BASEL, Couxen. OF, a memorable and important ecclesiastical council. held in the city of Basel. It was summoned by pope Martin V., and his successor, Eugenius IV., in accordance with an announcement made at the council of Constance, and was opened on 14th Dec., 1431, under the presidency of the cardinal legate Julian Cesarini of St Angelo. The ball in which it met is still shown at Basel. It addressed itself to the reconciliation of the Ilussites with the Roman Catholic church, and to the reform of abuses in the church itself. But the first attempt to conciliate the Hussites, whom an army of crusaders had in vain sought to subjugate, was met with resistance by the pope, who not only refused his sanction, hut empowered the cardinal legate to dissolve the council. The council strongly repelled the pope's pretension of right to dissolve it, and proceeded with its business. His injunctions, that it should remove to Italy, were equally disregarded. It renewed the decree of the council of Constance, asserting the right of a general council to exercise authority over the pope himself, and on his persevering to issue bulls for its dissolution, caused a formal process to be commenced against him, and cited him to appear at its bar. It assumed the papal powers, and exercised them in France and Ger many, where its authority was acknowledged. It concluded a peace, in name of the church, with the Calixtines, the most powerful section of the Ibissites. by the Prague compact of 20th Nov., 1433, granting them the use of the cup in the Lord's supper. By this, the emperor Sigismund was much helped in obtaining possession of Bohemia; and he in return sought to reconcile the council with Eugenius IV., who, being hard pressed by insurrections in the states of the church, and afraid of losing his whole influence in prance and Germany, solemnly ratified all its decrees, by a bull dated 15th Dec., 1433. Desirous, however, of limiting the papal prerogatives, the council restored to the chapters of cathedral and collegiate churches the free right of election to stalls and benefices, of which the pope had assumed the right of disposing; and with a view to the reforma tion of gross abuses, restricted the power of granting interdicts, and prohibited annals and other grievous exactions. It left the pope the right to dispose of those benefices only which belonged to the diocese of Rome, and prohibited the bestowal of reversions to ecclesiastical offices. It also appointed punishments for certain immoralities in the clergy; and prohibited festivals of fools, and all the indecencies which had been com monly practised in churches at Christmas. It adopted decrees concerning the election of popes, and for the regulation of the college of cardinals.
Eligemus, exasperated to the utmost, complained loudly to all sovereign princes. At this time, a prospect was opened up of the union of the distressed Greeks with the church of Rome; and both the pope and the council endeavored to make use of this for the advancement of their own interests and influence. Both despatched alleys for the Greek deputies, but through the intrigues of his agents, the pope was successful, and brought the Greek deputies to Ferrara. The archbishop of Tarentum, a pupal legate at
B.. circulated an ordinance in name of the council, and scaled with its seal, recommending Ldine or Florence as the place of conference. Tim ordinance was a forgery, and this proceeding put an end to forbearance on the part of the council, which, on July 31, 1437, again cited the pope to its bar; and not only on his failing to appear, declared him contumacious, but on his opening an opposition council at Ferrara, went so far as, on Jan. 24, 1438, to decree his suspension from the functions of the popedom. His party, however, was so strong that this decree could not be carried into effect; and some of those who had been among the most influential members of the council, the cardinal Julian himself, and the greater number of the Italians, left B.. and went over to Ins side. All the more resolutely did cardinal Louis Alleinand, archbishop of Arles, a man of most superior understanding, courage, and eloquence, now guide the proceedings of the council, which, on May 16, 1439, declared the pope a heretic, for his obstinate disobedience to its decrees; and in the following session, formally deposed him for rimony, perjury, and other offenses. On this occasion, the holy relics which were in B. were deposited in the places from which the Spanish and Italian members of the council had disappeared; and the sight of them prodnced much emotion, and reani mated the courage of the assembly, still consisting of 400 prelates, priests, and doctors, mostly French and German. On Nov. 17, 1439, the council, notwithstanding the still further diminution of its numbers, caused by the plague in B., elected duke Amadeus of Savoy to be pope, who then lived as a hermit in Ripaglia, on the lake of Geneva. He accordingly styled himself Felix V., but was recognized only by a few princes, cities, and universities. The emperor Sigismund was dead, and even France and Germany, although they accepted the reforming decrees of the council, thought proper to remain neutral in the question regarding the popedom. The friendship of the emperor Frederick III. strengthened the party of Engenius; and the council gradually melted away, till careful only for personal security, its members, after three years of inactivity, held its last session at B. on May 10, 1443, and removed its scat to Lausanne. Here a few prelates still remained together under the presidency of cardinal Allemand, till in 1449, after the death of Eugenius, and the resignation of the anti-pope Felix, an amnesty was offered to them by the new pope, Nicholas V., which they joyfully accepted. The B. reformin7 decrees are contained in no Roman Catholic collection of decrees of councils, and are held to be invalid by the canoeists of Rome; yet they are of authority in canon law in France and Germany, where they were included in pragmatic sanctions, although their application has been modified by more recent concordats.