Second Lateran Council

Background

In 1130 two popes had been elected: Innocent II and Anacletus II. With Bernard of Clairvaux's support Innocent was recognised in most of the West, but Rome and Sicily backed Anacletus. The schism ended with Anacletus's death in 1138, and Innocent held a great council in Rome to confirm church unity.

The council and its decrees

The council annulled the appointments of clergy made by Anacletus and excommunicated King Roger II of Sicily. Its thirty canons regulated matters of discipline such as simony, clerical marriage and clerical dress.

The canons also include protection of the Truce of God, punishment of those who attack church property, and a ban on using bows and crossbows against Christians. The ban indirectly left warfare against non-Christians outside its scope.

Outcome and significance

The Second Lateran Council produced no programme specific to crusading. Its importance lies in the papacy emerging strengthened from the schism, and in the church institutions that would proclaim the Second Crusade a few years later being able to act in unity. The placing of the Templars directly under the papacy by the bull Omne datum optimum, issued the same year, is among the institutional arrangements of this period.

Sources and debates

The council's canons are published in Tanner's collection; contemporary accounts of its sessions are limited. Whether the crossbow ban was enforced, and its effect on the law of war, is debated among medievalists.