Oration “Superioribus diebus” of Pope Pius II (31 March 1462, Rome). Edited and translated by Michael von Cotta-Schönberg. 5th version. (Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius II; 66)

Published as part of project Edition and Translation of the Orations of Enea Silvio Piccolomini / Pope Pius IIIn March 1462, an embassy from King Georg Podiebrad of Bohemia came to Pope Pius II to present the king’s declaration of obedience and to permanently settle the issue of communion under both species, granted to the Bohemians by the Council of Basel through the so-called Bohemian Compacts. Communion under both species was, in itself, a matter of Catholic ritual and not of Catholic dogma. But the Hussite claim that this form of communion had been commanded by the Lord not only for priests but also for the laity and that it was necessary for salvation went straight against the practice and teachings of the Church, as confirmed by the Councils of Konstanz and Basel, and it meant that for centuries the Church, by denying the communion of the chalice to the laypeople, had been sending countless souls to Hell. In his final oration to the Bohemian embassy, the “Superioribus diebus” of 31 March, the pope stated that the Hussite teachings concerning communion under both species as necessary for salvation were a heresy. He denied the petition for papal confirmation of the Bohemian Compacts made by the Council of Basel on the grounds that the Bohemians had not fulfilled the conditions stipulated by the Compacts. And he refused to grant the right to communicate under both species because of the risks of continued doctrinal error in Bohemia, irreverence for the sacrament (spilling of Christ’s blood), civil unrest, and continued international isolation and wars with the neighbouring countries