HIST-102 Lecture 14: Fourth Lateran Council
18 Nov 2020
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Document Summary
This was the fourth lateran council, and it was by far the largest, busiest, and most imposing gathering of clerics since the council of nicaea in 325. More than four hundred bishops and eight hundred abbots, with all their retinues, were in attendance. Most of the council"s work had been accomplished beforehand; the convocation was mainly a ceremonial send-off for all the ecclesiastical legislation that had been drawn up earlier. With this council the catholic church reached full maturity. It organized the papal bureaucracy into the offices that it would retain for centuries: the chancery, which dealt with records and bulls; the camera, which administered papal finances; and the datary, which headed the holy see"s judiciary wing. The council also formally established the seven sacraments of the church: baptism, confirmation, confession, the mass, marriage, ordination, and last rites. It decreed that all baptized christians had to confess their sins and receive communion at least once a year.
