436 MARTIN. 
fefited by the famous confpiracy known by the name of the 
Sicilia.il vfp'ers , by which all the French in the iflarid were 
inhumanly butchered, and the revolution brought about 
which feated Peter king of Arragon on the throne of Sicily. 
As foon as information of thei'e events was brought 
to the pope, at the requeft of Charles he thundered out 
tlie molt dreadful ctirfes and anathemas againft all who 
were concerned in them ; and, when he received intelli¬ 
gence that Peter had actually landed in the ifland, and 
been crowned king, he wrote feveral threatening letters 
to that prince, haughtily commanding him immediately 
to refign his pretentions, and to withdraw from a coun¬ 
try which Was a fief of the apoftoiical fee, upon pain of 
excommunication, and the forfeiture of his own king¬ 
dom, Finding that thefe commands and menaces were 
difregarded by Peter, towards the clofe of the year 1282 
Martin folemnly excommunicated him by name, and all 
who thould join or alii ft him, declaring him an enemy to 
the church, and putting all his dominions under an in¬ 
terdict. Unmoved by the papal proceedings, the king of 
Arragon avowed his determination to keep pofl'efiion of 
Sicily, as the inheritance of his wife ; and was readily 
obeyed by the clergy in both of his kingdoms, when he 
directed that they fiiould continue the regular exercife of 
their functions, notwithftanding the interdict. Irritated 
at Peter’s firm refiltance to his lordly commands, in the 
year 1283 his holinefs renewed his excommunication, and 
by a bull deprived him of the kingdom of Arragon and 
his other dominions in Spain, which were declared for¬ 
feited to any prince who (hould feize them, w hile his fub- 
jefts were abfolved from their allegiance, and forbidden, 
on pain of excommunication, to obey him or give him 
the title of king. In derifion of the pope’s pretended 
power to deprive him of the regal title, the king of Arra- 
gan now began to ftyle himfelf, “Peter, a gentleman of 
Arragon, the father of two kings, and lord of the fea.” 
Soon afterwards Martin offered Peter’s Spanifti dominions 
to Philip the Bold, king of France, for Charles de Valois 
liis fon; and, to aftift Philip in executing his vengeance 
on Peter, his holinefs granted him the tenth of the eccle- 
fiaftical revenues, and encouraged his fubjecls to flock to 
his banner, by granting indulgences to all who fhould en¬ 
gage in that holy war. It was his determination alfo to 
caufe a general crufade to be preached againft the king 
of Arragon and the Sicilians; but before he could carry 
it into execution, and while he was meditating grand de¬ 
signs for the glory of the Roman hierarchy, he was cut 
off by a fudden death in 1285, after a pontificate of four 
years and a few days. Five of his Letters, and the Sen¬ 
tence which he pronounced againft Peter of Arragon, 
may be feen in the eleventh vol. of the ColIe6l. Concil. 
three Letters in Waddingi Annal. and ten others in the 
Appendix to that work. 
MAR'TIN V. (Pope), whofe former name was Eudes 
Cot.’Vina , or Co/onna, was a defcendant from a branch of that 
ancient and illuftrious family, and ftudied canon-law at 
Perugia. He was created prothonotary and referendary 
by pope Urban VI. appointed nuncio to the Italian ftates 
by Boniface IX. and raifed to the purple by Innocent VII. 
He adhered to the interefts of Gregory XII. till he was 
depofed by the council of Pifa. By John XXIII. he was 
appointed apoftoiical legate for the patrimony of St. Pe¬ 
ter, and vicar-general of the apoftolic fee in Umbria ; in 
which employments he is faid to have conduced himfelf 
to the entire fatisfadfion of the perfons under his admi- 
niftration. Upon the depofition of pope John by the 
council of Conftance in 14.17, the conclave affembled at 
the town-houfe of that city, and on the evening of the 
third day a great majority of fuffrages eledted our car¬ 
dinal to the papal dignity, who took the name of Mar¬ 
tin V. On the day of-his coronation an extraordinary 
fpedtacle prefented itfeH at Conftance. Martin riding 
through the city in pontifical attire on horfeback, attend¬ 
ed by the emperor holding his bridle on foot on the right 
hand, and the eleftor of Brandenburg on the left, and 
followed by a crowd of princes and the whole council. 
Martin having thus obtained poflellion of the popedom, 
the council were for proceeding to the work of the refor¬ 
mation of the church, in its head and its members; but 
the new pontiff fhowed the fame backwardnefs as his 
predeceffors with refpedt to that neceflary work, and, un¬ 
der the pretext that it required a great deal of time, left 
it to a council which was to meet at Pavia in the coarfe 
of five years. After diffolving the council of Conftance 
in the year 14.18, Martin fet out on his return to Italy, to 
endeavour to terminate the bloody civil war in which the 
city of Rome and whole patrimony of St. Peter had been 
for fome time involved. In his progrefs he fpent fome 
time at Geneva, where he received the ambafladors of the 
city of Avignon, who fwore fealty him ; and from thence 
he difpatched a legate into Bohemia, who made a fruitlefs 
effort to quell by apoftoiical authority the difturbances in 
that kingdom, which had been excited by the denial of 
the cup in the facrament to the laity, and the execution 
of John Hufs and Jerome of Prague. From Geneva, Mar¬ 
tin went to Milan, where he was received with extraor¬ 
dinary fnarks of honour; and afterwards he vifited Man¬ 
tua, Ferrara, Ravenna, and came to Florence in the be¬ 
ginning of the year 14.19. Here he continued nearly two 
years, which were fpent in reducing the tyrants who had 
feized the cities in the ecclefiaftical ftate, or fuch places 
as had revolted againft the papal authority and fet up the 
ftandard of independance. Soon after his arrival at Flo¬ 
rence, he had the unexpected fatisfadfion of feeing Bal¬ 
thazar Cofia, formerly John XXIII. throwing himlelf en¬ 
tirely on his mercy. His fubmiflion was followed by a 
fplendid embafly from Joan II. queen of Naples, to do 
homage to him in her name, and to requeft that his holi¬ 
nefs would fend a legate a latere to perform the ceremony 
of her coronation. To this requeft Martin acceded; but 
not before (he had engaged to fet at liberty, and live as 
his wife with, her hufband the count de la Marche, whom 
(he had (hut up in one of her caftles, that (he might in¬ 
dulge in her amours without reftraint. 
Immediately after her coronation, Joan not only caufed 
all the places which her predeceffor Ladiflaus had feized 
and garrifoned in the ecclefiaftical ftate to he reftored, 
but fent James Sforza, a foldier of fortune, with the flower 
of her troops, againft Braccio of Perugia, another foldief 
of fortune, who had made himfelf matter of many of the 
cities belonging to the church, and of Rome itfelf, which 
he ruled with an abfolute fway, under the title of “ De¬ 
fender of the city of Rome.” Braccio did not wait till 
Sforza approached Rome, but advanced with his forces 
to meet him in the neighbourhood of Viterbo ; and, an en¬ 
gagement enfuing, Sforza was defeated after a hard-fought 
adfion, and purfued with great (laughter to the borders 
of the kingdom of Naples. Upon the news of this defeat, 
the pope had recourfe to his 1’piritual weapons, thunder¬ 
ing out an excommunication againft Braccio, and all his 
adherents and abettors; who, to (how his contempt for 
fuch kind of hoftility, in his turn excommunicated the 
pope and all who adhered to him. However, through the 
mediation of the Florentines, an agreement was foon af¬ 
ter concluded between Martin and Braccio; the latter 
confenting, upon being allowed to retain fome cities, as 
vicar of the apoftolic fee, to deliver up Rome and all the 
reft to the pope, tie even entered with his mercenaries 
into the fervice of his holinefs, and reduced the whole of 
the ecclefiaftical ftate to his obedience. 
Martin now determined to repair to Rome, which he 
entered in September 1420 ; and was received with great 
joy by the clergy, the fenate, the nobility, and immenfie 
crowds of people, who hailed his approach as their de¬ 
liverance from abfolute deftrudtion : for moll of the 
(tately edifices in the city were lying in ruins; the churches 
were quite negledled and dilapidated; the ftreetscovered 
with rubbifh and filth; and the people reduced to the 
utmoft 
