1st Edition

The Decrees of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512–17) Their Legitimacy, Origins, Contents, and Implementation

By Nelson H. Minnich Copyright 2016
    346 Pages
    by Routledge

    346 Pages
    by Routledge

    The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17), whose 500th anniversary is being commemorated, has left a legacy little studied by scholars. The council’s status as an ecumenical council was questioned by its opponents and its decrees ignored, resisted, or only slowly implemented. This new collection of articles by Nelson H. Minnich examines: what is an ecumenical council, the reasons Lateran V qualifies as such, the roles the popes played in it, the council as a theater for demonstrating papal power, what was proposed as its agenda, what decrees were issued, and to what extent they were implemented. The decrees that receive special attention are those: affirming the legitimacy of the credit organizations known as montes pietatis that charged management fees, imposing prepublication censorship on printed works, abrogating the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges (1438), reining in the privileges of mendicant friars, and closing the council while imposing a crusade tithe. These decrees were gradually implemented and Carlo Borromeo incorporated some of the Lateran reform decrees into his conciliar legislation that was taken up by other bishops. Lateran V did leave a lasting legacy and Leo X considered the council one of his great achievements. The volume includes four studies not previously published in English.

    Preface; What is an Ecumenical Council? The 16th-century teachings of the theologian Roberto Bellarmino and the Canonist Domenico Giacobazzi; The legitimacy of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17); The Fifth Lateran Council as a theatre for demonstrating papal power; Julius II and Leo X as presidents of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517); Session IX: origins of decree Supernae dispositionis arbitrio (1514) - The Reform Proposals (1513) of Stefano Taleazzi for the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17); Session X: decree Inter multiplices on credit organization (1515) - The decree Inter multiplices of Lateran V on Montes pietatis; Session X: decree Inter sollicitudines on preventive censorship (1515) - The Fifth Lateran Council and preventive censorship of printed books; Session XI: decree Pastor Aeternus on papal control of councils (1516) - Luther, Cajetan, and Pastor Aeternus (1516) of Lateran V on conciliar authority; Session XI: decree Dum intra mentis arcana on religious and their privileges - Egidio Antonini da Viterbo, the reform of religious orders, and the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-1517); Session XII: Decree Constituti iuxta verbum on closing the council - The closing of the Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17); The implementation of Lateran V by the Milanese councils of San Carlo Borromeo; Leo X: success or failure; Index.

    Biography

    Nelson H. Minnich is Professor in the Department of History, The Catholic University of America, USA.