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| | CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Third Lateran Council |
 | | In September, 1178, the pope in agreement with an article of the Peace of Venice, convoked an ecumenical council at the Lateran for Lent of the following year and, with that object, sent legates to different countries. |
 | | The pope presided, seated upon an elevated throne, surrounded by the cardinals, and by the prefects, senators, and consuls of Rome. |
 | | If any candidate, after securing only one-third of the votes, should arrogate to himself the papal dignity, both he and his partisans should be excluded from the ecclesiastical order and excommunicated. |
| www.newadvent.org /cathen/09017b.htm (935 words) |
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