Innocent III («) {Lothario Conti), by far the greatest pope of this name, was born of a noble family of Rome 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 vuiprecedentedly early age of thirty-seven, a successor of pope Celestine IH. While at the high schools of Rome, Paris, and Bologna, he had greatly distinguished himself in the studies of philosophy, theology, and the canon law, and also by several written comjiositions, es- pecially by his treatise De Miseria Conditi(nm Iluma- rm. " The gloomy ascetic views which he took in this work of the world and of human nature show a mind filled with contempt for all worklly motives of action, and not likely to be restrained in forwarding what he consitlered to be his paramount duty by any of the com- mon feeliiigs of leniency, conciliation, or concession, which to a man in his situation must have appeared sinfid weaknesses. His ambition and haughtiness were apparently not personal. His interest seems to have been totally merged in what he considered the sacred right of his see, ' universal supremacy," and the sincer- ity of his conviction is shown by the steady, uncompro- mising tenor of his conduct, and by a like uniformity of sentiments and tone throughout his writings, and espe- cially his numerous letters." The external circum- stances of his time also furthered Innocent's views, and enabled him to make his pontificate the most marked
in the annals of Rome; the culminating point of the temporal as well as the spiritual supremacy of the Ro- man see. " The emperor Henry YI, king of Italy, and also of Sicily, had lately died, and rival candidates were disputing for tlie crown of Germany, while Constance of Sicily, Henry's widow, was left regent of Sicily and Apulia in the name of her infant son Frederick II. In- nocent, asserting his claim of suzerainty over the king- dom of Sicily, confirmed the regency to Constance, but at the same time obtained from her a surrender of all disputed points concerning the pontifical pretensions over those fine territories. Constance dying shortly after. Innocent himself assumed the regencj' during Frederick's minority. At Rome, availing himself of the vacancy of the imperial throne, he bestowed the investi- ture on the prefect of Rome, whom he made to swear allegiance to himself, thus putting an end to the former, though often eluded claim of the imperial authoritj' over that city. In like manner, being favored by the people, ever jealous of the dominion of foreigners, he drove away the imperial feudatories, such as Conrad, duke of Spoleti and count of Assisi, and jNIarcualdus, marquis of Aiicona, and took possession of those provinces in the name of the Roman see. He likewise claimed the exarchate of Ravenna ; but the archbishop of that city asserted his OM-n prior rights, and Innocent, saj-s the anonymous bi- ographer, 'prudently deferred the enforcement of his claims to a more fitting opportunity.' The towns of Tuscany, with the exception of Pisa, threw off their al- legiance to the empire, and formed a league with Inno- cent for their mutual support. It was on this occasion that Innocent wrote that famous letter in which he as- serts that, ' as God created two luminaries, one superior for the day, and the other inferior for the night, which last owes its splendor entirely to the first, so he has dis- posed that the regal dignity should be but a reflection of the splendor of the papal authority, and entirely sub- ordinate to it.' " It was in the affairs of Germany, how- ever, that Innocent's position most clearly manifested the greatness of the papal power over the destinies of the world. Setting himself up as supreme arbitrator between the two claimants who were contending for the imperial crown, he decided (in 1201) in favor of Otho, because he descended from '• a race (welf) devoted to the Church," with the condition that the disputed con- cession of the countess JMathilda he wholly resigned to the decisions of the holy see ; and, as a natural conse- quence, he proceeded at the same time to excommunicate Otho's rival, Philip. In spite of a determined resistance of Philip and his friends, which for a time seemed al- most to prove successful, but which finally ended in the assassination of Philip, Innocent's triumph in Germany was complete, and his vassal emperor Otho Avas made temporal lord of the West. But a further triumph crowned the efforts of Iimocent in Germany onh' a short time after. Otho, incurring the displeasure of the pope by his estrangement from the papal see, was excommu- nicated and deposed in 1210, and Innocent's own ward, Frederick of Sicily, was brought forward as a candidate for the vacated throne, and finally crowned tmperor at Aix-la-ChapeIle,with the approval of the fourth Lateran Council (A.D. 121 5\ '-P'or the second time Iimocent was triumphant in (Jermany. Twice he had decided an imperial election. Against one of the emperors whom he supported he liad made his sentence of ex- communication and de]iosition valid ; the other he had put forward, intending him to be a mere puppet and in- strument in his own hands" (Reichel). But-, if Inno- cent proved himself a great statesman, it must be con- ceded also that he was very much unlike many of his predecessors, very strict and uncompromising in his no- tions of discipline and morality. Irregularity and ve- nality were repressed everj'where as soon as discovered. Thus he excommunicated Philip Augustus of France because he had repudiated his wife Ingerburga of Den- mark, and had married Agnes de Meranie. " The in- terdict was laid on France : the dead lav unburied ; the