Note 539 — Chapter XXIII · THE PAPACY AND THE TEMPORAL POWERS IN THE LATER MIDDLE AGES

When the Council of Constance came to an end, in April, 1418, it was agreed between this body and Pope Martin V. that a similar council should be convened at Pavia in 1423. When the time arrived, conditions were far from favorable, but the University of Paris pressed the Pope to observe his pledge in the matter and the council was duly convened. Very few members appeared at Pavia, and, the plague soon breaking out there, the meeting was transferred to Siena. Even there only five German prelates were present, six French, and not one Spanish. Small though it was, the council entered upon a course so independent and self-assertive that in the following year the Pope was glad to take advantage of its paucity of numbers to declare it dissolved.