CHAPTER XXII
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