Dietrich was an energetic promoter of the new foundation, to such an extent that after Peters he deserves to be considered its chief founder.
In view of the increasing confusion in the Church, however, he became one of the most ardent advocates of the appeal to a general council.
[1] Dietrich wrote about events in which he either had an intimate personal share or of which he was in an excellent position to obtain accurate information.
Of these the first, compiled at Lucca after the breach with Gregory XII, is a collection of documents which had fallen into his hands during the negotiations for union: papal pronouncements, pamphlets, letters written and received by himself, and the like.
A passage from Dietrich of Nieheim's De schismate libri III is used as an epigraph at the beginning of the second chapter of Arthur Koestler's novel, Darkness at Noon:[3] When the existence of the Church is threatened, she is released from the commandments of morality.
With unity as the end, the use of every means is sanctified, even deceit, treachery, violence, usury, prison, and death.
Because order serves the good of the community, the individual must be sacrificed for the common good.However, this is actually a paraphrase of Dietrich's position in the treatise De modis, as expressed by the German historian Ludwig von Pastor, in his book Geschichte der Päpste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters (History of the Popes from the Close of the Middle Ages), vol.
Close to what was said by Tullius Cicero in De Officiis [III v 23]: 'This is what the laws look for, this is what they will: [the city] to be conjoined safely.