Nicholas of Cusa on Harmony, Concordance, Consensus and Acceptance as Categories of Reform in th Church, in De concordantia catholica

Abstract

This chapter sketches the historical situation in the Roman Catholic Church in the fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. This is done to understand Nicholas's efforts. The centralisation of power in church government, led to frequent appeals to the Roman see. This gave rise to many complaints, as the practice of 'ruling from above' became more firmly established. The author states that Nicholas' argument in De concordantia catholica , however, went far beyond the purely local sphere of for instance problems in Utrecht or Treves. Cusanus had explained how the militant church is bound together by the sacraments and the priesthood. And the priesthood bound to Christ by the sacraments, the people to the sacraments by the priesthood. The author opines that the time may have come to allow the ideas of Nicholas of Cusa to inspire our thinking about the practical reform of the Catholic Church today. Keywords: De Concordantia Catholica; Nicholas of Cusa; Reform in the Church; Roman Catholic Church; Roman see; Treves; Utrecht