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The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
Extract
In his important and incisive essay ‘What was conciliarism? Conciliar theory in historical perspective’ Antony Black draws attention to the use made of biblical passages by conciliarist writers. He writes, ‘from Gerson onwards, and most markedly in Segovia, we hear the rebuke that the canonists have misunderstood the structure of ecclesiastical authority by introducing notions derived from secular, Roman law; we hear the call to return to scripture and patristic tradition.’ Among the passages used by them he cites ‘the dominical precept to “tell the community (die ecclesie)” if a brother errs persistently (Matthew 18.15-20)’. This appeal to the dominical precept in matters of community discipline was not new. Indeed, its use in this connection has a long and interesting history. One of its earliest appearances is in the Rule of St Benedict.
- Type
- Research Article
- Information
- Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 9: The Church and Sovereignty c.590-1918 , 1991 , pp. 429 - 435
- Copyright
- Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1987
Footnotes
1
Mair’s Disputano de auctoritate concilli supra pontificem maximum was published in his In Matthaeum ad literam expositio (Paris, 1518), fols 68r—72r. It was reprinted in Gerson, Opera, 2, ed. Du Pin (Antwerp, 1706), pp. 1131—45. My references are to this edition. An abridged translation by the present writer was printed in SpinkaMatthew, ed. Advocates of Reform (London1953), pp. 175–84, where the date of the first publication was wrongly given as 1529. For a bibliography of Mair’s works see DurkanJohn. ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, InR, 1 (1950), pp. 140–57. Over the last forty years a number of articles on Mair have been written. They include CantR. G., ‘John Major’, in SalmondJ. B., ed., Veterum Laudes (Edinburgh, 1950), pp. 21–31; DurkanJohn, MajorJohn: after 400 years’, InR, 1 (1950), pp. 131–9; BurnsJ.H., ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, InR, 5 (1954), pp. 83–100; DurkanJohn and KirkJames, The University of Glasgow, 1451-1577 (Glasgow, 1977), pp. 155–62; GanoczyAlexandre, ‘Jean Major, exegete gallican’, Recherches de science religieuse, 56 (1968), pp. 457–595’ BurnsJ. H., ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, InR, 2 (1951), pp. 65–76; ‘Politia Regalis et Optima: the political ideas of John Major’, HPT, 2 (1981), pp. 31-61; ‘The Conciliarist tradition in Scotland’, ScHR, 42 (1963). pp. 89-104; and ‘Political Ideas of the Scottish Reformation’, Aberdeen University Review, 36 (1955-6), pp. 251-63; OakleyFrancis, ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, JBS, 1 (1962), pp. 12–19; OakleyFrancis, ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, AHR, 70 (1964-5), pp. 673–90; TorranceT. F., ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’, Archives dt philosophie, 32 (1969), pp. 531–47, and 33 (1970), pp.261–93; VillosladaR.G., ‘The Conciliarism of John Mair: A Note on A Disputation on the Authority of a Council1’ Analecta Gregoriana, XIVScries facultatis historiae ecclesiasticae, sectio B (2) (1938), pp. 127–64.
References
2 In Tierney, Brian and Linehan, Peter, eds, Authority and Power: Studies on Medieval Law and Government (Cambridge, 1980), pp. 213–24.Google Scholar
3 Ibid., p. 217,
4 Chadwick, Owen, Western Asceticism = The Library of Christian Classics, 12 (London, 1958), p. 310.Google Scholar
5 Reid, J. K. S., Calvin; Theological Treatises = The Library of Christian Classics, 22 (London, 1954), pp. 51, 61.Google Scholar
6 John Mair (Major) was born near Haddington in 1467, was educated at Cambridge and Paris, where he studied theology under Jean Standonck at Montaigu College. He later taught there and at the Universities of Glasgow and St Andrews, where he died in 1550. For further biographical details see the articles mentioned in n. 1 above and also Aeneas J. G. MacKay, in A History of Greater Britain … by John Major… translated…by Archibald Constable (Edinburgh, 1892), pp. xxix—cxxxv.
7 Burns, ‘The Conciliarist Tradition in Scotland’, p. 89.
8 See Oakley ‘Almain and Major: Conciliar theory on the eve of the Reformation’, pp. 673ff.
9 Black, ‘What was conciliarism?’ pp. 216f.
10 Gerson, Opera, 2, p. 1132.
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 Ibid., p. 1133.
14 Ibid., p. 1134.
15 Ibid.
16 See Black, “What was conciliarism?’, p. 217.
17 Mair, Disputatio, p. 1134f
18 Ibid., p. 1135.
19 Ibid.
20 Ibid., p. 1135f.
21 Ibid., p. 1136.
22 Ibid., p. 1137.
23 Ibid.
24 Ibid., pp. 1137-45.
25 In quartum scntiarum… (Paris, 1516), fols 213-16; also printed in Gerson, Opera, 2, pp. 1121-30, enrided Disputalio de Statu et Potatale Ecclesiae.
26 Renaudet, Augustine, Préréforme et Humanisme à Paris petulant la premières Guerres d’Italie (1494-1517), 2nd edn rev. (Paris, 1953), p. 406Google Scholar, see also index s.v. ‘Mair’.
27 I am grateful to Dr Mason for providing me with a photocopy of this important contribution to studies in Mair’s political thought.