The Fall of Conciliarism. A Contribution to the History of Social and Political Ethics in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

The problem of a proper relation which should occur between the pope's competencies and the council's belongs to these problems which were most vividly discussed at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern times. The question about the essence and range of the pope's office is one of main motive in the debates which were carried on within the Church then. The paper presents various aspects of the anti-conciliar attitude which grew stronger and the decreasing number of the pro-conciliar from the second half of the 15th century on. The proper ecclesiological conflict at that time did not concern the pope and the council but rather two opposing conceptions of office in the Church.

According to the first (papal conception) any office within the Church comes from the pope who, having received it from Christ, hands it down to other hierarchies. In the second conception, however, Christ gave all power to the Church as a whole and then the Church hands it down to the pope. In the late Middle Ages the first conception wins a decisive approval. This leads to the ever stronger emphasizing the monarchic and absolutistic character of the office which belongs to St Peter's followers. The reign of the popes (both in the Church and in the church state) were gaining the character of absolutistic power. With the course of time other interpretation of papal monarchism than absolutistic was thought to be heterodox. There is a profound analogy between Christian Aritotelism and absolutistic interpretation of papal monarchism.