Editing Council of Florence (section)

==Background==
The initial location in the [[Prince-Bishopric of Basel]] reflected the desire among parties seeking reform to meet outside territories directly controlled by the [[Papal States|Pope]], the [[Holy Roman Empire|Emperor]]{{disputed inline|Basel outside the Holy Roman Empire?|date=February 2015}} or the [[monarch|kings]] of [[Crown of Aragon|Aragon]] and [[Kingdom of France|France]], whose influences the council hoped to avoid.{{citation needed|date=March 2017}} [[Ambrogio Traversari]] attended the Council of Basel as [[papal legate|legate]] of [[Pope Eugene IV]].

Under pressure for ecclesiastical reform, [[Pope Martin V]] sanctioned a decree of the [[Council of Constance]] (9 October 1417) obliging the [[papacy]] to summon general councils periodically. At the expiration of the first term fixed by this decree, [[Pope Martin V]] complied by calling a council at [[Pavia]]. Due to an epidemic the location transferred almost at once to [[Siena]] (see [[Council of Siena]]) and disbanded, in circumstances still imperfectly known, just as it had begun to discuss the subject of reform (1424). The next council fell due at the expiration of seven years in 1431; Martin V duly convoked it for this date to the town of [[Basel]] and selected to preside over it the cardinal [[Julian Cesarini]], a well-respected [[prelate]]. Martin himself, however, died before the opening of the synod.{{sfn|Valois|1911|p=463}}