ABSTRACT
Thomas Ebendorfer was a professor at the University of Vienna, a theologian and active participant in political and ecclesiastical affairs. His prolific writings, "an amazingly large Oeuvre" as a recent commentator put it – include lengthy histories of his native Austria and of the Holy Roman Emperors and Popes, as well as a detailed diary of his role in two of the embassies that were dispatched by the council of Basel to negotiate with the Hussites. Ebendorfer's writings give us an insight into the relationship between early crusading and that of his own times, and they show how a range of political and ecclesiastical obstacles were impeding the resurgence of crusading which the Austrian hoped to see. Equally, they demonstrate that advocacy of crusade in Ebendorfer's time could be combined with a variety of opinions about other leading issues of the day, such as conciliarism, union and reform.
