Die Register Innocenz' III. 15. Band

The fifteenth volume of the edition of Pope Innocent III's chancery registers contains 242 letters addressed to recipients all over Europe and in the Middle East. As in the 13th volume, the organisation of the church in Romania is a dominant concern. Special attention is also paid to the war against the Muslims in Spain, the effort to start a new crusade to the Holy Land, and the fight against heresy in southern France. Other letters deal with political and ecclesiastical issues from southern Italy to Scandinavia; matrimonial matters and property questions; privileges and confirmations of the rights and possessions of bishoprics and monasteries; matters concerning the episcopate and litigation within the Church, such as contested elections or disciplinary problems; and a variety of decisions offering insights into the major and minor problems of the church and the people in around 1200. Like the 13th and 14th volumes, the register of Innocent's fifteenth year of pontificate is one of the volumes transmitted not as an original but as a copy written at the Curia in the mid-14th century and as a printed edition published by the French scholar Bosquet in the 17th century. This volume offers a critical edition of the texts; ample historical comments; identifications of textual parallels and quotations from the Bible, Canon and Roman law, theological, liturgical and classical texts; and the letters' insertion in decretal collections. In the introduction, the manuscript and the editorial principles are described, and several indices help to access the contents.