Conciliarism Triumphant

[Chengar Qordath]

For people who need a refresher.

So, what happens if the Conciliarists manage to win their power struggle with the Papacy? Judging from the Council of Basel we could see church councils take the form of something resembling a Papal Parliament, which could have all kinds of interesting theological implications (Certainly the Reformation is either butterflied away or completely different from OTL).

 

[mrmandias]

It will have more than just theological implications. This is huge, one doesn't even know where to start.

 

[MNP]

Isn't this similar to what happened in the Byzantine Empire with ecumenical councils presided over by the emperor? You'll get churches that simply refuse to accept the verdicts of the counsel or fixed counsels to get the desired result of both churchmen and/or secular rulers. I am really interested in others views on this...

 

[Dathi THorfinnsson]

It will have more than just theological implications. This is huge, one doesn't even know where to start.

Indeed, huge.

Without a superpope, reconciliation with the Orthodox might happen (more easily, faster, at all).

The Protestant reformation would be very different, I suppose.

Things like the Spanish controlling the pope by having armies poised nearby (see Henry 8's annullment or lack thereof), might actually stay the same, as the Pope is still going to do the day-to-day, year-to-year running of the church.

Certainly Papal infallibility would go.

 

[Chengar Qordath]

You'll get churches that simply refuse to accept the verdicts of the counsel or fixed counsels to get the desired result of both churchmen and/or secular rulers. I am really interested in others views on this...

I could easily see disputes over the outcome of church councils being a starting point for schisms within the church, but it would take a fairly major issue that has a significant number of Church officials and secular rulers willing to cause a schism over it.

It is a fair bet that the politics of the Church Councils would be rather severely corrupt with all kinds of dirty deals and attempts to fix the outcome, but Church Councils would have to get very corrupt to be worse than the 15th century Papal Court.

 

[MNP]

I could easily see disputes over the outcome of church councils being a starting point for schisms within the church, but it would take a fairly major issue that has a significant number of Church officials and secular rulers willing to cause a schism over it.

It is a fair bet that the politics of the Church Councils would be rather severely corrupt with all kinds of dirty deals and attempts to fix the outcome, but Church Councils would have to get very corrupt to be worse than the 15th century Papal Court.

Oh, you mean Borgia. Well yes I suppose so. I still think it's probable that we'll see a lot of state controlled or at least, inter-twined churches. I wonder if this would actually promote more unity to keep a line of communication open between states at all times via the church. Meh, probably fantasy that last.