Conciliarity, Nationalism, and the Roman Social Imaginary: A History of Political and Ecclesiastical Ideas on the Separation and Integration of Powers

Abstract

This project investigates the impact the conciliar theory had on the separation and integration of powers in political and ecclesiastical thought. Taking a long period approach, the project draws parallels between the conciliar movement of the late medieval era and the modern period wherein the propositions of the conciliar theory have been influential. Because there is no dogmatic conciliar theory, there are three propositions which have remained salient over centuries outlined within. They are: 1) a paradigm of power-sharing; 2) a promotion of diversity-in-unity; and 3) an opposition to superordinate power. These propositions are found in the wide range of conciliar thought which has, at various times, been used to justify radically different ends. Beginning with the problem of the relationship between powers spiritual and temporal, it is shown that this dilemma was the crucible in which the conciliar theory was forged, developing the basis for its essential propositions. The principle of separated powers, championed by virtually all conciliarists, was a solution applied both to the sacramental order and institutionally. It was the first problem the conciliar theory attempted to solve, but not the last. The separation of powers was not merely a concept deployed to maintain distinction between spiritual and temporal powers. It was a way of securing independence from superordinate power, reorganizing the sacramental order. This was first applied to the papacy in the normative formula that a general council has authority over a pope. But it was quickly developed in such a way that conciliarists who argued for a general council’s superior authority would apply that logic to political regimes. It was in this development that the conciliar theory proves generative for nationalism, especially when the representative system classified by nation was applied at general councils in the fifteenth century. This framework for representation through consent in an ecumenical forum was a way at instituting a paradigm of power-sharing, promoting diversity-in-unity, and maintaining an opposition to superordinate power—first in a pope over a council, then in empires over nations, later in monarchs over subjects, and later still in the power of nation-states over the international community.