• REMARKS:
  Anti-pope Felix V
  
• BIOGRAPHY
  Son of Amadeo VII 'the Red', count of Savoy and Bonne de Berry, Amadeo VIII was born on 4 September 1383 at Chambèry. In 1391 he succeeded his father as ruler of Savoy and in May 1401 in Arras he married Marie de Bourgogne, daughter of Philippe 'the Bold', duc de Bourgogne, and Margarethe of Flanders and Brabant. They had eleven children of whom only a son Louis and daughter Margarethe would have progeny. Marie died in 1422, and in 1434 he abdicated as ruler of Savoy in favour of his son Louis.
  
  When, as an aged widower, he retired to the monastery of Ripaglia near Lake Geneva in 1434, he organised a small group of older noblemen to keep him company. On October 16 of the same year he formed them into a company called the Knights of Saint Maurice. The new knights constituted a religious brotherhood, though not a monastic order per se. They wore grey robes bearing a white cross in cloth, each arm of which was 'trifoliate' at the end. This became the distinctive 'cross bottony' (a cross with ends tipped by buds) of Saint Maurice and appears on a number of coins issued by the rulers of Savoy.
  
  Saint Maurice has long been regarded as the patron of the House of Savoy. An early Christian general of Rome's Theban Legion in Alpine Gaul, Mauricius was ordered by Maximian to quell a Christian rebellion circa 286. When he and his military companions refused to murder fellow Christians, they were executed themselves at Agaunum (now Saint Maurice) by Maximian, who later became Roman emperor. Widely venerated in Switzerland, Aosta and Piedmont, Saint Maurice is the patron of mounted knights, infantry and horses.
  
  The order Amadeo founded, which at first was little more than a noble confraternity, does not seem to have had a particularly active existence after his election as pope, nor to have survived his death, as a cardinal of the Church, in January 1451.
  
  Pope Eugene IV tried to strengthen the papacy and diminish the power of ecclesiastical councils. He was at odds with the Council of Basle (1431-1449), which deposed him in 1439. In his place the Council elected Amadeo, who took the name Pope Felix V. Felix is considered an antipope, the last of the antipopes in the history of the Church. The term antipope was used for popes who opposed the legitimately elected bishop of Rome, endeavoured to secure the papal throne, and to some degree succeeded. Receiving very little support, Felix abdicated in 1449 and served as cardinal bishop of Santa Sabina, dying on 7 January 1451 in Geneva.