A Source Book of Mediæval History / Documents Illustrative of European Life and Institutions from the German Invasions to the Renaissance

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(b)

This holy and general council, representing the universal Church, decrees and declares that the united college of cardinals was empowered to call the council, and that the power to call Declarations of the Council of Pisa (1409) such a council belongs of right to the aforesaid holy college of cardinals, especially now when there is a detestable schism. The council further declares that this holy council, representing the universal Church, caused both claimants of the papal throne to be cited in the gates and doors of the churches of Pisa to come and hear the final decision [in the matter of the Schism] pronounced, or to give a good and sufficient reason why such sentence should not be rendered.

(c)

This holy synod of Constance, being a general council, and legally assembled in the Holy Spirit for the praise of God and for ending the present schism, and for the union and reformation of the Church of God in its head and in its members, in order more easily, more securely, more completely, and more fully to bring about the union and reformation of the Church of God, The Council of Constance asserts its superiority to even the papacy ordains, declares, and decrees as follows: First it declares that this synod, legally assembled, is a general council, and represents the Catholic church militant and has its authority directly from Christ; and everybody, of whatever rank or dignity, including also the pope, is bound to obey this council in those things which pertain to the faith, to the ending of this schism, and to a general reformation of the Church in its head and members. Likewise it declares that if any one, of whatever rank, condition, or dignity, including also the pope, shall refuse to obey the commands, statutes, ordinances, or orders of this holy council, or of any other holy council properly assembled, in regard to the ending of the Schism and to the reformation of the Church, he shall be subject to the proper punishment, and, unless he repents, he shall be duly punished, and, if necessary, recourse shall be had to other aids of justice.

69. The Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438)

The Council of Basel, convened in 1431, had for its object a thoroughgoing reformation of the Church, "in its head and its members," from papacy to parish priest. Like all of the councils of the period, its spirit was distinctly anti-papal and for this reason Pope Eugene IV. sought to bring it under his control by transferring it to Bologna and, failing in this, to turn its deliberations into channels other than criticism of the papacy. While the negotiations of Eugene and the council were in progress a step fraught with great significance was taken in France in the promulgation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges.[538] France was the only country in which the principles laid down by the councils—Pisa, Constance, Basel, and the rest—had taken firm hold. In 1438 Charles VII. convened at Bourges an assembly composed of leading prelates, councillors, and princes of the royal blood, to which the Pope and the Council of Basel both sent delegates. This assembly proceeded to adapt the decrees of the council to the conditions and needs of France, on the evident assumption that the will of the French magnates in such matters was superior to that of both pope and council, so far as France was concerned. The action at Bourges well illustrates the growing spirit of French nationality which had sprung up since the recent achievements of Joan of Arc.

The Pragmatic Sanction dealt in the main with four subjects—the authority of church councils, the diminishing of papal patronage, the restriction of papal taxation, and the limitation of appeals to Rome. Together these matters are commonly spoken of as the "Gallican liberties," i.e., the liberties of the Gallic or French church, and they implied the right of the national church to administer its own affairs with only the slightest interference from the pope or other outside powers; in other words, they were essentially anti-papal. Louis XI., the successor of Charles VII., for diplomatic reasons, sought to revoke the Pragmatic Sanction, but the Parlement of Paris refused to register the ordinance and for all practical purposes the Pragmatic was maintained until 1516. In that year Francis I. established the relations of the papacy and the French clergy on the basis of a new "concordat," which, however, was not very unlike the Pragmatic. The Pragmatic is of interest to the student of French history mainly because of the degree in which it enhanced the power of the crown, particularly in respect to the ecclesiastical affairs of the realm, and because of the testimony it bears to the declining influence of the papacy in the stronger nations like France and England. The text printed below represents only an abstract of the document, which in all included thirty-three chapters.

Source.—Text in Vilevault et Bréquigny, Ordonnances des Rois de France de la Troisième Race (Paris, 1772), Vol. XIII., pp. 267-291.

The king declares that, according to the oath taken at their coronation, kings are bound to defend and protect the holy Charles VII. recognizes the obligations of the king to the Church Church, its ministers and its sacred offices, and zealously to guard in their kingdoms the decrees of the holy fathers. The general council assembled at Basel to continue the work begun by the councils of Constance and Siena,[539] and to labor for the reform of the Church, in both its head and members, having had presented to it numerous decrees and regulations, with the request that it accept them and cause them to be observed in the kingdom, the king has convened an assembly composed of prelates and other ecclesiastics representing the clergy of France and of the Dauphiné.[540] He has presided in person over its deliberations, surrounded by his son, the princes of the blood, and the principal lords of the realm. He has listened to the ambassadors of the Pope and the council. From the examination of prelates and Abuses prevalent in the French church the most renowned doctors, and from the thoroughgoing discussions of the assembly, it appears that, from the falling into decay of the early discipline, the churches of the kingdom have been made to suffer from all sorts of insatiable greed; that the réserve and the grâce expectative[541] have given rise to grievous abuses and unbearable burdens; that the most notable and best endowed benefices have fallen into the hands of unknown men, who do not conform at all to the requirement of residence and who do not understand the speech of the people committed to their care, and consequently are neglectful of the needs of their souls, like mercenaries who dream of nothing whatever but temporal gain; that thus the worship of Christ is declining, piety is enfeebled, the laws of the Church are violated, and buildings for religious uses are falling in ruin. The clergy abandon their theological studies, because there is no hope of advancement. Conflicts without number rage over the possession of benefices, plurality of which is coveted by an execrable ambition. Simony is everywhere glaring; the prelates and other collators[542] are pillaged of their rights and their ministry; the rights of patrons are impaired; and the wealth of the kingdom goes into the hands of foreigners, to the detriment of the clergy.