Pope Martin V

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Martin V

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Birth name

Odo or Oddone Colonna

Papacy began

Papacy ended

Predecessor

Successor

Born

c. 1368
Genazzano, near Rome, Italy

Died

20 February 1431
Rome, Italy

Other popes named Martin

Pope Martin V (c. 1368 – February 20, 1431), born Odo (or Oddone) Colonna was Pope from 1417 to 1431. His election effectively ended the Western Schism (1378–1417).

Biography

The son of Agapito Colonna and Caterina Conti, he belonged to one of the oldest and most distinguished families of Rome. He became apostolic protonotary under Pope Urban VI (1378–89), was created Cardinal Deacon by Pope Innocent VII (1404–06), and in 1410 was the delegate of antipope Alexander V (1409–10) to hear the appeal which had been taken in that year to the Papacy by Jan Hus.

He was elected pope on St. Martin's Day (November 11) at the Council of Constance by a conclave consisting of twenty-three cardinals and thirty delegates of the council, which after deposing antipope John XXIII (1410–15), had been for long divided by the conflicting discourses of Pope Gregory XII (1406–15) and antipope Benedict XIII (1394–1423)

Martin V was widely esteemed for moderation, learning, uprightness and business ability, but he is not seen as a reforming Pope. His first act after his election was to publish a brief confirming all the regulations made by his predecessors with regard to the papal chancery, regulations which had long been the subject of complaint. When the "nations" of the council pressed their plans for reform, Martin V submitted a counter scheme, and ultimately entered into negotiations for separate concordats, for the most part vague and illusory, with Germany, England, and France.

Image:Habemus Papam 1415.jpg

Pope Martin's election.

He left Constance at the close of the council (May 1418), but travelled slowly through Italy, lingered at Florence, and did not venture to enter Rome until September 1420, when his first task was to seek to restore it to the prosperity and order to which it had become a stranger.

In that period, in 1418, a famous synod convoked by the Jews in Forlì, sent a deputation with costly gifts to the new pope, Martin V, praying him to abolish the oppressive laws promulgated by antipope Benedict XIII and to grant the Jews those privileges which had been accorded them under previous popes. The deputation succeeded in its mission.

In accordance with the decree of Constance, confirmed by himself, ordering that councils should be held every five years, in 1423 Martin V summoned the council which met at Pavia and afterwards at Siena (the Council of Siena) - it was rather poorly attended, and in this circumstance 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, and then met at Basel (the Council of Basel); shortly after its opening Martin V died of apoplexy.

Note on numbering

When the second Pope to take the name Martin was elected, there was confusion over how many Popes had taken the name before. It was believed at the time that there were three, so the second Pope named Martin was called Martin IV. Therefore, the third Pope named Martin was called V. But, in reality, those believed to be Martin II and Martin III were actually called Marinus I and Marinus II, although they are sometimes still known as Martin II and Martin III. This has advanced the numbering of all subsequent Popes Martin by two. Popes Martin IV-V are really the second and third popes by that name.