THE TENTH GENERAL COUNCIL (1139)
Second Lateran Council
History. The day that witnessed the election of Innocent II (February 14, 1130) to the highest honor in Christendom, saw also a few hours later the election of Cardinal Pietro Pierleone as antipope. He took the name of Anacletus II. Both claimants received episcopal consecration on the same day, February 23, the former in Santa Maria Nuova, the latter in St. Peter's. By the lavish expenditure of his immense wealth and the plundered treasures of the churches, Anacletus was able to maintain the confidence and favor of the Roman people, with the result that Innocent was for a long time prevented from performing the duties of his office in Rome. When he learned that the influential family of the Frangipani, which had been one of his chief supporters, had deserted his cause and gone over to the antipope, he retired to the family fortress in Trastevere. Not feeling safe even here, he fled by way of Pisa and Genoa to France where he secured the support of Louis VI and, through the activities of St. Bernard, St. Norbert, and others, obtained the support also of the French and German bishops. On November 18, 1130, he presided over a great synod held at Clermont, which was attended by the archbishops of Lyons, Bourges, Vienne, Narbonne, Aries, Tarragona (in Spain), Auch, Aix, and Tarantaise with their suffragans and many abbots.[1] On October 18, 1131, he opened and presided over another great synod held at Reims, which came to a close on October 29. The number of bishops in attendance is uncertain. Some sources speak of 50, others of 300, while a third tells us that it was the most largely attended synod ever held in France. Besides the French, in attendance were representatives from Germany, England, Aragon, and Castile.[2] Both of these synods enacted a number of salutary disciplinary decrees. In 1132, Innocent held a synod at Piacenza,[3] and in 1135 another at Pisa, which was attended by bishops from England, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, and other countries.[4]
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