Conciliarism

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In the history of Christianity, the Conciliar movement or "Conciliarism" was a reform movement in the 14th and 15th century Roman Catholic Church which held that final authority in spiritual matters resided with the Church as corporation of Christians, embodied by a general church council, not with the pope. The movement emerged in response to the Avignon papacy— the popes removed from Rome and subject to pressures from the kings of France— and the ensuing schism that inspired the summoning of the Council of Pisa (1409), the Council of Constance (1414-1418) and the Council of Basel (1431-1449). The eventual victor in the conflict was the institution of the Papacy, confirmed by the condemnation of conciliarism at the Fifth Lateran Council, 1512-17. The final gesture however, the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, was not promulgated until the First Vatican Council of 1870.

Although Conciliarist strains of thought remain within the Church, particularly the American Church, Rome and the teaching of the Church maintains that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ on earth, and has the authority to issue infallible statements. This Papal Infallibility has only been invoked a few times.The teaching of the Second Vatican Council on the College of Bishops contained within the decree Lumen Gentium has sometimes been interpreted as conciliarism, or a least conducive to it, by liberal and conservative Catholics alike. However, the text of the document as well as an explanatory note (Nota Praevia) by Paul VI makes the distinction clear. There are Christians, especially of the Anglo-Catholic and Eastern Orthodox communions, who maintain the absolute supremacy of an ecumenical council. See conciliarity. However, this belief, from the Orthodox view, has no historical connection with the above events in the history of the Western Church.