Pope Innocent III

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Innocent III

(born 1160/61, Gavignano Castle, Campagna di Roma, Papal States — died July 16, 1216, Perugia) Pope (1198 – 1216). Innocent, who was trained in both theology and law, brought the medieval papacy to the height of its prestige and power. He crowned Otto IV as Holy Roman emperor, but Otto's determination to unite Germany and Sicily angered him, and in 1212 he gave his support to the Hohenstaufen candidate, Frederick II. After Innocent excommunicated King John of England for refusing to recognize Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, John was obliged to submit and to declare England a fief of the Holy See (1213). Innocent launched the Fourth Crusade, which captured Constantinople, and the Albigensian Crusade, which attempted to suppress heresy in southern France. He approved the Mendicant orders founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi, and he convoked the fourth Lateran Council, which promulgated the doctrine of transubstantiation and endorsed annual confession for all Christians.

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Biography: Innocent III

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Innocent III (1160-1216), an Italian aristocrat, theologian, and canon lawyer, reigned as pope from 1198 to 1216. His pontificate has customarily been taken to mark the most splendid moment of the medieval papacy.

Born Lothar of Segni, the future pope was the son of Count Thrasimund of Segni. He studied theology at Paris and law at Bologna, the leading medieval centers of these studies, and at about the age of 30 had already attained the rank of cardinal deacon. He owed his elevation to the Sacred College to his uncle, Pope Clement III, but this could not obscure the fact that he was a man of outstanding ability and energy. Not even the temporary eclipse of his fortunes during the pontificate of Celestine III prevented the cardinals from turning to him in January 1198, when that aged and unsuccessful pontiff died. The years of eclipse, indeed, had enhanced rather than diminished Lothar's stature, because they were for him years of literary activity; out of them came the two conventional works which nonetheless attained considerable fame: De contempt mundi and De sacro altaris mysterio.

Lothar was chosen pope by his fellow cardinals less, it would seem, because they were impressed by the quality of his spirituality than because they saw in him a man of proven strength who could be relied upon to combat the rise of heresy, now for the first time in the Middle Ages a serious threat to the unity of the Church, and to restore the badly damaged political fortunes of the papacy in Italy and elsewhere. As a result, Innocent III expended a great deal of his energy on matters diplomatic and political. The greatest and most enduring achievements of his pontificate lay, nevertheless, in the realm of ecclesiastical government - in his contribution to the development of canon law, his promotion of administrative centralization in the Church, his imaginative encouragement of the Franciscans and Dominicans, and, above all, his convocation and direction of the Fourth Lateran Council (1215).

Conception of the Papacy

An unusually young man at the time of his election to the papacy, Innocent was small and dark and had a commanding presence, a driving dynamic personality, and notable rhetorical gifts which he exploited to the full in expounding and defending his conception of the papal office and responsibilities. It was a lofty conception, well exemplified by a text on which he chose to preach at his consecration: "See, I have set you this day over nations and over kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant" (Jeremiah 1:10).

What this exalted conception meant for Innocent's dealings with the clerical hierarchy and the local churches of Christendom is clear enough. As pope, he was successor to Peter and vicar of Christ, with supreme authority in the Universal Church and the ultimate responsibility for the health of that Church. "Others," he said, "were called to a part of the care, but Peter alone assumed the plenitude of power." Hence his willingness to regard the jurisdictional powers of the bishops as deriving from his own fullness of power; hence, too, his vigorous and wide-ranging judicial activity, his extension of papal rights over episcopal appointments, and his frequent efforts to make the force of his authority felt in the national churches by means of cardinal legates endowed with the broadest of powers.

What Innocent's view of the papal office meant for his relations with temporal rulers is by no means as clear. The formulas in which he couched his claims were undoubtedly often extreme. To Peter was left "not only the Universal Church but the whole world to govern." The pope "set between God and man, lower than God but higher than man … judges all and is judged by no one." Innocent claimed, "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 splendor of its dignity from the pontifical authority."

On the basis of these and of similar theocratic utterances, some have concluded that Innocent was clearly laying direct claim to the supreme temporal as well as spiritual authority in Christendom, that it was his ambition, in fact, to be nothing less than "lord of the world." Others, however, have noted the disparity between the extremism of such theoretical claims and the caution and scrupulous attention to legality with which he proceeded when he actually did choose to intervene in matters pertaining to the jurisdiction of temporal rulers.

It is true that for Innocent the pope succeeded to the position of Christ, who, like Melchisedech, had been king as well as priest and, as a result, was in some sense possessed of a monarchical authority even in secular matters and over temporal rulers. However, he did not seek to absorb temporal structures of government into ecclesiastical, and he could often defend his intervention in temporal affairs as necessitated by his spiritual responsibilities. Furthermore, his policies in such matters were usually distinguished by a pragmatic rather than a doctrinaire quality.

Political Activity

Matrimonial affairs led to Innocent's intervention in the kingdoms of León, Argon, and France (although in the last case diplomatic considerations also played a role), and a disputed election to the archbishopric of Canterbury led him to intervene in English affairs. King John's refusal to accept Cardinal Stephen Langton, who had been elected to that see after Innocent had invalidated the earlier election, led in 1208 to the imposition of an interdict on England, in 1209 to the King's excommunication, and in 1212 to his deposition and a papal invitation to the French king to invade England. Under this last threat John finally capitulated, accepted Stephen Langton's election, and sought (successfully) to ensure papal support in the future by surrendering and receiving back the kingdoms of England and Ireland as papal fiefs.

In most of these cases Innocent could claim that the need to preserve ecclesiastical discipline dictated his policy, but he could hardly do so in the cases of Portugal, Aragon, and other kingdoms that also became his feudal fiefs. Here he was motivated presumably by the view that he had expressed at the start of his pontificate: "Ecclesiastical liberty is nowhere better cared for than where the Roman church has full power in both temporal and spiritual matters."

Certainly this belief influenced his vigorous efforts to reestablish papal hegemony at Rome and in the affiliated papal territories, where the German emperors Frederick I and Henry VI had done much to extend imperial control at the expense of the papacy. Thus he was able to transfer the feudal allegiance of the city perfect from the emperor to himself, to restore a considerable measure of papal control in the Romagna, and to establish some sort of papal administration for the first time in much of the territory bequeathed to the papacy a century earlier by Countess Matilda of Tuscany.

If Innocent's Italian policy met with a fair degree of success, it did so in part because of the confused conditions prevailing in the empire. Henry VI, already ruler of Germany and large parts of northern Italy, had acquired by marriage the old Norman kingdom of Sicily. His objective to make good his control of all these territories, including the Italian, threatened the papal freedom of action in the future. But Henry VI died 4 months before Innocent became pope, and his widow, Constance, died a few months after, leaving a 3-year-old son, Frederick of Hohenstaufen, under papal guardianship. Although Innocent took his duties as guardian with great seriousness and defended Frederick's rights as king of Sicily, it was clearly in the interest of the papacy permanently to sever the connection between Sicily and the empire. Accordingly, between the years 1198 and 1209, he sought to influence imperial politics by arbitrating between the rival claimants to the imperial succession: Philip of Swabia and Otto of Brunswick, both of them adult relations of Henry VI.

Unable to enforce his claim to arbitrate and later disappointed in the attitude of his own candidate, Otto IV, whom he had crowned emperor after Philip's death, Innocent then compounded the woes of Germany by declaring Otto deposed and finally, in 1213, by throwing his support to the candidacy of Frederick of Hohenstaufen. In return, Frederick pledged not to reunite the German and Sicilian kingdoms, a pledge which he broke in the years after Innocent's death. At the battle of Bouvines in 1214 Frederick was able to make good his claim to be emperor.

Schism, Heresy, and the Crusade

Just as Innocent's imperial policy failed to achieve its ultimate goal, so did his attempts to recover the holy places in Palestine, to revivify the crusading movement, and to bring it once more under papal leadership. His efforts did indeed bring about the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), but the crusade escaped his control and was diverted into attacking the Christian city of Byzantium, culminating in its capture and the establishment for some decades of a Latin Eastern Empire. The resulting bitterness in the Eastern Orthodox Churches did much to perpetuate the schism between them and the Latin Church, which Innocent himself had longed to terminate.

Comparably questionable results attended Innocent's inauguration of a crusade against the Albigensian heretics in the south of France. Fought with great ferocity and benefiting primarily the northern French nobles and the French monarchy, it succeeded, indeed, in ending the aristocratic protection upon which the survival of the heresy had so largely depended, but it did so at the cost of degrading still further an already degraded crusading ideal.

Ecclesiastical Government

Innocent's sponsorship of the mendicant friars, who set an example of dedicated poverty and preached the Gospel to the poor and neglected, possibly did more to contain the growth of heresy than did his espousal of more violent methods. Here, as with his ecclesiastical government in general, a more positive judgment is appropriate.

He gave immense impetus to the development of canon law (his Compilation tertia, issued in 1210, was the first officially promulgated collection of papal laws) and displayed vigor and industry in supervising the administration of the local churches and the centralization of the Church in Rome. These things helped no doubt to spawn the excessive legalism and papal centralization of the later Middle Ages, but they also helped to retard the growth of royal and aristocratic control over the local and national clergy that also became a problem in the later Middle Ages.

Fourth Lateran Council

Regarded by Roman Catholics as an ecumenical council, preceded by 2 years of preparation, and assembled in November 1215 at the Lateran basilica, the Fourth Lateran Council was attended by over 400 bishops, twice as many abbots and priors, and representatives of many secular rulers. So constituted, it was perhaps the greatest of medieval assemblies. Its decrees began with a profession of faith, which, by defining the doctrine of transubstantiation, closed the long medieval dispute about the nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist.

The Council then endeavored to establish the procedures to be followed in dealing with heresy, requiring all bishops in whose sees the presence of heresy was suspected to hold there an annual inquisition. Another decree, by requiring that all adults confess their sins at least once annually to their own parish priests, buttressed this attempt to establish the responsibility of the local clergy for the elimination of local heresy.

Of related importance were further decrees requiring bishops to ensure the adequate proclamation of the Gospel by appointing suitable priests as diocesan preachers and requiring that an adequately endowed position be set aside at all cathedral and metropolitan churches to support a master charged with the instruction of the diocesan clergy. This last provision was an important one at the time, given the absence of seminaries. Other decrees forbade the foundation of new religious orders; required episcopal supervision and visitation of existing monasteries; sought to eliminate practices by which ecclesiastical positions could become in fact if not in theory hereditary; tried to curtail the trade in relics and the spread of superstitions surrounding them; and attempted by a whole series of disciplinary and administrative regulations to eliminate existing corruptions, to prevent new ones, and to foster a general improvement in the quality of religious life. Of critical importance were those decrees which required the holding of annual provincial councils and which sought to withdraw the clergy from involvement in activities pertaining to secular government.

On July 16, 1216, not long after the close of the Council which was his greatest achievement and a fitting summation to a distinguished career, Innocent suddenly died. Had the reforming legislation of the Fourth Lateran Council been implemented in the years after Innocent's death, many of the corruptions which were to bring the later medieval clergy into disrepute would have been curtailed. Even so, the Council's decrees helped mold the life of the Church for centuries to come.

Innocent III

Papacy began	8 January 1198
Papacy ended	16 July 1216
Predecessor	Celestine III
Successor	Honorius III
Personal details
Birth name	Lotario de' Conti di Segni
Born	1160 or 1161 Gavignano, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire
Died	July 16, 1216 Perugia, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire
Other Popes named Innocent

Biography

Early life and election to the Papacy

Lotario de' Conti was born 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 Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241), Pope Alexander IV (1254–1261) and Pope Innocent XIII (1721–1724). Although Lotario is commonly identified as the nephew of Pope Clement III (1187–1191), that error arises from the similarity between Clement's family name, Scolari, with that of Scotti, the noble Roman family of Lotario's mother, Clarice.^[3]

Lotario studied in Rome, where he received his early education, Paris, where he studied theology, and Bologna, where he studied jurisprudence. In any case, as Pope, Lotario was to play a major role in the shaping of canon law. He became one of the greatest jurists of his time.^[4]

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 On the Misery of the Human Condition.^[5] The work was very popular for centuries, surviving in about 500 manuscripts. He never returned to the complementary work he intended to write, On the Dignity of Human Nature.^[6]

Celestine III died on January 8, 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, at Rome, on the very day on which Celestine III died. He accepted the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Innocent III. He was only thirty-seven years old at the time.^[7]

Reassertion of Papal power

Coat of Arms of Pope Innocent III

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 State. The patrimonium was routinely threatened by Hohenstaufen German kings who, as Roman emperors, claimed it for themselves. The 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.^[8]

The early death of Henry VI left his 4 year old son, Frederick II the king. Henry VI’s widow, Frederick's mother, 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 majority. In exchange, Innocent was also able to recover papal rights in Sicily that had been surrendered decades earlier to William I of Sicily by Pope Adrian IV (1154–59). 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.^[9]

Involvement in Imperial elections

Papal power was based on more than scriptures. They 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 around 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.

Included in defining fundamental doctrines, the council: reviewed the nature of the Eucharist (the ordered annual confession of sins); detailed procedures for the election of bishops; mandated a strict lifestyle for clergy including forbidding them to participate in judicial procedures in which “sinners” had to undergo often painful physical consequences to 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.^[10]

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 splendor of its dignity from the pontifical authority…..^[11]

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”^[12]

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]

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.

Philip II became Innocent III's ally in the struggle over Otto IV. 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 decree, which has become famous, was afterwards embodied in the "Corpus Juris Canonici".^[15]

Here are some highlighted points from the decree: 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.^[16]

Otto allied himself with England (he was the nephew of King John) to fight Philip II Augustus, but he was defeated in the Battle of Bouvines in what is now Belgium, on July 27, 1214. Thereafter Otto IV lost all influence and died on May 19, 1218, leaving Frederick II the undisputed emperor. The King was forced to acknowledge the Pope as his feudal lord and accept Langton.^[17]

Innocent III played further roles in the politics of France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Spain, and especially England.^[18]

Innocent called the Fourth Crusade, which was diverted to Constantinople. The pope excommunicated the Crusaders who attacked Christian cities, but he made no move to halt or overturn their actions because he felt, erroneously, that the Latin presence would bring about a reconciliation between the Eastern and Western Churches. Innocent also ordered a crusade against the Albigenses, which successfully subdued the Cathar heresy in France but at a great cost in life and blood.^[19]

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, a sect that had been growing in southern France. In 1199 he condemned unauthorized translations of the Bible into French. Two Cistercian monks were sent to Albigenses in France to teach them the faith and dispute their teachings. The 1208 murder of Peter of Castelnau, a papal representative in Albigensian territory, changed Innocent's focus from words to weapons. Innocent called upon France to suppress the Albigenses. Under the leadership of Simon of Montfort a campaign was launched. The crusade was stopped in 1213 after the battle of Muret at which Montfort defeated Raymond of Toulouse and killed Raymond's ally Pedro II of Aragon.^[20]

Innocent also decreed the Fourth Crusade of 1198, intended to recapture the Holy Land. The pope directed his call towards the knights and nobles of Europe rather than to the kings; he did not deliberately try to exclude kings, but Henry of Germany had just died and Richard I of England (1189-99) and Philip II of France, were not anxious to resume the cross after just being at war. Innocent III's call was generally ignored until November 1199, when a crusade was finally organized in Champagne. The Crusaders were redirected to capture Zara (Zadar) in 1202 to pay the Venetians for ships and transport of the army over the sea. Constantinople would be captured for prince Alexius IV in 1204 in exchange for men, money, weapons and more ships. Innocent III was horrified by the attack on the Byzantines. By attacking Zara they had automatically been excommunicated according to Innocent's threats. Prior to the launching of the Crusade he had insisted that no Christian cities be attacked.^[21]

On November 15, 1215 Innocent opened the convocation of the Fourth Lateran Council, considered the most important 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."^[22]

Death and legacy

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 mariner cities of Pisa and Genoa, though removing the excommunication cast over Pisa by his predecessor Celestine III and a pact with Genoa, to imbue them of more religious and commercial motivations.^[23]

Innocent III, however, died suddenly at Perugia on July 16, 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. Although the papal power over kings that Innocent III established would be short-lived, he sincerely attempted to turn theological principles into actual powers. Two of his Latin works are still widely read: De Miseria Humanae Conditionis, a tract on asceticism that Innocent III wrote before becoming pope, and De Sacro Altaris Mysterio, which is a description and exegesis of the liturgy.

Notes

^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ Michele Maccarrone, "Innocenzo III prima del pontificato," Archivo della R. Deputatazione romana di Storia patria, 66 (1943):59-134 at 66. Werner Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216, Vienna 1984, p. 101-104, do not mention this relationship at all.
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ http://openlibrary.org/b/OL5682227M
^ http://books.google.com/books?id=jJnyxg3xxTEC&pg=PA306&lpg=PA306&dq=on+the+dignity+of+human+nature+pope+innocent+iii&source=bl&ots=51MboaoZMe&sig=HT_RkH169wDun87RZhDog8k2Rv0&hl=en&ei=PnuXScWXJse_tgekhKCgCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ Civilization in the West,” Kishlansky, Geary, O’Brien, Volume A to 1500, Seventh Edition, page 277
^ http://www.fordham.edu/Medieval Sourcebook: Innocent III.
^ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/innIII-policies.html,“A Source Book for Medieval History,” New York, 1905
^ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/innIII.html
^ “Civilization in the West,” Kishlansky, Geary, O’Brien, Volume A to 1500, Seventh Edition, pg. 278
^ http://www.newadvent.org
^ http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08013a.htm
^ Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? Washington: Catholic University of American Press, 2nd ed., 1994. ISBN 0813207835
^ Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? Washington: Catholic University of American Press, 2nd ed., 1994. ISBN 0813207835
^ http://historymedren.about.com/library/who/blwwinnocent3.htm, http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Pope_Innocent_III
^ http://ecole.evansville.edu/glossary/albigenses.html, http://crusades.boisestate.edu
^ http://crusades.boisestate.edu
^ http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.html
^ http://sthweb.bu.edu/archives

References

Innocenzo III: Urbs et Orbis. 2 vols. Atti del Congresso Internazionale, Roma, 9-15 settembre 1998, ed. Andrea Sommerlechner. Rome, 2003.
Moore, John C. Pope Innocent III (1160/61 - 1215): To Root Up and to Plant. Brill, 2003; Pbk U. of Notre Dame P., 2009.
Sayers, Jane. Innocent III: Leader of Europe, 1198-121. Longman, 1994.
Werner Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216, Wien 1984
Lavergne, Félix Jr. (1993). The Glory of Christendom. Christendom Press.
Rendina, Claudio (1983). I papi - Storia e segreti. Rome: Newton Compton.
Barraclough, Geoffrey (1968). The Medieval Papacy. London: Thames and Hudson.
Moore, John C. "Pope Innocent III, Sardinia, and the Papal State." Speculum, Vol. 62, No. 1. (Jan., 1987), pp 81–101.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIII. Published 1910. New York: Robert Appleton Company. [1]
Papal Monarchy. August 27, 2007. Union County College . October 12, 2007 [2].
“A Source Book for Medieval History,” New York, 1905.
“Civilization in the West,” Kishlansky, Geary, O’Brien, Volume A to 1500, Seventh Edition
Powell, James M. Innocent III: Vicar of Christ or Lord of the World? Washington: Catholic University of American Press, 2nd ed., 1994. ISBN 0813207835

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5th–8th centuries	Innocent I · Zosimus · Boniface I · Celestine I · Sixtus III · Leo I · Hilarius · Simplicius · Felix III · Gelasius I · Anastasius II · Symmachus · Hormisdas · John I · Felix IV · Boniface II · John II · Agapetus I · Silverius · Vigilius · Pelagius I · John III · Benedict I · Pelagius II · Gregory I · Sabinian · Boniface III · Boniface IV · Adeodatus I · Boniface V · Honorius I · Severinus · John IV · Theodore I · Martin I · Eugene I · Vitalian · Adeodatus II · Donus · Agatho · Leo II · Benedict II · John V · Conon · Sergius I · John VI · John VII · Sisinnius · Constantine · Gregory II · Gregory III · Zachary · Stephen II · Paul I · Stephen III · Adrian I · Leo III

9th–12th centuries	Stephen IV · Paschal I · Eugene II · Valentine · Gregory IV · Sergius II · Leo IV · Benedict III · Nicholas I · Adrian II · John VIII · Marinus I · Adrian III · Stephen V · Formosus · Boniface VI · Stephen VI · Romanus · Theodore II · John IX · Benedict IV · Leo V · Sergius III · Anastasius III · Lando · John X · Leo VI · Stephen VII · John XI · Leo VII · Stephen VIII · Marinus II · Agapetus II · John XII · Benedict V · Leo VIII · John XIII · Benedict VI · Benedict VII · John XIV · John XV · Gregory V · Sylvester II · John XVII · John XVIII · Sergius IV · Benedict VIII · John XIX · Benedict IX · Sylvester III · Gregory VI · Clement II · Damasus II · Leo IX · Victor II · Stephen IX · Nicholas II · Alexander II · Gregory VII · Victor III · Urban II · Paschal II · Gelasius II · Callixtus II · Honorius II · Innocent II · Celestine II · Lucius II · Eugene III · Anastasius IV · Adrian IV · Alexander III · Lucius III · Urban III · Gregory VIII · Clement III · Celestine III · Innocent III

13th–16th centuries	Honorius III · Gregory IX · Celestine IV · Innocent IV · Alexander IV · Urban IV · Clement IV · Gregory X · Innocent V · Adrian V · John XXI · Nicholas III · Martin IV · Honorius IV · Nicholas IV · Celestine V · Boniface VIII · Benedict XI · Clement V · John XXII · Benedict XII · Clement VI · Innocent VI · Urban V · Gregory XI · Urban VI · Boniface IX · Innocent VII · Gregory XII · Martin V · Eugene IV · Nicholas V · Callixtus III · Pius II · Paul II · Sixtus IV · Innocent VIII · Alexander VI · Pius III · Julius II · Leo X · Adrian VI · Clement VII · Paul III · Julius III · Marcellus II · Paul IV · Pius IV · Pius V · Gregory XIII · Sixtus V · Urban VII · Gregory XIV · Innocent IX · Clement VIII

17th–20th centuries	Leo XI · Paul V · Gregory XV · Urban VIII · Innocent X · Alexander VII · Clement IX · Clement X · Innocent XI · Alexander VIII · Innocent XII · Clement XI · Innocent XIII · Benedict XIII · Clement XII · Benedict XIV · Clement XIII · Clement XIV · Pius VI · Pius VII · Leo XII · Pius VIII · Gregory XVI · Pius IX · Leo XIII · Pius X · Benedict XV · Pius XI · Pius XII · John XXIII · Paul VI · John Paul I · John Paul II

21st century	Benedict XVI

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v • d • e Catholic Church

Organizations, Papacy, Teachings and Liturgical Traditions

History	Jesus · Twelve Apostles · Early Christianity · History of the Papacy · Councils · Crusades · Missions · Great Schism of East · Great Schism of West · Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Roman Catholicism by country

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Doctors of the Church	Albertus Magnus · Ambrose · Anselm of Canterbury · Anthony of Padua · Thomas Aquinas · Athanasius of Alexandria · Augustine of Hippo · Basil of Caesarea · Bede · Robert Bellarmine · Bernard of Clairvaux · Bonaventure · Petrus Canisius · Catherine of Siena · Peter Chrysologus · John Chrysostom · Cyril of Alexandria · Cyril of Jerusalem · Peter Damian · Ephrem the Syrian · Francis de Sales · Gregory the Great · Gregory of Nazianzus · Hilary of Poitiers · Isidore of Seville · Jerome · John of Damascus · John of the Cross · Lawrence of Brindisi · Leo the Great · Alphonsus Liguori · Thérèse de Lisieux · Teresa of Ávila

Pope Benedict XVI	Conclave · Theology · Works · Deus Caritas Est · Sacramentum Caritatis · Summorum Pontificum · Spe Salvi · Caritas in Veritate

Preceding Popes	Pope John Paul II · Pope Paul VI · Pope John XXIII · Pope Pius XII · Pope Pius XI · Pope Benedict XV · Pope Pius X · Pope Leo XIII · Pope Pius IX

Orders & Societies	Assumptionist · Augustinian Order · Benedictines · Capuchin Order · Carmelites · Carthusians · Congregations of Holy Cross · Dominican Order · Franciscan orders · Jesuits · Oratory of Saint Philip Neri

Vatican II	Definition of the Church · Gaudium et Spes · Lumen Gentium · Nostra Aetate

Particular Churches sorted by Liturgical Traditions	Alexandrian · Coptic · Ethiopic · Antiochian · Maronite · Syriac · Syro-Malankara · Armenian · Armenian · Byzantine · Albanian · Belarusian · Bulgarian · Croatian · Greek · Hungarian · Italo-Greek · Macedonian · Melkite · Romanian · Russian · Ruthenian · Slovak · Ukrainian · East Syrian · Chaldean · Syro-Malabar · Roman · Ambrosian · Sarum · Mozarabic · Anglican Use · Latin · Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter

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v • d • e History of the Catholic Church

General	History of the Catholic Church · History of the Papacy · History of the Roman Curia · Ecumenical Councils · Timeline of the Catholic Church · History of Christianity · Role of the Catholic Church in civilization · Art in Roman Catholicism · Roman Catholic religious order · Christian monasticism · Papal States

Church beginnings	Jesus · Twelve Apostles · Saint Peter · Paul the Apostle · Saint Stephen · John the Apostle Council of Jerusalem · Apostolic Fathers · Ignatius of Antioch · Irenaeus · Pope Victor I · Tertullian

Constantine to Pope Gregory I	Constantine I and Christianity · Arianism · Basilica of St. John Lateran · First Council of Nicaea · Pope Sylvester I · First Council of Constantinople · Canon · Jerome · Vulgate · Council of Ephesus · Council of Chalcedon · Benedict of Nursia · Second Council of Constantinople · Pope Gregory I · Gregorian Chant

Early Middle Ages	Third Council of Constantinople · Saint Boniface · Byzantine Iconoclasm · Second Council of Nicaea · Charlemagne · Pope Leo III · Fourth Council of Constantinople · East-West Schism

High Middle Ages	Pope Urban II · Investiture Controversy · Crusades · First Council of the Lateran · Second Council of the Lateran · Third Council of the Lateran · Pope Innocent III · Latin Empire of Constantinople · Saint Francis of Assisi · Fourth Council of the Lateran · Inquisition · First Council of Lyon · Second Council of Lyon · Bernard of Clairvaux · Thomas Aquinas

Late Middle Ages	Pope Boniface VIII · Avignon Papacy · Pope Clement V · Council of Vienne · Knights Templar · Catherine of Siena · Pope Alexander VI

Protestant Reformation & Counter-Reformation	Protestant Reformation · Counter-Reformation · Thomas More · Pope Leo X · Society of Jesus · Francis Xavier · Dissolution of the Monasteries · Council of Trent · Pope Pius V · Tridentine Mass · Robert Bellarmine

Baroque Period to French Revolution	Pope Innocent XI · Pope Benedict XIV · Suppression of the Society of Jesus · Anti-clericalism · Pope Pius VI · Shimabara Rebellion · Edict of Nantes · Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution

19th century	Pope Pius VII · Pope Pius IX · Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary · Our Lady of La Salette · Our Lady of Lourdes · First Vatican Council · Papal infallibility · Pope Leo XIII · Mary of the Divine Heart · World Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus · Rerum Novarum

20th century	Pope Pius X · Our Lady of Fátima · Persecutions of the Catholic Church and Pius XII · Pope Pius XII · Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary · Dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary · Pope John XXIII · Second Vatican Council · Pope Paul VI · Pope John Paul I · Pope John Paul II

21st century	Pope Benedict XVI · World Youth Day 2008

By country	France · Germany · Ireland · Mexico · Spain · United States

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Persondata
NAME	de' Conti di Segni, Lotario
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Innocent III (English); Innocentius III (Latin
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Pope, r. 1198-1216: height of mediaeval church's power
DATE OF BIRTH	ca. 1161
PLACE OF BIRTH	Gavignano, near Anagni, modern Italy
DATE OF DEATH	16 June 1216
PLACE OF DEATH	Perugia, modern Italy

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