Innocent III's Great Council
In November 1215, in the Lateran basilica at Rome, Innocent III presided over the largest council the medieval West had seen. More than four hundred bishops attended, with some eight hundred abbots and priors and envoys of the kings and princes of Europe. Innocent had summoned it two years earlier with two aims: the recovery of the Holy Land and the reform of the whole Latin church. The council met in three sessions over the month and approved seventy-one canons, most of them prepared in advance by the pope and his advisers. Rome counts it the twelfth ecumenical council.
Few events show the papacy's power so clearly. A few months earlier Innocent had annulled Magna Carta. At the council his judgment settled the dispute over the emperor's crown and handed the lands of the count of Toulouse to Simon de Montfort, and Dominic was in Rome seeking approval for his preachers. The canons, sent to every diocese of the Latin church, would govern Catholic life for centuries.
Lateran IV was a council of Roman Catholic bishops under the pope. It holds no authority over any of Christ's churches. Where it confessed what Scripture teaches, such as the Trinity and the goodness of God's creation, we agree because the Bible teaches it. Where it added to Scripture, its decrees bind no believer's conscience.
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For Deeper Study
- Decrees of the Ecumenical CouncilsAmazon Norman P. Tanner, ed.Latin text and English translation of the canons (a Catholic edition).
- Disciplinary Decrees of the General CouncilsAmazon H. J. SchroederAn older English translation of the Lateran IV canons with commentary (Catholic).
- Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216): To Root Up and to PlantAmazon John C. MooreA modern scholarly biography.
- Innocent III: Leader of Europe, 1198–1216Amazon Jane SayersA concise study of his pontificate.
- Church, State, and Jew in the Middle AgesAmazon Robert Chazan, ed.Translated documents on Jewish life under church and royal law, including the Lateran canons.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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