The
Papacy - A Historical Perspective
1417-1455 A.D.
Martinus V : 1417-1431 A.D.
206. Born in Rome. Elected November 21, 1417 - died February 20,
1431.
He was a patron of the arts at the
beginning of the
Renaissance period.
He celebrated the 5th Holy Year (1423) and for the first time a
"Holy Door" was opened in the basilica of San Giovanni in Laterano.
He
also succeeded in re-obtaining all the territories of the church,
fighting against brigandage.
Martinus condemned again the heresy of Wycliff and Huss and did
anything possible in order to save Joan of Arc from the Stake.
The Apostolic Secretariat was set up in the period of Martinus V
(Secretariat of the Holy See after 1929 concordat), which was reformed
definitively by Paul VI on August 15th 1967.
He promulgated seven decrees among which the obligation for
churchmen to wear a cassock which
went to the heel.
He was buried in San Giovanni in Laterano.His pontificate lasted
13 years and 3 months.
Eugene IV : 1431-1447 A.D.
207. Born in Venice. Elected March 11, 1431 - died February 23,1447.
He called the 17th Ecumenical Council
in Basil, but later
transferred to
Ferrara and finally to Florence.
Since he underscored the supremacy of the Pope over tbe
Council, those who were opposed him elected the
anti-pope Felix V; this was the last in history.
Filarete produced the bronze central door of St. Peter's portico.
Through the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, the supremacy of the
Council over the Pope was reaffirmed.
Eugene received an Ethiopian delegation sent by King David, who
asked for the reunion of Copts and Catholics; in order to celebrate
this event, Eugene donated St. Stephen's church to the Ethiopians, the
building of
which was ordered by St. Leo I (440-461) and called the church of the
Abyssians.
He was buried in the church of San Salvatore in Lauro. His
pontificate lasted about 16 years.
Nicholas V : 1447-1455 A.D.
208. Born in Sarzana. Elected March 19, 1447 - died March 24,1455.
After the election he did not choose a
coat of arms and
always used the crossed apostolic keys of St. Peter for his insignia.
He signed a treaty with Frederick III of Austria to regulate the
rights and the privileges of the
Church and the Empire and in 1453 he crowned the Emperor in Rome.
This was the last king to be crowned in St. Peter's.
He politically reorganised France and England.
He helped Spain to definitively expel the Saracens.
He furthermore ordered the building of the current Basilica of
St. Peter, in a position which is slightly different from that of the
ancient Basilica of Constantine.
Nicholas transferred all the ecclesiastic offices to the
Vatican palaces and two Lateran libraries which were used to set up the
Vatican Library.
He celebrated the 6th Holy Year.
He is buried in the Vatican Grottoes. His pontificate lasted 8
years.
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Index of Roman
Pontiffs
Introduction
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