Editing Pope Eugene IV (section)

===Conciliar reform===
{{Main|Council of Florence}}

By far the most important feature of Eugene IV's pontificate was the great struggle between the Pope and the [[Council of Basel]] (1431–1439), the final embodiment of the [[Conciliarism|Conciliar movement]].<ref>Nelson Minnich, [https://books.google.com/books?id=XQ3P-vWp4ngC&pg=24 ''General Councils, 1409–1517: Oxford Bibliographies Online Research Guide,''] Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 23–29 (annotated bibliography).</ref> On 23 July 1431, his legate [[Giuliano Cesarini]] opened the council, which had been convoked by Martin V. Canon Beaupère of Besançon,<ref name=EB1911/> who had been sent from Basel to Rome, gave the pope an unfavourable and exaggerated account of the temper of the people of Basel and its environs.<ref>{{Catholic|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06111a.htm|last=Van der Essen|first=Léon|title=The Council of Florence|volume=6|year=1909|access-date=23 February 2016|inline=1}}</ref> Distrustful of its purposes and emboldened by the small attendance, the Pope issued a bull on 18 December 1431 that dissolved the council and called a new one to meet in eighteen months at [[Bologna]]. He gave as his reason that it would be easier for the delegates from the eastern churches to assemble there with the European prelates.<ref>Georgius Hofmann (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KnQKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA24 ''Epistolae pontificiae ad Concilium Florentinum spectantes''], {{in lang|la}}, Pars 1 (Roma: Pontifical Oriental Institute 1940), no. 31, pp. 24–25.</ref> The council resisted this expression of papal prerogative. Eugene IV's action gave some weight to the contention that the [[Curia]] was opposed to any authentic measures of reform. The council refused to dissolve; instead they renewed the resolutions by which the [[Council of Constance]] had declared a council superior to the Pope and ordered Eugene IV to appear at Basel. A compromise was arranged by the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]], who had been crowned emperor at Rome on 31 May 1433. The first version of Eugene's recognition of the legitimacy of the council was signed on 1 August 1433, and subscribed by three cardinals.<ref>J.D. Mansi, [https://books.google.com/books?id=HgwTAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA573 ''Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio,''] editio novissima, {{in lang|la}} (Venice: A. Zatta 1788), pp. 574–575.</ref> By its terms, the Pope recalled his [[Papal bull|bull]] of dissolution, and, reserving all the rights of the [[Holy See]], acknowledged the council as [[Ecumenism|ecumenical]]; in the emended version, signed on 15 December 1433, he withheld his approval of the initial decrees of the Council that contained [[Canon law|canons]] which exalted conciliar authority above that of the pope.<ref>Nelson H. Minnich, [https://books.google.com/books?id=bHFDxRgddfAC&pg=PA36 "Councils of the Catholic Reformation: A historical Survey,"]  in: Gerald Christianson, Thomas M. Izbicki, Christopher M. Bellitto (edd.), ''The Church, the Councils, and Reform: The Legacy of the Fifteenth Century'' (Washington DC: Catholic University of America Press 2008), pp. 36–37.</ref><ref name=EB1911/>