This Day in Church History — Nov 11: Fourth Lateran Council Opens and William Carey Lands in India

Host 1: Welcome to This Day in Church History. On this day, November 11th, well, imagine trying to push a mandatory software update to millions of users but your only technology is a guy on a horse.

Host 2: Right. That sounds like a nightmare.

Host 1: It really does. But today we're doing a deep dive into how the medieval church actually managed to rewrite the daily habits of an entire continent and then you know we'll see how centuries later one stubborn guy on an indigo plantation proved that monumental shifts don't always come from a massive gathering.

Host 2: Yeah, it's such a massive contrast for you to think about today. I mean, we are looking at 1215 AD in Rome and then 1793 AD in India

Host 1: Two totally different worlds.

Host 2: Exactly. And what's fascinating is the sheer mechanics of how these shifts actually happened on the ground because it's one thing to declare a change from on high right but it is another entirely to actually make it stick.

Host 1: Well let's start with that top down approach. So the year is 1215 AD and Pope Innocent III opens the fourth Lateran Council.

Host 2: Oh yeah. The scale of this was just wild.

Host 1: Yeah. It's basically an ecumenical mega conference you've got 412 bishops over 800 abbots and priors plus royal envoys from all over

Host 2: and they open with mass they sing the hymn veni creator spiritus and Innocent preaches on Luke 22 15

Host 3: which is uh with desire have I desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer right

Host 2: yep that's the one

Host 3: okay

Host 2: and that wasn't just decorative he was setting a very specific deeply theological tone

Host 3: right because over three sessions they hammered out like 70 decrees

Host 2: about 70 yeah and they tackled the heavy theology head on this is where they officially defined Christ's presence in the Eucharist using the term transubstantiation

Host 3: okay wait I have to stop you there

Host 2: sure

Host 3: because transubstantiation get thrown around a lot but what did that actually mean for the people in the room

Host 2: well they were adopting a specific philosophical framework to explain the how you know using the concept of substance versus accidents

Host 3: Meaning what exactly?

Host 2: The idea is that the inner invisible substance of the bread and wine completely changes into the body and blood of Christ.

Host 3: Okay, but it still looks like bread.

Host 2: Right because the outward accidents the taste the look the texture those remain exactly the same it was a highly technical way to standardize a profound mystery

Host 3: got it and to keep the record totally impartial here they standardized a lot more than just theology they said a crusade date pushed for clergy reform and they also passed decrees that placed restrictions and distinctive dress requirements on Jews and Muslims in Christian territories

Host 2: yeah which tells you this was a comprehensive reordering of society but for the average Christian the biggest shift was the mandates for yearly confession and taking Easter communion

Host 3: it's effectively rewriting the user manual for medieval religious life but I mean how do you enforce that wouldn't local priests just ignore a decree from Rome

Host 2: you would think so but the brilliance was tying it to the local parish if you didn't show up for Easter communion your priest knew it created this shared inescapable religious rhythm across Europe

Host 3: wow so that's the top down model but if you want to see how the message went outward globally you have to look at the exact opposite approach let's jump to 1793 AD

Host 2: yes a total pivot

we've got

Host 3: we've got an English Baptist named William Carey who just landed in Calcutta after five grueling months at sea

Host 2: and it was rough the funding his group brought dried up almost immediately

Host 3: so he's broke in a foreign country

Host 2: completely to keep his family from starving he spent his first six years managing an indigo plantation

Host 1: it really feels like this modern all in startup mentality the plantation was his day job to keep the servers running but his nights and weekends hustle was revising his Bengali New Testament

Host 2: that is a perfect analogy

Host 1: yeah

Host 2: and he stayed in India for 41 years

Host 1: without a single furlough right

Host 2: ever

Host 1: he just never went home

Host 2: never went home he lived out his famous 1792 sermon charge expect great things from God attempt great things for God

Host 1: and he definitely attempted a lot by 1800 he joins the Serampore Mission

Host 2: which finally gave him the printing presses he needed his mission eventually printed the Bible in 44 languages and dialects

Host 1: 44

Host 2: that's insane

Host 2: it insane

Host 1: it is

Host 2: that he didn't do it alone he partnered with local scholars built linguistic frameworks and became the model for generations of Protestant missionaries

Host 1: just a totally different way to change the world oh and before we wrap up really quickly also on this day in 1620 AD passengers anchored off Cape Cod signed the Mayflower compact for the quote glory of God and advancement of the Christian faith and in 1855 AD Danish Christian thinker Soren Kierkegaard died in Copenhagen at age 42.

Host 2: amazing it really leaves you with something to mull over

Host 1: yeah it does

Host 2: just how the church's story is driven equally by these sweeping decrees of thousands in a grand hall and then you know a lone family managing an indigo plantation to fund a bible translation.

Host 1: thanks for tuning in see you back here tomorrow.