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by Simon
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Conciliarism
The doctrine of Conciliarism and the role which this theory played in the Western Schism. The doctrine of Conciliarism
The pope
was the successor of only one of the apostles, Peter. The sitting council of
bishops was the successor of the entire council of apostles. Hence, the
sitting council of bishops is the supreme authority in the church, and thus
can exercise jurisdiction over the Pope. The role There were two popes at that time. It was important for the sitting council have the authority so that it could depose the popes and replace them. However, the popes claimed that they are the supreme authority because Christ gave the authority to Peter and Peter gave it to the popes. Then the council deposed both Gregory XII and Benedict XIII and elected Alexander V. Neither of the existing popes had accepted his deposition. Alexander had to establish himself in a different place. Thus in the end the situation was worse for there were three popes. The council was unable to assert its authority.
Bibliography Burns, Patout, Lectures of “The Formation of Christian Tradition” in Vanderbilt Divinity school, 2004 Fall.
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