Second Lateran Council (1139)
The death of Pope Honorius II (February, 1130) was followed by a
schism. Petrus Leonis (Pierleoni), under the name of Anacletus II,
for a long time held in check the legitimate pope, Innocent II,
who was supported by St. Bernard and St. Norbert. In 1135 Innocent
II celebrated a Council at Pisa, and his cause gained steadily
until, in January, 1138, the death of Anacletus helped largely to
solve the difficulty. Nevertheless, to efface the last vestiges of
the schism, to condemn various errors and reform abuses among
clergy and people Innocent, in the month of April, 1139, convoked,
at the Lateran, the tenth ecumenical council. Nearly a thousand
prelates, from most of the Christian nations, assisted. The pope
opened the council with a discourse, and deposed from their
offices those who had been ordained and instituted by the antipope
and by his chief partisans, AEgidius of Tusculum and Gerard of
Angouleme. As Roger, King of Sicily, a partisan of Anacletus who
had been reconciled with Innocent, persisted in maintaining in
Southern Italy his schismatical attitude, he was excommunicated.
The council likewise condemned the errors of the Petrobrusians and
the Henricians, the followers of two active and dangerous
heretics, Peter of Bruys and Arnold of Brescia. The council
promulgated against these heretics its twenty-third canon, a
repetition of the third canon of the Council of Toulouse (1119)
against the Manichaeans. Finally, the council drew up measures for
the amendment of ecclesiastical morals and discipline that had
grown lax during the schism. Twenty-eight canons pertinent to
these matters reproduced in great part the decrees of the Council
of Reims, in 1131, and the Council of Clermont, in 1130, whose
enactments, frequently cited since then under the name of the
Lateran Council, acquired thereby increase of authority.
� Canon 4: Injunction to bishops and ecclesiastics not to
scandalize anyone by the colours, the shape, or extravagance of
their garments, but to clothe themselves in a modest and well-
regulated manner.
� Canons 6, 7, 11: Condemnation and repression of marriage and
concubinage among priests, deacons, subdeacons, monks, and nuns.
� Canon 10: Excommunication of laymen who fail to Pay the tithes
due the bishops, or who do not surrender to the latter the
churches of which they retain possession, whether received from
bishops, or obtained from princes or other persons.
� Canon 12 fixes the periods and the duration of the Truce of
God.
� Canon 14: Prohibition, under pain of deprivation of Christian
burial, of jousts and tournaments which jeopardize life.
� Canon 20: Kings and princes are to dispense justice in
consultation with the bishops.
� Canon 25: No one must accept a benefice at the hands of a
layman.
� Canon 27: Nuns are prohibited from singing the Divine Office in
the same choir with monks or canons.
� Canon 28: No church must be left vacant more than three years
from the death of the bishop; anathema is pronounced against those
(secular) canons who exclude from episcopal election "persons of
piety" -- i. e. regular canons or monks.
H. LECLERCQ
Transcribed by Tomas Hancil
From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright (c) 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright (c) 1996 by
New Advent, Inc.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
effort aimed at placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913
edition on the World Wide Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight,
editor of the New Advent Catholic Website. If you would like to
contribute to this worthwhile project, you can contact him by e-
mail at (knight.org/advent). For more information please download
the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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