BASEL. 
  
  
  
Council, under the presidency of alternate burgo- 
masters and chief wardens of the guilds; but the 
Little Council, uniting legislative and judicial func- 
tions with the highest executive authority, became 
gradually more and more preponderant. A1l parties 
in the city, however, remained always well com- 
bined against the country district; and persons 
belonging to the city were appointed to all offices, 
civil and ecclesiastical, whilst the depression of 
the country district was completed by the neglect 
of a proper provision for education. This state of 
things caused great dissatisfaction, which repeatedly 
broke out in fruitless rebellion. Under the impulse 
communicated by the French Revolution, equality of 
rights was conceded in 1798 ; but in 1814, although 
the equality of rights remained apparently intact, 
the new constitution of the canton was so framed, 
and the representation so distributed, as virtually to 
make the city again supreme. The discontent 
of the country district became so great that, after 
unsuccessful attempts to obtain redress of grievances 
by petition, civil war broke out in 1831, which did 
not cease till the troops of the Swiss Confederation 
took possession of the canton, and the diet recognised 
the separation of the city and the country district, 
as sovereign half-cantons, in 1833. The constitu- 
tions of the two half-cantons are in mosb respects 
similar, and are framed on the basis of the old con- 
stitution, modified in accordance with the principle 
of universal suffrage. According to the census of 
1850, the half-canton of Basel-city contained 29,698 
inhabitants, of whom more than 24,000 were Pro- 
testants, and the rest Roman Catholics; Basel- 
country, 47,885, of whom 9000 were Roman Catho- 
lics. Iach division sends one member to the diet, 
but they have only one vote between them, and thab 
does not count at all when the deputies take oppo- 
site sides, which as a rule they do. The capital of 
Basel-country is Liestal. Since its separation from 
the city, more ample provision has been made for 
education, and there has been a rapid increase of 
material prosperity. Both Roman Catholic and 
Protestant clergy are paid by the state, and the 
parishes of the Reformed Church have received the 
right of choosing their own pastors. 
The city of B. was much more populous in the 
middle ages than it is mow. Its population in 
1850 was 27,270. In the 14th c., the number 
of its inhabitants was greatly reduced by the 
plague, or ‘black death’ (q. v.), which raged in 
1t with terrible severity, and is sometimes men- 
tioned as the ‘death of Basel’ Tt is well-built 
and clean, but its appearance does mnot proclaim 
it the wealthiest city in Switzerland, which, how- 
ever, it is. Amongst its buildings are a cathedral, 
founded in the beginning of the 11th c., by the 
Emperor Henry IL., and a bridge over the Rhine, 
built in 1226. The Rhine divides the city into two 
parts—Great B., on the south side, and Little B., on 
the north. B. is connected by railway with Stras- 
burg on the one hand, and Berne, Lucerne, Zurich, 
&c., on the other. It has many benevolent and 
educational institutions, among which are an orphan 
asylum, and an institution for deaf mutes; a uni- 
versity, founded in 1459, which has a library of 
50,000—60,000 volumes, and a very valuable collec- 
tion of manuscripts, a numismatological collection, a 
botanic garden, and a museum of natural history; 
the new museum, in which there are several pictures 
of the younger Holbein, who was long resident in 
B. (some accounts say, he was born here); a public 
library of 70,000 volumes. During the Reforma- 
tion, the university was a central point of spiritual 
life, and it has numbered among its professors 
men of great eminence in learning and science, 
A sy sl SRS L 
mathematicians Euler and Bernouilli, who were 
natives of B.; but it is now one of the least 
frequented of the universities of Switzerland. 
BA’'SEIL, CoUNCIL OF, a memorable and important 
ecclesiastical council, held in the city of Basel. It 
wag summoned by Pope Martin V., and his successor 
Fugenius IV., in accordance with an announcement 
made at the Council of Constance, and was opened 
on 14th December 1431, under the presidency of the 
Cardinal Legate Julian Cesarini of St Angelo. The 
hall in which it met is still shewn at Basel. It 
addressed itself to the reconciliation of the Hussites 
with the Roman Catholic Church, and to the reform 
of abuses in the church itself. But the first attempt 
to conciliate the Hussites, whom an army of cru- 
saders had in vain sought to subjugate, was met 
with resistance by the pope, who not only refused 
his sanction, but empowered the cardinal legate to 
dissolve the council. The council strongly repelled 
the pope’s pretension of right to dissolve it, and pro- 
ceeded with its business. His injunctions, that it 
should remove to Italy, were equally disregarded. 
It renewed the decree of the Council of Constance, 
asserting the right of a General Council to exercise 
authority over the pope himself, and on his perse- 
vering to issue bulls for its dissolution, caused a 
formal process to be commenced against him, and 
cited him to appear at its bar. It assumed the 
papal powers, and exercised them in France and 
Germany, where its authority was acknowledged. 
It concluded a peace, in name of the church, with 
the Calixtines, the most powerful section of the 
Hussites, by the Prague Compact of 20th November 
1433, granting them the use of the cup in the Lord’s 
Supper. By this, the Emperor Sigismund was much 
helped in obtaining possession of Bohemia; and he in 
return sought to reconcile the council with Eugenius 
IV., who, being hard pressed by insurrections in the 
States of the Church, and afraid of losing his whole 
influence in France and Germany, solemnly ratified 
all its decrees, by a bull dated 15th December 1433. 
Desirous, however, of limiting the papal prerogatives, 
the council restored to the chapters of cathedral and 
collegiate churches the free right of election to stalls 
and benefices, of which the pope had assumed the 
right of disposing ; and with a view to the reforma- 
tion of gross abuses, restricted the power of granting 
interdicts, and prohibited annats and other grievous 
exactions. It left the pope the right to dispose of 
those benefices only which belonged to the diocese 
of Rome,and prohibited the bestowal of reversions 
to ecclesiastical offices. It also appointed punish- 
ments for certain immoralities in the clergy; and 
prohibited Festivals of Fools, and all the inde- 
cencies which had been commonly practised in 
churches at Christmas. It adopted decrees concern- 
ing the election of popes, and for the regulation of 
the College of Cardinals. 
Eugenius, exasperated to the utmost, com- 
plained loudly to all sovereign princes. A#b this 
time, a prospect was opened up of the union of the 
distressed Greeks with the Church of Rome; and 
both the pope and the council endeavoured to make 
use of this for the advancement of their own inter- 
ests and influence. Both despatched galleys for 
the Greek deputies, but through the intrigues of his 
agents, the pope was successful, and brought the 
Greek deputies to Ferrara. The Archbishop of 
Tarentum, a papal legate at B., circulated an ordi- 
nance in name of the council, and sealed with its seal, 
recommending Udine or Florence as the place of 
conference. 'The ordinance was a forgery, and this 
proceeding put an end to forbearance on the part of 
the council, which, on July 31, 1437, again cited the 
pope to its bar; and not only on his failing to appear, 
  
inclu’glz%eng Erasmus, who died here in 1536, and the 
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declared him contumacious, but on his opening an 
  
  
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