MARTIN V, POPE. — Born in Rome in 1368, died there on 20 Feb. 1431. When the Council of Constance (q.v.), unable to proceed with the necessary reform of the Church, resolved to proceed to the election of a Pope, an electoral commission, in which, by an unusual procedure, six prelates or doctors from each of the five nations participated alongside the 23 cardinals, elected as pontiff on 11 Nov. 1417, the feast of St Martin, the cardinal deacon Oddone Colonna of the noble Roman family. A canonist by training, created cardinal by Innocent VII on 12 June 1405, Colonna had taken part in the Council of Pisa (1409) and in the election of Alexander V and then of John XXIII; at Constance he had been among the supporters of the superiority of the Council over the Pope.
Once elevated to the papacy, however, M. sought to restore the authority of the head of the Church in both spiritual and temporal matters: on 26 Feb. 1418 he published new regulations for the papal chancery, re-establishing
MARTIN V, POPE. — Detail of the bronze monument to M. V. Work by Simone Ghini (1433) — Rome, basilica of St John Lateran, formerly in the Colonna chapel, was in the Confession.
The reform was aimed at restoring the rhythms of the Holy See in the conferral of benefices, without however entirely removing abuses; and although he was forced to conclude concordats with the nations that limited papal power in favour of the chapters of cathedrals and monasteries, he took care that, except for England, they were temporary, thus managing to make them somewhat more favourable to the Holy See. He ratified orally the council’s decrees, provided they had been passed «in matters of faith» and «in conciliar fashion» (22 Apr. 1418). He then dissolved the council (22 Apr. 1418), and in a constitution that was not published (10 June 1418) forbade appeals from the Pope, «supreme judge», to the Council.
Having meanwhile left Constance on 16 May 1418, he made a long sojourn in Mantua and Florence to prepare the way for his return to Rome, where he re-entered to great acclaim on 30 Sept. 1420. After difficult negotiations with Alfonso V of Aragon, he obtained (1420) the renunciation of the antipope Clement VIII and brought the schism to an end. Although, based on practical experience, he abhorred «the name of council in the extreme», in obedience to the decrees of the Council of Constance he convened within the five-year period a new council at Pavia (22 Sept. 1423); but he was soon forced to transfer it, because of the plague, to Siena with only a few discordant prelates and had it dissolved by his legates (1424). At the insistence of the conciliar party, he reconvened it at Basel for 16 Feb. 1431, assigning to the legate a latere in Germany, Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, the task of presiding over it, with the power, if necessary, to transfer or dissolve it; he died before its official opening.
M. knew how to make good use of the increased papal authority in many ways: he created worthy cardinals, among them Capranica, Cesarini, and Albergati; he granted the Jubilee for 1423; he solemnly transferred the relics of St Monica to Rome; he vindicated St Bernardino of Siena against the accusations of his adversaries, approving the cult, introduced by him, of the Holy Name of Jesus (1427). He was mild towards the Jews, forbidding violent preaching against them and the baptism of their children under twelve without the consent of their parents or the request of their grandfather. But he lacked the will or strength for the desired radical reform: a bull of 16 June 1425 and other decrees were insufficient to correct the avarice and corruption in the Curia.