A theory or system in which authority in an organization (especially the Church) is held by councils or assemblies rather than by a single leader.
From conciliar + -ism, the philosophical suffix that turns adjectives into ideologies. This term emerged during medieval Church debates about whether the Pope or councils held supreme authority.
Conciliarism was basically medieval democracy—scholars argued that councils of bishops should have more power than the Pope, using this word as their philosophical battle cry during the Great Schism. It lost the argument, but the word lives on!
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