The Council of Florence

The Seventeenth Ecumenical Council was, correctly speaking, the 
continuation of the Council of Ferrara, transferred to the Tuscan 
capital because of the pest; or, indeed, a continuation of the 
Council of Basle, which was convoked in 1431 by Martin V. In the 
end the last-named assembly became a revolutionary conciliabulum, 
and is to be judged variously, according as we consider the manner 
of its convocation, its membership, or its results. Generally, 
however, it is ranked as an ecumenical council until the decree of 
dissolution in 1437. After its transfer to Ferrara, the first 
session of the council was held 10 Jan., 1438. Eugene IV 
proclaimed it the regular continuation of the Council of Basle, 
and hence its ecumenical character is admitted by all. 

The Council of Constance (1414-18) had seen the growth of a fatal 
theory, based on the writings of William Durandus (Guillaume 
Durant), John of Paris, Marsiglio of Padua, and William of Occam, 
i.e. the conciliar theory that proclaimed the superiority of the 
council over the pope. It was the outcome of much previous 
conflict and embitterment; was hastily voted in a time of angry 
confusion by an incompetent body; and, besides leading eventually 
to the deplorable articles of the "Declaratio Cleri Gallicani" 
(see GALLICANISM), almost provoked at the time new schisms. 
Influenced by this theory, the members of the Council of Constance 
promulgated in the thirty-fifth general session (9 October, 1417) 
five decrees, the first being the famous decree known as 
"Frequens", according to which an ecumenical council should be 
held every ten years. In other words, the council was henceforth 
to be a permanent, indispensable institution, that is, a kind of 
religious parliament meeting at regular intervals, and including 
amongst its members the ambassadors of Catholic sovereigns; hence 
the ancient papal monarchy, elective but absolute, was to give way 
to a constitutional oligarchy. 

While Martin V, naturally enough, refused to recognize these 
decrees, he was unable to make headway openly against a movement 
which he considered fatal. In accordance, therefore, with the 
decree "Frequens" he convoked an ecumenical council at Pavia for 
1423, and later, yielding to popular opinion, which even many 
cardinals countenanced, summoned a new council at Basle to settle 
the difficulties raised by the anti-Hussite wars. A Bull of 1 
Feb., 1431, named as president of the council Giuliano Cesarini, 
Cardinal of Sant' Angelo, whom the pope had sent to Germany to 
preach a crusade against the Hussites. Martin V died suddenly (20 
February, 1431), before the Bull of convocation and the legatine 
faculties reached Cesarini. However, the new pope, Eugene IV 
(Gabriele Condolmieri), confirmed the acts of his predecessor with 
the reservation that further events might cause him to revoke his 
decision. He referred probably to the reunion of the Greek Church 
with Rome, discussed between Martin V and the Byzantine emperor 
(John Palaeologus), but put off by reason of the pope's death. 
Eugene IV laboured most earnestly for reunion, which he was 
destined to see accomplished in the Council of Ferrara-Florence. 
The Council of Basle had begun in a rather burlesque way. Canon