LYONS, COUNCILS OF. The first Council of Lyons met at the summons of Pope Innocent IV. in June and July of 1245 to deliberate on the conflict between Church and emperor, on the assistance to be granted to the Holy Land and the Eastern empire, on measures of protection against the Tatars and on the suppres sion of heresy. Among these tasks the most important, in the eyes of the pope, was that the Council should lend him effectual aid in his labours to overthrow the emperor Frederick II. The con demnation of the emperor was a foregone conclusion and the objections of the emperor's representative, Thaddeus of Suessa, that the accused had not been regularly cited, that the pope was plaintiff and judge in one, and that therefore the whole process was anomalous, achieved as little success as his appeal to the future pontiff and to a truly oecumenical council. On July 17 the verdict was pronounced by Innocent IV., excommunicating Frederick and dethroning him on the grounds of perjury, sacri lege, heresy and felony. All oaths of fealty sworn to him were pronounced null and void, and the German princes were com manded to proceed with the election of a new sovereign.
bourg, 1905).
The second Council of Lyons met from May 7 to July 17, 1274, under the presidency of Pope Gregory X. Its chief result was the regulation that future elections to the papacy should be held by the college of cardinals in conclave (q.v.). It is also important through the appearance of representatives of the East ern emperor Michael VIII., who acknowledged the supremacy of the pope over the Eastern Church.
LYRA ("the Harp"), in astronomy, a constellation in the northern hemisphere. It contains Vega, the brightest star in the northern hemisphere and the fourth brightest star in the sky. The name Vega is a remnant of an Arabic phrase meaning "falling eagle"; Altair (in Aquila) is a similar remnant of "flying eagle." The star B Lyrae is an eclipsing variable with a period of 12.92 days; the system presents some abnormal features, perhaps owing to the very low densities of the two components. E Lyrae is a double double ; a binocular or even the eye shows two stars which can only be loosely connected, and a small tele scope resolves each of these into two components. The Ring Nebula in Lyra (Messier 57) is the largest and brightest example of this class of nebula.