f in the background, he allowed
the cardinals to take the lead in the matter. They summoned Huss to
appear before them, and in spite of his protest that he was only
answerable to the whole council, they committed him to prison. The news
that his safe-conduct had been so insultingly disregarded reached
Sigismund as he was starting for Constance after the coronation ceremony
at Aachen.

He arrived on Christmas Day, and at once demanded that Huss should be
released. The Pope excused himself, and threw the blame on the
cardinals. To the King's right to protect his subject the cardinals
opposed their duty to suppress heresy. In high dudgeon, Sigismund
declared that he would leave the council to its fate, and actually set
out on his return journey. The Pope was jubilant at the success of his
wiles. But Sigismund's friends, and especially Frederick of
Hohenzollern, urged him not to sacrifice the interests of Germany and of
Christendom for the sake of a heretic. This advice, and the feeling that
his personal reputation was staked on the success of the council,
triumphed. Sigismund returned to Constance, and Huss remained a
prisoner. From this moment John XXIII began to despair.

The Pope's position became worse when the council, copying the procedure
of the universities, began to discuss matters, not in a general
assembly, but each nation separately. This deprived John of the
advantage which he hoped to gain from the numerical majority of Italian
prelates attending the council. Four nations organized themselves:
Italians, French, Germans, and English. Over the last three John XXIII
had no hold whatever. To his disgust they treated him, not as the
legitimate pope, whose authority was to be vindicated against his
rivals, but as one of three schismatic popes, whose retirement was a
necessary condition of the restoration of unity. When he tried to evade
their demand, they brought unanswerable charges against his personal
character and threatened to depose him.

He tried to disarm hostility by declaring his readiness to resign if the
other popes would do the same. His promise was welcomed with enthusiasm,
but neither Sigismund nor his supporters were softened by it. In spite
of the vehement protests of the Elector of Mainz that he would obey no
pope but John XXIII, the proposal was made to proceed to a new
election. John had to fall back upon his last expedient. If he departed
from Constance he might throw the council into fatal