Conciliarism and Papalism

Almost on the eve of the sixteenth-century Reformation, the long-running debate over the respective authority of popes and councils in the Catholic Church was vigorously resumed. In this collection the editors bring together the first English translation of four major contributions to that debate. In these texts, complex arguments derived from Scripture, theology, and canon law are deployed. The issues that emerge, however, prove to have a broader significance. What is foreshadowed here is the confrontation between ‘absolutism’ and ‘constitutionalism’ which was to be a dominant theme in the politics of early-modern Europe and beyond. Even on the threshold of the twenty-first century the concerns that underlie and animate the scholastic disputations in these pages retain their force. This volume includes introductory material which elucidates the context of the debate, as well as a comprehensive bibliography.

• The first translation of four key texts in a historically important debate • Includes introductory material elucidating the context of the debate • Presentation integrally of the dialectical exchanges in that debate

Editors’ note; Introduction; A note on terms; Chronology; Abbreviations; Bibliography; 1. On the comparison of the authority of pope and council; 2. A book concerning the authority of the Church; 3. The apology of Brother Thomas de Vio of Gaeta, master general of the Order of Preachers, concerning the authority of the pope compared with that of the council, to the most reverend Niccolo Fieschi, well-deserving cardinal of the Holy Roman Church; 4. A disputation concerning the authority of the council over the supreme pontiff.

‘Conciliarism had been one of the most important topics of debate in the church for a century, only to be overtaken by the Reformation controversies. These texts show just how sophisticated and lively the debate still was on the eve of the Reformation.’ History