The Council of Basel–Ferrara–Florence

Basel, Ferrara, and Florence · 1431 to 1449 · summoned by Martin V, contested by Eugene IV · the last great struggle between council and pope.

The council opened at Basel in July 1431, as Frequens required. Eugene IV tried to dissolve it that December; the council refused, reaffirmed the supremacy decreed at Constance, and the pope gave way in 1433. In that period it reached the Compacts with the moderate Hussites of Bohemia, allowing them communion in both kinds. Cardinal Julian Cesarini presided, and Nicholas of Cusa wrote his Catholic Concordance in its defense.

Eugene regained the advantage when the Greek emperor, desperate for aid against the Turks, sought reunion. He transferred the council to Ferrara in 1438 and to Florence in 1439, and Cesarini and Cusa went with him. On July 6, 1439, the decree Laetentur caeli proclaimed union with the Greeks. Those who stayed at Basel deposed Eugene and elected an antipope, Felix V, but their council dwindled and submitted in 1449.

Principal Acts

  • Affirmed the council’s authority when the pope tried to disband it.
  • Reached a compromise settlement with the Hussites.
  • Moved to Ferrara, then Florence, on the arrival of the Eastern delegation.
  • Proclaimed union with the Greek church, the filioque, purgatory, and papal primacy.
  • Defined the seven sacraments in the Decree for the Armenians (1439).

Why It Matters

The pope’s victory over Basel ended the conciliar movement as a serious check on papal power, so that when reform came in the next century it could not come through a council. And the definitions of Florence on purgatory and the seven sacraments became the foundation on which Trent built its answer to the Reformers. The Greek union, rejected at home, did not survive the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Numbering. Rome reckons Basel–Ferrara–Florence the seventeenth ecumenical council, but accepts the Basel sessions only in part and rejects those held after the transfer to Ferrara. Protestants do not count it ecumenical.

The Medieval Councils

Roman Catholic Councils

Notes

  1. Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols. (London: Sheed & Ward; Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990), vol. 1. Latin and English text, including Laetentur caeli and the Decree for the Armenians.
  2. Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 6, The Middle Ages, A.D. 1294–1517 (CCEL).
  3. Joseph Gill, The Council of Florence (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959).