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.)