Mandell Creighton’s history of the Papacy continues in Volume II with the condemnation in 1415 of Jan Hus by the Council of Constance and his death at the stake. His execution ignites civil war in Bohemia. Gregory XII abdicates as pope and the Council elects Oddone Colonna, Pope Martin V. The second Antipope John XXIII is eventually forced to resign, but the wily and stubborn Antipope, Benedict XIII, refuses to abdicate and flees to his native Spain, where he dies in 1423. The scene shifts to Basil, where a second Council has been convened to quell heresy in Bohemia and to reform the Church. Pope Eugenius IV, contesting its authority, undermines all its work. The volume closes with the Council of Florence, headed by the Pope, and attended by the Greek emperor and his chief prelates. Eugenius craves the glory of uniting, under the Pope, the Eastern and Western churches, but the Emperor just wants military aid to save Constantinople from the Turks.
(Summary by Pamela Nagami, M.D.)