcoming Council of Pisa empowered to effect his abdication in case of the removal of his rival, Gregory XII, for any cause.

  The tiny, ancient, outraged pope answered them. `I shall do none of these things,' he said. He threatened to imprison Cardinal de Chalant, who led the delegation, in a place where he would never see the light of the sun again. In his reply to the world at large, and in particular to the delegation from Pisa who offered him safe conduct for thirteen months, he threatened to excommunicate anyone who took any measures to his prejudice or who dared to elect a new pope while, he was alive.

  Meanwhile, at the New Year, 1409, the King of Naples had again maddened himself into a warlike intensity, urged on by Cardinal Spina, who called for the protection of his pope at Rome, the cardinal having been urged on by Rosa Dubramonte as her part in the marchesa's plan. For a handsome consideration, and to Cossa's consternation, Pope Gregory had transferred a deed to the papal states to Ladislas; and the king now had to attempt to take possession of the holding before reaching out to grab Florence„ Pisa and Bologna. In December he had amassed an army of 10,000 cavaliers and a large body of foot soldiers to march to besiege Baldassare Cossa at Bologna.

  Cossa turned them back by March 1409, but Ladislas's army kept Cossa pinned down, preventing him from attending all but the last three sessions of the Council of Pisa, which opened in late March.

  Nonetheless, and on a daily basis, the council was well advised of Cossa's sacrifices in their defence. They knew because the marchesa, her daughters and her agents told them that only Cossa's bravery and brilliance as the greatest soldier in Europe stood between them and their humiliation by a bloodthirsty king.

  The lovely old city of Pisa was at this time under Florentine control, so anything which would bring money into the city was welcomed by the Medici. The Pisan duomo was one of the wonders of the world. Where could there be found so fitting an edifice for the meeting of such a council? Giovanni di Bicci di Medici marvelled.

  After the war with Florence, which followed the transfer of the city by Gian Galeazzo Visconti to the Florentines, 6000 Pisans had joined Ladislas's army so there was plenty of accommodation for the congress of the spiritual and lay worlds. Embassies from England, France, Bohemia, Poland, Portugal and Cyprus attended. The entourages of the Dukes of Brabant, Anjou, Burgundy, Austria, Lorraine and Holland' were there. Almost every kingdom in Christendom was represented, except Scandinavia.

  There were 18 cardinals in Pisa on the day before the council opened. 4 patriarchs, 10 archbishops, 70 bishops were on scene and 80 more represented, the leaders of 70 monasteries in addition to 120 who appeared by deputy, 300 abbotts and 200 masters of theology., The Universities of Oxford, Paris, Bologna and Prague were represented, together with the Generals of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers. Of the more than 600 ecclesiastics who were present, two fifths were French. The benevolent and guiding hand of Baldassare, Cardinal Cossa, was apparent in everything, as the marchesa and her agents reached out to all the holy men, spreading his messages. intentions, wishes and all, positive interpretations of these.

  On the morning of 25 March 1409, the council assembled at the church of St Martin, south of the Arno river. Arrayed in their albs and copes, crowned with white mitres, the cardinals and prelates formed in procession and moved, lurching and swaying with lawyers' solemnity across the Ponte Vecchio until they turned off to the Piazza degli Anziani. Skirting the archbishop's palace, they reached the cathedral, which had been completed nearly 300 years before. On the long seat at the level of the great altar sat the cardinal bishops, the cardinal priests and the cardinal deacons. Behind them was a picture of Christ painted by Cimabue. Facing the cardinals were the royal ambassadors who were prelates. Behind them, on both sides of the nave, glorious with their layers of black and white marble, were the seats extending down to the door of the church for prelates in order of their seniority. Stools were provided for envoys from chapters and convents.

  When all had taken their places, the mass of the Holy Spirit was celebrated by the aged Cardinal of Palestrina. The council was opened.

  At the end of the second meeting, after the prelates had, knelt with their heads to the ground;, mitres before them, for the length of the miserere, after the deacon and sub-deacon had read the litany, after a prayer from the Cardinal' of Palestrina, they rose. The Cardinal of Salutes, habited as a deacon, read the Gospel. The Veni Creator was sung by the entire assembly, kneeling, then they put on their mitres and took their seats. The business of the council had begun.

  The presiding cardinal deputed two cardinal bishops, two archbishops and two bishops to discover whether the popes, Benedict XIII and Gregory XII, were present at the council. Accompanied by notaries, they went to the doors of the cathedral and called out to Petrus da Luna and Angelus Corrario in Latin and in the vulgar that they in person, or their fully empowered protectors, should appear at once. The call was repeated three times without result.

  The two popes defaulted again on the third and fourth summonings at these sessions.

  While the council deliberated in sanctity, day by day, the marchesa and her apparatus entertained its cardinals, archbishops and bishops by night. Cardinal Spina remained as Pope Gregory's legate at the court of Naples, but Rosa visited. Maria Gi
ovanna in Pisa to help out with providing pleasure. They. used mama's `little house' in Porto Giorgio, inviting Giovanni di Bicci di Medici and his son Cosimo as their set-pieces at the parties, as prelates always found comfort in the presence of bankers.

  Helene had rented a small house adjacent to, the quarters of the French delegation to the council. In Paris, in January, she had come to an agreement with Pierre D'Ailly that, if Cossa succeeded in organizing the council to give him the papacy, Cossa would make the bishop a cardinal in return for D'Ailly's active support. To establish his goodwill under the agreement, D'Ailly made an eloquently powerful appeal, before Pisa was convened, for a general council of the Church, which was heard across Europe from his sounding board of the Synod of Aix. He was a gifted orator and he asserted that, since the Church had both a natural and a divine right to its unity, it could and must call a council without papal sanction. D'Ailly, confessor to the King of France and treasurer of the Ste Chapelle, was one of the richest churchmen at Pisa, the magnet who drew cardinals to Helen's dinner parties. At more than one of these dinners, D'Ailly said to the engaged and thoughtful cardinals, `This schism has been a form of civil war within the Church and there is not a churchman today who does not cry out for its end. This council is the means, to end it, to be sure, but, when the man is, named by you as the unitary pope to bind up the wounds of Christendom, he must not be a pastoral pope. He must be a lawyer, an executive and a trained fighter who can weave the Church into one whole piece again, and he must be strong, determined and experienced in battle to be able to quell the partisan feelings among Christians.'

  When he was asked to name such a man, D'Ailly would grow thoughtful, stroking his beard. `I would say there is only one such man,' he would answer. `Baldassare Cossa; who even now is beating away the threat of Ladislas so that we may complete the, business of this convention,'