UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY
School of Humanities
History Department Seminar
30 May 2012
Daniel Leadbeater
(Canterbury/History)
‘Notorious Schismatics’:
Popes, Cardinals, Councils and Conciliarism – An examination of the papal-cardinal relationship 1409-1460
‘How little people care for honour when it conflicts with their own advantage.’ Though Pope
Pius II was commenting some time later, his observations are relevant to the position of
the Church prior to and during the Church Councils of the early fifteenth century. The
Great Schism (1378-1415) caused secular and ecclesiastical factions to develop within
Europe as the claimants to the papal throne courted various interest groups. Further fuelling these divisions, the developing intellectual movement referred to as Conciliarism
challenged the very foundations of both secular and ecclesiastical absolute monarchic
rule. Enabled by these factors, the College of Cardinals arguably utilised the condition of
the Church to forward its own agenda. This paper will discuss the political rise and fall of
the cardinals during the turbulent period of Church history from the Council of Pisa
(1409) until Pius II issued his famous bull, Execrabilis (1460). The paper will conclude – in
agreement with the sentiments expressed by Pope Pius – that the cardinals, despite being
the ‘Princes of the Church’, were generally ‘self interested politicians’, and that it is this
factor which dictated the relationship between Pope and College.
DANIEL LEADBEATER, is currently an MA candidate in History at Canterbury. Since
2006, Daniel has completed both his BA in History and a BCom in Management and Economics at Canterbury. After completing an Honours degree in History in 2010, he has
continued research that won him the Gerald Hunt Memorial Prize.
Wednesday 30 May 2012 at 1.00 p.m.
Room 311, History Building