1378–1417

Conciliarism: the authority of the council over the pope

During the Great Western Schism (1378–1417), when the West was divided between two and at times three popes, the conciliar movement gained strength: a council representing the whole Church should determine the lawful pope, heal the schism, reform the Church and put an end to heresy. González links conciliarism with nominalism: the reality of the Church lies not in an eternal idea or in the hierarchy but in the believers themselves as a corporate body. Ockham held that supreme authority belongs to the general assembly, including laypeople, that the pope has no temporal power, and that the emperor may depose him. Marsilius of Padua carried these ideas to the conclusion that the Church should have no jurisdiction over the state and that power in the state belongs to the people.