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COUNCIL, OF THE CHURCH. 



COUNCIL, OF THE CHURCH. 



the Christians of Palestine, and also to judge of the charges against the 

 Emperor Frederic II., whose councillor, Thaddeus of Suessa, undertook 

 to defend his master. After listening to his defence, the council excom- 

 municated Frederic ; and then the pope, in presence of the council, 

 pronounced sentence of deposition against that emperor. It was not 

 the council that assumed to depose Frederic ; nor did Innocent IV., 

 as Bossuet remarks, support his sentence by alleging the sanction of 

 the council to it, as he alleged hi other decrees which he issued in the 

 same council ; the pope merely says that he pronounced the sentence 

 of deposition in the presence of the holy council assembled. The 

 council also ordered a new crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, 

 and made provision for the funds required for the purpose. 



Lyim, Second Council of, convoked in 1274 by Pope Gregory X., for 

 the object of reforming discipline and the morals of the clergy, for the 

 reunion of the Greek Church, and for the assistance of the Christians 

 of Palestine. The assembly was very numerous, consisting of more 

 than 500 bishops and 1000 inferior dignitaries of the Church, besides 

 the ambassadors of many princes, especially of Michael Comnenus, 

 emperor of Constantinople, who wrote to profess his adherence to the 

 orthodox Roman Catholic faith, and to acknowledge the primacy of the 

 see of Rome. Thirty-eight Greek prelates sent in likewise their act of 

 adhesion. The council made several regulations concerning the election 

 of bishops, and the appointment of parish incumbents, and the adminis- 

 tration of church property. 



Vienne (in Dauphiny), Council of, convoked by Pope Clement V., in 

 1311, condemned the order of the Templars, and the pope suppressed 

 the order and confiscated their property. [TEMPLARS.] It likewise 

 condemned the so-called Beggars, Fratricelli, and other heretics, and 

 made several regulations of discipline concerning the monasteries 

 and hospitals. It also promulgated a profession of faith concern- 

 ing the human nature of Jesus Christ, according to the testimony of 

 St. John. 



Cmttancc, Council of, was assembled in 1414 at the request of the 

 emperor Sigismund, chiefly to put an end to the great schism, during 

 which John XXIII., Gregory XII., and Benedict XIII., each claimed 

 the rank and office of sovereign pontiff. The Council deposed all 

 three, and elected Ottone, cardinal Colonna, as legitimate pope, by the 

 name of Martin V. It was on this occasion that a canon or decree was 

 passed, asserting the supremacy of a general council over the pope. 

 Gregory and John XXIII. submitted to this decision, the latter after 

 much demurring ; but Benedict continued the schism in Spain to the 

 time of his death. The Council was also engaged in the trial of John 

 HUBS, who was summoned and appeared before it, and was arrested by 

 order of the Council, notwithstanding a safeguard from the emperor. 

 His doctrines were condemned as heretical, and as he would not retract 

 he was publicly degraded from his priestly office, and then consigned 

 to the civil magistrates, who by order of the emperor had him burnt. 

 For the peculiar opinions of Huss, some of which concerned doctrine, 

 and others discipline, see Htiss, JOHN, in Bioo. Drv. The Council 

 condemned likewise the doctrines of Wycliffe, most of which were 

 identical with those of HUBS. Jerome of Prague, a disciple of HUBS, 

 having been brought before the Council, first retracted his obnoxious 

 doctrines, but being still kept in prison, as his retractation was not 

 considered to be sincere, he demanded a public audience, at which he 

 declared that he had recanted only through a temporary weakness, 

 and that he persisted in his master's doctrines ; upon which he was 

 also condemned to the stake, to which he went with the greatest 

 serenity. Poggio Bracciolini, who was present at the tragical scene, 

 bears full evidence, in his letter to Aretino, to the firmness of the 

 victim ; and so does ..Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., in his 

 ' Historic Bohemica.' 



The Council had promised to occupy itself with a reform of church 

 discipline, which was much wanted in that age ; but it did little in 

 that way, having been abruptly dissolved by the new pope Martin V. 

 in April, 1418. The Council of Constance is one of the most notorious 

 in the history of the church, and was one of the most numerous ever 

 assembled. Lenfant has given a full and instructive account of all its 

 proceedings, session after session. (' Histoire du C'oncile de Constance,' 

 2 vols. 4to, Amsterdam, 1727.) 



The next general council is that of Basle, which, on account of its 

 importance in the history of the Church, deserves more particular 

 notice. The council of Basle was convoked by Pope Martin V. in 1430, 

 in conformity to a decree of the council of Constance, session 39, which 

 had provided that a new general council should assemble within five 

 years. Pope Martin appointed Cardinal Julian Cesarini, his legate in 

 Germany, to preside over the council. Soon after, Martin died 

 (February, 1431), and his successor, Eugenius IV., confirmed Cesarini 

 as president of the council. The first session, or meeting, took place 

 in December, 1431, when Cardinal Julian opened the council by an 

 'lit speech, in which he exhibited the evils of the Church result- 

 ing chiefly from the relaxation of its discipline ; and, having exhorted 

 the fathers and the clergy in general to give the example of regularity 

 and piety to their flocks, he stated the two great objects of the present 

 council to be, one, the reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches, 

 and the other, an effectual reform of the Church in general in all its 

 members. The council then appointed its various deputations, or 

 committees, to examine at length the matters laid before each of them 

 and make their reports thereon, which were to be taken into con- 



sideration by the whole council assembled in session, and there put to 

 the votes. 



The second session of the council took place in February, 1432. In 

 the interval between the first and second sessions it became known at 

 Basle that Pope Eugenius intended to dissolve the council as likely to 

 prove troublesome to him if allowed to sit much longer, and that he 

 had actually framed the bull for its dissolution. In consequence of 

 this, the council issed a decree declaring that it held its power imme- 

 diately from Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church ; and that every 

 person, even the pope, was bound to obey its decisions in matters of 

 faith, as well as for the extirpation of schism, and likewise for the 

 reformation of the Church. Meantime the pope had issued his bull of 

 dissolution. Cardinal Julian then wrote two forcible letters to Euge- 

 nius, maintaining the rights of the council, and asserting that according 

 to the canous of the council of Constance, by which he himself, 

 Eugenius, held the papal dignity, as successor to Martin V., who had 

 been elected by that council after it had deposed Pope John XXIII., 

 and the other claimants to the papal crown, the pope had no power of 

 dissolving a general council once lawfully convoked and assembled, 

 until that council had performed the task for which it had been 

 convoked. The fathers sent likewise a synodal answer, of the same 

 meaning, to the papal bull, in which they asserted that the pope, 

 although the ministerial head of the Church, was not exalted above 

 the whole mystical body of the Church, as that mystical body, even 

 exclusively of the pope, cannot err in matters of faith, being under the 

 inspiration of the Holy Ghost ; whilst the pope, although the head of 

 the Church, might err, as experience showed. The body of the Church 

 represented in the general council had deposed popes who had erred 

 in matters of faith, but no pope had ever assumed to condemn or 

 excommunicate the whole body of the Church. 



In the third session, April, 1432, the council summoned Eugenius 

 to revoke the bull of dissolution, and to attend the council in person 

 in three months' time, or to send persons with full powers to represent 

 him. 



In the fourth session, June, same year, a safe conduct was given to 

 the Bohemian deputies who proposed to appear before the council to 

 arrange matters for the religious peace of their country. Pope Eugenius 

 being reported ill at the tune, the council decreed that in case of his 

 death, the council should not proceed to the election of his successor 

 any where else but in the body of the council. Any other election 

 was declared beforehand to be null and void. 



In the fifth session, in August of the same year, three judges were 

 appointed to examine questions of faith. The Bishop of Taranto, sent 

 by Eugenius as his legatee, delivered a high flown speech, exalting the 

 papal authority as the only fit judge of the place and time for the 

 holding of councils, and he stated that as the pope could not then leave 

 Italy, he offered to remove the assembly to any town in the Papal 

 states which the fathers might fix upon. The council replied that to 

 dissolve or remove a council lawfully assembled would be to renew 

 schism in the Church, and would be contrary to charity and the in- 

 spiration of the Holy Ghost. 



In the sixth session, September, the council decreed that as Pope 

 Eugenius did not make his appearance, he should be declared " con- 

 tumax " after being cited three times at the gate of the church. 



In the seventh session, November, the decree of the fourth session 

 was confirmed, forbidding the cardinals to hold a conclave, in case of 

 the pope's demise, without permission from the council. 



In the eighth session, December, a further delay of two months \\ us 

 granted to Eugenius to revoke his bull of dissolution, after which tho 

 council would proceed canonically against him. It was also decreed 

 that any other council convoked elsewhere, would be a cabal and a 

 schism, as there could not be more than one general council assembled 

 at a time. The Bohemian deputies arrived at Basle in January, 1433. 

 They laid before the council the demands of their constituents, namely 

 the sacrament " sub utraque " for the laity ; that the clergy should 

 have no power over temporal things, and that the word of God should 

 be preached fairly and freely. The council upon this appointed depu- 

 ties to repair to Bohemia to confer upon these matters on the spot. 



In the ninth session, January, 1433, the Emperor Sigismund having 

 by letters patent taken the council .and all its members under his 

 especial protection, the council on its part declared that it would pro- 

 tect Sigismund from any arbitrary act of the pope against him. 



Tenth session, February, 1433. The council was proceeding to 

 declare Eugenius " contumax," but the emperor and Cardinal Julian 

 interposed, and offered to write to the pope, upon which the council 

 adjourned its proceedings. 



Eleventh session, April same year, it was decreed that if the pope 

 henceforth neglected to assemble a general council every ten years, as 

 ordained in the ninth session of the council of Constance, the right of 

 convocation should devolve upon the bishops without the pope's per- 

 mission. The fathers likewise confirmed the decree of the council of 

 Constance, by which a general council, once assembled, could not be 

 adjourned, transferred or prorogued by the pope without the consent 

 of two-thirds of the members. Meantime Eugenius had sent two 

 legates to the council, with full powers ; but the council would not 

 admit them, as the pope had not revoked his bull of dissolution. 



Twelfth session, July. The council summoned Pope Eugenius to 

 revoke within two months' time his declaration of transferring the 



