The First Council of the Lateran was the 9th ecumenical council recognised by the Catholic Church. The first ecumenical council to be held in Western Europe and the first since the Great Schism of 1054, it was convoked by Pope Callixtus II in December 1122, immediately after the Concordat of Worms. The council sought to bring an end to the practice of the conferring of ecclesiastical benefices by people who were laymen, free the election of bishops and abbots from secular influence, clarify the separation of spiritual and temporal affairs, re-establish the principle that spiritual authority resides solely in the Church and abolish the claim of the Holy Roman Emperor to influence papal elections.
The council was significant in size: 300 bishops and more than 600 abbots assembled at Rome's Lateran Palace in March 1123, and Callixtus II presided in person. During the council, the decisions of the Concordat of Worms were read and ratified. Various other decisions were promulgated.
Background
The First Lateran Council was called by Pope Callixtus II whose reign began on 1 February 1119. It demarcated the end of the Investiture Controversy, which had begun before the time of Pope Gregory VII. The issues had been contentious and had continued with unabated bitterness for almost a century. Guido, as he had been called before his elevation to the papacy, was the son of William I, Count of Burgundy. He was closely connected with nearly all the royal houses of Europe on both sides of his family. He had been named the papal legate to France by Pope Paschal II. During Guido's tenure in this office, Paschal II yielded to the military threats of Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, and was induced to issue the Privilegium in 1111. By that document, the Church gave up much of what had been claimed and subsequently attained by Pope Gregory VII and his Gregorian Reforms.
The concessions did not bring the expected peace but were received with violent reactionary opposition everywhere. Europe had come to expect an end to the Investiture Controversy and was not willing to return to the old days, when the Holy Roman Emperor named the pope. The greatest resistance was seen in France and was led by Guido, who still held the office of the papal legate. He had been present in the Lateran Synod of 1112 which had proclaimed the Privilegium of 1111. On his return to France, Guido convoked an assembly of the French and Burgundian bishops at Vienne (1112). There, the lay investiture of the clergy (the practice of the king, especially the Holy Roman Emperor, of naming bishops and the Pope) was denounced as heretical. A sentence of excommunication was pronounced against Henry V, who had extorted through violence from the Pope the concessions documented in the Privilegium. The agreement was deemed to be opposed to the interests of the Church. The decrees from the assembly of Vienne which denounced the Privilegium were sent to Paschal II with a request for confirmation. Pope Paschal II confirmed them, which were received in general terms, on 20 October 1112.
Guido was later created cardinal by Pope Paschal II. The latter did not seem to have been pleased with Guido's bold and forward attacks upon Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor. On the death of Paschal II, 21 January 1118, Gelasius II was elected pope. He was immediately seized by the Italian allies of Henry V and on his liberation by the populace, he fled to Gaeta, where he was crowned. Henry V demanded the confirmation of the Privilegium and received no satisfactory reply. He then set about naming Burdinus, the archbishop of Braga, as his own pope, who assumed the name Gregory VIII but came to be known as Antipope Gregory VIII. Burdinus had already been deposed and excommunicated because he had crowned Henry V as the Holy Roman Emperor in Rome in 1117.
The excommunication of Burdinus was reiterated in Canon 6 of the document produced by Lateran I. Gelasius II promptly excommunicated the antipope Gregory VIII and Henry V. Gelasius was forced to flee under duress from the army of Henry V and took refuge in the monastery of Cluny, where he died in January 1119. On the fourth day after the death of Gelasius II, 1 February 1119, mainly by the exertions of Cardinal Cuno, Guido was elected pope and assumed the title of Callixtus II. He was crowned Pope at Vienne on 9 February 1119.
Because of his close connection with the great royal families of Germany, France, England and Denmark, Callixtus II's papacy was received with much anticipation and celebration throughout Europe. There was a real hope throughout the Continent that the Investiture Controversy might be settled once and for all. In the interest of conciliation, even the papal embassy was received by Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor, at Strasburg. However, it soon became clear that Henry was not willing to concede his presumed and ancient right to name the pope and the bishops within his kingdom. Perhaps to demonstrate conciliation or because of political necessity, Henry withdrew his support for Antipope Gregory VIII.
It was agreed that Henry and Pope Callixtus II would meet at Mousson. On 8 June 1119, Callixtus II held a synod at Toulouse to proclaim the disciplinary reforms he had worked to attain in the French Church. In October, 1119, he opened the council at Reims. Louis VI of France and most of the barons of France attended this council, along with more than 400 bishops and abbots. The Pope was also to meet with Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor at Mousson. However, Henry showed up with an army of 30,000 men. Callixtus II left Reims for Mousson, but upon learning of the warlike stance of Henry quickly retreated to Reims. There, the Church dealt with issues of simony and concubinage of the clergy.
It was clear by now that Henry was in no mood to reconcile, and a compromise with him was not to be had. The conclave at Reims considered the situation and determined, as an entire Church, to formally excommunicate both Henry V and the antipope Gregory VIII. This occurred on October 30, 1119. While at Reims, Callixtus II tried to effect a settlement with Henry I of England and his brother Robert, which also met with failure.
Callixtus II was determined to enter Rome, which was occupied by the German forces and Antipope Gregory VIII. There was an uprising by the population, which forced Gregory to flee the city. After much political and military intrigue in Rome and the southern Italian states, Gregory was formally deposed and Callixtus II was generally recognised as the legitimate Pope in 1121. Having become the established power in Italy, Callixtus II now returned the conflict with Henry V over the issue of lay investiture. Henry had been the recipient of great pressure from many of his barons in Germany over his conflict with the pope. Some had entered into open rebellion. Henry was forced by circumstances to seek a peace with Callixtus. Initial negotiations were conducted in October 1121 at Würzburg. Lambert, the Cardinal of Ostia, was dispatched to convoke a synod at Worms, which began on 8 September 1122. By 23 September, the Concordat of Worms, also called the Pactum Calixtinum, was concluded. On his side, the emperor gave up his claim to investiture with ring and crosier and granted the freedom of election to the episcopal sees.
The elections of bishops could be witnessed by the emperor or his representatives. Callixtus II obtained the right to name bishops throughout Germany, but still did not have that power in much of Burgundy and Italy.
The First Lateran Council was convoked to confirm the Concordat of Worms. The council was most representative with nearly three hundred bishops and six hundred abbots from every part of Catholic Europe being present. It convened on 18 March 1123. Decrees were also passed directed against simony, concubinage among the clergy, church robbers, and forgers of Church documents; the council also reaffirmed indulgences for Crusaders. The Council ruled that the crusades to the Holy Land and the Reconquista of Spain were of equal standing.
In the remaining few years of his life, Callixtus II attempted to secure the status of the Church as it had existed at the end of the reign of Pope Gregory VII. He reorganized and reformed the churches around Rome, canonized Conrad of Constance, condemned the teaching of Peter de Bruis, confirmed the Bishop Thurston of York against the wishes of Henry I of England and affirmed the freedom of York from the see of Canterbury. Callixtus II died on December 13, 1124, and was succeeded by Pope Honorius II.
Callixtus II was a strong figure who brought a relative, if tentative, peace between Germany and the Church. The Concordat of Worms and the First Lateran Council changed forever the belief in the divine right of kings to name the pope and bishops and reshaped the nature of church and state forever.
Text of the council
Texts of the First Lateran Council may vary in both wording and numbering of the canons depending on source. In this translation, the precepts of the Concordat of Worms are codified in Canons 2, 4 and 10.
CANON I
Summary. Ordinations and promotions made for pecuniary considerations are devoid of every dignity.
Text. Following the example of the holy fathers and recognizing the obligation of our office, we absolutely forbid in virtue of the authority of the Apostolic See that anyone be ordained or promoted for money in the Church of God. Has anyone thus secured ordination or promotion in the Church, the rank acquired shall be devoid of every dignity.
CANON 2
Summary. Only a priest may be made provost, archpriest, and dean; only a deacon may be archdeacon.
Text. No one except a priest shall be promoted to the dignity of provost, archpriest, or dean;
and no one shall be made archdeacon unless he is a deacon.
CANON 3
Summary. Priests, deacons, and subdeacons are forbidden to live with women other than such as were permitted by the Nicene Council.
Text. We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, and subdeacons to associate with concubines and women, or to live with women other than such as the Nicene Council (canon 3) for reasons of necessity permitted, namely, the mother, sister, or aunt, or any such person concerning whom no suspicion could arise.
CANON 4
Summary. Lay persons, no matter how pious they may be, have no authority to dispose of anything that belongs to the Church.
Text. In accordance with the decision of Pope Stephen, we declare that lay persons, no matter how devout they may be, have no authority to dispose of anything belonging to the Church, but according to the Apostolic canon the supervision of all ecclesiastical affairs belongs to the bishop, who shall administer them conformably to the will of God. If therefore any prince or other layman shall arrogate to himself the right of disposition, control, or ownership of ecclesiastical goods or properties, let him be judged guilty of sacrilege.
CANON 5
Summary. Marriages between blood-relatives are forbidden.
Text. We forbid marriages between blood-relatives because they are forbidden by the divine and secular laws. Those who contract such alliances, as also their offspring, the divine laws not only ostracize but declare accursed, while the civil laws brand them as infamous and deprive them of hereditary rights. We, therefore, following the example of our fathers, declare and stigmatize them as infamous.
CANON 6
Summary. Ordinations by Burdinus and the bishops consecrated by him are invalid.
Text. The ordinations made by the heresiarch Burdinus after his condemnation by the Roman Church, as also those made by the bishops consecrated by him after that point of time, we declare to be invalid.
CANON 7
Summary. No one is permitted to arrogate to himself the episcopal authority in matters pertaining to the cura animarum and the bestowal of benefices.
Text. No archdeacon, archpriest, provost, or dean shall bestow on another the care of souls or the prebends of a church without the decision or consent of the bishop; indeed, as the sacred canons point out, the care of souls and the disposition of ecclesiastical property are vested in the authority of the bishop. If anyone shall dare act contrary to this and arrogate to himself the power belonging to the bishop, let him be expelled from the Church.
CANON 8
Summary. Military persons are forbidden under penalty of anathema to invade or forcibly hold the city of Benevento.
Text. Desiring with the grace of God to protect the recognized possessions of the Holy Roman Church, we forbid under pain of anathema any military person to invade or forcibly hold Benevento, the city of St. Peter. If anyone act contrary to this, let him be anathematized.
CANON 9
Summary. Those excommunicated by one bishop, may not be restored by others.
Text. We absolutely forbid that those who have been excommunicated by their own bishops be received into the communion of the Church by other bishops, abbots, and clerics.
CANON 10