LATERAN COUNCILS, the general name given to numerous councils held in the Lateran church at Rome, among the more important of which may be mentioned: I. That of 649 A.D., consisting of over 100 bishops of Italy, Sicily, Sardinia, and Africa, was called by Martin I. to consider the doctrine of the Monothelites. Five sessions were held, the writings of the leading advocates of the theory were examined and condemned, and the judgment of the council, expressed in 20 canons, anathematized all who did not confess that in the one person of the Lord Jesus there are two wills and two methods of working. II. Councils held in 1105, 1112, 1116, and 1123, with reference to the con tests between the pope and the emperor concerning the right of investing bishops. The last of these, containing 300 bishops and 600 abbots, all belonging to the Latin church, and presided over by the pope, Calixtus II., adopted the principles of the con cordat passed at the imperial diet the preceding year. This declares that "the emperor surrenders to God, Peter and Paul, and to the Catholicchurch all right of investiture by king and staff. He grants that elections and ordinations shall take place freely in accordance with ecclesiastical laws. The pope agrees that the election of German pre lates shall take place in the presence of the emperor, provided it is without violence or simony. In case any election is disputed, the emperor shall render assistance to the legal party, with the advice of the archbishop and bishops. The person elected is invested with the imperial fief by the royal scepter pledged for the execution of every thing required by law. Whoever is consecrated shall also receive in like manner his investiture from other parts of the empire within six months." By this arrangement the pope, apparently, made_large concessions, but in fact through his influence he was able to control the elections. This council renewed the grant of indulgences, first made by Urban II. in 1095, in furtherance of the first crusade. It also passed additional decrees for enforcing the celibacy of the clergy. III. The council of 1139, under Innocent II., consisting of about 1000 bishops. at which the antipope, Anacletus 1I:, was condemned, and all who bad received office under him were deposed. Roger of Sicily and Arnold of Brescia were also condemned. Thirty canons of discipline were published, among which were several against simony, marriage, and immorality among the clergy. IV.
The council of 1179, under Alexander III., containing 2S0 bishops, the most of whom were Latins, was called to correct the abuses which had arisen during the schism brought to a close by the peace of Venice two years before. 'The most important of the canons published by it decreed that " hereafter the election of the popes shall be con fined to the college of cardinals, and two-thirds of the votes shall be required to make a lawful election, instead of a majority only as heretofore." This council also condemned "the errors and impieties" of the Waldenses and Albigenses. V. The council of 1215, usually called the 4th Lateran, was the most important of them all, as it marked the summit of the papal power. It consisted of 71'nrchbishops, 412 bishops, S00 abbots, the patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, and legates of other patriarchs and of crowned heads. It made the doctrine of transubstantiation an article of faith; required that all persons, of both sexes, who had reached the years of discretion, should confess to their proper priest at least once a year; appointed the time and place of assembly for another crusade; and laid a foundation for the persecution of the Albigenses and others by anathematizing all heretics who held anything in opposition to the faith; enjoining that, after condemnation, they should be delivered over to the secular arm; excommu nicating all who received, protected, or maintained heretics; and threatening with deposition all bishops who did not use their utmost endeavors to clear their dioceses of them. VI. The council of 1512-17. under Julius II. and Leo X., was important chiefly because it abolished the Pragmatic sanction of Bourges, 143S, wherein France had accepted the decisions of the council of Basle, so far as they were consistent with the liberty of the Galilean church—and substituted for it the concordat agreed on between ieo X. and Francis I. in which the liberties of the church were greatly restricted. The first article of the concordat declared that the chapters of the French cathedrals should no longer, in case of vacancy, proceed to elect the bishop; but that the king should select a proper person whom the pope should nominate to the vacant see.