The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Conciliar Movement

a movement for the reform of the Catholic Church that developed during the late 14th and early 15th centuries among higher circles in the church and among Western European secular feudal lords.

The conciliar movement, which asserted the supremacy of ecumenical councils over the Roman papacy, developed as a result of the formation and consolidation of centralized national states in Europe, as well as the desire of the national churches to be more independent and less subordinate to the pope. In addition, the ruling class became interested in church reform owing to the decline of papal authority and the growth of popular heretical movements, especially the Hussite movement in Bohemia in the early 15th century. The immediate cause of the conciliar movement was the Great Western Schism (1378–1417). The supporters of the conciliar movement insisted that ecumenical councils be held regularly, independently of the pope, and that they function as the highest church body. The French clergy was particularly active in the conciliar movement (seeGALLICANISM).

Convened in 1409 on the initiative of several cardinals and without the consent of the pope, the Council of Pisa was intended to limit the pope’s authority. The Catholic Church does not regard this council as legal. The principle of conciliar supremacy was proclaimed by the Council of Constance (1414–18) and by the Council of Basel (1431–49), during its first phase (through 1437). Pope Eugene IV pushed through a condemnation of the conciliar movement at the Council of Florence (1438–45), which was convened in opposition to the Council of Basel. In 1460, Pius II issued a papal bull forbidding any appeal to the authority of an ecumenical council.

B. IA. RAMM

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References in periodicals archive

She next presents a clear and concise summary of the condition of the papacy as a result of the nearly forty years of schism and the challenges it faced from the vigorous conciliarism that had arisen during that crisis.

Reviving the Eternal City: Rome and the Papal Court, 1420-1447

Oakley, following Sarpi, criticizes Bellarmino for misreading Gerson's eighth consideration, thus reinvigorating conciliarism.

Platonic words: Paolo Sarpi and Roberto Bellarmino as translators in the Venetian interdict crisis

Adrian Streete's "Conciliarism and Liberty in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII' investigates another neglected topic: "the political role of councils and counsellors" in the political thought and practice of both Henry's reign and the Jacobean moment of Shakespeare and Fletcher's play (84).

James D. Mardock and Kathryn R. McPherson, eds. Stages of engagement: Drama and religion in post-reformation England

Few historians have tried to transcend the struggles faced by Martin V and Eugenius IV to combat the occupation of Rome and conciliarism in order to situate papal achievements within contemporary expectations and values.

Reviving the Eternal City: Rome and the Papal Court, 1420-1447

The fifteenth-century papal apologist, Cardinal Juan de Torquemada, attacked both Marsilius and Ockham as the proponents of conciliarism. Thomas M.

Bollermann, Karen, Thomas M. Izbicki, and Cary J. Nederman, eds, Religion, Power, and Resistance from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Centuries: Playing the Heresy Card

Part 2, "Staging the Politics of Reform," includes: Adrian Streete, "Conciliarism and Liberty in Shakespeare and Fletcher's Henry VIII" (83-106); Elizabeth Pentland, "Martyrdom and Militancy in Marlowe's Massacre at Paris" (107-34); Brian J.

James D. Mardock and Kathryn R. McPherson, eds.: Stages of Engagement: Drama and Religion in Post-Reformation England

On conciliarism and the Anglican Church, see Paul Valliere, Conciliarism: A History of Decision-Making in the Church (Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2012), pp.

On moral teaching and the church: advances in ecumenical understanding

It demonstrates perils of conciliarism and papalism, of localism and universalism.

Why ecclesial structures at the regional level matter: communion as mutual inclusion

The principle of Conciliarism was known since the Council of Constance, the largest medieval gathering, where John Hus was burned and which finally ended the Great Schism.

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Foreign-mission sending agencies 200 600 CONCILIARISM: ONGOING COUNCILS OF CHURCHES 45.

Christianity 2014: independent Christianity and slum dwellers

After eighteen years, the Council declined to make a pronouncement on war against infidels (although the Battle of Lepanto was only eight years ahead) or reduce the authority of papacy (despite the "specter of conciliarism," which was still on the pope's mind).

Iberian globalization and the rise of catholic theology of religions in the XVI century