nocent, in summoning the
assembly, "the deliverance of the Holy Land and the reform of the
Church Universal." In its vast collection of seventy canons, the
Lateran Council strove hard to carry out the Pope's programme. It
condemned the dying heresies of the Albigenses and the Cathari, and
prescribed the methods and punishments of the unrepentant heretic. It
strove to rekindle zeal for the crusade. It drew up a drastic scheme
for reforming the internal life and discipline of the Church. It
strove to elevate the morals and the learning of the clergy, to check
their worldliness and covetousness, and to restrain them from abusing
the authority of the Church through excess of zeal or more corrupt
motives. It invited bishops to set up free schools to teach poor
scholars grammar and theology. It forbade trial by battle and trial by
ordeal. It subjected the existing monastic orders to stricter
superintendence, and forbade the establishment of new monastic rules.
It forbade superstitious practices and the worship of spurious or
unauthorized relics.

The whole series of canons sought to regulate and ameliorate the
influence of the Church on society. If many of the abuses aimed at
were too deeply rooted to be overthrown by mere legislation, the
attempt speaks well for the character and intelligence of Pope and
council. All mediaeval lawmaking, civil and ecclesiastical alike, was
but the promulgation of an ideal, rather than the issuing of precepts
meant to be literally executed. But no more serious attempt at rooting
out inveterate evils was ever made in the Middle Ages than in this
council.

The formal enunciation of this lofty programme of reform brought
Innocent's pontificate to a glorious end. The Pontiff devoted what
little remained of his life to hurrying on the preparations for the
projected crusade, which was to set out 1217. But in the summer of
1216 Innocent died at Perugia, when only fifty-six years old. If not
the greatest he was the most powerful of all the popes. For nearly
twenty years the whole history of Europe groups itself round his
doings.

SIGNING OF MAGNA CHARTA

A.D. 1215

DAVID HUME

The Great Charter is one of the most famous documents in
history. Regarded as the foundation of English civil
liberty, it also stands as the historic prototype of later
declarations of human freedom in various lands. In the Great
Charter, as observed by Green, "the vague expressions