chapter 10 The Reforms of the Council*
Birgit Studt
10.1 Introduction
Reform was not a specific attribute or an exclusive concern of the so-called reform councils of the 15th century. The call for reform in the Late Middle Ages came from many sides. The expression ecclesia semper reformanda (the Church always must be reformed)1 in principle characterizes the entire history of the Church, even when at certain times there was more reformatory zeal than in others.2 The ecclesiastical constitution provided councils as regular organs of re- form, and since the first half of the 14th century, this task was more and more justified theoretically, often with the purpose of limiting the plenitudo potes- tatis (fullness of power) of the pope.3 Nevertheless, the pope could also make reforms by means of his jurisdictional authority, and this was expected of him. Traditionally, both of these reform institutions operated in tandem: the coun- cil formulated proposals for reforms, so-called “gravamina” (grievances), while the pope was expected to take care of their administration.4 Already in his letter of invitation to the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, Pope Innocent iii had called for thoroughly investigating necessary measures of correction and reform, and instructed that the written results be presented to
* This chapter was translated from German by Daniel O’Connell (initial translation) and Michiel Decaluwé. 1 This phrase originated with 17th-century Dutch Calvinism and was then also used at the time of the Second Vatican Council. 2 Christopher M. Bellitto, Renewing Christianity: A History of Church Reform from Day One to Vatican ii (New York, 2001); see also the overview of Johannes Helmrath, “Reform als The- ma der Konzilien des Spätmittelalters,” in Alberigo, Christian Unity, 75–152 at 76–9; Gerald Strauss, “Ideas of Reformatio and Renovatio from the Middle Ages to the Reformation,” in Handbook of European History 1400–1600, (eds.) Thomas A. Brady, Heiko A. Oberman and James D. Tracy, vol. 2 (Leiden, 1995), 1–30. 3 Hermann Josef Sieben, Die Konzilsidee des lateinischen Mittelalters, 847–1378 (Paderborn, 1984), 351–7; Helmrath, “Reform,” 80 ff. 4 Johannes Helmrath, “Theorie und Praxis der Kirchenreform im Spätmittelalter,” Rottenburger Jahrbuch für Kirchengeschichte 11 (1992), 41–70 at 43.
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5 Mansi 23, 961–2. 6 Et nos nicholominus variis modis et viis sollers studium et efficacem operam dare proponimus, ut omnia et alia in examen eiusdem correctionem et directionem recipiant opportunam; Jean Guiraud, (ed.), Les régistres de Grégoire x (1272–1276) (Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome) 2e série 12, 1 (Paris, 1892), 53–5 at 55. 7 Regarding the formula of reformatio in capite et in membris, which became a standard trope of the rhetoric of reform during the Schism, see Karl Augustin Frech, Reform an Haupt und Gliedern: Untersuchungen zur Entwicklung und Verwendung der Formulierung im Hoch—und Spätmittelalter (Frankfurt am Main, 1992); Christopher M. Bellitto, “The Reform Context of the Great Western Schism,” in Rollo-Koster, Izbicki, Great Western Schism, 303–31. 8 Jürgen Miethke, “Kirchenreform auf den Konzilien des 15. Jahrhunderts: Motive— Methoden—Wirkungen,” in Studien zum 15. Jahrhundert: Festschrift für Erich Meuthen, (eds.) Johannes Helmrath and Heribert Müller, 2 vols. (Munich, 1994), 1, 13–42 at 22. 9 cogd 2, 1, 608–9; cod (Tanner), 438–9; Quellen Kirchenreform, 1, 485–7.