INNOCENT M. (LOTTIARIO. CONTI), by far the greatest pope of this name, was b. at Anagni in 1161. After a course of much distinction at Paris, Bologna, and Rome, he was made cardinal; and eventually, in 1198, was elected, at the unprecedentedly early age of 37, a successor of pope Celestine III. His pontificate is justly regarded as the culmi nating point of the temporal as well as the spiritual supremacy of the Roman see; and it is freely avowed by the learned historian of Latin Christianity, that if ever the great idea of a Christian republic, with a pope at its head, wai to be realized, "none could bring more lofty or more various qualifications for its accomplishment than Inno cent p. 9). Accordingly, under the impulse of his ardent but disinterested zeal for the glory of the church, almost every state and kingdom was brought into sub jection. In Italy, during the minority of Frederick II. (son of the emperor Henry VI., king of Italy), who was a ward of Innocent's, the authority of the pope within his own stdtcs was fully consolidated, and his influence among the other states of Italy was con firmed and extended. In Germary he adjudicated with authority upon the rival claims of Otho and Philip; and a second time he interposed effectually in behalf of his ward, Frederick II. In France, espousing the cause of the injured Ingerburga, he compelled her unworthy husband, Philip Augustus, to dismiss Agnes de Meranie, whom he had unlawfully married, and to take back Ingerburga. In Spain he exer cised a similar authority over the king of Leon, who had married within the prohibited degrees. The history of his conflict with the weak and unprincipled John of England would carry us beyond the space at our disposal. If it exhibits Innocent's character for consistent adherence to principle, and his lofty indifference to the suggestions of expediency, in a less favorable point of view than his other similar contests, it at the same time displays in a stronger light the extent of his pretensions and the completeness of his supremacy. In Norway lie exercised the same authority in reference to the usurper Swero. In Aragon he received the fealty of the king Alfonso. Even the king of Armenia, Leo, received his legates, and accepted from them the investiture of his kingdom. And, as if in order that nothing might be wanting to the completeness of his authority throughout the then known world, the Latin conquest of Constantinople, and the establishment of the Latin kingdom of Jerusalem, put an end, at least during his pontificate, to the shadowy pretensions of the eastern rivals of his power, spiritual as well as temporal. Pursuing consistently the great idea which inspired his entire career,
his views of the absoluteness of the authority of the church within her own dominion were no less unbending than his notion of the of its extent. To him, every offense against religion was a crime against society, and, in his ideal Christian republic, every heresy was a rebellion which it was the duty of the rulers to resist and repress. It was at his call, therefore, that the crusade against the Albigenses was organized and undertaken; and although he can hardly lie held responsible for the fearful excesses into which it ran, and although at its close he used all his endeavors to procure the restitution of the lands of the young count of Toulouse, yet it is clear from his letters that be regarded the undertaking itself not merely as lawful, but as a glorious enterprise of religion and piety. As an ecclesiastical administrator, Innocent holds a high place in his order. He was a vigorous guardian of public and private morality, a steady pro tector of the weak, zealous in the repression of simony and other abuses of the lime. He prohibited the arbitrary multiplication of religious orders by private authority, but he lent all the force of his power and influence to the remarkable spiritual movement in which the two great orders, the Franciscan and the Dominican (q.v.), had their origin. It was under him that the celebrated fourth Lateran council was held in 1215. In the following year, lie was seized with his fatal illness, and died in July at Perugia. at the early age of 56. This works, principally of letters and sermons, and of a remarkable treatise On the illi,sery of the Condition of Man, were published in two vols. folio (Paris, 1652). It is from these letters and decretals alone that the character of the age, and the true significance of the church-policy of this extraordinary man, can be fully understood; and it is only from a careful study of them that the nature of his views and objects can be realized in their integrity. However earnestly men may dissent from these views, no student of medimval history will refuse to accept dean Milman's verdict on the career of Innocent III., that "his high and blameless, and, in some respects, wise and gentle character, seems to approach more nearly than any one of the whole succession of Roman bishops to the ideal light of a supreme pontiff;" and that " in him, if may seem to be realized the churchman's highest conception of a vicar of Christ" (Latin Christianity, iv. 277).