In 879, another great council assembled at Constantinople, in which
Photius, already restored, is acknowledged as true patriarch by the
legates of Pope John VIII. Here the great ecumenical council, in which
Photius was deposed, receives the appellation of "_conciliabulum_." Pope
John VIII. declares all those to be Judases who say that the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father and the Son.
In 1122-3, a great council at Rome was held in the church of St. John of
Lateran by Pope Calixtus II. This was the first general council convoked
by the popes. The emperors of the West had now scarcely any authority;
and the emperors of the East pressed by the Mahometans and by the
Crusaders, held none but wretched little councils.
It is not precisely known what this Lateran was. Some small councils had
before been assembled in the Lateran. Some say that it was a house built
by one Lateran in Nero's time; others, that it was St. John's church
itself, built by Bishop Sylvester. In this council, the bishops
complained heavily of the monks. "They possess," said they, "the
churches, the lands, the castles, the tithes, the offerings of the
living and the dead; they have only to take from us the ring and the
crosier." The monks remained in possession.
In 1139 was another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent II. It is
said there were present a thousand bishops. A great many, certainly.
Here the ecclesiastical tithes are declared to be of _divine right_, and
all laymen possessing any of them are excommunicated. In 1179 was
another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Alexander III. There were
three hundred bishops and one Greek abbot. The decrees are all on
discipline. The plurality of benefices is forbidden.
In 1215 was the last general Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent III.,
composed of four hundred and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots.
At this time, which is that of the Crusades, the popes have established
a Latin patriarch at Jerusalem, and one at Constantinople. These
patriarchs attend the council. This great council says that, "God having
given the doctrine of salvation to men by Moses, at length caused His
son to be born of a virgin, to show the way more clearly," and that "no
one can be saved out of the Catholic church."
The _transubstantiation_ was not known until after this council. It
forbade the establishment of new religious orders; but, since that time,
no less than eighty have been instituted. It was in this council that
Raymond, count of Toulouse, was stripped of all his lands. In 1245 a
great council assembled at the imperial city of Lyons. Innocent IV.
brings thither the emperor of Constantinople, John Palæologus, and makes
him sit beside him. He deposes the emperor Frederick as a _felon_, and
gives the cardinals red hats, as a sign of hostility to Frederick. This
was the source of thirty years of civil war.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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