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| Fifth Council of the Lateran | |
|---|---|
| Date | 1512–1517 |
| Accepted by | Catholic Church |
Previous council | Council of Florence |
Next council | Council of Trent |
| Convoked by | Pope Julius II |
| President |
|
| Attendance | About 100 bishops, mostly Italians |
| Topics | Church discipline |
Documents and statements | Five decrees, allowed pawn shops, permission required to print books |
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TheFifth Council of the Lateran, held between 1512 and 1517, was the eighteenthecumenical council of theCatholic Church and was the last council before theProtestant Reformation and theCouncil of Trent. This was the first time since 1213 that thePapal States would host an ecumenical council. It is so far the last time thatRome’sLateran Palace (which had hosted4 ecumenical councils in the past) has been the venue for such an event.
It was convoked byPope Julius II with a political motive of restoring peace between warring Catholic rulers and to re-assert the authority of thePope.
AfterPope Leo X took over in 1513, the Council attempted various institutional, dogmatic and social welfare reforms. Institutional reforms were intended to improve unity, reduce nepotism, absenteeism, disinterest, luxury and simony for high church officials, improve the training and regulation of priests, to strengthen the position of bishops over friars, and to assert the independence of the church and clergy from lay control. The social welfare reform allowed no-interestmicrofinance lending bymonti di pietà.
These addressed some issues that had been raised by contemporary reformers, but were not the particular issues that the subsequent Protestant Reformationalighted on. As with the immediately previous Councils, its institutional reforms were ineffectively implemented at that time.
When elected pope in 1503,Pope Julius II promised under oath to convoke a general council, but his promise was not initially fulfilled.[1]
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TheRepublic of Venice had encroached on papal rights in Venetian territories by independently filling vacant episcopal sees, subjecting clergy to secular tribunals and generally disregarding the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Julius II in other ways. In 1509, Julius II joined theLeague of Cambrai, a coalition formed to restore lands that had been recently conquered by Venice to their original owners. Julius II censured Venice with aninterdict and deployed the armies of thePapal States, along with the combined forces of the League of Cambrai, to Venetian-occupiedRomagna. There, Venice suffered a complete defeat at theBattle of Agnadello, on 14 May 1509. In 1510, Venice negotiated with Julius II, who withdrew from the League of Cambrai and removed the censure in exchange for terms that included Venice agreeing to return disputed towns in Romagna, to renounce claims to fill vacant benefices, to acknowledge jurisdiction of ecclesiastical tribunals over clergy and their immunity to secular tribunals including exemption from taxes, to revoke all unauthorised treaties made with towns in the Papal States, to abandon appeal to a future general council against the papal bans and to concede free navigation of theAdriatic Sea to Papal States subjects.[2][3]
The first stages of conflict between the Papal States and France began in 1510. KingLouis XII of France demanded that theRepublic of Florence declare definitively its allegiance. However, declaring allegiance to France would expose Florence to an immediate attack, and alienate its citizens, who dreaded a conflict with the head of the Church. Additionally, Florence was full of antagonistic parties and irreconcilable interests. To gain time, Florence sentNiccolò Machiavelli on a diplomatic mission to France in July 1510, where he found Louis XII eager for war and inclined towards the idea of a general council to depose Julius II.[4]
Julius II was a soldier, and his goal was to free the entireItalian Peninsula from subjection to foreign powers.[2] However, only Venice and theOld Swiss Confederacy were ready to field armies against the French. Julius II began hostilities by deposing and excommunicating his vassal,Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, who supported France. Louis XII retaliated in September 1510 by convoking a synod of French bishops atTours, which judged that the pope had no right to make war upon a foreign prince and if the pope undertook such a war, the foreign prince had the right to invade the Papal States and to withdraw his subjects' obedience to the pope. The synod also threatened Julius II with a general council. Julius II ignored the French synod and again assumed personal command of the army inNorthern Italy. In August 1510, atBologna, he became dangerously ill but then recovered. In October, he negotiated an anti-French alliance. In the beginning, the alliance included only the Papal States, Venice and Spain, but in November, England joined and was soon followed by the emperor and by Switzerland. The Papal States marched againstMirandola, which was captured on 20 January 1511. On 23 May 1511, contingents of the French army captured Bologna from the papal troops and reinstatedAnnibale II Bentivoglio.[2]
Under the leadership ofGaston of Foix, Duke of Nemours, the French were at first successful, but after his death, they yielded to the superior forces of the League. After being defeated in the Battle of Ravenna in 1512, they retreated beyond the Alps. Bologna again submitted to Julius II, and the cities ofParma,Reggio andPiacenza became part of the Papal States.[2]
The reforms of theCouncil of Constance (1414–1418) and theCouncil of Basel-Ferrara-Florence (1431–1449) failed.[clarification needed] At the Synods of Orleans and Tours, in 1510, the French decided to convoke a general council. In view of the Council of Constance decreeFrequens and the delay of Julius II to convoke a general council as he had sworn in thepapal conclave, the schismaticconciliabulum convened atPisa in 1511.[5] Florence permitted theconciliabulum to use Pisa as the location;[6] this estranged Julius II, and both Florence and Pisa were placed under an interdict.[6] According to Marco Pellegrini, theGallicanconciliabulum "shows how some members of theSacred College were ever open to schismatic solutions".[7]
According to Kraus, it was intended by French politicians to restrain Julius II, and to recognize by general council of the principles of the 1438Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges, drawn from the articles of the Council of Constance and the Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence. The schismaticconciliabulum at Pisa was attended by only a few prelates including CardinalsBernardino López de Carvajal,Guillaume Briçonnet, Francesco Borgia,Federico Sanseverino, andRené de Prie.[8][a] They were encouraged byMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and Louis XII.[1] According to Shahan, dissatisfaction with treatment by Julius II, as well as subserviency to the excommunicate Louis XII, led Carvajal to that rebellious attitude.[10] The council was held first in the choir of theSan Michele in Borgo and then in that of theCathedral of Pisa.
Maximilian I, who had planned since 1507 to procure his own election to the papacy after Julius died, at first gave his protection to the schismaticconciliabulum at Pisa. Then, he withdrew it, and the German bishops also refused to have anything to do with the schismatic tendencies of the French. On 18 July 1511, Julius II summoned a general council, the Fifth Lateran Council, at Rome; it assembled there on 19 April 1512, with a very small attendance that had only Italian prelates.[11]
Julius deprived the four leading schismatic cardinals of their dignities, deposed them from their offices and excommunicated theconciliabulum participants.[12]
After theconciliabulum transferred from Pisa to Milan because of popular opposition,[9] possibly elected Carvajal asAntipope Martin VI.[13]
Soon afterward, in 1512, fearing theSwiss mercenaries invasion of the French occupiedDuchy of Milan, theconciliabulum participants departed toAsti and thenLyon, France, where they abandoned theconciliabulum later that year.[14]
The schismaticconciliabulum was a political step aimed at Julius II, who was involved in conflict with theDuchy of Ferrara and France. The whole matter was a futile attempt to revive 15th centuryconciliarism and to use it for political purposes.[9]
Julius II was quick to oppose theconciliabulum and convoked a general council by apapal bull of 18 July 1511, which was to meet on 19 April 1512 in theArchbasilica of St. John Lateran, in Rome. The bull not only was a canonical document but also was polemical in content. Julius refuted the allegation by the cardinals for their Pisaconciliabulum. He declared that his promise before his election as pope was sincere; that since he became pope, he had always sought to call a general council; that to prepare the general council, he had endeavored to bring an end to quarrels between rulers; that subsequent wars had made calling the council inopportune. Julius then reproached the participants at Pisa for their lack of respect by calling a council without the pope, who was supposed to lead. He also said that the three months of preparation for Pisa was not enough. Finally, he declared that no one should attach any significance to the statements made at Pisa.
A war of polemics was waged about the councils, pittingThomas Cajetan, the Dominican Master General, on the papal side against the conciliarist arguments ofJacques Almain, the spokesman of theUniversity of Paris.
France's victory over thePapal States and theSpanish Empire at theBattle of Ravenna (1512) hindered the opening of the council called by Julius II.
During the council, the ambassador of the Holy Roman Emperor announced that Maximilian had rejected the decisions made by theconciliabulum at Pisa, and a similar announcement was made by Louis XII's ambassador. At the seventh session, in 1513, Carvajal and Sanseverino separated from their French colleagues and formally renounced the schism, and they were restored by Leo X to their offices.[10]
Alessandro Geraldini, the firstArchbishop of Santo Domingo, attended the eleventh session, likely making him to first prelate from theWestern Hemisphere to attend anEcumenical Council.[15]
The arrangements for the council were done by the papalmaster of ceremoniesParide de Grassi, who prepared by reaching out to several individuals who had knowledge of the proceeding and structures for previous councils, such as Constance and Florence. De Grassi constructed a main council chamber inside thenave of theLateran Basilica. This chamber was surrounded by a wall to protect the privacy of the proceedings. Rooms for eating andlatrines were constructed within it, as the participants could not leave the premises during the council. A second smaller room was constructed in theaula concilii in theLateran Palace, and was designed for the purpose of having a smaller locations were the pope, cardinals, emperors, and other high-ranking members could enjoy more privacy. However, theaula concilii housed only one meeting and no formal sessions were conducted in it. The details of the room, measurements, structures, and facilities were reconstructed by scholarNelson Minnich, who heavily relied on the diaries of Paride De Grassi himself.[16][17][18]
The Council finally met on 3 May 1512 at the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran. The scholar and preacher CardinalEgidio da Viterbo (Giles of Viterbo) gave an inspiring opening address on the need for urgent reform,[19] which was widely printed and puts many of the concerns of Catholic reformists and humanists, such asXimenez,von Staupitz,John Colet andErasmus.[20]
Participants included fifteen cardinals, the Latin patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, ten archbishops, fifty-six bishops, some abbots and generals of religious orders, the ambassadors ofMaximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and those of Venice and of Florence. After Julius II died, his successor,Pope Leo X, continued the council, and the last session was held on 16 March 1517.
Several decrees were published, most for institutional reform and political peace rather than doctrinal clarification, including:
Little was done to put the work of the council into practice.[33] In the view of a Franciscan teacher:
"Yet, for all its solemnity, five years’ labors, and many sincere and earnest speakers, the Fifth Lateran was not to achieve reform. [...]Few if any of the Council’s decrees ever left paper. A serious effort to put them into practice might have made an impression, but none was made."
The Vatican website introduction to the session reports of the Council notes that while reform of the curia failed, suppression of the Pisa pseudo-council succeeded, though the small number of attending bishops had raised questions about its status as a true "ecumenical" council.[34]
The Pope's need for more money to finance military operations against the Turks in the Holy Lands and to re-establish Rome's prestige and centrality, which underpins several of the Council's discussions, was behind the so-called "sale ofindulgences" scandal that precipitatedMartin Luther'sNinety-five Theses,[33] which were published just seven months after the close of the council. According to historian Nelson Minnich, Luther was shocked that the Lateran Council had in his view abrogated decisions of previous councils and he adoptedsola scriptura in consequence.[35]
Whether or not theProtestant Reformation could have been avoided if the reforms had been implemented is a matter of debate:Johann Eck thought so. Council recommendations were applied to an extent in Italy, Spain and parts of France, but blocked in England and not implemented at all in Germany.[36]: 54, 55
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Benigni, Umberto (1912). "Montes Pietatis". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 15. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Burd, L. Arthur (1903) [1902]."Florence (II) Machiavelli". In Ward, Adolphus W.; et al. (eds.).The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 1. New York; London: Macmillan.OCLC 609661773. This article incorporates text from a publication in thepublic domain: Jackson, Samuel Macauley, ed. (1911)."Councils of Pisa".New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge. Vol. 9 (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls. p. 73. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Kraus, Franz X. (1907) [1904]."Medicean Rome". In Ward, Adolphus W.; et al. (eds.).The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 2. New York; London: Macmillan.OCLC 609661773. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from this source, which is in thepublic domain:Leathes, Stanley Mordaunt (1903) [1902]."Italy and her invaders". In Ward, Adolphus W.; et al. (eds.).The Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 1. New York; London: Macmillan.OCLC 609661773. This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Leclercq, Henri (1910). "Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17)". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 9. New York: Robert Appleton Company. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Ott, Michael (1910). "Pope Julius II". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company. One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Shahan, Thomas (1908). "Bernardino Lopez de Carvajal". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 3. New York: Robert Appleton Company.| International | |
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