Martin

Martin, the name of five popes, of whom the fourth and fifth deserve a brief notice.—MARTIN IV., a native of Brie in Touraine, was born about 1210, made cardinal in 1261, and elected pope in 1281. He was a mere tool of Charles of Anjou, and degraded himself even by employing the weapons of spiritual censure in his behalf. But all his efforts to buttress the French power in Sicily proved futile, and three years after the atrocity of the Sicilian Vespers he died, 1285.—MARTIN V. must be noticed as the pontiff in whose election was finally extinguished the great Western Schism (see ANTIPOPE, CHURCH HISTORY). He was originally named Otto di Colonna, of the great Roman family of that name. On the deposition of John XXIII., and the two rival popes Gregory XII. and Benedict XIII., in the Council of Constance, Cardinal Colonna was elected (1417). He presided in all the subsequent sessions of the council, and the fathers having separated without discussing the questions of reform, at that period earnestly called for in the church, Martin undertook to call a new council for the purpose. It was summoned to meet at Siena, and ultimately assembled at Basel in 1431, but the pope died suddenly just after its opening.