Digital Continent Digital Continent Easter 2017 | Page 35

and lax in their own orthodoxy then “faith perishes, religion is deformed, liberty brought to
confusion, justice flouted, while heretics flourish, schismatics multiply and the Saracens, sons of
Agar the bondwoman, triumph” all of Christendom both clergy and laity were called to amend
their lives. 92 Pope Innocent III and the council members who gathered together at the Lateran
Basilica in Rome sought to bring about right orthodoxy for the eternal preservation and unity of
God and His people. 93
The council, one of the most important councils of the medieval era having long term
effects with regards to promoting orthodoxy in the Church, came to an end. The constitutions of
the council were read; the Cross of Christ venerated; “We praise you God” sung and Pope
Innocent prayed, “omnipotent, eternal God, make us devoutly bear your will always.” 94
Unfortunately, the council did not end the crusade against the Albigensians, war continuing until
April 12, 1229, well after Pope Innocent III left his earthly life July 16, 1216 in Perugia. The
work promulgated during the council however, did establish guidelines for necessary reform.
Reforms addressing abuses by clerics, refuting heresy while upholding the sacraments of the
Church. 95 Most importantly the council defined the most Holy Trinity, “we firmly believe and
simply confess that there is only one true God…Father, Son and holy Spirit, three persons but
one absolutely simple essence, substance or nature.” 96
92
Joseph Clayton, Pope Innocent III and His Times, (WI: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1941),173.
Clement Rabb, OFM, The Twenty Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church (MD: The Newman Press, 1959), 94.
94
S. Kuttner & A. Garcia y Garcia. A New Eyewitness Account of the Fourth Lateran Council, In Traditio 20 (1964):
123-29. Trans. Constantin Fasolt, https://classesv2.yale.ed/access/content/eyewitnesses.pdf, accessed May 7,
2016,375.
95
Joseph Clayton, Pope Innocent III and His Times, (WI: The Bruce Publishing Company, 1941), 190.
96
Fourth Lateran Council, http://www.papalencyclicals.net/Councils/ecum12-2.htm, accessed, February 5, 2016,
n.1.
93