Canons of the First Lateran Council
The canons of the council that Callixtus II held at the Lateran in 1123, the year after the Concordat of Worms. They repeat the reform programme: no simony, canonical election of bishops, no lay control of church property, clerical celibacy.
The translation used here follows the edition in Norman Tanner’s Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils. Tanner’s notes say that no acts of the council survive and that its canons come down in two versions with different numbering; his introduction dates the opening of the council to 18 March 1123 and counts at least three hundred bishops and abbots.
The Catholic Church reckons this the ninth ecumenical council. The canons as printed there do not name the agreement with the emperor; Tanner’s introduction says that the council approved and confirmed it, not without opposition. They are cited here for the rules on elections and lay power that the council restated.
Cited in
- 23 September 1122, firm date