The German Episcopacy and the Implementation of the Decrees of the Fourth Lateran Council - 1216-1245 ─ Watchmen on the Tower

This volume deals with efforts by the German episcopacy to implement the reform decrees issued by Pope Innocent III at the Fourth Lateran Council in November 1215 within the six ecclesiastical provinces of Bremen, Cologne, Magdeburg, Mains, Salzburg and Trier over three decades: its primary focus is upon the use of provincial and diocesan synods, episcopal visitations, and general chapters for the regular clergy to the end that '...evils may be uprooted, virtues implanted, mistakes corrected, morals reformed, heresies extirpated, the faith strengthened, ... and salutary decrees enacted for the higher and lower clergy.' It examines the methods and the personalities involved, the relationships between the ecclesiastical leadership of Germany and the Roman Curia, and it assesses the impact of these efforts at a most opportune and critical point in the history of the medieval Church.

Paul B. Pixton is Professor of History at Brigham Young University.