Page:On papal conclaves (IA a549801700cartuoft).djvu/224

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
208
APPENDIX.

thereof. What argument induced him to yield in the end is unknown; but that the marriage between Casimir and Hedwig came to be recognised by him as valid, during Adelaide's lifetime, is now proved by a Brief from Urban V. to Casimir, certifying that the charge brought against the latter, of having forged the dispensation for his marriage, was unfounded, and which Brief is printed in Vet. Mon. Pol. vol. i. p. 649. In it the Pope writes:—'Cum itaque, sicut accepimus ab aliquibus tuæ celsitudinis emulis famam Regii nominig denigrare conantibus, tam in judicio quam extra judicium, minus veraciter asseratur certas apostolicas litteras per quas tecum fuisse dispensatum dicebatur, quod cum dilectâ in Christo filiâ nobile muliere . . . . natâ dilecti filii nobilis viri Henrici ducis Zaganiensis . . . . matrimonium contrahere posses, falso fuisse tuo nomine fabricatas, nos ad famam ipsius tui nominis conservandam omnem infamiam, si quâ forsan contra celsitudinem tuam occasione premissorum, a quibus te reputavimus insontem, foret exorta, velut frivolam, et inanem tenore presentium penitus abolemus, ita quod nihil ex prædictis contra excellentiam tuam in judicio vel extra in perpetuum possit objici vel opponi.' While the term matrimonium is conclusive of the light in which the tie between Casimir and Hedwig was considered by the Pope, it is remarkable, that though certifying to their authenticity, he guards himself against expressing approval of these same 'litteras prædictas.'

The second case given is that of an authorization to Alexander Duke of Lithuania, and after-