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Pope Innocent
III
Pope Innocent III (Latin: Innocentius III; 1160 or
1161 – 16 July 1216) reigned from 8 January 1198 to
his death. His birth name was Lotario dei Conti di
Segni, sometimes anglicised to Lothar of Segni.
Pope Innocent was one of the most powerful and
influential popes. He exerted a wide influence over
the Christian regimes of Europe, claiming supremacy
over all of Europe’s kings. Pope Innocent was central
in supporting the Catholic Church's reforms of
ecclesiastical affairs through his decretals and the
Fourth Lateran Council. This resulted in a
considerable refinement of Western canon law. Pope
Innocent is notable for using interdict and other
censures to compel princes to obey his decisions,
although these measures were not uniformly
successful. Innocent called for Christian crusades
against Muslim Spain and the Holy Land, as well as
the Albigensian Crusade against the Cathars in
southern France.
One of Pope Innocent’s most critical decisions was
organizing the Fourth Crusade. Originally intended to
attack Jerusalem through Egypt, a series of
unforeseen circumstances led the crusaders to
Constantinople, where they ultimately attacked and
sacked the city (1204). Innocent reluctantly accepted
this result, seeing it as the will of God to reunite the
Latin and Orthodox Churches, but it poisoned
relations between the two churches. [1]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
Lotario de' Conti was born in Gavignano, near
Anagni.[2] His father was Count Trasimund of Segni
and was a member of a famous house, Conti, which
produced nine Popes, including Gregory IX,
Alexander IV and Innocent XIII. Lotario was the
nephew of Pope Clement III; his mother, Claricia
Scotti (Romani de Scotti), was from the same noble
Roman family. [3]
Lotario received his early education in Rome,
probably at the Benedictine Abbey of St Andrea al
Celio, under Peter Ismael;[4] he studied theology in
Paris under the theologians Peter of Poitiers, Melior
of Pisa, and Peter of Corbeil,[5] and (possibly)
jurisprudence in Bologna, according to the Gesta
(between 1187 and 1189).[6] As Pope, Lotario was to
play a major role in the shaping of canon law through
conciliar canons and decretal letters.[2]
Shortly after the death of Alexander III (30 August
1181) Lotario returned to Rome and held various
ecclesiastical offices during the short reigns of Lucius
III, Urban III, Gregory VIII, and Clement III, reaching
the rank of Cardinal-Deacon in 1190. He subscribed
the papal bulls between 7 December 1190 and 4
November 1197.
As a cardinal, Lotario wrote De miseria humanae
conditionis (On the Misery of the Human
Condition).[7] The work was very popular for
centuries, surviving in more than 700 manuscripts.[8]
Although he never returned to the complementary
work he intended to write, On the Dignity of Human
Nature, Bartolomeo Facio (1400– 1457) took up the
task writing De excellentia ac praestantia hominis.[9]
1.2 Election to the Papacy
Main article: Papal election, 1198
Celestine III died on 8 January 1198. Before his death
he had urged the College of Cardinals to elect
Giovanni di San Paolo as his successor, but Lotario
de' Conti was elected pope on the very day on which
Celestine III died. He accepted the tiara with
reluctance and took the name Innocent III. He was
only thirty-seven years old at the time. [2]
1.3 Reassertion of Papal power
As pope, Innocent III began with a very wide sense of
his responsibility and of his authority. The Muslim
recapture of Jerusalem in 1187 was to him a divine
judgment on the moral lapses of Christian princes. He
was also determined to protect what he called “the
liberty of the Church” from inroads by secular
princes. This determination meant, among other
things, that princes should not be involved in the
selection of bishops, and it was focused especially on
the "patrimonium" of the papacy, the section of
central Italy claimed by the popes and later called the
Papal States. The patrimonium was routinely
threatened by Hohenstaufen German kings who, as
Roman emperors, claimed it for themselves. The Holy
Roman Emperor Henry VI expected to be succeeded
by his infant son Frederick as king of Sicily, king of
the Germans, and Roman Emperor, a combination
that would have brought Germany, Italy, and Sicily
under a single ruler and left the patrimonium
exceedingly vulnerable.[2]
The early death of Henry VI left his 4-year-old son
Frederick II as king. Henry VI’s widow Constance of
Sicily ruled over Sicily for her young son before he
reached the age of majority. She was as eager to
remove German power from the kingdom of Sicily as
was Innocent III. Before her death in 1198, she named
Innocent as guardian of the young Frederick until he
reached his maturity. In exchange, Innocent was also
able to recover papal rights in Sicily that had been
surrendered decades earlier to King William I of
Sicily by Pope Adrian IV. The Pope invested the
young Frederick II as King of Sicily in November
1198. He also later induced Frederick II to marry the
widow of King Emeric of Hungary in 1209. [2]
In 1209, Francis of Assisi led his first eleven
followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope
Innocent III to found a new religious Order, which
was ultimately granted.[10] Upon entry to Rome, the
brothers encountered Bishop Guido of Assisi, who
had in his company Giovanni di San Paolo, the
Cardinal Bishop of Sabina. The Cardinal, who was the
confessor of Pope Innocent III, was immediately
sympathetic to Francis and agreed to represent
Francis to the pope. Reluctantly, Pope Innocent
agreed to meet with Francis and the brothers the next
day. After several days, the pope agreed to admit the
group informally, adding that when God increased the
group in grace and number, they could return for an
official admittance. The group was tonsured. [11] This
was important in part because it recognized Church
authority and prevented his following from possible
accusations of heresy, as had happened to the
Waldensians decades earlier. Though Pope Innocent
initially had his doubts, following a dream in which
he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John
Lateran (the cathedral of Rome, thus the 'home
church' of all Christendom), he decided to endorse
Francis’ Order. This occurred, according to tradition,
on April 16, 1210, and constituted the official
founding of the Franciscan Order. The group, then the
“Lesser Brothers” (Order of Friars Minor also known
as the Franciscan Order), preached on the streets and
had no possessions. They were centred in
Porziuncola, and preached first in Umbria, before
expanding throughout Italy.
1.4 Involvement in Imperial elections
Papal power was based on more than scriptures. The
popes acquired large amounts of land, and bishops
and clergy were, in theory, agents of papal programs.
Pope Innocent III’s increased involvement in Imperial
elections took historically documented form when he
called the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 during
which time he beckoned about 1200 bishops, abbots
and nobles from around Europe to assist in either
tweaking current laws or creating new ones to further
influence the masses in supporting the Pope as the
universal authority of the Empire.
In order to define fundamental doctrines, the council
reviewed the nature of the Eucharist, the ordered
annual confession of sins, and prescribed detailed
procedures for the election of bishops. The council
also mandated a strict lifestyle for clergy, banning
their participation in judicial procedures involving
extremely painful punishments by which the accused
would either atone for their sins or prove themselves
innocent of often frivolous charges. One doctrine that
confirmed the “power over the spirit” theory was the
implementation by the council mandating that Jews
wear special identifying markings on their clothing –
a sign of the increased hostility felt by Christians
towards Jews in the region. [12]
Another tool Innocent III used to attempt to gain
universal authority and have more involvement in
Imperial elections was letters he wrote to power
brokers in the region. While the content of the letters
was subtle in their inferred goal of securing his
authority, when read in total, his goal becomes more
obvious:
Papal Authority: Letter to the prefect Acerbius and
the nobles of Tuscany, 1198, Just as the founder of
the universe established two great lights in the
firmament of heaven, the greater light to rule the day
and the lesser light to rule the night, so too He set
two great dignities in the firmament of the universal
church..., the greater on to rule the day, that is, souls,
and the lesser to rule the night, that is, bodies. These
dignities are the papal authority and the royal power.
Now just as the moon derives its light from the sun
and is indeed lower than it in quantity and quality, in
position and in power, so too the royal power derives
the splendour of its dignity from the pontifical
authority..... [13]
Other letters that Innocent III sent during this attempt
to mandate and secure the papal proprietor as the
universal authority by demeaning and attempting to
minimize the authority of the emperors were written
under the title “Papal Policies”:
•
“On Heresy: Letter to the Archbishop of Auch,
1198
•
“On Usury: Letter to the French bishops, 1198
•
“On Church Independence/Tithes: Letter to a
bishop, 1198
•
“On the crusade and Trade with Saracens:
Letter to the Venetians, 1198
•
“On Jews: Decree of 1199”[13]
One of the most direct public notices of the universal
authority of the pope came in Innocent III’s “Papal
Decree on the choice of a German King, 1201”. It was
his opportunity to force the acceptance of his decree
amidst a chaotic election of three men for emperor:
It is the business of the pope to look after the
interests of the Roman empire, since the empire
derives its origin and its final authority from the
papacy; its origin, because it was originally
transferred from Greece by and for the sake of the
papacy...its final authority, because the emperor is
raised to his position by the pope who blesses him,
crowns him and invests him with the
empire....Therefore, since three persons have lately
been elected king by different parties, namely the
youth [Frederick, son of Henry VI], Philip [of
Hohenstaufen, brother of Henry VI], and Otto [of
Brunswick, of the Welf family], so also three things
must be taken into account in regard to each one,
namely: the legality, the suitability and the
expediency of his election......Far be it from us that
we should defer to man rather than to God, or that
we should fear the countenance of the powerful....On
the foregoing grounds, then, we decide that the youth
should not at present be given the empire; we utterly
reject Philip for his manifest unfitness and we order
his usurpation to be resisted by all....since Otto is not
only himself devoted to the church, but comes from
devout ancestors on both sides.....therefore we
decree that he ought to be accepted and supported as
king, and ought to be given the crown of empire,
after the rights of the Roman church have been
secured.[13]
•
the Greeks to the Germans in the person of
Charlemagne.
The right to investigate and decide whether a
king thus elected is worthy of the imperial
dignity belongs to the pope, whose office it is
to anoint, consecrate, and crown him;
otherwise it might happen that the pope would
be obliged to anoint, consecrate, and Crown a
king who was excommunicated, a heretic, or a
pagan.
1.5 Feudal power over Europe
During the reign of Pope Innocent III, the papacy was
at the height of its powers. He was considered to be
the most powerful person in Europe at the time. [14] His
papacy asserted the absolute spiritual authority of his
office, while still respecting the temporal authority of
kings.
After the death of Emperor Henry VI, who had
recently also conquered the Kingdom of Sicily, the
succession became disputed: as Henry’s son
Frederick was still a small child, the partisans of the
Staufen dynasty elected Henry’s brother, Philip, Duke
of Swabia, king in March 1198, whereas the princes
opposed to the Staufen dynasty elected Otto, Duke of
Brunswick, of the House of Welf. King Philip II of
France supported Philip’s claim, whereas King
Richard of England supported his nephew
Otto. [15]
Pope Innocent was determined to prevent the
continued unification of Sicily and the Holy Roman
Empire under one monarch [16] and seized the
opportunity to extend his influence. In 1201, the pope
openly espoused the side of Otto IV, whose family
had always been opposed to the house of
Hohenstaufen.[17] Otto himself also seemed willing to
grant any demands that Innocent would make. The
confusion in the Empire allowed Innocent to drive out
the imperial feudal lords from Ancona, Spoleto and
Perugia, who had been installed by Emperor Henry
VI.[18] On 3 July 1201, the papal legate, CardinalBishop Guido of Palestrina announced to the people,
in the cathedral of Cologne, that Otto IV had been
approved by the pope as Roman king and threatened
with excommunication all those who refused to
acknowledge him. At the same time, Innocent
encouraged the cities in Tuscany to form a league,
called the League of San Genesio against German
imperial interests in Italy, and they placed themselves
under Innocent’s protection. [18]
In May 1202, Innocent issued the decree
“Venerabilem”, addressed to the Duke of Zähringen,
in which he explained the relation he considered the
Empire to stand to the papacy. This decree, which has
become famous, was afterwards embodied in the
"Corpus Juris Canonici", [19] contained the following
major items:
•
The German princes have the right to elect the
king, who is afterwards to become emperor.
This right was given them by the Apostolic See
when it transferred the imperial dignity from
John of England signs Magna Carta. Illustration from
Cassell’s History of England (1902)
•
If the pope finds that the king who has been
elected by the princes is unworthy of the
imperial dignity, the princes must elect a new
king or, if they refuse, the pope will confer the
imperial dignity upon another king; for the
Church stands in need of a patron and
defender.
•
In case of a double election the pope must
exhort the princes to come to an agreement. If
after a due interval they have not reached an
agreement they must ask the pope to arbitrate,
failing which, he must of his own accord and
by virtue of his office decide in favour of one
of the claimants. The pope’s decision need not
be based on the greater or less legality of either
election, but on the qualifications of the
claimants.[2]
Despite papal support, Otto could not oust his rival
Philip until the latter was murdered in a private feud.
His rule now undisputed, Otto reneged on his earlier
promises and now set his sights on re-establishing
Imperial power in Italy and claiming even the
Kingdom of Sicily. Given the papal interest to keep
Germany and Sicily apart, Innocent now supported
his ward, King Frederick of Sicily, to resist Otto’s
advances and restore the Staufen dynasty to the Holy
Roman Empire. Frederick was duly elected by the
Staufen partisans.
The conflict was decided by the Battle of Bouvines on
27 July 1214, which pitted Otto, allied to King John
of England against Philip II Augustus. Otto was
defeated by the French and thereafter lost all
influence. He died on 19 May 1218, leaving Frederick
II the undisputed emperor. Meanwhile, King John
was forced to acknowledge the Pope as his feudal lord
and accept Stephen Langton as Archbishop of
Canterbury. [20]
Innocent III played further roles in the politics of
France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain and England. [20] In
return for King John’s submission to his authority,
Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta annulled,
though many English Barons did not accept this
action.
Innocent called the Fourth Crusade, which was
diverted
to
Constantinople.
The
pope
excommunicated the Crusaders who attacked
Christian cities, but was unable to halt or overturn
their actions. Erroneously, he felt that the Latin
presence would bring about a reconciliation between
the Eastern and Western Churches. Innocent also
ordered an Albigensian Crusade, which successfully
subdued the Cathar heresy in France. [21][22]
1.6 Crusades and suppression of heresy
Innocent III was a vigorous opponent of heresy, and
undertook campaigns against it. At the beginning of
his pontificate, he focused on the Albigenses, also
known as the Cathars, a sect that had become
widespread in southern-western France, then under
the control of local princes, such as the Counts of
Toulouse. The Cathars rejected the authority and the
teachings of the Catholic Church, and what they
viewed in it as corrupt.
Innocent launched the Albigensian Crusade against the
Cathars.
In 1199, Innocent III condemned the public preaching
of heretical teachers. Two Cistercian monks were sent
to dispute the teachings of the Cathars and to reassert
papal authority.
The murder of Pierre de Castelnau — Innocent’s
legate — in 1208, by unknown assailants commonly
believed to be friends of Count Raymond of Toulouse
(who was not a Cathar), caused Innocent to change his
methods from words to weapons.[23] Innocent called
upon King Philip II Augustus of France to suppress
the Albigenses. Under the leadership of Simon de
Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester, a campaign was
launched. The Albigensian Crusade, which led to the
slaughter of approximately 20,000 [24] men, women
and children, Cathar and Catholic alike [24] and
brought the region firmly under the control of the king
of France. It was directed not only against heretical
Christians, but also the nobility of Toulouse and
vassals of the Crown of Aragon. King Peter II of
Aragon was directly involved in the conflict, and was
killed in the course of the Battle of Muret in 1213. The
conflict largely ended with the Treaty of Paris of
1229, in which the integration of the Occitan territory
in the French crown was agreed upon. Military action
ceased in 1255.
In parallel to the crusade the Catholic clergy launched
a vilifying campaign against the heretics, associating
them with abominable practices and sodomy as there
was a concern that the populace of Provence and
Northern Italy had started sympathizing with the
Cathar victims of the crusade because of their moral
purity. [25]
Innocent also decreed the Fourth Crusade of 1198,
intended to recapture the Holy Land.
Pope Innocent III spent a majority of his tenure as
Pope (1198-1216) preparing for a great crusade on the
Holy Land. His first attempt was the Fourth Crusade
(1202-1204) which he decreed in 1198.[26][27] Unlike
past popes, Innocent III displayed interest in leading
the crusade himself, rather than simply instigating it
and allowing secular leaders to organize the
expedition according to their own aspirations.[24]
Burning of the Waldensians. Toulouse in the 13th century.
Innocent III’s first order of business in preaching the
crusade was to send missionaries to every Catholic
state to endorse the campaign. Innocent III sent Peter
of Capua to the kings France and England with
specific instructions to convince them to settle their
differences. As a result, in 1199, Innocent was
successful in forging a truce of five years between the
two nations. The intent of the truce between the kings
was not to allow them to lead the crusade, but rather
to improve the likelihood that they would provide
assistance. For the army’s leadership, Innocent aimed
his pleas at the knights and nobles of Europe. [24] The
pleadings were successful in France, where many
lords answered the pope’s call, including the army’s
two eventual leaders, Theobald of Champagne and
Boniface, marquis of Montferrat. Innocent III’s calls
to action were not received with as much enthusiasm
in England or Germany. For this reason, the Fourth
Crusade became mainly a French affair. [28]
The Fourth Crusade was an expensive endeavour.
Innocent III chose to raise funds by doing something
previously unheard of in popes. He forced the entire
clergy under his leadership to give one fortieth of their
income in support of the Crusade. This marked the
first time a pope ever imposed a direct tax on his
clerical subjects. The pope faced many difficulties
with collecting this tax, including corruption of his
own officials and disregard of his subjects in England.
He continued in his attempt to garner funds for his
crusade by sending envoys to King John of England
and King Philip of France. Both men pledged to
contribute one fortieth of their own salaries to the
campaign. John also declared that the tax would be
collected throughout England as well. The other
source of funds for the crusade was the crusaders
themselves. Innocent declared that those who took the
vow to become crusaders but could no longer perform
the tasks that they had promised to complete, could be
released of their oaths by a contribution of funds to
the original cause. The pope put Archbishop Hubert
Walter in charge of collecting these dues. [24][29]
At the onset of the crusade, the intended destination
was Egypt, as the Christians and Muslims were under
a truce at the time. [28] An agreement was made
between the French Crusaders and the Venetians. The
Venetians would supply vessels and supplies for the
crusaders and in return, the crusaders would pay
85,000 marks (£200,000). [30] Innocent gave his
approval of this agreement under two conditions: a
representative of the pope must accompany the
crusade, and the attack of any other Christians was
strictly forbidden. The French failed to raise sufficient
funds for payment of the Venetians. As a result, the
Crusaders diverted the crusade to the Christian city of
Zara at the will of the Venetians to subsidize the debt.
This diversion was adopted without the consent of
Innocent III, who threatened excommunication to any
who took part in the attack. A majority of the French
ignored the threat and attacked Zara, and were
excommunicated by Innocent III, but soon were
forgiven so as to continue the crusade. A second
diversion then occurred when the crusaders decided
to conquer Constantinople, the capital of the
Byzantine Empire. This diversion was taken without
any knowledge by Innocent III, and he did not learn
of it until after the city had been captured. [31]
Innocent viewed the capture of Constantinople as a
way to reunite the schismatic Western and Eastern
Orthodox Churches. His goal was to install the Latin
(Western) ideals into the main centre of the Greek
(Eastern) Church. He saw the invasion as a way of
making the Greek Church submit to the views of those
that occupied their city. His tactics ultimately failed
due to the significant differences between the two
churches. The crusade did lead to the start of the Latin
Empire’s rule of Constantinople, which lasted for the
next sixty years. [32]
1.7 Fourth Council of the Lateran
On 15 November 1215 Innocent opened the Fourth
Lateran Council, considered the most important
church council of the Middle Ages. By its conclusion
it issued seventy reformatory decrees. Among other
things, it encouraged creating schools and holding
clergy to a higher standard than the laity. It also
forbade clergymen to participate in the practice of the
judicial ordeal, effectively banning its use.
At the Fourth Lateran Council, Innocent III and his
prelates legislated against subordination of Christians
to Jews. Canon 69 forbade “that Jews be given
preferment in public office since this offers them the
pretext to vent their wrath against the Christians.”[33]
Canon 69 assumes that Jews blaspheme Christ, and
therefore, as it would be “too absurd for a blasphemer
of Christ to exercise power over Christians”, [34] Jews
should not be appointed to public offices.
1.8 Death and legacy
Innocent III honoured by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Council had set the beginning of the Fifth
Crusade for 1217, under the direct leadership of the
Church. After the Council, in the spring of 1216,
Innocent moved to northern Italy in an attempt to
reconcile the maritime cities of Pisa and Genoa by
removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his
predecessor Celestine III and concluding a pact with
Genoa. [35]
Innocent III, however, died suddenly at Perugia[2] on
16 July 1216. He was buried in the cathedral of
Perugia, where his body remained until Pope Leo XIII
had it transferred to the Lateran in December 1891.
Innocent III was believed to be in purgatory on the
very day he died. He is said to have appeared to St.
Lutgarda in her monastery at Aywieres in Brabant.
Engulfed in flames, he declared to her, “I am Pope
Innocent”. He continued to explain that he was in
purgatory for three faults which had caused him to
arrive in this state. Innocent asked St. Lutgarda to
come to his assistance, saying, “Alas! It is terrible;
and will last for centuries if you do not come to my
assistance. In the name of Mary, who has obtained for
me the favour of appealing to you, help me!” At that
moment he disappeared and St. Lutgarda informed
her sisters of what she had seen. [36]