ABSTRACT
Alike in the numbers that attended it, in the length of time it sat, and in the importance of the business with which it dealt, the Council of Constance was one of the most notable assemblies in the history of the world. When at its largest it included three patriarchs, twenty-nine cardinals, thirtythree archbishops, one hundred and fifty bishops, more than a hundred abbots, and upwards of three hundred other ecclesiastics, nearly all of whom held a doctor’s degree. Besides, the Council attracted to Constance a vast concourse of strangers who were not members, though some of them had much influence upon its proceedings. There were the suites of the great prelates and princes who were present; there were crowds of benefice-hunters and privilege-seekers ; the business of the Empire, as well as that of the Church, was for many months officially transacted at Constance ; and there were large profits to be made by pedlars, craftsmen, min strels, harlots, and parasites of every kind. The most modest contemporary estimate of the numbers of this multitude gives 40,000, but one may prudently be sceptical as to this figure without denying that Constance successfully accommodated several times its normal population of some 6,000. Considering that the Council lasted for nearly three years and a half, that (while in such a mixed crowd a good deal of vice and crime was inevitable) there was very little open disorder, that the regulations laying down maximum prices for food and lodging were enforced and worked well, and that after the first winter there was no serious appre hension of a dearth of provisions, it cannot be denied that both among the Council’s officials and among the municipal authorities there was very high organizing ability. Nor must the failure of the gathering to accomplish many of the things that it undertook lessen unduly our wonder that such an assembly could sit for so long, debate the most vital and controversial topics of that age, and, despite some narrow escapes of premature disintegration, separate peacefully, with much work achieved and its dignity and self-respect maintained. That the Council of Constance was possible is a measure of the zeal fbr the catholic Church which still animated Europe.
