Councils

The twelfth century witnessed the first large 'general' synods since the seminal councils of the fourth to the ninth centuries. Most notable are the four Lateran councils (1123,1139,1179 and 1215) and the two Lyon councils (1245 and 1274), the largest of them attended by over a thousand prelates from throughout the Latin Church and beyond, though representation from each country was by no means proportional, and observers from the Byzantine sphere were rare.19 Important as the example of the great congresses of the late Roman era was, the medieval councils grew immediately out of the Lenten synods held by popes of the eleventh century, especially Gregory VII, to which bishops from outside Italy might be called.20 Moreover, while the earlier ecumenical councils showcased the power of the emperor in collaboration with the patriarchal bishops of the East, the dominant power in the twelfth - and thirteenth-century councils was unquestionably the pope. The decrees of Innocent III's Fourth Lateran Council, for example, were regularly referred to simply as the 'constitutiones Innocentii' or the 'constitutiones dominipape'.

Such gatherings served a number of purposes. Foremost, they were often a show of unity after a time of division. The First Lateran Council took place at the close of the Investiture Controversy. The Second Lateran Council put to rest the Anacletan schism, and the Third came at the end of the schism of Octavian (Victor IV). The First Council of Lyon aimed to consolidate resistance to Frederick II, who was deposed at the meeting. Finally, the Second Council of Lyon followed a long (nearly three-year) and bitter vacancy in the papal office. The papacy also used councils to thunder against those perceived by clerical elites to be enemies of the church, such as Cathars (at the Third Lateran), Greeks (at the Fourth Lateran) and Saracens (Fourth Lateran and Second Lyon both called for crusades). At the same time, the councils of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries laid out clear directions for ecclesiastical reform; they prohibited clerics from engaging in sex (all four Lateran councils) or the shedding of blood (Second and Third Lateran), restricted pluralism (Third Lateran and Second Lyon), insisted upon an educated and 'suitable' clergy (Third and Fourth Lateran especially), mandated poverty and enclosure for monks (Third Lateran) and outlawed new regular orders (Fourth Lateran and Second Lyon). Matters directly affecting the laity were less evident, but by no means absent. Second Lateran, for example, forbade tournaments; Fourth Lateran prescribed annual confession and communion and issued new regulations governing the prohibited degrees of marriage (down from seven to four); Second Lyon even addressed rowdy behaviour in church. Many historians have questioned the degree to which these provisions were imple-mented,21 but merely by expressing such standards, synodal decrees helped mould notions of virtue for both priest and parishoner alike. Nor did conciliar legislation ignore key matters of procedure and church administration, such as prelatial elections (Third Lateran), papal appeals and delegated jurisdiction, the latter two covered by First Lyon, the most legalistic of all the high-medieval councils, governed by perhaps the great jurist pope, Innocent IV.

The Lateran and Lyon councils naturally attract the most attention. These six are today among the ecumenical councils recognized by the Catholic Church. Yet, they were only part of a larger wave of papally directed synodal activity, particularly evident in France. The Council of Clermont (1095) famously inaugurated the crusades, while Rheims was the site of three councils in the twelfth century. The second of these was held by Innocent II, who also presided over meetings at Clermont, Piacenza and Pisa before the Second Lateran Council. Alexander III called a council at Tours fifteen years before Third Lateran, and between Fourth Lateran and First Lyon, Honorius III convoked the Council of Bourges. These councils dealt with many of the same issues as their more famous counterparts at the Lateran and in Lyon.