INNOCENT II. (Gregorio Paparesci dei Guidoni), pope from 113o to I143, was originally a Benedictine monk. His ability, pure life and political connections raised him rapidly to power. Made cardinal deacon of Sant Angelo in Pescheria by Paschal II. he was employed in various diplomatic missions. Calixtus II. appointed him one of the ambassadors who made peace with the empire and drew up the Concordat of Worms (1122), and in 1123, with his later enemy Cardinal Peter Pierleoni, he was papal legate in France. On Feb. 13, 113o, Honorius II. died, and on that night a minority of the Sacred College elected Paparesci, who took the name of Innocent II. After a hasty consecration he took refuge with a friendly noble from the supporters of Pier leoni, who was elected pope under the name of Anacletus II. by a majority of the cardinals. Innocent refused to recognize the choice; by June, however, he was obliged to flee to France. Here his title was recognized by a synod called by Bernard of Clair vaux at Etampes.
Similar action was taken in Germany by the synod of Wiirz burg. In Jan. 1131 Innocent met King Henry I. of England at Chartres, and in March, at Liege, the German King Lothair, whom he induced to undertake a campaign against Anacletus. The German army invaded Italy in Aug. 1132, and occupied all Rome except St. Peter's church and the castle of St. Angelo. Lothair was crowned emperor at the Lateran in June 1133, and Innocent gave him the territories of the Countess Mathilda as a fief, but refused to surrender the right of investiture. Left to himself Innocent again had to flee, this time to Pisa. Here he called a council which condemned Anacletus. A second expedition of Lothair expelled Roger of Sicily (to whom Anacletus had given the title of king in return for his support) from southern Italy, but a quarrel with Innocent prevented the emperor attacking Rome. At this crisis, in Jan. I138, Anacletus died, and a successor elected by his faction, as Victor IV., resigned after two months. The Lateran council of I139 restored peace to the church, excom municating Roger of Sicily, against whom Innocent undertook an unsuccessful expedition. The pope supported Bernard of Clair vaux in his prosecution of Abelard and Arnold of Brescia, whom he condemned as heretics. The remaining years of Innocent's life were taken up by a quarrel with the Roman commune, which had set up an independent senate, and one with King Louis VII. of France, about an appointment. France was threatened with the interdict, but before matters came to a head Innocent died on Sept. 22, 1143, and was succeeded by Celestinus II.