Editing Pope Martin V (section)

==Papacy==

===Election===
After deposing [[Antipope John XXIII]] in 1415, the Council of Constance (1417) was long divided by the conflicting claims of [[Pope Gregory XII]] (1406–15) and [[Antipope Benedict XIII]] (1394–1423); eventually Gregory resigned and Benedict was deposed, ending the schism.{{cn|date=March 2025}} Age 48,{{cn|date=March 2025}} Martin was elected pope at the Council on 11 November 1417, taking his pontifical name in honour of [[St. Martin's Day|Martin of Tours]], whose feast fell on the day of his election.<ref name=Ott>{{cite encyclopedia | author = Ott, M. | year = 1910 | chapter = Pope Martin V | title = The Catholic Encyclopedia | volume = 9 | location =  New York, NY | publisher = Robert Appleton Co. | url = http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09725a.htm | access-date = 16 March 2025}}</ref> Participants in the conclave included 23 [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]s and 30 delegates of the council.{{cn|date=March 2025}} He was ordained a priest on 13 November 1417, and consecrated bishop the next day.<ref name=Miranda/>

Martin left Constance at the close of the council (May 1418), but travelled slowly through Italy and lingered at [[Florence, Italy|Florence]]. His authority in Rome was represented by his brother Giordano, who had fought under [[Muzio Attendolo]] against the [[condottiero]] [[Braccio da Montone]]. The Pope at the time ruled only Rome (when not rebellious) and its environs: Braccio held [[Umbria]], [[Bologna]] as an independent commune, while much of [[Romagna]] and the [[Marche]] was held by local "vicars", who were in fact petty hereditary lords.<ref name=MartinTrecc/> In particular, Martin confirmed [[Giorgio Ordelaffi]] in [[Forlì]], [[Ludovico Alidosi]] in [[Imola]], [[Malatesta IV Malatesta]] in [[Rimini]], and [[Guidantonio da Montefeltro]] in [[Spoleto]], who would later marry the pope's niece Caterina Colonna. 
[[Image:Konstanzer Richental Chronik Die Nachricht der erfolgten Papstwahl wird bekanntgegeben 96r.jpg|thumb|260px|Pope Martin's election is announced. Chronicle of [[Ulrich of Richenthal]].]]
In exchange for the recognition of [[Joanna II of Naples]], Martin obtained the restitution of [[Benevento]], several fiefs in the Kingdom of Naples for his relatives and, most important of all, an agreement that Muzio Attendolo, then hired by the Neapolitans, should leave Rome.<ref name=Ott/>

After a long stay in Florence while these matters were arranged, Martin was able to enter Rome in September 1420. He at once set to work establishing order and restoring the dilapidated churches, palaces, bridges, and other public structures. For this reconstruction he engaged some famous masters of the Tuscan school and helped instigate the Roman Renaissance.<ref name=Ott/>

Faced with competing plans for general reform offered by various nations, Martin V submitted a counter-scheme and entered into negotiations for [[Concordats of 1418|separate concordats]], for the most part vague and illusory, with the [[Holy Roman Empire]], [[England]], [[France]] and [[Spain]].

===Hussite Wars===
By 1415 [[Bohemia]] was in turmoil and the subject of much discussion at the Council of Constance. Adherents of [[Jan Hus]], who had been previously [[Death by burning|burned at the stake]] as a [[Heresy|heretic]] by the council, adopted the practice of [[Communion under both kinds]]. The Council sent letters to the civil and ecclesiastical authorities in Bohemia, insisting they deal with the heresy. Bohemian and Moravian nobles responded that the sentence on Hus was unjust and insulting to their country, and promised to protect priests against episcopal prosecutions for heresy. 

{{langx|nl|[[:nl:Begarden|Beghards]]}}—community-gathered semi-religious laymen, generally tradesmen, bound if by vow, only temporary ones of chastity and obedience (but not poverty)<ref name=EB_Beghard>{{cite encyclopedia | author = Barzun, Jacques & Sørensen, Marie-Louise Stig | date = January 17, 2025 | chapter = Devotional Life [in History of Europe: The Middle Ages] | title = Encyclopædia Britannica | edition = online | location =  Chicago, IL | publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica | url = https://www.britannica.com/topic/Beghards | access-date = 16 March 2025 | quote = <small>During the 13th and 14th centuries, devotional movements arose that were neither monastic nor clerical in any other sense. The most notable of these was the Beguines, an order of devout women (and occasionally, but more rarely, men, who lived in all-male communities and were called Beghards) who lived together in devotional communities within towns, especially in the Low Countries and the Rhineland, followed no rule, and took no vow. They worked in the towns but lived collectively and might leave for marriage or another form of life at any time. Some of the most important devotional literature of the period was written by and for Beguines.</small> }}</ref>—arrived in Bohemia, attracted by its reputation for religious liberty.<ref name=Wilhelm>{{cite encyclopedia | author = Wilhelm, J. | year = 1910 | chapter = Hussites | title = The Catholic Encyclopedia | volume = 7 | location =  New York, NY | publisher = Robert Appleton Co. | url = https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07585a.htm | access-date = 17 March 2025}}</ref> Prague was placed under interdict for sheltering the excommunicated {{langx|cs|[[:cs:Jan z Jesenice|Jan of Jesenice]]}}.  

In 1419 [[Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia|King Wenceslaus IV]], who had resisted what he considered interference in his kingdom, commanded that all ejected Catholic beneficiaries should be reinstated in their offices and revenues. Prague prepared for armed resistance. [[Jan Želivský]], an extreme anti-Catholic preacher of Prague, led a procession to the town hall, where under the leadership of [[Jan Žižka|Jan Žižka of Trocnov]], a noble of southern Bohemia, the building was stormed and people found inside were thrown out of the windows on to the spears and swords of the processionists, and hacked to pieces. In Kuttenberg, hundreds of captured [[Hussite Wars|Hussites]] were thrown by the miners into the shafts of disused silver mines. King Wenceslaus swore death to all the rebels, but died of a stroke in August, 1419. The next months were marked by deeds of violence; many citizens, especially Germans, had to flee.<ref name=Wilhelm/>

Wenceslaus was succeeded by his brother [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund, King of the Romans and King of Hungary]], who prepared to restore order. On 1 March 1420, Pope Martin V issued a Bull inviting all Christians to unite in a crusade against the Wycliffites ([[Lollardy|Lollards]]), Hussites, and other heretics.<ref name=Wilhelm/> In 1428, the pope commanded that the remains of [[John Wycliffe|Wycliffe]], who was posthumously declared a heretic in 1415, be dug up and burned. The crusades against the Lollards, however, were ultimately unsuccessful.

===Crusades===
According to Burton, Pope Martin authorized a crusade against Africa in 1418 in relation to the [[#Position on slavery|slave trade]].<ref name=Burton-p197/>

In addition to the Hussite Crusades, Martin declared a Crusade against the Ottoman Empire in 1420 in response to the rising pressure from the Ottoman Turks. In 1419–1420 Martin had diplomatic contacts with the Byzantine emperor [[Manuel II Palaiologos|Manuel II]], who was invoking a council in Constantinople. On 12 July 1420 the Pope conceded to attach an indulgence to anyone who would contribute to a crusade against the latter, which would be led by [[Sigismund, Holy Roman Emperor|Sigismund]], King of the Romans.<ref name=MartinTrecc/>

===War against Braccio da Montone===
The main concern of Martin's pontificate from 1423 was the resumed war against Braccio da Montone. The following year, the combined Papal-Neapolitan army, led by [[Giacomo Caldora]] and [[Francesco Sforza]], defeated him at the [[Battle of L'Aquila]] (2 June 1424); Braccio died a few days later.<ref name=MartinTrecc/>

In the same year Martin obtained a reduction of the autonomy of the commune of Bologna, whose finances would be thenceforth under the authority of a papal treasurer.<ref name=MartinTrecc/> He also ended the war with Braccio da Montone in exchange for his recognition as vicar<ref name=MartinTrecc/> and reconciled with the deposed John XXIII, to whom he gave the title of Cardinal of Tusculum.

===Annuity contracts===
Canon law prohibited interest upon a loan. To avoid this, annuities were paid, interest in effect but not in name. The dispute as to the legality of annuity contracts was brought before Martin V in 1423. He held that purchased annuities, which were redeemable at the option of the seller, were lawful.<ref>Lumley's Treatise upon the Law of Annuities and Rent Charges, 1st ed, 1833</ref><ref>Affirmed by [[Pope Calixtus III]], preserved 25 ATR 388 in the Corp Jur Canon Extra III tit 5.</ref> When the lawfulness of annuities was established, they were widely used in commerce; it seems that city states used them to raise compulsory loans from their citizens.

===Periodic ecumenical councils===
A decree of the Council of Constance (''[[Frequens]]'') ordered that councils should be held every five years. Martin V summoned a council in 1423 that met first at [[Pavia]] and later at [[Siena]] (the "[[Council of Siena]]"). It was rather poorly attended, which gave the Pope a pretext for dissolving it, as soon as it had come to the resolution that "internal church union by reform ought to take precedence over external union". It was [[prorogued]] for seven years. The seventeenth council then met as the "[[Council of Basel]]" in February 1431 shortly before Martin's death.

===Founding of the University of Louvain===
On December 9, 1425, Martin founded the [[University of Louvain]] or Universitas Lovaniensis in [[Leuven]] (also known as "Louvain" in both English and French), a town in what was then the Duchy of Brabant, and what is modern day [[Belgium]].