Third Lateran Council

March 5, 1179

Alexander III convened three hundred bishops in Rome to tidy up after the papal schism. The council required a two-thirds majority for papal elections - a rule still in force - and condemned the Cathars and Waldensians, issuing the first formal Latin church definition of public heresy. The council also forbade Jews and Muslims from keeping Christian servants, an early step in the legal segregation that would intensify over the coming century.