Pope Innocent III was the most energetic and dynamic Pope of the Middle Ages. He applied his energies to reform not only in Canon Law but also in the life and morals of Ecclesiastics. He vied with secular princes with great success to maintain the independence of the Church and he also approved St. Francis and his order, which would have spiritual benefits extending far beyond Innocent's reign. This book covers the life of Pope Innocent in great detail, yet is easily readable and accessible to all. Covering his youth to his elevation to the Papacy and his labours therein, Pope Innocent III and His Times gives the picture of the man who managed the Papacy at its greatest point in the middle ages.
Drawing on an extensive study of the primary sources, Damian Smith explores the relationship between the Roman Curia and Aragon-Catalonia in the late 12th and early 13th centuries. His focus is the pontificate of Innocent III, the most politically influential medieval Pope, and the reign of King Peter II of Aragon and the first years of King James I. By analysing the practical example of papal actions towards one of its closest secular allies, the work deepens our understanding of the objectives and limits of the Papacy, while making clear the Pope's profound influence on the realm's political development. Marriage affairs and politics, the Spanish Reconquista, with the campaign of Las Navas, and the Albigensian Crusade, in which King Peter met his death at the battle of Muret, are all covered. The final chapters turn more specifically to Church affairs, looking at the relations between the papacy and the bishops of the province of Tarragona, and at the success of Innocent III's mission to reform religious life.
The Deeds of Pope Innocent III, composed before 1210 by an anonymous member of the papal curia, provides a unique window into the activities, policies, and strategies of the papacy and the curia during one of the most important periods in the history of the medieval church.
Moore (history, Hofstra U., Bloomington, IN) is joined by an international host of scholars to compile this collection of essays evolving out of the May 1997 conference Pope Innocent III and His World. They address three primary issues: the factual details behind the man Innocent III; the proper r
This book is a concise and balanced biography of Innocent III. While giving the student and general reader a good sense of this pope and the medieval papacy, it can also provide insights for scholars well-versed in his pontificate.
In 1213, Pope Innocent III issued his letter Vineam Domini, thundering against the enemies of Christendom—the "beasts of many kinds that are attempting to destroy the vineyard of the Lord of Sabaoth"—and announcing a General Council of the Latin Church as redress. The Fourth Lateran Council, which convened in 1215, was unprecedented in its scope and impact, and it called for the Fifth Crusade as what its participants hoped would be the final defense of Christendom. For the first time, a collection of extensively annotated and translated documents illustrates the transformation of the crusade movement. Crusade and Christendom explores the way in which the crusade was used to define and extend the intellectual, religious, and political boundaries of Latin Christendom. It also illustrates how the very concept of the crusade was shaped by the urge to define and reform communities of practice and belief within Latin Christendom and by Latin Christendom's relationship with other communities, including dissenting political powers and heretical groups, the Moors in Spain, the Mongols, and eastern Christians. The relationship of the crusade to reform and missionary movements is also explored, as is its impact on individual lives and devotion. The selection of documents and bibliography incorporates and brings to life recent developments in crusade scholarship concerning military logistics and travel in the medieval period, popular and elite participation, the role of women, liturgy and preaching, and the impact of the crusade on western society and its relationship with other cultures and religions. Intended for the undergraduate yet also invaluable for teachers and scholars, this book illustrates how the crusades became crucial for defining and promoting the very concept and boundaries of Latin Christendom. It provides translations of and commentaries on key original sources and up-to-date bibliographic materials.
This volume examines two aspects of the varied pontificate of Innocent III (1198-1216). It views papal authority and the pastoral role of the pope as complimentary actions of papal activity and as essential and equal partner's in the pope's faith and mission.
When it was first published by D.C. Heath in 1963 as part of their ""Problems in European Civilization"" series, this small volume offered readers a broad representation of the scholarly discussion on Pope Innocent III in an accessible format. Now revised and updated, this new edition presents recent scholarship on the role of Innocent III in the development of the medieval papacy, while enlarging the treatment of the Crusades, Innocent III's importance in theology, his political life and his pastoral and reform activities. Eight new selections have been added, along with a revised and expanded introduction. At the time of the first edition, its title aptly summed up the main lines of discussion about the pontificate of Pope Innocent III. Although extreme statements criticising Innocent for claiming secular power or defending his conception of papal authority no longer commanded major support, modified versions of these views continued to dominate scholarship; to a lesser degree they continue to do so today. Yet in the past three decades, important studies have emerged that emphasize Innocent's place as theologian, his role in the Crusade movement and his involvement in efforts to reform the church and Christian society. The papacy as a developing historical institution is now more firmly established in the context of the important changes that were taking place in late 12th- and early 13th-century Europe. If Innocent III is no longer seen by most as pursuing secular dominance, he is perhaps more realistically viewed as struggling within the limits of his age to find ways to make a better Christian world. Offering a sampling of current and established scholarship on Innocent III, this new paperback edition should prove valuable as a supplementary text in both undergraduate and beginning graduate courses in religious studies, European history, medieval history and the history of Christianity.
Pope Innocent III has long been seen as a central figure in the history of the medieval papacy. The Imperial struggle, on which attention has most often focused, is not, however, Brenda Bolton’s direct concern in these articles; she has rather sought to uncover the spiritual motivation of Innocent’s mission as pope. The first item, newly written for this volume, brings out the importance to Innocent of the physical context of Rome - as the City of the Faith. The following studies look at his exercise of papal authority: first, as Bishop of Rome, to establish a position from which to implement reform; then in relation to secular powers and, in particular, to the establishment of the Cistercian Order. The second section turns to the theme of pastoral care, showing Innocent’s concern for the needy and, more generally, emphasizing his generous response to those accused of heresy - his aim being to include, not exclude, and to channel popular enthusiasms to the benefit of the Church and Rome.
Innocent III (elected 1198, died 1216) has long been thought the greatest pope of the high Middle Ages. He launched the Fourth Crusade, sent an army against the Albigensians, and convened the Fourth Lateran Council. In his struggle with the most powerful monarchs of western Europe to assert the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal power, he excommunicated King John, placed England under an interdict, forced Philip Augustus of France to take back the wife he had repudiated, and had the Emperor Otto IV deposed. But how solid is his reputation? To what extent was he personally responsible for the events of his reign? How far did he influence the massive changes of his time - the claim of the papacy to intervene in European affairs, and to act as universal arbiter and lawgiver? Were the great challenges that he met new? Was it particular circumstances that made it possible for him to leave his imprint on Europe? Who were his advisers? This book is the first reassessment of Innocent's career for nearly forty years. In it, Jane Sayers looks into Innocent's background and complex character. She examines his record as a temporal ruler struggling to establish a firm hold on the Papal States. She considers the influences on him, traces the development of his thought, and shows how he was influenced by the past. She stresses the important part that propaganda played in his dealings with secular rulers, and how firm belief in law led him to attempt the reform of the Church and the regulation of the behaviour of ordinary people through ecclesiastical legislation. Professor Sayers also explores Innocent's response to the rising challenge to orthodoxy - for, by the early thirteenth century, the idea of returning to the simplicity of the early Church, embracing poverty and dispensing with priests, swept over the Mediterranean lands, encouraging lay people to explore the possibilities of an alternative Christianity. Were these movements (Humiliati, Waldenses and Cathars among them) heretical? Could the same forces be channelled within orthodox Christianity? Finally, she considers Innocent's response to the wider world - his attitude to the crusading movement, and his role in the disastrous crusade of 1204, when Christian fought Christian, and Constantinople, the capital of eastern Christendom, fell not to the forces of Islam but to crusaders from the West. Eyewitness accounts and the output of the popes chancery reveal the constant strains on the pope and his government. Innocent faced many crises, but he had the personality to take advantage of opportunities and to rise to meet challenges. He was a pope with a vision of Europe - and Jane Sayers does justice to his complex and many-faceted career in this engrossing study.
