LATERAN COUNCILS, the ecclesiastical councils or syn ods held at Rome in the Lateran basilica, which was dedicated to Christ under the title of Salvator, and further called the basilica of Constantinople or the church of John the Baptist. Ranking as a papal cathedral, this became a much-favoured place of assembly for ecclesiastical councils both in antiquity (313, and more especially during the middle ages. Among these num erous synods the most prominent are those which the tradition of the Roman Catholic Church has classed as oecumenical councils. In the view of the Greek Church, however, the councils held in later centuries are not recognized as oecumenical, since they did not represent all Christendom.
The fourth Lateran council (twelfth oecumenical), convened I by Pope Innocent III. in 1215, was the most brilliant and the most numerously attended of all, and marks the culminating point of a pontificate which itself represents the zenith attained by the mediaeval papacy. Prelates assembled from every country in Christendom, and with them the deputies of numerous princes. The total included 412 bishops, with Boo priors and abbots, besides the representatives of absent prelates and a number of inferior clerics. The seventy decrees of the council begin with a confession of faith directed against the Cathari and Waldenses, which is significant if only for the mention of a transubstantia tion of the elements in the Lord's Supper. A series of resolu
tions provided in detail for the organized suppression of heresy and for the institution of the episcopal inquisition (Canon 3). On every Christian, of either sex, arrived at years of discretion, the duty was imposed of confessing at least once annually and of receiving the Eucharist at least at Easter (Canon 21). En actments were also passed touching procedure in the ecclesiastical courts, the creation of new monastic orders, appointments to offices in the church, marriage-law, conventual discipline, the veneration of relics, pilgrimages and intercourse with Jews and Saracens. Finally, a great crusade was resolved upon, to defray the expenses of which it was determined that the clergy should lay aside one-twentieth—the pope and the cardinals one-tenth of their revenues for the next three years ; while the crusaders were to be held free of all burdens during the period of their absence.