Council of Constance Opens

November 5, 1414

Sigismund convened the largest church gathering in a century to end the Papal Schism and silence the Bohemian heretic Jan Hus. Thirty thousand clerics, merchants, and prostitutes descended on the lakeside town. It would take four years to produce one pope, and only one man would be burned. Its agenda encompassed ending the schism, reforming the Church, and suppressing heresy, though procedural disputes consumed enormous energy.