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Eugene IV and the First Dissolution of the Council of Basle

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Loy Bilderback
Loy Bilderback
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of History, Fresno State College, Fresno, California
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Extract

The Council of Basle was officially charged with three basic concerns: the reform of the Church in head and members; the extirpation of heresy, particularly Bohemian Hussitism; and the attainment of peace among Christian Princes. Yet, the Council was most absorbed by, and is most remembered for, a fourth, unscheduled concern. From its outset, the prime determinant of the actions and decisions of the Council proved to be the problem of living and working with the Papacy. In retrospect it is easy to see that this problem was insoluble. One could not expect the efficient functioning of the Church if there was doubt or confusion about the will of God, and the presence of such doubt and confusion was certain so long as even two agencies could gain support for their contentions that they were directly recipient to the Holy Spirit. Singularity of headship was absolutely necessary to the orderly processes of the Church. Yet the contradiction of this essential singularity was implicit at Constance in the accommodation, by one another of the curialists, the protagonists of an absolute, papal monarchy, and the conciliarists, who sought divine guidance through periodic General Councils. This accommodation, in turn, was necessary if the doubt and confusion engendered by the Great Schism was to be resolved. At Basle, this contradiction was wrought into a conflict which attracted a variety of opportunists who could further their ancillary or extraneous ends through a posture of service to one side or the other, and in so doing they obfuscated the issues and prolonged the struggle.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 36 , Issue 3 , September 1967 , pp. 243 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1967

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References

1. Martin V had specifically commended these to the council when he convoked it on February 1, 1431. Eugene IV endorsed them when he confirmed the convocation shortly after his elevation, a month later. They were accepted by the Council at its first session and, later, while the Council was being readied for its stand against the Papacy, the Fathers enshrined them in its very organizational structure. de Segovia, Joannis, Historia gestorum generalis synodi basiliensisGoogle Scholar (hereafter cited John of Segovia), L. I, cc. VII, XXVI, XXI. L. II, c. XXI. Monumenta conciliorum generalium seculi decimi quinti, vol. II (hereafter cited Mon. Conc.), 12f., 55f., 13f., 55f., 126f.

2. Martin, Victor, “Comment c'est formee la doctrine de la superiorite du concile sur le pape,” Revue des Sciences Beligieuses, XVII, 122–43, 261–89, 405–27.Google Scholar

3. Hauck, Albert, “Die Rezeption und Unbildung der allebeinen Synode im Mittelalter,” Historische Vierteljahrschrift, XGoogle Scholar: Brian, Tierney, Foundation of Conciliar Theory: The Contributions of the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the Great Schism. Cambridge, 1955.Google Scholar

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6. Valois, Noël, Le Pape et le Concile (1418–1450), Vol. I, Paris, 1909, 66ffGoogle Scholar; John, of Segovia, , L. I, c. VII, Mon. Conc., 50ff.Google Scholar

7. John, of Segovia, , L. I, c. VII, Mon. Conc., 13.Google Scholar

8. Cesarini's attitudes at the time he arrived at Basle and the reasons for his actions in the coming weeks and months are revealed in three letters sent by him to Eugene in late January, 1432 by which the Cardinal hoped to convince the Pope to withdraw the bull of dissolution and support the Council. For the letters, see John, of Segovia, , L. II, c. XV–XVII, Mon. Conc., 95ff.Google Scholar

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10. Valois, I, 118.

11. John, of Ragusa, , Tractatus quomodo Bohemi sunt ad unitatem ecclesiae, in Mon. Conc. I, 135ff.Google Scholar

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13. Ibid., 72f.

14. Ibid., 66; Conc. Bas. II, 22ff.

15. Ibid., 70.

16. Ibid., 72f.

17. The basic studies of the Council generally assume that it was the November 12 version of Quoniam alto which was presented to the Council. Creighton, II, 202ff., seems unaware that the later version even existed. Valois, I, 129ff., assumes throughout his lengthy and excellent discussion of the dissolution that only the November 12 version was in hand. Karl Joseph Hefele and Leclereq, Henri, Histoire des Conciles, VII: 2, paris, 1916, 692ff.Google Scholar, is the only study which assumes that the version of December 18 was in Basle on January 13. This work presents the interesting thesis that there was no November 12 version and that John of Prato invented it for certain complex reasons dictated by his situation in Basle. No one else has taken this argument. Bishop Hefele fails to deal with problems in the wording of Postquam divina clemencia and the December 18 version of Quoniam alto which clearly indicate the existence of the November 12 version. In order to accept this thesis we would have to conclude that Prato tampered extensively with these. Also Ourliac, Paul, in Histoire de l'eglise depuis les origines jusqu'a nos jours, vol. 14, L'eglise au temps du Grand Schisme et de la crise conoiliaire (1378–1449, Paris, 1962, 231ff.Google Scholar, fails to note the basic difference between the two versions of Quoniam alto—that the later alleges the invitation to the Hussites as a reason for the dissolution while the earlier does not—and likewise misses the complementary nature of Quoniam alto and Postquam divina clemencia. He does not state when the December 18 version arrived at Basle but makes it clear that he feels that the Council and Cesarini responded to the November 12 version. Gill, Father Joseph, Eugenius IV: Pope of Christian Union (London, 1961), 43Google Scholar, is quite definite in his conviction that the bull read in Basle on January 13 was that of November 12, and states explicitly that the December 18 version did not arrive until what must have been late January or early February, 1432.

18. John, of Segovia, , L. II, c. II, Mon. Conc. II, 64Google Scholar; Conc. Bas. II, 21.

19. Segovia, John of, L. II, c. II, Mon. Conc., II, 65.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., 66.

21. Cone. Bas., II, 22. Codex Eegina 1017, Vatican Library.

22. Creighton, II, 202.

23. Unless one assumes that Eugene lied in the December 18 version of Quoniam. alto.

24. Bilderback, , Loy, Dean, The Membership of the Council of Basle, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, 1966Google Scholar (unpublished dissertation), 98ff; 137ff; 171ff.

25. John, of Segovia, , L. II, c. XXI, Mon. Conc., 126f.Google Scholar

26. Pastor, Ludwig, Eistory of the Popes, I, 290.Google Scholar

27. Ibid.

28. Valois, I, 126.

29. Ibid., 122.

30. Gill, 43.

31. Cone. Bas., II, 25.

32. Ibid., 28.

33. Ibid., 37.

34. Cf., Hefele-Leclercq, XII: 2, 690; Valois, I, 118ff.

35. Valois, I, xxiiff.

36. Ibid., 1ff.

37. Bilderback, 99f.

38. Cf. Jacob, E. F., “The Bohemians at the Council of Basle, 1433,” Prague Essays, Seton-Watson, R. W., ed. (Oxford, 1949), 83.Google Scholar

39. John, of Segovia, , L. XII, c. XII, Mon. Conc., 1033ff.Google Scholar