Ecumenical Council of Prague (Merveilles du Monde Map Game)

The Ecumenical Council of Prague  was the sixteenth ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. It was convoked by Pope Benedict XI in 1412 to discuss Jan Hus' teaching and the growing Hussite influence in Bohemia.

Session of 1412
Pope Benedict XI and the Roman delegation: After studying the teachings of Jan Hus about the Crusades, Purgatory and Hierarchy of the Church, we come to the following conclusions based in the teachings of the Church: are too pure, to behold evil " ( Habakkuk 1:13 ).  All sins are not equal before God, nor dare anyone assert that the daily faults of human frailty will be punished with the same severity that is given to those who violate God's law. For unrepented venial faults for the payment of temporal punishment due to sin at time of death, the soul will stay at the Purgatory being purified.  However, the Purgatory is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. The time that a soul stays at the Purgatory is known only by God. To this, Saint Gregory Magnum said: “As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.” This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore Judas Maccabeus made atonement for the dead that they might be delivered from their sin." (2 Macc 12:46.) From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead. However, the Holy Father understands that there is a growing abuse of the use of the indulgences. Pope Saint Gregory XI tried to limit its use by decreeing that indulgences could only be used during jubilees and times of calamity, but some members of the clergy continued to use it outside of these occasions. To stop it the Pope Benedict XI decides that for now own agents of the Ecclesial Tribunal will be spread across Europe, observing any member of clergy that icentives the abuse of indulgences or that preach something different from the teachings of the Church about the use of indulgences. These priests will be investigated, captured, judged, excommunicated and sentenced to prison for life. Any corrupt member of the clergy will pay for his crimes against the Christians and the Church proper to each one. In virtue of their rebirth in Christ there exists among all the Christian faithful a true equality with regard to dignity and the activity whereby all cooperate in the building up of the Body of Christ in accord with each one's own condition and function. The very differences which the Lord has willed to put between the members of his body serve its unity and mission. For in the Church there is diversity of ministry but unity of mission. To the apostles and their successors Christ has entrusted the office of teaching, sanctifying and governing in his name and by his power. But the laity are made to share in the priestly, prophetical, and kingly office of Christ; they have therefore, in the Church and in the world, their own assignment in the mission of the whole People of God. This way, we can surely say that Christ did not give to all the faithful power to administer His sacraments, except in the case of baptism and matrimony, or to offer public worship. This was reserved to those who, having received the sacrament of order, belong to the hierarchy of order. He entrusted the guidance of the faithful along the paths of duty and in the practice of good works to a religious authority, and for this purpose He established a hierarchy of jurisdiction. Moreover, He established His Church as a visible, external, and perfect society ; hence He conferred on its hierarchy the right to legislate for the good of that society. Finally, from both groups [hierarchy and laity] there exist Christian faithful who are consecrated to God in their own special manner and serve the salvific mission of the Church through the profession of the evangelical counsels.
 * 1) Crusades: We agree with Hus position that the Christians must forgive their enemies. However, the Muslims proved to be dangerous and not trustworthy. Timor and his Horde destroyed everything on his path, Christians and Muslims alike. The Holy City of Jerusalem was sacked and the Churches destroyed. The Rus, that even being Schismatic are Christians, suffered terrible torments in the hands of the Muslims. Due to the necessity of the Christians to defend themselves against the threat of the heathen, the pontiff declares that he will not abolish the Crusades, but for now on it’ll be only called in case of invasion of Christian nations by Muslim.
 * 2) Purgatory: For the Church, all who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. Because those who comes into God's presence must be perfectly pure for in the strictest sense His "eyes
 * 1) Hierarchy of the Church: The Church considers that the Christian faithful are those who have been incorporated in Christ through Baptism, have been constituted as the people of God; for this reason, since they have become sharers in Christ's priestly, prophetic, and royal office in their own manner, they are called to exercise the mission which God has entrusted to the Church to fulfill in the world, in accord with the condition