Folia Theologica 14. (2003)

Szabolcs Anzelm Szuromi: A Turning Point in the History of the General Councils of the West in the 13th Century (A Critical Summary on the Importance of the Constitutions of the Fourth Lateran Council [1215] According to its Theological, Canonical and Historical Aspect)

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SZ. A. SZUROMI

Emperor Frederick II took an oath to abide by these documents. They were promulgated as law in the empire in 1215. Innocent III saw clearly the need to take concrete steps to ensure more deeply the autonomy of spiritual authority and, thereby, to bring about the freedom of the Church's proper activities from the influence of secular powers.10 Therefore, although the Pope was well acquainted with the severe political problems facing the Church (most notably the disaster which recently had befallen the Holy Land),11 nevertheless, he convoked a general council (to be held in November 1215) through his letter of April 19,1213 addressed to the ecclesiastical and secular nobility.12

3. Called to the council were all the archbishops and bishops of the Western and Eastern Church, the general superiors of the of the religious and clerical institutes, as well as the secular Christian rulers. The extensive preparation for the council was for the sake of ensuring the widest possible attendance of those invited. Due to this extensive preparation, at least 402 bishops, including approximately 70 archbishops and primates (e.g., the Latin Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem, and the envoys of the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch),13 were in attendance. The bishops present represented the entire Western Church, including Bohemia, Hungary, Poland Lithuania, and Estonia.14 More than 800 abbots, supevacantium nostri consueverunt antecessores committere pro motu proprie voluntatis. Omnia vero spiritualia vobis et aliis ecclesiarum prelatis relinquimus libere disponenda, ut que sunt cesaris cesari et que sunt Dei Deo recta distributione reddantur. (...) MERCATI, A. (ed.), Raccolta di concordati su materie ecclesiastiche tra Ia Santa Sede e le autorità civili, Roma 1919. 38.

10 LLORCA, B.-GARCIA VILLOSLADA, R.-LABOA, J.M., Historia de Ia Iglesia Católica (Biblioteca de autores cristianos 104), II. Madrid 1999. 485.

11 Cf. SETTON, K.M. (ed.), A History of the Crusades, II. Madison-London 1969. 153-185. ALPHANDÉRY, P., La Chrétienté et l'idée de Croisade (L’Évolution de l’humanité 38), II. Paris 1959 (repr. Paris 1995) 115-148.

12 Innocentius episcopus servus servorum Dei, venerabilibus fratribus archiepiscopis, episcopis et dilectis filiis abbatibus et prioribus, decanis et archidiaconis per Teutonicas provincias constitutis.

13 WERNER, J., “Die Teilnehmer des Laterankonzils vom Jahre 1215” in Neues Archiv der Gesellschaft für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde 31 (1906) 584-592.

14 LLORCA, B.-GARCIA VILLOSLADA, R.-LABOA, J.M., Historia de la Iglesia Católica, 486.