THE COUNCIL of CONSTANCE (1414–18)was convoked in 1414 by John XXIII at the instigation of the Emperor Sigismund to end the Great Schism and also to reform the Church and combat heresy.

In 1414 there were three Popes:

Gregory XII, in the line of Urban VI;

Benedict XIII, the successor of Clement VII of Avignon;

and John XXIII, who was in the line inaugurated at the Council of Pisa.

At Constance, since John had summoned the Council, only his obedience was represented, but it far outnumbered that of his rivals. This fact, together with the presence of a large number of Italian bishops, gave him a feeling of security, which was soon shaken by the general movement to secure ecclesiastical peace by the removal of all three Popes in favor of a fourth. When, in order to neutralize the Italian preponderance, the Council decided to vote by Nations (Italian, German, French, and English), and when accusations were being circulated against his personal behaviour, John became frightened and offered to resign if his rivals would do the same. He then left Constance in disguise on 20 March 1415. The Council was thrown into confusion, but was rallied by Sigismund. Besides summoning John to return, in order to give itself judicial standing in the absence of its Papal convenor, in its fifth session (15 April 1415) the Council enacted the decree ‘Haec Sancta’, declaring that ‘this Council holds its power direct from Christ; everyone, no matter his rank or office, even if it be Papal, is bound to obey it in whatever pertains to faith, to the extirpation of the above-mentioned schism, as well as to the reform of the Church in its head and in its members’. This decree was the apex of Conciliar Theory. John was brought back, condemned for scandalous conduct (but not for heresy) and deposed on 29 May.

Gregory XII abdicated on 4 July, but only after his representative, Cardinal Dominici, had convoked the Council anew. (Gregory did not recognize the earlier convocation, and the Council acquiesced in this action.) His cardinals then joined the assembly. Gregory himself was nominated permanent legate at Ancona and died on 18 Oct. 1417.

Benedict XIII with the King of Aragon met Sigismund at Perpignan on 18 Sept. 1416, but they failed to reach an agreement. Sigismund then signed a pact with the Spanish kings and their allies at Narbonne, whereby the assembly (not the Council) at Constance would invite the Spaniards to a council in Constance, and in the course of the next year various Spanish and Portuguese delegates arrived. Meantime Sigismund tried to restore peace between England and France, but because of his alliance with the English the French left the English-German combination at the Council and voted with the Italians and Spanish.

On 27 Jan. 1417 Sigismund returned to the Council, determined to effect ecclesiastical reform before electing a new Pope. There were serious divisions on the question, the Italians demanding an election first. On 26 July 1417 Benedict was deposed. A compromise on the reform-election issue was accepted whereby such reform decrees as had so far been agreed upon should be promulgated, and the Pope elected by a conclave of all the cardinals, with six additional members from each Nation, the successful candidate to need two-thirds of the votes of the cardinals and of each separate Nation. After a conclave of three days, Oddo Colonna, a cardinal deacon, was elected on 11 Nov. 1417 and took the name of Martin V.

Apart from the healing of the schism, reform of the Church had been demanded from the beginning. There were, however, numerous obstacles, esp. the diversity of interests of the different Nations and the desire of the various bodies, including the Universities, to preserve their own advantages. Apart from a decree concerning the Franciscan Order (23 Sept. 1415), the first five reforming decrees were promulgated on 9 Oct. 1417. The first of these, ‘Frequens’, enacted that there should be a General Council after 5, 7, and then every 10, years, each one announced by the preceding one. The other four decrees concerned regulations for schisms, the profession to be made by a Pope, translation of bishops and the prohibition of spolia. A list of 18 points needing reform (avisamenta) was drawn up (30 Oct. 1417). After the election of Martin V a commission endeavoured to devise decrees on the lines of these avisamenta, but no unanimity was achieved. Then each Nation and the Pope proposed decrees, which resulted in seven enactments concerned mainly with exemptions and taxes. Many of the aspirations of the individual Nations were settled by concordats, a term which seems to have been used here for the first time.

The Council also dealt with contemporary heresies, esp. those of J. Wycliffe and J. Huss. It condemned over 200 propositions of the former, and ordered his body to be removed from consecrated ground. The latter, who had taught doctrines allegedly similar to those of Wycliffe, came to Constance under safe-conduct from the Emperor. He was, however, imprisoned, and refusing to recant, he was condemned as a heretic on 6 July 1415 and handed over to the secular authorities to be burned at the stake. In the next year Jerome of Prague, his follower and friend, suffered the same fate. The affairs of the French Franciscan, John Parvus (Jean Petit), and the Dominican, John Falkenberg, who had taught the legality of tyrannicide, were also treated at the Council, but not finally decided. The Council was dissolved on 22 Apr. 1418.

Hardouin, 8, cots. 209–944; Mansi, 27 (1784), cols. 519–1240, and 28 (1785), cols. 1–958. Indispensable collection of sources by H. von der Hardt, Magnum Oecumenicum Constantiense Concilium (6 vols., Frankfurt and Leipzig, 1697–1700; indices, etc., 1742). Crit. edn. of the Acta Concilii Constantiensis by H. Finke (4 vols., Münster, 1896–1928). Text of the decrees, with Eng. tr. and introd., in Tanner, Decrees (1990), pp. 403–51. Eng. trs. of contemporary sources by L. R. Loomis, The Council of Constance, ed. and annotated by J. H. Mundy and K. M. Woody (Records of Civilization, Sources and Studies, 63; 1961), with full introd., and of main docs. by C. M. D. Crowder, Unity, Heresy and Reform, 1378–1460: The Conciliar Response to the Great Schism (1977), pp. 65–138, with introd., pp. 7–28. U. Richental (d. 1436/7), Das Konzil zu Konstanz (reprod. in facsimile and ed. with comm. by O. Feger, 2 vols., Constance, 1964), with text, 2, pp. 149–278. Hefele and Leclercq, 7 (pt. 1; 1916), pp. 71–584. H. Jedin, Bischöfliches Konzil oder Kirchenparlament? Ein Beitrag zur Ekklesiologie der Konzilien von Konstanz und Basel (Vorträge der Aeneas Silvius Stiftung an der Universität Basel, 2; 1963). A. Franzen and W. Müller (eds.), Das Konzil von Konstarz: Beiträge zu seiner Geschichte und Theologie. Festschrift … Dr. Hermann Schäufele (1904). J. Gill, SJ, Constance et Bâle-Florence (Histoire des Conciles Œcuméniques, 9; 1965), esp. pp. 41–115. P. de Vooght, Les Pouvoirs du Concile et l’autorité du Pape au Concile de Constance: Le décret Haec Sancta Synodus du 6 avril 1415 (Unam Sanctam, 56; 1965). T. E. Morrissey, ‘The Decree “Haec Sancta” and Cardinal Zabarella’, Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum, 10 (1978), pp. 145–76. Collection of arts. of various dates ed. R. Bäumer, Das Konstanzer Konzil (Wege der Forschung, 415; Darmstadt, 1977). W. Brandmüller, Das Konzil von Konstanz (1414–1418 (2 vols., 1991–7). P. H. Stump, The Reforms of the Council of Constance 1414–1418) (Leiden, etc., 1994). E. Delaruelle, E. R. Labande, and P. Ourliac in Fliche and Martin, 14 (1962), pp. 167–215. L. Cristiani in DDC 4 (1949), cols. 390–424; B. Tierney in NCE 4 (1967), pp. 219–23, s.v.; W. Brandmüller in TRE 19 (1990), pp. 529–35, s.v. ‘Konstanz, Konzil von’, with blbl.

This council was summoned by John XXIII, the Pisan pope [1 ] , with the support of Emperor Sigismund. It began on 5 November 1414 in the cathedral of Constance, with many bishops from all parts of Europe. Business in the council was transacted in a way that was largely new for an ecumenical council, namely votes were cast not by Individual persons but by nations.

The council, from the very beginning, proposed the following three topics:

1. To bring unity back to the church and to make an end to the schism which had divided the church since 1378 and which the council held at Pisa in 1409 had not healed but rather aggravated when it elected Alexander V as a third pope. When the council of Constance opened, Christians owed obedience to three different popes: some owed obedience to Gregory XII of the Roman party others to Benedict XIII of the Avignon party, and others to John XXIII, who had been elected after the death of Alexander V. John XXIII and Benedict XIII were deposed by the council, Gregory XII voluntarily resigned. Then Martin V was elected pope on 11 November 1417 and he was regarded as the legitimate pontiff by the church as a whole.

2. To eradicate heresies, especially those spread by John Wyclif in Britain and by John Hus and Jerome of Prague in Bohemia.

3. To reform the corrupt morals of the church. This, however, was only partly accomplished in the final sessions of the council.

With regard to the ecumenical nature of the sessions, there is dispute about those before the election of Martin V and also about the significance and force of the approval which he gave to the matters transacted by the council. The decrees notably those of sessions 3-5 and the decree Frequens (session 39), appear to proceed from the council’s teaching. Objection has been made to them on the grounds of the primacy of the Roman pontiff. There is no doubt, however, that in enacting these decrees there was solicitude and care to choose the true and sure way ahead in order to heal the schism, and this could only be done by the authority of a council.

The acts of the council of Constance were first published by Jerome of Croaria at Hagenau in 1500 (Acta scitu dignissima docteque concinnata Constantiensis concilii celebratissimi = Asd), from the epitome of the acts which the council of Basel had ordered to be compiled and publicly accepted in 1442. This edition of the Basel epitome was followed by all general collections of the councils (including Editio Romana, IV 127-300, even though it ignores the council of Basel). These collections, down to Mansi (27, 529-1240), added various appendices. H. von der Hardt, in his great collection of the sources of the council of Constance, made an edition of the acts and decrees of the council according to the earliest trustworthy documents (Magnum oecumenicum Constantiense concilium, in six tomes, Frankfurt-Leipzig 1696-1700; tome IV, Corpus actorum et decretorum magni Constantiensis concilii de Ecclesiae refor matione, unione ac fide = Hardt). We have followed von der Hardt’s edition throughout and have noted only the principle variants provided by Asd. We indicate only, and do not print, the decrees pertaining to the internal administration of the council and of the church and to judicial acts.

SECOND INTRODUCTION

[By the e-text editor]

I have given the conventional session numbers for “the” Council of Constance so as to make cross referencing with other editions easier. However it is very misleading to do so. One should not speak of “the” Council of Constance, but of the councils of Constance. There was a council of bishops [and others] beginning 16 November 1414 which styled itself ecumenical, but which the true pope of the day did not recognize as such. There was another council [even if its members were those of the first] which he convoked, by proxy, on 4 July 1415 and did recognize as ecumenical. The ratification of “the” council by Martin the fifth, given in a footnote to session 45, was a ratification of everything determined “in a conciliar way ... by this present council of Constance”, i.e. of the one convoked on 4 July 1415. The intent of the words “in a conciliar way” is, on my reading, to distinguish the true [ecumenical] council from the false one.

The matter is crucial to the possibility of the catholic doctrine of the infallibility of ecumenical councils, since the teachings of Vatican 1 on papal primacy are inconsistent with those of the first [non-ecumenical] Council of Constance [in particular the famous session 5, Haec Sancta, which taught conciliarism] , but not with those of the second [ecumenical] one

Crucial to my claim is the question of who the true pope was and when a genuinely ecumenical council came into existence. I shall quote from Phillip Hughes (the footnotes here included are from Hughes’ text) :

“Just five weeks after Baldassare Cossa so meekly accepted the council’s sentence, the fathers met to receive the solemn abdication of Gregory XII. He was in fact, and to the end he claimed to be in law, the canonically elected representative of the line that went back to Urban VI, the last pope to be acknowledged as pope by Catholics everywhere [2 ] . The abdication was arranged and executed with a care to safeguard all that Gregory claimed to be; and this merits - and indeed, requires - much more detailed consideration than it usually receives. [3 ]

Gregory XII sent to Constance as his representatives his protector Carlo Malatesta, the Lord of Rimini, and the Dominican cardinal, John Domenici -- to Constance indeed, but not to the General Council assembled there by the authority, and in the name, of John XXIII. The envoys’ commission was to the emperor Sigismund, presiding over the various bishops and prelates whom his zeal to restore peace to the Church had brought together. To these envoys -- and to Malatesta in the first place-Gregory gave authority to convoke as a General Council -- to convoke and not to recognise -- these assembled bishops and prelates ; [4 ] and by a second bull [5 ] he empowered Malatesta to resign to this General Council in his name.

The emperor, the bishops and prelates consented and accepted the role Gregory assigned. And so, on July 4, 1415. Sigismund, clad in the royal robes, left the throne he had occupied in the previous sessions for a throne placed before the altar, as for the president of the assembly. Gregory’s two legates sat by his side facing the bishops. The bull was read commissioning Malatesta and Domenici to convoke the council and to authorise whatever it should do for the restoration of unity and the extirpation of the schism -- with Gregory’s explicit condition that there should be no mention of Baldassare Cossa, [6 ] with his reminder that from his very election he had pledged himself to resign if by so doing he could truly advance the good work of unity, and his assertion that the papal dignity is truly his as the canonically elected successor of Urban VI.

Malatesta then delegated his fellow envoy, the cardinal John Domenici, to pronounce the formal operative words of convocation [7 ] ; and the assembly -- but in its own way -- accepted to be thus convoked, authorised and confirmed in the name “of that lord who in his own obedience is called Gregory XII” [8 ] . The council next declared that all canonical censures imposed by reason of the schism were lifted, and the bull was read by which Gregory authorised Malatesta to make the act of abdication [9 ] and promised to consider as ratum gratum et firmum, and forever irrevocable, whatever Malatesta, as his proxy, should perform. The envoy asked the council whether they would prefer the resignation immediately, or that it should be delayed until Peter de Luna’s decision was known. The council preferred the present moment. It ratified all Gregory XII’s acts, received his cardinals as cardinals, promised that his officers should keep their posts and declared that if Gregory was barred from re-election as pope, this was only for the peace of the Church, and not from any personal unworthiness. Then the great renunciation was made [10 ] , “ . . . renuncio et cedo . . . et resigno . . . in hac sacrosancta synodo et universali concilio, sanctam Romanam et universalem eccleciam repraesentante”and the council accepted it [11 ] , but again as made “on the part of that lord who in his own obedience was called Gregory XII”. The Te Deum was sung and a new summons drawn up calling upon Peter de Luna to yield to the council’s authority.

The work of Pisa was now almost undone, and by this council which, in origin, was a continuation of Pisa. It had suppressed the Pisan pope whom Pisa, with biting words, had rejected as a schismatic and no pope.”

Phillip Hughes A History of the Church, p289-291

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