REGENT COLLEGE

GOBBET 3

A REPORT IN

HIST 501: HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY I, FALL 2021

PREPARED FOR

PROF. BRUCE HINDMARSH

BY

DAVID PENNER

301876

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

November 11, 2021

 The Constitutions of the Fourth Lateran Council are religious legal documents that were
heavily influenced by Pope Innocent III and officially adopted by the Council in 1215 CE. The
Constitutions address all of Latin Christendom and they were written to provide specific and
unequivocal religious and secular instruction to this audience.
The excerpt under examination is from the beginning of the twenty-first constitution. The
central message of the excerpt is that confession and penance are necessary for salvation. Some
repeated words in the excerpt are “faithful” and “all” (63). These repeated words demonstrate a
universal concern for all of those that are faithful to Christ and by extension the Roman Catholic
Church. Like a modern law, the excerpt outlines the specific “who,” “what,” “when,” and
‘where” of its dictates, yet largely assumes the “why,” which is salvation.
That salvation is the “why” of the excerpt is supported by the remainder of the twenty-
first constitution, where we learn that failing to perform yearly confession, penance, and
reception of the eucharist will result in not being admitted into the church or given a Christian
burial. The rest of the Constitutions also extend a theme of the excerpt: that boundaries are
necessary for faith to have meaning. The Constitutions generally attempt to clarify what must be
done in some specific cases to remain faithful to the See of Peter and thereby to Christ. Thus, in
the fourth Constitution, the Eastern church must “conform themselves like obedient sons to the
holy Roman church so that there may be one flock under one shepherd” (61). If they do not, they
will be “struck with the sword of excommunication” (61). The boundary lines are also drawn for
Roman Catholic clerics, though for them the threat of disobedience is not ex-communication but
suspension or forced tonsuring (62-64). Boundary lines are also drawn between clerics and laity
(62-64); secular and religious power (64); and Jews, Muslims, and Christians (67-69). Though
not explicitly stated, the implicit assumption of the Constitutions is that without these boundaries
faith will degenerate into confusion and disorder.
The excerpt and Constitutions mark a turning point in the Christian attempt to understand
how sins are forgiven. In simplified terms, the private penitential system was primarily
developed by Irish monks during the sixth century and elaborated upon when later adopted by
the Roman Catholic church. By the time of this Council, those confessing were absolved with the
words “I absolve you from your sins.” Thus, this Council greatly elevated the authority of the
clergy in the lives of individuals and anticipated the Reformation in an attempt to elevate the
devotional practices of the laity to a higher standard. The Constitutions represent one attempt
among many to reform the church and laity. We see other such attempts in the letters of Paul, the
Ante-Nicene Fathers, the ecumenical councils, the writings of Gregory the Great, Gildas, Bede,
Wulfstan, Wycliffe, Luther, Zwingli, and the innumerable sectarians within the Protestant
tradition right up until the present day. The rise of the Mendicant orders during this period also
highlights that when the church appears most worldly, even sanctifying war, there is a
contemporaneous backlash of popular renunciation. We see this with Constantine and the rise of
monasticism, with the Cluniacs ascending during papal chaos, and with the rise of various
protestant pacifist movements during the European wars of religion.