chose the name World Council of Churches. Martin Luther,
JULIE FLETCHER
reformer and later cardinal. With other leading conciliarists, Nicholas held that the church is the community of the faithful; that the form of this community is synodal; and that it can exercise power through its represen- tatives in a council. In certain cases it can even depose a pope since he is a constitutional ruler with authority delegated to him by the community. Nicholas added to this his own
modern-sounding principle: if by nature all are free, rulers cannot be established except by the consent of the others. Ideas, however, came up against
reality. The Council of Basel (1431- 1449), the successor of Constance, had to deal with a restored and deter- mined papacy. When the pope sum- moned the council to Italy to discuss reunion with the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1437, the members could not agree. Nicholas and other promi- nent leaders abandoned the assem- bly. Eventually it closed and in 1460 Pope Pius II condemned as heretical further appeals to a council. Despite this apparent defeat, the
synodal ideal continued to flour- ish. To an extent unimaginable 50 years ago, scholars have revealed the long reach of conciliar theory into our Western constitutional heritage. Traveling through various channels, especially from Paris to Scotland,
conciliar notions of representation often went hand in hand with Prot- estant theories of resistance to unjust monarchs. Fortuitously, it arrived on Ameri-
can shores as the new republic was being formed. Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), who wrote the Dec- laration of Independence, admired French ideas of individual rights and the human compact, but John Witherspoon (1723-1794) and James Madison (1751-1836), both major contributors to the Constitution, read English and Scottish texts that bore the conciliar emphasis on resis- tance and representative assemblies.
Profound, lasting change Equally surprising, since it is largely unnoticed, is how the conciliar movement has impacted the church in profound and lasting ways. As the Reformation progressed a coop- erative conciliarism became the nor- mal Protestant principle of church government. Protestants drove the theory and practice of councils deep into local congregations and national bodies. This is clearly evident in the Reformed tradition where the very name “Presbyterian” indicates a communal form of government. And when a wide spectrum of denomi- nations wanted closer ecumenical ties during the 20th century, they
unlike the Pres- byterians, didn’t provide a spe- cific church pol- ity and refused to attend the Coun- cil of Trent in 1545 because he believed it would not be free. But he
declared in a treatise, On the Coun- cils and the Church (1539): “I am now and must be a good conciliarist.” Luther the conciliarist rejected
the notion that sacramental life flows down through a hierarchy and is vali- dated by communion with the pope. He based his understanding on the primacy of the gospel through which the Spirit “calls, gathers, and enlight- ens” the whole community of saints around word and sacraments. Coun- cils, like all offices and all authority in the church, are creatures of the word. The criteria for councils apply to all assemblies, great and small, includ- ing the mini-councils going on all the time in parishes and schools. Thus, when Lutherans continue
the synodal system as their form of governance, they are not merely bor- rowing from other denominations, nor copying civil legislatures, nor inventing institutions out of neces- sity alone. They are simply sustain- ing a shared tradition that goes back through the Reformation to the 15th- century conciliar movement—a movement that gave form and shape to precedents in ecumenical coun- cils, canon law and the image of the gathered body of Christ. So, as spring approaches, we can
paraphrase the advice of Luther to Philipp Melanchthon: “Go and synod boldly.”
January 2014 19
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