The Canons of the Third Lateran Council of 1179
Their Origins and Reception

Investigates papal government in the later-twelfth century, focusing on the decrees issued at papal councils, and their reception.

Danica Summerlin (Author)

9781108813846, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 3 June 2021

332 pages
22.7 x 15.1 x 1.7 cm, 0.471 kg

'Summerlin uses manuscript evidence intelligently, shining a strong scholarly torch on dark places in the thickets of textual and manuscript data provided by earlier scholars in highly technical studies. She is at home in the major scholarly languages, notably German, so crucial in this field. Her laborious and skilful work makes for a dense text, but there are clear conclusions to each chapter. Her findings are striking and, to this reviewer, convincing.' David d'Avray, Journal Of Ecclesiastical History

Alexander III's 1179 Lateran Council, was, for medieval contemporaries, the first of the great papal councils of the central Middle Ages. Gathered to demonstrate the renewed unity of the Latin Church, it brought together hundreds of bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries to discuss and debate the laws and problems that faced that church. In this evaluation of the 1179 conciliar decrees, Danica Summerlin demonstrates how these decrees, often characterised as widespread and effective ecclesiastical legislation, emerged from local disputes which were then subjected to a period of sifting and gradual integration into the local and scholarly consciousness, in exactly the same way as other contemporary legal texts. Rather than papal mandates that were automatically observed as a result of their inherent papal authority, therefore, Summerlin reveals how conciliar decrees should be viewed as representative of contemporary discussions between the papacy, their representatives and local bishops, clerics, and scholars.

Introduction
1. Historical survey
2. Disputes, decretals, and the 1179 conciliar canons
3. The 1179 canons and the schools
4. The dissemination of the 1179 canons
5. Use of the canons, ca. 1179–ca. 1191
Conclusions
Appendix 1. Manuscript listing of the 1179 canons.

Subject Areas: Ecclesiastical [canon law LAFX], Christian institutions & organizations [HRCX], History of religion [HRAX], Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC]