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Fourth Lateran Council
  CATEGORIES ABOUT FOURTH COUNCIL OF THE LATERAN
   
1215
   
roman catholic church councils
   
lateran 4
   
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  council Date 1215
  accepted By Catholicism
  previous Third Council Of The Lateran
  next First Council Of Lyons
  convoked By Pope Innocent III
  presided By Pope Innocent III
  attendance 71 Patriarch s and metropolitans, 412 Bishop s, 900 Abbot s and priors
  topics Crusader States , Investiture Controversy
  documents seventy papal decrees, Transubstantiation , papal primacy, conduct of clergy, Confession at least once a year, Fifth Crusade


The Fourth Council of the Lateran was summoned by Pope Innocent III with his Bull of April 19 , 1213 . The assembly took place in November, 1215 . It was the 12th Ecumenical Council and is sometimes called "the General Council of Lateran" due to the attendance by seventy-one Patriarch s and metropolitans, four hundred and twelve Bishop s, and nine hundred Abbot s and priors.

Innocent III stated his purposes as the defence of the Catholic faith, for the aid to the Crusader State s in Palestine , and to establish the liberty of the Church from Lay Investiture and other lay interference. The pope presented to the council seventy decrees; these were considered along with the organisation of the Fifth Crusade and with measures against Heretics . In this context, Saint Dominic and bishop Foulques Of Toulouse discussed with the pope the establishment and constitution of the Order Of Friars Preachers , finally approved fifteen months later by the new Pope Honorius III .

The council did little more than rubber-stamp the decrees presented to them. The decrees included:

  • Exposition of the faith and of the dogma of Transubstantiation

  • Procedure and penalties against heretics and their protectors

  • Proclamation of the papal primacy - After the pope, primacy is attributed to the patriarchial sees in the following order:

  • --- Constantinople (at this time there was a Latin Patriarch )

  • --- Alexandria

  • --- Antioch

  • --- Jerusalem

  • Rules on the conduct of the clergy including against irregularities such as:

  • ---incontinence or non-celibate living

  • ---drunkenness

  • ---hunting

  • ---attendance at farces and histrionic exhibitions

  • ---performing of surgical operations

  • ---conducting trials by Ordeal or Combat

  • the '' Omnis Utriusque Sexus '' (also called the Easter Duty), which commands every Christian who has reached the Years Of Discretion to confess all their sins at least once a year to their priest

  • Jew s and Muslim s shall wear a special dress to enable them to be distinguished from Christians (see Judenhut , Yellow Badge ).


The council also confirmed the elevation of Frederick II to the position of Holy Roman Emperor.


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