THEODORIC OF NYEM. - German conciliarist canonist, b. around 1340 at Brakel in Westphalia, d. at Maastricht on 22 March 1418.
From 1370 a notary at the papal Curia in Avignon, he followed Gregory XI to Rome (1377) and was a witness to the rise of the great schism, remaining however faithful to Urban VI. In 1395 he was appointed by Boniface IX bishop of Verden but was not consecrated, nor did he take possession of the episcopate, and he remained abbreviator and writer of the papal Chancery. He took the side of Alexander V and of John XXIII, with whom he participated in the Council of Constance but, after the latter's flight, he separated from him definitively and composed a violent libel: Invectiva in fugientem e Concilio Constantieni Joannem XXIII, which contributed greatly to the measures taken by the Assembly against the Pope and, together with his other writings, to the development of conciliar ideas.
T.'s output is copious: Liber Cancellariae apostolicae and Stilus Palatii abbreviatus, collections of formularies for the use of the Rota and of the pontifical Chancery; De schismate libri tres, a history of the great schism, rich in important details, even if written with partisan concerns. On the Council and on reform: De modis unendi ac reformandi Ecclesiam and Avisamenta de unione et reformatione membrorum et capitis fienda.
For him the superiority of the council over the pontiff is incontestable, because only the general council represents the universal Church and can issue unappealable decisions. The council is superior to the pope in authority, in dignity, in function; it can elect the pope, limit his powers, deprive him of his title, indeed it could even depose him. Originally the authority of the bishops was equal to that of the popes, and the present pontifical primacy must be considered as a delegation given to him by the Church and which could be withdrawn.
Bibliography5 works
Piero Sannazzaro