Why did successive Popes delay the calling of a General Council of the church until 1545?

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Why did successive Popes delay the calling of a General Council of the church until 1545?

  There were two views of who had supreme authority in the Catholic Church, one view was that it was the Pope and the other view was the General Council.  A general council is a meeting of leading churchmen from all parts of the catholic world to discuss church matters. The Popes claimed supreme authority because they believed it had been passed down to them from Jesus, then via the next Pope: Apostle Peter. In many European countries how ever it was believed that the General Council had supreme authority, this is support for conciliarism.

  Many Popes knew that the Church was corrupt and needed to change, however they had other priorities or were reluctant to call a General Council. One of the reasons for this is that Popes often became a pope not for legitimate reasons, their election process was corrupt. Therefore if a General Council was formed this would be uncovered and they would be replaced, in other words it threatened their job as Pope.      

  Another reason that Popes didn’t like to call General Councils is because it threatened the papacy and would cause it to reform. This would mean the financial and political powers of the papacy would be endanger. This would therefore lead to a decrease in the amount of money coming into the church, as many of the ways the church obtained money was corrupt, like indulgences. Also many of the people that were bishops, archbishops or primates had brought their way into the church or had been appointed because they were friends or family of the Pope. It would displease many Italian families if they could no longer be part of the church.

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  A further reason that the General Council never met was because of the Habsburg and Valois rivalry. This meant that popes could call the council so it did seem to everyone they were making an effort to sort the church out, but they actually had no intention of the council actually happening. For the council to sit Habsburg and Valois had to cooperate, as they had power over most of Europe, and the main problem was where it was to take place as it had to be on neutral land. If the council was held within the Holy Roman ...

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