Wicliffe's venerable head, for was not the whole of Europe 

 at that very time discussing more or less fiercely the very 

 question as to which of the two holy ones was really 

 Pope ? Of what use was it that he of Avignon denounced 

 Wicliffe, when half of Christendom denied his right to 

 the papal chair? He of Rome was in precisely the 

 same position, so that the high-sounding anathemas fell 

 but lightly on the old reformer ; but it was far otherwise 

 with the heretical teachings which called forth the papal 

 curses ; for they were carried into the most remote 

 corners of Europe, causing quite a sensation among the 

 hitherto loyal servants of the Church. Jerome of Prague, 

 in the year 1400, just sixteen years after Wicliffe's death, 

 carried across the channel a large assortment of Wicliffe's 

 writings, and immediately commenced to carry on the 

 work of the great reformer in Europe, challenging the 

 doctors of Paris and Vienna on his way home. Uniting 

 with John Huss, a Professor of Prague University, he 

 attacked with great violence the Papacy, declaring that 

 the very fact of the head of the Church being split into 

 two was sufficient to destroy for ever the notion of papal 

 infallibility. Things had now arrived at such a pass that 

 the doctors of the Sorbonne in Paris made a desperate 

 attempt to settle the difficulty. For fifteen years past 

 they had been urging the two popes to resign simul- 

 taneously, so that one successor to both could be unani- 

 mously elected, and the dispute thus settled ; but neither 

 party would yield an inch. At last, in 1409, driven to 

 desperation by the effect produced by Wicliffe's writings, 

 and by the bold preaching of Huss and Jerome, the 

 Council of Pisa deposed both popes, and elected a third 

 viz., Balthazar Corsa, who assumed the title of Pope 

 John XXIII. and took up his residence at Bologna. The 

 two deposed pontiffs, however, refused to recognise the 

 decree of the Council, the consequence being that, 

 instead of there being two popes, there were three. This 

 strengthened the position of Huss and Jerome, who 

 said : " If we must obey, to whom is our obedience to 

 be paid ? If all three are infallible, why does not their 

 testimony agree? And if only one of them is the most 

 Holy Father, why is it that we cannot distinguish him 

 from the rest?" The Bolognan Pope declared the 



