SOURCE: Biechler, James E. “Nicholas of Cusa and the End of the Conciliar Movement: A Humanist Crisis of Identity.” Church History 44, no. 1 (March 1975): 5-21.

In the following essay, Biechler discusses Cusanus's role in the conciliar movement and examines his treatise on the subject, De Concordantia Catholica. Biechler argues that personal concerns and the influence of Italian humanism, which tended toward the creation of a cultural elite, were key factors in his move away from more democratic ecclesiastical reforms.

The ignominious end of the conciliar movement in the mid-fifteenth century strikes many contemporary historians and theologians as one of the tragedies in the history of western civilization. Having shown great promise as an instrument of ecclesiastical reform and credited with ending the scandalous Great Western Schism in 1417, the movement for all practical purposes reached an inglorious end with the signing of the Concordat of Vienna in 1448. Though the tragic...