Defined the papal primacy against conciliarism and signed reunion with the Greeks, Armenians and Copts — undone within years by the fall of Constantinople.
- Where
- Basel, then Ferrara, then Florence — Florence, Italy
- Convoked by
- Pope Martin V, who appointed its legate by bulls of 1 February 1431 and died three weeks later; carried on by Eugene IV
- Pope
- Eugene IV, who fought the council at Basel for its first seven years and then transferred it to Italy
- Sat
- Basel from 25 July 1431; Ferrara from 8 January 1438; Florence from 10 January 1439; Rome from 24 February 1443; last session 7 August 1445
- Sessions
- Twenty-five sessions at Basel, then the sessions of the union in Ferrara, Florence and Rome. The Basel assembly that carried on after the transfer was no longer a council of the Church
- Bishops present
- At Florence, some 200 Latin bishops with the Byzantine emperor John VIII, the patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople, and about 700 in the Greek delegation
What it faced
Two crises at once. The first was conciliarism: the fathers at Basel, acting on Frequens and Haec sancta, set about governing the Church over the pope's head, and when Eugene IV tried to dissolve them they attempted to depose him and elected an antipope. The second was the Turks: Constantinople was a city surrounded, and the emperor needed Western help enough to travel to Italy in person for it.
Eugene's answer to both was one move. He transferred the council to Ferrara, where the Greeks would come — and the Greeks would only come to a council with a pope in it. The Basel remnant refused to move and thereby made itself a rump; the transfer is the point at which Basel stops being an ecumenical council and Florence starts.
What followed was, whatever became of it, the most serious theological conversation East and West have ever had. For over a year they argued in public session about the Filioque, purgatory, azymes and the papal primacy, with Mark of Ephesus and Bessarion of Nicaea on one side and the Latin theologians on the other.
What it defined
- ✠Against conciliarism: that the Roman pontiff holds the primacy over the whole world, is the successor of Peter and true vicar of Christ, and has full power to feed, rule and govern the universal Church.
- ✠That the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son as from one principle and by a single spiration — with the Greek 'through the Son' declared to mean the same thing.
- ✠That souls who die in God's love but not yet fully purified are cleansed after death by purgatorial punishments, and are helped by the prayers of the living.
- ✠The union with the Greeks (Laetentur Caeli, 6 July 1439), then with the Armenians (Exsultate Deo, 1439) and the Copts (Cantate Domino, 1442).
- ✠The seven sacraments, listed and described together for the first time by a council, in the decree for the Armenians.
In its own words
“We likewise define that the holy apostolic see and the Roman pontiff hold the primacy over the whole world, and that the Roman pontiff himself is the successor of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles, and that he is the true vicar of Christ, head of the whole Church and father and teacher of all Christians, and that to him in blessed Peter was given the full power of feeding, ruling and governing the whole Church.”
“The Holy Spirit is eternally from the Father and the Son… He proceeds eternally from both as from one principle and through one spiration.”
“It firmly believes, professes and proclaims that those not living within the Catholic Church, not only pagans, but also Jews and heretics and schismatics cannot become participants in eternal life, but will depart into everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Its decrees of union
Each union was promulgated as a papal bull, and each is named from its opening words.
- Laetentur CaeliUnion with the Greeks: the Filioque, purgatory, the use of leavened or unleavened bread, and the papal primacy — 6 July 1439.
- Exsultate DeoUnion with the Armenians: the first conciliar list and description of the seven sacraments — 22 November 1439.
- Cantate DominoUnion with the Copts and Ethiopians, with a stark statement of no salvation outside the Church — 4 February 1442.
- Against BaselCondemns the conciliarist claim that a general council is above the pope.
- ✕It did not achieve reunion. Mark of Ephesus alone among the Greek bishops refused to sign, and he turned out to speak for his Church. The union was rejected in Constantinople; the population would rather have had the Turk than the Latin, and in 1453 they got him.
- ✕Its 'no salvation outside the Church' sentence does not mean what it appears to mean when quoted alone. The Church's own reading of that formula — that it condemns those who know the Church is necessary and refuse her, and does not condemn the invincibly ignorant — was taught by Pius IX in the nineteenth century and has been the standard interpretation since. This site takes that argument up in full on the doctrines page.
- ✕The sessions at Basel after the transfer are not sessions of an ecumenical council; some historians question the ecumenicity of the twenty-five before it as well.
What people think it did
Florence teaches that every Jew, Muslim and Protestant goes to hell, so the Church either changed her doctrine at Vatican II or is lying now.
What happened: The sentence in <em>Cantate Domino</em> is real and is quoted above in full rather than softened. What it addresses is deliberate separation from a Church one knows to be necessary — the framing of the whole formula since the Fathers. That invincible ignorance excuses was taught explicitly by Pius IX in 1854 and 1863, well before Vatican II, and in 1949 the Holy Office excommunicated a priest for insisting on the rigorist reading. The doctrine has been clarified, not reversed.
The Greeks were bullied into signing at Florence by hunger and delay.
What happened: The Greek delegation was certainly under pressure — funds ran short, the sessions dragged for months, and the emperor needed an army. But the theological debate itself was real and public, some Greek bishops were genuinely persuaded, and Bessarion of Nicaea defended the union for the rest of his life as a matter of conviction. Mark of Ephesus refused throughout and was not punished for it. It was a badly pressured negotiation, not a forced confession.
What followed
Constantinople fell on 29 May 1453, fourteen years after the union was signed. The help the emperor had bought with it never came in any quantity that mattered.
But the council was not wasted. Its definition of the primacy became the direct source for Vatican I four centuries later; its list of the seven sacraments passed into Trent; and the Greek scholars who came west for it — Bessarion above all, who stayed, became a cardinal, and left his library to Venice — carried Greek learning into Italy at exactly the moment the Renaissance could use it.
The unions with the Armenians, Copts and others also produced the Eastern Catholic churches, which exist to this day: churches of Eastern rite in communion with Rome, and living proof that the Latin Church can hold unity without uniformity.
Follow it further
Sources
- Council of Basel–Ferrara–Florence — sessions and decrees (English)
- Bull of union with the Greeks, Laetentur Caeli
Every date, figure and quotation on this page was checked against the conciliar text or a published translation before it was written, and independently re-checked by three separate passes over dates, quotations and theology. Where the sources disagree — attendance figures above all — the page gives the range rather than choosing.