Conciliar Diplomacy at the Council of Constance (1414–1418)

Unity and Peacemaking in a World Historical Perspective

Series: 

Author:
Phillip Stump
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 non-violent resistance.
Copyright Year:
2024
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ISBN:
978-90-04-53842-9
Publication:
21 May 2024
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ISBN:
978-90-04-53841-2
Publication:
23 May 2024
Cover Conciliar Diplomacy at the Council of Constance (1414–1418)

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Phillip H. Stump, emeritus professor of history at Lynchburg College in Virginia, USA, has spent his academic career in research and writing focused on medieval reform movements and on the Council of Constance (1414–1418). He has especially endeavored to make the original sources on these topics more accessible to scholars and to make history more useful to students.
“Philip H. Stump’s latest book is a major contribution to conciliar movement studies, offering a new approach to the Council of Constance’s successful efforts in bringing the Great Western Schism to an end. [...] Stump’s book is richly researched, skilfully written, and interpretatively ambitious. The author demonstrates impressive mastery of multilingual primary sources as well as both recent and established historiography. [...] Students and scholars alike will find in Stump’s study a comprehensive guide and an essential reference for future research on the Council of Constance and ecclesiastical diplomacy in the late Middle Ages.”
Karol Skrzypczak, Université d’Orléans/École Pratique des Hautes Études - Paris Sciences & Lettres, Section des Sciences religieuses. In: Church History, Vol. 94, No. 2 (June 2025), pp. 394–396.

“Ohne Zweifel gehört Stumps Studie zu den wichtigsten Publikationen der neueren Forschung zum Konstanzer Konzil. [Without a doubt, Stump’s study is one of the most important contributions to recent scholarship on the Council of Constance].”
Ansgar Frenken, Ulm University. In: The Medieval Review, 25.03.02.

Preface

List of Tables

Introduction

1 From Pisa to Constance
 1 The Council of Pisa (1409)

 2 Between Pisa and Constance

 3 The Convocation of the Council of Constance

 4 The Council Begins

 5 The Pivot of Pierre d’Ailly

 6 Sigismund’s Arrival

 7 Expanded Participation and the New Emerging Consensus

 8 The Decision to Vote by Nations


2 The Pivot to Conciliar Governance
 1 John xxiii’s Flight and the Conciliar Response

 2 The Organization by Geographical Conciliar Nations

 3 The Synergy of Sigismund and the Conciliar Nations

 4 Conciliar Diplomacy at Work


3 Papal Abdications
 1 And Then There Were Two
 1.1 The Gregorian Obedience


 2 The Negotiations Leading to the Decree

 3 Session 14


4 The Perpignan Negotiations The High-Water Mark of Conciliar Diplomacy
 1 The Conciliar Envoys

 2 The Road to Perpignan

 3 The Perpignan Negotiations

 4 The Reports of Gélu and John of Wells

 5 The Implementation of the cn

 6 Excursus: The Development of the Iberian Kingdoms as Relevant to the Ending of the Schism


5 The Iberians and the Council in 1416
 1 Portugal’s Interaction with the Council

 2 Aragonese Interaction with the Council

 3 The Potuguese Protest

 4 Conciliar Diplomacy with Castile


6 Cherchez la femme
 1 Visionaries and Poets

 2 Women in the Synergistic Conciliar Diplomacy

 3 Women as Queens


7 Follow the Money
 1 Financing of Conciliar Participants and the Council Itself

 2 Taxation of the Cergy

 3 The Financial Embarrassment of Alfonso and Sigismund

 4 The Council’s Reforms of Clerical Taxation


8 Dénouement
 1 The Historiography of 1417

 2 The Continued Machinations of Benedict xiii

 3 The Council Summons Benedict to Appear for Trial

 4 Sigismund’s Return

 5 Discord at the Council

 6 Secrecy

 7 The Arrival of the Castilians

 8 The Cardinals

 9 The Debate Concerning the Election

 10 The Beginning of the Re-alignment

 11 The Pisan Cardinals Parry

 12 The Struggle over the Aragonese Additional Votes

 13 The Breach and the Reconciliation

 14 The Final Consensus

 15 Unity Regained


Credits

Epilogue The Rest of the Story

Conclusion “Just Us” and Justice

 Appendix 1 The Primary Sources

 Appendix 2 The Salamanca Manuscript

 Appendix 3 Matiá des Puig’s Account of the Events of August and September 1417

Bibliography

Index

Post-graduates, libraries, and practitioners of European history, world history, church history, conciliar history, cultural interactions, conflict resolution, social and economic history, diplomatic history, and historiography and historical criticism.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xviii, 294 pp.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004538429

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