Innocent III

Italian pope (1198-1216)

• Born: 1160 or 1161
• Birthplace: Anagni, the Roman Campagna, Papal States (now in Italy)
• Died: July 16, 1216
• Place of death: Perugia (now in Italy)

At a period of crisis in the Catholic church, Pope Innocent III succeeded in affirming the power of his office against challenges from powerful lay rulers and from the Albigensian heresy, and in so doing became the most powerful pope of the Middle Ages. Through sweeping ecclesiastical reform, he also attempted to mute the arguments of the critics of an increasingly venal, poorly educated, and self-indulgent clergy.

Early Life

The future Pope Innocent III was born Lothario of Segni at Anagni, in the Roman Campagna, the son of Trasmondo of Segni and Claricia, née Scotti, both members of prominent Roman aristocratic families. Occasionally one encounters the surname of Conti for Lothario. This name, Italian for “count,” was assumed by the family after Innocent III’s pontificate. It was one of the most powerful Roman families and furnished several popes to the Church in the thirteenth century. The surviving fragment of a mosaic and a painting of Innocent III confirm that he was short of stature, with a round face, high-arched eyebrows, a straight nose, and a small mouth. Contemporaries also noted his ability to express himself verbally in an incisive fashion and a well-modulated voice that commanded the attention of his audience.

The young Lothario, who was vowed to the clergy, was able to indulge an appetite for learning that he exhibited at an early age. He first studied at Rome under Peter Ismael, whom, in recognition, he later named bishop of Sutri. His happiest years, according to his later testimony, were spent at the University of Paris, where he studied theology under Peter of Corbeil, whom he later rewarded with two high ecclesiastical appointments. Innocent always retained a great affection for France and its people. After his time in Paris, he studied civil and canon law, two subjects in which he excelled, at the University of Bologna, mainly under the great canonist Huguccio of Pisa. Lothario did not forget his teacher and companions at Bologna when he became pope. Huguccio became bishop of Ferrara, and Lothario’s fellow students and companions were awarded other important posts in the Church. Lothario’s studies in theology and the civil and canon law were to prepare him well for his later pontificate.

On completion of his studies at Bologna, Lothario returned to Rome, where his education, family contacts, and relationship with several cardinals assured his rapid advance as a cleric. In 1187, Pope Gregory VIII ordained him subdeacon. In 1189 or 1190, Pope Clement III made him cardinal deacon of the Church of Saint Sergius and Saint Bacchus in the Roman forum, where he served during the pontificate of Celestine III. His years there were devoted to the reconstruction and embellishing of his church building and, most important, to writing. While wisely maintaining a distance from the machinations and intrigues of the Papal Curia (the administrative office of the Church), Lothario composed several theological treatises, including De contemptu mundi (The Mirror of Mans Lyfe, 1580; also as De miseria conditionis humanae; On the Misery of the Human Condition, 1978) and De sacro alteris mysterio (the sacred mystery of the altar). These works contributed to his growing prestige as a theologian, moralist, and writer and undoubtedly had something to do with his election as pope at the very young age of thirty-seven.

On the death of the nonagenarian Celestine III on January 8, 1198, several candidates were nominated to succeed him. The new pope was elected on the same day on the second ballot. Although Lothario received the greatest number of votes on the first ballot, concern over his youth necessitated a second. His learning, unquestionable morality, and vigor, however, overcame initial concerns about his age. Lothario of Segni was elected by a unanimous vote and ascended the papal throne as Innocent III.

Life’s Work

Innocent became pope at a crucial time in European history. The institutions of manorialism and feudalism were succumbing to the economic and political forces of the growth of towns and a new merchant class and of monarchs bent on creating centralized territorial states. The secular authority of the pope was being challenged by ambitious rulers, and the Church itself, and especially the clergy, increasingly came under attack from critics attracted to various heresies. In addition, the Muslims retained control over Jerusalem and the Holy Places. From the first day of his reign, Innocent recognized the necessity for strong papal leadership and immediately laid claim to broad powers in the exercise of his authority over ecclesiastical government and, as vicar of Christ, over temporal affairs having a bearing on the Church’s well-being.

Innocent has been accused by some historians of selfish and excessive ambition because of his attempt to exercise power over European lay rulers. Indeed, the pope did devote considerable time to diplomatic and political matters, and he did not hesitate to use the powers of his office to force obedience. His actions were motivated, however, by his sincere conviction that spiritual issues were at stake and that Christian unity and tranquillity necessitated recognition of the pope’s supremacy as ruler and judge throughout the Christian world. Although Innocent intervened in the affairs of numerous European kingdoms, including Portugal, Aragon, Castile, Hungary, and Poland, his interventions in the Holy Roman Empire, England, and France most clearly illustrate his motives.

Innocent intervened first in the Holy Roman Empire over the election of the emperor, and he was to remain involved there during almost all of his pontificate because of a series of complex events. The emperor, Henry VI , who had extended his control over a large part of the Papal States and over Sicily, died a few months before Innocent’s election. The electors split over two claimants to the imperial title, while ignoring Henry’s young son, Frederick II of Sicily. Frederick, who as king of Sicily was a vassal of the pope, became Innocent’s ward. Innocent intervened in the disputed election for two reasons. First, he wanted to separate Sicily from the imperial holdings and to reassert control over the Papal States. Second, he claimed special rights within the empire dating to the papal coronation of Charlemagne in 800. Innocent interpreted this event as a transfer of power from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire) to the West by papal authority. He asserted, therefore, that, although the princes of the Holy Roman Empire had the right to elect, their choice was subject to papal confirmation and that he should be the sole arbiter in a disputed election. Following a lengthy civil war, Innocent finally secured the election of his choice, Otto IV , whom he crowned in 1209. Otto, however, failed to keep his promise to restore the papal lands to the Church and even laid plans to invade Sicily. Innocent promptly excommunicated him and declared him deprived of the imperial title. Innocent then threw his support to Frederick II in return for his promise to separate the administration of Sicily from his German holdings and to undertake a crusade to the Holy Land. Frederick was crowned in 1220. Innocent had effectively asserted papal power against disobedient lay rulers and had, at least temporarily, restored tranquillity to a war-torn Europe. In addition, papal lands that had been lost earlier were restored.

Although Innocent found himself at odds on several occasions with his most troublesome lay adversary, King John of England, the bitterest and longest dispute was over the election of the primate of the English church, the archbishop of Canterbury, following the death, in 1205, of Archbishop Hubert Walter. Ultimately, two archbishops were elected: the choice of a group of monks of the cathedral chapter and the king’s choice, a subservient courtier and civil servant, John de Grey, archbishop of Norwich. Innocent rejected both claimants. He offered his own candidate, the English scholar and ecclesiastical statesman Stephen Langton . Despite John’s opposition, Innocent consecrated Langton as archbishop of Canterbury and gave him the pallium, the symbol of his office, in June, 1207. John’s rejection of Langton led to a long and complicated struggle between king and pope. In March, 1208, Innocent placed England under an interdict a territorial excommunication that denied some of the sacraments to John’s subjects. John responded by seizing all Church properties in England and collecting the revenues they provided. In November, 1209, the pope excommunicated the king. The conflict was not resolved, however, until 1213, when, under the threat of an invasion of England by Philip Augustus (Philip II of France), John gave in. He agreed to accept Langton, to return church properties, and to repay the revenues he had collected from them since the imposition of the interdict (this last promise, however, he failed to keep). John further agreed to recognize the pope as his feudal lord and to receive his kingdom back as a fief from the Papacy. Thus, Innocent had used the powers of his office to force lay obedience and to secure recognition of the best candidate for England’s highest ecclesiastical office.

Innocent also intervened in France, in the domestic problems of Philip II. In 1193, Philip had married a Danish princess, Ingeborg, for money and political expediency. Tiring of his queen, Philip forced a group of French prelates to annul the marriage on the totally insupportable grounds of consanguinity. Ingeborg and her Danish relatives appealed to the pope, and Celestine III voided the annulment. Philip, however, ignored the pope and, in 1196, married Agnes, the daughter of a Bavarian nobleman. On his accession, Innocent quickly intervened. He sent a legate to persuade the king, under threat of an interdict, to accept Celestine’s prohibition and recognize Ingeborg. Philip refused to yield, and the interdict was imposed in January, 1200. Six months later, however, Agnes died, the king submitted, and the interdict was removed. Philip, however, expressed his intention of reopening the case and did not formally restore Ingeborg as queen until 1213. Nevertheless, Innocent had won on an issue directly related to the spiritual authority of the pope and the Church: the sacrament of marriage.

Innocent was also committed to asserting the power of the Church against the twin threats of heresy and Islam. The Catharists (Albigensians), a heretical sect that had its origins in one of Christianity’s early competitors in the Roman Empire, Manichaeanism, enjoyed great popularity in areas of southern France. Rejecting the organization of the Catholic Church and its sacramental system, the Cathari posed a significant, though localized, threat to the pope’s authority. Accordingly, in 1208, Innocent called knights of northern France to embark on a crusade against the Cathari. The pope, whose intention had been to convert the heretics, was soon grieved to find his religious crusade degenerating into a bloody war of territorial conquest; he did not foresee the brutality of the Inquisition, established by his successor, which resulted in the total extirpation of the heresy.

Earlier, in 1202, Innocent had preached a crusade (the Fourth Crusade) to capture Jerusalem and the Holy Places from the Muslims. This undertaking, to the pope’s disappointment, was diverted from its goal by the selfish interests of the Crusaders, especially the Venetians, who instead took Constantinople. Innocent was preparing to launch a new crusade against the Muslims at the time of his death.

Innocent’s greatest and most enduring achievement, and the one in which he took greatest interest and pride, was in the sphere of ecclesiastical reform. Aware of the inroads of heresy that had gained impetus from the Church’s failure to define its doctrines and discipline its clergy, Innocent convoked the Fourth Lateran Council of the Church in 1215. In attendance were more than four hundred bishops, eight hundred abbots, and representatives of all major European rulers. The council enacted extensive reform legislation. The main tenets of Catholicism were restated, and the seven sacraments were defined. The doctrine of transubstantiation , which enhanced the role of the clergy as joint participants in the miracle of transforming the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, was affirmed. In addition, Catholics were required to confess their sins annually to a priest. Clerical participation in judicial ordeals was prohibited, thus requiring secular courts to devise more rational methods of determining guilt. Vacant bishoprics were to be filled within three months, and in every church province an episcopal council was to meet yearly to discipline its wayward members. Steps were taken to improve clerical morality. Celibacy and sobriety were encouraged, and gambling, hunting, engaging in trade, frequenting taverns, and the wearing of flashy, ornate clothing were forbidden. In addition, clergymen were not to hold more than one benefice in which they were required to exercise pastoral responsibilities.

The work of the council, which owed its inspiration directly to Innocent, went far, at least temporarily, in muting criticisms of the Church. An unfortunate decree of the council, however, was that Jews should be distinguished as outcasts by being required to wear a yellow label. This was an affirmation of Innocent’s earlier advocacy of the ghettoization of the Jews. The Fourth Lateran Council marks the culmination of the papacy of Innocent III. He died suddenly in Perugia, on July 16, 1216, probably from malaria.

Significance

Innocent III is perhaps the most controversial figure in the history of the Papacy. His exercise of the authority of his office, which he, as vicar of Christ, regarded as all-encompassing, often involved him in temporal matters. Some historians have argued, therefore, that he was more concerned with enhancing the temporal authority of the Papacy than in fulfilling the spiritual and pastoral duties of his office. Others, however, have argued that Innocent regarded his intervention in temporal affairs as an extension of his spiritual duties. His interventions were motivated by moral concerns his desire to punish sin or to prevent its commission.

Indisputably, Innocent became pope at a period of crisis in the Church and succeeded in effectively asserting the powers of his office and transforming the Church into the most powerful and respected institution in Europe. His program of ecclesiastical reform, reflected in the work of the Fourth Lateran Council, had it been implemented more thoroughly, might have helped the Church to avoid the divisions and corruption of the succeeding centuries that led ultimately to the Protestant Reformation and the division of Western Christendom, the unity of which Innocent had labored to ensure.

Bibliography

Bolton, Brenda. Studies on Papal Authority and Pastoral Care. Brookfield, Vt.: Variorum, 1995. Bolton aims to restore to Pope Innocent III some of the respect of which later generations have deprived him because of contradictory political evidence. By means of a very comprehensive analysis of the Pope’s sermons and documents about his personal lifestyle, she argues that Innocent III possessed exceptional spirituality and excelled in the performance of his duties as bishop of Rome and head of the Church.

Moore, John C. Pope Innocent III: To Root Up and to Plant. Boston: Brill, 2003. A biography of Pope Innocent III by a noted scholar. Bibliography and index.

Moore, John C., Brenda Bolton, et al., eds. Pope Innocent and His World. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1999. A collection of papers presented at a conference on Pope Innocent III at Hofstra University. Bibliography and index.

Powell, James M., ed. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? 2d ed. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1994. The book is a compilation of works, representing two conflicting views on Innocent and the Papacy: the spiritual perspective and the political perspective. The essays add insight to the controversial question of the extension of Innocent’s papal authority into secular matters and whether it brought about the decline of power following the rule of Innocent IV. The book also discusses certain issues of monastic reform.

Sayers, Jane. Innocent III: Leader of Europe, 1198-1216. New York: Longman, 1994. Sayers analyzes the way Innocent III’s authority operated, as well as how his subjects reacted to his rule. She discusses at length the intellectual and psychological formation that gave Innocent his interest in pastoral work and law. Emphasizing the role of tradition, Sayers illustrates that because of the spiritual and legal characteristics of his office, the Pope was not a free agent.