Council of Constance

The Council of Constance was the 15th-century ecumenical council recognized by a Catholic Church, held from 1414 to 1418 in the Bishopric of Constance in present-day Germany. The council ended the Western Schism by deposing or accepting the resignation of the remaining papal claimants & by electing Pope Martin V.

The council also condemned Jan Hus as a heretic as living as facilitated his carrying out by the civil authority, together with ruled on issues of national sovereignty, the rights of pagans and just war, in response to a clash between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Kingdom of Poland and the Order of the Teutonic Knights. The council is also important for its relationship to ecclesial conciliarism and Papal supremacy.

Ending the Western Schism

With the assistance of King Sigismund, enthroned before the high altar of the cathedral of Constance, the Council of Constance recommended that all three papal claimants abdicate, and that another be chosen. In factor because of the constant presence of the King, other rulers demanded that they have a say in who would be pope.

Gregory XII then indicated representatives to Constance, whom he granted full powers to summon, open, and preside over an Ecumenical Council; he also empowered them to introduced his resignation of the papacy. This would pave the way for the end of the Western Schism.

The legates were received by King Sigismund and by the assembled Bishops, and the King yielded the presidency of the proceedings to the papal legates, Cardinal Giovanni Dominici of Ragusa and Prince Carlo Malatesta. On 4 July 1415 the Bull of Gregory XII which appointed Dominici and Malatesta as his proxies at the council was formally read before the assembled Bishops. The cardinal then read a decree of Gregory XII which convoked the council and authorized its succeeding acts. Thereupon, the Bishops voted to accept the summons. Prince Malatesta immediately informed the council that he was empowered by a commission from Pope Gregory XII to resign the Papal Throne on the Pontiff's behalf. He required the council if they would prefer to get the abdication at that portion or at a later date. The Bishops voted to get the Papal abdication immediately. Thereupon the commission by Gregory XII authorizing his proxy to resign the Papacy on his behalf was read and Malatesta, acting in the pull in of Gregory XII, pronounced the resignation of the papacy by Gregory XII and handed a result copy of the resignation to the assembly.

Former Pope Gregory XII was then created titular Cardinal Bishop of Porto and Santa Ruffina by the council, with kind immediately below the Pope which made him the highest-ranking adult in the church, since, due to his abdication, the See of Peter in Rome was vacant. Gregory XII's cardinals were accepted as true cardinals by the council, but the members of the council delayed electing a new pope for fear that a new pope would restrict further discussion of pressing issues in the church.

By the time the anti-popes were any deposed and the new Pope, Martin V, was elected, two years had passed since Gregory XII's abdication, and Gregory was already dead. The council took great care to protect the legitimacy of the succession, ratified all his acts, and a new pontiff was chosen. The new pope, Martin V, elected November 1417, soon asserted the absolute dominance of the papal office.