INNOCENT III. AND THE CHURCH AT ITS HEIGHT
OUTLINE
I.--Antecedent preparation for this period. II.--Career of Innocent III.
up to 1198. III.--Innocent III.'s plans and ideals as Pope.
IV.--Condition of Europe at the close of the twelfth century.
V.--Innocent III. makes himself the political head of Europe.
VI.--Innocent III.'s efforts to root out heresy and reform the Church.
VII.--Innocent III.'s character and the general results of his
pontificate. VIII.--Sources.
Many antecedent forces prepared the way for the ascendency of the Church
under the greatest of all the Popes, Innocent III. The promulgation of
the Petrine theory and its development for many centuries afforded the
fundamental groundwork upon which the Church at its height was built.
The Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals furnished the constitutional basis for
the work of this master Pope and their most complete realisation
culminated under his rule. The Hildebrandine reformation, inspired by
the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, was largely attained under Innocent III.
The reorganisation of the College of Cardinals tended to purify papal
elections. The administrative reforms of Hildebrand restored order in
the Church and subjected the councils and clergy to the Pope. The moral
reforms attempted sought: (1) to enforce clerical celibacy and, although
a failure immediately, ultimately were successful; (2) to abolish
simony--a task that was left for the great Innocent; (3) and to
annihilate lay investiture which was partly successful in the Concordat
of Worms formed in 1122. Gregory VII. had sought also, to subject the
state to the Church. Some of his successors, notably Urban II., Pascal
II., Calixtus II., and Alexander III.,[545:1] strove valiantly to
realize this same purpose. The complete realisation of all these hopes,
however, was left for Innocent III.
Innocent III. was born in 1160 at Anagni and bore the name Lothario. He
was the fourth son of a rich noble Italian family named Conti.[545:2]
His father was Count Trasimundo of Segni and his mother belonged to the
noble Roman Scotti family which had given the Church nine Popes and
thirteen cardinals. It is not unreasonable to believe, therefore, that
the young Lothario inherited from his ancestors both a capacity and a
desire for an important position in the Church. His education was the
best obtainable at that day and was begun under the direction of two
cardinal uncles. He was sent to Rome to one of the schools attached to
all the churches and there received his elementary education and
likewise his preparation for the university. When properly qualified he
entered the University of Paris where he studied philosophy and theology
under the celebrated Peter of Corbeil. While there he probably visited
England in order to make a pilgrimage to the shrine of Thomas à Becket.
From Paris he was sent to Bologna University where he studied civil law
and especially canon law, then a very popular subject. He mastered the
whole system of decretal lore and made it his guide for the rest of his
life. In 1181 he returned to Rome, a university graduate, only
twenty-one years of age, yet celebrated for his theological and legal
erudition.
Everything pointed him toward a career in the Church--his character, his
birth as the youngest son of a noble, his family connections with the
Church, his education, and his natural inclination. It is no surprise,
consequently, to learn that upon his return to the Eternal City he was
made a canon of St. Peter's (1181). Gregory VIII. (1187), promoted him
to the office of subdeacon and Clement III. (1190), his maternal uncle,
made him cardinal-deacon. He now became the chief papal adviser, was a
recognised leader in the College of Cardinals, though only twenty-nine
years of age, and was generally known as a second Hildebrand. Upon the
election of Pope Celestine III. (1191-1198), the leader of a rival
party, the young churchman deserted practical church work and church
politics to devote himself to study and literary work. He wrote several
books of importance which reveal his deep and extensive culture, his
ascetic spirit resembling that of Hildebrand and Luther, his lofty
ideals of the Papacy, and his mediæval theology.[546:1]
Celestine III. died January 8, 1198, urging the cardinals to elect his
nephew John, Cardinal of St. Paul's, as his successor. But the sacred
college at once unanimously elected Cardinal Lothario, the youngest of
their number, only thirty-seven, as Pope and saluted him as Innocent
III. His ability and life had marked him out for several years as the
next occupant of St. Peter's See. Being only in deacon's orders he was
first advanced to the priesthood (Feb. 21) then consecrated bishop and
crowned Pope with an elaborate ceremony of installation (Feb.
22).[547:1]
Innocent III. came to the papal chair with a belief in man's utter
depravity and in the Pope's power to pardon all sin and to remit all
penances. After his election, but before coronation, he declared:
As God . . . hath set in . . . the heavens two great lights,
the greater to rule the day, the lesser to rule the night, so
also hath He set up in His Church . . . two great powers: the
greater to rule the day, that is the souls; the lesser to rule
the night, that is the bodies of men. These powers are the
pontifical and royal: but the moon, as being the lesser body,
borroweth all her light from the sun both in the quantity and
quality of the light she sends forth, as also in her position
and functions in the heavens. . . . The royal power borrows
all its dignity and splendour from the pontifical.[547:2]
Again
the Lord hath fashioned His Church after the model of the
human body placing the Roman Church at the head, thereby
subjecting, in obedience to himself and her, all churches as
members of the one body . . . but the Church without the Pope
were a body without a head.[547:3]
His whole policy was summed up in a remarkable consecration sermon from
Luke 12:42:
Who is this steward? It is he to whom the Lord Omnipotent
said, Thou are Peter, etc. This foundation cannot be shaken
. . . for Christ himself is on board; . . . Christ is the rock
upon which the Holy See is founded; . . . this chair is not
established by man but by God alone. . . . Therefore I fear
not, for I am that steward whom the Lord hath placed over His
household to give them their meat in due season. . . .
Therefore my desire is to serve, not to rule. . . . As the
Lord's steward . . . I must be established in the faith. . . .
But faith without works is dead. My works, therefore, must be
wise as well as faithful. . . . The high-priest of the Old
Testament was the type and pattern of the Pope. . . . I am he
whom the Lord hath placed over His household; yet who am I
that I should sit on high above kings and above all princes?
For of me it is written in the prophets (Jer. 1:10): This
steward is the viceroy of God, the successor of Peter; he that
standeth in the midst between God and man. He is the judge of
all, but is judged by no one . . . Now His Household is the
whole church and this household is one . . . out of which, if
anyone remain, he and all his shall surely perish in the
flood.
The germs of these ideas were found in the Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals.
They were formulated by Hildebrand and it now became the passionate
purpose of Innocent III. to realise them in their entirety. To that end
he adopted Hildebrand's reform program to abolish abuses and corruptions
of all sorts, to enforce celibacy, to subject the clergy to the head of
the Church, and to make the Church supreme above the state.
The situation in Europe at the close of the twelfth century was such as
to aid Innocent in his great plans. The Crusades, now in progress for a
century, had aroused a terrific religious enthusiasm, enriched the
Church, increased the Pope's power, weakened rival secular authority,
and paved the way for the successful realisation of Hildebrand's ideals
by Innocent III. The Papacy was well established. Its dogmas were
expressed in canon law, its machinery was completed, and its right to
exist as a state resting upon a territorial basis was recognised. In the
Empire Henry VI. had died in 1197, Naples was ruled by a child, the
Guelphs and Ghibellines were at war in the Lombard cities and the whole
Empire was distracted and almost reduced to anarchy by the rival
claimants to the imperial throne. In France Philip Augustus, a
tyrannical ruler, ambitious to overthrow the English king, greedy to
swallow up the larger fiefs, was on the throne. He had divorced his
Danish wife and had remarried. At this time he was violently opposed by
both the nobles and the people. In Spain the lack of a strong central
power led to quarrelling among the rival kings and compelled the Pope to
interfere. In England the brutal, boisterous, immoral Richard I. died in
1199 and was succeeded by the tyrannical and feeble King John who was at
war with his own nobles. In the East the Slavic nations were ready to
accept Roman rule while the Eastern Empire was tottering and ready to
fall. In general parties in all countries were crying out to the Pope
for assistance. All Europe was ripe for just such a man as Innocent III.
with just such a policy.
The first step in Innocent's plan was to make himself the political head
of Europe. In Italy he first made himself absolute sovereign of Rome by
removing all vestiges of imperial rule. The senators and the prefect,
who held their commissions from the Emperor, were required to take oaths
to him as their sovereign.[549:1] The imperial judges were also
replaced by his own appointees. By persuasion or tactful diplomacy he
gained a mastery over the warring Roman nobles. From Rome he gradually
extended his sway over the rest of Italy. He was made regent of
Frederick II., the youthful son of Henry VI.,[550:1] now King of Sicily.
He forced the Tuscan cities to recognise his suzerainty[550:2] instead
of that of the German Emperor, and subdued the March of Ancona and the
Duchy of Spoleto.[550:3] He posed as the champion of Italian
independence and liberty against foreign rule. His leadership was
generally recognised and he was called "The Father of His Country."
"Innocent III. was the first Pope who claimed and exercised the rights
of an Italian Prince."[550:4] When Emperor Otto IV. ceded all the lands
claimed by the Papacy under grants from former rulers, an indisputable
title to the papal states was established.
In Germany, before the imperial throne was made vacant by the death of
Henry VI. (1197), the princes had been persuaded to choose his infant
son, Frederick, King of the Romans. But the election had been set aside,
and now the imperial crown was claimed by two rival claimants: Otto of
Brunswick and Philip of Hohenstaufen, a brother of Henry VI. The civil
war which ensued in Germany between these rival claimants gave Innocent
III. his opportunity. Both claimants appealed to the Pope, but Otto was
the more submissive. The Pope assumed the function of arbiter and issued
a famous bull favouring Otto.[550:5] Otto promised on oath protection
of the possessions and rights of the Roman Church, and obedience and
homage such as pious Emperors had formerly shown towards the Chair of
Peter (1201). Still victory did not come to Otto and the Pope, until
after ten years of civil strife followed by the assassination of Philip.
In 1208 Otto was coronated by Innocent in St. Peter's, Rome, but was
soon caught in deeds of treachery to the Pope and excommunicated and
deposed (1210), and died forgotten seven years later.
Frederick of Sicily was anxious to become King of Germany and also
Emperor. The Hohenstaufen party in Germany invited him to visit them and
in this Frederick was encouraged by Innocent III. Frederick made some
important concessions to the Holy See[551:1] (1213), was victorious in
Germany, and was crowned Emperor at Aachen after the Lateran Council in
1215. After a most remarkable career he died, however, a rebel against
the Church (1250). When death smote down Innocent III., he had created
two Emperors, he was recognised as lord paramount over the Empire, and
he ruled personally over a larger domain in the Empire than any
preceding Pope.
In France Philip Augustus had been excommunicated by Pope Celestine III.
(1196) for having divorced his wife, a Danish Princess in order to
marry, with the sanction of the French clergy, Mary, the daughter of the
Duke of Bohemia. Immediately after his election and before his
coronation, Innocent III. took up this case. He ordered Philip to put
away his concubine and to take back his lawful wife under the threat of
pronouncing his children bastards and of putting his land under an
interdict. Since the king turned a deaf ear to these demands, the Pope
excommunicated him, declared France under an interdict,[552:1] and
punished the French bishops. As a result Philip was compelled to submit,
and agreed to take back his wife and to restore confiscated Church
lands. This was a great and significant victory for the Pope.
In Spain the King of Leon had married a cousin contrary to canon law.
The Pope immediately annulled the marriage. The king refused at first to
give up his wife, but was forced to submission by excommunication.[552:2]
The Kings of Navarre and Castile were compelled to make peace and to
unite against the Saracens. Portugal was declared a fief of the Holy See
and the king was commanded to hurry up the payment of tribute.[552:3]
The King of Aragon was crowned by the Pope at Rome as a feudal
vassal.[552:4]
In England King John, who had succeeded Richard I. in 1199, had
embittered against him nobles, clergy, and common people by extortions
and tyrannical acts of all sorts. He aroused the wrath of Innocent III.
by making a treaty of peace with Philip Augustus of France, while
that ruler was still under the ban for repudiating his first wife
and marrying another. John had likewise boldly ousted the Bishop of
Limoges, confiscated his lands, and revived the Constitutions of
Clarendon.[552:5] Innocent III. immediately called John to account for
these misdemeanours[552:6] and forced the stubborn king to promise to
make a crusade to atone for his sins. The Pope demanded the immediate
reinstatement of the Bishop of Limoges in his office and lands.[553:1]
He treated the Constitutions of Clarendon as if they had been repealed
and waited for his opportunity to humble the haughty English ruler.
In 1205 (July 13), Hubert the Archbishop of Canterbury died. That same
night the monks of the Cathedral elected their sub-prior as archbishop
and hurried him off to Rome for papal confirmation. King John, backed by
the suffragan bishops of the diocese, appointed and invested the Bishop
of Norwich as archbishop and he also started for Rome to get the papal
sanction. Here was the opportunity for which Innocent III. was looking.
Both elections were declared void and the fifteen monks of Canterbury
were brought to Rome where they were forced to choose Cardinal Stephen
Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury.[553:2] The Pope consecrated Langton
to the new office and demanded King John's approval. John's rage was
unbounded. He impeached the monks for treason and expelled them from
England on pain of death. He confiscated the property of the see and the
chapter of Canterbury and told the Pope bluntly that he would never
permit the illegally elected stranger to set foot on English soil. The
Pope first threatened the king with an interdict, which merely produced
angry and obstinate counter threats from John, and then in 1208 actually
published the interdict.[553:3] The king retaliated by seizing Church
property, abusing the clergy, exiling the bishops, and confiscating the
estates of their relatives.
Determined to humble the stubborn monarch, Innocent III. in 1210
formally excommunicated John and deposed him from the kingship.[554:1]
The English crown was given to Philip II. of France who at once prepared
an army to invade England. At the same time John's followers deserted
him and in this desolation he was compelled to accept humiliating terms
of unconditional surrender.[554:2] He agreed to reinstate all prelates
to office and property; to pay a full indemnity to all laity and clergy,
eight thousand pounds being paid down as a guarantee; to make the Pope
arbiter about all sums of restitution; to give the Pope all right to
Church patronage in England; to reverse all outlawries; and to surrender
his crown and kingdoms of England and Ireland to the Pope and then to
receive them back as the sworn vassal of Rome, paying therefore the
annual sum of one thousand marks of silver.[554:3]
When the English barons wrested from the stubborn king the great Magna
Charta in 1215,[554:4] Pope Innocent III. championed the cause of the
king, his vassal, against the barons. He called a council, annulled the
Magna Charta, issued a manifesto against the barons, and ordered the
bishops to excommunicate them.[554:5] He suspended Archbishop Langton
from office for siding with the barons against the king and directly
appointed the Archbishop of York. At the same time Prince Louis
of France, who had invaded England with an army, was summarily
excommunicated for having entered a domain of the Holy See. As a result
of the Pope's policy King John of England became a suppliant vassal of
Rome, the English clergy were subjected to the Pope, the resources of
England were put at the Pope's command, the nobles and the people were
thwarted in their efforts to check John in his tyranny, and Magna Charta
was declared illegal though not invalidated.
In the East the Latin rulers in Palestine and at Constantinople were
papal vassals. The Pope asserted his supremacy over the Eastern Empire
in refusing to restore the Isle of Cyprus and in demanding a council to
heal the schism.[555:1] Leo, King of Armenia, threw both his church and
his kingdom into the Pope's arms for protection.[555:2] Bulgaria was won
away from the Greek Church and her king was given a crown independent of
the Eastern Empire.[555:3] Hungary was treated as a vassal kingdom and
papal protection was extended to her king.
In the North the King of Norway had been slain by a priest who then
compelled the bishops in 1184 to crown him king. Innocent III. took up
the case and appointed the King of Denmark and the Archbishop of Norway
a court to try the murderer on the charge of having forged papal bulls
to favour his coronation. His supporters were excommunicated, he himself
was put under the ban, and all places giving him shelter were
interdicted. Even the Bishop of Ireland was rebuked for having
permitted his clergy to communicate with the "accursed apostate." The
Pope reorganised the northern churches and tied the clergy to St.
Peter's Chair. In Poland the archbishop was censured for neglecting to
draw the spiritual sword in favour of Duke Bolesas who had been ill
treated by his subjects. The Duke of Holland, a faithful vassal, was in
turn assisted against his rebellious subjects.
No occupant of St. Peter's Chair was more sincerely impressed with the
beauty and necessity of rescuing the Holy Land from the infidels than
Innocent III. He sent preachers all over Europe to stir up a holy war.
He laboured incessantly to pacify and unite all rulers under his
guidance in this great enterprise. He attempted to eliminate the
mercenary character of the crusade by forbidding the Venetians to
traffic with the Mohammedans.[556:1] But he strove in vain to prevent
the secular diversions and consequent failure of the Fourth Crusade.
When the crusaders in fulfilment of their bargain with the
Venetians,[556:2] left Venice to attack Zara, a Christian city, he
threatened them with excommunication. After the deed was done, however,
he granted conditional pardon.[556:3] The capture of Constantinople was
likewise censured but in the end lauded,[556:4] although he strongly
urged the crusaders to fulfil their original vow.[556:5] So skillfully
did he manipulate affairs that both Greek and Latin Emperors recognised
his overlordship, the Greek Church was subjected to Rome, and the
appointment of the Patriarch of Constantinople was in his hands.
Since this phase of the fourth crusade fell so far short of its original
aim, Innocent summoned the Lateran Council in 1215 to proclaim an ideal
crusade for June 1, 1216.[557:1] The Pope intended to direct the
movement in person or by legates. The usual privileges were granted to
crusaders and a variety of financial regulations were published
authorising the clergy to sell or mortgage Church lands for three years
in order to raise necessary funds; urging kings, nobles, cities, and
rural districts to contribute money and men, and levying a tax on the
cardinals and the head of the Church. In addition the Pope contributed
out of his private possessions thirty-three thousand pounds of silver
and a large ship. A truce for four years was enjoined on all Christian
princes on pain of excommunication and interdict. Through the untimely
death of the Pope, however, while he was going to persuade Pisa to join
in the crusade, the crusade did not mature, but later the Popes were not
slow in claiming the leadership granted in this instance by the council
to Innocent III.
In no direction did Innocent III. accomplish more than in his
uncompromising attack on heresy. It must never be forgotten that heresy
was the greatest crime of the Middle Ages. God had planted His Church on
earth, appointed the Pope as vice-gerent, and prescribed laws and dogmas
in the Bible and the canons to govern the Church. Any violation of these
laws, or disbelief in the dogmas, was heresy. Consequently, heresy was
treason against both the Church and God. A heretic was like a man with
a dangerous, infectious disease. Not only was he himself in mortal
danger, but he might inoculate the whole community and carry it too,
down to perdition. It was the duty of the Church, therefore, to get rid
of that diseased person either by curing him through recantation, or
ending his power for evil by death.
The existence of heresy parallels the whole history of the Church and
suggests a universal mental attribute. The causes for the remarkable
growth of heresy are to be found in the departure of the Church from its
earlier teachings and practices, in the failure of the Church to make
its theory and practice harmonise,[558:1] in the remnants of earlier
doctrines and heresies, and in the mental awakening of the twelfth and
thirteenth centuries[558:2] due to the crusades and other
influences.[558:3] Among the leading heretics of this period were:
1. Tanchelm, who carried on a heretical movement in Flanders
(1108-1126), teaching the historical origin of the hierarchy, the
pollution of the Eucharist in the hands of a bad priest, the illegality
of tithes and the congregational view of church government.[558:4]
2. Eon de l'Etoile in Brittany who declared that he was the son of God
sent to reform the Church (1145-1148).[558:5]
3. Pierre de Bruys who preached in Vallonise until he was burned
(1106-1126), declaring infant baptism useless, offerings, prayers, and
masses for the dead of no avail since each one would be judged by his
own merits, churches unnecessary, the use of the cross idolatry, the
Eucharist a mere historical incident and the Papacy with its hierarchy
of officials a blatant fraud.[559:1]
4. Henry of Lausanne who deserted his monastery and became a reformer in
various districts in France (1116-1147). He rejected the invocation of
saints, taught asceticism, denounced the vice of the clergy, discarded
the Eucharist, denied the sanctity of the priesthood, declared tithes to
be illegal, opposed attendance at Church, and aroused an intense zeal
for purity and piety. Whole congregations left their churches and joined
him. At last the Church secured his arrest and condemnation to
imprisonment for life, but he appears to have died shortly after.[559:2]
5. Arnold of Brescia, a pupil of Abelard, who travelled in various parts
of Italy, France, and Germany, denouncing infant baptism, rejecting the
Eucharist, assailing the wealth of the Church, lashing the vices of the
clergy, and organising associations of "Poor Men" until he was finally
hanged, then burnt, and his ashes thrown into the Tiber.[559:3]
6. Peter Waldo of Lyons, a rich but ignorant merchant, who from a study
of the New Testament was led, after providing for his family, to give
all his possessions to the poor.[559:4] He became an ardent preacher,
won converts, and sent them out as proselyting missionaries. He and his
followers refused obedience to Pope and prelates saying all good men
were priests, permitted women to preach, declared God and not man should
be obeyed, rejected masses and prayers for the dead as useless, denied
purgatory, assailed indulgences, advocated non-resistance, denounced war
and homicide, attacked all the vices of the day, and organised "The Poor
Men of Lyons" which order soon spread under the name Waldenses all over
Europe.[560:1]
7. The Catharists who appeared during the Middle Ages in Lombardy in the
eleventh century and soon spread over western Europe and became very
powerful. They were dualists believing in God and Satan, the spiritual
and the physical, the good and the bad. They held that Christ came to
overthrow Satan and that the Roman Church was the latter's seat. They
rejected the authority and doctrines of the Church and had a distinct
ritual of their own. Soon they broke up into different sects with
different names and were known in southern France as Albigenses.[560:2]
Innocent III.'s theory of the Papacy clearly indicated his duty about
heresy and the co-operation which he might demand of the secular
powers.[560:3] In the first year of his pontificate (1198) heretics were
offered the choice of recantation or death.[560:4] The clergy were
likewise ordered to mend their ways in order to remove the cause of
heresy.[560:5] Two Inquisitors-General were sent to Spain and France
where the clergy were directed to give them information about heresy,
and the rulers and laity were asked to help the "Persecution."[560:6] As
a result a number of heretics were put to death in Spain, southern
France, and Italy. The following year (1199) the Pope appointed an
additional Inquisitor-General for Italy and added a third for France
and Spain. They were all kept very busy.
In 1207 Innocent in person led a force against the heretics at Viterbo
in Italy. The heretics fled but their houses were torn down, their
property confiscated, and a search made for suspects. An edict was also
passed decreeing that heretics should be treated as outcasts, that they
should be seized and given up to secular rulers, that their property
should be confiscated, that their hiding places should be razed to the
ground, that their protectors or sympathisers should forfeit one fourth
of their property and be outlawed, and that rulers refusing to execute
the decree should be excommunicated.[561:1] The same year a similar
edict was issued against the heretics in southern France. To all who
executed the decree were offered indulgences like those given devout
visitors to the shrines of the Apostles Peter and James. On the other
hand those who aided heretics were to suffer the same punishment.[561:2]
Innocent appointed a fourth Inquisitor-General and sent him to the
French King to urge him to help exterminate the heretics. The powers of
the Inquisitors at the same time were enlarged. The Pope now decreed a
general war against "the enemies of God and man." The King of France was
called upon to draw the sword, while the nobles and people were summoned
to the new crusade with promises of the same indulgences as given to
those who went as soldiers to Palestine.[561:3] Count Raymond of
Toulouse was harshly excommunicated and deposed. This new holy war with
Simon de Montfort as leader, was preached amidst much enthusiasm. A
bloody war of extermination was carried on for some years in southern
France until the Albigenses were all but extinct. As a result, the
Pope's authority was greatly increased, Simon de Montfort was made Count
of Toulouse, while Raymond was exiled to England, the precedent for
using the crusading machinery against heretical regions was established,
and the Inquisition was founded. The Lateran Council in 1215 defined
heresy and formulated complete regulations for its suppression.[562:1]
Not only was Innocent III. a great defender of Church dogmas, a
master-organiser of the hierarchy, and an administrator without a peer
in Church history, but he was also a far-reaching and sincerely
intelligent reformer. The judicial reforms were necessary to round out
Innocent's theory of Church government. He claimed immediate, personal
jurisdiction over all "_causæ majores_," such as disputes of the clergy,
and all questions involving the interests of the Church or of churchmen.
Consequently, the power of secular rulers over the clergy was curtailed.
An appalling number of cases was sent for settlement to the curia at
Rome and cases there were decided with a speed and punctuality hitherto
unknown. Innocent III. personally "held court" three days each week,
heard all important cases and rendered the decisions.[562:2] On the
other hand unimportant cases were turned over to committees under his
eye. He insisted upon having honest judges all over Christendom for
minor cases and enforced his will by making an appeal to Rome simple,
easy, and inexpensive.[562:3] All bribes and gifts to judges were
strictly prohibited. The Lateran Council of 1215 modified the trial of
clerical offenders by insisting upon trial in the presence of the
accused, a clear statement of the charges, a list of witnesses for the
accused, and no appeal before the rendering of a decision in an inferior
court.[563:1] Innocent III. also took all treaties between nations under
the protection of the Church,[563:2] and insisted on acting as supreme
arbiter in all wars and civil feuds.[563:3]
The necessity of moral reformation was recognised by Innocent III. from
the beginning of his pontificate. From the year of his election he
endeavoured to abolish all those debilitating corruptions which
prevented the realisation of his ideal priesthood; namely, pluralism,
luxury, rapacity, pride, arrogance, and other evils. The clergy were
emphatically commanded to free themselves of these abuses and severe
orders were given to his legates to root out these evils.[563:4] In 1215
the Lateran Council was called for the "extirpation of vices, the
planting of virtues, the correction of abuses, and the reformation of
morals." All the clergy were urged to note the evils needing amendment
and to correct the same.[563:5] In a sermon opening this remarkably
representative council the Pope urged the clergy to reform themselves so
that they could the better lead their flocks aright.[563:6] Many
reformatory measures were enacted by this Council. Nepotism was
prohibited, monastic abuses were corrected; pluralities were forbidden;
the extravagant use of relics was curtailed; the extortions and simony
of the clergy were abolished and renewed stress was laid on the canons
of celibacy.[564:1]
The doctrinal changes instituted by Innocent III. were likewise
important. The dogma of transubstantiation was canonised by the Lateran
Council in 1215. Before that time there had been many and divergent
views concerning this important subject. The leading motive which
actuated Innocent in having this doctrine carefully defined was to
destroy heresy. In consequence of the new dogma the sacerdotal body was
elevated by being given a holier character while each individual priest
employed this new power as a badge of divine dignity. All discussion
about transubstantiation now ceased. Heresy was more clearly defined
than ever and the Inquisition was canonised. At the same time the unity
of the Church on its doctrinal side was given greater emphasis. The
canonical restrictions on marriage were relaxed. The earlier rigid law
had led to grave abuses, since the clergy annulled marriages and
bastardised the offspring while the laity made it an excuse for divorce
and licentious passion. The prohibition of marriage between the relative
of a second wife and a first was removed. The degree of consanguinity
and affinity was reduced from the seventh to the fourth canonical
degree. Secret marriages were prohibited. The publication of the bans
was made necessary. Confession and penitential satisfaction were
prescribed as obligatory at least once a year under the penalty of
excommunication. Physicians were likewise required to send all the sick
to the priest first to have their souls cured before any effort was
made to heal the body. The penalty for disobedience was exclusion from
the communion.
The administrative reforms of Innocent III. embraced a wide range of
measures. Honorary precedence was granted to the Patriarch of
Constantinople. Elections to vacancies in the Church were reduced to
three forms: (1) A committee of three of the electors was to take the
votes and to declare who had received "the greater and sounder" number;
(2) a committee was to be empowered to appoint for the whole body of
electors; (3) a choice was to be made by acclamation. All lay
interference was excluded, otherwise the election would be _ipso facto_
illegal. Papal confirmation and the right of revision were carefully
guarded. Pluralities were strictly prohibited. Tithes were given
precedence over all other taxes and dues, and the clergy were urged to
guard the property and to collect all monies of the Church.[565:1] The
right to transfer ecclesiastics was reserved to the Pope alone.[565:2]
Finally the Inquisition was instituted for the purpose of suppressing
heresy, of enforcing doctrines and ordinances, and of reforming the
Church.
Innocent III. as head of the great Church easily outranked every ruler
of his day and stands high among the greatest leaders of the Middle Ages
and of all ages. A contemporary describes him as "A man of wonderful
fortitude and wisdom--one who had no equal in his own day; whereby he
had been able to do acts of miraculous power and greatness." If
Hildebrand was the Julius, Innocent was the Augustus of the Papal
Empire. He seldom miscalculated--his clear intellect never missed an
opportunity--his calculating spirit rarely erred--and he combined
forbearance with vigour. "Order, method, unswerving resolution,
inexorable determination, undaunted self-assertion, patience, vigilance,
and cunning, all co-operating to the accomplishment of a single
well-defined object--and that object the unlimited extension of the
political power of the Pontiff of Rome--had achieved a signal triumph
over the irregular, the selfish, and the impulsive political opposition
of the secular powers."[566:1]
The moral character of his reign was variously viewed by contemporaries.
The English clergy generally disliked him and a writer of the day
asserted that his death, July 26, 1216, caused more joy than sorrow. St.
Luitgarde, the prioress of a Cistercian Convent in Brabant, said that in
a vision she had seen him in purgatory enveloped in flames for his
sins.[566:2] The crimes of ambition, cruelty, deceit and treachery were
charged against him as a shrewd political intriguer. The practical
charity and genuine humility of an earlier day--when he washed and
kissed the feet of twelve poor men taken from the street every
Saturday[566:3]--seemed to disappear in the multiplied duties of a world
ruler. His piety, honesty of purpose, and sincere conviction of his
great mission cannot be questioned. Yet for some reason the Church, for
which he did so much, has never seen fit to canonise this great Pope.
No other wearer of the papal tiara has left behind him so many results
pregnant with good and ill for the future of the Church. Under him the
Papacy reached the culmination of its secular power and prerogatives.
The principles of sacerdotal government were fully and intelligently
elaborated. The code of ecclesiastical law was completed and enforced.
All the Christian princes of Europe were brought to recognise the
overlordship of the successor of St. Peter. All the clergy obeyed his
will as the one supreme law. Heresy was washed out in blood. The
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals and the dreams of Hildebrand had been
realised. Yet in this very greatness, wealth, and strength, were the
germs of weakness and disease which were eventually to overthrow the
great structure reared by Innocent III. and his predecessors.
SOURCES.
A.--PRIMARY:
1.--Colby, C. W., _Selections from the Sources of English
History_. Lond. and N. Y., 1899.
2.--Gee, H., and Hardy, W. J., _Documents Illustrative of
English Church History_. Lond., 1896.
3.--Henderson, E. F., _Select Historical Documents of the
Middle Ages_. N. Y., 1892.
4.--Innocent III., _The Mirror of Man's Lyfe_. Lond., 1576.
_The Droome of Doomsday._ Tr. by G. Gascoigne. Lond.,
1576. _Bull of March 3, 1216._ Tr. by W. Beaumont. Lond.,
1886.
5.--Lee, G. C., _Leading Documents of English History_. Lond.,
1900.
6.--Ogg, F. A., _A Source-Book of Mediæval History_. N. Y.,
1908.
7.--Robinson, J. H., _Readings in European History_, i., 338.
8.--Thatcher and McNeal, _A Source-Book for Mediæval History_,
496, 497, 535, 537.
B.--SECONDARY:
I.--SPECIAL:
1.--Bower, A., _History of the Popes_, vi., 183 _ff._
2.--Greenwood, T., _Cathedra Petri_, v., 321-668.
3.--Gurney, J. H., _Four Ecclesiastical Biographies_. Lond.,
1864.
Note:--There is no good biography of Innocent III. in English.
Langen, Hurter, Delitzsch have excellent works in German,
and Jorry and Luchaire in French.
II.--GENERAL:
Adams, 354, 269, 393, 414. Allen, ii., 73, 80, 82, 90, 99,
178. Alzog, ii., 411-421. Bryce, ch. 13. Butler, ch. 81, 82.
Coxe, lect. 7, sec. 6. Creighton, i., 21. Crooks, ch. 34.
Darras, iii., 311 _ff._ Döllinger, iv., ch. 3, sec. 3.
Emerton, ch. 10. Fisher, pd. 6, ch. 3. Foulkes, 369, 398.
Gibbon, vi., 36. Gieseler, ii., § 54. Gilmartin, ii., ch. 5-6.
Gregorovius, bk. ix., ch. 1-3. Guizot, _Hist. of Fr._, ch. 18.
Hallam, iii., ch. 6. Hardwick, ch. 10, sec. 1. Hare, ch. 13.
Hase, sec. 192. Ingham, ch. 1. Jennings, i., ch. 13. Kurtz,
sec. 96-109. Milman, bk. 9, ch. 1-10. Milner, iii., cent. 12,
ch. 6. Moeller, ii., 275. Mosheim, cent. 11, pt. 2, ch. 2.
Neander, iv., 173. Platina, ii., 68-73. Reichel, 242 _ff._
Robertson, bk. 6, ch. 1. Robinson, ch. 14. Tout, ch. 14.
FOOTNOTES:
[545:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 105; Henderson, 420.
[545:2] Barry, _The Papal Monarchy_, 287, calls him "a Roman with
Northern blood in his veins."
[546:1] He wrote: _De contemptu mundi, sivi de miseria humanæ
conditionis_ (Migne, vol. 217. Part tr. in Greenwood, v., 349);
_Mysteriorum Evangelicæ Legis et Sacramenti Eucharistiæ_; _De
Quadrioartita Specia Nuptiorum_ (lost).
[547:1] Hurter, vol. i., 89-90; Greenwood, vol. v., 371.
[547:2] _Gesta Inn. III._, sec. ii., p. 3, 4.
[547:3] _Ep. Inn. III._, lib. i., ep. 117, 335.
[549:1] _Gesta_, sec. 8; Ep. i., 23, 577; Hurter, i., 125; Thatcher and
McNeal, No. 123.
[550:1] Greenwood, v., 376; Ep., i., 410. A papal bull declaring Sicily
a papal fief was accepted without opposition.
[550:2] _Gesta_, sec. ii.
[550:3] _Ibid._, sec. 9, 10.
[550:4] Creighton, i., p. 21.
[550:5] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 130.
[551:1] _Mon. Ger._, ii., 224; Greenwood, v., 510; Thatcher and McNeal,
No. 135, 136.
[552:1] Ogg, § 66.
[552:2] _Gesta_, sec. 58.
[552:3] Ep. i., 99, 249, 446.
[552:4] Greenwood, v., 456; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 118.
[552:5] Henderson, 11.
[552:6] Lee, _Source-Book of Eng. Hist._, sec. 66.
[553:1] Ep. v., 66.
[553:2] See Roger of Wendover's _Chronicle_, for facts about life of
Langton, and Hook, _Lives of Archbishops of Cant._, ii., 657.
[553:3] _Cf._ Roger of Wendover, _Chronicle_, tr. by Giles. Lee
_Source-Book_, sec. 67; Colby, No. 29.
[554:1] Lee, _Source-Book_, sec. 68, 69.
[554:2] _Ibid._, sec. 71.
[554:3] Greenwood, v., 587; Ep., xvi., 77; Lee, _Source Book_, sec. 72,
73, 74. Gee and Hardy, No. xxv.
[554:4] Roger of Wendover, _Chronicle_, tr. by Giles, ii., 304. Lee,
_Source-Books_.
[554:5] Rymer, i., 135; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 129.
[555:1] _Gesta_, par. 60, 61; _Ep._, i., 353, 354.
[555:2] _Ibid._, 109, 110.
[555:3] _Ibid._, 68, 70.
[556:1] Thatcher and McNeal, No. 286.
[556:2] _Transl. and Reprints_, iii., No. 1, p. 2-8.
[556:3] _Gesta_, sec. 83, 85, 87.
[556:4] _Ibid._, sec. 89; _Ep._, vii., 164; _Transl. and Reprints_,
iii., No. 1, p. 20.
[556:5] _Gesta_, sec. 93.
[557:1] _Gesta_, sec. 98; Thatcher and McNeal, No. 288; Robinson,
_Readings_, i., 338.
[558:1] _Ep._, i., 494.
[558:2] See Munro, "The Ren. of the Twelfth Cent.," in _An. Rep. of Am.
Hist. Assoc._, 1906, i., 45.
[558:3] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., ch. 2.
[558:4] _Ibid._, i., 64.
[558:5] _Ibid._, 66.
[559:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, vol. i., 68.
[559:2] _Ibid._, 69.
[559:3] _Ibid._, 72.
[559:4] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 380.
[560:1] Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 76.
[560:2] _Ibid._, 89; Robinson, _Readings_, i., 381.
[560:3] Robinson, _Readings_, i., 385.
[560:4] _Ep._, i., 94.
[560:5] _Ibid._, 79, 80.
[560:6] _Ibid._, 94.
[561:1] _Ep._, vol. ii., 335.
[561:2] _Ibid._, i., 94.
[561:3] _Ibid._, x., 149.
[562:1] Greenwood, v., 641, 644. Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 314, 320.
[562:2] _Gesta_, sec. 41, 42.
[562:3] _Ep._, i., 335, 349, 399.
[563:1] Greenwood, v., 651.
[563:2] _Ep._, i., 130.
[563:3] _Gesta_, sec. 133.
[563:4] _Ep._, i., 79, 80.
[563:5] _Ibid._, xvi., 30-34. Lea, _Hist. of Inq._, i., 41, 46.
[563:6] Matt. Paris, an. 1215; Murat, vii., 893; Raynaldus, an. 1215.
[564:1] Lea, _Hist. of Sac. Celib._ By the thirteenth century celibacy
was generally recognised as a canon all over the Latin Church, but
secret alliances continued as an unmitigated evil.
[565:1] _Ep._, i., 205, 217, 250, 292, 294, 388, 416, etc.
[565:2] _Gesta_, sec. 34-45.
[566:1] Greenwood, v., 666.
[566:2] Raynaldus, an. 1216, sec. 11; Fleury, _H. E._, xvi., 426.
[566:3] _Gesta_, sec. 134.