Council of Pisa - Judgment of The Council of Pisa

Judgment of The Council of Pisa

The cardinals considered it their indisputable right to convene a general council to put an end to the schism. The principle behind this was "Salus populi suprema lex esto", i.e. that the safety of and unity of the Church superseded any legal considerations. The behaviour of the two pretenders seemed to justify the council. It was felt that the schism would not end while these two obstinate men were at the head of the opposing parties. There was no undisputed pope who could summon a general council, therefore the Holy See must be considered vacant. There was a mandate to elect an undisputed pope. Famous universities upheld the cardinals' conclusion. However, it was also argued that, if Gregory and Benedict were doubtful, so were the cardinals whom they had created. If the source of their authority was uncertain, so was their competence to convoke the universal Church and to elect a pope. How then could Alexander V, elected by them, have indisputable rights to the recognition of the whole of Christendom? It was also feared that some would make use of this temporary expedient to proclaim the general superiority of the sacred college and of the council to the pope, and to legalize appeals to a future council, which had already commenced under King Philip IV of France. The position of the Church became even more precarious; instead of two heads there were three wandering popes, persecuted and exiled from their capitals. Yet, because Alexander was not elected in opposition to a generally recognized pontiff, nor by schismatic methods, his position was better than that of Clement VII and Benedict XIII, the popes of Avignon. In fact the Pisan pope was acknowledged by the majority of the Church, i.e. by France, England, Portugal, Bohemia, Prussia, a few countries of Germany, Italy, and the County of Venaissin, while Naples, Poland, Bavaria, and part of Germany continued to obey Gregory, and Spain and Scotland remained subject to Benedict.

The Council of Pisa was widely condemned. A violent partisan of Benedict's, Boniface Ferrer, called it "a conventicle of demons". Theodore Urie, a supporter of Gregory, doubted the motives for the gathering at Pisa. St. Antoninus, Thomas Cajetan, Juan de Torquemada, and Odericus Raynaldus all cast doubt on its authority. On the other hand, the Gallican school either approves of it or pleads extenuating circumstances. Noël Alexandre asserts that the council destroyed the schism as far as it could. Bossuet says: "If the schism that devastated the Church of God was not exterminated at Pisa, at any rate it received there a mortal blow and the Council of Constance consummated it." Protestants applaud the council unreservedly, seeing in it "the first step to the deliverance of the world", and greet it as the dawn of the Reformation (Gregorovius). Robert Bellarmine said that the assembly was a general council which was neither approved nor disapproved. It is the original source of all the ecclesiastico-historical events that took place from 1409 to 1414, and opened the way for the Council of Constance.