The 1139 'crossbow ban' covered archers too, and failed

The so-called papal ban on the crossbow is Canon 29 of the Second Lateran Council, held in Rome under Pope Innocent II in April 1139. It forbade, under pain of anathema, the use of crossbowmen and archers against “Christians and Catholics”. It did not outlaw the crossbow itself, it condemned bows in the same breath, and it left both free for use against non-Christians.

Was the crossbow really singled out?

Not in the text. The two standard English translations disagree on who was meant. Norman Tanner’s edition, used by Papal Encyclicals Online, condemns “that murderous art of crossbowmen and archers, which is hateful to God”. H. J. Schroeder’s older translation, hosted by Fordham University, says slingers and archers, and Schroeder thought the canon was aimed at a kind of tournament: shooting arrows and other projectiles for wagers. Pope Urban II had already condemned that practice at a Lateran synod in 1097.

Even the basic facts drift between editions. Tanner has the council opening on 2 April 1139 with at least 500 bishops and abbots; Schroeder gives 4 April and nearly a thousand prelates. The date of 30 August 1146 that still circulates online has no basis: the council met during Lent of 1139.

Did anyone obey it?

Hardly. Later popes, among them Innocent III, repeated the prohibition and permitted the crossbow only in defence of Christendom against outside enemies. A study summarised by Medievalists.net calls the ban “ineffective like so many attempts at arms control”. Richard the Lionheart made the crossbow his favourite weapon and was killed by a crossbow bolt in 1199. Within three centuries the archers the canon also condemned were winning England’s most famous medieval victory at Agincourt.

The canon still matters as an early attempt to limit a weapon by moral law. It was also far from the last such attempt to fail.