Council of Constance

A church council that took place from 1414 until 1418 in Constance (present-day Baden, Germany), called by the Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund to resolve the schism in the church. Since 1378, the Catholic Church had been divided in two, with separate popes supported by different factions of church leaders and the kings and princes of Europe. When the Council of Constance began, an “antipope,” John XXIII, was presiding over a rival court in Avignon, France, while Pope Gregory XII was head of the church in Rome and a third pope, Benedict XIII, was also claiming authority over the church.

The Council of Constance took place when the turmoil in the church was prompting an outcry for reform. With Sigismund presiding, the delegates asked all three rival popes to resign their titles, so that a single pope could be elected. In 1415, its delegates passed an important decree known as Haec Sancta. This document stated that a general church council took its authority directly from Christ, and that all members of the church, including the pope, were bound to obey its decisions. The Catholic Church has always considered this decree invalid, as the council had not yet been officially convened by the pope of Rome.

When Gregory XII made it known that he would be willing to resign, the delegates at the Council of Constance agreed to receive his representatives in Constance. After their arrival, the pope's representatives officially convened the council in Gregory's name. They then read out his resignation. The council deposed Benedict XlI, while Gregory XII also gave up his title. Two years later, the council elected Cardinal Oddone Colonna, who took the name of Martin V. Although the council resolved the papal schism, it did not address important issues that were driving a protest movement led by such men as John Wyclif of England and Jan Hus of Bohemia. Instead, the council invited Jan Hus under a promise of safe passage, then arrested him and ordered him burned at the stake. The protest movement would gather force throughout the fifteenth century and bring about the Protestant Reformation.

See Also: Catholicism; Hus, Jan; Reformation, Protestant