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Lateran Councils
(1) Under Calixtus II., in 1123. More than 300 bishops and 600 abbots were present. This was the Ninth General Council, and the first ever held in the West. The chief object was to end the strife on Investiture between Emperor Henry V. and the Holy See. The arrangement made at the Concordat of Worms was confirmed. Henry agreed to leave the choice and consecration of prelates free, to resign all claims to invest with ring and staff, and to restore Church goods, while the Pope allowed the elections to take place in the Emperor’s presence, gave him the right to decide in contested elections after taking counsel from the metropolitans and provincial bishops, and to confer the regalia with the sceptre.
(2) The Second Lateran Council (Tenth General Council), held in 1139 under Innocent II., and attended by about 1,000 prelates, excommunicated Roger of Sicily (champion of Anacletus II., the Antipope), suspended clerics promoted by Anacletus, and imposed silence on Arnold of Brescia, the great ecclesiastical demagogue of the day. Thirty canons were passed on simony, incontinence, clerical dress, breaking the “Peace of God,” and contests dangerous to life.
(3) The Third Lateran and Eleventh General Council was convoked in 1179, by Alexander III., was attended by more than 300 bishops, and numbered about a thousand members in all. It ordered that future Popes should be elected by a majority of two-thirds, and passed a sentence of ex-communication on anyone who accepted the Papacy on other conditions, as well as upon those who supported him. Disciplinary enactments were also made against simony, clerical incontinence, and intercourse with Saracens and Jews.
(4) Innocent III. opened the Fourth Lateran and Twelfth General Synod, the most imposing probably of all councils ever held, in 1215, for the recovery of the Holy Land and the reform of the Church. The representatives of Frederic II., of Henry, Emperor of Constantinople, of the Kings of England, France, Aragon, Hungary, Cyprus, Jerusalem, and of other princes, 412 bishops, 800 abbots, many representatives of absent bishops and chapters, were present. The seventy decrees of the council concern the most important points of discipline and doctrine. The Bishop of Constantinople was made the first of the Eastern patriarchs; the Greek rites, the jurisdiction of the other patriarchs, were fully acknowledged; while at the same time the Greek practice of rebaptizing children already baptized by Latins, and of washing altars to mark their defilement if they had been used by Latin priests, was reprobated, and the supremacy of Rome insisted on. Regulations were made and indulgences were offered for the coming crusade. The duty of annual confession “proprio sacerdoti” was enforced. Definitions were issued on the absolute unity of God. Abbot Joachim had maintained that the three divine Persons were one God only in the same sense as many human persons are all men or Christians one with each other and with Christ. In other words he substituted a specific or moral for that numerical unity in which, with the real distinction of the three Persons, the mystery of the Trinity consists. The council, on the contrary, defined that each of the three Persons is identical with the one divine substance. It also defined the Catholic doctrine on the sacraments, and in particular that the bread and wine in the Mass are “transubstantiated” into Christ’s body and blood.
(5) The Fifth Lateran Council (Eighteenth General) was opened by Julius II., in 1512, and closed by Leo X., in 1517. The Church was distracted at the time by the schismatic Council of Pisa. The Fifth Lateran was attended by 15 cardinals and 79 (afterwards 120) bishops, mostly Italian.
William E. Addis and Thomas Arnold, A Catholic Dictionary (New York: The Catholic Publication Society Co., 1887), 504–505.
The Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith
by: Donald Fairbairn and Ryan M. Reeves
Some good insights that should be
added to the reference material:
"For Protestants, the primary issue was not what had changed in medieval doctrine/theology but on what basis these changes were justified".
Donald Fairbairn and Ryan M. Reeves, The Story of Creeds and Confessions: Tracing the Development of the Christian Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2019), 227.
Let's dissect papal authority:
The pope - supreme pontiff, roman pontiff or sovereign pontiff,
the bishop of Rome,
head of the worldwide Catholic church
served as the head of state or sovereign of the Papal States and later the Vatican City State since the eighth century
Catholic viewpoint: Primacy = is largely derived from THE paternal apostolic successor to Saint Peter.
Questions: How and when was primacy conferred by Yeshua? On what scriptures is this "truth" relying?
Catholics viewpoint: Yeshua gave Peter the Keys of Heaven along with the heavenly powers of "binding and loosing" and named him the "rock" upon which the Catholic Church, would be built. This Church is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Heart of the Nations has a newfound respect for the current pope because of how he conducted himself during his atonement pilgrimage to apologize to First Nation, Inuit, and Métis peoples living in Canada for the Catholic church's role in the residential school system. This education piece is not directed at him as a person, instead, it's a spotlight on the entire Catholic/Christian Institution which was formed out of several closed council meetings and above the law.
Here are a Few Questions that Heart of the Nations still has - Under whose authority were the changes to the Biblical doctrine made in 1215? God's? Who was involved in the discussions? From my understanding, the churches and their leaders were to demonstrate how living according to the scriptures is better than living according to man's desires, not being in charge or having say/sway in government or monarch matters. Today, does the pope have any authority within his special privileges, or other, over any government or monarchy in this world? What exactly are the pope's authorities outside and inside the Catholic institution?
"The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council affected the law of England by setting laws
that influenced the monarchy and intervened with the king as well."
Patrick Geary, trans., Readings in Medieval History (Ontario: University of Toronto, 2010), 740.
What fruit came out of the 1015 lateren council
One can see why the Lollards gave all that they had into challenging the autocratic authority of their time and why the barons fought so hard for the Magna Carta to be signed. to have the fourth lateran council shut it down the same year!? Wait, so if king John had signed the Magna Carta then were the canons legally binding? Did the pope have authority above the king? If so under what Scriptures?
1215
Fourth Lateran Council Issues Decrees
"The Fourth Lateran Council, convened in 1215 by Innocent III (1160–1216), the powerful medieval pope, confirmed the election of Frederick II (1194–1250) as emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and denounced the Magna Carta. The council articulated the doctrine of transubstantiation, the belief that Christ is physically present in the bread and wine of the mass. It confirmed the Franciscan order but decreed that no new monastic orders were to be founded. It also decreed that Jews and Muslims were to wear distinctive dress, and it made provision for the upcoming Fifth Crusade. "Covering the political, religious, and social arenas of thirteenth-century Europe, the council had profound and lasting effects on both church law and everyday life."
Sharon Rusten with E. Michael, The Complete Book of When & Where in the Bible and throughout History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 2005), 182.
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