Editing Pope Eugene IV (section)

===Recovery===
Meanwhile, the struggle with the council sitting at Basel broke out anew. Eugene IV at length convened a rival council at [[Ferrara]] on 8 January 1438, through his legate Cardinal Niccolò Albergati, Bishop of Bologna, with forty prelates in attendance.<ref name=Gregorovius>Ferdinand Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA66|''History of the city of Rome in the Middle Ages.''] (London: G Bell & Sons, 1909) pp.66-68</ref>The pope also [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] the [[prelate]]s assembled at Basel.<ref name=Stieber/> On 14 January 1438, he moved the papal court to Ferrara, where he remained for a year.<ref>Pope Eugene left Ferrara for Florence on 19 January 1439. Eubel II, p. 7, note 4.</ref> On 15 February 1438, he issued the bull "Cum In Sacro", declaring the council at Ferrara an ecumenical council, and commanding the prelates at Basel to appear at Ferrara within a month.<ref name=Gregorovius/><ref>Georgius Hofmann (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=KnQKAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA6 ''Epistolae pontificiae ad Concilium Florentinum spectantes''], {{in lang|la}}, Pars 2 (Roma: Pontifical Oriental Institute 1944), no. 121, pp. 6–10. The correct title of the bull is "Exposcit debitum".</ref>

King [[Charles VII of France]] had forbidden members of the clergy in his kingdom from attending the counsel in Ferrara, and introduced the decrees of the Council of Basel, with slight changes, into France through the [[Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges]] (7 July 1438).<ref>W.H. Jervis, [https://books.google.com/books?id=lXIaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA97 ''The Gallican Church: A History of the Church of France from the Concordat of Bologna, A.D. 1516, to the Revolution''], Volume 1 (London: John Murray, 1872), pp. 97–100</ref><ref>Noël Valois, [https://books.google.com/books?id=elMOAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA87 ''Histoire de la Pragmatique Sanction de Bourges sous Charles VII,''] {{in lang|fr|la}}, (Paris: A. Picard, 1906), ''passim,'' esp. pp. lxxxvii–xcii and 87–88</ref> The King of England and the Duke of Burgundy, who felt that the council was partial to France, decided not to recognize the council at Basel.<ref name=Stieber/><ref>Noël Valois, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=15sSanQ4vKYC&pg=PA129 Le Pape et le Concile: 1418– 1450],'' {{in lang|fr}}, Volume 2 (Paris: Picard, 1909), pp. 129–135.</ref> Castile, Aragon, Milan, and Bavaria withdrew support.<ref name=MacCaffrey>{{cite web| url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02334b.htm| title = MacCaffrey, James. "Council of Basle." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. 24 Jul. 2014}}</ref>

The Council of Basel, in its Session XXXI, suspended Pope Eugene on 24 January 1438<ref name=Stieber>Stieber, Joachim W. (1978). [https://books.google.com/books?id=5R%202clxgcr4C ''Pope Eugene IV, the council of Basel, and the secular and ecclesiastical authorities in the Empire: the conflict over supreme authority and power in the Church.''] (Leiden: Brill, 1978) pp.49-58 {{ISBN|9789004052406}}</ref><ref>J.D. Mansi (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=HgwTAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA165 ''Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio,''] editio novissima, {{in lang|la}}, Vol. 29 (Venice: A. Zatta 1788), pp. 165–169</ref> there were 16 bishops present at the Session.<ref name=Creighton>Creighton, Mandell (1882). [https://books.google.com/books?id=PfdJAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA61 ''A History of the Papacy During the Period of the Reformation'']. Volume 2. (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1882) p.165-166</ref> Of the 16, nine were Savoyards, six Aragonese, and one Frenchman. Several secular powers, seeing the advantage to their own interests in having a weak pope and an unsteady council at odds with each other, wrote to the council, advising them to go no further in their efforts to depose Eugene. Mandell Creighton remarks, "The quarrel of the Pope and the Council now ceased to attract the attention of Europe; it had degenerated into a squabble in which both parties were regarded with something approaching contempt."<ref name=Creighton/>

The Council of Basel then formally deposed Eugene as a [[heresy|heretic]] on 25 June 1439.<ref name=Stieber/> The business of electing a new pope was complicated by the fact that there was only one cardinal at Basel, [[Louis Aleman]]. The Council decided to appoint an electoral committee, composed of thirty-two electors, who were selected by a nominating committee.<ref name=Creighton/><ref>Max Bruchet, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ZTE%20AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA209 ''Le château de Ripaille,''] {{in lang|fr}} (Paris: C. Delagrave, 1907), p. 120, note 1, lists the electors; they included one cardinal, one archbishop, and ten bishops.</ref> The conclave began on 30 October 1439. On 5 November, the council elected the ambitious Duke [[Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy|Amadeus VIII of Savoy]],<ref name=EB1911/> as [[antipope]] under the name of [[Felix V]].<ref>Hugo Manger (1901), [https://books.google.com/books?id=DfTpe0nRz1oC&pg=PA5 ''Die Wahl Amadeo's von Savoyen zum Papste durch das Basler Konzil (1439)''], {{in lang|de}}, (Marburg: R. Friedrich, 1901).</ref><ref name=MacCaffrey/> The Diet of Mainz was summoned by the new Emperor Frederick III to hear the claims of both Eugene and Felix. Eugene was represented by [[Nicholas of Cusa]] and [[Juan de Torquemada (cardinal)|Juan de Torquemada]]. The diet was not impressed by the ecclesiastical claims of either party, and announced that it would support whichever party would summon a new general council to enact much needed reforms in the church; it deprived the Pope of most of his rights in the Empire (26 March 1439), and announced a new diet to meet in Frankfurt in 1440.<ref name=Creighton217>Creighton, Mandell, [https://books.google.com/books?id=xWENAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA217 pp. 217–220]</ref><ref>Cesare Baronio, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IVhAAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA294 Annales ecclesiastici]: A. D. 1–1571 denuo excusi et ad nostra usque tempora perducti ab Augustino Theiner'', {{in lang|la}}, Volume 28 (Bar-le-Duc: Ludovici Guerin, 1874), pp. 294–295</ref><ref>Christophe Guillaume Koch, [https://books.google.com/books?id=f1sOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA1 ''Sanctio pragmatica Germanorum illustrata,''] {{in lang|la}} (Strasburg: Rolandus, 1789), ''passim''</ref>

The council of Ferrara was transferred to Florence on 10 January 1439, as a result of an outbreak of the plague.<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA69 p. 69–70.]</ref> A union with the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] was effected on 6 July 1439, with the bull "Laetentur caeli",<ref>Joseph Gill, [https://books.google.com/books?id=8RE9AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA413 ''The Council of Florence''] (Cambridge University Press 1959), pp. 412–415.</ref> which, as the result of political necessities, proved but a temporary bolster to the papacy's prestige.<ref name=Stieber/> This union was followed by others of even less stability. Eugene IV signed an agreement with the [[Armenian Apostolic Church|Armenia]]ns on 22 November 1439,<ref>{{Cite book | url=https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZkzyEAAAQBAJ&pli=1 |title =Laetentur Caeli: Bulls of Union with the Greeks, Armenians, Coptic, and Ethiopian Churches |isbn = 9798869171504 |last1 = Curtin|first1 = D. P.|date = January 2007|publisher =Dalcassian Press }}
</ref> and with a part of the [[Syriac Orthodox Church|Jacobites]] of Syria in 1443, and in 1445 he received some of the [[Church of the East|Nestorians]] and the [[Maronites]].<ref>{{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia|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}}</ref><ref name=EB1911/> He did his best to stem the [[Ottoman Empire|Turkish]] advance, pledging one-fifth of the papal income to a [[crusade]] which set out in 1443, but which met with overwhelming defeat at the [[Battle of Varna]].<ref name=EB1911/> Cardinal Cesarini, the papal legate, perished in the rout.

In Florence, on 18 December 1439, Pope Eugene held a consistory for the appointment of new cardinals, his third. Seventeen cardinals were named, and they received their titles on 8 January 1440.<ref>Eubel II, pp. 7–8.</ref>

Pope Eugene decreed on 26 April 1441 that his Council was to be transferred from Florence to Rome.<ref name=Creighton217/>

Eugene's rival Felix V in the meantime obtained scant recognition, even in the Empire. Eventually Holy Roman Emperor [[Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick III]] moved toward acceptance of Eugene. One of the king's ablest advisers, the humanist Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who was later to be [[Pope Pius II]], made peace with Eugene in 1442. The Pope's recognition of the claim to [[Naples]] of King [[Alfonso V of Aragon]] (in the treaty of [[Terracina]], approved by Eugene at Siena somewhat later) withdrew the last important support in Italy from the Council of Basel.<ref name=EB1911/> In 1442 Eugene, Alfonso and Visconti sent [[Niccolò Piccinino]] to reconquer the March of [[Ancona]] from Francesco Sforza; but the defeat of the allied army at the Battle of Montolmo pushed the Pope to reconcile with Sforza.

So enabled, Eugene IV made a formal entry into Rome on 28 September 1443, after an exile of nearly ten years. At the Piazza Colonna he was greeted by the shouts of the crowd, "Long live the church! Down with the new taxes and those who invented them."<ref>Gregorovius, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQ-uIjEZvB4C&pg=PA88 p. 88–89.]</ref>

His protests against the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges were ineffectual, but by means of the [[Concordat of the Princes]], negotiated by [[Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini]], the secretary of Frederick III, with the electors in February 1447, the whole of [[Germany]] declared against the antipope.<ref name=EB1911/> This agreement was completed only after Eugene's death.