Souza, José Antônio de C.R. de
Abstract:
The article analyses the first scholarly quaestio on Papal resignation. In this question it was discussed not only the problem of the Papal resignation, but also the grounds of that decision, namely, the Papal sovereignty, a polemic topic for scholars devoted to Medieval political thinking. The author of that quaestio was Peter John of Olivi. The goal of the article is to examine its author's conception of the pontifical plenitudo potestatis, that is, to evaluate the kind of power the Papal authority had and its influence on the ecclesiastical environment, a topic that up to that date had been mainly discussed by canonists and considered only tangentially by the majority of theologians.
