Basel, Council of

A General Council of the Church that sat intermittently between 1431 and 1449. The council was urged upon Pope Martin V by Emperor Sigismund in the hope of making a settlement with the Hussites (see Jan Huss). The result was the Compacts of Prague of 1436, which granted Bohemians and Moravians a degree of ecclesiastical independence in return for oaths of loyalty to Sigismund. Conflict between the papacy and the Council led to the excommunication of Pope Eugenius IV in 1439 and the election of the antipope Felix V.

With their legal recognition of divergent practices within Christendom, the Compacts of Prague marked a significant change in the policy of the Catholic Church.

Even before the Compacts were drawn up, relations between the papacy and the Council were poor. To thwart the Council's attempts to restrict papal authority, in 1437 Pope Eugenius IV announced the transfer of the Council from Basel to Ferrara, later Florence, and, in 1443, Rome (Council of Florence).

Only a small number of those sitting on the council at Basel accepted this. The majority, declaring the Council's authority superior to that of the pope, remained at Basel and began the proceedings that led to Eugenius's excommunication and deposition and the election of the antipope Felix V.

These moves lost the Council many supporters, and a lasting schism was avoided when the council submitted to Rome by securing the abdication of Felix, following the death of Eugenius in 1447 and the election of Pope Nicholas V. The dissolution of the council in 1449 marked the end of the conciliar period, during which the Councils had played an increasingly influential role in church affairs.