Lateran Council (769)

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Saint Paul Outside the Walls
, c. 1850)

The Lateran Council of 769 was a

Basilica of St. John Lateran to rectify perceived abuses in the papal electoral process which had led to the elevation of the antipopes Constantine II and Philip. It also condemned the rulings of the Council of Hieria. It is perhaps the most important Roman council held during the 8th century.[1]

Background

The death of

King of the Lombards, Desiderius, and reigned just for one day, 31 July 768.[4] With the election of Pope Stephen III on 1 August 768,[5] and the forcible removal of the antipopes, Stephen III had sent a request to Pepin the Short, asking for bishops well versed in the Scriptures and in canon law to assist at a synod which would seek to prevent any repeat of the events that led to the elevation of the antipopes.[6][7] By the time the envoys reached Francia, Pepin was dead. However, they appealed to his sons Charlemagne and Carloman, who agreed to send 12 bishops to Rome.[8] Rome was at the time part of the Byzantine Empire
.

Meetings of the Council

Map of medieval Rome: Lateran Basilica circled.
Map of medieval Rome: Lateran Basilica circled.

On 12 April 769 the Pope opened the synod in the Lateran Basilica. Present were around 52 bishops (or representatives of bishops),[9] including ones from Tuscany and Campania,[10] as well as a large number of priests, deacons, and the laity.[11] The Council met during four sessions, spread over four days, lasting until 15 April.[1] The first sessions of the Council, lasting two days, were dedicated to reviewing the activities of the antipope Constantine II, in which Wilichar of Sens took a leading role.[1][12]

Constantine was brought before the synod, and was asked how he justified his own accession as a layman to the

Holy Communion from the hands of Constantine.[11]

The Third Session (14 April) revolved around revising the rules by which papal elections were held.

cardinal deacons or priests, who had been consecrated and had moved through the minor orders, could be elected pope.[15] The Council then mandated that from the time of the Council onward, the laity could not participate in the election of a pope. Prohibitions were placed upon the presence of armed men, or of soldiers from Tuscany and the Campania, during the papal election.[16] Once, however, the election had been held by the clergy, and a pope selected, the Roman army and people were to greet and acknowledge the pope-elect before he was escorted to the Lateran Palace.[16]

The third session on that same day saw the issuing of decrees with regards to the ordinations undertaken by the antipope Constantine.[17] The synod decided that the bishops, priests, and deacons whom Constantine had ordained were to once again return to their previous station that they held prior to Constantine's appointment.[16] However, the synod also stated that if those who had been consecrated bishops by Constantine were re-elected via a canonical method, they might be reconciled and restored to the episcopate by the Pope.[16] The Pope could also reinstate priests and deacons; however, any layperson who had been ordained a priest or deacon by Constantine was consigned to spend the rest of his life in a monastery, and none could ever be promoted to a higher religious office.[16]

The final session of the Council, held on 15 April, was dedicated to providing a ruling concerning the ongoing Iconoclast controversy. Reviewing the writings of the Church Fathers, the Council decreed that it was permissible and desirable for Christians to venerate icons.[18] It confirmed the rulings of the Council of Rome in 731 concerning the valid use of images.[19] The synod then condemned the Council of Hieria and anathematized its iconoclastic rulings.[18] Finally, it collected additional texts in support of the veneration of icons, including portions of a letter from the three eastern patriarchs to Pope Paul I.[19]

Once the meetings had been concluded, a procession of clergy and people walked barefoot to St. Peter's Basilica. There, the Council's decrees were announced, anathemas were invoked, condemning any who violated the decrees, and both were written up for exposition to the people.[18]

Immediate outcome and long-term effects

The bishops who had been consecrated by Constantine seem to have been on the whole reconciled by the Pope.

schism.[20]

The rulings of this Council concerning the election of the popes were gradually eroded over the course of the decades and centuries. As early as 827, the election of

Papacy reach its nadir during the 10th century, when the papacy became the plaything of the Roman aristocracy.[18]

Participants

Archbishop of Ravenna, indicating his status as the first Metropolitan bishop of the west.[21]

Frankish bishops

Italian bishops

Citations

  1. ^ a b c d e Noble (2009), p. 146.
  2. ^ Cenni (1735), p. 6.
  3. ^ Mann (1903), p. 362.
  4. ^ Mann (1903), p. 367; Duchesne (1886), p. 470.
  5. ^ Duchesne (1886), p. 472; Jaffé (1885), p. 285.
  6. ^ Noble (2009), p. 145.
  7. ^ Mann (1903), p. 372.
  8. ^ Mann (1903), pp. 372–373.
  9. ^ Hefele (1896), p. 333.
  10. ^ Landon (1909), p. 98.
  11. ^ a b c d Mann (1903), p. 373.
  12. ^ McKitterick (2008), p. 300.
  13. ^ Hefele (1896), p. 336.
  14. ^ Duchesne (1886), p. 475, l. 23.
  15. ^ Mann (1903), pp. 373–374. The scholar of Canon Law, Stephan Kuttner, points out (p. 149) that this statement of candidacy applied to deacons and priests of the Church of Rome, not priests and deacons generally. This is also the first occasion on which the term cardinal priest is used.
  16. ^ a b c d e Mann (1903), p. 374.
  17. ^ Hefele (1896), p. 337.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Mann (1903), p. 375.
  19. ^ a b c Noble (2009), p. 147.
  20. ^ Hefele (1896), p. 334.
  21. ^ Hefele (1896), pp. 334–336.
  22. ^ McKitterick (2008), p. 302.
  23. ^ Hefele (1896), p. 335.
  24. ^ His name is given as Radoinus in the Liber Pontificalis: Duchesne (1886), p. 474, l. 11.
  25. ^ His name is given as Stephanus in the Liber Pontificalis: Duchesne (1886), p. 474, l. 25.
  26. ^ His name is given as Leoninus in the Liber Pontificalis: Duchesne (1886), p. 474, l. 29.

General and cited references

  • Cenni, Gaetano (1735). Concilium Lateranense Stephani III. an. 769 (in Latin). Rome: Typographie Vaticana.
  • Duchesne, Louis, ed. (1886). "XCVI: Stephan's III". Le Liber pontificalis (in French and Latin). Vol. Tome premier. Paris: Ernest Thorin. pp. 468–485.
  • Hefele, Charles Joseph (1896). A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents, Vol. V. Translated by Clark, William R.
  • Jaffé, Philipp, ed. (1885). Regesta pontificum romanorum: ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII (in Latin). Vol. Tomus primus (editio altera ed. G. Wattenbach ed.). Leipzig: Veit. pp. 283–288.
  • Kuttner, Stephan (1945). "Cardinalis: The History of a Canonical Concept". Traditio. 3: 129–214.
    JSTOR 27830076
    .
  • Landon, Edward Henry (1909). A manual of councils of the Holy Catholic Church, Volume 2. p. 98.
  • Mann, Horace K. (1903). The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Vol. I: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, Part 2, 657–795.
  • McKitterick, Rosamond (2008). Charlemagne: The Formation of a European Identity. Cambridge University Press.
  • Noble, Thomas F. X. (2009). Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians. University of Pennsylvania Press.
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