Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Councils · On the Authority of Councils, Book I
Chapter 8: A Council Neither Clearly Approved Nor Rejected
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Conciliis (De Conciliorum Auctoritate), On Councils, Book I (of the controversy On Councils and the Church). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
A general Council neither approved nor rejected seems to be that which in the year 1409 deposed Gregory XII and Benedict XIII and elected Alexander V. For Saint Antoninus, part 3, title 22, chapter 5, §§ 2 and 3 of the historical Summa, asserts that it was an illegitimate conventicle, not a true Council of the Church; and the outcome seems to have shown the same. For the Council was gathered to take away the schism, and yet it did not take it away, but increased it. But if it had without doubt been rejected, then also without doubt Alexander VI would have called himself not the sixth, but the fifth. Add that it is almost the common opinion that Alexander, and John who succeeded him, were true Pontiffs; and certainly of the three who then bore themselves as Pontiffs, these were most venerated as true Pontiffs. These things of the general Councils.
[Sources: the volumes of the Councils, and Gratian's decree, distinction 16, canon Sexta Synodus, and distinction 20, canon De libellis; likewise the Chronicle of Onuphrius, and the second book of the Chronography of Genebrardus.]
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT VIII. feste reprobato. Generale nec approbatum , nec reproba- batum, videtur esse Concilium , quod anno 1409, deposuit Gregorium XII , et Benedic¬ tum XIII et elegit Alexandrum V. Siquidem S. Antoninus 3. par. tit. XXII, c. 5, §. 2 et 3. summae historialis, asserit, conciliabulum illegitimum, non verum Ecclesiae Concilium fuisse , et eventus idem ostendisse videtur. Coactum enim Concilium fuit ad schisma tollendum, et tamen illud non sustulit , sed auxit. Si autem sine dubio fuisse reproba¬ tum, etiam sine dubio Alexander YI, se non sextum , sed quintum appellasset. Adde, quod est ferme communis opinio , Alexan¬ drum , et qui ei successit , Joannem fuisse veros Pontifices. At certe ex tribus, qui tum se pro Pontificibus gerebant, isti maxime ut veri Pontifices colebantur. Haec de generali¬ bus. Conciliorum, et Gratiani decretum dist. 16. canon, sexta Synodus, et dist. 20. canon, de libellis. Item Chronicon Onuphrii, et secun¬ dum librum Chronograpliiee Genebrardi.