In a chapter entitled “Councils that were partially confirmed and partially condemned,” Robert Bellarmine wrote the following about Constance:
The fifth Council of
the Council of Constance. Nearly a thousand Fathers were present from which
over 300 were Bishops. It was begun in the year 1414 under [anti-pope] John 23,
and in the year 1418 it was ended by Pope Martin V and Sigismund the Emperor
(Platina, Palmerius). This Council was condemned in regard to its first
sessions, where it defined a Council was above a Pope both by the Council of Florence
and the last Lateran Council, while in regard to its last sessions all of which
were approved by Martin V, it is received by all Catholics. (Robert Bellarmine,
De Controversiis: Tomus II On the Church, Volume 1: On Councils, on the Church
Militant, On the Marks of the Church [trans. Ryan Grant; Post Falls, Idaho:
Mediatrix Press, 2017], Book 1 Chapter VI, p. 37)
For more, see:
Roberto de Mattei (Catholic), Haec Sancta (1415): A conciliar document condemned by the Church
"Orthodoxidation" (Eastern Orthodox), Haec Sancta: The Forgotten Hypocrisy
