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INNOCENT (POPES) . His first acts were to restore the See also: prestige of the See also: Holy See in See also: Italy, where it had been overshadowed by the power of the emperor See also: Henry VI
.
As
See also: pope it was his See also: object to shake off the imperial yoke, as an See also: Italian See also: prince to clear the See also: land of the hated Germans
.
The circumstances of the See also: time were highly favourable to him
.
The early See also: death of Henry VI
.
(See also: September 1197) had See also: left See also: Germany divided between See also: rival candidates for the See also: crown, See also: Sicily torn by warring factions of native and See also: German barons
.
It was, then, easy for Innocent to depose the imperial See also: prefect in See also: Rome itself and to oust the German feudatories who held the See also: great Italian fiefs for the See also: Empire
.
See also: Spoleto See also: fell; See also: Perugia surrendered; See also: Tuscany acknowledged the leadership of the pope; papal rectores once more governed the patrimony of St See also: Peter
.
Finally, Henry's widow, See also: Constance, in despair, acknowledged the pope as overlord of the two Sicilies, and on her death (See also: November 27, 1198) appointed him See also: guardian of her infant son See also: Frederick
.
Thus in the first See also: year of his pontificate Innocent had established himself as the See also: protector of the Italian nation against See also: foreign aggression, and had consolidated in the peninsula a secure basis on which to build up his See also: world-power
.
The effective assertion of this world-power is the characteristic feature of Innocent's pontificate
.
Other popes before him—from See also: Gregory VII. onwards—had upheld the theory of the supremacy of the spiritual over the temporal authority, with various See also: fortune; it was reserved for Innocent to make it a reality
.
The See also: history of the processes by which he accomplished this is given elsewhere
.
Here it will suffice to See also: deal with it in the broadest outline
.
In Germany his support of See also: Otto IV. against See also: Philip of
See also: Swabia, then of Philip against Otto and finally, after Philip's See also: murder (See also: June 21, t 208), of the See also: young Frederick II. against Otto, effectually prevented the imperial power, during his pontificate, from again becoming a danger to that of the papacy in Italy
.
Concessions at the cost of the Empire in Italy were in every See also: case the price of his support (see GERMANY: History)
.
In his relations with the German emperors Innocent acted partly as pope, partly as an Italian prince; his victories over other and more distant potentates he won wholly in his spiritual capacity
.
Thus he forced the masterful Philip See also: Augustus of See also: France to put away See also: Agnes of See also: Meran and take back his Danish wife See also: Ingeborg, whom he had wrongfully divorced; he compelled Peter of See also: Aragon to forgo his intended See also: marriage with Bianca of See also: Navarre and ultimately (1204) to receive back his See also: kingdom as a See also: fief of the Holy See; he forced See also: Alphonso IX. of Leon to put away his wife Berengaria of See also: Castile, who was related to him within the prohibited degrees, though he pronounced their See also: children legitimate
.
Sancho of See also: Portugal was compelled to pay the tribute promised by his See also: father to Rome, and See also: Ladislaus of Poland to cease from infringing the rights of the See also: church
.
Even the distant
See also: north felt the See also: weight of Innocent's power, and the archbishop of Trondhjem was called to See also: order for daring to remove the See also: ban of excommunication from the repentant See also: King
See also: Haakon IV., as an infringement of the exclusive right of the pope to impose or remove the ban of the church in the case of sovereigns
.
So widespread was the prestige of the pope that Kaloyan, prince of See also: Bulgaria, hoping to strengthen himself against See also: internal foes and the aggressions of the Eastern Empire, submitted to Rome and, in November 1204, received the insignia of royalty from the hands of the papal legates as the vassal of the Holy See
.
Meanwhile Innocent had been zealous in promoting the crusade which ultimately, under the See also: Doge Dandolo, led to the Latin occupation of Constantinople (see See also: CRUSADES)
.
This diversion from its See also: original object was at first severely censured by Innocent; but an event which seemed to put an end to the See also: schism of See also: East and West came to See also: wear a different aspect; he was the first pope to nominate a patriarch of Constantinople, and he expressed the hope that henceforth the church would be " one See also: fold under one shepherd." By a bull of See also: October 12, 1204, moreover, Innocent proclaimed the same indulgences for a crusade to Livonia as the Holy Land
.
The result was the " conversion " of the Livonians (1206) and the Letts (1208) by the crusaders headed by the knights of the Teutonic Order
.
The organization of the new provinces thus won for the church the German King See also: Lothair, whom he induced to undertake a See also: campaign against Anacletus
.
The German army invaded Italy in See also: August 1132, and occupied Rome, all except St Peter's church and the See also: castle of St Angelo which held out against them
.
Lothair was crowned emperor at the Lateran in June 1133, and as a further See also: reward Innocent gave him the territories of the Countess Mathilda as a fief, but refused to surrender the right of See also: investiture
.
Left to himself Innocent again had to flee, this time to See also: Pisa
.
Here he called a council which condemned Anacletus
.
A second expedition of Lothair expelled See also: Roger of Sicily (to whom Anacletus had given the title of king in return for his support) from See also: southern Italy, but a See also: quarrel with Innocent prevented the emperor attacking Rome
.
At this crisis, in See also: January 1138, Anacletus died, and a successor elected by his faction, as Victor IV., resigned after two months
.
The Lateran council of 1139 restored See also: peace to the Church, excommunicating Roger of Sicily, against whom Innocent undertook an expedition which proved unsuccessful
.
In matters of See also: doctrine the pope supported See also: Bernard of See also: Clairvaux in his See also: prosecution of See also: Abelard and See also: Arnold of See also: Brescia, whom he condemned as heretics
.
The remaining years of Innocent's See also: life were taken up by a quarrel with the See also: Roman commune, which had set up an See also: independent senate, and one with King See also: Louis VII. of France, about an
See also: appointment
.
France was threatened with the See also: interdict, but before matters came to a See also: head Innocent died on the 22nd of September 1143
.
See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie, " Innocenz II.," with full references
.
See also: Gregorovius, History of Rome in the See also: Middle Ages, trans. by See also: Hamilton (
See also: London, 1896), vol. iv. See also: part ii. pp
.
420-453
.
(P
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