(; full title in la, Ad abolendam diversam haeresium pravitatem, lit=To abolish diverse malignant heresies) was a

decretal Decretals ( la, litterae decretales) are letters of a pope that formulate decisions in ecclesiastical law of the Catholic Church.McGurk. ''Dictionary of Medieval Terms''. p. 10 They are generally given in answer to consultations but are sometimes ...

and

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e., cows), bulls have long been an important symbol in many religions, includin ...

Pope Lucius III Pope Lucius III (c. 1097 – 25 November 1185), born Ubaldo Allucingoli, reigned from 1 September 1181 to his death in 1185. Born of an aristocratic family of Lucca, prior to being elected pope, he had a long career as a papal diplomat. His pa ...

, written at

Verona Verona ( , ; vec, Verona or ) is a city on the Adige River in Veneto, Italy, with 258,031 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region. It is the largest city municipality in the region and the second largest in nor ...

and issued 4 November 1184. It was issued after the

Council of Verona The Synod of Verona was held November 1184 under the auspices of Pope Lucius III and the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I. The meeting was to address numerous issues. Some of these were the dispute over claims between empire and papacy in central I ...

settled some jurisdictional differences between the

Papacy The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

and

Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (german: link=no, Friedrich I, it, Federico I), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death 35 years later. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt ...

. The document prescribes measures to uproot

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, in particular the accepted beliefs of a church or religious organization. The term is usually used in reference to violations of important relig ...

and sparked the efforts which culminated in the

Albigensian Crusade The Albigensian Crusade or the Cathar Crusade (; 1209–1229) was a military and ideological campaign initiated by Pope Innocent III to eliminate Catharism in Languedoc, southern France. The Crusade was prosecuted primarily by the French crow ...

and the

Inquisitions The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances ...

. Its chief aim was the complete abolition of Christian heresy.

Historical origins

The historical context for the issuing of ''Ad abolendam'' was papal reassertion of its authority in Europe following the

Investiture Dispute The Investiture Controversy, also called Investiture Contest (German: ''Investiturstreit''; ), was a conflict between the Church and the state in medieval Europe over the ability to choose and install bishops ( investiture) and abbots of monas ...

with the

Emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother ( ...

, and its discovery of what has been called a 'legislative' means of doing so. The

Third Lateran Council The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council. By agreement reached at the Peace of Venice in 1177 the bitter ...

of 1179 had already resolved to prevent schisms of the kind that the Investiture Dispute had created, and decretals such as ''Ad abolendam'' were intended to enforce this; Fisher has suggested that it was no coincidence that the decree followed the

Peace of Constance The Peace of Constance (25 June 1183) was a privilege granted by Frederick I, Holy Roman Emperor, and his son and co-ruler, Henry VI, King of the Romans, to the members of the Lombard League to end the state of rebellion (war) that had been ong ...

of the previous year, at which the Emperor was in effect compelled to acknowledge defeat.

Heretics

The list of proscribed heretical sects was originally decreed at the

(March 1179), and was retained and expanded at Verona in 1184. Pope Lucius condemned all heretical sects and persons who preached without the authorisation of the

Roman Church Holy Roman Church, Roman Church, Church of Rome or Church in Rome may refer to: * The Diocese of Rome or the Holy See * The Latin Church * Churches of Rome (buildings) In historical contexts ''Roman Church'' may also refer to: * The Catholic Chur ...

, whether publicly or privately, and placed them under

excommunication Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

. Among the particular sects mentioned in ''Ad abolendam'' were the

Cathars Catharism (; from the grc, καθαροί, katharoi, "the pure ones") was a Christian dualist or Gnostic movement between the 12th and 14th centuries which thrived in Southern Europe, particularly in northern Italy and southern France. F ...

Humiliati The Humiliati (Italian ''Umiliati'') were an Italian religious order of men formed probably in the 12th century. It was suppressed by a papal bull in 1571 though an associated order of women continued into the 20th century. Origin The origin of ...

Waldensians The Waldensians (also known as Waldenses (), Vallenses, Valdesi or Vaudois) are adherents of a church tradition that began as an ascetic movement within Western Christianity before the Reformation. Originally known as the "Poor Men of Lyon" in ...

Arnoldists Arnoldists were a Proto-Protestant Christian movement in the 12th century, named after Arnold of Brescia, an advocate of ecclesiastical reform who criticized the great wealth and possessions of the Roman Catholic Church, while preaching against in ...

, and

Josephines The Josephines (Latin ''Josephini'' or ''Josepini'') were Christian heretics condemned by Pope Lucius III's decree '' Ad abolendam'' in 1184 with the support of the Emperor Frederick I. They were "subject to a perpetual anathema" along with the C ...

. More important than the direct attack on heresy, however, was the stipulation of equal measures for those who supported heretics, overtly or indirectly, and modern historians have noted that, these groups being primarily based around

Lombardy (man), (woman) lmo, lumbard, links=no (man), (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , ...

and the

Languedoc The Province of Languedoc (; , ; oc, Lengadòc ) is a former province of France. Most of its territory is now contained in the modern-day region of Occitanie in Southern France. Its capital city was Toulouse. It had an area of approximately ...

, Papal motivation in condemning them was probably as politically motivated as it was theological. All associated with heresy would be placed under excommunication, too; but the heretics themselves were an ill-defined grouping, some of which hardly existed by 1184, and some of whom had never been previously established as heretics. All except the

and the anti-authority Milanese group of the 1130s, the Arnoldists, have been ascertained as heretics. Of the others, the Patarenes were originally reformers (albeit against the so-called ''

Papal Monarchy Papal supremacy is the doctrine of the Catholic Church that the Pope, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, the visible source and foundation of the unity both of the bishops and of the whole company of the faithful, and as pastor of th ...

''); the Humiliati, ‘their only error was apparently failing to observe the prescription of lay preaching rather than the teaching of false doctrines;’ The Poor of Lyon- the

- have been compared to the Cistercians as merely searching for the ''

vita apostolica Vita or VITA (plural vitae) is Latin for "life", and may refer to: * ''Vita'', the usual start to the title of a biography in Latin, by which (in a known context) the work is often referred to; frequently of a saint, then called hagiography * Vita ...

''; of the

Passagines The Pasagians, also spelled Passagians or Pasagini, were a religious sect which appeared in Lombardy in the late 12th or early 13th century and possibly appearing much earlier in the East. The ''Summa contra haereticos'', ascribed to Praepositinus ...

, nothing is known, and the

are not even associated with any doctrine at all.Wakefield, W.L. & Evans, A.P., ''Heresies of the High Middle Ages'', New York 1969, p.31

Penalty

Those accused of heresy, if they could not prove their innocence or forswear their errors, or if they backslid into error subsequently, were to be handed over to the lay authorities to receive their ''animadversio debita'' ("due penalty"). All those who supported heresy were deprived of many rights: the right to hold public office, the right to trial, the right to draft a will, and the hereditability of their fiefs and offices. For the enforcement of the measures demanded by the decretal, Lucius obligated all

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in c ...

archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdio ...

s, and

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

s to re-announce the excommunication on certain feasts and holidays. Those who did not observe this for three years consecutively would be deprived of their ecclesiastical offices. The bishops were furthermore obligated to "seek out" heretics. They were to make bi- or triannual rounds of their dioceses, visiting locations of suspicion and questioning the people about the existence of heresy. The people would be required to swear under oath (

compurgation Compurgation, also called trial by oath, wager of law, and oath-helping, was a defence used primarily in medieval law. A defendant could establish their innocence or nonliability by taking an oath and by getting a required number of persons, typi ...

) anything they knew about heretical activity. All oath-breakers were to be treated as heretics.

Canon 3

The bull was incorporated as Canon 3 of the

Fourth Council of the Lateran The Fourth Council of the Lateran or Lateran IV was convoked by Pope Innocent III in April 1213 and opened at the Lateran Palace in Rome on 11 November 1215. Due to the great length of time between the Council's convocation and meeting, many b ...

of 1215 under

Pope Innocent III Pope Innocent III ( la, Innocentius III; 1160 or 1161 – 16 July 1216), born Lotario dei Conti di Segni (anglicized as Lothar of Segni), was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 to his death in 16 ...

. Contrary to what is often said, Lucius did not institute the

Inquisition The Inquisition was a group of institutions within the Catholic Church whose aim was to combat heresy, conducting trials of suspected heretics. Studies of the records have found that the overwhelming majority of sentences consisted of penances, ...

, which was not created until the reign of

Pope Gregory IX Pope Gregory IX ( la, Gregorius IX; born Ugolino di Conti; c. 1145 or before 1170 – 22 August 1241) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 March 1227 until his death in 1241. He is known for issuing the '' Decre ...

in 1234.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215
Heresy in Christianity in the Middle Ages Inquisition Albigensian Crusade 1184 works 12th-century papal bulls Documents of Pope Lucius III