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A.D. 1414 - Council of Constance

The council of Constance, which met 5 years after the council of Pisa, at Constance (now a city of Baden in Germany, but then a free imperial town), is a stumbling-block to Roman Catholic historians. Its principal object was to put an end to the discord between the rival popes, and this it finally accomplished. The summons for the council, according to Rev. E. H. Gillett, D. D., in his carefully prepared " Life and Times of John Huss," was issued in October, 1413, by the emperor Sigismund with the constrained assent of pope John XXIII, and the more ready concurrence of the cardinals ; but in December, the pope also issued his bull of convocation for the council, directing the prelates to be present in person, and the princes in person or by deputy. The council was opened, November 5, 1414, by pope John, neither of his -rivals attending it; and was closed April 22, 1418, having held 45 sessions.

Says Dr. Gillett: "There came thither to this celebrated council, 30 cardinals, 20 archbishops, 150 bishops, as many prelates, a multitude of-abbots and doctors, and 1800 priests. Among the sovereigns who attended in person, could be distinguished the Elector Palatine, the Electors of Mentz and of Saxony, and the Dukes of Austria, of Bavaria, and of Silesia. There were, besides, a vast number of margraves, counts and barons and a great crowd of noblemen and knights. At one time there might have been counted, as we are told, 30,000 horses within the circuit, of the city. Each prince, nobleman, and knight was attended by his train, and the number of persons present from abroad is estimated to have been not less than 40 or 50,000. Among these were reckoned almost every trade and profession, and some whose profession was their disgrace, but whose instincts and tastes made them seek the welcome they found among the miscellaneous crowd."

The emperor Sigismund, John Charlier Gerson (ambassador of the French king Charles VI., and chancellor of the church and university of Paris), Peter D'Ailly (bishop of Cambray, and a cardinal; called "the eagle of France "), William Filastre (cardinal of St. Mark), were leading members of this council. Under their lead, the council admitted to membership, not only the prelates, but the doctors, the ambassadors of kings and princes, of republics, cities, universities, and other communities, as well as the lower clergy, under conditions. It was also resolved, in February, 1415, that the votes of the council should be taken by nations-Italy, France, Germany, and England, being the 4 nations then represented in the constituency of the council. According to the order adopted, the deputies of each nation assembled by themselves with their own president to discuss matters, and then submitted the articles agreed on by each nation to the deliberation of the others ; so that thus the way was prepared for a public and solemn approval, in the following session, of whatever had been agreed on by the 4 nations.

John XXIII fled secretly from Constance March 21, 1415, but was afterwards constrained to return; and the council, on the 29th of May, solemnly deposed John, as noticed in Chapter III, for his many notorious crimes; and he submitted to the sentence. The council also decreed that no steps should be taken towards the election of a new pope without their advice and consent, and that any such steps, unauthorized by them, should be null and void. The council of Constance both by act and deed maintained the supremacy of the council over the papal authority and dignity.

The council received the resignation of Gregory XII. on the 4th of July, 1415; Spain united itself to the council as the 5th nation in October, 1416 ; Benedict XIII., remaining immovable, though but a small faction adhered to him at Peniscola in Spain, was finally deposed, July 26, 1417; and Otto Colonna, who took the name of Martin V., was elected pope, November 11, 1417, by a body of 53 electors, namely, the 23 cardinals there present and 6 prelates or persons of distinction from each of the 5 nations represented.

The council also anathematized John Wickliffe, the English reformer, who had been dead 30 years, condemned his memory and doctrines, ordered his books to be burned, and his body and bones, if they could be distinguished from others, to be disinterred and cast out from ecclesiastical burial.

John Huss, the great Bohemian reformer, and a pure and noble minded advocate of the supremacy of the Holy Scriptures, had come to the council provided with a safe-conduct from the emperor Sigismund which guarantied his going, staying, and returning freely ; but he was arrested by the cardinals and pope, and tried by the council; his books were condemned to be publicly burned, and he was declared to be a heretic, and was, according to the sentence of the council, degraded from the priesthood by the archbishop of Milan and 5 bishops, who directed him to be first clothed in priestly robes with a chalice in his hand as if about to celebrate mass, and then cursed him as these robes were stripped off, and his priestly tonsure was disfigured, and a paper crown covered with pictured fiends placed on his head; then, the council having given him up to the secular arm, he was, under the direction of the emperor Sigismund, delivered first to the Elector Palatine, then to the mayor of Constance, and then to the executioners, who were commanded to burn him, with his clothes, knife, purse, and all that belonged to him; and finally, having called God to witness that he had never taught nor written those things which on false testimony they imputed to him, but his declarations, teachings, writings, in fine, all his works, had been intended and shaped towards the object of rescuing dying men from the tyranny of sin, he was bound to the stake, the flames were kindled, and, as the fire and smoke ascended with the sufferer's prayer.

The council of Constance were more united in condemning and burning alleged heretics than in reforming the church. The Germans and English wanted the reformation of the church to be undertaken before a new pope was elected ; but the cardinals, with the Italians and French, pressed for the election before the reformation ; and the latter carried the day by gaining over the English and corrupting some German prelates. The pope, having thus been elected before any decisive measures for the general reformation of the church were passed, " was able," says Gieseler, "to adjust the most critical points of reformation by concordats with the separate nations; and thus a few general decrees for reform were sufficient to obtain from the council an approval of what had been done as being a satisfactory reformation."

The worst abuses of the ecclesiastical system remained for the most part untouched by the concordats or the decrees. The council at its 4th session passed an article which was published at the next session by cardinal Zabarella with the omission of its final clause, thus- "The synod of Constance, legitimately assembled in the Holy Ghost, forming a general council, and representing the militant Catholic church, has its authority immediately from Christ, and every one, of whatever state or dignity he may be, even if pope, is bound to obey it in what pertains to the faith and to the extirpation of the said schism: " and the council at its 5th session, by general assent, restored this article to its original form by adding the omitted words-" and to the general reformation of the church of God in its head and in its members," and also restored the next article, which had likewise been omitted by Zabarella, and which reads-" It also declares, that any one, of whatever condition, state, or dignity, he may be, even if pope, who may contumaciously have disdained to obey the mandates, statutes, regulations, or precepts of this holy synod and of any other general council legitimately assembled, made or to be made in regard to the aforesaid matters or things pertaining to them, may, unless he come to himself, be subjected to condign penance, and punished as he deserves, even by having recourse, if needful, to other legal helps: "

Pope John XXIII., before his deposition, confirmed these articles by repeatedly declaring that the council was "holy and could not err: " pope Martin V, in his bull against the Hussites, February 22,1418, requires the suspected heretic to tell the bishop or inquisitor " whether he believes, holds, and asserts, that any general council, and also that of Constance, represents the whole church; also whether he believes that what the Holy Council of Constance, representing the whole church, has sanctioned and sanctions to promote the faith and save souls, is to be approved and held by all Christian believers, and also that what the synod has condemned and condemns as contrary to the faith and to good morals must be held by the same to deserve reprobation : " the same pope publicly declared in the last session of the council, April 22, 1418, "that all and each of the things determined and concluded and decreed council-wise in matters of faith by the present Holy Council of Constance, he wished to hold and inviolably to observe and never to contravene in any manner whatsoever;". Subsequently pope Eugene IV., by his bull of December 15, 1433, gave to these decrees as reaffirmed by the council of Basle his full and unqualified sanction, and again in a later bull, February 5, 1447, expressly declared his acceptance, embrace, and veneration, of the decree of the general council of Constance which provides for the frequent holding of general councils, " and its other decrees;" yet cardinals Cajetan, Bellarmin, and the curialists generally, have denied the validity of the above articles ; and pope Martin V., in a bull of March 10, 1418, pronounced all appeals from the pope (i. e. to a general council) inadmissible ; and, while the extreme curialists or partisans of the Roman court entirely deny that this was an ecumenical council.

Hefele, one of the most learned of living German Catholic theologians and the author of a standard history of councils, allows an ecumenical character only to the acts of the last 5 sessions when the council had pope Martin at its head, and to such other acts and decrees as were ratified by him. Now, of course, the doctrine of the councils of Constance and Basle respecting the supremacy of ecumenical councils is set aside by the decree of the Vatican council in 1870 declaring the infallibility and supremacy of the pope. It is somewhat difficult, however, to reconcile all these things with infallibility of any sort, whether of popes or of councils.