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