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

Lateran III (1179),19 while the Waldensians were a smaller "poor" movement which had become popular more recently.20 The collection of Anselm of Lucca (Collectio Anselmi Lucensis: 1081-1083), which belongs to the canon law collections of the first epoch of the Gregorian period, had already contained some canons which dealt with those heresies that had infiltrated the Christian West from overseas.21 These Gnostic-Manichean or dualist religious concepts (e.g., the Bogomili)22 appeared in Europe at the time of the crusades, especially in the territory of Dalmatia, Italy and France. Provance and Langedoc were centers for the Cathari. The Cathari had managed to establish a number of independent dioceses there in the Twelfth century.23 The followers of Peter Waldes (d. 1197) were also present at that time in southern France, northern Italy, Germany and Bohemia.24 The Fourth Lateran Council summarized the basic Catholic doctrines in a Creed which opposed these false Christian movements. Most notably, this Creed contained a more specific exposition of the Church's teaching on the most holy Eucharist and described the change which took place at the consecration as a transubstantiation.25 At the same time, the council called for a crusade against these heresies. Among other things, this crusade mandated that propagators of these heresies be investigated

19 C. 27 (...) Eapropter, quia in Gasconia Albigesio et partibus Tolosanis et aliis locis, ita haereticorum, quos alii Catharos, alii Patrinos, alii Publicanos, alii aliis nominibus vocant, invaluit damnata perversitas, ut iam non in occulto sicut aliqui nequitatem suam exerceant, sed suum errorem publice manifestent et ad suum consensum simplices attrahant et infirmos, eos et defensores eorum et receptores anathemati decernimus subiacere, et sub anathemate prohibemus, ne quis eos in domibus vel in terra sua tenere vel fovere vel negotiationem cum eis exercere praesumat. COD 224

20 Cf. AUDISIO, G., Les 'Vaudois'. Naissance, vie et mort d’une dissidence (XUe-XVle siècles), Torino 1989.

21 Ans. 6. 58; Ans. 7. 19-20. THANER, F. (ed.), Anselmi collectio canonum una cum Collectione minore, I-II. Oeniponte 1906-1915. 297; 371-372. cf. SZUROMI Sz.A., A püspökökre vonatkozó egyházfegyelmi szabályok az Anselmi Collectio Canonumban (Bibliotheca Instituti Postgradualis Iuris Canonici Universitatis Catholicae de Petro Pázmány nominatae IV/1 ), Budapest 2000. 100-101.

22 Cf. PUECH, H. Ch., “Catharisme médiéval et bogumilisme” in Sur le manichéisme et autres essais, Paris 1979. 395-472.

23 THOUZELLIER, Ch., Hérésies et hérétiques, Roma 1969. 189-203, 223-262

24 Lexikon des Mittelalters, Stuttgart-Weimar 1999. 8. 1953-1955.

25 Canon 1.