reduced the Jubilee interval to thirtythree years; Paul II, in 1470, reduced it to twenty-
five, which is the modern interval. At this same time, papal privileges were being granted
to local churches and shrines to such an extent that the journey to Rome finally became
unnecessary for gaining a sufficient indulgence.
An innovation with significant impact on late-medieval and early-modern religious
life took place in 1476, when Sixtus IV granted a plenary indulgence for souls in
Purgatory and declared that it was possible for the living to obtain indulgences for the
dead to shorten their time in Purgatory. From the early centuries, Christian belief and
practice asserted that alms and prayers offered by the living could be effective in
shortening the time that persons might suffer the purifying fires and pains of purgation
before entering Heaven. Sixtus, however, claimed that the papal power extended beyond
the span of this life to offer the possibility of remission of temporal punishment for sin to
those languishing in Purgatory, and to offer this in return for a money payment or a
specific devotional act made by a living individual.
Grover A.Zinn
[See also: HUGUES DE SAINT-CHER; PURGATORY]
Lea, Henry Charles. A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgences in the Latin Church. 3
vols. Philadelphia: Lea Brothers, 1896.
Paulus, Nicolaus. Geschichte des Ablasses im Mittelalter vom Ursprunge bis zur Mitte des 14.
Jahrhunderts. 2 vols. Paderborn: Schoningh, 1922–23.
——. Indulgences as a Social Factor in the Middle Ages, trans. J.Elliot Ross. New York: Devin-
Adair, 1922.
Southern, Richard W. Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages. Harmondsworth:
Penguin, 1970, pp. 136–43.
INNOCENT III
(r. 1198–1216). Pope. The period between the death of Alexander III and the election of
Lotario dei Seigni as Innocent III in 1198 was comparatively peaceful for the papacy. A
series of elderly popes, some members of a party conciliatory to the Hohenstaufen,
concentrated on ecclesiastical business, on responding to Saladin’s capture of Jerusalem
(1187), and on combating the rise of Cathar and Waldensian heresy in southern France.
The coronation of Innocent inaugurated a new phase of political activity by the papacy,
coupled with further efforts to reform the clergy and launch a crusade.
Lotario, a member of the Roman nobility, had studied theology at Paris and had
gained a grounding in canon law. These studies made him a competent theologian,
exegete, and preacher; on this traditional basis, he would build new interpretations of old
texts, expanding papal jurisdiction “by reason of sin” (ratione peccati) into an ability to
supervise the princes of Christendom. Lotario’s most famous theological work, De
miseria conditionis humanae, emphasized the brevity and pain of human life; but this
may help explain his concept of the clergy, especially the pope, as mediating between
God and humanity, able to work for peace and justice, as well as for orthodoxy and
reform. Innocent III adopted Bernard of Clairvaux’s description of the Roman pontiff as
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