Carthusian Policy and the Council of Basel William Paul Lundell A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Centre for Medieval Studies University of Toronto 0 Copyright by William Paul Lundell, 1996 Acquisiiand Acquisiins et Bibiiographic Services services bibliographiques The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accorde une licence nm exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National hiracy of Canada to BibliothQue nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distriiute or sell reproduire, prh, distri'buer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette these sous paper or electronic formats. la folme de microfiche/fh, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format electronique. The author retains ownershrp of the L'auteur consewe la propriete du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protege cette these. thesis nor substantial errtracts fkom it Ni la these ni des extraits substafltiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Dissertation Abstract William Paul Lundell Doctor of Philosophy, 1996 Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto Carthusian Policy and the Council of Basel In its long struggle with Popes Eugenius IV (i1447) and Nicholas V (t1455) the Council of Base1 enjoyed widespread support among regular and mendicant clergy throughout northern Europe. Such support was particularly strong among Carthusians, a number of whom became forceful advocates of religious reform under the aegis of conciliar authority. This thesis examines the response of the order and of prominent Carthusians to this struggle and its consequences, a subject that has attracted little more that notice and brief comment in the literature of conciliarism and reform. Chapters 1-111 attempt to reconstruct the history of Carthusian relations with the council by utilizing both the published contemporary records of the council and the order and certain heretofore unpublished materials (Appendices A-C). Of central importance is the decision of the 1440 general chapter to offer obedience to the council and its newly-elected pope, Felix V, formerly Duke Amedeus of Savoy (t1450). Several commentators have sought to dismiss this adhesion on the grounds that the proximity of the Carthusian motherhouse to Savoyard territory made it a iii political necessity to support Felix. Such au invocation of the cuiw regio, eius religio principle is, however, unfounded. Rather the surviving documentary evidence clearly suggests that Carthusian recognition of the council and Felix V reflects the genuine inclinations of the order. Chapter N, supplemented by two appendices @ and E) offering texts of previously unpublished tracts, seeks to break ground for the study of Carthusian conciliar and reform opinion as expressed in the writings, many unedited, of such notables as Barthoheus van Maastricht, Denys van Rijkel, Jacob von laterbog, and Vincent von Aggsbach. These and others embraced the general council as a preeminent agent of reform, but within that broad agreement lie many peculiarities of thought that warrant further study. Acknowledgments I should like to thank the foIlowing institutions for supplying me with microfilms and photostats: the British Library, the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, the Histotisches Archiv der Stadt Kaln, and the Universit&sbibliothek Basel. Thanks also are due to the staff of the Interlibrary Loan Service of Robarts Library, University of Toronto, for kindIy, patiently, and persistently hunting down my many requests for materials. Contents Acknowledgments Abbreviations vii Introduction Chapter I: The Carthusians and the Council until Eugenius IV's Capitulation by Rudum sacram ( IS. December 1433) Chapter 11: Reform and Reunion Chapter 111: Schism and Carthusian Adhesion to Base1 Chapter IV: Council and Reform in Carthusian Writing, ca. 1440-ca. 1460 1. Denys van Rijkel 2. BarthoIomeus van Maastricht 187 3. Epistzila responsalir cuiusdam Cartzrsiensis ad Episcopum Bononiensem Cardinalem smtcte Crucis 21 1 4. Jacob von Jiiterbog 220 Conclusion Note on Appendices Appendices List of Works Cited vii Abbreviations Analecta Cartusitma. Salzburg: Institut fiir Englische Sprache und Literatur, or, Institut fir Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 1970-. Concilium Basiliense, Studien und Quellen ~rrrGeschichte des Concils von Basel, Herausgegeben mit Unterstiitzung der Historischen und Antquarischen Gesellschafl von Basel. 8v. 1 896-1 93 6; rpt, Nendeln, Lichtenstein: Kraus Reprint, 1971. Epis. PontLonc.Florent. Epistolae Pontzficiae ad Concilium Florentinum Spectantes. ed. Georg Hofinann, Pars I: 14 18-1438; Pars II: 143 8- 1439; Pars 111: 1440-1453. Rome: Pontificium Instituturn Orientalium Studiorum, 1940, 1944, 1946. Monuments conciliorum generalium seculi decirni quinti. Concilium Basiliense. Scriptores. ed. F. Palacky, et al. Vienna, Basel, 1857- 193 5. RTA Deutsche Reichstagsakten [Aeltere Reihe]. 1 898- 1 93 9; rpt. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1956-1957. Introduction In the later Middle Ages the issue of reform was closely Iinked to debates regarding church governance and the locus of supreme authority. From the time of Durandus the Younger (f 1330), whose call for reforrnutio in capite et membris, reformation in head and members, became a watchword of subsequent reforming interests, the conviction that a general council of the universal church promised the best forum for reform action slowly gained ground.[ Disparate notions of conciliar activity and competence were galvanized in the early decades of the fifteenth century by the need to heal the Great Schism and restore the church to order with the result that the fathers of the Council of Constance ( 14 14- 14 18) issued the famous decrees Haec Sancta (6 April 1415), proclaiming the church to be a constitutional entity administered by a pope subject to conciliar authority, and Frequens (9 October 1417), mandating the regular convening of councils as the surest means of rooting out abuse and maintaining the health of the church. Thus was forged the bond between the principle of conciliar supremacy and the desire for reform that helped to sustain the fathers of the Council of Basel (143 1-1449) in their long and ultimately unsuccessful struggle with Pope Eugenius N (f MU)his successor, Nicholas V (t 1455) for supreme jurisdictional and spiritual power within the church. That struggle plunged the church into a schism that lasted effectively from I437 until 1449. For much of that protracted conflict many secular and ecclesiastical 1~ikehis uncle Guillelmus Durandus the Elder, called the Speculator, Guillelmus Durandus the Younger was a distinguished canonist who served as Bishop of Mende (1296- 1330). Durandus the Younger made his demand for reform in head and members at the Council of Vieme (13 I I- 13 12). For an excellent recent study of his career and writings, see: Constantin Fasolt, Council and Hierarchy: the Political Thought of WiIIiam Durant the Younger [Cambridge Studies in Medieval Life and Thought, 4th series, v. 161 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991). authorities, most notably Charles VTI of France, the German Emperors Albrecht EI and his successor Friedrich III, and the Imperial Electors, observed a policy of carehl neutrality. Nevertheless the Roman popes drew support tiom the generality of Italian clergy as well as from Henry VI of England, from Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy, and from the Italian powers with, until 1443, the important exceptions of Duke Filippo Maria Visconti of Milan and of Alfonso V, King of Aragon and a claimant to the vacant throne of Naples. The council, for its part, was Iong upheld by a number of secular and ecclesiastical princes in the Empire; by poIitical and religious authorities in Brittany, Poland, Savoy, Scotland, and the Swiss Cantons; and by the universities at Cracow, Erfurt, Cologne, Paris, and Vienna. Moreover the council enjoyed widespread, though not universal, support among both regular and mendicant clergy throughout northern Europe. Such support was particularly strong among the Carthusians, a number of whom became forcefid advocates of religious reform under the aegis of conciliar authority. That support was given a unique and concrete demonstration. On I3 May 1440 a delegation of four Carthusian priors appeared before the fathers of the Council of Basel meeting in general congregation in the cathedral church of St. Michael. Having recently attended the annual general chapter of the order at the Grande-Chartreuse, located in the mountains north of Grenoble, these priors had been sent to Base1 in order to notify the council formally that the order had determined to adhere to it and its newly elected pope Felix V (t145 1). The fathers, locked in bitter struggle with Pope Eugenius N, whom they had deposed on 25 June 1439 on grounds of heresy and contumacious maladministration of office, gratefully received the order's obedience and marked the occasion by celebrating a special mass of thanksgiving on the following day. Ia the voluminous scholarship that has accumulated to the study of the Council of Basel there is to be found no systematic investigation of this event or of the larger question of Canhusian involvement with and attitudes towards the co~ncil.~ Several factors contribute to an explanation. First is the general scholarly inattention paid Carthusians. Although the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries