The Papacy in the Late Middle Ages
The Council of Basle
A council was called at Ferrara, but Pope Eugenius effectively side-tracked council business and nothing lasting was accomplished. The next council of note met at Basle. This council began well, being attended by hundreds of prelates. It re-affirmed the power of councils and turned to the issue of reform, but when it did so it came into conflict with the pope. As the struggle progressed, the council became increasingly radical and began to unravel around the edges. Conservative members, distressed by the direction matters were taken, began to leave Basle and go home, leaving the radicals increasingly in charge.
In 1439, the Council of Basle was so frustrated with the pope that it deposed him and elected an anti-pope, Felix V. Once more there was a schism in the Church, but conditions now were far different than in 1378. The Council was only a fraction of its former size and few people supported the anti-pope. In fact, his election discredited the conciliar movement as being schismatic.
Felix V (1439-1449)
Amadeus VIII, Duke of Savoy, was elected pope by the Council of Basle in 1439. Although a worldly prince, Amadeus had turned to a kind of monastic life after the death of his wife. He made his son regent, but he did not actually resign his titles.
He was an emotional, passionate fellow, who sincerely tried to be a good pope. But among those elected was only one cardinal and he had almost no curia. When he tried to create cardinals, most refused. When he tried to exercise authority or receive revenues, the Council of Basle argued and balked and delayed.
He left Basle in 1442, just before the Council itself ended, and went to Geneva. He hung on there, for he had the revenues from the diocese (Geneva was part of Savoy). He finally submitted to Pope Nicholas V in 1449, the last of the schismatic popes. Nicholas made him a cardinal and vicar-general of Savoy, where Amadeus lived out his life.
The conciliar movement was also gradually losing secular support, the source of its original strength. Felix was generally ignored in Europe, and the Council of Basle trickled away into oblivion. There was no more talk of councils and, in fact, there would not be another one for over a century.
The failure of conciliarism is significant. Because reform was associated with conciliarism, and the whole business was so discredited, the papacy went into the later 15th century believing that the matter was closed. The question for these popes was not reform but the re-assertion of papal authority and power. The need for reform was ignored and reform-minded Christians thought of the papacy not as a power to save the Church but a power that threatened the Church.