Diocese of Basel

BASEL, DIOCESE of - In Switzerland; it comprises the cantons of Aargau, Basel (city and countryside), Bern, Lucerne, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Thurgau and Zug. The bishop resides in Solothurn. Immediately subject to the Holy See, it numbers 600,000 Catholics out of a total of 1,850,000 inhabitants, 446 parishes, 900 secular priests and 170 regulars. The coat of arms of the city consists of a black pastoral staff on a silver field and derives from the ancient coat of arms of the episcopal principality (a red pastoral staff on a silver field). Patrons: Sts. Ursus and Victor, martyrs of the Theban Legion.

Basel originated from a settlement that formed in the territory of the Rauraci around a fortress erected by Valentinian I and from 347 designated by the name Basilia. The era of the Christianization of the place is not known, but the first historically attested bishop is Justinianus episcopus Rauricorum (346), who must have had his see in Augusta, located about 10 km. south of present-day Basel. In a document of 620, Ragnachar episcopus Augustanae et Basiliae* (ca. 620-50) is then mentioned; from this title it follows that the episcopal see had already been transferred to Basel. Adalbero II (999-1021) received as a gift from Rudolph III of Burgundy the abbey of Moutier-Grandval and the possessions dependent on it, which formed the nucleus of the ecclesiastical principality. It reached its greatest extent in the 15th century, comprising besides the lordship of Basel also the Bernese Jura and some parts of Alsace, and it lasted until the beginning of the 19th century. The Investiture Controversy had a strong repercussion on the diocese of Basel: Bishop Burkhard (1072-1107) took the side of Henry IV and was excommunicated by the Council of Quedlinburg (1085). During the great schism, which ended with the Council of Constance (v.) the bishops took the side of Urban VI. The Reformation penetrated into the diocese with the preaching of John Oecolampadius (1482-1532), who, together with Erasmus of Rotterdam, had been called by Bishop Christopher of Uttenheim (1502-1527) to teach in the university. It rapidly gained ground, so much so that Bishop Philip of Gundolsheim (1527-33) was forced to withdraw to his castle of Porrentruy. The chapter fled to Freiburg im Breisgau and Catholic worship was forbidden (1538). Many territories of the diocese adhered to the new ideas and only Bishop John Christopher Blarer of Wartensee (1575-1608) succeeded in recovering part of the lost rights, besides bringing the Laufen Valley back to the Catholic faith. The principality suffered greatly in the Thirty Years' War, and at the time of the French Revolution it was erected into the Rauracian Republic which, later, was annexed to France, of which it became the so-called department of Mont-Terrible. Then the bishop

Joseph Sigismund of Roggenbach (1782-94) left Porrentruy (1792) and took refuge in Biel. With the union of the department to the diocese of Strasbourg, which took place by virtue of the concordat of 1802, the episcopal principality of Basel practically ceased to exist. The Treaty of Vienna (1815) then assigned the Swiss parts to the cantons of Bern and Basel. The concordat between the Holy See and the cantons of Lucerne, Bern, Solothurn, Zug, Aargau and Thurgau (1828), and the bull Inter praecipua of 7 May 1828 of Leo XII united the greater part of the diocese of Constance in Swiss territory to the diocese of Basel, roughly within its present limits. Following the Articles of Baden, a new conflict arose between the ecclesiastical and the temporal authority, which grew sharper (expulsion of religious from the convents and Kulturkampf) after the Vatican Council (1870). In 1883 a new agreement put an end to the dispute. The bull Ad universam catholicam Ecclesiam of 7 Sept. 1888 erected Ticino into an autonomous diocese and united it to that of Basel, whose bishop came to assume the title, which he still bears today, of bishop of Basel and Lugano.

Among the cultural institutions, mention should be made of the University founded by Pius II (1459) and reorganized between 1815 and 1818. The most important library is the University Library, rich in 420,000 volumes, 240,000 pamphlets, 2,800 incunabula and 542 manuscripts.

Erminia Kühn-Steinhausen

COUNCIL of Basel - According to what had been prescribed by the Council of Pavia-Siena, closed on 7 March 1424, the new council was to assemble at Basel in 1431. It was to be presided over by Card. Giuliano Cesarini, who was in Germany as legate for the struggle against the Hussites. The council held its first solemn session on 14 Dec. 1431; but Pope Eugene IV, newly elected, in fear that it might degenerate into rebellion against the Holy See, and out of a desire to promote from Italy the union with the East, dissolved it on 18 Dec. But the council, in its second session (15 Feb. 1432), protested that, since it derived its authority directly from Christ, it had the right to bind even the Pope to its decisions and that therefore it could not be transferred or suspended by anyone.

This principle, repeated several times thereafter, formed the foundation of its later claims; meanwhile it continued its work under the favor of Emperor Sigismund and the general consent of public opinion. The Pope, in order to avoid a schism, after long tergiversation, on 15 Dec. 1433 recognized by a bull the legitimacy of the council with the authority to procure the extirpation of heresies, to pacify Christendom and to reform the Church. The council, however, arbitrarily extending its powers and continuing to proclaim itself directly invested by the Holy Spirit, not only claimed to limit the authority of the pontifical legates, but to substitute itself for the Pope in the government of the Church, to limit the economic resources of the Holy See, to create its own curia for administrative affairs and to judge the most difficult matters such as those concerning the return to the unity of the Hussites and the Greeks. In reality the negotiations with the Hussites, dragged out at length, came to no positive result; while the Byzantines would have nothing to do with treating with the Council.

Meanwhile this Council, dominated by a majority in which the bishops had very little part and led by Cardinal Louis Aleman, descended into unheard-of violence: it began a direct offensive against Eugene IV, and on 31 July 1437 dared to order the Pope and the cardinals to present themselves at Basel within 60 days; on 1 October it went so far as to proclaim the contumacy of Eugene IV.

Meanwhile the latter, with a bull of 18 September, denounced the turbulent machinations of its proceedings, the incapacity to bring the negotiations with the Greeks to a conclusion, and therefore transferred the council itself from B. to Ferrara. The most authoritative figures who, like Cardinal Cesarini, had hoped in vain to keep the council on a path of discipline and decorum, left B. While Eugene IV presided first at Ferrara and then soon at Florence over his Council, at B. there broke out into open rebellion by defining "as an article of faith" that the Pope cannot transfer a council (15 March 1438); a few days later the Council launched the suspension against Eugene IV; but only on 25 July 1439 did it dare to vote the solemn deposition of Eugene IV, and on 5 December to elect as new pontiff Amadeus IV duke of Savoy, still a layman, with the name Felix V.

The latter, having had himself consecrated, was crowned at B. on 24 July 1440. In this way the schism that had lain dormant twenty-two years earlier was reopened; it had, however, a very limited and conditional following: France and Germany proclaimed themselves neutral in the dispute, Italy almost wholly stood with Eugene IV; nevertheless the council continued at Basel until on 16 May 1443, in its 45th session, it decided to transfer to Lausanne, where Felix V resided, with the intention of opening a new council at Lyon after three years.

At Lausanne, however, on 24 July 1448 the members of the council of B. claimed to continue their work further; but, when the king of France had made himself intermediary, they negotiated with Nicholas V, who had succeeded Eugenius IV; then they withdrew the censures inflicted against the legitimate Pontiffs and on 7 April 1449, Felix V having abdicated, they elected on their own account the same Nicholas V as legitimate Pontiff.

Thus closed a council which for the period 1433-37 must be considered ecumenical, but which in reality, instead of having been useful to Christendom, had done nothing but rekindle dormant disputes and keep alive those antagonisms that were to reawaken stronger with the Protestant revolution.

Pio Paschini

ART

The principal artistic moments for the city of B. are from the beginning of the 11th century, when the Cathedral was rebuilt under the Emperor Henry II, and from the years of the Council of B. (1341-1449), which brought together many artists and favored the enlargement and embellishment of several Gothic churches. Shortly afterward, in 1459, Pius II founded the university there.

Sparse are the monumental remains earlier than the Romanesque period; and they are essentially, besides the reliefs, the Roman inscriptions, etc. (in the Historical Museum), the foundations of the Castrum of the Roman city; it is supposed that the first cathedral was erected on the site of the Roman temple. Even sparser are the remains of Celtic and Gallic villages, of Alemannic tombs and of Frankish monuments. From the 7th-8th century are the old cathedral of St. Mary, the baptistery of St. John and, among others, the churches of St. Brendan, St. Alban (with remains of earlier chapels), St. Oswald, saints whose cult was established by Irish missionaries in the 7th century.

In 1019 the present cathedral was consecrated. A large part of it is from the 12th century; restored and enlarged after the earthquake of 1356, it was completed in the 15th century with the finishing of its towers, in one of which traces of the cathedral of Henry II are recognizable. Very rich was the treasure which, offered by this emperor to the church he founded, was dispersed only in 1856. It included the golden antependium now in the Cluny Museum in Paris, a reliquary in the form of a cross that passed to the museums of Berlin, and other goldsmith work divided among B., London, Leningrad and New York. Famous for its sculptures is the St. Gall Gate (c. 1180), in late-Romanesque style; figures from the third quarter of the 13th century on the western facade; from 1374 is the equestrian statue of St. George.

In the cathedral are buried, among others, Queen Anne, wife of Rudolf of Habsburg, d. in 1289, Erasmus of Rotterdam, Oecolampadius and Bernoulli.

Among the other churches still existing that should be remembered is the already mentioned St. Alban (rebuilt by the Cluniacs in 1083, and then redone in Gothic forms), of which the Romanesque cloister is preserved. On the other hand, in their present state, essentially Gothic are the churches of the Discalced (a Franciscan foundation, of c. 1270, transformed into the Historical Museum), of the Carthusians (15th century), St. Clare (a Franciscan foundation of the 13th century), St. Leonard (consecrated in 1118), St. Martin (rebuilt at the end of the 14th century), St. Peter (likewise), of the Dominicans (from 1260 onward, with cloister), St. Theodore (15th century). With the Reformation, in 1523, and with the cession of the episcopal see in 1525, many frescoes of a religious character begin to disappear.

Many streets and squares partly preserve a Gothic-Renaissance appearance; among the secular buildings the Geltenzunfthaus (1578), the Spiesshof (1581), with Italian influences, and the town hall (late Gothic) stand out. The appearance of the city is in part due to the course of the ancient walls, of which several fortified gates still exist (Spalentor, etc.) adorned with sculptures.

Famous, although preserved only in copies, are two cycles of the Dance of Death: one from the convent of Klingenthal (end of the 14th century), the other from the church of the Dominicans (mid-15th century): some fragments are today in the Historical Museum. The painting of B. was brought to its greatest splendor by Konrad Witz (v.) (Basler Altar, c. 1440). In the 15th century, B. was celebrated for the art of painted glass, of weaving and of woodcut illustration of printed books: even the young Dürer (v.) left the first proofs of his burin in books of B. publishers. Typical is the painter and draughtsman Urs Graf.

Of European importance was the activity of Ambrosius and Hans Holbein (v.), (the latter having come to B. in 1515), evident in the frescoes executed for the town hall in 1521 and following years (some remains of them are preserved in the museum), in the painted shutters of the cathedral organ, in the altarpieces, and in the portraits. For the following ages it will suffice to recall that the city gave birth to M. Merian, the great engraver of views of European cities (1593), to the historian and art historian J. Burckhardt (1818), to the painter A. Boecklin (1827). The principal works of art are collected in the Gallery, in the Historical Museum, in the Cabinet of Drawings.

Bernardo Degenhart