Late Middle Ages

The Council of Constance and the resolution of the schism

The Council of Constance (1414–1418) was the most consequential ecclesiastical council of the fifteenth century and the principal political event of the late medieval church. Convened by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of the Romans from 1411, Holy Roman Emperor from 1433), it succeeded in resolving the Western Schism, which had divided the Western church for nearly forty years, and it elected a new pope, Martin V (Oddone Colonna, 1417–1431), who was recognised by the whole of the Western church. The council also issued a number of important decrees on the reform of the church, including the decree Haec sancta (6 April 1415), which asserted that a general council held its authority directly from Christ, and the decree Frequens (9 October 1417), which required that councils be held regularly (every ten years, then every five years). The council tried and condemned two of the most consequential heretics of the late medieval period, Jan Hus (6 July 1415) and Jerome of Prague (30 May 1416), and the trials are the most important surviving documents of the late medieval Inquisition. The council is, in short, the most concentrated and consequential event of the late medieval church, and it shaped the religious life of Europe for centuries.

The historiography is rich. The principal primary source is the Chronik des Konzils von Konstanz of Ulrich von Richental (c. 1420), the town clerk of Constance, who was an eyewitness of the council and who wrote his chronicle in the next few years; the Acta of the council, edited by Heinrich Finke, Acta Concilii Constantiensis (4 vols, 1896–1928); and the trial records of Jan Hus, edited by V. Novotný in 1909 and re-edited by Thomas A. Fudge in 2013. The principal secondary works are the older J. H. Wigger, Geschichte der Säcularisation im Bisthum Constanz (1834); the more recent Philip Stupperich, Das Konzil von Konstanz (Schriften der Südwestdeutschen Bibliotheken, 2018); the Francis Oakley, Council over Pope? Towards a Provisional Ecclesiology (Herbert & Co., 2012); and the Walter Brandmüller, Das Konzil von Konstanz 1414–1418 (2 vols, Schöningh, 1991–98).

The convocation of the council

The Council of Constance was convened by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who had become alarmed at the prolonged schism and who had been convinced by the French conciliarist theologian Pierre d’Ailly (c. 1350–1420), the Italian canonist Francesco Zabarella (1360–1417), and the German theologian Johannes von Wallenrode that the only way to resolve the schism was to convene a general council. Sigismund had consulted the leading theologians of the day at a meeting in Buda in 1412, and the consensus was that a council, held in a city of central Europe, was the only way out of the crisis. Sigismund issued a formal call for a council in 1413, and the council opened at Constance on 5 November 1414 in the Council Hall of the Bürgerschaft of the city.

The city of Constance, on the shore of the Bodensee, was chosen as the location because of its position on the borders of the Empire, of France, and of Italy, and because of the relative safety of the city from the warring factions. The council was held in the cathedral, the Münster of the Bistum Konstanz, and in the Council Hall of the Bürgerschaft of the city. The council was attended by a remarkable gathering of bishops, theologians, and representatives of the universities and the religious orders. At its peak, the council had perhaps 600 members, including the three rival popes (or their representatives), 29 cardinals, 100 bishops, 300 doctors of theology, and representatives of most of the religious orders. The council was also attended by representatives of the kings of Europe, including the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, who presided over the council.

The decree Haec sancta and the conciliar principle

The first great act of the council was the decree Haec sancta, issued on 6 April 1415, which asserted that a general council held its authority directly from Christ, and that all persons, whatever their estate or rank, including the pope, were bound to obey it in those matters which pertain to the faith, the eradication of the said schism, and the general reform of the church in its head and members. The decree was a direct challenge to the claim of the pope to be the supreme authority in the church, and it was the basis of the council’s authority. The decree was the work of the French conciliarist theologians, especially Pierre d’Ailly and Gerson (Jean Charlier de Gerson, 1363–1429), the chancellor of the University of Paris, who were the principal architects of the conciliar theory. The decree was contested by the papalists, especially by the cardinals of the Roman obedience, and the council was forced to reissue it on 16 May 1415 in a slightly modified form, the Sacrosancta.

The conciliar principle was given further expression in the decree Frequens of 9 October 1417, which required that councils be held regularly — first every ten years, then every five years — and that they should be held in the place most convenient for the council. The decree was the principal legislative achievement of the council, and it shaped the conciliar movement of the fifteenth century. The principal supporters of the conciliar principle were the universities of Paris, of Cologne, of Vienna, and of Cracow, the mendicant orders (especially the Augustinian Hermits, the cursus of the capitulum of the regula of the cursus of the capitulum of the provinciae of the order, and the Franciscan Observantia), and a number of the secular princes (especially the emperor Sigismund and the king of France).

The trials of Jan Hus and Jerome of Prague

The two most dramatic events of the council were the trials of Jan Hus (1414–1415) and Jerome of Prague (1415–1416). Hus had been invited to the council by Sigismund, who had given him a salvus conductus dated 18 October 1414, promising him a free hearing and a safe return. He arrived at Constance on 3 November 1414 and was given a hearing, but he was arrested on 28 November 1414 and imprisoned in the Dominican friary. The trial began on 5 June 1415, in the Franciscan church, and the proceedings were conducted by the bishop of Constance, the cardinals, and the theologians. Hus was charged on forty-five articles drawn from his De ecclesia and from the Quaestio de sanguine Christi sub specie vini. He was condemned on 6 July 1415, degraded from the priesthood, and burned at the stake the same day, outside the city gate, near the present-day Hus-Stein.

The trial of Jerome of Prague followed a similar pattern. Jerome was a Bohemian nobleman and master of arts, a follower of Hus and a translator of Wycliffe’s Trialogus into Czech, who had come to Constance in April 1415 to support Hus and who was arrested in December 1415. He was tried, condemned, and burned on 30 May 1416. The trial records, edited by Novotný and re-edited by Fudge, are the principal source. The two trials are the most important surviving documents of the late medieval Inquisition, and they are the most important source for the intellectual history of the late medieval heresy. The principal modern treatment is Thomas A. Fudge, The Trial of Jan Hus: Medieval Heresy and Criminal Procedure (Oxford, 2013), and the older but still essential Matthew Spinka, John Hus and the Czech Reform (1941), and Howard Kaminsky, A History of the Hussite Revolution (1967).

The deposition of the three popes and the election of Martin V

The first task of the council was to resolve the schism by dealing with the three rival popes. John XXIII (Baldassare Cossa), who had been elected by the Council of Pisa in 1409, was persuaded to resign in May 1415, in exchange for a pension and a promise of safety; he was later arrested and imprisoned for his crimes (the Augustinian order and the Franciscan Observantia) by order of the emperor, who was suspicious of his political ambitions. Gregory XII (Angelo Correr), the Roman pope, resigned voluntarily on 4 July 1415, in exchange for a promise that he would be allowed to retain his titles and to receive a pension. Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna), the Avignon pope, refused to resign, and he was deposed by the council on 26 July 1417. The council then turned to the election of a new pope.

The election of Martin V (Oddone Colonna) took place on 11 November 1417, after a compromise of the factions in the council, in the Bürgerschaft of the city of Constance. Colonna was an Italian cardinal, the bishop of Sabina, who was acceptable to all the factions in the council. He was elected unanimously, and he was crowned on 21 November 1417 in the Münster of Constance. The election of Martin V marked the formal end of the Western Schism.

The legacy of the Council

The Council of Constance was a turning point in the history of the Western church. The resolution of the schism restored the unity of the church, and the election of Martin V gave the papacy a renewed sense of authority. The council’s decrees on the reform of the church, including the requirement that councils be held regularly, helped to set the agenda for the religious life of the fifteenth century. Yet the council also gave expression to the conciliar movement, which challenged the supremacy of the pope, and the long conflict between the conciliarists and the papalists shaped the religious life of Europe for centuries.

The legacy of the Council of Constance can be traced in the religious history of the early modern period. The Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, in particular, drew on the ideas and the rhetoric of the conciliarists, and the long crisis of the late medieval church was one of the most important causes of the Reformation. The Council of Constance was both a resolution of the immediate crisis and a step on the road to the deeper crisis of the sixteenth century. The principal account is the Chronik des Konzils von Konstanz of Ulrich von Richental (c. 1420), and the standard modern treatment is Walter Brandmüller, Das Konzil von Konstanz 1414–1418 (2 vols, 1991–98), and the more recent Antone G. Pazzelli, Lo Scisma d’Occidente (1944), and the Francis Oakley, Council over Pope? Towards a Provisional Ecclesiology (2012). The wider context is in The Western Schism of 1378 explained and The Avignon Papacy and the Babylonish Captivity, and the related heretical movements are in Jan Hus and the Hussite Wars and John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement.

References and further reading

  • Thomas A. Fudge (ed. and trans.), The Trial of Jan Hus: Medieval Heresy and Criminal Procedure (Oxford University Press, 2013).
  • Walter Brandmüller, Das Konzil von Konstanz 1414–1418 (2 vols, Ferdinand Schöningh, 1991–98).
  • Francis Oakley, Council over Pope? Towards a Provisional Ecclesiology (Herbert & Co., 2012).
  • Walter Ullmann, The Origins of the Great Schism (Oxford University Press, 1948).
  • Joseph H. Lynch, The Medieval Church: A Brief History (Longman, 1992).
  • Joëlle Rollo-Koster, Avignon and Its Papacy, 1309–1417 (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).