title: Lateran council
text: # Lateran council
  
  The Lateran councils were ecclesiastical councils or synods of the Catholic Church held at Rome in the Lateran Palace next to the Lateran Basilica. Ranking as a papal cathedral, this became a much-favored place of assembly for ecclesiastical councils both in antiquity (313, 487) and more especially during the Middle Ages.
  
  ## Prominent synods
  
  Among these numerous synods the most prominent are five which the tradition of the Catholic Church has classed as ecumenical councils:
  
  * The First Council of the Lateran (1123) followed and confirmed the concordat of Worms.
  * The Second Council of the Lateran (1139) declared clerical marriages invalid, regulated clerical dress, and punished attacks on clerics by excommunication.
  * The Third Council of the Lateran (1179) limited papal electees to the cardinals alone, condemned simony, and forbade the promotion of anyone to the episcopate before the age of thirty.
  * The Fourth Council of the Lateran (1215) dealt with transubstantiation, papal primacy, and conduct of clergy. It said Jews and Muslims should wear a special dress to distinguish them from Christians.
  * The Fifth Council of the Lateran (1512–1517) attempted reform of the church.
  
  A number of non-ecumenical councils were held at the Lateran, including the Lateran Council of 649 against Monothelitism, the Lateran Council of 769 against iconoclasm, and the Lateran Council of 964.
  
  ## Other noteworthy synods
  
  * In the synod of 313, Donatism was declared a heresy. This was followed up a year later in the Council of Arles.
  