Conciliar Diplomacy at the Council of Constance (1414–1418)

Unity and Peacemaking in a World Historical Perspective

Stump, Phillip (ed.)

This book re-tells the story of how the Council of Constance ended the greatest Schism in Western Christendom. Using a nuanced and critical analysis of the primary sources, it reframes this drama with the Council itself as the principal actor. The Council performed its own legitimacy and its unity through a process of consensual decision-making and by conducting its own, previously little noticed, diplomacy. It succeeded where previous attempts to end the Schism had failed through its collective non-violent resistance.