Council of Constance 1414

"Crusade or Christianization? The polemic against the Teutonic Knights in light of French travelers’ accounts of the late Middle Ages"

As a continuation of the political unrest opposing the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand-Duchy of Lithuania to the Order of the Teutonic Knights, the conversion of the last Baltic pagans was among the cases debated by the council of Constance (1414–1418). While the Teutonic Knights used to storm Lithuania twice a year, with the help of knights coming from all over Europe, Polish spokesmen intended to prove that no baptism could be achieved this way. The aim of this paper is to use narratives relating the experiences of some French travelers (crusaders or diplomats) who had the opportunity to encounter the Baltic reality. A comparative study of the texts read during the council of Constance
with the writings of Guillaume de Machaut, Philippe de Mézières or Guillebert de Lannoy enable the researcher to see this quarrel in a new light. Looking at these foreign sources leads us to understand that some of the facts used by the Polish and Lithuanian spokesmen in Constance to darken the Teutonic Order’s image were already known by a few people in Western Europe. In particular, Cracovian rector Paulus Vladimiri (Paweł Włodkowic)'s characterization of the Teutonic raids as worldly and disconnected from Christian ideals match the critics formulated by Philippe de Mézières on the noblemen’s crusades. Vladimiri’s questioning of the effectiveness of the Order’s methods to bring baptism to Baltic pagans was also raised in at least two French travelers’ testimonies. However, if the remnant of paganism within the territory held by the Teutonic brothers was noted by some visitors, it was not explicitly disapproved of; for these Frenchmen mostly interested
in chivalric activities and honorable deeds, the conversion of unbelievers was far less important than it was for the Polish and Lithuanian diplomats at Constance. Whilst the same facts were observed by both, their interpretation differed heavily.

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Around the year 1410, Heinrich Wittenwiler, an advocate to the bishop of Constance, wrote a novel in verses, called "Der Ring". Wittenwilers parodistic tale of the wealthy farmer Bertschi Triefnas and his unpleasant bride Mätzli Rüerenzumph is considered a key work of the late middle Ages. Its comic plot is bursting with references to contemporary events and to the moral and theological knowledge of the time. Wittenwiler tells the story of a world turned upside down, when a marriage feast in the countryside turns into a deadly war. His aim is to teach noblemen living near Lake of Constance about a morally decent way of life and the perpetuation of the social order in politically difficult times.

– Um 1410 verfasste Heinrich Wittenwiler, Advokat des Bischofs von Konstanz, einen Versroman, den er "Der Ring" nannte. In der Erzählung, die als eines der «Haupt- und Schlüsselwerke» des Spätmittelalters gilt, schilderte er parodistisch überhöht die Hochzeit des reichen Bauern Bertschi Triefnas und seiner hässlichen Braut Mätzli Rüerenzumph. Die komische Handlung strotzt von Bezügen zu zeitgenössischen Ereignissen und zum moralisch-theologischen Wissen des Spätmittelalters. Der Autor hoffte, in politisch schwierigen Zeiten dem Adel am Bodensee Lehren über die richtige Lebensführung und den Erhalt der gesellschaftlichen Ordnung zu vermitteln.

Das Konstanzer Stadtwappen wurde ab 1417 in zwei unterschiedlichen Formen dargestellt - mot und ohne rotes Schildhaupt. Eine formelle "Wappenbesserung" gab es, anders als oft angenommen, nicht. Vielmehr kann in verschiedenen Medien (Münzen, Buchmalerei, Siegel, Architektur) die in und außerhalb von Konstanz entstanden eine allmähliche Durchsetzung der neuen Form beobachtet werden, die zwischenzeit stark von der Abgrenzung zum Stadtherrn motiviert gewesen sein dürfte.

The Polish bishops of the Jagiellonian monarchy during the time of Councils in the XV century.
The book analyzes a group of Polish bishops from various aspects (among other things, their church career and political importance).
But the main object of this book is, first, to review Poland’s relations with the Papacy during periods of schism following elections pope and anti-pope, second, to find out whether polish bishops shifted their allegiance from the popes whose legitimacy has been confirmed by the Catholic tradition.
This publication reviews also the relations between polish bishops and the Kingdom of Poland.
Generally, this work reviews Poland’s relations with Rome during the reign of king Władysław Jagiełło, the reign of Władysław Warneńczyk and his brother Kazimierz Jagiellończyk. During that time Poland’s monarchs knew how to exploit Rome’s weakened position. Their request were never turned down for fear that a frustrated Poland may slip into the rival obedience.

Of all periods when Poland belonged to the obedience of an anti-popse the period 1409- 1415 is the most abundantly documented. In the last great medieval schism (1439-1449) the Kingdom of Poland remained officially neutral, although the top church dignitaries gave their backing to Felix V, elected at the Council of Basle.

This paper aims to describe the opportunities of those Hungarian students who
managed to get into the royal court of King Sigismund. Most of the analysed group
learned in Prague, which indicates the question: Were there certain implications if an individual studied at Prague, Vienna, Cracow or other universities in the last third of the 14th century and first decades of the 15th century. Before the edition of the decrees of Kutna Hora (1409) Hungarians viewed the most flourishing university in central europe as the institution of Prague. after 1409 their number decreased dramatically, while the number of Hungarians almost doubled in Vienna, which could be explained by the decrees of Kutna Hora. Not just the higher numbers, but their court attendance, careers, and the individual graduates all suggest that studies at Prague were more valuable than the studies at other universities before 1409. Almost every Hungarian pupil from Prague participated in the council at constance in contrast with their fellow students from Vienna or Cracow. Further research is needed regarding their relation-web, but it already can be suggested that their university studies had an impact on their future careers. This relationship between the royal courts and the University of Prague is perceptible also in the court of Habsburg, the Jagiello dynasty and in the court of Vencelaus IV of Luxemburg. Their career paths, diplomatic duties and academic careers could be drawn in a parallel. summarizing, the students who started their studies at Prague up to 1409 more easily found possibilities at the royal court of king sigismund compared to those who finished their university studies in other institutions.

Jan Hus’s position is compared to those of Augustine, Bernard and Joachim, on which background questions concerning Hus’s influence on the understanding of the kingdom, the church, its authority and of the apocalyptic themes in the Bohemian Church are examined.

The author analyses the legal action of the Polish delegation against the
Satira by Dominican friar John Falkenberg, which appeared at the Council of Constance (1414–1418). In his work, Falkenberg called for the extermination of the Polish nation as well as the king Wladyslaw Jagiello. He announced that those who would achieve this aim would attain salvation. The Polish delegation, especially Paul Włodkowic and archbishop Nicolas Trąba, made efforts aimed at the recognition of the Dominican’s work as heretical.
Falkenberg was arrested and his work was condemned by the Commission of Faith, however it was not recognized as heretical. The new pope Martin V, in turn, did not want the verdict of the commission to become a resolution of the Council. In response, Poles, despite the threat of anathema, at the last session of the Council, appealed against the Satira to the next council, which undermined the authority of the pope. In the article, the author shows the factors which prevented Poles from achieving complete success in the Falkenberg case. He addresses the question whether the determination of the Polish envoys in the defence of honour of their ruler and state in the final days of the council brought positive results in the years after the council. The author gives consideration to the question whether the actions of Polish diplomacy against ‘Satira’ combined with other steps on the international forum contributed to a certain extent to creating Jagiello’s image as the last apostle of the barbarian Europe.

Статья посвящена проблеме религиозных контактов между Западом и Востоком Европы в период Средневековья, а именно участию киевского митрополита Григория Цамблака в работе Констанцского собора 1414–1418 гг. В историографии до сих пор миссия православного иерарха остается малоизученным историческим эпизодом. Сообщения Хроники Ульриха Рихенталя и иные источники предоставляют богатый фактологический материал для анализа политического контекста миссии Григория Цамблака, уточнения хронологии его пребывания на соборе, возможного состава его свиты. Автор приходит к выводу об отсутствии в свите Григория Цамблака православных иерархов и доказывает, опираясь на одно из свидетельств Хроники Ульриха фон Рихенталя, что его сопровождали только священники.

Rezension zu: Karl-Heinz Braun und Thomas Martin Buck (Hg.): Über die ganze Erde erging der Name von Konstanz. Rahmenbedingungen und Rezeption des Konstanzer Konzils, Stuttgart 2017, in: Jahrbuch für Regionalgeschichte 39 (2021), S. 301-303.

On the 9th of July in 1415, Diego de Moxena, very likely a Castilian Franciscan active in the Council of Constance, wrote a letter to Ferdinand I of Aragon in which he urged him to attend the Council and to reconsider his support to Benedict XIII. Moxena’s missive reveals a particular use of the Liber sine nomine by Petrarch, already noticed by Isaac Vázquez Janeiro, but which calls forth closer attention. The document, being quite an early testimony in the history of Petrarch’s presence in Spain, makes use of the preface and the two first epistles of the Liber sine nomine not as a simple repertoire of maxims but as the very model on which the letter is written; besides, and most extraordinarily, the name of Petrarch is not even once mentioned throughout the text. Apart from that, this paper questions some of the sources put forward by Vázquez Janeiro and offers a new and revised edition of Fray Diego’s letter.

How much can I beware my body, in order not to lose my soul? Is the attempt to beware my body a sign that I have already lost my soul? Finally, are there reliable signs that I am among the elected? And on the base of which metaphysical background? The process which lead to the condemnation and the execution of the Bohemian Preacher Jan Hus (and, after some months, of his fellow Jerome of Prague) in the context of the Council of Constance (1414–1415) provides us a privileged insight on the issues which might emerge while analysing such topic. Even more, if we consider that the lack of official acts regarding his condemnation forces us to follow the very subjective path of the reconstruction of the events through the eyes of Hus himself, as well as of some of his closest fellows.Two elements seem to be particularly clear: on the one hand, Hus’ absolute inability to understand the political background behind the reasons of the three great actors of the council (d’Ailly, Gerson, Zabarella), on the other hand, the role of Hus’ implicit metaphysical assumption in the logical consequences which allowed his condemnation — although he never stated, actually, the thesis he was condemned for. Having recently curated an edition of Jan Hus’ letters, I would take the opportunity offered by the conceptual pair body/soul as main topic of the RefoRC Conference of this year to present the issues in Hus’ ecclesiology, in his very much questioned adherence to Wyclif’s standpoint and his ‘radical’ realism, as well as in his idea of a congregatio praedestinatorum and the role of the adherence to the ’truth’ as sign of the divine election as framework to his repeated refusal to abjure in order to preserve his soul. “Leve est loqui et illud exponere, sed grave implere“, as he stated to his patron, the Baron Jan of Chlum: that is easier said than done. Nonetheless, done.

In this article Ivana Dolejšová (Noble) explores two late medieval concepts of authority, both of which sought to help the Roman Catholic Church out of crisis, but which came into conflict at the Council of Constance in 1415. One preferred the idea of objective rules, granted by agreement of the conciliar fathers, to which the entire church was to be subject; the other subordinated such decisions to the supreme authority of God discernible in the Scriptures and Holy Tradition, and recognisable in human interior life. Thus, a hundred years before Luther the dilemma between what is supreme in the time of crisis, the internal or the external knowledge of the will of God divided the Roman Catholic Church internally. The case of Jan Hus and his opponent Štěpán Páleč is shown as illustrative of the tragedy when obedience to the mediated authority and obedience to the immediate authority of Christ are placed against each other. The article shows that Hus’ accusation of heresy, his martyrdom, and the subsequent protest of the church in Bohemia is underpinned by these competing religious epistemologies, and thus attempts to rehabilitate what was lost.

Tento článek zkoumá, jak spor mezi realisty a nominalisty ovlivnil pozice Mistra Jana Husa a jeho oponenta Mistra Štěpána Pálče. Ukazuje, jak se rozdílnost jejich filosofických pozic otiskla do jejich odlišného chápání nejvyšší autority v životě křesťana a církve.

This article examines how realist - nominalist controversy imacted on the  positions of Master Jan Hus and his opponent  Štěpán Páleč. It shows how their different philosophical positions influenced their contrasting positions on the final authority in the life of a Christian and of the church.

The essay examines the role of cardinals in the councils from Pisa (1409) to the Concilio Romano in 1725 with a focus on conciliar procedures and ceremonial. In this context, different functions of cardinals can be traced: They participated in the healing of the Great Western Schism in the early 15th century and in the papal elections of 1409 (Pisa) and 1417 (Constance). When faced with the confrontation between Eugenius IV. and the Council of Basel, they acted – at least during the first years of the council – as a rather independent third party. This phase ends with the conciliar schism in 1437, when the cardinals joined the Pope for his council in Ferrara. After Basel, the connection between the college of cardinals became even more closely linked to the papacy. Thus, the Councils of the 16th century demonstrate this new understanding of the cardinalate as senate of the pope as well as his closest and highest-ranking staff. When Sixtus V. had transformed the cardinalate into the group possessing leading positions in the curia, they aligned themselves to the new situation. Consequently, the Concilio Romano was declared superfluous by the cardinals as the curia provided a well-functioning governmental body of the church. Thus, the history of the councils mirrors and condenses the development of the cardinalate in the Early Modern Period.

This is the first book-length study of the influential cultural and
religious exchanges which took place between England and Bohemia
following Richard II’s marriage to Anne of Bohemia in 1382. The
ensuing growth in communication between the two kingdoms initially
enabled new ideas of religion to flourish in both countries but
eventually led the English authorities to suppress heresy. This exciting
project has been made possible by the discovery of new manuscripts
after the opening up of Czech archives over the past twenty years. It is
the only study to analyze the Lollard–Hussite exchange with an eye to
the new opportunities for international travel and correspondence to
which the Great Schism gave rise, and examines how the use of
propaganda and the Council of Constance brought an end to this
communication by securing the condemnation of heretics such as
John Wyclif.

Il Convegno si propone di cogliere, nel sesto centenario della ricorrenza (1417-2017), gli esiti della conclusione del Grande Scisma d’Occidente sulla Chiesa bolognese. L’anno di elezione di Martino V (1417), coincidente con l’elezione a vescovo di Niccolò Albergati, segnò un importante diaframma nella storia della Chiesa bolognese. L’obiettivo dell’iniziativa è pertanto bivalente, retrospettivo e prospettivo rispetto a questo discrimine. Per un verso il Convegno mira dunque a ricostruire gli esiti del governo di Baldassarre Cossa (Giovanni XXIII), poi destituito a Costanza, per un altro, preponderante, intende cogliere nelle sue principali articolazioni gli indirizzi della renovatio che garantì a Bologna una nuova centralità in rapporto alla Chiesa universale. Questa dialettica viene affrontata, anche in chiave comparativa, su un duplice piano, riguardando sia le relazioni istituzionali tra il papa e la città, sia l’emersione di personalità riformatrici di grande rilievo – Niccolò Albergati e Tommaso Parentucelli (Niccolò V) – chiamate a funzioni di vertice nella delicata età dei Concili. Negli anni successivi alla conclusione dello Scisma la Chiesa bolognese divenne una sorta di ‘laboratorio’ della riforma avviata dal Concilio di Costanza, recependo influssi esterni e proponendo al contempo nuovi modelli presi singolarmente in esame dai relatori partecipanti al Convegno.

Burning at the stake of the Czech reformer and scholar Jan Hus for heresy at the Council of Constance on 6th July 1415 was the cause of numerous military conflicts between the Hussites and the Catholics which affected the whole Central Europe from the 1420s. At the council and also after that, Jan Hus and his followers were called principal enemies of Christianity. The “war of words” („Krieg der Wörter“, Wertheimer 2003) preceded the war of weapons. From the linguistic point of view, a certain metaphor alluding to the meaning of the Czech name Hus = ”husa”, which means “goose”, was at the forefront. Burning Master Jan Hus was sarcastically called “roasting a goose”; military persecutions of the Hussites was called “plucking” and “roasting goslings”. The animalization of adversaries served as the justification and cynical trivialization of the atrocities committed against them. Poets Muskatblüt, Konrad Attinger and Oswald von Wolkenstein agitating in Constance and participating in military campaigns had fundamental influence on the creation of the image of enemies and journalistic propaganda. In the case of Oswald, especially, there are suspicions that his poetic-canvassing activities were affected by his own interests. As a servant of King Sigismund, he probably gained more influence after Hus was left to the mercy of fate, despite his royal safe-conduct.

This chapter deals with the commemorative weekend in Constance marking the 600th death anniversary of Jan Hus, who was condemned as heretic and burned during the Council of Constance. This event can be characterized as hybrid in multiple ways: As festive celebration fusing mourning and conviviality; as bilingual event, not only characterized by the parallel use of German and Czech, but also by various processes of translation and appropriation; finally, as melting pot and social arena, where different functional logics,  religious and secular, local and national discourses competed and fused with each other - thus creating new form of event.

Der Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit dem Konstanzer Gedenkwochenende zum 600. Todestag von Jan Hus, der während des Konstanzer Konzils zum Tode verurteilt wurde. Dabei handelte es sich um ein hybrides Ereignis in mehrfacher Hinsicht: Als feierliches Gedenken, das zwischen angemessener Trauer und ausgelassener Konvivialität changierte; als bilinguales Event, bei dem Deutsch und Tschechisch nicht nur parallel verwendet, sondern fortwährend übersetzt wurden und zuweilen ineinander übergingen; als gesellschaftlicher Anlass bei dem unterschiedliche Funktionslogiken, religiöse und säkulare sowie lokale und nationale Diskurse miteinander konkurrierten und sich überlagerten. Kurz: eine „widerstrebende Fügung“, aus der ein neuartiges Ganzes hervorging.

Das Schiedsverfahren galt im Mittelalter als ein wirkungsvolles Rechtsmittel zur Lösung internationaler Auseinandersetzungen. Dies gilt auch für einen Rechtsstreit, den König Sigismund von Luxemburg als Schiedsrichter zwischen dem Deutschen Orden und Polen-Litauen entscheiden sollte. Zenon Hubert Nowak zufolge gelang es ihm, das Schiedsverfahren für seine ambitionierte gesamteuropäische Politik effektiv auszunutzen. Nowak betrachtet dieses Schiedsverfahren als einen kontinuierlichen Prozess von 1412 bis 1420. In dem Umstand, dass die Verkündigung des Schiedsspruches immer wieder aufgeschoben wurde, sieht er ein taktisches Manöver Sigismunds, um Polen-Litauen und den Orden von sich abhängig zu machen. Nach der mittelalterlichen Rechtstheorie und-praxis verfügte ein Schiedsrichter zwar über weitreichende Befugnisse, durfte aber die in einem von beiden Streitparteien ausgestellten sog. compromissum festgelegten Grenzen nicht überschreiten. Die zweijährige Frist bis zur Urteilsverkündigung, die letztendlich aus ungeklärten Gründen nicht erfolgte, endete im Sommer 1414. Offenbar zweifelte Sigismund am Erfolg des Schiedsverfahrens, denn schon lange vor dem Scheitern der Verhandlungen in Buda lud er beide Seiten zu dem bevorstehenden Konzil nach Konstanz ein. Dort aber wurde das Schiedsverfahren nicht fortgesetzt, wie Nowak meint, sondern die Streitparteien verhandelten miteinander über die Person des Schiedsrichters (den römischen König, den Papst, das Konzil, die Kurfürsten usw.) sowie über die Art der Schlichtung. Da die jeweiligen Unterhändler mehrfach wechselten, wurde in beiden Fragen kein Konsens erzielt. Lediglich der noch vor Beginn des Konzils geschlossene Waffenstillstand wurde wiederholt verlängert. Zur Ausstellung eines neuen compromissum kam es erst im Sommer 1419, nachdem sich Sigismund eindeutig auf die Seite Polens gestellt hatte und der Orden unter massivem diplomatischem Druck dazu gezwungen worden war, den römischen König als Schiedsrichter zu akzeptieren. Letztendlich war der Breslauer Schiedsspruch vom 6. Januar 1420 für Polen keineswegs günstig und markiert eine Wende in der Politik des römischen Königs gegenüber der polnisch-litauischen Union. Die von Nowak erarbeiteten Grundzüge des Schiedsverfahrens sowie der Politik Sigis-munds sind zwar immer noch zutreffend, bedürfen aber gewisser Modifikationen. Sigis-mund sah in einem Schiedsverfahren nur ein Hilfsmittel, mit dem er einerseits die Lehens-hoheit des Reiches über den Deutschen Orden in Preußen durchsetzen und anderseits Polen-Litauen ein politisch-militärisches Bündnis gegen das Osmanische Reich aufzwingen wollte, das allerdings allein für ihn als römischen König günstig erschien. Die wechselnde Bedeutung des Schiedsverfahrens hing für König Sigismund nicht nur von den aktuellen gesellschaftspolitischen Entwicklungen im ersten Dezennium seiner römischen Regierung (Schisma, Konzil von Konstanz, Ausbruch der hussitischen Revolution) ab, sondern auch davon, ob dieses Verfahren wesentlich zur Umsetzung der beiden genannten Hauptziele beitrug oder nicht.

During the Great Schism of the Western Church (1378–1417) polemical French song texts asserted the claims of rival popes or praised princes who had thrown their support behind a particular pope. French and Italian composers regularly set these texts to the most astounding musical style of the day, the so-called ars subtilior. Understandably, sources that scholars associate with the Council of Constance contain few examples of these divisive political songs. They also lack examples of the ars subtilior style, at least in the register cultivated for these songs. On the face of it, this situation suggests that the Council of Constance fell at a significant juncture in European polyphonic song development that saw the demise of the ars subtilior style and French song as a vehicle for political statement. In this paper I outline some of my most recent thoughts on the role that French-texted songs played in Italian power politics after 1409, particularly in the Angevin struggle over Naples and Baldassare Cossa's play for capturing Rome for the conciliar branch of the Schism. I argue that musical traces of this struggle, as well as a more widely transmitted "international" repertoire of French songs using stylised courtly texts, accompanied singers, like those in the large retinue of Cossa, to the Council of Constance, and can be indeed seen, upon closer inspection, in sources like the Strasbourg manuscript. The ornate political song did not immediately disappear after the Council of Constance, but the patterns of transmission of French-texted repertoire indicate that this genre did not travel well for reasons that will be outlined. I also ask whether prevailing historical narratives have caused scholarship to overlook other surviving early fifteenth-century sources of French-texted songs that might instead be connected with the Council of Constance.

Online here: https://www.vr-elibrary.de/doi/10.7788/9783412510114.199
The article focuses on the appearance of the English delegation at the council of Constance 1414-1418, which was noticed in more detail by Ulrich Richental than any other presentation, and on Sigismund's travel to England, describend by Eberhard Windecke. 
The processes researched in this article illustrate the transformation of staging and perception at the beginning of the 15th century in England and Germany. Expensive architectural alterations accompagnied Sigismund's visit to Westminster palace, Windsor castle and Calais. Sigismund and Henry V exchanged valuable presents. The ceremonial of entrance of king Sigismund into Constance, of spectacle, music and pageants was accompagnied by important semiotic signs, which were described by contemporary chroniclers. However, even modern historians did not realize that the objects were fictitious. They became dispensable as tangible objects. Sigismund verbally and performatively compensated for the lack of visual evidence by receiving the English exuberantly, praising them and participating in their pageant. How convincing the English self-portrayal at the Council was with its real and imaginary elements is evidenced by the contemporary and modern texts as well as by Poggio Bracciolini's journey in the wake of Bishop Beaufort to Winchester. The scholar's disappointment, however, also testifies the gap between Constance staging and British reality. The expected humanistic splendor proved at least from the point of view of the Italian as fictitious as Sigismund’s collar when moving to Constance.
When the Roman and Hungarian King Sigismund of Luxembourg came into the city of Constance from the Petershausener Bridge on January 27, 1417, the display of the English “livery of the collar” at his neck is reported to have made the English liegemen glad. His entry is described by the contemporary English author Johannes Forester, who wrote a letter to King Henry V of England only a few days later. This collar of Esses, which was the necklace or “livery of the collar” given by the king with the motto of the House of Lancaster, was, according to Forester, the most conspicuous sign of English presence. It decorated, as he reported, Sigismund’s neck when he returned to the Council of Constance after a year and a half of absence.
Collar of Esses and coat suited the contemporary writer of the letter, Forester, as a widely perceived semiotic reference system, which characterised the body of the king in the adventus as a medium of English affiliation and political suport. Thus, the universally visible wearing of the chain as a motto of the House of Lancaster was also considered a sign of support of the English nation against the Aragonese and French. Sigismund is said to have reaffirmed his support of the English against the French to all participants of the Council.
However, this plausible reference system that Forester suggested in his letter must be a fiction. Sigismund did not wear the collar when he arrived in Constance. Forester’s fiction has not been revealed yet. To this day, historians tell more or less flowery of the entry of Sigismund to Conctance and imagine him wearing the collar of Esses of the house of Lancaster, which so wonderfully seem to visualise the actual alliance of the two kings. Undisputed, on the other hand, is Sigismund’s clear support for the English side. Has Forester knowingly intended to mislead the English King with the visual reference to the collar in order to cover up Sigismund’s insolvency and the affront of pledging such a valuable gift? Or was the English king himself the author of this fiction, since Forester’s letter was the basis for further reports by other chroniclers, such as Jean de Montreuil or the modern historians quoted above? For example, at the court of Charles V of France in 1378 gift lists were modified to exaggerate the ruler’s generosity. Or could it be that the idea of objects as bearers of thought may have existed? That John Forester imagined the chain comparable to the material presence of hidden objects – such as relics in altars –, so that the collar was invisibly present for Forester and described to the English king as visible to all?

The study introduces the reader into the legal proceedings against Jan Hus and into the historical context of Hus's stay at the Council of Constance. [Studie uvádí čtenáře do soudního procesu s Janem Husem a do historického kontextu Husova pobytu u kostnického koncilu.]

The article, which is based on the documents from the Council of Constance, describes the circumstances of the Orthodox hierarchs legation to the Council headed by Metropolitan Gregory Tsamblak. The article gives a brief textual analysis of these documents. It attempts to clarify the union intentions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of Poland, as well as the Orthodox delegation.

Günter Katzler is Research fellow at the Institute for Medieval Research of the Austrian Academy of Sciences at the FWF Project „Balancing Power: Sigismund’s Politics in Constance 1414–1418“. Within MEDCON, he is responsible for the casestudy on the conflict between Emperor Sigismund and Frederick IV, Duke of Austria and Tyrol, at the time of the Council of Constance.

Through the coincidence of politics, geography, and the pressing need to end the Great Schism and address the Hussite heresy, Europe's princes, prelates and their retinues gathered in 1414 in a small provincial city on the shores of the Bodensee. Music historians have looked upon the Council of Constance as an opportunity for the transfer and transformation of musical culture in Western Europe. Upper estimates put the number of professional musicians present at the council at 1700, although just what music they performed remains contentious. Ulrich von Richenthal describes the popes' singers, the trumpeters of the Earl of Warwick, King Sigismund and the Merchants of Florence, and the English choristers of the Bishops of Lichfield and Norwich. Oswald von Wolkenstein, Pier Paolo Vergerio, Francesco Zabarella and other connoisseurs of music were also present. Yet, apart from some fragments of plainchant, no sources are known to have survived from Constance that might provide direct clues for what was heard during the council. Thus another approach is required. In this paper I examine source evidence from the decades before and after the Council of Constance with a view to identifying continuities, discontinuities and novelty in musical repertoires. Although it is tempting to see Constance as a catalyst for musical change, Upper Rhenish and Austrian sources from the decade or so before Constance already reveal distinct continuities of decades old traditions, sometimes appropriated as contrafacta, to the exclusion of more recent flamboyant musical styles. At the same time, new music in later sources, or sources that were compiled over several decades before and after the council, attests to the presence of northern composers who found employment in the courts of Italian princes and the papal curia in the years immediately after the council. To some extent, the marginalisation of the earlier flamboyant style of music rests upon the political demise of those who patronised it. Yet the re-texting of older songs with both Latin and vernacular texts begs questions about the influence of Hussite Wycliffism, the proselyting of mendicant orders, and ecclesiastical reform (especially in the Benedictine congregations) upon the development of music in the early fifteenth century. I conclude by outlining some of the answers to these questions.