The Reforms Of The Council Of Constance 1414 1418

The first comprehensive study of the Constance reforms since 1867, this volume offers new explanations for the frequently alleged failures of the reforms, while arguing that the successes were much greater than historians have generally acknowledged. The author analyses the specific reforms in light of the conflicting interests of reformers; then he probes the conceptual basis of the reforms employing methodology developed by Gerhart Ladner. An appendix offers a new edition of the central source for the deliberations — the records of the Constance reform committee — using three newly identified manuscripts. The Constance reformers gathered a rich harvest of late medieval institutional reform thought and imagery. Under the central motto of "reform in head and members," they put long-standing conciliar theories into practice, forging a pragmatic synthesis of hierarchy and collegiality.

This book re-tells the story of how the Council of Constance ended the greatest Schism in Western Christendom. Using a nuanced and critical analysis of the primary sources, it reframes this drama with the Council itself as the principal actor. The Council performed its own legitimacy and its unity through a process of consensual decision-making and by conducting its own, previously little noticed, diplomacy. It succeeded where previous attempts to end the Schism had failed through its collective.