92
THE DECLINE AND FALL
chap, ten, to censure, the contumacious successor ofLXVI ' St. Peter. After many delays, to allow time forTheir o repentance, they finally declared, that, unless heposition to submitted within the term of sixty days, he wasEngemus SUS p en{ j e( j f rom ^ ie exercise of all temporal and
ecclesiastical authority. And to mark their ju-risdiction over the prince as well as the priest,they assumed the government of Avignon , an-nulled the alienation of the sacred patrimony,and protected Rome from the imposition of newtaxes. Their boldness was justified, not onlyby the general opinion of the clergy, but by thesupport and power of the first monarchs ofChristendom: the emperor Sigismond declaredhimself the servant and protector of the synod ;Germany and France adhered to their cause; theduke of Milan was the enemy of Fugenius; andhe was driven from the Vatican by an insurrec-tion of the Roman people. Rejected at thesame time by his temporal and spiritual sub-jects, submission was his only choice: by amost humiliating bull, the pope repealed hisown acts, and ratified those of the council; in-corporated his legates and cardinals with thatvenerable body; and seemed to resign himselfto the decrees of the supreme legislature. Theirfame pervaded the countries of the East; and itwas in their presence thatSigismond received theambassadors of the Turkish sultan/ who laid athis feet twelve large vases, filled with robes ofsilk and pieces of gold. The fathers of Basil