A historical approach on the Right of Defense from the Pontificate of Pope Innocence III to the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI

Abstract

With a historical approach to the Right of Defense in the Pontifical Magisterium, this article systematically seeks to establish the premises of this fundamental principle within the Catholic Church throughout a historical period that goes from the year 1215, with the IV Council of Lateran, until the Pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI. The research and, therefore, the text that follows, seeks to indicate how the right of defense has been thought and how it has been established as part of the ecclesiastical concern to protect the truth.