Fourth Council of the Lateran

1215 AD

Introduction

1. Confession of Fath
2. On the error of Abbot Joachim
3. On Heretics
4. On the pride of the Greeks towards the Latins
5. The dignity of the patriarchal sees
6. On yearly provincial councils
7. The correction of offences and the reform of morals
8. On inquests
9. On different rites within the same faith
10. On appointing preachers
11. On schoolmasters for the poor
12. On general chapters of monks
13. A prohibition against new religious orders
14. Clerical incontinence
15. Clerical gluttony and drunkeness
16. Decorum in the dress and behaviour of clerics
17. Dissolute prelates
18. Clerics to dissociate from shedding-blood
19. That profane objects may not be stored in churches
20. Chrism and the Eucharist to be kept under lock and key
21. On yearly confession to one’s own priest, yearly communion, the confessional seal
22. Physicians of the body to advise patients to call physicians of the soul
23. Churches are to be without a prelate for no more than 3 months
24. Democratic election of pastors
25. Invalid elections
26. Nominees for prelatures to be carefully screened
27. Candidates for the priesthood to be carefully trained and scrutinized
28. Who asks to resign must resign
29. Multiple benefices require papal dispensation
30. Penalties for bestowing ecclesiatical benefices on the unworthy
31. Canons’ sons cannot be canons where their fathers are
32. Parish priests to have adequate incomes
33. Renumeration for visitations to be reasonable
34. Prelates forbidden to procure ecclesiastical services at a profit
35. On appeal procedures
36. On interlocutory sentences
37. On Summons by Apostolic Letter
38. Written records of trials to be kept
39. On knowingly receiving stolen goods
40. True owner is the true possessor even if not possessing the object for a year
41. No one is to knowingly prescribe an object to the wrong party
42. Clerics and laity are not to usurp each others rights
43. Clerics cannot be forced to take oaths of fealty to those from whom they hold no temporalities
44. Only clerics may dispose of church property
45. Penalties for patrons who steal church goods or physically harm their clerics
46. Taxes cannot be levied on the Church, but the Church can volunteer contributions for the common good
47. On unjust excommunication
48. Challenging an ecclesiastical judge
49. Penalties for excommunication out of avarice
50. Prohibition of marriage is now perpetually restricted to the fourth degree
51. Clandestine marriages forbidden
52. On rejecting evidence from hearsay at a matrimonial suit
53. On those who give their fields to others to be cultivated so as to avoid tithes
54. Tithes should be paid before taxes
55. Tithes are to be paid on lands acquired, notwithstanding privileges
56. A parish priest shall not lose a tithe on account of some people making a pact
57. Interpreting the words of privileges
58. On the same in favour of bishops
59. Religious cannot give surety without permission of his abbot and convent
60. Abbots not to encroach on episcopal office
61. Religious may not receive tithes from lay hands
62. Regarding saint’s relics
63. On simony
64. Simony with regards to monks and nuns
65. Simony and extortion
66. Simony and avarice in clerics
67. Jews and excessive Usury
68. Jews appearing in public
69. Jews not to hold public offices
70. Jewish converts may not retain their old rite
71. Crusade to recover the holy Land