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The term 'College of Bishops' is used in Catholic theology to describe the bishops, as the successors of the Apostles in communion with the Pope, who is the Bishop of Rome, as a body. With the Pope, the college shares the pastoral care and government of the Roman Catholic Church. According to canon 336 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law:
Canon 338 goes on to explain that it is for a Pope to determine how the College of Bishops exercises that power. Normally it would be through an ecumenical council.
The doctrine is not understood to mean that a council is superior to a pope. And in the opposite direction, a pope has traditionally been understood to possess the sole right of calling, dismissing, or proroguing a council and of approving its decisions.
There was little explicit teaching on the subject before the Second Vatican Council. Indeed, throughout the nineteenth century and to the mid - twentieth century the ultramontanist position was generally held; that is, that the Pope was an absolute monarch who was guided by the Holy Spirit. See Papal Infallibility. The idea was explicitly taught by the Second Vatican Council, in the decree Lumen Gentium.
Within the Catholic Church, the idea of the College of Bishops has caused some controversy. Indeed, Pope Paul VI, who approved Lumen Gentium, felt obliged to authorise the adding of a ''Nota Praevia'' or explanatory comment, to the Council documents (not to the text of Lumen Gentium itself). Part of the note reads
The Nota is as an attempt to preclude misunderstanding in the Council text. However, it is not often read as it is an appendix to the text. Conservative bishops in the Council were fearful that the idea of the College of Bishops would be interpreted as a new conciliarism. Conciliarism was a fifteenth century idea that an ecumenical council was the supreme authority under Christ in the Catholic Church. That fear is shared amongst traditionalist Catholics. Ironically, theologians and bishops have criticised the Vatican for not co-operating more fully with the bishops in the spirit of collegiality.

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