What Was The Reason For Canon Thirteen

Canon thirteen was constructed and written in the fourth Lateran Council in 1215, in which there were three sessions on the eleventh, twentieth and thirtieth of November. Pope Innocent III preached to over four hundred Bishops and eight hundred abbots, deans and others in this event . Canon thirteen can be suggested to have been proposed by Pope Innocent III and approved by the council, thus higher individuals in the church could arguably had responsibility for the manufacture of canon thirteen. Canon thirteen’s most decisive point is that the council wanted to “strictly forbid anyone henceforth to found a new religious order”. Thus the fundamental understanding that can be acquired from this canon thirteen is in relation to the church forbidding
The requirement of a united church was fundamental to the future success of a Holy War in the thirteenth century and this is argued to be a motivating factor for Pope Innocent III and the Lateran Council in the production of canon thirteen . Moreover, the Lateran Council’s fear of too much “variety” can be analysed further by suggesting that this was anti-reform in essence, although it is brief and lacks sufficient detail, it is suggested that principles of laymen and clergy being brought closer in terms of equality pose a threat to the church’s hierarchy and episcopal control It can be said that there are motivating factors that are based on politics and expanding power in the example of the crusades as well as factors focused on the integrity of the church with the rise of monastic orders that contradict the central system of administration of the church. Therefore many issues can be identified in the albeit small text of canon thirteen involving internal as well as external political unification in the case of future crusades in the thirteenth
There is inference that the impact of failed crusades including the third and fourth Crusade before the Lateran Council in 1215 had an impact on canon thirteen’s development. In this case Jessalynn Bird suggests that the Church had a desire for “authority to combine the Crusade with an insistence upon a reformed church and a pastorally guided laity” . Thus there is an argument that external matters had links to canon thirteen in the form of the Crusades, which required the Church to remain unified and strong to influence matters in the Palestine. The surge of monastic orders was believed to be a threat to this need of strength. Therefore canon thirteen can be suggested to be a reaction to this according to Jessalynn Bird. Moreover, Colin Morris reaches a similar conclusion, in regards to canon thirteen and even the Lateran Council in 1215 as a whole. Morris argues that it was an “ambitious programme for…the recovery of the Holy Land, the reform of the church and the further prosecution of heresy” . It is interesting to note that Colin Morris mentions reform whereas Barraclough and Bolton argue reform was not on the agenda especially in the case of canon thirteen. Yet there is interpretation that canon thirteen was an attempt to maintain control internally to continue to get involved in external matters and interests of the Church and Pope Innocent III. Linda Seidal