First Lateran Council

Why this council matters

Lateran I belongs to the struggle over the relationship between ecclesiastical office and secular power. Its setting includes the settlement reached in the investiture controversy and the effort to protect the proper ordering of the Church.

Its canons address clerical conduct, appointments and other practical matters. They should be studied as historical legislation, not presented as though every medieval regulation were a timeless dogmatic definition. The pattern of a Western council presided over by the pope also differs historically from the earlier imperial councils.

Read and investigate

The canons are currently available through an external primary edition.