The Conciliarist Tradition: Constitutionalism in the Catholic Church 1300-1870

by Francis Oakley

Overview

In the early fifteenth century, the general council assembled at Constance and, representing the universal Church, put an end to the scandalous schism which for almost forty years had divided the Latin Church between rival lines of claimants to the papal office. It did so by claiming and exercising an authority superior to that of the pope, an authority by virtue of which it could impose constitutional limits on the exercise of his prerogatives, stand in judgment over him, and if need be, depose him for wrongdoing. In so acting the council gave historic expression to a tradition of conciliarist constitutionalism which long competed for the allegiance of Catholics worldwide with the high papalist monarchical vision that was destined to triumph in 1870 at Vatican I and to become identified with Roman Catholic orthodoxy itself. This book sets out to reconstruct the half-millennial history of that vanquished rival tradition.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199541249
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Interim President of the American Council of Learned Societies and President Emeritus

Table of Contents

Prologue: Memory, Authority, and Oblivion1. Christendom's Crisis: The Great Schism, the Conciliar Movement, and the Era of Councils from Pisa to Trent2. Gerson's Hope: Fifteenth-Century Conciliarism and its Roots3. Cajetan's Conundrum: Alemain, Mair, the Divines of Paris, and their English Sympathizers4. Bellarmine's Nightmare: From James I, Sarpi, and Richer to Bossuet, Tournely, and the Gallican Orthodoxy5. De Maistre's Denial: Febronius, De Maistre, Maret, and the Triumph of Ultramontanism6. Democritus's Dreame: Conciliarism in the History of Political ThoughtEpilogue: Unfinished Business, Trailing EndsBibliographyIndex