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)

A TURNING POINT

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Muslims, as these canons were promulgated during the period of the crusades.

Unfortunately, we know almost nothing about the preparation, discussions and compilation of the profound council which was Lateran IV. But on fact the decrees were read and approved in the third session, November 30, 1215, and were promulgated personally by the Pope: the first time this had happened in the history of the general councils.

5. Innocent III was not able see the commencement of the crusade which he had called since he died on June 16, 1216, soon after the close of the council.83 The crusade which he called set off in 1217, and in that same year, Hugh, king of Cypress, and Andrew II (1205-1235), king of Hungary, arrived in the Holy Land. Once Jerusalem was secure the main field of battle moved to northern Egypt. The crusaders were supplied with fresh forces, and had some success against the sultan of Egypt in Damietta in 1219. They also sieged Cairo, but were compelled to break the siege by 1221. On the other hand, unfortunately, the "other crusade" (against the Albigensians and the Waldensians) was not carried out in accordance with the vision of the council. This crusade turned bloody, and was largely influenced by the land-thirsty French barons.84 Nevertheless, the supression of these heresies eventually came about through the efforts and expansion of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. By the second half of the 13th century, the once-flourishing heretical movements were broken.

6. The reception of the decrees of Lateran IV took place especially through university instruction. The Decretum Gratiani, compiled around 1140 at Bologna, had become in a short time the most important collection of canons throughout the canon law faculties of Europe. During instruction, it was typical for the lecturers to comment upon the text of Gratian's Decretals (this was similar to the method used to lecture upon the Digest of Justinian). This material, along with recent papal decrees, was supplied at the universities in 1191. The name of this compilation was the Compilatio

83 Cf. KENNAN, E., “Innocent III and the First Political Crusade” in Traditio

27 (1971) 231-249.

84 ULLMANN, W., A Short History, 219.