DURING the Dark Ages there were many councils held in various places: some were called for party purposes, and are unworthy of the name. We will record only those called " General Councils " by the church of Rome.
5. Held at Constantinople in A.D. 553, against the errors of Origen.
6. Held at Constantinople in 680, against the Monothelites.
7. Second Nicene Council in 787, against image breakers.
8. Constantinople in 870, against the same, and various heresies.
The above have been already looked at in our Sketches.
9. First Lateran, in 1123, to settle the right of investiture between the pope and Henry V.
10. Second Lateran, in 1139, called to settle the temporal matters of the ecclesiastics, and restore internal peace in the church. 1,000 fathers of the church attended.
11. Third Lateran, in 1179, called to consider the decrees of the antipopes. Popes were to be elected by the cardinals alone. A spiritual war was declared against schismatics and heretics, especially the Vaudois.
12. Fourth Lateran, in 1215, against the Albigenses and any called heretics. A permanent Inquisition to be established against all suspected persons. The crusades. The dogmas of transubstantiation and auricular confession were established.
13 . Lyons, in 1245. Called by Innocent IV to depose the emperor Frederick II.
14. Lyons, in 1274. The Procession of the Holy Ghost discussed. The temporary union of eastern and western churches. The various orders of mendicants reduced to four.
15. Vienne in Dauphine, in 1311-12, to suppress the order of the Knights Templars. This was really a civil matter. Philip king of France, finding the knights too powerful, sought by their suppression to gain both power and riches. The council ordered the suppression of the order, not in a way of justice, but by way of expediency, lest the king of France should be offended. As at other councils, reforms in the church were talked of, but deferred.
16. Pisa, in 1409. There were now two popes, Gregory XII and Benedict XIII. The council summoned both to attend, but neither answered. Thirty-eight charges were brought against them, and both were deposed; Alexander V was elected pope.
17. Constance, in 1414-18. Called because there were now three popes. Alexander V died the year of his election, supposed to have been poisoned, and John XIII was elected; but the two former popes refused to be deposed—"Was not a pope above a council?" The council deposed John, confirmed the canons of Pisa, and elected Martin V. Wiclif was condemned, and Huss and Jerome sent to the stake.
18. Basil, in 1431-43. Conferences with the Bohemians. Conflict with the pope, Eugenius
The power of a council declared to be above that of a pope. Eugenius was deposed, and Felix elected in 1439. Eugenius would not submit, and again there were two popes. Felix resigned in 1449. Reformation of the clergy.
19. Fifth Lateran, in 1512-17. The "pragmatic sanction" of France (as the edicts of the king were called against the usurpation of the pope in the choice of bishops), suppressed.
20. Trent, in 1545-63, to condemn the Reformation. At this council was settled what was to be the future doctrine of the church of Rome; and its Catechism is now always appealed to as the standard authority of that church.
21. Rome, in 1869-70. Infallibility of the pope declared.