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Pope Innocent II

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Pope
Innocent II
Bishop of Rome
Detail of a mosaic in the Roman church Santa Maria in Trastevere, built by Innocent II
Detail of a mosaic in the Roman church Santa Maria in Trastevere, built by Innocent II
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 14 February 1130
Papacy ended 24 September 1143
Predecessor Honorius II
Successor Celestine II
Orders
Ordination 22 February 1130
Consecration 23 February 1130
by Giovanni Vitale
Created cardinal 1116
by Paschal II
Personal details
Born Gregorio Papareschi
Rome, Papal States
Died 24 September 1143
Rome, Papal States
Denomination Catholic
Other popes named Innocent

Pope Innocent II (Latin: Innocentius II; died 24 September 1143), born Gregorio Papareschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. His election as pope was controversial, and the first eight years of his reign were marked by a struggle for recognition against the supporters of Anacletus II. He reached an understanding with King Lothair III of Germany, who supported him against Anacletus, and whom he crowned Holy Roman emperor. Innocent went on to preside over the Second Council of the Lateran.

Early years

Gregorio Papareschi came from a Roman family,[1] probably of the rione Trastevere. Formerly a Cluniac monk,[2] he was made cardinal deacon of Sant'Angelo in 1116 by Pope Paschal II.[3] Gregorio was selected by Pope Callixtus II for various important and difficult missions, such as the one to Worms for the conclusion of the Concordat of Worms, the peace accord made with Holy Roman Emperor Henry V in 1122,[3] and also the one that made peace with King Louis VI of France in 1123. In 1124, he became a close advisor to Pope Honorius II.[3]

Election

On the evening of 13 February 1130, Pope Honorius II died,[4] and Gregorio was hastily elected as Pope Innocent II by a commission of six cardinals led by papal chancellor Haimeric.[5] He was consecrated on 14 February, the following day.[5] The other cardinals announced that Innocent had not been canonically elected—though the Bull of Nicholas II did not specify whether all the cardinals had to be present for the election to be valid[6]—and chose Anacletus II, a Roman whose family were the enemy of Haimeric's supporters, the Frangipani.[7] Anacletus' mixed group of supporters were powerful enough to take control of Rome while Innocent was forced to flee north.[7]

Papacy

Struggle against Anacletus

Anacletus had control of Rome, so Innocent II took ship for Pisa, and thence sailed by way of Genoa to France, where the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux readily secured his cordial recognition by the clergy and the court.[8][9] In October 1130, he was duly acknowledged by King Lothair III of Germany and his bishops at the synod of Würzburg.[10][11] In January 1131, he also had a favourable interview with Henry I of England at Chartres.[12]

In August 1132, Lothar III undertook an expedition to Italy to set aside Anacletus as antipope and be crowned by Innocent. Anacletus and his supporters being in secure control of St. Peter's Basilica, the coronation ultimately took place in the Lateran Basilica (4 June 1133), but otherwise the expedition proved abortive. Innocent II invested Lothair as emperor and the territories belonging to Matilda of Tuscany in return for an annuity of 100 pounds of silver paid to the pope.[13] After Lothar's hasty departure from Rome, Innocent fled to Pisa.[14]

In May 1135, Innocent convened the council of Pisa, which was attended by over one hundred clerics and abbots.[15] Innocent II had the council declare Anacletus and his supporters excommunicated.[15] The second expedition by Lothar III in 1136 was no more decisive in its results, and the protracted struggle between the rival pontiffs was terminated only by the death of Anacletus II on 25 January 1138.

Second Lateran Council

At the Second Lateran council of April 1139, King Roger II of Sicily, Innocent II's most uncompromising foe, was excommunicated.[16] Can. 29 of the Council banned the use of crossbows, as well as slings and bows, against Christians.[17]

Treaty of Mignano

On 22 July 1139, at Galluccio, Roger II's son Roger III of Apulia ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured Innocent.[18] On 25 July 1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with the Treaty of Mignano.[19]

Involvement with Outremer

In his papal bull Omne Datum Optimum from March 1139, Innocent II had declared that the Knights Templar—a religious and military organization then twenty-one years old—should in the future be answerable only to the papacy.[20] That same year he sent Alberic of Ostia to examine the conduct of the Latin Patriarch of Antioch establish ties with the Armenian Catholicos.[21][22] The consequent Latin synod in Antioch, attended also by the Armenian Catholicos Gregory III, marked the symbolic beginning of Armenian-Latin high-level clerical contacts and according to Armenian sources Innocent sent Gregory a letter of greeting with a staff and pallium.[23] On 25 September 1141, he wrote Catholicos Gregory III another long letter in which he asked him to cooperate with the Church of Rome and end the schism, which was achieved at the end of the century.[24][25]

Death

Innocent II died on 24 September 1143[26] and was succeeded by Pope Celestine II.[27]

Legacy

In 1134, Innocent elevated as cardinal-nephew his nephew, Gregorio Papareschi. He did the same for his brother Pietro Papareschi, whom he made cardinal in 1142. Another nephew, Cinthio Capellus (died 1182), was also a cardinal, raised to the cardinalate in 1158 after Innocent's death.[28]

Aside from the complete rebuilding of the ancient church of Santa Maria in Trastevere, which boldly features Ionic capitals from former colonnades in the Baths of Caracalla and other richly detailed spolia from Roman monuments,[29] the remaining years of Innocent's life were almost as barren of permanent political results as the first had been. In the Lateran palace, he had a portrait painted depicting Lothar's oath to preserve the privileges of the city of Rome.[30] Innocent's efforts to undo the mischief wrought in Rome by the long schism were almost entirely neutralized by a quarrel with his erstwhile supporter, Louis VII of France over the candidate for archbishop of Bourges, in the course of which that kingdom was laid under an interdict to press for the papal candidate,[31] and by a struggle with the town of Tivoli in which he became involved. As a result, Roman factions that wished Tivoli annihilated took up arms against Innocent.

In 1143, as the pope lay dying, the Commune of Rome, to resist papal power, began deliberations that officially reinstated the Roman Senate the following year.[32] The pope was interred in a porphyry sarcophagus that contemporary tradition asserted had been the Emperor Hadrian's.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Innocent II — (Gregorio Papereschi)

Elected 14 Feb., 1130; died 24 Sept., 1143. He was a native of Rome and belonged to the ancient family of the Guidoni. His father's name is given as John.

The youthful Gregory became canon of the Lateran and later Abbot of Sts. Nicholas and Primitivus. He was made Cardinal-Deacon of the Title of S. Angelo by Paschal II, and as such shared the exile of Gelasius II in France, together with his later rival, the Cardinal-Deacon Pierleone. Under Callistus II Gregory was sent to Germany (1119) with the legate Lambert, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. Both were engaged in drawing up the Concordat of Worms in 1122. In the following year he was sent to France.

On 14 Feb., 1130, the morning following the death of Honorius II, the cardinal-bishops held an election and Gregory was chosen as his successor, taking the name of Innocent II; three hours later Pietro Pierleone was elected by the other cardinals and took the name of Anacletus II. Both received episcopal consecration 23 Feb.; Innocent at Santa Maria Nuova and Anacletus at St. Peter's. Finding the influential family of the Frangipani had deserted his cause, Innocent at first retired into the stronghold belonging to his family in Trastevere, then went to France by way of Pisa and Genoa. There he secured the support of Louis VI, and in a synod at Etampes the assembled bishops, influenced by the eloquence of Suger of St-Denis, acknowledged his authority. This was also done by other bishops gathered at Puy-en-Velay through St. Hugh of Grenoble. The pope went to the Abbey of Cluny, then attended another meeting of bishops, November, 1130, at Clermont; they also promised obedience and enacted a number of disciplinary canons.

Through the activity of St. Norbert of Magdeburg, Conrad of Salzburg, and the papal legates, the election of Innocent was ratified at a synod assembled at Würzburg at the request of the German king, and here the king and his princes promised allegiance. A personal meeting of pope and king took place 22 March, 1131, at Liège, where a week later Innocent solemnly crowned King Lothair and Queen Richenza in the church of St. Lambert. He celebrated Easter, 1131, at St-Denis in Paris, and 18 October opened the great synod at Reims, and crowned the young prince of France, later Louis VII. At this synod England, Castile, and Aragon were represented; St. Bernard and St. Norbert attended and several salutary canons were enacted. Pentecost, 1132, the pope held a synod at Piacenza. The following year he again entered Rome, and on 4 June crowned Lothair emperor at the Lateran. In 1134 the pope, at the request of the emperor, ordered that Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and the island of Greenland should remain under the jurisdiction of Hamburg (Weiss, "Weltgeschichte", V, 21). On the departure of the emperor, innocent also left and went to Pisa, since the antipope still held sway in Rome. At Pisa a great synod was held in 1135 (Hefele, "Conciliengeschichte", V, 425) at which were present bishops of Spain, England, France, Germany, Hungary, etc. In the spring of 1137 Emperor Lothair, in answer to the repeated entreaties of the pope, began his march to Rome. The papal and imperial troops met at Bari, 30 May, 1137, and the pope was again conducted into Rome. Anacletus still held a part of the city, but died 25 Jan., 1138. Another antipope was chosen, who called himself Victor IV, but he, urged especially by the prayers of St. Bernard, soon submitted, and Innocent found himself in undisturbed possession of the city and of the papacy.

To remove the remnants and evil consequences of the schism, Innocent II called the Tenth Ecumenical Council, the Second of the Lateran. It began its sessions on 4 April, 1139 (not 8 April, as Hefele writes, V, 438). One thousand bishops and other prelates are said to have been present. The official acts of Anacletus II were declared null and void, the bishops and priests ordained by him were with few exceptions deposed, the heretical tenets of Pierre de Bruys were condemned. Thirty canons were made against simony, incontinence, extravagance in dress among the clergy, etc. Sentence of excommunication was pronounced upon Roger, who styled himself King of Sicily, and who after the departure of the emperor had invaded the lands granted to Rainulph. In 1139 St. Malachy, Archbishop of Armagh, left Ireland to visit the shrine of the Apostles. Innocent received him with great honours and made him papal legate for all Ireland, but would not grant him permission to resign his see in order to join the community of St. Bernard at Clairvaux (Bellesheim, "Ireland", I, 356). In the East, Innocent II curbed the pretension to independence on the part of William, Patriarch of Jerusalem and of Raoul, Patriarch of Antioch (Hergenröther, II, 410).

After the death of Alberic, Archbishop of Bourges, in 1141, Louis VII of France wanted to secure the nomination of a man of his own choice whom the chapter did not consider the fit person, and they chose Pierre de La Châtre, whereupon Louis refused to ratify the election. The bishop-elect in person brought the matter to Rome, and Innocent, finding after due examination that the election had been made according to the requirements of ecclesiastical law, Confirmed it and himself gave the episcopal consecration. When Pierre returned to France, Louis would not allow him to enter his diocese. After useless negotiations Innocent placed France under interdict. Only during the reign of the next pope was the interdict removed and peace restored.

In the trouble between Alfonso of Spain and Alfonso Henríquez who was making Portugal an independent monarchy and had placed his kingdom under the protection of the Holy See, Innocent acted as mediator (Aschbach, "Gesch. Span. u. Port.", 1833, 304, 458). Ramiro II, a monk, had been elected King of Aragon. Innocent II is said to have given him dispensation from his vows, though others claim that this is a calumny spread by the enemies of the pope (Damberger, "Weltgeschichte ", VIII, 202).

Several minor synods were held during the last few years of the life of Innocent, one at Sens in 1140, at Vienne in 1141 and in the same year at Vienne and Reims; in 1142 at Lagny, in which Ralph, the Duke of Vermandois is said to have been excommunicated by the legate Yvo of Chartres for having repudiated his lawful wife and married another (Hefele, V, 488). A synod was held under the presidency of the papal legate 7 April, 1141, at Winchester; and 7 Dec., 1141, at Westminster. During his pontificate Innocent II enrolled among the Canonized saints of the Church: at Reims in 1133, St. Godehard, Archbishop of Reims; at Pisa in 1134, St. Hugo, Bishop of Grenoble, who had died in 1132, and had been a zealous defender of the rights of Innocent; at the Lateran in 1139, St. Sturmius, Abbot of Fulda (Ann. Pont. Cath., 1903, 412). To St. Norbert, the founder of the Premonstratensians, he granted in 1131 a document authorizing him to introduce his rule at the cathedral of Magdeburg (Heimbucher, "Die Orden u. Congr.", II, Paderborn, 1907, 55); to St. Bernard he in 1140 gave the church of Sts. Vincent and Anastasius near Rome (ibid., 1, 428); he also granted many privileges to others. His letters and privileges are given in Migne (P. L., CLXXIX). According to the "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, II, 379) he ordained eighteen deacons, twenty priests, and seventy bishops.

He was buried in St. John Lateran, but seven years later was transferred to Santa Maria in Trastevere. Innocent II is praised by all, especially by St. Bernard, as a man of irreproachable character. His motto was: "Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster". The policy of Innocent is characterized in one of his letters: "If the sacred authority of the popes and the imperial power are imbued with mutual love, we must thank God in all humility, since then only can peace and harmony exist among Christian peoples. For there is nothing so sublime as the papacy nor so exalted as the imperial throne" (Weiss, V, 25).

BRISCHAR in Kirchenlex., s. v.; DENZINGER, Enchiridion (10th ed., Freiburg, 1907), 167. See also under ANACLETUS II.

References

  1. Back to citation Robinson 1990, p. 72.
  2. Back to citation Aurell 2020, p. 176.
  3. Back to citation occurrence 3.0 Back to citation occurrence 3.1 Back to citation occurrence 3.2 Duggan 2016, p. 272.
  4. Back to citation Schwaiger 2002, p. 732.
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Robinson 1990, p. 75.
  6. Back to citation Hughes 1976, p. 719.
  7. Back to citation occurrence 7.0 Back to citation occurrence 7.1 Robinson 1995, p. 373.
  8. Back to citation Robinson 1990, p. 361.
  9. Back to citation Somerville 1970, p. 101.
  10. Back to citation Clark 2016, p. 11.
  11. Back to citation Lees 1998, p. 34.
  12. Back to citation Truax 2017, p. 27.
  13. Back to citation Robinson 1990, p. 246.
  14. Back to citation Somerville 1970, p. 100-101.
  15. Back to citation occurrence 15.0 Back to citation occurrence 15.1 Robinson 1990, p. 138.
  16. Back to citation Houben 2002, p. 70.
  17. Back to citation Schroeder 1937, p. 195-213.
  18. Back to citation Rogers 1997, p. 118.
  19. Back to citation Pacaut 2002, p. 784.
  20. Back to citation Bagni 2020, p. 6.
  21. Back to citation Jotischky 2018, p. 343.
  22. Back to citation Phillips 2007, p. 41.
  23. Back to citation Clapp & Dadoyan 2017, p. 218.
  24. Back to citation Lapina & Morton 2017, p. 195.
  25. Back to citation Ryan 2001, p. 57.
  26. Back to citation Robinson 1990, p. 525.
  27. Back to citation Robinson 1990, p. 206.
  28. Back to citation Duggan 2000, p. 277.
  29. Back to citation Kinney 1986, p. 379-397.
  30. Back to citation Morris 1989, p. 187.
  31. Back to citation Montaubin 2016, p. 147.
  32. Back to citation Cotts 2012, p. 31.

Bibliography

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Further reading

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