The general reform on which the council had failed to come to an understanding had to be adjourned, and the council contented itself with promulgating, on the 9th of October 1417, the only reforming decrees on which an agreement could be reached.
During the seven years between the formation of the league and its final triumph, he devoted himself wholly to the work of promulgating his economic doctrines.
This he accomplished by five means - by a council to settle the faith, by edicts promulgating its principles, by a state department to watch over its purity, by missionaries to spread its doctrines, and by an authoritative collection of its sacred books.
This design embodied itself in the Tractarian movement, a name it received from the famous Tracts for the Times, which were the vehicle for promulgating the new doctrines.
The uppermost stage was reserved for the deacon who sang the gospel (facing the congregation); for promulgating episcopal edicts; reciting the names inscribed on the diptychs (see Diptych); announcing fasts, vigils and feasts; reading ecclesiastical letters or acts of the martyrs celebrated on that day; announcing new miracles for popular edification, professions by new converts or recantations by heretics; and (for priests and deacons) preaching sermons, - bishops as a general rule preaching from their own throne.