The Fifth Lateran Council (1512-17): Studies on Its Memberships, Diplomacy, and Proposals for Reform

by Nelson H. Minnich

The Fifth Lateran Council has often been dismissed as of minor signifiance, being poorly attended, and, with the benefit of hindsight, because it failed to prevent the Protestant Reformation. Nelson Minnich's research, exploiting a mass of unused archival material, had helped to transform this picture, and he argues, as did contemporaries, that it could be seen as a success, given the limitations imposed upon it by circumstances beyond its control. The first article here details who attended the council, and the following ones examine the diplomatic activity that surrounded it and the proposals put forward for reform; other studies are gathered in a separate volume. Particular themes that emerge are the emphasis popes Julius II and Leo X placed on promoting orthodoxy and reform, preserving the spiritual and temporal prerogatives of the papacy, and finally quashing the Pisan schism - at the expense of the rulers of the Empire and France. Appendices, publishing new documents, follow two of the articles.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0860783499
• ISBN13: 9780860783497
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Variorum
• Length: 1 Pages