  the third council of the lateran met in march 1179 as the eleventh ecumenical council. pope alexander iii presided and 302 bishops attended. by agreement reached at the peace of venice in 1177 the bitter conflict between alexander iii and emperor frederick i was brought to an end. when pope hadrian iv died in 1159, the divided cardinals elected two popes: roland of siena, who took the name of alexander iii, and octavian of rome who, though nominated by fewer cardinals, was supported by frederick and assumed the name of pope victor iv. frederick, wishing to remove all that stood in the way of his authority in italy, declared war upon the italian states and especially the church which was enjoying great authority. a serious schism arose out of this conflict, and after victor iv's death in 1164, two further antipopes were nominated in opposition to alexander iii: paschal iii (1164&ndash;1168) and callistus iii (1168&ndash;1178). eventually, at the peace of venice, when alexander gained victory, he promised frederick that he would summon an ecumenical council. besides removing the remains of the recent schism, the council condemned the waldensian and cathar heresies and pushed for the restoration of ecclesiastical discipline. it also became the first general council of the church to legislate against sodomy. three sessions were held, on 5, 14, and 19 march, in which 27 canons were promulgated. the most important of these were: *canon 1. in order to prevent the possibility of future schisms, only cardinals were to possess the right to elect a pope. in addition a two-thirds majority was to be required in order for the election to be valid. if any candidate should declare himself pope without receiving the required majority, he and his supporters were to be excommunicated. *canon 2 declared null and void those ordinations performed by the antipopes octavian (victor iv), guy of crema (paschal iii), and john de struma (antipope callixtus iii). *canon 3 forbade the promotion of anyone to a parish before the age of 25 and to the [
1179_in_Italy 12th-century_Roman_Catholic_Church_Councils Catharism Ecumenical_councils Lateran_councils