Pope Innocent III (c. 1160-1216)

Innocent III came from an important Italian family, the counts of Segni, to which belonged also Popes Gregory IX and Alexander IV. He was trained as a theologian and perhaps as a jurist, and under Pope Celestine III (his uncle) he became a cardinal in 1190. At the time of his election as pope, upon his uncle’s death, Innocent seems already to have formed his doctrine that since things of the spirit take preeminence over things of the body, and since the church rules the spirit and earthly monarchs rule the body, earthly monarchs must be subject in all things to the pope. He set out immediately after his election to realize his ideal of the pope as ecclesiastical ruler of the world with some secular political power.

He was constantly active in imperial affairs. He acknowledged the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II as king of Sicily only after Frederick’s mother, the Empress Constance, accepted papal suzerainty over Sicily and gave up certain ecclesiastical privileges. Upon Constance’s death, Innocent accepted Frederick as his ward. In 1201 he arbitrated the dispute between Philip of Swabia and Otto IV over the emperorship in favor of Otto. Later the pope favored Philip, but after Philip’s murder, he crowned Otto emperor (in 1209), only to excommunicate him in 1210 and dictate the election of the papal ward, Frederick, as German king (1212).

Innocent was also the virtual overlord of Christian Spain, Scandinavia, Hungary, and the Latin East. It is true that Philip II of France remained independent of Innocent politically. On the moral question of Philip’s divorce, however, Innocent forced the king to bow to canon law.

A great failure of Innocent’s policy was the Fourth Crusade. That crusade, proclaimed and blessed by Innocent, never went to the Holy Land, but attacked instead Christians on the island of Zara and in the Byzantine Empire. Innocent excommunicated the disobedient crusaders, but later accepted the fait accompli and tried to spread the Latin rite over the Latin Empire of Constantinople. These efforts were futile, and the schism of East and West was only exacerbated.

In Italy, Innocent reclaimed for the papacy the Patrimony of St. Peter (the Vatican), the duchy of Spoleto, the March of Ancona, and the Ravenna district. He was recognized as temporal overlord by Tuscany, but northern Italian cities were unruly and maintained their independence throughout Innocent’s pontificate. Innocent initiated the Albigensian mission and the Albigensian Crusade against the heretics of that name, and supported the Teutonic Knights in the incursions along the Baltic.

Amid his political activity Innocent was most energetic in the administration of the church. In this direction the triumph of his pontificate was the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), one of the greatest of councils. He provided the original impetus for establishing the Dominican and Franciscan orders. Innocent’s interest in law was always active; thus as pope he constantly held court, with a reputation for impartiality. Innocent’s theories of the papal monarchy had a profound effect on the development of the papacy.

[Adapted from The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition]

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