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A.D. 1423 - Council of Basle

Properly speaking, the councils of Basle, Ferrara, and Florence constitute but one council, of which several sessions were held in each of these cities, and which is usually called the council of Florence, because the most important questions were definitively settled and the council terminated at this latter city.

According to a decree of the council of Constance, that another council should be convoked within 6 years after its own close, a general council, convoked by a bull of pope Martin V., met at Pavia in May, 1423 ; but the plague there and the thin attendance led to its speedy transfer to Siena, where it met the following November. This council was dissolved before effecting any reforms, " on account of the fewness of those present." It had little influence or efficiency, though it published some decrees against the followers of Wickliffe and Huss, and required another ecumenical council to be held, which was accordingly convoked by the pope to meet in Basle (= Basil, or Basel) in Switzerland in 1431.

The council of Basle, like that of Constance, has been a stumbling-block among Roman Catholics. It was entirely omitted in the Catholic Almanac's list of ecumenical councils, and in the Roman edition of the councils published in 1609. Cardinal Bellarmin and the moderate Gallicans consider it legitimate and ecumenical down to the 26th session, or till its removal to Ferrara in 1437. The stricter Gallicans consider the whole council ecumenical. The council, during its sessions at Basle, until its transfer to Ferrara in 1437, was acknowledged as ecumenical by Eugenius IV., and its decrees were confirmed by him, with the exception of those which interfered with the prerogatives of the holy see. After the transfer to Ferrara, a certain number of prelates still continued to hold sessions at Basle, but from this date' the council of Basle is regarded as a conciliabulum, or schismatical assembly."

The council of Basle was certainly regularly summoned by pope Martin V., who commissioned cardinal Julian, who had just led an unsuccessful crusade against the Bohemians, to preside as papal legate in the council. Martin V. died on the 20th of February, 1431, and Eugene IV. was elected his successor on the 3d of March, the very day appointed for the council to meet. The new pope immediately confirmed his predecessor's convocation of the council; but it is said only one abbot was present to constitute the council on the 3d of March, and he went through the form of declaring himself assembled in ecumenical council, which ceremony was repeated a few days after on the arrival of 4 other deputies. Cardinal Julian arrived in September, and held a session on the 26th of that month, at which 3 bishops and 7 abbots are said to have been present. On the 12th of November, pope Eugene wrote a letter to cardinal Julian, ordering him to dissolve the council and summon another to meet at Bologna in 1433; and on the 18th of December the pope issued a formal bull of dissolution. The council, however, held what is called its first session on the 14th of December, 1431; and in its second session, February 15, 1432, renewed the decrees of the council of Constance declaring the council to be above the pope, and the pope bound to obey the council; and in its third session, April 29, 1432, required the pope to revoke the pretended dissolution, and to be present in the council within 3 months personally, if able, or otherwise by legate or legates, and the cardinals likewise to be present in the council within three months, threatening to enforce these requirements by the proper penalties in case of nonfulfillment.

The contest went on, the council issuing its decrees and the pontiff his bulls, until the pope, hard pressed on all sides, was obliged to yield to the council on all points, and in his bull of December 15, 1433, to say expressly: " We decree and declare that the aforesaid general council of Basle was and is legitimately continued from the time of its aforesaid beginning .... moreover declaring the above dissipation null and void, we follow the holy general council of Basle itself with purity, simplicity, effect, aud all devotion and favor. Furthermore, our two letters, . . and any others, and whatever has been done or attempted or asserted by us or in our name to the prejudice or disparagement of the aforesaid holy council of Basle, or against its authority, we abrogate, revoke, make void, and annul."

The council required the pope's legates, before admitting them to the presidency of the council, to take oath hi a general congregation on the 8th of April, 1434, to labor faithfully for the state and honor of the council of Basle, and to defend and maintain its decrees, and especially the decree of the council of Constance respecting the council's supremacy under Christ and the obligation of all, even the pope, to obey it, &c. The council had now become very numerous, and began to consider in earnest measures for ecclesiastical reform. It abolished most of the papal reservations of elective benefices, &c.; prescribed regular diocesan and provincial synods ; issued decrees against the concubinage of the clergy, against the indiscreet use of interdicts, and against frivolous and unjust appeals; abolished the annats (= first fruits, or first year's income of a benefice, paid into the papal treasury), which had prevented any but the rich from obtaining important preferments; and adopted various other measures of reform during the 3 years or more of apparent harmony between the pope and the council.

The pope during this time repeatedly declared " that he had always received and observed the decrees of the council." But in 1437 there came another conflict between them. The negotiations for union with the Greeks served as a reason for removing the council into Italy ; but the council rejected the pope's proposals to this end, and on the 31st of July, 1437, impeached the pope for disregard of the council's reformatory decrees. Then the pope by his bull of September 18,1437, removed the council from Basle to Ferrara, and on the 8th of January, 1438, opened a council in the latter city. On the 24th of January, 1438, the council suspended Eugene from all administration of the papacy, and passed decrees for limiting the number of causes dependent on Rome and bettering the occupancy of ecclesiastical offices.

Thenceforward the energies of the council of Basle were absorbed by the struggle with the pope. On the 25th of May, 1439, It pronounced him deposed; and on the 17th of November following, it elected in his stead by commission Amadous VIII., duke of Savoy, who took the name of Felix V., but was recognized as pope only in a few countries. The council of Basle, grown small in numbers and influence, held its 45th and last session on the 16th of May, 1443 ; but it continued to exist in name, and removed to Lausanne in 1448, where it was entirely dissolved the next year. Its pope Felix also resigned, April 9, 1449.