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The Organization by Nations at Constance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Louise R. Loomis
Louise R. Loomis
Affiliation:
Wells College, Aurora-on-Cayuga, New York
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Extract

The Council of Constance, like any other serious event involving many people and lasting over a considerable period of time, can be studied from many points of view. It started out as a gathering for purely ecclesiastical purposes. But some twenty or thirty thousand persons from every class of society, except, perhaps, the lowest, cannot come and remain together for almost four years to discuss one set of difficult and complicated questions without, intentionally or unintentionally, raising many other questions, social, religious, philosophic, economic and political, and forming for the moment, as it were, a microcosm of the forces of the age. Most of the issues that agitated Europe five hundred years ago cropped up sooner or later at Constance, the cost of living, the obnoxiousness of robber barons and private warfare, the right and wrong of tyrannicide, the conflict between Germans and Poles in the East and between English and French in the West, to say nothing of the special issues with which the Council was expected to deal, the claims of three popes to be the only true successors of St. Peter, the perilous teachings of Wiclef and Hus and the worldliness and corruption of church administration.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 1 , Issue 4 , December 1932 , pp. 191 - 210
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1932

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References

1 The difference between the “nation” at Constance and the “nation” at a thirteenth century university is the difference between an almost modern notion of nationality and a vague regionalism that classified men indiscriminately by provinces, districts or kingdoms. But the significance of the conception at Constance is a topic that needs further discussion.

2 Washington, 1927.

3 Münster, , 1896–1929.Google Scholar Dr. Powers did not know Volumes III and IV of Finke's work and made only partial use of the material in Volume II.

4 Finke, , Acta Concilii Constanciensis, III, 77–78.Google Scholar

5 Von der Hardt, , Magnum Oecumenicum Concilium Constantiense, II, 160Google Scholar; should be 260.

6 Finke, , II, 186.Google Scholar

7 Finke, , II, 17, 197–198.Google ScholarVon der Hardt, , II, 194–195.Google Scholar

8 Finke, , III, 47–48.Google Scholar

9 Finke, , III, 48–51.Google Scholar

10 Finke, , II, 201.Google Scholar

11 Finke, , II, 202–203.Google Scholar It may have been about this time that the admonition was addressed to Sigismund on the difference between the spheres of king and priest, contained in Münich, Staats-Bibliothek, Codd. Latt., 15183, ff. 1273–128. “As the priest must proclaim freely the truth he hears from God, so the lay prince must defend faithfully the truth he hears from the priest.”

12 Finke, , III, 54–59.Google Scholar

13 Finke, , III, 62–63.Google Scholar

14 Finke, , III, 59–60.Google Scholar

15 Finke, , III, 52–54.Google Scholar

16 It is not known to what the writer is referring in the last two instances.

17 Finke, , III, 66–74.Google Scholar For another German appeal to Sigismund, see Von der Hardt, , II, 163Google Scholar, also Finke, , IV, 653–654.Google Scholar A little later, Dietrich von Niem describes scornfully the rushing trade the Pope's court is doing in benefices, expectatives, etc. Finke, , III, 76–79.Google Scholar

18 Finke, , III, 219Google Scholar; II, 207.

19 Finke, , II, 16–17.Google Scholar

20 Finke, , II, 394.Google Scholar

21 Finke, , II, 395.Google Scholar

22 Anonymous letter in Finke, , III, 239.Google Scholar

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24 Finke, , II, 18.Google ScholarVon der Hardt, , II, 208–213.Google Scholar

25 Finke, , III, 82–92, 94–99.Google Scholar

26 Finke, , II, 19.Google Scholar

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28 Finke, , II, 19.Google Scholar

29 Von der Hardt, , II, 224–227.Google Scholar

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31 The Council as a whole never fixed the qualifications for voting membership. See the comment of the German nation, Von der Hardt, , IV, 191Google Scholar, and the resolution of the French and Italian nations, Finke, , II, 747.Google Scholar John, who, of course, would describe, the change in the darkest colors, said that no distinctions were being drawn between “cleric and lay, single and married, graduate and non-graduate, noble and base.” Von der Hardt, , II, 157Google Scholar; should be 257.

32 This estimate is based on lists of members of separate delegations and of the Council as a whole found in Von der Hardt and Finke, passim.

33 Finke, , II, 19.Google Scholar

34 Finke, , II, 208.Google Scholar In May, the cardinals were saying that there were less than twenty in the English nation. Finke, , II, 34.Google Scholar

35 Finke, , II, 23.Google Scholar

36 King's Mss., 10, B. IX, f. 59 b.

37 Finke, , II, 210–211.Google Scholar

38 Finke, , II, 353–354.Google Scholar

39 Finke, , III, 220.Google Scholar See Peter de Pulka's letter to the University of Vienna on the general state of anxiety. Archiv für Künde Oester. Gesch. Quellen, XV, 14–15.Google Scholar

40 The relation of the cardinals, both singly and as a college, to the rest of the Council forms a subject by itself. They represented the papal principle, the royal ministry, in a legislature that had temporarily suspended the monarchy. See especially Fillastre, 's JournalGoogle Scholar, Finke, , II, 34Google Scholar, and passim.

41 Finke, , II, 351.Google Scholar

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43 Von der Hardt, , II, 153–162Google Scholar; should be 253–262.

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48 The text of this and of John's second promise is given by Fillastre, , Finke, , II, 20.Google Scholar

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51 Finke, , II, 356.Google Scholar

52 Finke, , II, 356–357.Google Scholar A brief account of the same incident is in a letter sent to Poland. Finke, , III, 263.Google Scholar

53 This interesting episode is described, with different details, by each of the three journalists. Finke, , II, 23–24, 221–223, 357–358.Google ScholarVon der Hardt, 's summary account of it, IV, 57Google Scholar, is mistaken in several respects.

54 This practice lasted until 1417, when “because of the dissension between the nations as to the order in which they should make the response of approval” the senior cardinal replied, “Placet,” for all. Von der Hardt, , IV, 1433–1434.Google Scholar

55 Von der Hart, , IV, 190–192.Google Scholar

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58 Finke, , II, 742.Google Scholar

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61 Almost no records of the activities of individual nations have been preserved. An exceptional document is the full and animated report of the doings and discussions of the French nation, October 15 to December 2, 1415. Marténe, and Durand, , Thesaurus, II, 1543–1609.Google Scholar

62 As early as January, 1415, one of the programmes drawn up for dealing with John included the proviso that equality must be preserved between nations to avert suspicion. Finke, , III, 84.Google Scholar In February of the same year, Dietrich von Niem was deploring the arrogance and hostility shown in the intercourse between nations and wishing that all the best prelates, regardless of nationality, would get together and take the helm. Finke, , III, 107–109.Google Scholar