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Cardinal Cesarini and Cusa’s “Concordantia”

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 August 2022

Gerald Christianson
Gerald Christianson*
Affiliation:
Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
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Extract

Nicholas of Gusa’s Concordantia catholica, that “most mature and harmonious” of conciliar treatises whose 550th anniversary we celebrated in 1983-1984, bears a dual dedication: to the Emperor Sigismund and to Cardinal Giuliano Cesarini, papal legate and president of the Council of Basel from 1431 to 1438. These two figures represented church and empire and—no less significantly—were potential allies to Cusa’s client, Ulrich of Manderscheid, in the disputed election to the archbishopric of Trier.

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Research Article
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Church History , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , March 1985, pp. 7 - 19
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Copyright © American Society of Church History 1985

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References

1. Nicholas of Cusa, Opera Omnia, vol. 14, De Concordantia catholica, ed. Gerhard Kallen, Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, books 1 and 2 (Leipzig, 1939, 1941; new eds , Hamburg, 1964, 1965), book 3 (Hamburg, 1959) (hereafter cited as CC). The dedication is in the preface: nemo sic laudata recte spernerse posset . . (no one so praised can rightly be rejected).

2. Edmond Vansteenberghe, Le cardinal Nicholas de Cues (1401-1464): faction—la pen fee (Paris, 1920); Erich Meuthen, Das Trierer Schisma von 1430 auf dem Basler Konzil (Miinster, 1964), Nikolaus von Kues, 1410-1464: Skizze einer Biographie (Munster, 1964), and with Hermann Hallauer, Ada Cusana, vol. 1, pt. 1 (Hamburg, 1976).

3. Nicholas of Cusa, Opera Omnia, vol. 3, De coniecturis, ed. Josef Koch, Karl Bormann, and Hans Senger (Hamburg, 1972), p. 186, preface; Nicholas of Cusa, Opera Omnia, vol. 1, De docta ignorantia, ed. Ernst Hoffmann and Raymond Klibansky (Leipzig, 1932), preface. Both works are addressed to “his own venerable teacher.“

4. Frantisek Palacky et al., Monumenla conciliorum generalium seculi decimi qumti, 4 vols. (Vienna and Basel, 1857-1937), 2:612 (hereafter cited as MC). Cusa's speech summarizes a treatise which is similar to the Concordantia: Cusanus-Texte 2, Traktate 1, De auclontate presidendi in concilia generali, ed. Gerhard Kallen, Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften (Heidelberg, 1935-1936) (hereafter cited as AP).

5. Heinrich Fechner, Giuliano Cesarini (1398-1444) bis zu seiner Ankunfi in Basel am 9. September 1431 (Berlin, 1907), p. 77; see also pp. 100-101, 105-106.

6. Paul Breker, Giuliano Cesarini, (Kallmünz, 1937), pp. 25-27; see also pp. 9-10, 49-50, 176; and Noël Valois, Le pape et le concile (1418-1450): La crise religieuse du XVe siecle, 2 vols. (Paris 1909), 1:161-162, 196.

7. Brian Tierney, Foundations of the Conciliar Theory (Cambridge, 1955), The standard edition of the Decretum and the decretals is Emil Friedberg, ed., Corpus iuris canonici, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1879-1881) (the usual designations: Dist.: Distinctio; c: caput; C: causa; q.: quaestio).

8. Werner Krämer, Konsens und Rezeption: Verfassungspnnzipien der Kirche im Basler Konziliansmus (Miinster, 1980).

9. Erich Meuthen, “Kanonistik und Geschichtsverständnis. Uber ein neuentdecktes Werk des Nikolaus von Kues: De maioritate auctoritatis sacrorum conciliorum supra auctoritatem papae,” in Von Konstanz nach Trient: Festgabe für August Franzen, ed. Remigius Bäumer (Munich, 1972), pp. 147-170. The argument for the age of Rome is carried over into CC 1:16; 2:13, 17.

10. James Biechler, The Religious Language of Nicholas of Cusa (Missoula, Mont., 1975), pp. 9-10, and “Nicholas of Cusa and the End of the Conciliar Movement: A Humanist Crisis of Identity,” Church History 44 (1975): 9-10. Zabarella, however, left Padua before Cesarini arrived.

11. Jacob Marx, Verzeichnis der Handschriften-Sammlung des Hospitals zu Cues (Trier, 1905). A lecture from Cusa's Padua days, once attributed to Cesarini, is now assigned to Posdocimo dei Conti: Alois Krchňák, “Die kanonistischen Aufzeichnungen des Nikolaus von Kues in Cod. Cus. 220 als Mitschrift einer Verlesung seines Paduaner Lehrers Prosdecimus de Comitibus,” Mitteilungen und Forschungsbeiträge der Cusanus-Gesellschaft 2 (1962): 67-84; Acta Cusana, no. 15.

12. J. D. Mansi, Sacrorum conciliorum … coll., 58 vols. (Florence and Venice, 1758-1798), 29:279-281 (hereafter cited as Mansi).

13. MC 2.95-107, 107-108, 109-117, 203-209.

14. Paul Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa and Medieval Political Thought (Cambridge, Mass., 1963), p. 36, and “Cusanus’ Concordantia: A Re-Interpretation,” Political Studies 10 (1962): 182; Meuthen, Nikolaus von Kues, p. 39; and Acta Cusana, vol. 1, nos. 102-104.

15. MC 2.209. Among related canons are Dist. 17, c. 6; Dist. 21, cc. 2, 3; C. 17, q. 4, c. 30; and much of C. 9, q. 3, especially c. 13, Neque ab Augusto neque ab omni clero neque a regibus neque a populo iudex iudicatur … (A judge is judged neither by Augustus, nor by any cleric, nor by kings, nor by the people). On heretical popes in history: MC 2.204-205, 208; CC 1.14; 2.5

16. For literature on the development of this and subsequent canonistic concepts referred to in this article, see Tierney, Foundations, with bibliography up to 1955. For more recent studies see Jean Fleury, “Le conciliarisme des canonistes au Goncile de Bale d'apres le Panormitain,“ Melanges Roger Secretan (Montreaux, 1964), pp. 47-65; Yves Congar, L'eccle'siologie du haut moyen age (Paris, 1968); and Josef Wohlmuth, Verst'dndigung in der Kirche (Mainz, 1983).

17. The Tractatus de schismate actually formed a part of Zabarella's larger Commentary (Super quinque libris Decretalium commentana). The edition used for this article is Theodore Niem, Francis Zabarella, and John Marius, Tractatus utilissimi de schismalum in ecclesia romana (Strasbourg, 1629), pp. 552-553, 556-557.

18. MC.U08-209.

19. CC 1.15; 2.18, 20,34.

20. CC 2.6, 11; 2.7, 13, 14, 15,34.

21. Compare Zabarella, De schismate, pp. 556-557.

22. MC 2.208.

23. CC 1.17; 2.5, 7, 18.

24. MC 2.209; CC 1.6, 11; 2.7, 12, 13, 34, and especially 1.15: Est enim ipsa linea sive cathedra sancta indefectibiliter duratura … (For this line or holy see unfailingly has endured).

25. Compare Zabarella, De schismate, p. 561: in qua congregatione non oportebit solum schismate praesenli, sed eliam juiuris consulere, et ita delermtnare potestatem Papae, ut non subverlanlur inferiores potestates (in which church one ought not only consider the present schism, but also a future schism, and thus limit the authority of the pope in order that lesser authorities not be destroyed).

26. For example, MC 2.208; CC 1.6.

27. Mansi, 24: 279-280.

28. MC 2.101, 204: Non enim ecclesia esL hec congeries lapidum el murorum, non custodem vos fecit Chnstus caslrorum el menium, sed pastorem animarum (The church is not a heap of stones and walls; Christ did not make you the custodian of castles and manors, but the shepherd of souls); MC 2.207-208.

29. CC 1.6, 11, 14; 2.3, 18, 34; 3.34; compare Zabarella, De schismale, p. 560; CC 1.1, 2, 6, 8, 11, 12.

30. MC 2.101, 204; CC 1.16; 2.17, IK, 27; 1.23, 3.34; MC 2.97, 99, 104, 105, 110, csp. 106: video nun apertum hostium ad maximum scandalum, et confustonem in ecclesia Des Video van Deum vibrase gladum super nos … (I see the enemy revealed to great scandal and confusion in the church of God. I see him brandish his sword over us).

31. Mansi. 24: 279-280.

32. Paul Sigmund. “The Influence of Marsilius of Padua on XVth-Century Conciliarism,” Journal of the History of Ideas 23 (1962): 392, 402 and Nicholas of Cusa, p. 134, Morimichi Watanabe, The Political Ideas of Nicholas of Cusa with Special Reference to the Concordantra Catholica (Geneva, 1963), pp. 35, 36, 44, 97. Cusa reports that he read Marsilius only as he was completing book 2: CC 2.34. CC 2.11 12. 14, 32; 3.4; the maxim is quoted in the preface of book 3.

33. Mansi, 24: 279.

34. MC 2.109 110.

35. CC 1.20, 21; compare 3.15. See F. d'Agastino, “Nichola Cusana. il Concilio di Basilea e la dourhia dell’ epicheia,” Revista di Teologia Morale 9 (1977): 443-459.

36. MC 2.116-117; CC 2.19.

37. Mansi, 24: 279 280.

38. CC 2.10; CC. 2.19 Et putchra est hace speculatu, quamuda in populu omnes potestates tam spetuales in potentia latent … licet ad hoc ߪ accessario desaper concurrent hatheat radius formaturs, qur hane constituant in ever … (This is a beautiful thought, how all powers so spiritual lie hidden in the people in potentiality…. Necessarily, it happens at the same time that the formative ray from above establishes this potentiality in being.

39. See esp. CC 2.8, 10, 11, 18, 19, 22.

40. Dictum post Dist. 4, c. 3: Leges instituntur, cum promutgantur, firmantur, cum moribus utentium approbantur (Laws are established when published, maintained, and approved by customary usage)- CC 2.11, 12, 15, 34. Klaus Ganzer, “Päpstliche Gesetzgebungsgewalt und kirchlicher Konsens: Zur Verwendung eines Dictum Gratians in der Concordantia Catholica des Nikolaus von Kues,” in Von Konstanz nach Trient, pp. 171-188.

41. Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa, pp. 166-167, “Gusanus’ Concordantia,” pp. 187-188; CC 2.18; compare 2.3, 25, 34.

42. Mansi, 24: 279. Cesarini also invokes Dist. 18, c. 9, and the Gregoriana, 2.24, 44. Compare MC 2.206-207; CC 1.1; 3,14; compare AP 22; Mansi, 24: 281; CC 2.16; 3.17.

43. CC 2.10: Qui enim sibi dissentiunl, non agunt concilium; Mansi, 24: 281.

44. Zabarella, De schismate, p. 559: Ita quod ipsa potestas est in ipsa universitate tamquam in fundamento, et in Papa tanquum in principali ministro, per quem haec potastatas explicatet (Thus authority is in the community as in a foundation and in the pope as in a principle minister through whom this authority unfolds.) On Zabarella's teaching, especially concerning corporations, see Thomas Morrissey, “Franciscus de Zabarellis (1360-1417) and the Conciliarist Traditions” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1973); and Walter Ullmann, Origins of the Great Schism (London, 1948), pp. 191-231.

45. MC 2.475-496, esp. 477: This is an instructive curiosity of the conciliar epoch where battle lines frequently shifted—Zabarella's kinsman takes the papal side against a Zabarellan; Mansi, 29: 279-281.

46. CC 2.9, 10, 11, 12, 15, compare 1.6; 2.14; CC 2.18, compare MC 2.95, 97-98. CC 2 34.

47. Watanabe, Political Ideas, pp. 37-97; Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa, pp. 119-217, and “Gusanus’ Concordantia,” pp. 181-197; Meuthen, Nikolaus von Kues, pp. 39-47; Gerd Heinz-Mohr, Unitas Christiana: Siudien zur Gesellschafisidee des Nikolaus von Kues (Trier, 1958), pp. 140-145, 192-200; H. J. Sieben, “Der Konzilstraktat des Nikolaus von Kues: De Concordantia catholica,” Annuarium historiae conciliorum 14 (1982): 171-226; A. Vagedes, Das Konzil uber dem Papst?: Die Stellungnahmen des Nikolaus von Kues und des Panormitanus zum Slreit zwischen dem Konzil von Basel und Eugen IV, 2 vols. (Paderborn, 1981); and esp. Giuseppe Alberigo, Chiesa Conciliare (Brescia, 1981), pp. 293-340.

48. CC 1.2; 2.33; 3.12, 41.

49. CC 2.15, 34; AP 24.

50. On Cusa's move from Basel to Eugenius, it is agreed now that the loss of the Manderscheid case was not as decisive as Vansteenberghe, Le cardinal Nicholas de Cues, pp. 56-65, contends, but otherwise consensus is less uniform. For a summary of the key documents, see Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa, pp. 218-243; Watanabe. Political Ideas, pp. 97-114. For a review of the issues and bibliography, see Biechler, Religious Language, pp. 5-36, and “Nicholas of Cusa” pp. 5-21. Acta: Cusana, nos. 292-296. See also P.B.T. Bilaniuk, “Nicholas of Cusa and the Council of Florence,” in proceedings of the Patristic, Medieval and Renaissance Conference 2 (1977): 59-76.

51. Cesarini's valedictory is more revealing: MC 2.1113-39.

52. MC 2.976-982; Epistola auctoris. attached as an appendix De docta ignorantia. p. 163.

53. An excellent example of Cesarini's canonistic methodology and breadth of learning is his “Hussite letter,” esp. MC 2.113-115.

54. Both authors received many of their biblical sources through the Decrelum, but one imagines an independent interpretative tradition as well: Richard Luman, “A Conciliar Suggestion,“ in Essays in Divinity, ed. Jerald Brauer, 2 vols. (Chicago, 1968), 2:121-143. The same may be said for historical references, but we have clearer indications of their sources for these. Both rely heavily on pseudo-Isidore, especially for the early councils, and on Vincent of Beauvais

55. Biechler, “Nicholas of Cusa,” pp. 9-11, and Religious Language, pp. 9-11; Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa, pp. 110-113; Meuthen, Das Trierer Schisma, p. 91. Ganzer, Von Konslanz nach Trient, pp. 171-188, offers a concrete case: parallels to Cusa's interpretation of tacit consent are not found in most commentators, but they are found in Zabarella.

56. MC 2.688.

57. Tierney, Foundations, p. 225. Sigmund, Nicholas of Cusa, p. 123; Anthony Black, “Heimericus de Campo: The Council and History,” Annuarium historiae conciliorum 2 (1970): 78-86, and Council and Commune: The Conciliar Movement and the Fifteenth- Century Heritage (London, 1979), pp. 58-84, point to de Campo (van de Velde) with whom Nicholas studied at Cologne after 1425. Ganzer, Von Konstanz nach Trient, pp. 185-187, also detects the influence of John Gerson and William Durant (Durandus).