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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Innocent III Biography Innocent III (Lotario de' Conti). Pope, 1198–1216. This was by far the greatest Pope of the name, and under him the power of the papacy over temporal authority was more widely extended than ever before. He was born at Anagni in 1161 and made Cardinal by his uncle, Clement III, after a distinguished scholastic career in Paris, Bologna, and Rome. His election to the papacy at the age of 37, while he was still a layman, was looked upon with misgiving, which finds expression in a poem by the famous Walther von der Vogelweide: "O wê, der bâbest ist ze junc: hilf, hêrre, dîner kristenheit" (Alas, the Pope is too young: help, Lord, thy Christendom). But the combined strength and wisdom of his rule soon allayed these fears. His first success was the restoration of the papal authority in Rome and the States of the Church, but he soon extended his influence to every part of Europe. In Germany he adjudicated with authority upon the rival claims of Otho, son of Henry the Lion, and Philip of Swabia; and a second time he interposed effectually in behalf of his ward, Frederick II. In 1202 he affirmed in a decretal the right of the Pope to confirm or reject the election of the Emperor and to crown the Emperor when elected according to his will. In France he espoused the cause of the injured Ingeborg, whom Philip Augustus had attempted to repudiate in order to marry Agnes of Meran. Another interposition in favor of the sanctity of the marriage tie was that by which he disciplined Alfonso IX of León, who had married within the prohibited degrees. His legates crowned the Prince of the Bulgarians and the King of Bohemia, and even the King of Armenia received the investiture of his kingdom from them. The history of his relations with England (see John; Langton, Stephen) is no less noteworthy as an exhibition of the extent of his supremacy. That nothing might be wanting to the completeness of his authority throughout the then known world, the Latin conquest of Constantinople put an end to the shadowy pretensions of the Eastern rivals of his power, spiritual as well as temporal. As an ecclesiastical administrator, Innocent III holds a high place. He was a vigorous guardian of public and private morality, a steady protector of the weak against oppression, and zealous in conflict with simony and other abuses of the time. He prohibited the multiplication of religious orders by private authority, but he lent all his influence to the furtherance of the remarkable spiritual movement in which the two great mendicant orders (see Franciscans; Dominicans) had their origin. The celebrated fourth Lateran Council (q.v.), held in 1215, marked the zenith of his remarkable reign. In the following year, while busily engaged in promoting peace among the Italian cities, so as to remove obstacles to the Crusade, Innocent was seized with a fever and died at Perugia in his fifty-sixth year. His letters and decretals are in Migne, cxiv–cxviii. The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 191-192. |