Pope Innocent III
One of the greatest popes of the Middle Ages, son of Count Trasimund of
Segni and nephew of Clement III, born 1160 or 1161 at Anagni, and died
16 June, 1216, at Perugia.
He received his early education at Rome, studied theology at Paris,
jurisprudence at Bologna, and became a learned theologian and one of the
greatest jurists of his time. Shortly after the death of Alexander III
(30 Aug., 1181) Lotario returned to Rome and held various ecclesiastical
offices during the short reigns of Lucius III, Urban III, Gregory VIII,
and Clement III. Pope Gregory VIII ordained him subdeacon, and Clement
III created him Cardinal-Deacon of St. George in Velabro and Sts.
Sergius and Bacchus, in 1190. Later he became Cardinal-Priest of St.
Pudentiana.
During the pontificate of Celestine III (1191-1198), a
member of the House of the Orsini, enemies of the counts of Segni, he
lived in retirement, probably at Anagni, devoting himself chiefly to
meditation and literary pursuits. Celestine III died 8 January, 1198.
Previous to his death he had urged the College of Cardinals to elect
Giovanni di Colonna as his successor; but Lotario de’ Conti was elected
pope, at Rome, on the very day on which Celestine III died. He accepted
the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Innocent III. At the time
of his accession to the papacy he was only thirty-seven years of age.
The imperial throne had become vacant by the death of Henry VI in 1197,
and no successor had as yet been elected. The tactful and energetic pope
made good use of the opportunity offered him by this vacancy for the
restoration of the papal power in Rome and in the States of the Church.
The Prefect of Rome, who reigned over the city as the emperor’s
representative, and the senator who stood for the communal rights and
privileges of Rome, swore allegiance to Innocent. When he had thus
re-established the papal authority in Rome, he availed himself of every
opportunity to put in practice his grand concept of the papacy. Italy
was tired of being ruled by a host of German adventurers, and the pope
experienced little difficulty in extending his political power over the
peninsula. First he sent two cardinal legates to Markwuld to demand the
restoration of the Romagna and the March of Ancona to the Church. Upon
his evasive answer he was excommunicated by the legates and driven away
by the papal troops. In like manner the Duchy of Spoleto and the
Districts of Assisi and Sora were wrested from the German knight, Conrad
von Uerslingen. The league which had been formed among the cities of
Tuscany was ratified by the pope after it acknowledged him as suzerain.
Constance, Queen of Sicily
The death of the Emperor Henry VI left his four-year old child,
Frederick II, King of Sicily. The emperor’s widow Constance, who ruled
over Sicily for her little son, was unable to cope singly against the
Norman barons of the Sicilian Kingdom, who resented the German rule and
refused to acknowledge the child-king. She appealed to Innocent III to
save the Sicilian throne for her child. The pope made use of this
opportunity to reassert papal suzerainty over Sicily, and acknowledged
Frederick II as king only after Constance had surrendered certain
privileges contained in the so-called Four Chapters, which William I had
previously extorted from Adrian IV. The pope then solemnly invested
Frederick II as King of Sicily in a Bull issued about the middle of
November, 1198. Before the Bull reached Sicily Constance had died, but
before her death she had appointed Innocent as guardian of the
orphan-king. With the greatest fidelity the pope watched over the
welfare of his ward during the nine years of his minority. Even the
enemies of the papacy admit that Innocent was an unselfish guardian of
the young king and that no one else could have ruled for him more ably
and conscientiously. To protect the inexperienced king against his
enemies, he induced him in 1209 to marry Constance, the widow of King
Emeric of Hungary. Conditions in Germany were extremely favourable for
the application of Innocent’s idea concerning the relation between the
papacy and the empire. After the death of Henry VI a double election had
ensued. The Ghibellines had elected Philip of Swabia on 6 March, 1198,
while the Guelfs had elected Otto IV, son of Henry the Lion and nephew
of King Richard of England, in April of the same year. The former was
crowned at Mainz on 8 September, 1198, the latter at Aachen on 12 July,
1198. Immediately upon his accession to the papal throne Innocent had
sent the Bishop of Sutri and the Abbot of Sant’ Anastasio as legates to
Germany, with instructions to free Philip of Swabia from the ban which
he had incurred under Celestine III, on condition that he would bring
about the liberation of the imprisoned Queen Sibyl of Sicily and restore
the territory which he had taken from the Church when he was Duke of
Tuscany. When the legates arrived in Germany, Philip had already been
elected king. Yielding to the wishes of Philip, the Bishop of Sutri
secretly freed him from the ban upon his mere promise to fulfil the
proposed conditions.
Frederick II
After the coronation Philip sent the legates back to Rome with
letters requesting the pope’s ratification of his election; but Innocent
was dissatisfied with the action of the Bishop of Sutri and refused to
ratify the election. Otto IV also sent legates to the pope after his
coronation at Aachen, but before the pope took any action, the two
claimants of the German throne began to assert their claims by force of
arms. Though the pope did not openly side with either of them, it was
apparent that his sympathy was with Otto IV. Offended at what they
considered an unjust interference on the part of the pope, the adherents
of Philip sent a letter to him in which they protested against his
interference in the imperial affairs of Germany. In his answer Innocent
stated that he had no intention of encroaching upon the rights of the
princes, but insisted upon the rights of the Church in this matter. He
emphasized especially that the conferring of the imperial crown belonged
to the pope alone. In 1201 the pope openly espoused the side of Otto
IV. On 3 July, 1201, the papal legate, Cardinal-Bishop 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. Innocent III
made clear to the German princes by the Decree “Venerabilem” which he
addressed to the Duke of Zähringen in May, 1202, in what relation he
considered the empire to stand to the papacy. This decretal, which has
become famous, was afterwards embodied in the “Corpus Juris Canonici”.
It is found in Baluze, “Registrum Innocentii III super negotio Romani
Imperii”, no. lxii, and is reprinted in P. L., CCXVI, 1065-7. The
following are the chief points of the decretal:
- 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 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.
- 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.
Innocent’s exposition of his theory concerning the relation between
the papacy and the empire was accepted by many princes, as is apparent
from the sudden increase of Otto’s adherents subsequent to the issue of
the decretal. If after 1203 the majority of the princes began again to
side with Philip, it was the fault of Otto himself, who was very
irritable and often offended his best friends. Innocent, reversing his
decision, declared in favour of Philip in 1207, and sent the Cardinals
Ugolino of Ostia and Leo of Santa Croce to Germany with instructions to
endeavour to induce Otto to renounce his claims to the throne and with
powers to free Philip from the ban. The murder of King Philip by Otto of
Wittelsbach, 21 June, 1208, entirely changed conditions in Germany. At
the Diet of Frankfort, 11 November, 1208, Otto was acknowledged as king
by all the princes, and the pope invited him to Rome to receive the
imperial crown. He was crowned emperor in the Basilica of St. Peter at
Rome, 4 October, 1209.
Otto IV, Holy Roman Emperor
Before his coronation he had solemnly promised to leave the Church in
the peaceful possession of Spoleto, Ancona, and the gift of Countess
Matilda; to assist the pope in the exercise of his suzerainty over
Sicily; to grant freedom of ecclesiastical elections; unlimited right of
appeal to the pope and the exclusive competency of the hierarchy in
spiritual matters; he had, moreover renounced the “regalia” and the
jus spolii,
i. e., the right to the revenues of vacant sees and the seizure of the
estates of intestate ecclesiastics. He also promised to assist the
hierarchy in the extirpation of heresy. But scarcely had he been crowned
emperor when he seized Ancons, Spoleto, the bequest of Matilda, and
other property of the Church, giving it in vassalage to some of his
friends. He also united with the enemies of Frederick II and invaded the
Kingdom of Sicily with the purpose of wresting it from the youthful
king and from the suzerainty of the pope. When Otto did not listen to
the remonstrances of Innocent, the latter excommunicated him, 18
November, 1210, and solemnly proclaimed his excommunication at a Roman
synod held on 31 March, 1211. The pope now began to treat with King
Philip Augustus of France and with the German princes, with the result
that most princes renounced the excommunicated emperor and elected in
his place the youthful Frederick II of Sicily, at the Diet of Nuremberg
in September, 1211. The election was repeated in presence of a
representative of the pope and of Philip Augustus of France at the Diet
of Frankfort, 2 December, 1212. After making practically the same
promises to the pope which Otto IV had made previously, and, in
addition, taking the solemn oath never to unite Sicily with the empire,
his election was ratified by Innocent and he was crowned at Aachen on 12
July, 1215. The deposed emperor Otto IV hastened to Germany immediately
upon the election of Frederick II, but received little support from the
princes. In alliance with John of England he made war upon Philip of
France, but was defeated in the battle of Bouvines, 27 July, 1214. Then
he lost all influence in Germany and died on 19 May, 1218, leaving the
pope’s creature, Frederick II, the undisputed emperor. When Innocent
ascended the papal throne a cruel war was being waged between Philip
Augustus of France and Richard of England. The pope considered it his
duty, as the supreme ruler of the Christian world, to put an end to all
hostilities among Christian princes. Shortly after his accession he sent
Cardinal Peter of Capua to France with instructions to threaten both
kings with interdict if they would not within two months conclude peace
or at least agree upon a truce of five years. In January, 1198, the two
kings met between Vernon and Andely and a truce of five years was agreed
upon. The same legate was instructed by the pope to threaten Philip
Augustus with interdict over the whole of France if within a month he
would not be reconciled with his lawful wife, Ingeburga of Denmark, whom
he had rejected and in whose stead he had taken Agnes, daughter of the
Duke of Meran. When Philip took no heed of the pope’s warning Innocent
carried out his threat and on 12 December, 1199, laid the whole of
France under interdict. For nine months the king remained stubborn, but
when the barons and the people began to rise in rebellion against him he
finally discarded his concubine and the interdict was lifted on 7
September, 1200. It was not, however, until 1213 that the pope succeeded
in bringing about a final reconciliation between the king and his
lawful wife Ingeburga.
Ingeburga of Denmark
Innocent also had an opportunity to assert the papal rights in
England. After the death of Archbishop Hubert of Canterbury, in 1205, a
number of the younger monks of Christ Church assembled secretly at night
and elected their sub-prior, Reginald, as archbishop. This election was
made without the concurrence of the bishop and without the authority of
the king. Reginald was asked not to divulge his election until he had
received the papal approbation. But on his way to Rome the vain monk
assumed the title of archbishop-elect, and thus the episcopal body of
the province of Canterbury was apprised of the secret election. The
bishops at once sent Peter of Anglesham as their representative to Pope
Innocent to protest against the uncanonical proceedings of the monks of
Christ Church. The monks also were highly incensed at Reginald because,
contrary to his promise, he had divulged his election. They proceeded to
a second election, and on 11 December, 1205, cast their votes for the
royal favourite, John de Grey, whom the king had recommended to their
suffrages. The controversy between the monks of Christ Church and the
bishops concerning the right of electing the Archbishop of Canterbury,
Innocent decided in favour of the monks, but in the present case he
pronounced both elections invalid; that of Reginald because it had been
made uncanonically and clandestinely, that of John de Grey because it
had occurred before the invalidity of the former was proclaimed by the
pope. Not even King John, who offered Innocent 3000 marks if he would
decide in favour of de Grey, could alter the pope’s decision. Innocent
summoned those monks of Canterbury who were in Rome to proceed to a new
election and recommended to their choice Stephen Langton, an Englishman,
whom the pope had called to Rome from the rectorship of the University
of Paris, in order to create him cardinal. He was duly elected by the
monks and the pope himself consecrated him archbishop at Viterbo on 17
June, 1207. Innocent informed King John of the election of Langton and
asked him to accept the new archbishop. The king, however, had set his
mind on his favourite, John de Grey, and flatly refused to allow Langton
to come to England in the capacity of Archbishop of Canterbury. He,
moreover, wreaked his vengeance on the monks of Christ Church by driving
them from their monastery and taking possession of their property.
Pope Innocent III, middle, by Raphael.
Innocent now placed the entire kingdom under interdict which was
proclaimed on 24 March, 1208. When this proved of no avail and the king
committed acts of cruelty against the clergy, the pope declared him
excommunicated in 1209, and formally deposed him in 1212. He entrusted
King Philip of France with the execution of the sentence. When Philip
threatened to invade England and the feudal lords and the clergy began
to forsake King John, the latter made his submission to Pandulph, whom
Innocent had sent as legate to England. He promised to acknowledge
Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury, to allow the exiled bishops and
priests to return to England and to make compensation for the losses
which the clergy had sustained. He went still further, and on 13 May,
1213, probably of his own initiative, surrendered the English kingdom
through Pandulph into the hands of the pope to be returned to him as a
fief. The document of the surrender states that henceforth the kings of
England were to rule as vassals of the pope and to pay an annual tribute
of 1000 marks to the See of Rome. On 20 July, 1213, the king was
solemnly freed from the ban at Winchester and after the clergy had been
reimbursed for its losses the interdict was lifted from England on 29
June, 1214. It appears that many of the barons were not pleased with the
surrender of England into the hands of the pope. They also resented the
king’s continuous trespasses upon their liberties and his many acts of
injustice in the government of the people. They finally had recourse to
violence and forced him to yield to their demands by affixing his seal
to the Magna Charta. Innocent could not as suzerain of England allow a
contract which imposed such serious obligations upon his vassal to be
made without his consent. His legate Pandulph had repeatedly praised
King John to the pope as a wise ruler and loyal vassal of the Holy See.
The pope, therefore, declared the Great Charter null and void, not
because it gave too many liberties to the barons and the people, but
because it had been obtained by violence.
There was scarcely a country in Europe over which Innocent III did
not in some way or other assert the supremacy which he claimed for the
papacy. He excommunicated Alfonso IX of Leon, for marrying a near
relative, Berengaria, a daughter of Alfonso VIII, contrary to the laws
of the Church, and effected their separation in 1204. For similar
reasons he annulled, in 1208, the marriage of the crown-prince, Alfonso
of Portugal, with Urraca, daughter of Alfonso of Castile. From Pedro II
of Aragon he received that kingdom in vassalage and crowned him king at
Rome in 1204. He prepared a crusade against the Moors and lived to see
their power broken in Spain at the battle of Navas de Tolosa, in 1212.
He protected the people of Norway against their tyrannical king, Sverri,
and after the king’s death arbitrated between the two claimants to the
Norwegian throne. He mediated between King Emeric of Hungary and his
rebellious brother Andrew, sent royal crown and sceptre to King
Johannitius of Bulgaria and had his legate crown him king at Tirnovo, in
1204; he restored ecclesiastical discipline in Poland; arbitrated
between the two claimants to the royal crown of Sweden; made partly
successful attempts to reunite the Greek with the Latin Church and
extended his beneficent influence practically over the whole Christian
world. Like many preceding popes, Innocent had at heart the recovery of
the Holy Land, and for this end undertook the Fourth Crusade. The
Venetians had pledged themselves to transport the entire Christian army
and to furnish the fleet with provisions for nine months, for 85,000
marks. When the crusaders were unable to pay the sum, the Venetians
proposed to bear the financial expenses themselves on condition that the
crusaders would first assist them in the conquest of the city of Zara.
The crusaders yielded to their demands and the fleet started down the
Adriatic on 8 October, 1202. Zara had scarcely been reduced when Alexius
Comnenus arrived at the camp of the crusaders and pleaded for their
help to replace his father, Isaac Angelus, on the throne of
Constantinople from which he had been deposed by his cruel brother
Alexius. In return he promised to reunite the Greek with the Latin
Church, to add 10,000 soldiers to the ranks of the crusaders, and to
contribute money and provisions to the crusade. The Venetians, who saw
their own commercial advantage in the taking of Constantinople, induced
the crusaders to yield to the prayers of Alexius, and Constantinople was
taken by them in 1204. Isaac Angelus was restored to his throne but
soon replaced by a usurper. The crusaders took Constantinople a second
time on 12 April, 1204, and after a horrible pillage, Baldwin, Count of
Flanders, was proclaimed emperor and the Greek Church was united with
the Latin. The reunion, as well as the Latin empire in the East, did not
last longer than two generations. When Pope Innocent learned that the
Venetians had diverted the crusaders from their purpose of conquering
the Holy Land he expressed his great dissatisfaction first at their
conquest of Zara, and when they proceeded towards Constantinople he
solemnly protested and finally excommunicated the Venetians who had
caused the digression of the crusaders from their original purpose.
Since, however, he could not undo what had been accomplished he did his
utmost to destroy the Greek schism and latinize the Eastern Empire.
St. John of Matha receiving the approved Order from Pope Innocent III
Innocent was also a zealous protector of the true Faith and a
strenuous opponent of heresy. His chief activity was turned against the
Albigenses who had become so numerous and aggressive that they were no
longer satisfied with being adherents of heretical doctrines but even
endeavoured to spread their heresy by force. They were especially
numerous in a few cities of Northern an in Southern France. During the
first year of his pontificate Innocent sent the two Cistercian monks
Rainer and Guido to the Albigenses in France to preach to them the true
Faith and dispute with them on controverted topics of religion. The two
Cistercian missionaries were soon followed by Diego, Bishop of Osma,
then by St. Dominic and the two papal legates. Peter of Castelnau and
Raoul. When, however, these peaceful missionaries were ridiculed and
despised by the Albigenses, and the papal legate Castelnau was
assassinated in 1208, Innocent resorted to force. He ordered the bishops
of Southern France to put under interdict the participants in the
murder and all the towns that gave shelter to them. He was especially
incensed against Count Raymond of Toulouse who had previously been
excommunicated by the murdered legate and whom, for good reasons, the
pope suspected as the instigator of the murder. The count protested his
innocence and submitted to the pope, probably out of cowardice, but the
pope placed no further trust in him. He called upon France to raise an
army for the suppression of the Albigenses. Under the leadership of
Simon of Montfort a cruel campaign ensued against the Albigenses which,
despite the protest of Innocent, soon turned into a war of conquest (see
ALBIGENSES). The culminating point in the glorious reign of Innocent
was his convocation of the Fourth Lateran Council, which he solemnly
opened on 15 November, 1215. It was by far the most important council of
the Middle Ages. Besides deciding on a general crusade to the Holy
Land, it issued seventy reformatory decrees, the first of which was a
creed (
Firmiter credimus), against the Albigenses and Waldenses, in which the term “transubstantiation” received its first ecclesiastical sanction.
The Ospedale di Santo Spirito (Italian for Hospital of the Holy Spirit), built by Pope Innocent III.
The labours of Innocent in the inner government of the Church appear
to be of a very subordinate character when they are put beside his great
politico-ecclesiastical achievements which brought the papacy to the
zenith of its power. Still they are worthy of memory and have
contributed their share to the glory of his pontificate. During his
reign the two great founders of the mendicant orders, St. Dominic and
St. Francis, laid before him their scheme of reforming the world.
Innocent was not blind to the vices of luxury and indolence which had
infected many of the clergy and part of the laity. In Dominic and
Francis he recognized two mighty adversaries of these vices and he
sanctioned their projects with words of encouragement. The lesser
religious orders which he approved are the Hospitallers of the Holy
Ghost on 23 April, 1198, the Trinitarians on 17 December, 1198, and the
Humiliati, in June, 1201. In 1209 he commissioned the Cistercian monk,
Christian, afterwards bishop, with the conversion of the heathen
Prussians. At Rome he built the famous hospital Santo Spirito in Sassia,
which became the model of all future city hospitals and exists to the
present time (see Walsh, “The Popes and Science”, New York, 1908, p.
249-258; and the article HOSPITALS). The following saints were canonized
by Innocent: Homobonus, a merchant of Cremona, on 12 January, 1199; the
Empress Cunegond, on 3 March, 1200; William, Duke of Aquitaine in 1202;
Wulstan, Bishop of York, on 14 May, 1203; Procopius, abbot at Prague,
on 2 June, 1204; and Guibert ,the founder of the monastery at Gembloux,
in 1211. Innocent died at Perugia, while travelling through Italy in the
interests of the crusade which had been decided upon at the Lateran
Council. He was buried in the cathedral of Perugia where his body
remained until Leo XIII, a great admirer of Innocent, had it transferred
to the Lateran in December, 1891. Innocent is also the author of
various literary works reprinted in P. L., CCXIV-CCXVIII, where may also
be found his numerous extant epistles and decretals, and the
historically important “Registrum Innocentii III super negotio imperii”.
His first work, “De contemptu mundi, sive de miseria conditionis humanæ
libri III” (P. L., CCXVII, 701-746) was written while he lived in
retirement during the pontificate of Celestine III. It is an ascetical
treatise and gives evidence of Innocent’s deep piety and knowledge of
men. Concerning it see Reinlein “Papst Innocenz der dritte und seine
Schrift ‘De contemptu mundi” (Erlangen, 1871). His treatise “De sacro
altaris mysterio libri VI” (P. L., CCXVII, 773-916) is of great
liturgical value, because it represents the Roman Mass as it was at the
time of Innocent. See Franz, “Die Messe im deutschen Mittelalter”
(Freiburg, 1902), 453-457. It was printed repeatedly, and translated
into German by Hurter (Schaffhausen, 1845). He also wrote “De
quadripartita specie nuptiarum” (P. L., CCXVII, 923-968), an exposition
of the fourfold marriage bond, namely,
- between Christ and the Church,
- between God and the just soul,
- between the Word and human nature
and is entirely based on passages from Holy Scripture. “Commentarius
in septem psalmos pœnitentiales” (P. L., CCXVII, 967-1130) is of
doubtful authorship. Among his seventy-nine sermons (ibidem, 314-691) is
the famous one on the text “Desiderio desideravi” (Luke, xxii, 15),
which he delivered at the Fourth Lateran Council.
