sehepunkte 24 (2024), Nr. 10

Clare Monagle / Neslihan Şenocak (eds.): Lateran IV

This volume collects eight essays that were presented at the international congress 'Concilium Lateranense IV: Commemorating the Octocentenary of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215'. The conference took place on 23-28 November 2015 in Rome and resulted from the collaboration of the University of Kent, the University of Notre Dame, the University of St. Louis, John Cabot University, the University of Southampton, the American Academy in Rome, the American University at Rome, the Pontificia Università Gregoriana and the British School at Rome.

As the two editors Clare Monagle and Neslihan Şenocak point out in the introduction, the book is clearly organized in two sections, respectively dedicated to theology and pastoral care. The editors' objective is to take established scholarship further and assess to what extent the Fourth Lateran Council represented a 'watershed moment' in the development of pastoral care and theology during the thirteenth century, question whether, despite its ambitious program of reform, the Fourth Lateran Council had a much more limited and fragmented impact on the spiritual, doctrinal and pastoral life of the faithful across the Medieval West.

Such productive approach is mastered in Marcia Colish's essay on the legacy of Peter Lombard's Trinitarian theology and its implementation in canon 2 of the Fourth Lateran Council. Here Colish maintains that Lombard's exegesis was implemented in the Fourth Lateran Council through the readings of Stephen Langton and Peter the Chanter's Parisian circle, where Lombard's problematic ideas were modified and vouchsafed.

Equally, canon 1 and its expression 'devil and other demons' in the Credo, are the focus of Juanita Feros Ruys's essay. Feros Ruys argues that, building on the Augustinian tradition and Alan of Lille, canon 1 offered an alternative demonology, rejecting the traditional idea of the primacy and leading role of devil among demons. However, Feros Ruy concludes that its demonology did not receive much attention after 1215 and was only found in William of Auvergne's work in the 1230s, ultimately questioning the hegemonic legacy of canon 1.

Significantly, the varied implementation of the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council and their fragmented legacy across the Medieval West are also the focus of the second section of the book concerning pastoral care. In her essay on the pastoral reforms of the Fourth Lateran Council, especially those concerning preaching and confession, and their impact on the laity, Şenocak shows how the Council's pastoral reforms centered on the role of the pastor as teacher. The latter built on the Christological tradition of Christ as shepherd found in the Bible, the Fathers, Gregory the Great and in the Carolingian pastoral reforms and resulted in the idea of the 'good pastor' (sacerdos proprius), who reforms the Church and the laity through deeds and examples. As Şenocak noted, the model of the good pastor, living a holy life, preaching and learning, was not only central in the Fourth Lateran Council, but also in Innocent III's and Honorius III's sermons. However, it was implemented with substantial institutional differences across the Medieval West, where we find notable regional differences, especially in Italy, where pastoral care was built around the creation of parishes ('pievi'), and France, where pastoral care was the principal duty of bishops.

Accordingly, the dissemination of pastoral care reforms to the laity is the focus of Jessalyn Bird's essay. Building on Innocent III's call for the reform of Church and crusade, Bird produces an impressive in-depth study of synodal sermons collected in three BnF manuscripts, associated with the milieu of the Abbey of St Victor in Paris. Resonating Colish's conclusions, Bird maintains that Innocent III used synodal sermons to promote the reform of pastoral care and crusading in accordance with the debates and doctrines emerging in Peter the Chanter's circle and circulating through Cistercian and Victorine networks.

Indeed, it was this group of preachers who had to support the parishes and their clergy, as prescribed in canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council, examined by Aimone Braida. Following up on Şenocak's contribution, Braida especially focuses on the centrality of the conciliar creation of the 'sacerdos proprius' and the prescription of confession once a year to reform pastoral care. As Braida points out, the latter was further implemented through other conciliar decisions concerning the provision of benefices to clergy, clerical education and the support of parish churches and their fabrica through lay confraternities.

Finally, the last two essays of the volume build on related topics from a more topical perspective. On the one hand, Tommaso di Carpegna Falconieri expands on Rome as a space for the celebration of the Fourth Lateran Council. He especially looks at the Roman churches and the Roman clergy, highlighting the strong link of Rome with the surrounding regions and Lazio, while expanding on Rome as a sacred space and processional setting that accommodated the conciliar celebrations and liturgies, especially in Santa Maria in Trastevere and the Lateran. On the other hand, Anne Lester examines three Mass prayers on the Veronica attributed to Innocent III in a manuscript preserved at Amiens (ms 115) and originally produced in the Abbey of Corbie. In Lester's opinion, these prayers evidence Innocent III's concerns for the reform of the Church, the crusade and each individual church, showing how, through his meditation on the Veronica, the pope promoted those ideas as a pastor celebrating the liturgy not only in the papal chapel and Rome, but also in northern France, where the three prayers were received and recorded in the Abbey of Corbie, as the Amiens-manuscript demonstrates.

Overall, this book represents not only a valuable collection of case-studies based on unedited manuscript materials, but it also puts forward a new working scholarly interpretation on the legacy and dissemination of the Fourth Lateran Council, which will hopefully be expanded on in future studies.