The Third Lateran Council
The Lateran Basilica, Rome · March 1179 · convened by Alexander III · the rules of papal election, and the first move against the Cathars.
Alexander III had spent most of his pontificate contending with antipopes backed by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. The Peace of Venice in 1177 ended that contest, and the council met to prevent another. Its decree Licet de vitanda required a two-thirds majority of the cardinals for a valid papal election, a rule that, with modifications, still governs the conclave.
The council also condemned the Cathars of southern France, dualist heretics who rejected the goodness of the material world, and summoned princes to take up arms against them. In the same season Valdes of Lyons, founder of the movement later called the Waldensians, sought papal approval. Alexander commended his vow of poverty but forbade him to preach without the leave of the bishops.
Principal Acts
- Required a two-thirds vote of the cardinals for papal elections.
- Condemned the Cathars and those who protected them.
- Annulled the ordinations of the schismatic antipopes.
- Required cathedral churches to maintain a master to teach clergy and poor scholars without charge.
Why It Matters
The Waldensians, refused a hearing for their preaching here, survived three and a half centuries of persecution in the Alpine valleys. At the Synod of Chanforan in 1532 they resolved to join the Reformed churches, and their pastors helped fund Olivétan’s French Bible of 1535.
Numbering. Rome reckons this the eleventh 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
