J O 
were at the fame time commlffioned to inform him, 
that, if he refufed to return, or to appoint deputies, to 
refign, in his name, they would proceed againft him as 
guilty of perjury, and the author of the fchifm in the 
church. The ambafladors found him at Brifac, and he 
promifed to grant them an audience on the following day. 
But early in the morning he left that place, and was met 
•with by the ambafladors at Friburg, who delivered their 
meffage, and received from him a number of conditions, 
on which alone he declared his readinefs to refign. Thefe 
appear to have been rejected by the council, who, in their 
fifth feflion, determined, that the pope was obliged to 
obey the decrees of the council, and abide by their deci- 
fions; and that, if he refufed to refign, upon the promife 
of being provided for, during life, in fuch a manner as 
fhould be judged proper by four perfons named by him, 
and four named by the council, the faithful Ihould all 
withdraw their obedience from him, and he fhould be 
looked upon as actually depofed. 
In their fijfth feflion, the deputies of the four nations 
drew up a form of refignation to be fent to the pope, 
which was read and approved by the emperor and the 
whole council, and declared to be the only form of which 
they would admit; and in the feventh feflion, they fum- 
moned him to appear, and anfwer to many accufations 
which were brought againft him, offering him an ample 
lafe conduft, in the name of the council and of the em¬ 
peror. He was fummoned to appear a fecond time, 
in the eighth feflion; but he did not think proper to pay 
any attention to thefe citations. In the mean time, the 
imperial troops, and the Swifs, had made fuch progrefs in 
the dominions of the duke of Auftria, that, to fave him- 
felf from ruin, he found it ncceflary to have recourfe to 
the clemency of the emperor, and to confent to withdraw 
his protection from the pippe. John was now fummoned 
a third time ; artd, as he ftill declined appearing, either 
in perfon or by reprefentatives, the council fent a body of 
armed men, who arrefted him at Friburg, and brought 
him to the fortrefs of Ratolfcel, two leagues from Con- 
ftance, where he was kept clofely confined, and no per¬ 
fons admitted to him but thofe who Were fent by the 
council. In the council’s tenth feflion, a lift of the accu¬ 
fations againft the pope was read, containing in all feventy 
articles; but twenty of them appeared to the fathers too 
fcandalous to be publicly enquired into, and were fup- 
prefied from a regard to the honour of the apoftolic fee. 
We learn from Herman Vander Hardt’s collection of the 
acts of this council, that thefe fuppreffed articles charged 
him with having poifoned his predeceffor ; with fornica¬ 
tion, adultery, inceft, and almoft every other vice ; wfith 
having maintained that there will be no life after the pre- 
fent, and that the foul dies with the body, &c. The ar¬ 
ticles which were read, related to his fimony, his tyranny, 
his amafling immenfe wealth not only by the l'ale of be¬ 
nefices, bifhoprics, indulgences, but by openly felling and 
mortgaging the lands of the Roman church. After thefe 
articles, and the depofitions in fupport of them, were read 
and examined, the council declared them to be fully 
proved, and then unanimoufly palled a fentence of fufpen- 
fion againft the pope. This fentence was communicated 
to him by a deputation from the council, who were fent 
to know whether he had any thing to offer in his own 
defence, that might flop any further proceedings againft 
him. He returned for anfwer, that he entirely ac- 
quiefeed in their fentence, and was prepared to fubmit to 
What they might further determine; and at the fame time 
he wrote to the emperor, earneftly entreating him to inter- 
pofe on his behalf with the council, fo as to make provifion 
for his future maintenance as well as fafety, in cafe they 
fhould deprive him of his dignity. On the return of the 
deputies with the pope’s anfwer, the council, in their 
twelfth feafon, held on the 29th of May 1415, unanimoufly 
pafied the definitive fentence of John’s depofition, and 
ordered his feals to be broken. After this fentence had 
been notified to him by the bilhop of Lavaur, John ex- 
H N. * 219 
preffed great contrition for his pail conduct; told him 
that he approved and confirmed the fentence; and, laying 
his hand upon his bread, fwore that he never would a< 5 t 
contrary to it, but from that moment gave up all right 
and claim to the pontifical dignity. The council, how¬ 
ever, knowing that neither his promifes nor oaths were 
to be relied upon, committed him to the cuftody of Louis 
duke of Bavaria, and count palatine of the Rhine, who 
kept him prifoner, and narrowly watched, at Manheim, 
but treated him at the fame time with great civility and re- 
fpeft. He had held the pontificate five years and four days. 
After he had been confined about four years, he ob¬ 
tained his liberty; fome fay by the payment of a large 
fum of money to the elector palatine, while others tell 
us that he found out means of making his efcape. Be the 
fa£l as it may; he prefented himfelf unexpectedly at the 
court of pope Martin V. at Florence, in the month of 
June 1419, and throwing himfelf at his feet, without any 
previous conditions, acknowledged him for the lawful 
fiicceffor of St. Peter, and Chrift’s vicar upon earth. Mar¬ 
tin raifed him up, and treated him with the greateft kind- 
nefs and tendernefs. John, oras he was now again called 
Balthazar, confirmed all the decrees of the council of Con- 
ftance relating to himfelf, and to the election of Martin ; 
and renounced in a folemn manner all right and title to 
the popedom. Upon this, Martin created him cardinal 
bifhop of Tufculum, made him dean of the facred college, 
and ordained that he fhould always fit next to the pope, 
and that his feat fhould be rather higher than thofe of the 
other cardinals. He did not live to enjoy thefe dignities 
many months, as his death is dated in the year juft men¬ 
tioned. He was certainly a man of abilities, but unprin¬ 
cipled and vicious in the extreme; and on thefe accounts, 
as well as for his tyranny and fimoniacal practices, would 
have merited depofition, even if the circumftances of the 
church had not rendered fuch a meafure neceffary. He 
was the author of a poem De Varietate Fortuna, probably 
compofed during his captivity, and which is faid to be 
diftinguifhed by genius and tafte. 
JOHN I. emperor of the Eaft, furnanjed Zimifces, was 
an Armenian of a noble family, who ferved with dillinc- 
tion in the armies of Romanus the younger. After the 
death of that emperor, he aflifted Nicephorus Phocas in 
his elevation to the empire, and his marriage of the im¬ 
perial widow, Theophana. After this fervice, Zimifces 
became an objeCt of fufpicion to Nicephorus, who deprived 
him of the poll of general of the Eaft, in which he had 
gained a great victory over the Saracens, and banifhed 
him the court. Zimifces, though of fmall ftature, had a^i 
agreeable perfon, and the qualities of a hero. He ob¬ 
tained the good graces of the emprefs Theophana, who 
vifited him in his retreat of Chalcedon, and planned with 
him a confpiracy againft her hufband’s life. He was ad¬ 
mitted with his companions by night into the palace, and 
Nicephorus fell beneath their daggers. John was imme¬ 
diately declared emperor, A. D. 969. On the day of his 
coronation, he wms flopped on the threfhhold of the church 
of St. Sophia by the patriarch PolyeuCtus, who refufed 
him entrance into the holy place till he fhould by a pub¬ 
lic penance have expiated the crime of embruing his hands 
in the blood of his fovereign. John threw the guilt of 
aCtual murder upon a companion, and the inftigation of 
it upon the emprefs, and readily confented to feparate 
himfelf from both. Theophana parted in a paroxyfm of 
rage, and was fhut up in a monaitery of Armenia. John 
ftrengthened his throne by the nominal aflociation of her 
two Tons Bafil and Conftantine, the rightful heirs, and by 
marrying their filter Theodora. A confpiracy was how¬ 
ever formed for railing to the empire Bardas Phocas, ne¬ 
phew to the late emperor, and a rebellion was the confe- 
quence, which ended in the lubmiflion of Bardas, who 
was treated with lenity. 
The reign of John was chiefly fpentin military tranfac- 
tions, in which his valour and good fortune were equally 
confpicuous. The Roji, or Ruffians, who had expelled 
the 
