ed the Council of Basel as ecumenical
and as superior to Pope Eugenius IV, with obligation to everyone to obey
its decrees. Now, the following year, 1439, the Council of Basel deposes
Eugenius IV, and substitutes for him Felix V, with obligation to
everyone, under penalty of anathema, to reject the first and submit to
the second. Nevertheless France does neither the one nor the other; she
continues to recognize Eugenius IV, and derides the pope of Ripaille and
of Basel, as she will declare in a new assembly of Bourges in 1440.
Above certain laws which men write on sheets of paper, with a
goose-quill and ink, they bear in themselves another law, written by
the hand of God, and which is good sense. Happy the nations which never
depart from this living and general law, or which, at least, know enough
to return to it promptly!

Accordingly, September 2, 1440, in the new Assembly of Bourges, King
Charles VII published a declaration by which he commanded all his
subjects to yield obedience to Pope Eugenius, with prohibition to
recognize another pope or to circulate among the public any letters or
despatches bearing the name of any other one whomsoever who pretended to
the pontificate. Nevertheless, Monsieur de Savoie, for so Charles VII
called the antipope, was united to him by ties of blood. This
declaration of the King and of the Assembly of Bourges was religiously
observed in all France, except in the University of Paris, where they
declared openly enough for the antipope. The reason of this is very
simple: the doctors of the Church in Paris dominated in the mob of
Basel, the antipope was of their own creation, and their colleagues of
Paris could not fail to recognize him.

As for King Charles VII, at the close of the year 1441 he sent an
embassy to Pope Eugenius to ask the convocation of a general council
which should put an end to the troubles of Christendom. The principal
orator was the Bishop of Meaux, Pierre de Versailles, formerly Bishop of
Digne, and originally a monk of the Abbey of St. Denis. He had an
audience in full consistory December 16th, and he spoke to the Pope in
the following terms:

"The most Christian King, our master, implores your assistance, most
holy Father, or rather it is the entire people of the faithful who
address to you these words of Scripture: '_Be our leader and our
prince._' Not that any one among us doubts that you have not the
princedom in the Church; for we know that the state of th