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Boethius a treatise "Concerning the Comforts of Theology." Sigis- mund himself had visited Benedict in his former residence at Perpignan and had tried in vain to induce him to conform with the decrees o the Council. Now, however, he persuaded the countries which were in obedience to this Pope Aragon, Castile, Navarre and Scotland to sign the Treaty of Narbonne in mid-December, 1415, and there- with to sever the relationship. By this time St. Vincent Ferrer of Valencia, a holy and influential Dominican preacher, had become an important figure in the situation. This apostle, whose mind never seemed to grow old, had made a futile effort to persuade the anti-Pope, whose countryman he was and whose confessor he had once been, to abdicate. He still clung to his purpose, negotiated with the Emperor in opposition to Benedict, discussed the matter with the kings of France and Aragon, and at length declared that for the sake of unity Benedict must go. Finally the Spanish entered the Council as the fifth nation, and during the summer of 1417 joined the other powers in voting that Pedro di Luna be deposed. Though Benedict died in 1424, the burlesque of the Spanish schism continued.
The Council was wrestling with the problem whether the reform of the Church should be discussed before the election of a new Pope or whether a new Pope should first be appointed to whom the reform might then be entrusted. In spite of the great tension between the French and the English (a war had broken out just a while before and France had suffered a severe blow at the Battle of Agincourt, the ef- fects of which were mitigated only as a result of the service rendered by St. Jeanne d'Arc in 1429) , the Council remained in session and arrived at definitive conclusions. Little was done in the matter of reform, though it was ruled that Councils must be summoned periodi- cally and that precautions must be taken against the threat of a new schism. These regulations were put in force and the form under which a new Papal election was to take place was decreed- In addi- tion to the College of twenty-three cardinals, six additional prelates from each of the five nations were given the right to vote.
The French were by no means pleased when on the nth of No- vember, 1417, an Italian Pope, Martin V (1417 1431) , emerged from the Conclave. He belonged to the family of Colonna which had
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