John S. Ott (c2020, 2021, 2022)
Department of History
Portland State University
HST 355U - Late Medieval Europe


Reading Guide #5 : Study Questions
for
(1) Canons and decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and the letters of Pope Innocent III
(2) Jean (John) of Joinville, The Life of St Louis


I. Canons and decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) and letters of Innocent III (1203-1204)

Lotario (Lothar) of Segni -- the future Pope Innocent III -- was very much a man of his time. He was born about 1160 in Segni, a hilltop town located about 60 km southeast of Rome. In the twelfth century, it was home to a papal palace (where popes sometimes sought refuge) and to the powerful ‘dei Conti’ family, who produced a number of popes over the course of the thirteenth century, including Lotario. Lotario’s own uncle had ruled briefly as Pope Clement III from 1187-1191.

Lotario received a far-flung education, initially in Rome and later in Paris and Bologna. Paris was the foremost center for the study of theology in Lotario’s day (eclipsing Laon), and Bologna was the leading law school. He trained in both places under some of the most prominent theologians and lawyers of the twelfth century. A career in law was becoming quite common, indeed expected and necessary, for high-ranking clergy by the late twelfth century, and by the thirteenth century, most popes had a thorough background in the law or were trained lawyers. By 1190, when he was just 30, Lotario was appointed a cardinal in the Roman church, a position he held until his election as pope in 1198.

When Lotario was elected pope in 1198, at the age of 37, he became the youngest man to have assumed the papacy. During the next 18 years, until his death in 1216, he oversaw crucial changes to the Christian Church in Europe. Among his various acts, he proclaimed several crusades (against the heretical Albigensians of southern France in 1208; against the Muslims of Spain in 1210; and two to the Holy Land, in 1202 and 1213); recognized the Franciscans, Humiliati, and other new religious orders; and called the extremely important general church council known as Fourth Lateran (1215). Among its 70 canons, Fourth Lateran fixed the number of sacraments in the Catholic Church at seven and sought to reform the conduct of the clergy. It also prescribed that Jews and Muslims of Christendom wear specific clothing to identify themselves.

As you read, remember that the council and Innocent's letters reflect a changing legal climate and changing institutional church. You may wish to compare the legal culture evident in the council and letters to what we have seen in other readings this term. The letters constitute a small sample of the many legal questions sent to Rome for a ruling from the pope. The requests were sent when local religious authorities, usually bishops, could not find a clear legal ruling available to answer the thorny and complicated questions that arose in matters of (in this case) marital conduct. Papal rulings were collected together in the thirteenth century for ease of consultation.

(1) What do the canons we are reading from Fourth Lateran have to say about education? Who should carry it out? Where and by what means?
(2) What sorts of clerical behavior are regulated? What is forbidden to clergy? Why do you think the Council emphasizes the conduct of the clergy?
(3) What do the canons concerned with legal procedure (canons 34-38) tell us about judicial practices in the Catholic Church at this time? Why would the procedural system have potentially invited such abuse?
(4) Whom might the converts discussed in canon 70 be?
(5) Can you discern a legal logic in Innocent III's rulings on the cases of marital infidelity, broken promises, etc., in the letters? Do the rulings seem fair or unfair, or prejudicial to the parties involved? What is the basis for the rulings? Are they more prejudicial to one sex or the other


II. Jean of Joinville, The Life of St. Louis
Jean de Joinville, seneschal of Champagne (b. 1224/25-1317) and royal vassal, completed the Life of St. Louis (or, as he called it, the Livre des saintes paroles et des bons faiz de nostre saint roy Looÿs [Book of the Holy Sayings and Good Deeds of Our Sainted King Louis]) in 1309 and dedicated it to Louis IX's great-grandson, King Louis X (r. 1314-1316). It had originally been commissioned by Queen Joan of Navarre (d. 1305), Louis X's mother and the wife of Philip IV 'the Fair' (r. 1285-1314). Jean hoped that Louis X and his brothers would read it, and offered depictions of Louis IX that compared favorably to Louis X’s court.

Louis IX was a dynamic, complex, and at times impulsive monarch. He and his queen, Margaret of Provence, produced eleven children (Margaret was only 13 when they married, while Louis was 20). Louis IX went on crusade twice, the first time in 1248. After some initial success, Louis and his army suffered a major defeat in 1250, and he was taken prisoner, only being released after paying the sultan of Egypt an enormous ransom. He remained in the East for another four years, returning to France only in 1254. Louis' second crusade followed in 1267, when he and his sons vowed to take the cross. They embarked in 1270 for Tunis, in North Africa, where he and many of his followers died from dysentery. Louis was an avid patron of religious institutions and collector of relics; he built the Sainte Chapelle in Paris to house his relics of the crucifixion of Jesus, including the crown of thorns.

Joinville was a close companion of Louis IX later in life, and accompanied him on crusade in 1248, though in the service of his own lord, the count of Champagne. Jean testified at the canonization inquest for Louis IX in 1282 (Louis was canonized in 1297). His is one of at least four major biographies of the king; the others were written by Geoffrey of Beaulieu, Louis's Dominican confessor and chaplain; William de Saint-Pathus, another chaplain and Franciscan; and William of Chartres, also a cleric and a Dominican. (William and Geoffrey knew each other, and William's account was fashioned as an addendum to Geoffrey's -- they are available in a recent English translation by M. Cecilia Gaposchkin, Larry Field, and Sean Field, The Sanctity of Louis IX [Cornell, 2014]).

At the time that Joinville was writing his biography, Philip IV, Louis IX's grandson, had expelled the Jews from France (1306) and destroyed the Templars (1307). It is worth noting that Louis X, to whom Joinville dedicated his history, readmitted Jews to France under a series of heavy restrictions to their dress, their ability to lend money at interest, and their freedom of settlement. Louis X's brief reign was also troubled by revolts among the nobility, and he allowed serfs to purchase their freedom. When Joinville handed over his book to Louis X, it was in the midst of troubled times for the French monarchy.

(1) As you read, try to connect some of the themes in Jean’s Life of Louis to other historical trends and events we've been discussing in the course to date: heresy/doubt, antijudaism/antisemitism, crusading, changes in religiosity, law and legal procedure, the growth of medieval states and bureaucracies, the growing institutional power of the church, etc.
(2) How would you characterize Louis's governance of his kingdom, based on what Jean emphasizes in his biography? Does Louis have a particular style? Why do you think Jean stresses certain types of conduct? Why did Louis take such interest in the conduct of his officials?
(3) What was Louis' relationship with his aristocratic vassals and the bishops of his kingdom like, according to Jean? Why does Jean emphasize the king's various sayings, stories, and lessons?
(4) How does Jean characterize Louis' religious belief and identity? In what ways is his description of the king's beliefs and actions consistent with, or does it depart from, other portrayals of late medieval lay religiosity?