Fourth Lateran Council

Fourth Lateran Council 1215, 12th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convened at the Lateran Palace, Rome, by Pope Innocent III to crown the work of his pontificate. It was one of the most important councils ever held, and its canons sum up Innocent's ideas for the church. They include a statement of faith with a definition of transubstantiation, confirmation of all kinds of previous disciplinary canons, regulations for the trials of ecclesiastics, arrangements for a new crusade, and many other important matters. This council established the requirements of confession at least once a year and communion at Easter time as the minimum requirement for church membership, called the Easter duty.

Lateran Councils. A series of councils of the Roman Catholic Church held at the Lateran Palace in Rome from the 7th to the 18th cents. Five are considered ecumenical, of which the most important was the Fourth (1215), with a definition of the eucharist in which the word ‘transubstantiate’ was used for the first time, and annual confession for all Christians was prescribed.

Lateran Councils. A series of councils held at the Lateran Palace in Rome from the 7th to the 18th cent.; five of them rank as oecumenical in the W. Church. The First (1123) ratified the Concordat of Worms ending the Investiture contest; the Second (1139) condemned the followers of Arnold of Brescia; the Third (1179) regulated Papal elections; the Fourth (1215) defined Eucharistic doctrine (for the first time officially using the word ‘transubstantiate’) and prescribed annual confession; the Fifth (1512–17) invalidated the decrees of the antipapal Council of Pisa convoked by Louis XII of France.