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Crisis in the Late Medieval Church

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.

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.