reason the Formula never possessed the authority of the
Confession of AUGSBURG.
condottieri Mercenaries employed by Italian states under
the system of condotte (“contracts”). Initially they were
mainly foreigners, but condottieri of Italian origin grew in
number as men like Niccolò PICCININO, Francesco Sforza
(see SFORZA FAMILY), and Bartolommeo COLLEONIrealized
the financial and social opportunities afforded by merce-
nary activity. Facino CANE in Milan during the rule
(1402–12) of the weak Giovanni Maria Visconti is a prime
example of the over-powerful condottiere. Condottieri
came from all classes. They were regarded, in MACHI-
AVELLI’s venomous criticism of the system, as treacherous
and dedicated to the perpetuation of strife. They studied
war as an art, relying mainly on cavalry armed with lances,
and their heyday passed with the development of infantry
and artillery in warfare.
confession The Christian Church has always insisted
that sins must be both acknowledged and denounced by
the sinner who seeks reconciliation with God. By the early
Renaissance period, it was standard practice to confess
sins in private to a priest. The priest, having been given
powers of distributing forgiveness (absolution) at ordina-
tion, stipulated a penalty (penance) for the sinner, and
formally announced that the sinner’s transgressions had
been forgiven. Absolved sinners were properly and
demonstrably to quash their ungodly habits (repentance).
Protestant reformers did not credit the ritual of con-
fession with sacramental power and criticized it as a
sideshow that distracted believers from communicating
directly with an always accessible God. LUTHER com-
plained that the process increased communities’ awe for
and reliance on a priesthood that was arrogantly usurping
a forgiving role that only Christ could rightly exercise.
The Protestants ultimately rejected formal private confes-
sion, believing that public, collective liturgies at religious
ceremonies were adequate to demonstrate believers’
shame at their sins.
conquistadores (Spanish, “conquerors”) Spanish soldiers
of fortune who overthrew the native American Indian civ-
ilizations of Central and South America in the 16th cen-
tury and claimed their lands for Spain. Their exploits are
recounted in the Spanish NEW WORLD CHRONICLES. Pre-
eminent among them were Hernán CORTÉS, who con-
quered Mexico, and Francisco PIZARRO, conqueror of
Peru.
Consensus Tigurinus See ZÜRICH AGREEMENT
Constance, Council of (1414–17) The Church council
convoked at Constance in southern Germany by Pope
John XXIII, at the insistence of Emperor Sigismund. It is
an important landmark in the history of the movement for
conciliar government of the Church, and in 1415 it de-
clared itself a “general council,” that is the supreme au-
thority within Christendom, over and above that of popes.
When the council convened in 1414 there were three car-
dinally elected popes, one in Rome, one at Avignon, and
one at Pisa. The council was successful in ending this state
of affairs, the GREAT SCHISM(see AVIGNON, PAPACY AT), by
deposing two of the contending popes and ensuring the
abdication of the third. In their place the council pro-
moted Oddone Colonna as Martin V (pope 1417–31).
In accordance with the wishes of Sigismund, the
council took action against the potentially heretical and
revolutionary Bohemian HUSSITES. Employing its new-
found authority the council condemned and executed the
movement’s leaders, Jan HUSSand Jerome of Prague. When
the council dissolved itself (1417) it left as its legacy leg-
islation that made possible the claims of supremacy made
by Church councils during the next 50 years. Although
power was restored in full to the papacy by the end of the
century, the Council of Constance had demonstrated
papal fallibility, and support for representative conciliar
government remained.Constantinople (formerly Byzantium, now Istanbul)
The city on the European shores of the Bosphorus straits,
now in Turkey. Its commanding position at the entrance to
the Black Sea ensured its commercial and strategic signif-
icance ever since its foundation as the Greek colony of
Byzantium in 667 BCE. It was refounded by Constantine
the Great in 330 ADas Constantinopolis, the New Rome in
the East. When the Roman empire split in 395 CE, Con-
stantinople became the capital of the eastern part. Theo-
logical differences and rivalry between the patriarchate in
Constantinople and the papacy in Rome led to schism in- In 1204 forces of the Fourth Crusade, under Venet-
ian leadership, sacked Constantinople. Attempts were
made to heal the breach at the councils of Lyons (1276)
and Florence (1439), but Western Christendom lacked
the will to come to the aid of the Byzantine emperor in the
face of the growing threat from the OTTOMAN TURKS. In
1453 Constantinople fell to the forces of Sultan Mehmet II
(“the Conqueror”).
Diplomatic contacts between Constantinople and the
West in the 14th and early 15th centuries first alerted
Western scholars to the treasures of classical Greek litera-
ture that had been preserved by Byzantine copyists; en-
voys from the East tarried in Italy to teach Greek to local
scholars and these scholars sometimes visited Constan-
tinople and returned home laden with Greek manuscripts
(see AURISPA, GIOVANNI; FILELFO, FRANCESCO). As the Turks
advanced, learned refugees from former Byzantine lands
fled westwards, bringing with them their knowledge of
Greek.
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