Council of Basel

The Council of Basel was a council of bishops and other ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Church that was held at Basel, Switzerland, away from territories of the Papacy, the Holy Roman Emperor or the kings of Aragon or France, whose influences the council hoped to avoid.

Composition of the Council

The democratic character of the assembly of Basel, as it unfolded, resulted both from its composition and from its organization; not only did doctors, masters and representatives of chapters, monks or clerks of inferior orders always outnumber the prelates in it, but the influence of the superior clergy had all the less weight because, instead of being separated into "nations", as at Constance, the fathers divided themselves according to their tastes or aptitudes into four large committees or "deputations" (deputationes), one concerned with questions of faith (fidei), another with negotiations for peace (pacis), the third with reform (reformatorii), the fourth with what they called "common concerns" (pro communibus). Every decision made by three of these "deputations" — and in each of them the lower clergy formed the majority — received ratification for the sake of form in general congregation, and if necessary led to decrees promulgated in session. For this reason critics have termed the council, not without exaggeration, "an assembly of copyists" or even "a set of grooms and scullions".

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