The
Council of Constance is the 16th
ecumenical council recognized by the
Roman Catholic Church, held from 1412 to 1418. The council ended the
Western Schism, by deposing the remaining Papal claimants and electing
Pope Martin V.
The Council also condemned and executed Jan Hus and ruled on issues of national sovereignty, the rights of pagans, and just war in response to a conflict between the Kingdom of Poland and the Order of the Teutonic Knights. The Council is important for its relationship to the development of the Councilarism and Papal supremacy.
The council was called by the German King Sigismund (later Holy Roman Emperor), a supporter of Antipope John XXIII, the pope recently elected at Pisa. The council was held from November 16, 1414 to April 22, 1418 in Constance (currently known as Konstanz). Its main purpose was to end the Papal schism which had resulted from the Avignon Papacy. The Council of Constance marked the high point of the Conciliar movement to reform the Church. According to Joseph McCabe, the council was attended by roughly 29 cardinals, 100 "learned doctors of law and divinity," 134 abbots, 183 bishops and archbishops.
At the time the council was called, there were three Popes, all of whom claimed legitimacy. A few years earlier, in one of the first blows to the Conciliar movement, the bishops at the Council of Pisa had deposed both of the two claimant popes and elected a third pope, claiming that in such a situation, a council of bishops had greater authority than just one bishop, even if he were the bishop of Rome.
