This week in Christian history: Crystal Cathedral holds last service, Council of Lyons begins

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, June 25, 2023

First Council of Lyons begins – June 26, 1245

A contemporary depiction of the First Council of Lyons, which was held in 1245. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of the opening day of the First Council of Lyons, an important Church council that tackled many pressing issues facing the Western Church in the 13th century.

Convoked by Pope Innocent IV, the purpose of the council was to address the persecution of Christians in the Holy Land, problems with the Eastern Roman Empire, an invasion from the Tartars, and problems between the Church and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.

One of the more prominent results of the Council was that Frederick II, who had taken part in the Crusades, was excommunicated, with the Church also calling for his removal from power.

“…we mark him out as bound by his sins, an outcast and deprived by our Lord of every honor and dignity; and we deprive him of them by our sentence. We absolve from their oath forever all those who are bound to him by an oath of loyalty, firmly forbidding by our apostolic authority anyone in the future to obey or heed him as emperor or king, and decreeing that anyone who henceforth offers advice, help or favor to him as to an emperor or king, automatically incurs excommunication,” stated the papal bull.

“Let those whose task it is to choose an emperor in the same empire, freely choose a successor to him.”