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The Fourth Lateran Council: an event that transformed Europe

Among the numerous events and social processes that defined the Middle Ages, the Fourth Lateran Council is undoubtedly one that profoundly changed the society. As a reflection of the changes that affected Western European Christianity during the 12th and early 13th centuries, the conciliar conclusions had a crucial impact on the position of the papacy, the organization of the Church, the spiritual and everyday life of the faithful, and the shaping of new political and social trends in the secular sphere. This volume offers an overview of individual cases in which the impact of decisions of the Fourth Lateran Council was manifest at the wider European level as well as in the historical territories of Croatia. It is the fruit of the scholarly conference The Fourth Lateran Council: An Event that Transformed Europe, held in Zagreb in November 2015 and organized by the Department of History at the Croatian Catholic University, Chair of History and Chair of Croatian Latinity at the Department of Croatian Studies, University of Zagreb, Chair of Church History at the Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Zagreb, and the Croatian Franciscan Province of Saint Cyril and Methodius. From the aspect of Croatian historiography, the volume is a contribution to the numerous global events marking the 800th anniversary of the Fourth Lateran Council. The basic idea behind the volume – case studies from the medieval era – has been supplemented with various theological considerations, which go beyond the strict temporal limitation of being thematically focused on the Middle Ages. Thus, they not only observe the decisions of the Fourth Lateran Council in their historical significance up to the present times, but also add a specific interdisciplinary value to the main theme of the volume, which is reflected in its very structure. The volume is divided into four sections, in which the contributors have approached the subject from various angles, ranging from syntheses to case studies. The first part (“Law”) focuses on the Council’s impact on medieval legal culture, while the second (“Reforms”) addresses the implementation of conciliar decisions in the Croatian lands during the 13th century. In the third part (”Confessional Practice”), the authors have discussed the Council’s impact on religious practice and moral theology. The final part (“Theological Echoes”) addresses specific theological questions that have remained topical to the present day and yet remain closely related to the conciliar conclusions. It should be emphasized that the editorial board respected the authors’ individual approaches and did not intervene concerning the choice of cited source collections, given the fact that all papers observed the academic conventions in terms of scholarly methodology and academic research and reflection. Finally, we would like to express our thanks for the support we received in publishing this volume. We are indebted to the Croatian Catholic University, Catholic Faculty of Theology at the University of Zagreb, and the Croatian Franciscan province of St Cyril and Method. We owe equal gratitude to all those who have contributed to the quality of this edition, especially to Marina Schumann, who has shown great dedication in translating and copyediting the texts. The results of our work are now left to the judgment of the scholarly and professional public.

Fourth Lateran Council, transformation, Europe, Church, Reforme

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