abstract:The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, issued by King Charles VII of France, on July 7, 1438, required a General Church Council, with authority superior to that of the pope, to be held every ten years, required election rather than appointment to ecclesiastical offices, prohibited the pope from bestowing, and profiting from, benefices, and limited appeals to Rome. The king accepted many of the decrees of the Council of Basel without endorsing its efforts to coerce Pope Eugene IV.