CHAPTER 1 - SYNODALITY IN SCRIPTURE, IN TRADITION AND IN HISTORY - 1.3 The development of synodal procedure in the Second Millennium

3434. At the end of the Middle Ages, a unique situation came about in the Western Schism (1378-1417), when there were simultaneously two, and later three, people claiming the title of Pope. The Council of Konstanz (1414-1418) solved this intricate question by applying emergency canon law foreseen in medieval canonical thinking, and went on to elect the legitimate Pope. In this situation, however, the conciliarist idea developed, whose aim was to impose a permanent council over and above the primatial authority of the Pope. The theological justification and practical application of conciliarism would be judged not to be in conformity with Tradition. It does, however, leave a lesson for Church history: there is always a danger of schism lying in wait, which cannot be shrugged off, and the continual reform of the Church in capite et membris cannot happen without making correct use of the synodal procedure that follows in the wake of Tradition and looks to the primatial authority of the Pope as its own guarantee.