Basel, Council Of

A general council of the Roman Catholic church held in Basel, Switz. It was called by Pope Martin V a few weeks before his death in 1431 and then confirmed by Pope Eugenius IV. Meeting at a time when the prestige of the papacy had been weakened by the Great Schism (1378–1417), it was concerned with two major problems: the question of papal supremacy and the Hussite heresy. (The Hussites were