Innocent III, Pope 377in reforming ecclesiastical government, updating canon
law, promoting the administrative centralization of the
church and acceptance and support for the FRANCISCAN
and DOMINICAN ORDERS, and, above all calling and direct-
ing the important Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
As pope, he considered himself the successor of Saint
Peter and the vicar of Christ on this earth, with supreme
authority in the universal church and ultimate responsi-
bility for that church. He believed that the jurisdictional
powers of the bishops derived from his own fullness of
power. He acted out of that belief in his vigorous and
wide-ranging judicial activity, his extension and consider-
ation of papal rights over episcopal appointments, and
his effort to exert authority over national churches by the
dispatch of cardinal LEGATESendowed with the broadest
of powers to represent his interests.
Matrimonial conflicts opened the way for Innocent’s
intervention in the politics of the kingdoms of LEÓN,
ARAGON, and FRANCE. A disputed election to the arch-
bishopric of CANTERBURYallowed him to intervene in
ENGLANDbecause of King JOHN’s refusal to accept Cardi-
nal Stephen LANGTONas archbishop. He was consistently
motivated by an ideal that he had articulated at the start
of his pontificate: “Ecclesiastical liberty is nowhere better
cared for than where the Roman church has full power in
both temporal and spiritual matters.”
SEEKING POLITICAL HEGEMONYThe seeking of temporal power certainly lay behind his
efforts to reestablish papal hegemony in the city of ROME
and in the papal territories or states, where the German
emperors FREDERICKI and HENRYVI had extended impe-
rial control at the expense of the papacy. Innocent’s Ital-
ian policy to control the HOHENSTAUFENmet with some
success because of the complex conditions as usual pre-
vailing in GERMANYand Italy. Henry VI, already ruler of
Germany and large parts of northern Italy, had acquired
by marriage the Norman kingdom of SICILYand almost all
southern Italy. Henry sought real control over all these
territories, thus threatening the papal freedom of action
on the peninsula and reducing the Holy See to only the
territory around Rome itself.
Henry VI died four months before Innocent became
pope, and his widow, CONSTANCE, died a few months
later, leaving their three-year-old son, the future emperor
FREDERICKII of Hohenstaufen, under papal guardian-
ship. Although Innocent ignored his upbringing, he
defended Frederick’s rights as king of Sicily as almost a
papal vassal. It was clearly, however, in the interest of the
papacy to sever the connection between Sicily and the
empire, which was threatening to squeeze the power of
the popes in Italy. Between the years 1198 and 1209, he
tried to control imperial politics by arbitrating between
rival claimants to the imperial throne. But unable to
enforce his will on them and later disappointed in
the attitude of his own candidate, Otto IV (d. 1218),
whom he had crowned emperor after Philip of Swabia
(r. 1198–1208), Innocent deposed Otto. Finally, in
1213, Innocent threw his support behind the candidacy
of the young Frederick of Hohenstaufen. In return,
Frederick pledged not to reunite the German and Sicilian
kingdoms, a pledge that he broke immediately after
Innocent’s death.FURTHER PAPAL ASPIRATIONS
Innocent’s imperial policy did not achieve all of its goals,
as did his attempts to restore Christian control over
PALESTINE, to revive the crusading movement, and to put
it under papal leadership. His efforts led to the disastrous
Fourth CRUSADE(1202–04), which seemingly eluded his
control and was diverted into attacking and sacking of
the Christian city of CONSTANTINOPLE. The resulting bit-
terness in the Eastern Orthodox Churches perpetuated
and reinforced the schism with the Latin Church.
Such questionable results also followed Innocent’s
launching a crusade against the ALBIGENSIANor CATHAR
heretics in the south of FRANCE. Fought with great feroc-
ity and benefiting ultimately the northern French nobles
and the French Crown, it ended aristocratic protection
of that heresy. However, that was accomplished at the
cost of degrading still further the moral authority of
the crusading ideal. On the other hand, Innocent’s
insightful sponsorship of the Franciscan and Dominican
orders, who set an example of dedicated poverty and
preached the GOSPELto the poor and neglected, certainly
did more to respond to the growth of heresy than any of
his more violent methods.THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL
Innocent issued a compilation of canon law in 1210, the
first officially promulgated collection of papal and eccle-
siastical laws. In them, Innocent sought to supervise
more closely the administration of local churches and to
consolidate the centralization of the church around the
Holy See or pope. Preceded by two years of careful
preparation, and assembled in November 1215 at the
Lateran basilica in Rome, the Fourth Lateran Council
was attended by more than 400 bishops, 800 abbots and
priors, and representatives of secular rulers. It was prob-
ably the greatest and most influential of medieval assem-
blies of any kind. Its decrees began with a profession of
FAITH, in which was definitely enunciated the doctrine of
transubstantiation, resolving the long medieval dispute
about the nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist.
The council established procedures for combating heresy
and to require all bishops who suspected it in their sees
to hold there a regular INQUISITION. All adults were to
confess their sins at least once annually to their own
parish priests. Further decrees required bishops to
ensure an adequate explanation of the gospel by appoint-
ing qualified priests as preachers and an adequately
endowed position at all cathedral and metropolitan