The Second Lateran Council
The Lateran Basilica, Rome · April 1139 · convened by Innocent II · the close of an eight-year papal schism.
Since 1130 the Western church had been divided between two claimants, Innocent II and Anacletus II. With Anacletus dead in 1138 and his successor submitted, Innocent gathered this council to undo the schism: Anacletus’s acts were annulled and the clergy he had ordained were deposed.
The council went beyond Lateran I on celibacy. Marriages contracted by clergy in major orders, and by monks and nuns, were declared to be no marriages at all. It also condemned as heretics those who rejected the Eucharist, infant baptism, the priesthood, and lawful marriage, a description aimed at the followers of Peter of Bruys and Henry of Lausanne.
Principal Acts
- Anathematized the followers of the antipope Anacletus II and annulled his ordinations.
- Condemned the Petrobrusians and Henricians as schismatic and heretical.
- Declared marriages of clergy in major orders invalid.
- Forbade the use of the bow and crossbow against Christians.
- Confirmed the decrees of Lateran I.
Why It Matters
Peter of Bruys had already been burned at Saint-Gilles for his preaching, and Henry of Lausanne would die in prison. Later Protestant historians sometimes claimed them as forerunners of the Reformation. That claim should be held loosely: their rejection of infant baptism, church buildings, and the cross stands nearer the later Anabaptists than the Reformers, and no direct line of descent can be traced.
Numbering. Rome reckons this the tenth ecumenical council. Protestants do not count it ecumenical.
The Medieval Councils
- 1123Lateran I
- 1139Lateran II
- 1179Lateran III
- 1215Lateran IV
- 1245Lyons I
- 1274Lyons II
- 1311Vienne
- 1409Pisa
- 1414Constance
- 1431Basel–Ferrara–Florence
- 1512Lateran V
- 1545Trent
Sources
- Norman P. Tanner, ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, 2 vols. (London: Sheed & Ward; Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 1990), vol. 1. Latin and English text of the canons.
- Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, vol. 5, The Middle Ages, A.D. 1049–1294 (CCEL).
