John Huss and the Hussite Wars - James Aitken Wylie

true, this beneficence of Pope Martin must have
constituted a very large draft indeed on the treasury
of the Church; but doubtless it sent the Fathers in
good spirits to their homes.
On the 15th of May the Pope sang his last mass
in the cathedral church, and next day set out on his
return for Italy. The French prelates prayed him to
establish his chair at Avignon, a request that had
been made more than once of his predecessors
without avail. But the Pope told them that "they
must yield to reason and necessity; that as he had
been acknowledged by the whole world for St.
Peter's successor, it was but just that he should go
and seat himself on the throne of that apostle; and
that as the Church of Rome was the head and
mother of all the Churches, it was absolutely
necessary that the sovereign Pontiff should reside
at Rome, as a good pilot ought to keep at the stern
and not at the prow of the vessel." Before turning
to the tragic scenes on the threshold of which we
stand, let us bestow a moment's glance on the
gaudy yet ambitious pomp that marked the Pope's
departure for Rome. It is thus related by
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