Sigismund of Luxembourg, imperial reform and the problem of the «pre-reform movement» in the 15th century

The paper examines the way the imperial policy of King Sigismund was reflected in the political publicism in the 1430s focusing on the questions of the Reichsreform and political dualism and pre-reformative movement in the German lands. The research is based on two groups of sources: 1) the Latin scriptures devoted to the church and empire reform, composed by Johann Schele and Nicholas of Cusa the church hierarchs and supporters of King Sigismund; 2) the pieces of burgher literature containing pre-reformative views, namely Eberhard Windecke and the anonymous «King Sigismund’s Reformation». The research demonstrates that those burghers, as well as ecclesiastical scholars declared the ideas that had already been a part of Sigismund’s political conception. Johann Schele and Nicholas of Cusa tried to prove the necessity of the objection of the Papal reservations during the Sigismund’s coronation tour towards Rome, when it was the King himself who was drawn in a conflict with Venice and it’s puppet Pope Eugenius IV. The 2nd idea was the theory of two swords, the ecclesiastic one and the secular one, composed by Nicholas of Cusa, which was inserted in a royal charter. It could be found in the «King Sigismund’s Reformation» and works by Eberhard Windecke. This idea become a logical argument against the Pope’s claims on the secular power in the Western world. The 3rd idea inherent to the every of those four authors was to consider the imperial princes the stronghold of order in the Empire. Thus, there is a clear connection between the political publicism of the 1430s and Sigismund’s policy that has to be studied more precisely in future.