The Fourth Lateran Council, first announced in the letter Vineam Domini of 1213, took place in the Lateran basilica and palace complex in Rome from November 11 to November 30, 1215. Not only did it represent the culmination of the work of the legislative councils of the twelfth century, but it incorporated the intellectual and scientific developments in the fields of theology and canon law that had taken place in the schools as well as the strong claims for papal authority that had grown up at the same time in both fields. The council also, as Innocent had said in Vineam Domini, attempted to fulfill the two great aims of his pontificate, the moral reform of the church and the recovery of the Holy Land.
It was an immensely large church council, including 71 primates, 412 bishops, 802 abbots and priors, and thousands of other clergy—a total of around 5,000 clerical personnel, including the primate of the Maronites, the troubadourturned-bishop of Toulouse Fulk of Marseilles in the company of Saint Domingo de Guzmán, representatives of the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, and representatives of Frederick II, the emperor Henry of Constantinople, and those of the kings of England, France, Aragón, Hungary, Cyprus, and Jerusalem. Only two bishops were to be left behind in each province, and every ecclesiastical community that was not attending had to send a delegate. The number of visitors was so great that the council was usually referred to simply as “the Great Council.” The presence of the participants put a great material strain on the resources of the city of Rome and surrounding regions, since Rome itself had a population of only around 35,000 people in 1215. Innocent III also had to place a limit on the numbers of staff and servants each prelate might bring with him to Rome.
The council had much other business besides the decisions on dogma that it made. The problem of the Albigensian Crusade loomed large, since both Raymond VII of Toulouse and others involved were also present in Rome. So did the problem of the dispute between Otto IV and the young Frederick II over the empire. In the midst of the council Innocent III led a long and quite spectacular procession to reconsecrate the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. These aspects and others made the council vividly memorable to those who had witnessed it and fascinating to those who read or heard their reports.
In this section we use two of Innocent III’s three letters about the council from 1213, Quia maior (No. 11) and Pium et sanctum (No. 12), circulated widely to virtually all the spiritual and temporal leaders in Europe, as well as a recruiting sermon probably preached between 1213 and 1217 (No. 13), Innocent’s responses to questions of his representatives on crusade matters (No. 14), Roger Wendover’s short and secondhand but textually important account (No. 15), and canon 71, the crusade canon, of the Fourth Lateran Council, Ad liberandam (No. 16).
In April 1213, the papal curia drafted three letters setting forth the plans of Pope Innocent III for a new crusade and summoning a general council to be held in 1215. The longest of these letters, known as Quia maior from the opening words of its Latin text, was devoted to planning for the crusade. A second letter, Pium et sanctum, issued at the same time (No. 12 below) appointed preachers to work on behalf of the crusade, while Vineam Domini (discussed above, Introduction) announced the purpose and date of the council. Innocent devoted great care to the preparation for the crusade. His earlier experience with the Fourth Crusade and the troubles of the ongoing Albigensian Crusade made it all the more important that there should be detailed planning and continuing supervision. Quia maior was an effort to codify the experience that various popes had gleaned during the previous century. Yet, this document remained tentative in some of its features, leaving important questions to be settled at the council. For this reason, it should be read in conjunction with Ad liberandam, canon 71 of the Fourth Lateran Council (below, No. 16) and Post miserabile (above, No. 2).
BECAUSE there is now greater need than ever before to provide for the needs of the Holy Land, and from that assistance it is hoped that greater than ever benefit will result, behold, we cry out to you with a new summons. We cry out on behalf of him, made obedient to God the Father even to the death on the cross, who, while dying on the cross, called out in a loud voice, crying out that he might save us from the torture of eternal death [Mt 27:50; Lk 23:46]. And he cried out also for himself and said, “If anyone wishes to follow me, he should deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me” [Mt 16:24]. It was as if he said more clearly: He who wishes to follow me to the crown, let him hasten to the battle which now is proposed for the testing of all. For almighty God could, if he wished, defend that land entirely so that it would not be handed over to the hands of the enemy. He could also, if he wished, free it quite easily from the hands of the enemy, since nothing can resist his will [Rom 9:19].
But, since evil now abounds [Rom 5:20] and the charity of many has become cold [Mt 24:12], in order to arouse his faithful from the dream of death to a desire for life, God has proposed a task for them in which he can test their faith like gold in a furnace [1 Pt 1:7], presenting them with an opportunity for salvation, indeed a reason for salvation so that those who strive mightily for him might be happily crowned by him, and those who are unwilling at a time of such necessity to become his servants will merit a just sentence of damnation on the final day of the last judgment. O how great a benefit will result from this cause; how many, converted to penitence, have handed themselves over by service of the Crucified for the liberation of the Holy Land, as if by suffering martyrdom they have obtained the crown of the glory [cf. 1 Pt 5:4; 1 Thes 2:19], who would perhaps have perished in their iniquities entangled in carnal desires and earthly seductions.
This is an old device of Jesus Christ that he deigned to renew in these days for the salvation of his faithful. For if some temporal king was deprived of his kingdom by his enemies, if his vassals did not only sacrifice their property but also their persons, would he not when he recovered his lost kingdom condemn them as unfaithful and devise unthinkable tortures against them, by which he might evilly ruin the evil men? Thus the King of kings, our Lord Jesus Christ, who brought body and soul and other goods to you, will condemn you for the vice of ingratitude and the crime of infidelity if you should fail to aid him with the result that he lost his kingdom that he bought with the price of his blood.
Know then that whoever denies aid to the Redeemer in this time of his need is culpably harsh and harshly culpable. For, also, insofar as, according to the divine command, he loves his neighbor as himself and for him [Lv 19:18; Mt 19:19], he knows that his brethren in faith and in the Christian name are imprisoned by the faithless Saracens in a cruel prison and endure the harsh yoke of slavery, he does not expend the efficacious work for their liberation, that the Lord spoke of in the Gospel. “Do to others whatever you wish them to do to you” [Mt 7:12]. Or perhaps you do not know that many thousands of Christians are held in prison and slavery by them and they suffer countless torments?
And, indeed, the Christian people possessed almost all the Saracen provinces until after the time of Saint Gregory.1 But after that time, a certain son of perdition, the pseudo-prophet Muhammad, arose, and he seduced many away from the truth with carnal enticements and pleasures. Even though his perfidy has lasted until the present, still we trust in the Lord who has now made a good sign that the end of this beast, whose number, according to John’s Apocalypse [Apoc 13:18], counts 666, of which now almost six hundred years are completed, approaches.2
Certainly, besides the earlier great and serious injuries heaped on our Redeemer for our offenses by the faithless Saracens, recently, to the confusion of the Christian name, they built a fortress on Mount Tabor, where Christ showed the nature of his future glorification to his disciples. By this, they think that they may be able to occupy the nearby city of Acre quite easily, and then, without any resistance, invade the rest of this land, since it is almost devoid of men and wealth. Therefore, dearly beloved sons, changing dissensions and fratricidal jealousies into treaties of peace and goodwill, let us gird ourselves to come to the aid of the Crucified, not hesitating to risk property and life for him who laid down his life and shed his blood for us; likewise certain and sure, that if you should be truly penitent, through this temporal labor, as if by a certain shortcut, you will arrive at eternal life.
For we, empowered by the mercy of almighty God and the apostles Peter and Paul, from that power which God gave to us, although unworthy, of binding and loosing, grant the full forgiveness of their sins to all, contrite in heart and having confessed orally, who undertake this labor in their own persons and at their own expense, and we promise an increase of eternal salvation in payment of the just. But, to those who do not make the journey in person, but send suitable men at their expense according to their ability and income, and to whose also who even at the expense of another, make the journey personally, we grant the full pardon of their sins. And we desire and concede that all who donate a suitable amount from their wealth for the support of the Holy Land may share in this remission according to the amount of their support and the depth of their devotion.
We also receive the persons and property of all who take the cross under the protection of Saint Peter and our own, and they are also under that of archbishops, bishops, and all prelates of the church. We decree that they and their goods should be maintained whole and safe until there is certainty about their return or their death. If anyone should act contrary to this, ecclesiastical censure should be levied without any appeal by the prelates of the church. If any about to set out owe loans, sworn by oath, at interest, we order their creditors to be forced by the same requirement to remit the loans sworn to them and to stop the payment of interest. But if any creditors should force them to pay interest, we order them by the same instruction to pay it back. But we order that Jews to be forced to pay back their interest by the secular power, and, until they remit it, contact with all Christ’s faithful, under penalty of excommunication, both in goods and other matters should be denied them.
But so that aid to the Holy Land may be more easily shared among several individuals, we ask each and all, through the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, confessing one single truth, one eternal God, in place of Christ, for Christ, to divide among themselves by archbishops and bishops, abbots and priors, and the chapters of cathedrals and conventual churches, as well as cities, villas, and towns, a certain number of fighters with expenses necessary for three years according to their abilities. And if one cannot fulfill this, let several be joined together as one, because we hope that persons will not be lacking if there is sufficient funding. We ask that this be done by kings and princes, counts and barons, and other magnates, who perhaps cannot personally go to the aid of the Crucified. We seek naval help from maritime cities. So that we may not appear to be imposing heavy and unsupportable burdens, while we do little or nothing, we protest before God in truth that what we require others to do, we will ourselves be ready to do. We provide for the needs of the clergy for this business to be met so that, without opposition, they may be able to mortgage the income of their benefices for up to three years. Since aid for the Holy Land would be quite impeded and delayed if it should be necessary to examine each person for suitability and sufficient means to take on personally this kind of vow before taking the cross, we grant that, save for members of religious orders, whoever wishes may receive the sign of the cross, so that should urgent necessity or a clear benefit require it, the vow can be commuted or redeemed or deferred by apostolic mandate.
And for the same reason, we revoke the remission of sins and indulgences we granted up to this time for those setting out against the Moors in Spain or against the heretics in Provence, especially since they were granted for reasons that are now entirely in the past, and for a particular reason that has for the most part ceased. In both cases things have now prospered so that there is no urgent need. If required, we will take care to act in any immediate necessity. But we agree that remissions and indulgences of this kind should still be available to the men of Provence and Spain. Because corsairs and pirates put too great obstacles in the way by seizing and despoiling aid passing to and from the Holy Land, we bind them and their chief supporters and patrons with the chain of excommunication, forbidding under the menace of anathema anyone to have business with them in any contract involving sale or purchase, and ordering the rulers of cities and their possessions to recall them and hold their iniquity in check. Otherwise, since being unwilling to prevent evil men is nothing else but to favor them, and he suffers by suspicion of a secret association who is unable to oppose open villainy, we will take care to exercise ecclesiastical severity against their persons and lands, since such men are, no less than Saracens, enemies of the Christian name.
In addition, we renew the sentence of excommunication promulgated in the Lateran Council against those who trade with their galleys in arms, iron, and lumber with the Saracens, and those who are in charge of Saracen ships, and we consider that they should be deprived of their property and seized as slaves if they should be captured.3 We order that in every maritime city this sentence should be renewed on Sundays and feast days. But since in the long run we should trust more in divine mercy than human power, we ought to struggle in this conflict not only with physical weapons but also with spiritual.
And so we decree and order that every month there should be a separate general procession of men, and, where possible, separate for women, in humility of mind and body, where word of the salvation-bringing cross is proposed with diligent exhortation to the people, with devout insistence of prayers asking that the merciful God should take away the opprobrium of this confusion, freeing from the hands of the pagans that land in which he established all the sacraments of our redemption, restoring it to the Christian people to the praise and glory of his holy name.4 Fasting and alms should be joined to prayer in order that the prayer may fly more easily and quickly to the most pious ears of God, who hears us with mercy at the proper time. Every day during the solemnities of the mass, after the kiss of peace, when the offering for the sins of the world or the salvific host is consumed, all, both men and women, should prostrate themselves on the ground and the following psalm is to be sung in a high voice by the clerics: “O God, the gentiles have come into your inheritance . . .” [Ps 78], and at the end, “Rise up, O God, and your enemies will scatter, and those who hate him will flee from his face” [Ps 68]. The celebrant will sing this prayer at the altar: “We humbly pray you, O God, who arrange all things with wonderful Providence, that, seizing the land that your only-begotten son has consecrated with his own blood from the hands of the enemies of the cross you restore it to Christian worship. Direct the vows of his constant faithful mercifully to its liberation in the road of eternal salvation. Amen.”
Moreover, in those churches where the general procession is held, a concave trunk should be placed with three keys each in the charge of an honest priest, a devout layman, and a member of a religious order, in which clergy and laity, men and women, may put their alms to be used for the aid of the Holy Land according the decision of those to whom its care has been entrusted. Still, it is not necessary to make any decision on the usual and established process and transit or on the suitable time and place [for departure] until the army of the Lord is signed with the cross, but after considering all the circumstances, we will decide whatever we see to be proper from the counsel of prudent men. To carry out these affairs, we appoint our beloved sons, the abbots Eberhard of Salem and Peter, formerly of Neuburg, and C[onrad], the dean of Speyer, and the provost of Augsburg, men generally recognized to be of proven honesty and trust. And they may, on our authority, appoint acceptable men of foresight and honesty and decide whatever seems necessary for this business, carrying out faithfully and carefully those things they decide in individual dioceses through suitable men especially appointed for this purpose. For this reason, we admonish by asking you as a whole and we implore you in the Lord, commanding by apostolic letters and enjoining in the power of the Holy Spirit that you care for such men enjoying the legateship for Christ, ministering to their needs, that they may produce the desired fruit through you and in you.
Following his general letter Quia maior, Innocent III sent the following letter, known as Pium et sanctum, around the middle of April 1213 to those he was appointing as crusade preachers. This letter was addressed to individuals whose work was already known to the papal curia, who had served, in many cases, as judges delegate. Many possessed considerable education. It is evident that the pope wished to use the two years prior to the meeting of the Fourth Lateran Council for a systematic program of crusade recruitment. His preachers reached all parts of western Europe. The copy translated here was sent to the immense ecclesiastical province of Mainz.
WE have conceived a plan for the aid of the Holy Land, and we have been working to bring it to fruition, as you can see clearly from our general letter. Since, therefore, we would obtain a fuller faith from your sincerity and care, and we consider you suitable to enjoy the office of legation for Christ in this case, we admonish, we request, and beseech your devotion in the Lord, commanding you strictly in advance by an apostolic letter and enjoining you in the remission of sins, that, on fire with zeal for the Christian faith, you should carry the word of the cross throughout the province of Mainz in heart and body, to avenge the injury of the Crucified. Just as is contained in our general letter, you should persuade the faithful with solicitous care and accurate solicitude, pursuing diligently and effectively all that you see contained in the same letter for the assistance of the Holy Land, of which we wish you to take careful note.
Moreover, so that in carrying out these tasks you may demonstrate that you carry the stigmata of Jesus Christ in your hearts, we strictly command that, rejecting every gift, you should not exceed on your travels the number of four or six persons in your company. Nor should you take anything except food and necessities from anyone, and you should consume these moderately and modestly. Also, you should keep modesty in these and other things so that nothing blameworthy may be found in you through which even a small offense to the gospel may be credited to you. You should promote with such desire and vigilance the cause of Christ that you may be a participant in the many and great goods we believe will come of it. If anything should be offered to you for the aid of the Holy Land, you should order it to be put carefully in some religious place. You should notify us of the details and result of your charge at the end of a year so that we may learn with whom you have worked in persons and in affairs dedicated to this salutary business, and we will reply to you with pleasure in what way you should proceed.
From the late twelfth to the mid-thirteenth century, networks of Paris-trained masters collaborated with members of the Cistercian, Premonstratensian, and, later, mendicant orders in the promotion of various reforming and pastoral programs and several crusades. The increasing institutionalization and intensification of crusade recruiting meant that, for the first time, manuals specifically designed for the crusade preacher began to be produced, and crusading sermons were recorded by Paris masters and their monastic and mendicant coworkers. Because these reformers viewed the crusade as an expression of religious devotion and penitence akin to life as a regular religious and the imitation of Christ accomplished by various saints, many crusading appeals were preserved in sermons for the Invention (Discovery) and Exaltation of the Cross, Easter, Laetare Sunday, and Ash Wednesday, for the feast days of various martyrs and confessors, and in homilies for the Lenten and Advent seasons. These moralists’ fusion of reform and crusade and their conception of the crusade as a permanently available and valid quasi-regular lifestyle ensured that crusaders and pilgrims also earned a place in another new genre: sermon collections aimed at various specialized estates in society. The preservation of crusading appeals was also linked to the growth in the demand for and compilation of pastoral materials in Parisian, monastic, and mendicant circles and the renewed commissioning of individuals from them to preach various crusades, which created a similar demand for the preservation of crusading propaganda.
The sermon below appears to have been delivered by an unnamed preacher to a mixed urban audience in Paris during the transition from recruiting for the Albigensian Crusade to recruiting for the Fifth Crusade (ca. 1213–1217) and was preserved by canons from Saint-Victor in Paris who collaborated with Cistercians and Paris masters in organizing the Fourth, Albigensian, and Fifth Crusades. It is particularly valuable in that it was not reworked extensively for inclusion into a sermon collection meant for other purposes, but was preserved in a rough reporting format. Although the original notetaker has shortened many themes and stories to condensed versions, this sermon and others like it more closely represent crusading appeals as actually delivered than the complex smorgasbord of themes offered in numerous model crusading sermons, which their authors intended to be altered to fit the occasion and audience as desired. The preacher drew on many materials available to him, including scriptural commentaries, the lives of the saints, and anecdotes of miracles sent to Paris in written or oral form by Paris-trained masters and Cistercians preaching the Fifth and Albigensian Crusades, including James of Vitry, Robert Courson, Oliver of Paderborn, Fulk, bishop of Toulouse, Guy, abbot of Vaux-de-Cernay (later bishop of Carcassonne), and William of Pont-de-l’Arche, archdeacon of Paris.5 The themes and arguments used by the anonymous preacher closely resemble many of those used by James of Vitry and other preachers recruiting at the time, suggesting that successful images and material were recycled and shared. The sermon here is similar to another contemporary collection of reforming sermons delivered in Paris and preserved in Bibliothèque nationale (MS lat. nouv. acq. 999) in that it has not been reworked by later compilers of crusade sermons.
The scholarship on sermons is extensive. For our subject, see Jessalynn Bird, “Paris Masters”; Bird, “James of Vitry’s Sermons to Pilgrims”; Christoph T. Maier, Crusade Propaganda and Ideology: Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross (Cambridge, 2000); Christoph T. Maier, Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, 1994); Cole, Preaching; Powell, Anatomy, 51–65.
BEHOLD, I will send fishermen to you and they will fish you out and feed upon you [Jer 16:16]. Those who take to the sea in ships [Ps 106:23]; today this is fulfilled among you [cf. Luke 4:21]. The wisdom of this world is foolishness before God [1 Cor 3:19]. Job [says]: It cannot be found in the land of those living amidst delights [Jb 28:13]. You teach such wisdom as that which [is absorbed] by someone nursing from the milk drawn from the breasts. Some old people still suckle from one of the devil’s nurses, that is the flesh, which has two teats: lust and gluttony. Others suckle another nurse of the devil, that is the world, which has two breasts: pride and cupidity. They speak against me, etc. [Ps 118:23]. For whatever the Lord considered wisdom these kind of men [viewed as] foolishness, whenever he used to teach: beware lest your hearts be weighed down by intoxication and drunkenness [Lk 21:34]. The wisdom of this world is that a man should multiply his possessions by any means whatsoever. The apostle [says]: the wisdom of the flesh is death [cf. Rom 8:6–7]. The Lord’s wisdom is most excellent, the lord’s lucid commands illuminate the eyes [Ps 18:9]. The Lord’s wisdom is [this]: to surrender what cannot be possessed for long in exchange for that which cannot be lost, to spurn riches, dignities, delights and embrace the contrary for the Lord’s sake. Those who do such things are reckoned fools by the world.
This began in Noah’s time. For when he was building the ark they used to call him a fool when he used to warn them. I say to you more than Noah that the Lord will not grant the world one hundred years before the end. And I say to you more: death will come upon you quickly and then this will be the end of the world for you. I forewarn you of the [coming] flood. Never were there so many dangers before the Flood as now: for at that time, neither taverns nor gluttony nor usury but the sin of luxury alone was the entire cause of the flood. After that sin, all were drowned because they exposed themselves to many in a wicked fashion. Therefore you ought to fear more, because a greater flood awaits you and you know that it will come [cf. Gn 6–9]. Pray therefore to the Lord king, etc. [cf. Lk 10:2; Mt 24:20; Zec 14:16–17]. Everyone considers whatever the Lord does a public privy and so the Lord does so many things against [them]. He addresses them in his ire: I in turn will laugh at your ruin, when what you fear overtakes you [Prv 1:26]. You betray me for money in this way and I will make a mockery of you. You fear poverty and baseness and wretchedness and will have them in full measure.
Behold I, etc. [Jer 16:16]. This world is a sea, so that this sea is great and spacious, etc. The sea [mare] is so named after its bitterness [amaritudine].6 For there is nothing in this world except bitterness. The sea reeks and this world is foul. Before the Lord’s countenance, the soul of the corrupt sinner stinks more than every corpse piled together at once would reek. Bitterness signifies the penalty for sin, the stench signifies sin. You cannot cross this sea unless you vomit up every sin. The sea, swelling to a great height, is raised up and signifies the swelling of pride which resembles an inflated bladder. The sea is stormy and signifies anger and tempestuous hatred. Concerning the woman who claimed that she was made a prostitute through the wickedness of her husband.7 The sea is cloudy and signifies the sad state of the world by which death is wrought and the envy of those who are made downcast by their neighbors’ successes. The sea, which receives all waters and yet is never sated, signifies cupidity. The foam of the sea signifies lust. The sea expels the dead but retains the living. So the lovers of the world do not care for those dead to the world, that is, good people, but retain those living for the world, so that usurers and people of this ilk inundate the sea. In this way there is now one inundation, because you live for the world. And if I returned after ten years, I would perchance find very few of you.
Therefore the Lord sends prelates who ought to be fishers, and priests who do not look after their sheep. This sea has certain fish called dolphins who cavort before a storm. The gluttonous are of a similar nature, who are like a pig which has a mouth full of bran [even] when it is slaughtered. In addition it has infernal eels, that is, usurers who have so many . . . hiding places and are so slippery and wriggling that they cannot be held, neither through an oath nor another means. It also has whales, that is, princes who defend usury; these cannot be caught.8 Formerly, the Lord stretched out many nets. One was the Cistercian order, another the Cluniac, and yet nearly all have fled from these and other nets, and the net of penance.9 And for this reason those who are or have become fishers, are hunters. When the hunter blows the horn, the hounds ought to come with him and bark ferociously. Priests are hunting dogs, but they are mute and fat because they cannot run and are at peace with the wolves, that is, with armed robbers and similar people. The wretched priest who accepts the offering of a usurer is accursed and excommunicated because he communicates with an excommunicate.
There are seven kinds of wild beasts in this world. The lions of pride, such as knights and certain armed robbers, the serpents of envy, such as those who rejoice in another’s sin. You wallow in the sins of your fathers, yet rejoice in the sin of priests. On the priest Martin.10 The wild boar is the irascible. The wild ass is the despairing [accidiosus]. The foxes of cupidity are deceitful merchants. Concerning a certain man who used to say “I’ll put them [that is, my coins] into my ‘wicked profit,’ calling his purse ‘wicked profit.’”11 Concerning the hawkers and the mongers, they are as many as they are varied. Concerning the hostelers who are traitors; a gluttonous bear who makes a larder of his belly.12 For this reason the behemoth sleeps in damp places . . .13 About the boy slain from the drunkard’s stench, the pig of lust.14
On the types of lust. [To] the whore [lecatrix] who bares her breasts for fondling at any hour, if you die without penance and confession, you will perish without end. Understand wretched lecher, if there perhaps is anyone of this ilk or more, who perchance possess in themselves all these beasts or one or two of them (and one suffices for eternal damnation), I have a net of the lord pope which I hold out to you, that is, a pardon which the Lord sends into the land. If you understood this pardon as the bishops and archbishops do, you would run to it.15 Pray therefore to the King of Paradise that he might illuminate your hearts.
There are seven nets. The first is the forgiveness of every sin. If Judas himself came to me, I would say to him, if you are penitent and confessed, take this way and you will be like a child who comes down from baptism.16 All the great sinners are captured by this net. The second net is for the penitents, that is, the quittance of all penances through this way. Whereas the evil will burn in hell for as many years as there are drops of water in the sea, and only then will their punishment be revoked, if you are confessed and penitent and die with this pardon, you will suffer no infernal or purgatorial punishment but will be freed through this way. The fourth net is the kingdom of heaven. The fifth is the release from all other voyages.17 The sixth concerns the relatives and wives and friends associated with you in your voyage, if they should die, because you can help them in this manner.18 The seventh net is if you should die before you undertake this journey, provided you have a firm intention of going, you will fly with this pardon to the Lord, because your desire will be reckoned to you as a done deed. He who takes the cross will cross over to the Lord through a shortcut and profitable way.
Many of the individuals whom Innocent III appointed to preach the Fifth Crusade were highly educated men who had either served effectively as judges delegate or proved their experience in spiritual and legal matters as leaders of important religious groups or houses. Conrad, dean of Speyer, was one of those individuals: from a prominent German family and educated in Paris, Conrad had already distinguished himself in preaching the Albigensian Crusade and would go on to become bishop of Hildesheim and imperial chancellor to Frederick II and continue to coordinate crusade efforts in Germany in that capacity. His queries to Innocent III regarding issues mentioned in Quia maior and Pium et sanctum elicited answers that reflected Innocent III’s desire to prioritize the Holy Land crusade (while not entirely neglecting crusades in other regions) and the pope’s willingness to change the very nature of crusade recruitment.
ACCORDING to the words of the apostle, you ought to take care not to [attempt] to discern the heights [Eph 3:18–20], but fear [to do so], and you with the prophet ought to realize your own imperfection, and nonetheless trust in him who gives abundantly to all [Jas 1:5]. Provided they are not importunate, he makes stammering tongues fluent [Is 32:4], and so, provided that you both humbly undertake the office of exhortation enjoined upon you and solicitously endeavor to fulfill it, he will commend your prudence. And because you will be advancing his own business most laudably, he will confer upon you fuller assurance. So then, having very favorably considered your inquiries, concerning those who, having taken up the sign of the cross, vowed to go against the heretics in Provence and have not yet fulfilled their vow, we respond that such persons ought assiduously to be persuaded to undertake the labor of the Jerusalem journey, since it is certain to be of greater merit. If perhaps they refuse to be induced to do this, they ought to be compelled to fulfill their [solemnly] spoken vow.19
Assuredly, concerning those who want to take the sign of the cross against the protests of their wives, whom you are uncertain whether because of this their resolution [to take the crusade vow] ought to be hindered, we are led to answer thus: that since the heavenly King ought to be greater than an earthly king, and it is well established that the objections of wives do not impede those called [to serve in] the army of an earthly king, it follows that those called to the army of the highest King and who wish to set out for it ought not to be impeded by the aforesaid occasion, since because of this the marital bond is not broken, but rather they are withdrawn for a time from conjugal cohabitation, which of necessity occurs frequently in many other cases.20 On the other hand, what ought to be done concerning women and other persons who take the sign of the cross, and are not fitting or able to fulfill their vow, can be inferred clearly from the general letter, in which it is expressly stated that, with the exception of persons living under a religious rule, whoever wishes to may take the sign of the cross, such that when urgent necessity or evident usefulness should demand it, their vow may be commuted or redeemed or deferred by apostolic mandate.21
Certainly, because the Lord has summoned your colleague from the light [of this earth], according to your own request, we are led to substitute the abbot of Schönau in his stead: and so that your work might be able to become more productive, both to you and to the aforesaid abbot we grant that to arsonists and to those who laid violent hands upon clerics or other ecclesiastical persons, who wishing to take the sign of the cross, and having done fitting satisfaction for the injuries suffered, you might freely impose the benefit of absolution by our authority; unless perhaps the crimes of some of them might seem so weighty and grievous that they ought to be deservedly sent to the Apostolic See [for absolution].
Roger Wendover was not present at Rome during the Fourth Lateran Council, but he was, as usual, fairly well informed about it, probably by someone who had been present and may have brought back early written accounts. His account of the council is particularly interesting because it preserves and mislocates a version of the Expeditio, canon 71 of the council, that is different from the full canon that exists in the record of the council (below, No. 16, Ad liberandam). His version of the text and circumstances of the crusade canon should be compared with the formal text of Ad liberandam. First, he identifies the text as the sermon by Innocent that opened the council, misdating the time of assembly a year earlier, and giving a much shorter version than the one that Innocent finally released as canon 71, conventionally, on December 14, 1215, and attached to the council’s proceedings. He does not distinguish between different sessions of the council—the sixty articles were not read out until the third and final session on November 30. Stephan Kuttner and Antonio García y García suggest convincingly that Roger’s text represents a preliminary stage of Ad liberandam.
Particularly important for its impression of the council is the narrative of a German cleric writing shortly after the council ended. See Stephan Kuttner and Antonio García y García, “A New Eyewitness Account of the Fourth Lateran Council,” Traditio 20 (1964), 115–178. There is an English translation of the Latin text by Constantin Fasolt in Julius Kirshner and Karl F. Morrison, eds., Medieval Europe, vol. 4 of University of Chicago Readings in Western Civilization (Chicago, 1986), 369–376. See also John W. Baldwin, Masters, Princes, and Merchants: The Social Views of Peter the Chanter and His Circle, 2 vols. (Princeton NJ, 1970), 1:315–343.
IN THE same year, namely, a.d. 1215, a sacred and general synod was held in the month of November, in the church of the Holy Savior at Rome, called Constantinian,22 at which our lord pope Innocent, in the eighteenth year of his pontificate, presided, and which was attended by four hundred and twelve bishops. Among the principal of these were the two patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem. The patriarch of Antioch could not come, being detained by serious illness, but he sent his vicar, the bishop of Antaradus;23 the patriarch of Alexandria being under the dominion of the Saracens, did the best he could, sending a deacon, his cousin, in his place. There were seventy-seven primates and metropolitans present, more than eight hundred abbots and priors, and of the proxies of archbishops, bishops, abbots, priors, and chapters who were absent, the number is not known. There was also present a multitude of ambassadors from the emperor of Constantinople, the king of Sicily, who was elected emperor of Rome,24 the kings of France, England, Hungary, Jerusalem, Cyprus, Aragón, and other princes and nobles, and from cities and other places. When all of these were assembled in the place above mentioned, and, according to the custom of general councils, each was placed according to his rank, the pope himself first delivered an exhortation, and then the sixty articles were recited in full council, which seemed agreeable to some and tedious to others.
At length he commenced to preach concerning the business of the cross, and the subjection of the Holy Land, adding as follows: “Moreover, that nothing be omitted in the matter of the cross of Christ, it is our will and command, that patriarchs, archbishops, abbots, priors, and others, who have the charge of spiritual matters, carefully set forth the work of the cross to the people entrusted to their care; and in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the one alone and eternal God, supplicate kings, dukes, princes, marquises, earls, barons, and other nobles, and also the commanders of cities, towns, and villages, if they cannot go in person to the assistance of the Holy Land, to furnish a suitable number of soldiers, with all supplies necessary for three years, according to their means, in remission of their sins, as in the general letters is expressed; and it is also our will that those who build ships for this purpose be partakers in this remission. But to those who refuse, if any be so ungrateful, let it be on our behalf declared that they will for a certainty account to us for this at the awful judgment of a rigorous Judge; considering, before they do refuse, with what chance of salvation they will be able to appear before the only God and the only begotten Son of God, to whose hands the Father has entrusted all things, if they refuse to serve the Crucified One, in this their proper service, by whose gift they hold life, by whose kindness they are supported, and by whose blood they have been redeemed.
“And we, wishing to set an example to others, give and grant thirty thousand pounds for this business, besides a fleet, which we will supply to those who assume the cross from this city and the neighboring districts; and we moreover assign for the accomplishment of this, three thousand marks of silver, which remain to us out of the alms of some of the true faith. And as we desire to have the other prelates of the churches, and also the clergy in general, as partakers both in the merit and the reward, it is our decree that all of them, both people and pastors, shall contribute for the assistance of the Holy Land the twentieth portion of their ecclesiastical profits for three years, except those who have assumed the cross or are about to assume it and set out for the Holy Land in person; and we and our brethren the cardinals of the holy church of Rome will pay a full tenth part of ours.
“It is also our order that all clerks or laymen, after assuming the cross, shall remain secure under our protection and that of Saint Peter; and also under the protection of the archbishops, bishops, and all the prelates of God’s church, and that their property shall be so arranged, as to remain untouched and undisturbed until certain information is obtained of their death or their return. And if any of those who go on this crusade are bound by oath to the payment of usury, their creditors shall by ecclesiastic authority be compelled to forgive them their oath and to desist from exacting their usury; and we make the same decree with regard to the Jews by the secular authority, that they may be induced to do this. Moreover, be it known, that the prelates of churches who are careless in granting justice to crusaders, or their proxies, or their families, will meet with severe punishment. Moreover, by the advice of wise men, we determine that those who thus assume the cross, shall prepare themselves so as to assemble on the first of June next ensuing [June 1, 1216], and those who determine to cross by sea will assemble in the kingdom of Sicily, some at Brindisi, and others at Messina, at which place we also have determined, under God’s favor, to be present, that by our assistance and counsel the Christian army may be duly regulated, and may set out with the blessing of God and the Apostolic See. And we, trusting to the mercy of an omnipotent God, and to the authority of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul, by virtue of that power which the Lord has granted to us, unworthy though we are, of binding and loosing, grant to all who should undertake this business in person and at their own expense, full pardon for their sins, for which they shall be truly contrite in heart, and of which they shall have made confession, and in the rewarding of the just we promise an increase of eternal salvation; and to those who do not come in person, but at their own expense send suitable persons according to their means, and also to those who come in person though at the expense of others, we likewise grant full pardon for their sins. And it is also our will that those should share in this forgiveness who out of their own property shall furnish proper supplies for the assistance of the said country, or who have rendered seasonable counsel and assistance on the aforesaid matters. And for all those who proceed on this expedition the holy and universal synod bestows the favor of its prayers and good wishes, to the end that they may better obtain eternal salvation. Amen.”
Although the crusade, along with church (and individual) reform, was Innocent’s great purpose in convoking the Fourth Lateran Council, the actual crusade privilege, designated as Expeditio in manuscripts and early printed editions of the canons of the council, was always located after canon 70 but was not numbered. Nor was Ad liberandam included with the other canons in later canon law collections, and only an excerpt appeared in the canon law collection Liber extra issued by Gregory IX in 1234, since it was considered to apply only to a unique event. Evidently, Innocent III worked on the text after the close of the council and issued it, at least according to an early editor of the canons, on December 14, 1215. Whatever its date, it had to be circulated widely and quickly, and it had to be identified with the council—at least three times in the text, Innocent indicates that a particular point has the support and approval of the council.
The best edition/translation of the canons of the Fourth Lateran Council is in Norman P. Tanner, S.J., ed., Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, vol. 1, Nicaea I to Lateran V (Washington DC, 1990), 227–271. See also Kuttner and García y García, “New Eyewitness Account.” On the punishments that Innocent mentions for those who fail to fulfill their vows or attack crusaders’ protected property—excommunication and interdict—see Elisabeth Vodola, Excommunication in the Middle Ages (Berkeley CA, 1986); Alexander Murray, Excommunication and Conscience in the Middle Ages: The John Coffin Memorial Lecture (London, 1991); and Peter D. Clarke, The Interdict in the Thirteenth Century: A Question of Collective Guilt (Oxford-New York, 2007).
ASPIRING with ardent desire to liberate the Holy Land from the hands of the impious, by the counsel of prudent men who fully know the circumstances of times and places, the holy council approving: we decree that the crusaders [crucesignati] shall so prepare themselves that, at the Calends of the June following the next one [June 1, 1217], all who have arranged to cross by sea shall come together in the kingdom of Sicily; some, as shall be convenient and fitting, at Brindisi, and others at Messina and the places adjoining on both sides; where we have arranged then to be present in person if God wills it, in order that by our counsel and aid the Christian army may be usefully arranged, about to start with the divine and apostolic benediction.
And to the same end, those who have decided to go by land shall endeavor to make themselves ready; announcing this determination to us in the meantime, so that we may grant them for counsel and aid a suitable legate from our side [legatus a latere].
Priests, moreover, and other clergy who shall be in the Christian army, subordinates as well as prelates, shall diligently minister with prayer and exhortation, teaching them by word and example alike that they should always have the divine fear and love before their eyes, and that they should not do or say anything which might offend the divine majesty. Although at times they may lapse into sin, they shall soon rise again through true repentance; showing humility of heart and body, and observing moderation as well in their manner of living as in their clothing; altogether avoiding dissentions and rivalries; rancor and splenetic fury being entirely removed from them. So that, so armed with spiritual and material weapons, they may fight more confidently against the enemies of the faith; not presuming in their own power, but hoping in the divine virtue.
To the clergy themselves, moreover, we grant that they may retain their benefices intact for three years, just as if they were residing in their churches; and, if it shall be necessary, they may be allowed to place them in pledge for that time.
Therefore, lest this holy undertaking should happen to be impeded or delayed, we distinctly enjoin on all the prelates of the churches that, each in his own district, throughout their districts, they diligently move and induce those who have abandoned the cross to resume it to fulfill their vows to God, and for these and others who have been signed with the cross and who have hitherto been signed to compel them to fulfill their vows, if it shall be necessary through sentences of excommunication against their persons and of interdict against their lands, all backsliding being put an end to; those only being excepted who shall meet with some impediment on account of which, according to the ordinance of the Apostolic See, their vow may rightly be commuted or deferred.
Besides this, lest anything which pertains to the work of Jesus Christ25 be omitted, we will and command that the patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, abbots, and others who have the care of souls shall passionately propound the word of the cross to those committed to them, exhorting through the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit—the one sole true eternal God—the kings, dukes, princes, margraves, counts and barons and other magnates, also the communities of the cities, towns, and burghs, that those who do not in person go to the Holy Land shall donate a suitable number of warriors, with their necessary expenses for three years, according to their own wealth, for the remission of their sins—as has been expressed in our general letters, and as, for the greater assurance, we shall also express below. Of this remission we wish to be partakers not only those who furnish their own ships, but also those who on account of this work have striven to build new ships.
To those that refuse to go, if any by chance should be so ungrateful to our Lord God, the clergy shall firmly protest on behalf of the Apostolic See that they shall know that they are about to answer to us, at the final day of a strict investigation, before the tremendous judge. First considering, however, with what conscience or with what security they will be able to confess in the presence of Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God, into whose hands the Father gave all things [Jn 13:3], if they shall refuse in this matter, as if it were properly their own, to serve him who was crucified for sinners, by whose gift they live, by whose benefit they are sustained, nay, more, by whose blood they are redeemed [1 Pt 1:18–19].
Lest, however, we seem to impose heavy and unbearable burdens upon the shoulders of men, burdens to which we ourselves are unwilling to put a finger, like those who only say and do not do [Mt 23:3–4]; behold, we, from what we have been able to spare beyond our necessary and moderate expenses, do grant and give thirty thousand pounds to this work. And besides the cost of the transport from Rome and the neighboring places that we have granted, we assign in addition, for this same purpose, three thousand marks of silver which have remained over to us from the alms of some of the faithful, the rest having been faithfully distributed for the needs and uses of the aforesaid land, through the hand of the abbot of blessed memory, the patriarch of Jerusalem,26 and the masters of the Templars and Hospitallers.
Desiring, moreover, to have the other prelates of the churches, as well as the whole clergy, as participators and sharers both in the merit and in the reward, we have decreed with the general approval of the council that absolutely the entire clergy, subordinates as well as prelates, shall give the twentieth part of their ecclesiastical revenues for three years in aid of the Holy Land, through the hands of those who shall by the care of the pope be appointed for this purpose, certain monks only being excepted, who are rightly to be exempted from this taxation; likewise those who, having assumed or being about to assume the cross, are on the point of making the expedition.
We, also, and our brothers the cardinals of the holy Roman Church, shall pay fully one tenth of our ecclesiastical revenues; that is, twice as much as other clerics; and they shall all know that they are all bound faithfully to observe this under penalty of excommunication, so that those who in this matter shall knowingly commit fraud shall incur sentence of excommunication.
Since, indeed, those who with right judgment remain in the service of the divine Commander ought to rejoice in a special privilege: when the duration of the expedition exceeds one year in length, the crusaders shall be free from taxes and tallages and other burdens. Upon assuming the cross, we take their persons and goods under the protection of the blessed Peter and of ourselves, so that they shall remain under the care of the archbishops, bishops, and other prelates deputed for this purpose, so that, until most certain news shall have been obtained either of their death or of their return, their possessions shall remain intact and unassailed. And if anyone presume to the contrary he shall be restrained by ecclesiastical censure.
If any of those leaving on the expedition are bound by an oath to pay interest, we command, under the same penalty, that their creditors be compelled to remit the oath given them and desist from claiming interest. But if any one of their creditors shall compel them to pay interest, we command that, by a similar process, they shall be compelled to restore it. We command that Jews shall be compelled by the secular power to remit their interest, and, until they shall remit it, all intercourse with them on the part of all the followers of Christ shall be denied, under pain of excommunication. For those, moreover, who are unable to pay their debts to the Jews, the secular princes shall so provide, with useful delay, that they shall not incur the inconvenience of interest from the time when they started on their journey until most certain news is obtained of their death or their return. The Jews are compelled to add to the capital after having deducted their necessary expenses, the revenues which they in the meantime receive from the lands pledged to them toward the principal of the sum loaned, for such a benefice does not suffer much loss when it so delays the payment but does not cancel the debt. The prelates of the churches who shall be found negligent in rendering justice to the crusaders and their families shall know that they shall be severely punished.
Furthermore, since corsairs and pirates excessively impede the aiding of the Holy Land, taking and despoiling those who go to and return from it, we bind with the chain of anathema their helpers and those who favor them, forbidding, under threat of anathema, that anyone make common cause with them through any contract of buying or selling, and enjoining on the rectors of their cities and districts to recall and restrain them from this iniquity. Otherwise, since to be unwilling to disturb the wicked is nothing else than to encourage them, and since he who desists from opposing a manifest crime is not without suspicion of secret collusion, we will and command that, against their persons and lands, ecclesiastical severity shall be exercised by the prelates of the churches.
We also excommunicate and anathematize those false and impious Christians who, against Christ himself and the whole Christian people, carry arms, iron, and wood for ships to the Saracens. Also those who sell to them galleys or ships and who, in the pirate ships of the Saracens, keep watch or serve as helmsmen, or give them any aid, counsel, or favor with regard to their war machines or to anything else, to the harm of the Holy Land—we decree shall be punished with the loss of their own possessions and shall be the slaves of those who capture them. And we command that on Sundays and feast days, throughout all the maritime cities, this sentence shall be renewed, and to such people the lap of the church shall not be opened unless they shall send all that they have received from such damnable gains, and as much more of their own as aid to the aforesaid land, so that they may be punished with a penalty equal to the amount of their original fault. But if by chance they be insolvent, those guilty of such things shall be otherwise punished; that through their punishment others may be prevented from having the audacity to presume to act similarly.
We prohibit, moreover, all Christians, and under pain of anathema interdict them from sending across or taking their ships across to the lands of the Saracens who inhabit the oriental districts for four years, so that in this way greater means of transport may be prepared for those wishing to cross to the aid of the Holy Land. And the aforesaid Saracens may be deprived of the by no means small advantage which has as a rule accrued to them from this.
Although in different church councils tournaments have been generally forbidden under penalty, inasmuch as at this time the matter of the crusade [crucis negotium] is very much impeded by them, we, under pain of excommunication, do firmly forbid them to be carried on for the next three years.
Since, moreover, in order to carry on this matter it is most necessary that the princes and the people of Christ should mutually observe peace, the holy universal synod urging us, we do establish that, at least for four years, throughout the whole Christian world, a general peace shall be observed, so that, through the prelates of the churches, the contending parties shall be brought back to inviolably observe a full peace or a firm truce. And those who, by chance, shall scorn to acquiesce, shall be most sternly be compelled to do so through excommunication against their persons and interdict against their land, unless the maliciousness of the injuries shall be so great that the persons themselves should not have the benefit of such peace. But if by chance they despise the ecclesiastical censure, not without reason shall they fear lest through the authority of the church, the secular power shall be brought to bear against them as against disturbers of what pertains to the Crucified One.
We therefore, trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of the apostles Peter and Paul, from that power of binding and loosing which God conferred on us, although unworthy, do grant to all who shall undergo this labor in their own persons and at their own expense, full pardon of the sins of which in their heart they shall have freely repented, and which they shall have confessed, and, at the retribution of the just, we promise them an increase of eternal salvation. To those, moreover, who do not go thither in their own persons, but who only at their own expense, according to their wealth and quality, send suitable men; and to those likewise who, although at another’s expense, go, nevertheless, in their own persons, we grant full pardon of their sins. Of this remission also we will and grant that, according to the quality of their aid and the depth of their devotion, all shall be partakers who shall suitably minister from their goods toward the aid of that same land, or who shall give timely counsel and aid. To all, moreover, who piously proceed in this work the general synod imparts in common the aid of all its benefits, that it may worthily help them to salvation.
Given at the Lateran, on the nineteenth day before the Calends of January [December 14] in the eighteenth year of our pontificate.
Source: PL, 216:817–821.
1. Gregory I (590–604), whose writings greatly influenced Innocent III.
2. The apocalyptic theme was closely associated with the idea of crusade. See below, Parts IV and VI.
3. The reference is to the Third Lateran Council of 1179. See Olivia Remie Constable, “Clothing, Iron, and Timber: The Growth of Christian Anxiety About Islam in the Long Twelfth Century,” in Noble and Van Engen, eds., European Transformations, 279–313.
4. These monthly processions grew out of the Roman processions of 1212 (see above, No. 8).
Source: PL 216:822.
5. For Oliver of Paderborn’s and James of Vitry’s letters, see the translation of Oliver’s Historia Damiatina below, No. 21, and James of Vitry’s account of his travels, below, No. 65.
Source: Jessalynn Bird, “The Victorines, Peter the Chanter’s Circle, and the Crusade: Two Unpublished Crusading Appeals in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. Latin 14470,” Medieval Sermon Studies 48 (2004), 5–28, text on 25–28.
6. This image was prevalent in anti-vice sermons. The preacher probably obtained his etymology of the word “sea” (mare) from a collection of distinctions, one genre of pastoral aids produced in Paris for the use of preachers. See Alan of Lille, Distinctiones dictionum theologicalium, in PL 210:815a–d.
7. This tag seems to indicate a memorable exemplum or illustrative story.
8. For crusade recruiters’ attempts to combat usury, see Jessalynn Bird, “Reform or Crusade? Anti-Usury and Crusade Preaching During the Pontifcate of Innocent III,” in John C. Moore, ed., Pope Innocent III and His World (Aldershot UK-Brookfield VT, 1999), 165–185.
9. Many other preachers used this image, including James of Vitry and Caesarius of Heisterbach, whose abbot Henry preached several crusades with Oliver of Paderborn.
10. This appears to be an abbreviation for a well-known story about a priest named Martin.
11. The scribe appears to be referring to an exemplum (illustrative tale) that lampoons avaricious merchants. The quotation is composed partly of an Old French dialect, which Daron Burrows generously helped me to decipher.
12. These phrases appear to refer to exempla concerning the groups named, including hawkers and mongers (small-scale traders).
13. Cf. Jb 40:10, 16. This sentence ends with severe abbreviations, suggesting a quotation that we have been unable to identify. The association of these verses from Job with lust is common in theological and pastoral works, including Richard of Saint Victor, Explicatio in Cantica canticorum, PL 196:476d. The association of gluttony with lust was also commonplace.
14. This phrase appears to refer to diatribes against the drunkards and lustful. James of Vitry’s sermons to the married raged against inebriated husbands who demanded the marital debt from their pregnant wives and caused them to miscarry, thus killing their unborn children. See Thomas Frederick Crane, ed., The Exempla or Illustrative Stories from the Sermones Vulgares of Jacques de Vitry, Publications of the Folklore Society 26 (London, 1890), 94–95, nos. 226 and 229.
15. That is, the full crusading indulgence.
16. That is, a child handed down from the baptismal font, newly cleansed of sin.
17. By this period, the crusade vow was held to outweigh and/or fulfill the obligations entailed in other pilgrimage vows.
18. The transfer of part or all of the benefits of the crusading indulgence to those who aided the crusader was based on current practice regarding vows of pilgrimage.
Source: PL 216:904–905.
19. Conrad had preached the antiheretical (Albigensian) crusade, but when Innocent canceled the indulgences offered for this crusade in 1213 in preparation for a crusade to the Holy Land, Conrad and other recruiters were switched to the new crusade. He is here asking what to do about the vows of those who had originally intended to participate in the Albigensian Crusade, now possessed of a highly ambiguous status.
20. As did Innocent’s previous letter to Hubert Walter (translated above, No. 5), this response of Innocent flew in the face of previous canon law, which required spouses to seek each other’s consent before embarking on lengthy pilgrimages or on a crusade, because an absence of several years deprived the other spouse of conjugal rights and exposed her to the temptation of adultery.
21. That is, Quia maior (see No. 11 above).
Source: Giles, Wendover’s Flowers of History, 2:343–346.
22. Saint John Lateran.
23. Tortosa.
24. Frederick II—see below Parts III and IV.
Source: Translation from E. F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, rev. ed. (London-New York, 1896), 337–344.
25. In negotio Iesu Christi— that is, the crusade.
26. Albertus de Castro, d. ca. 1213–1214.