Council of Constance

In 2010 I told you about Feierabend, a grouping of elderly people interested in computer activities that generally meets on the second Saturday of each month for a coffee morning. Some members are even more active in arranging excursions, bicycle tours, and museum or exhibition visits.

Last Friday, I joined eighteen members of Feierabend to go by bus from Freiburg to Constance. We were scheduled to visit the exhibition commemorating the Church Council of Constance that opened six hundred years ago on November 4 in the small city on the Lake* and closed four years later, ending the Western Schism.
*sometimes affectionately called the Swabian Sea

Since the authorization of scheduled long-distance bus services in Germany, many companies offer connections between cities, particularly those poorly served by train service. To travel by train from Freiburg to Munich will take - in going to Mannheim first and changing trains - 4 hours and 30 minutes for a minimum of 75 euros in second class. The long-distance bus (several companies are operating from Freiburg) will take you to Munich in 4 hours and 45 minutes for just 14 euros.

In Constance's case, bus transport is way ahead in all respects. It will take two and a half hours from Freiburg to Constance, with two train changes, and the fare is 47 euros. The direct bus with one stop at Singen covers the distance between the two cities in a mere one hour and 45 minutes and will cost between 8 and 11 euros.

In the present gold rush mood, there is fierce competition among bus companies serving Freiburg. Actually, experts are waiting for the first carrier to throw the towel due to the low fares.

The bus ride to Constance was on schedule and smooth. Our group arrived in a small but beautiful city compared to other German cities. It is nicely situated, as Dietrich von Nieheim, attending the Church Council, wrote in 1414.

Artist's impression: Constance 1414:  The warehouse at the bottom left was used for the conclave in 1417 when the cardinals elected Pope Martin V. The building now is wrongly called Konzilshaus and located one hundred meters inland. The negotiations took place in the Münster church (in the center), other churches, and the Dominican monastery (building on the island, right). 

The Council of Constance was a world conference. It is still a mystery how a city of 6000 inhabitants could house the 50,000 participants and furnish enough flaisch, visch, höw und haber (meat, fish, hay, and oats) to satisfy the needs of men and horses. And for further needs there were offene Frauen in den Frauenhäusern und sonst Frauen, die Häuser gemiethet hatten, und in den Ställen lagen oder sonst wo Platz fanden, seien gegen 700 da gewesen, ohne die heimlichen ("open" women in brothels and other women who had rented houses and lay in the stables or found space elsewhere, there were about 700 not counting the illegally present).

The Council under the spell of Imperia
(Statue at the entrance of Constance harbor)(©Fn78 Wikipedia)

The Council had to solve three enormous tasks. Get rid of three popes, thus regaining the unity of the Church (causa unionis), undertake necessary internal root-and-branch reforms (causa reformationis) urgently, and deal with fundamental questions of faith (causa fidei).

Three popes at a Constance fountain. Who carries the best-polished tiara?
(©Anmargi Feierabend)

The Council solved the first task of dethroning three popes and electing Martin V. as their one and only pope. Although the German King Sigismund was pressing the assembly for reforms, the causa reformationis was not even touched upon, which led Luther to break with the Church one hundred years later.

Burning Hus alive at the stake on July 6, 1415

Johann Hus, who had come from Prague to discuss the causa fidei, was not even listened to but burned alive at the stake as a heretic, a fact that caused political unrest in Bohemia and led to the Hussite Wars. You may like to read more about the Council of Constance in German or English.

As the outcome of the Council, the exhibition in Constance was unsatisfying. The first part was just a collection of 15th-century church treasures from across Europe, with explanations too small to read. The second part was better at guiding the visitor through the Council's timeline, with columns representing milestones that displayed dates and documents.

A Luther citation closes the exhibition: In Constance, they roasted a goose (Hus means goose in Czech), but one hundred years from now, they will listen to a swan singing, where Brother Martin clearly meant himself.

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