Lateran Council, Fifth

Lateran Council, Fifth,

1512–17, 18th ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church, convened by Pope Julius IIJulius II,
1443–1513, pope (1503–13), an Italian named Giuliano della Rovere, b. Savona; successor of Pius III. His uncle Sixtus IV gave him many offices and created him cardinal.
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 and continued by his successor Leo XLeo X,
1475–1521, pope (1513–21), a Florentine named Giovanni de' Medici; successor of Julius II. He was the son of Lorenzo de' Medici, was made a cardinal in his boyhood, and was head of his family before he was 30 (see Medici).
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. Julius called the council to counter an attempt begun (1510) by Louis XII of France to revive the conciliar theory (i.e., that a council has supreme power, even over the pope) of a hundred years before (see Schism, GreatSchism, Great,
or Schism of the West,
division in the Roman Catholic Church from 1378 to 1417. There was no question of faith or practice involved; the schism was a matter of persons and politics.
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) and thus precipitate a new schism. In this maneuver the council was a success. The Concordat of 1516, a papal settlement with France, was ratified there. Otherwise the council accomplished little; the reforming party had to wait until the Council of Trent. It did republish the bull of Julius (1503), which declared that simony invalidated a papal election—a signal reform. Interesting enactments of the council include a decree legalizing the charitable pawnshops the Franciscans had been establishing and another that set up a censorship of printed books.