BASLE. 



439 



extirpate heresies (that of the Hussites in particular), 

 to unite all Christian nations under the Catholic 

 church, to put a stop to wars between Christian 

 princes, and to reform the church. But its first steps 

 towards a peaceable reconciliation with the Hussites, 

 against whom Juliano had unsuccessfully published 

 a crusade, were displeasing to the pope, who autho- 

 rized the cardinal legate to dissolve the council. 

 That body opposed the pretensions of the pope, with 

 severe animadversions on his deceitful conduct, and 

 his neglect of the welfare of the church, and, not- 

 withstanding his repeated orders to remove to Italy, 

 continued its deliberations under the protection of the 

 emperor Sigismund, of the German princes, and of 

 France. In order to secure itself against the attacks 

 of Eugenius IV., it re-enacted the decrees of the 

 council of Constance concerning the power of a 

 general council (in matters of faith, of schism, and 

 of reformation) to command the pope, as well as all 

 Christendom, and to punish the disobedience of the 

 clergy, and even of the pope, by virtue of its judicial 

 character as the representative of the universal 

 church. It likewise pronounced all the doings and 

 remonstrances of the pope against its proceedings of 

 no force, and began a formal process against him, 

 after lie had issued a bull for its dissolution ; ap- 

 pointed him, term after term, to appear before its 

 tribunal, and exercised, as much as possible, the 

 papal prerogatives in France and Germany. Mean- 

 while, it concluded, in the name of the church, a 

 peace with the Hussites (whose deputies appeared, 

 Jan. 6, 1433, with 300 horse, in Basle), by which the 

 use of the eup in the communion was granted to 

 them. This peace was ratified, Nov. 20, 1433, by 

 the Calixtines, the most powerful, and finally pre- 

 vailing party of the Hussites. The council deviated 

 on this point, indeed, from the decrees of the council 

 of Constance, but was obliged so to do, in order to 

 assist its most faithful protector, the emperor Sigis- 

 mund, to the acquisition of Bohemia by this compro- 

 mise with the Hussites, who were not to be subdued 

 by force. The emperor, in return, effected the 

 reconciliation of the council with Eugenius IV. , who, 

 urged by an insurrection in the papal territory, and 

 by the fear of losing all authority in Germany and 

 France, solemnly confirmed its decrees in a bull, 

 dictated by the council, and accepted at the sixteenth 

 session (Feb. 5, 1434). Proud of this victory over 

 the pope, it attempted to interfere in the quarrels of 

 the German princes ; but was reminded by Sigis- 

 mund, who protested against its intermeddling in the 

 affairs of the crown, of its proper point the refor- 

 mation of the church. Towards the limitation of the 

 power of the pope, in concordance with the ancient 

 constitution of the church, it had already made an 

 important step in the twelfth session (July 14, 1434), 

 by depriving him of the disposal of the prebends of 

 cathedral and collegiate churches, which had been 

 obtained by his predecessors ; by restoring to the 

 chapters the free election of their officers, and by 

 obliging the pope to confirm them gratuitously. It 

 proceeded to the reformation of the clergy, by or- 

 daining that the clergymen who maintained concu- 

 bines, and the prelates who received money for per- 

 mitting it, should be punished ; that the excommu- 

 nicated should not incur the penalties of their sentence 

 before its publication ; that interdicts should never 

 be granted at the request of single individuals, and 

 that repeated appeals should not be allowed on 

 account of their complaints (twentieth session, Jan. 

 22, 1436) ; that the annates, the sums paid for the 

 pallia, &c. should be regarded as simoniacal, and 

 should not, under any pretext, be demanded or paid 

 in future ; that the divine service, the mass, and the 

 canonical hours should be regularly observed by the 



clergy of each class; that disturbances of public 

 worship should be prevented by a good ecclesiastical 

 police ; that the feast of fools, and all irreverent 

 celebrations customary in the church about Christ- 

 mas, should be abolished (twenty-first session, June 

 9, 1435). In the twenty -third session (March 25, 

 1436), the form of election, the confession of faitlk 

 and the official oatli of each pope, by which he bound 

 himself to obey the decrees of the council, and the 

 annual repetition of the same, were provided for ; all 

 preferment of the relations of a pope was forbidden, 

 and the college of cardinals was limited to twenty- 

 four prelates and doctors of all nations, who should 

 be elected by the free votes of the college, should 

 be entitled to half of the revenues of the states of the 

 church, should watch over the pope, and always 

 sign his bulls. They granted him only the right to 

 dispose of the prebends belonging to the diocese 

 of Rome, and abolished the investiture of church 

 preferments in reversion. The French clergy in 

 vain endeavoured to accomplish these salutary 

 measures, to which the pope was constantly opposed 

 General councils had always been an object of aver- 

 sion to the popes, and often been prevented by them 

 from assembling, on account of their limitations of 

 the papal power ; and the proceedings of the council 

 of Basle must have exasperated, to the highest de- 

 gree, an obstinate man, like Eugenius IV. He con- 

 tinually remonstrated with the sovereigns against 

 the decrees of the council, and made active prepara- 

 tions for uniting the oppressed Greeks with the Ro- 

 man church, in order to effect its dissolution. The 

 Greeks, not being acquainted with this dispute, had 

 addressed the pope and the council at the same time. 

 Each endeavoured to snatch the glory of effecting 

 this union from the hands of the other ; both sent 

 galleys to bring the deputies of the Greeks to the 

 place of negotiation, and each appointed different 

 places for this purpose, according to the different 

 interests of each. But the galleys of the council, 

 detained through the intrigues of the papal agents, 

 did not succeed ; and the papal vessels conveyed the 

 Greeks to Ferrara. The papal legate at Basle, the 

 archbishop of Tarentum, published an order in the 

 name of the council, to which he had clandestinely 

 attached its seal. By this order, in compliance with 

 the wish of Eugenius, Udina or Florence was ap- 

 pointed for the place of negotiation. This fraud 

 broke all the ties which had hitherto restrained the 

 council from further attacks upon the pope. In the 

 26th session (January 31, 1437), it again summoned 

 him to appear, on account of his disobedience of its 

 decrees, declared him guilty of contumacy, and, after 

 Eugenius had opened his counter-synod at Ferrara, 

 decreed his suspension from the papal chair, in the 

 31st session (January 24, 1438). In the same ses- 

 sion, it forbade appeal to Rome, without resort to the 

 intermediate jurisdictions, left to the papal disposition 

 but one out of ten, and two out of fifty prebends of a 

 church, and destined the third part of all canonries 

 which might become vacant to men who had taken 

 regular degrees. The removal of Eugenius, how- 

 ever, seemed, on account of the strength of his party, 

 so impracticable, that some prelates, who, till then, 

 had been the boldest and most influential speakers in 

 the council (e. g., the cardinal legate Juliano, and 

 the great canon Nicolaus of Cusa, archdeacon of 

 Liege, with the most of the Italians), left Basle, and 

 went over to the party of Eugenius, The archbishop 

 of Aries, cardinal Louis Allemand, a man of superior 

 spirit, courage, and eloquence, was no^y made first 

 president of the council, and directed its proceedings 

 with much vigour. Although its number was di- 

 minished, its most powerful protector, the emperor 

 Sigismund, deceased, and its authority doubted by 



