Robert de Courson and the Council of Reims (1213): Visions of Hospital Reform in the Build-up to Lateran IV

SEMINAR SERIES
Ideology, Society, and Medieval Religion: Impositions and Negotiations

In 1213, Innocent III sent out his call for the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), dispatching trusted legates to preach the Crusade and root out abuses in preparation for the great council. His most famous legate, Robert de Courson, was dispatched to France where he held a series of councils whose legislation would shape that of Lateran IV. This paper rethinks the shape and influence of Courson's legation, arguing for its launch not in the schoolrooms of Paris but on the streets of the province of Reims, and for a vision for the reform of religious life that was inspired by devout women and centred on hospitals.


Seminar Series details: 
In recent decades, medievalists have studied the ways in which people interacted with the institutional structures, practices, and theological orthodoxies of the Church, including issues such as popular belief, the lived experiences of monks and other members of religious orders, and litigation in the ecclesiastical courts.

Less well understood is how doctrine and theology shaped the behaviours and beliefs of the laity, or the middling members of a religious order or institution. We are interested in thinking about the ways in which ideology was implicated in the lives and actions of ordinary people, and the outcomes of that. How did religious ideologies influence the structuring of power relations within communities? How did individuals within religious communities internalise, personalise and negotiate the rules of their order? How did lay people contribute to the functioning of the system of ecclesiastical law? This seminar series aims to think about these questions and others, by showcasing the work of an interdisciplinary array of medievalists specialising in different religions, geographic locations, time periods, and source materials. 

We will be meeting once a month via Zoom, on Monday evenings at 6pm. For further information and the Zoom details, please email Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow (erpg500@york.ac.uk) or Tim Wingard (tw659@york.ac.uk). If you would like to propose a paper, please send us an abstract of no more than 250 words.  

This seminar will not be recorded. 

Image: Detail of a medallion with monks being seduced, Harley MS 1527, f. 96v