The Consilia and Tractatus of Italian lawyers in the Great Schism years (1405-1409)

Abstract

In the last years of the Great Western Schism, famous italian lawyers such as Bartolomeo da Saliceto, Francesco Zabarella, Pietro d'Ancarano, Antonio da Budrio, Paolo da Castro, Matteo Mattesilani, Giovanni Canetoli, Raffaele Fulgosio, Lorenzo Ridolfi, Stefano Bonaccorsi and Giovanni da Imola wrote tractatus and consilia recommending the unity of the Roman Catholic Church. Most of them supported conciliarism restraining the tendency for papal 'fullness of power' to become an omnicompetent and universal sovereignty over local Churches and their bishops. Mere technical issues faced – or were interlaced with – subtle theological questions often announcing new ecclesiological perspectives that marked the debates of the following centuries