The ecclesial value of the nations in the Council of Constance (1414-1418)

Abstract

The Council of Constance was the great western Schism’s final instance of solution. Usually studied because of questions related to conciliarism, the attention to its structure on the basis of the nations has been left in the background. Its voting procedure as well as its order escaped to the traditional council’s order in church history. This time was not voted per capita but per nationes. In addition, within each of these national groups, the right to vote was extended outside the circle of bishops to laymen and clergy of varying rank. In this article, after presenting the main features of this singular structuring and going through the estimation given in historiography to this characteristic note, an attempt is made to make an interpretation of the ecclesial value of the Conciliar nations of Constance in the light of the development of the theology.