Ending and Starting Crusades at the Council of Basel

Abstract

Two major items relating to crusading dominated much of the work of the council of Basel (1431–49). In the first place, the conciliar fathers succeeded in bringing to an end the disastrous sequence of crusades against the Hussites (1420–31). This was a remarkable success, and the extensive and tortuous negotiations which brought it about are instructive on how fundamental disagreements about religious belief and practice were discussed, and compromises eventually worked out. Secondly, the council engaged with the issue of Church Union with the Greeks, and the closely associated topic of a crusade against the Turks. On both it failed, and the decision by Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini to abandon the council in January 1438 signalled not just the start of the council’s own decline, but also its effective withdrawal from the debate about Union and crusade. The initiative was seized by Pope Eugenius IV, whose achievement of Union in July 1439 was followed by an intensive programme of crusading activity. The relationship between the defeat of reforming aspirations and the papal strategy of redirecting energy towards Union and crusade is discussed. So too is Basel’s claim, under Cesarini’s forceful leadership, that it could authorize and manage crusading measures without reference to papal authority. Cesarini’s contribution is emphasized, and his service to the council is viewed as no less significant than his service to the papal court, bolstering the argument that he was one of the key figures in fifteenth-century crusading.