Amadeus VIII
Amadeus VIII
(Latin: love God)
Duke of Savoy. Anti-pope with the name Felix V from 5 November 1439 to 7 April 1449. Born in 1383 in Chambery, France ; died on 7 November 1451 in Geneva , Switzerland. Married to Mary of Burgundy, with whom he had nine children; she died in 1422. In 1439 he appointed his son regent of his duchy, and withdrew to Ripaille on the Lake of Geneva, where he formed the semi-monastic Order of Saint Maurice. He was chosen pope by the schismatical Council of Basel on 5 November 1439 , and crowned there in 1440 . Excommunicated by Pope Eugene IV , he received only local recognition. In 1449 he submitted to Pope Nicholas V , thus ending the last papal schism, and was made a cardinal .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Amadeus VIII
count, afterwards duke, OF SAVOY, is known in history for allowing himself to be elected at the Council of Basle, under the name of Felix V, antipope to Eugenius IV. He was born Dec. 4, 1383. In 1416 Savoy was made a dukedom by the emperor Sigismund, who also invested Amadeus, in 1422, with the county of Geneva. In 1430 Amadeus founded the hermitage at Ripaille, where he retired with five other knights, after having left the affairs of his estates in the hands of his son Louis. Amadeus was appointed dean of this hermitage, and spent five years there, until the year 1439, when the schismatic party of the Council of Basle elected him antipope. Although warmly attached to Eugenius IV, his vanity led him to accept the offer, and the more so as he was told that he was obliged to help the Church. He now gave up entirely all his estates, and was consecrated at Basle July 24, 1440, as pope Felix V. For nine years he occupied his pontificate, which he voluntarily resigned in 1449 in favor of Nicholas V, the successor of Eugenius, whom he regarded as the right pope. He died at Ripaille, Jan. 7, 1451. See Miller, Schweizerische Gesch., 3, 2, 9; Hefele, in Wetzer u. Welte’s Kirchen-Lexikon, s.v. (B. P.)