JOHN XXIII., Cardinal Cossa, succeeded Alexander V. in 1410. He supported the claims of Louis of Anjou against Ladislaus, king of Naples ; but Ladislaus, hUing defeated his rival in battle, advanced to Rome, and obliged the pope to escape to Florence. John preached a crusade against Ladislaus, which gave occasion to denunciations and invectives from John Huss. Meantime the great schism continued, and Gregory, styled XII., and Benedict, antipope, divided with John the homage of the Christian states. John, in his exile, wishing to secure the favour of the Emperor Sigismund, proposed to him the convocation of a general council to restore peace to the church, and Sigismund fixed on the city of Constance as the place of assembly. On hearing of the death of Ladislaus, by which event Rome became again open to him, John repented of what he had proposed, but was obliged to comply with the general wish by repairing to Constance. The fathers of the council decided that John, as well as his two rivals, should renounce their claims to the papacy as the only means of restoring peace. John signed the form of renunciation, but soon
after, by the assistance of Frederick of Austria, he was conveyed out of the city, and resumed his authority by ordering the council to dissolve. But the council, in its fourth and fifth sessions, decided by a solemn decree that the general council once assembled is superior to the pope, and can receive no orders from him. A formal process being instituted against John, sixty charges were laid against him, of which only part were made being heard, a solemn deposition was pronounced on the 29th of May 1415, to which John submitted, and was then given into the custody of the elector palatine. After the election of Martin V. and the termination of the council of Constance. John, now again Balthazar Co..., escaped from Germany, and made his submission to the new pope, who treated him kindly and gave him the first rank among the cardinals. He died soon after.