THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
magne made these assemblies practically councils of the entire West (Regensburg 792, Frankfort 7<i4). AVhile adhering in essentials to tlio catholic doctrine and institutions, they allowed thenisehcs a fairly wide latitude in their legislation. The new diocesan system developed synods also for each separate diocese, somewhat on the lines of the primitive presbyterium, presided over by the bishop and including the parish priests, abbots, and deans of the diocese. The earliest of these were the two at Auxerre, between 573 and 603 and 695, and that of Autun, between 663 and 680. The attempt was made to establish the custom of meeting annually, but apparently without much success.
The popes did not overlook the weight which synodal decisions carried; and thus, although Italy was never a scene of much conciliar activity, more assemblies of this kind were held in Rome under papal presidency than in any other city of Christendom. The position of the popes 5. Papal brought about the participation in Councils them of distant churches. Julius I. of the summoned one for the year 341, to Middle which he bade the Eastern antago- Ages. nists of Athanasius. They refused to appear; but more than fifty bishops attended, including some from Thrace, Ccele-syria, Phenicia, and Palestine. Gallic bishops sat with those of Italy in the synod called by Damasus in 369, and similar gatherings continued to be held. They were called by the popes not as patriarchs of the ^^'est, but as successors of St. Peter; and the papal sanction gave them high authority. The importance of the synods held by the Carolingian emperors north of the Alps somewhat diminished the preeminent authority of these Roman councils; but a change came with the pontificate of Leo IX. (1048-54), who was the first pope to raise the papal dignity once more after its prolonged humiliation. He made much use of synods, and, not content with holding them in Rome and other parts of Italy, presided in person at the imperial synods held in Germany and France. From the middle of the eleventh century the papal synods constantly increased in importance and consideration (Lateran synod of 1059 under Nicholas II.; 1063 under Alexander II.; 1074, 1075, 1076, 1078, 1079, 1080, 1083 imder Gregory VII.; 1095 at Piacenzaand Clermont under Urban II.; 1119 at Reims under Calixtus II.). The last of these popes summoned the Lateran council of 1123 under the name of a general council; but the placing of it on a level with the old ecumenical ones came later and gradually; that of Constance reckoned in this category only three modern councils — Lateran 1215, Lyons 1274, and Menne 1311. Roman Catholic theologians now add to these three more Lateran synods (1123, 1139, 1179) and the first of Lyons, 1245. These had, it is true, an authority in the medieval Church answering to that of the old ecumenical councils under the Rouuui Empire; but they were confined to the papal otxidiencc', called and presided over by the pope, and dependent on his sanction for the validity of their decrees, so that they were merely organs for his government of the Western Church.
The b<4iefs as to the pope's position current in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries were shaken by the Great Seliisni, which forced
6. The Re- men to seek an authority powerful forming enough to restore unity even in spite Councils of conflicting claimants of the papacy.
of the Fif- This they thought they had found in teenth the general council, on lines foreshad- Century. owed even in the fourteenth century by Marsilius of Padua and \\^illiam of Occam. At the very outset of the Schism, after the election of Clement VII., the appeal to a universal council was heard (see Clement VII.; Urban VI.). Presently it was taken up by such influential theologians as Pierre d'Ailly and Gerson, and became prevalent. The attempt to end the Schism by the Council of Pisa (q.v.) was indeed a failure, but this did not affect the belief in the efficacy of this method. The Council of Constance (q.v.) boldly attempted to alter the constitution of the Western Church by the introduction of general councils as a regular factor in its government, to recur at intervals of five, seven, and ultimately ten years. But the execution of this plan, though approved by the Council of Basel (q.v.), was rendered impossible by the natural opposition of the Curia. When Eugenius IV. transferred the Council of Basel to Ferrara (see Ferrar.\-Florence, Council of), he took his stand on the principles accepted before Constance, and logically declared null and void, with the assent of his council, the decrees of Basel as to the superiority of the council over the pope. In the Lateran Council of 1512- 1517 Leo X. struck a mortal blow at the idea in the bull Pastor aternus.
After this the Curia had an unconcealed distrust of general councils, and it was only the pressure of political powers which led to the reorganization of Catholicism after the storms of the
7. Councils Reformation by that of Trent (see and Synods : Trent, Council op). It was only when
Modern the last trace of opposition to unlimited Roman papal power disappeared in the nine- Catholic teenth century that this distrust was System, finally lulled, so that Pius IX. could give the world the long unseen spectacle of a general council in 1870 (see Vatican Council). The principles now accepted are that these assemblies may only be called by the pope and presided over by him or his delegates; that their membership is confinetl to the cardinals, bishops, vicars apostolic, generals of religious orders, and such dignitaries, to the exclusion of the laity; that the subjects discussed must be laid before them by the pope, and their decisions confirmed by him. They are thus nothing more than assemblies of advisers about the pope, with no independent power of their own. Nor have provincial synods any longer a necessary place in the polity of the Roman Catholic Church. The Council of Trent ordained, indeed, that they should be held every three years — a period which it was proposed at the Vatican Council to extend to five — but the rule is not observed in practise. Much the same may be said of the diocesan synods, which the Council of Trent required to be held annually.