1512–1517 · Rome
Fifth Lateran Council
Why this council matters
Lateran V met just before the Protestant Reformation and dealt with reform under Julius II and Leo X. Its setting includes the challenge posed by a rival assembly at Pisa.
The council’s work was not only administrative. Its teaching concerning the rational soul shows the interaction of philosophy and theology in this period. At the same time, the existence of reform decrees should not be confused with proof that the institutional problems they addressed had been solved in practice.
Read and investigate
The constitutions are currently available through an external primary edition.
Controversies
Church reform, a rival assembly at Pisa and questions of faith and philosophy.
Decrees
Issued constitutions on reform, ecclesiastical order and doctrinal matters.
Definitions
Its teaching includes the immortality of the individual rational soul.