7 July
1438 A.D. Council of Basel:
Who’s Supreme?
The Council of Constance, by
making Martin V pope, ended the long-lasting Western papal schism. It claimed,
with considerable justification, that a church council has authority over the
pope. Martin, who attained his power through the action of the council,
promptly repudiated its authority over him. The Council of Constance had called
for further regular councils. Martin V went along with the idea and called a
council which was held in Pavia and, in 1431, another to be held at Basel. When
the Basel council met, it reaffirmed its authority over popes. Eugene IV
suspended the Basel council in 1438, Martin having passed on.
The idea of conciliar authority
over popes would not die a quiet death, however. European attempts to create
parliaments to limit kings had their parallels in the church. There was a move
to restrict the power of the popes by spreading some of it among cardinals and
bishops. In a movement which grew into Gallicanism, France took the lead in
limiting the Pope. Basel had issued 23 decrees. King Charles of France convened
a meeting at Bourges to discuss these decrees and to try to avoid reopening a
schism.
On this day, July 7, 1438 Charles VII and his advisors adopted many of the decrees of Basel. The
statement they promulgated became known as the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.
In addition to declaring that the pope was under conciliar authority, the
Pragmatic Sanction demanded a reduction in the use of excommunication and
interdiction, revised the celebration of the liturgy, called for further
councils to be held at regular intervals, and reduced papal income and power.
If the Pragmatic Sanction had stood, the French church would have become a
national church much as the Church of England later did. Many priests approved
the theory behind the Sanction.
Although superseded by the
Concordat of Bologna in 1516, the Sanction was accepted by the French church
for almost a century. Gallicanism, which sprang out of the Sanction was alive
and well three centuries later and fostered the anticlericalism of the French
Revolution. Many priests suffered in that turmoil, and the church was stripped
of its powers.
Within the church a bitter
struggle developed between those who would limit the pope and those who felt he
should remain an absolute monarch. Those who supported the pope became known as
Ultramontanists (meaning"beyond the mountains," and referring to the
pope's residence south of the Alps). The battle was waged until 1870, when the
first Vatican Council declared that the pope was infallible when speaking ex
cathedra (from the throne) on matters of faith and morals.
Bibliography:
1. Brusher, J. Popes Through the Ages. Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand,
1964.
2. Degert, A. "Gallicanism." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York:
Robert Appleton, 1914.
3. Eerdman's Handbook to the History of Christianity. Editor Tim Dowley. Berkhamsted, Herts, England:
Lion Publishing, 1977.
4. Montor, Chevalier Artaud de. Lives and Times of the Popes. New York:
Catholic Publication Society of America, 1911.
5. Oxford encyclopedia of the Reformation. Editor in chief Hans J. Hillerbrand. New York : Oxford University
Press, 1996.
6. "Pragmatic Sanction." Encyclopedia Britannica. Chicago:
Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1967.
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