1414 - Council of Constance

       The Council of Constance brought together the crowned heads of Europe to settle the problem of papal succession.

Council Of Constance

   The Council of Constance reaffirmed Pope Innocent IV's natural law rationale for claiming the lands of infidels in foreign lands.  This decision, on the threshold of the Age of Discovery, would play a central role in the way Europeans colonized the Americas and claimed Indian lands for their respective kings and queens.       

        The quarrel that followed was finally resolved when the pope issued a bull that echoed the work of Innocent IV by authorizing the outright confiscation of heathen lands. click here for more