412 



CONSTANCE CONSTANT. 



in 1378, Gregory XI. removed the papal seat back 

 to Rome. After his death, the French and Italian 

 cardinals could not agree upon a successor, and 

 so each party chose its own candidate. This led to 

 a schism which lasted 40 years. Indeed, when 

 the emperor Sigismund ascended the throne, in 

 1411 there were three popes, each of whom had 

 anathematized the two others. (See Antipope}. 

 To put an end to these disorders, and to stop 

 the diffusion of the doctrines of Huss, Sigismund 

 went in person to Italy, France, Spain, and Eng- 

 land, ;iiul (as I lie emperor Maximilian I. used to 

 say in jest, performing the part of the beadle of the 

 Roman empire) summoned a general council. The 

 pretended heresies of Wickliffe and Huss were here 

 condemned, and the latter, notwithstanding the as- 

 surances of safety given him by the emperor, was 

 burnt, July 6, 1415; and his friend and companion, 

 Jerome of Prague, met the same cruel fete, May 30, 

 1416. After the ecclesiastical dignitaries supposed 

 they had sufficiently checked the progress of heresy 

 by these executions, they proceeded to depose the 

 three popes John XXII. (also called XXJJL), Gre- 

 gory XII. and Benedict XIII. John, who was pre- 

 sent at the council, was forced to consent to his own 

 removal. He escaped, indeed, with the aid of Fred- 

 eric, duke of Austria, who was excommunicated and 

 put under the ban of the empire for rendering him 

 assistance, and also lost a large part of his territory. 

 But Frederic at last yielded, delivered John up to 

 the council, and allowed him to be imprisoned. The 

 former pope now gladly received the humbler office 

 of a cardinal. Gregory XII. experienced a similar 

 loss of dignity. Benedict XIII., in Spain, retained, 

 for some time, the name of pope, but was little no- 

 ticed. Martin V., on the contrary, was legally cho- 

 sen to tlie chair of St Peter. Sigismund now thought 

 a complete reformation might be effected in the af- 

 fairs of the church ; but, the new pope having retired 

 to Italy against the emperor's will, the assembly was 

 dissolved, and his object was not attained. It was 

 first accomplished at the council of Basil (q. v.). 

 Travellers are still shown the hall where the council 

 assembled (now occupied as a market house) ; the 

 chairs on which sat the emperor and the pope ; the 

 house where Huss was apprehended, and where his 

 bust is still to be seen ; his dungeon, in the Domi- 

 nican monastery ; his statue which serves as a sup- 

 port to the cathedral ; and, in the nave of the church, 

 a brazen plate on the spot where the venerable mar- 

 tyr listened to his sentence of death ; also the place, 

 in a garden, where he was burnt. After the council 

 had been convinced of the heresy of Huss, the bishop 

 of Concordia read, in the cathedral, the sentence, 

 that his books should first be burnt, and that he as a 

 public and scandalous heretic, and an evil and obsti- 

 nate man, should be disgracefully deprived of his 

 priestly dignity, degraded, and excommunicated. The 

 sentence was immediately executed, and began with 

 the degradation. The bishop of Milan and six other 

 bishops led Huss to a table where lay the garments 

 used in the mass, and the other raiment of the 

 priests : they clothed him with them, and, when he 

 was in full dress, with the cup in his hand, the bish- 

 ops once more called upon him to save his life and 

 honour, and to abjure his opinions. Huss refused, and 

 spoke to the people from the scaffold. After he had 

 spoken, the bishops cried out to him, " Descend from 

 the scaffold." The bishop of Milan and another bishop 

 now took the cup, saying, " O Huss, we take from 

 Uiee the cup in which was offered the blood of Christ ; 

 thou are not worthy of him." The other bishops 

 then came forward, and each one took off some part of 

 the priestly apparel with the same speech. When 

 they had finished with the clothes they scraped his 



shaven crown (to designate the removal of the oil of 

 consecration). Finally, when the excommunication 

 was ended, they placed upon his head a paper crown, 

 nearly a yard high, with devils painted upon it, and 

 the inscription, " John Huss, arch-heretic." The 

 bishops now turned to the emperor, and said, " The 

 holy council of Constance now surrenders to the 

 temporal power and tribunal John Huss, who has no 

 longer office or dignity in the church of God."* 

 The emperor arose, and took Huss, and said to the 

 palatine Louis, " As we, dear cousin and prince, wear 

 the temporal sword, take this John Huss and have 

 him punished as becomes a heretic." Louis laid down 

 his princely ornaments, and led Huss to the provost 

 of Constance, to whom he said, " Upon the sentence 

 of our gracious lord, the Roman emperor, and our 

 special order, take this master Huss, and burn him 

 as a heretic." The governor gave him to the execu- 

 tioner and his attendants, and Huss was burnt. 



CONSTANCE FALCON, OR PHAULKON; a 

 political adventurer of the 17th century, whose pro- 

 per name was Constantine. He was born in the is- 

 land of Cephalonia. His mother was a Greek. At 

 the age of twelve, he embarked for England, whence 

 he went to the East Indies. Having gained some 

 property in the service of the company, he under- 

 took a trading voyage to the coast of Malabar. He 

 was shipwrecKed, and lost everything ; but, meeting 

 with an ambassador from the king of Siam to Persia, 

 who had suffered the same misfortune, he procured 

 a bark, and conveyed the Siamese envoy to his own 

 country. The latter recommended Constance to 

 the barcalon, or prime minister, who took him into 

 his service. On the death of his master, the king 

 offered him the same post, which he accordingly ac- 

 cepted. He undertook the project of introducing 

 Christianity among the Siamese, and induced the 

 king of Siam to send an embassy to Louis XIV. 

 The ambassadors died on their route ; but the French 

 monarch, hearing of the scheme, sent two envoys, 

 with some Jesuits, to Siam. French troops were also 

 introduced into the country. These circumstances 

 aroused the jealousy of the native princes and no- 

 bility, the result of which was a conspiracy, which 

 terminated in the dethronement of the king, and the 

 death of Constance, who was beheaded. 



CONSTANT DE REBECQUE, BENJAMIN DE; 

 bom at Lausanne, 1767 ; one of the most distinguish- 

 ed authors and greatest orators of the liberals or 

 constitutionalists, on the left side of the French 

 chamber of deputies, was the son of a general in the 

 Dutch service, who had retired into his native coun- 

 try, French Switzerland, and commanded the militia 

 there. The first of the family, Augustine Constant 

 de Rebecque, quitted France, in 1605, and went to 

 Geneva. The father of Benjamin Constant removed 

 to France in 1791, and died, in 1812, a renaturalized 

 citizen. The subject of this article was educated in 

 the Carolinum, at Brunswick, in Germany, and, at a 

 later period, studied the law. He subsequently ac- 

 cepted employments at the court of Brunswick, 

 which, however, did not confine him there, for he 

 resided partly in Paris, and partly in the Pays de 

 Vaux, until he finally fixed his residence entirely in 

 France. At the beginning of the revolution, he 

 went to Paris, conducted, before the council of the 

 five hundred, the cause of his countrymen who had 

 been expelled by the repeal of the edict of Nantes, 



* The Catholic clergy have always maintained that they 

 cannot be concerned in the shedding of blood, being prohib- 

 ited from go doing by the ecclesiastical law, so that a priest 

 cannot even be a surgeon. On this ground, the inquisition 

 professes never to have taken away life : all that it has 

 done is to deliver up culprits to be dealt with by the secu- 

 lar power. 



