The Council of Constance Ended the Period of Three Popes and Sought to Repudiate Heretical Beliefs

Michael Streich 

In the first decade of the 15^th Century, the Catholic Church was plagued with corruption at the highest levels and split by three popes, all ruling simultaneously and each claiming sole legitimacy. The Council of Constance, which opened November 5, 1414, was called by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to solve the problem of the three popes, return the church to morality through reform, and address the heretical factions begun in England by John Wycliffe and expanded by the Bohemian priest Jan Hus. By the close of the Council in 1418, its work was only partially successful.

 

Church Impotency Forced the Actions of the State

 

The 1409 Council of Pisa had attempted to resolve the issue of multiple popes but only managed to complicate matters by electing a third pope, expanding the Great Schism that divided Christendom in the West. Additionally, Pisa was a non-canonical council.

 

Thus, the only one of the three pontiffs to attend Constance, John XXIII, of the Pisan line of popes, could not legally convene a council that could be considered canonical.

 

The only one of the three popes who could claim any sense of legitimacy was Benedict XIII of Avignon. At the time of the Council of Constance, he was the only living prelate who had been a cardinal in 1378 and who participated in the conclave that elected Pope Urban VI in Rome – a dubious election given the circumstances of that papal election.

 

Given the intransigence of the Church in 1414, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund took it upon himself to resolve the important issues of the day by convening the Council of Constance.

 

The Council of Constance Deposes Pope John and Burns Hus as a Heretic

 

Pope John XXIII’s mistake was in attending the council personally; neither of the other rival popes attended. Facing over fifty serious charges including sexual depravity and simony, and being confronted by Sigismund himself with an abdication document, John XXIII disguised himself and fled from Constance.

 

After a public reading of John’s sins, the Council deposed him, although John would abdicate shortly thereafter. Jan Hus, who had journeyed from Prague to answer charges of heresy, was not as fortunate, despite a guarantee of safe conduct from Sigismund.

 

Hus was kept in chains in a prison where his body slowly weakened. Brought before the Council and urged to recant, Hus, much like Luther at Worms in the next century, asked his inquisitors to prove his errors from Scripture. Declared a heretic, he was taken out of the city and burned, his ashes and skeletal remains thrown into the river.

 

The Council Demands Concurrent Jurisdiction with the Papacy

 

By declaring itself canonical and asserting its right of concurrent jurisdiction, the Council of Constance attempted to overturn the doctrine of Papal Primacy. Any such actions would result in the weakening of the pope’s authority and perhaps his gift to speak infallibly.

 

Pope Gregory XII of the Roman line abdicated July 4, 1415 but Benedict XIII refused to do so, even after meeting with Sigismund. It would be his Avignon successor, Clement VIII, who abdicated in 1429. The newly elected pope at Constance on November 11, 1417 was Martin V.

 

Church Reform Ignored by the Council of Constance

 

Widespread Church corruption had been a chief reason for the calling together of an Ecumenical Council at Constance in 1414. But the Council remained preoccupied with the papal schism and heresy. Church reform was never serious addressed or attempted. The new pope, Martin V, did not support Church reform.

 

Sigismund, however, had managed to demonstrate that the state could impose itself on the Church, especially when the Papacy was incompetent and its high ranking prelates were corrupt. When Pope Martin V closed the council on November 11, 1417, the words of Hus must have rung in several ears: the Council was nothing more than “the scarlet woman of the Apocalypse.”

 

Historian Marzieh Gail writes that, “The great failure at Constance…was the Council’s inability to deal with the problems of moral conduct – not of simple believers but of those who were supposed to guide them and set the example.” Although the next decades would see localized reform guided by wiser men and women, as in Spain, the laxity of  Church leadership, including popes, would feed the 16^th Century Reformation.

 

The Partial Successes of the Council of Constance: Ending the Babylonian Captivity of the Church

 

The 1414 Council managed to end the Great Schism, but only after the efforts of a secular king forced the issue. By burning Hus, the Council sent a strong message to heretics. But the most important issue, Church reform, was ignored. This inaction directly led to further abuses as well as the election of men to the papacy whose spirituality was dubious, men such as Pope Julius II.

 

Contemporary Catholics are quick to point out that Constance was an unofficial council, not canonical. Although true, this convolutes the larger issue: does the spirit and passion to reform in order to more closely align the Church to Christ supersede centuries of tradition and canon law? Those men and women who advocated the former were later deemed saints, like Vincent Ferrer. But their words were seldom considered by the Church leadership while they were alive.

 

Sources:

 

Richard Cattermole, The Council of Constance and the war in Bohemia (Nabu Press, 2010)

Marzieh Gail, The Three Popes (Simon and Schuster, 1969)

Brian Tierney and Sidney Painter, Western Europe in the Middle Ages 300-1475, 5yh Ed. (McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1992)

Williston Walker, A History of the Christian Church, 3^rd Ed. (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1970)

(Copyright owned by Michael Streich; republishing in any form requires written permission)