This week in Christian history: Jerry Falwell Sr. resigns, Church council, Puritans

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor

Council of Constance begin meeting – November 5, 1414

This week marks the anniversary of when the Council of Constance, the sixteenth general council to be called by the Roman Catholic Church, began to meet in modern-day Germany.

At issue was an effort to resolve the Great Schism from the previous century, which by this point had resulted in there being three men each claiming to be the rightful pope.

By 1417, the Council decided to not recognize any of them, instead electing Oddone Colonna, who took the name of Martin V upon becoming pope, thus effectively ending the Great Schism.

The Council also condemned the writings of Jan Hus and John Wycliffe, two men considered the forerunners of the Protestant Reformation begun in 1517.