EUGENIO IV, POPE. — Gabriele Condulmer, born in Venice about 1383, came of a noble Venetian family and was, on his mother’s side, a nephew of Gregorio XII. He received his spiritual formation in the fervent community that had formed in those years on the lagoon island of S. Giorgio in Alga, and he remained faithful until his death to the austerity of those youthful years. He was appointed bishop of Siena by his uncle, the Pope, and then cardinal at Lucca on 12 May 1408, together with three others, in that contested creation made at the time of the secession of the cardinals. After his uncle’s resignation of the papacy (1415), Gabriele took part in the Council of Constance and subsequently in the election of Martino V. After the latter’s death, he was elected Pope with remarkable speed and unanimity on 3 March and crowned on the 12th. E.’s undeniable virtues were not matched by the art of government; moreover, he lacked the support of powerful and dependable relatives which had contributed so greatly to the successes of his predecessor. Thus he was unable to control the course of events provoked by the attitude of the Council of Basilea toward the Curia, events that became intertwined with those arising from the conflicting interests of Italian cities, princes, and condottieri, and with the internal strife of Rome.
The first conflicts were with the Colonna, who had risen to excessive power under Pope Martino; and the reaction of the Orsini, who aimed at recovering their power, came to influence the decisions of the new Pope; Roman discord was rekindled and kept public life in Rome and its surroundings in turmoil. At the same time, the events of Basilea were maturing. In view of the unfavourable reports arriving from there concerning the small number of fathers who had assembled, E., by a bull of 12 Nov. 1431, dissolved the Council, proposing that it should be convened at Bologna. But the Council, which had held its first solemn session on 14 Dec. under the presidency of Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, sent to Germany by Martino V, dared to continue, proclaiming itself legitimately assembled and summoning the Pope and the cardinals to appear. This gave rise to a conflict which the emperor Sigismondo, who had hastened to Rome, where he was crowned emperor on 31 May 1433, attempted in vain to remedy. E. soon found himself abandoned by many; he had as enemies Alfonso d’Aragona, who aspired to the Kingdom of Naples, and Filippo Maria Visconti because of his alliance with Florence and Venice, and he faced the condottieri fighting for the opposing parties: Nicolò Fortebraccio was at Tivoli on 7 Oct. 1433. E. therefore saw the need to resume negotiations with the Council and on 15 Dec. 1433 yielded to its demands, recognizing its legitimacy. This reconciliation, however, was only apparent, for the Council intended to profit from the difficulties in which E. was struggling by undertaking a reforming activity that was to extend even to the Pope himself and his Curia. Meanwhile, in Rome too, aspirations were rekindled to reclaim what were called the ancient liberties, and insurrections against papal authority were being prepared: on 30 May 1434 the citizens took prisoner the camerlengo Francesco Condulmer, the Pope’s nephew. E. himself was forced on 4 June to leave Rome in a small boat and take refuge in Florence, where he arrived on 23 June and took up residence at S. Maria Novella. From there he sought to recover Rome and his States and to restore order and peace, employing first Cardinal Giovanni Vitelleschi and then Cardinal Lodovico Trevisan, condottieri in their turn against condottieri; but E., though summoned back, did not deem it opportune to return to Rome before the treaty of Terracina (14 June 1433) with Alfonso d’Aragona, recognized as king of Naples. Meanwhile, there was the urgent task of pursuing negotiations for the reunion of the Greek Church with the West. This had already been discussed in the time of Martino V; but now the Byzantines did not wish to have dealings with the Council. In the face of the Council’s increasingly serious excesses, and in order to achieve a result with the Greeks, on 18 Sept. 1437 E. transferred the Council to Ferrara, and himself went there on 27 Jan. 1438; on 4 March the emperor Giovanni Paleologo arrived there, and on the 7th Giuseppe, patriarch of Constantinople. In Jan. 1439 the Council was then transferred to Florence, where on 6 July the famous bull (v. FIRENZE, concilio di) was promulgated, which for a time marked the union of the two Churches. Subsequent analogous negotiations were conducted with the other separated Churches of the East, and were brought to completion after the Council was transferred from Florence to Rome in the autumn of 1443.
Having returned to Rome on 28 Sept. 1443, E. endeavoured to repair the damage caused by the schism revived by the election at Basilea of the antipope Felice V, and particularly to renew relations with the German princes who, together with the French, had proclaimed their neutrality in 1438; on the eve of his death he sanctioned the “concordats of the princes” (Feb. 1447). Even while he was in Florence, he had not failed to provide for the needs of the Urbe, for sacred and secular buildings, and for the welfare of the population; after his return, his special merit was to have restored the greatly depressed fortunes of the Studio Romano by protecting teaching and providing for its financing. E. died on 23 Feb. 1447 and was buried in the Vatican Basilica. — Vedi tav. LI.
Brou.: Hefde-Leclercu. VII, passim. Pastor. I, V. indice; P. Paschini, Roma nel Rinascimento. Roma 1930, pp. 120–65; H. Jedin, Storia del Concilio di Trento. I, trad. n. Brescia 1949, V. indice. Pio Paschini