Original scientific paper
SEPTEM NOTABILIA DE AUCTORITATE PETRI WRITTEN BY IVAN STOJKOVIĆ, DOMINICAN FROM DUBROVNIK
Zvjezdan STRIKA
Abstract
During his entire life Dominican Ivan Stojković was preoccupied with theology, i.e. research of the Church. From the times of the councils in Pavia and Siena, and councils in Basel until his death in 1443, he intensively worked on this topic. The tractate Septem notabilia de auctoritate Petri, written after april 1433, represents one of his shorter manuscripts in which Stojković discussed some ecclesiastical aspects. However, most of these manuscripts never were published. The purpose of this study, i.e. Septem notabilia, was theological apology of Peter’s service and papal authority regarding contemporary ecclesiastical thought. This period often is seen as negative since during this fi rst half of the fi fteenth century promoters of Church councils advocated ecclesiastical reformation,
though this planned renovation was not against papal authority but against troubled position of Church in the Western Europe. Namely, a council that represents fragmented Church could not exist without legally elected Peter’s successor. Therefore, Stojković’s chief thesis regarding the »authority of Apostle Peter and his succesors« was that auctoritas and postestas were given to the Church, i.e. the authority was given to the assembly of the believers and this community can exercise this authority throughout general council. This thesis Stojković based on the Holy Scripture, maintaining that Jesus Christ did not entrust Church to only one person. Moreover, he tried to relate this aspect with the historical development of papal authority, mainly avoiding legal and juridical aspect of Peter’s service. Thus, Stojković did not try to explain whose authority is higher and more
justifi ed: papal or council’s. By the same token, he maintained that there existed only one authority, which could be divided and distributed among many. Therefore, according to Stojković, Apostle Peter, and his successors, gained the head and honorary position within the Church, though the community of believers did not lose its signifi cance; i.e. Jesus Christ entrusted faith and belief to Church in persona Petri. Namely, the authority was entrusted to Church and Peter was only the person responsible for implementation of this
authority. Therefore, pope is not and cannot be a sovereign of the Church, since there can be only one caput, and this is, though invisible, Jesus Christ, and thus pope can only be caput secundarium.
Keywords
Ivan Stojković; Apostle Peter; papal authority; authority of the general council; Council of Basel; late Middle Ages
Hrčak ID:
28014
URI
Publication date:
20.6.2008.
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