1130-1303 - Innocent II To Boniface VIII
The remarkable papal schism when Innocent II [r. 17 February 1130 — 24 September 1143] and the anti-pope Anacletus II, elected on the same day in Rome by two factions of cardinals, was decided in France. The story is unique in the history of papal elections. When Honorius II was dying in 1130, it was known that a member of the powerful and wealthy family of the Pierleone would have a majority of the cardinals. This the minority, like all minorities professing to represent the more sensible men (saniores), resolved to prevent. Accordingly they almost rushed from the bedside of the dead Pope and proclaimed Innocent II, who was enthroned the very same day, but later, the majority of the Cardinals chose and placed Pierleone in the Papal Chair in St. Peter's as Anacletus II.
Innocent II, finding he had not even the support of the Frangipanis, the rivals of the Pierleones, fled the City and took refuge in France. There he found an ally more powerful than his Roman enemies. His cause was enthusiastically espoused by the great French monk and mystic St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the glory of the Cistercian Order. A more difficult case to decide it would be hard to discover. Anacletus had the majority on his side. Innocent, though he could claim priority of election by a few hours, was chosen in a clandestine and irregular manner. But a cause opposed by St. Bernard was almost necessarily lost. The Jewish birth of Anacletus was remembered, his family were declared to have acquired their wealth by usury, their fidelity to Gregory VII and the papal interests was forgotten and Innocent II has gone down to posterity as lawful Pope and Anacletus II as a usurper.
As exiles fighting a desperate battle with the Empire, France welcomed the Popes with open arms. There they held their councils, inspired crusades, issued commands for the Christian world, dictated terms of alliance to the Greeks. In their direst poverty the French episcopate supplied them with the necessary means. But the French Kings, since Louis VI, never allowed encroachments on their prerogatives; and even when under just papal displeasure, they never escaped excommunication by a journey to Canossa, or by doing homage for their crown. Louis IX, with all his devotion, never forgot what was due to his position as King of France, and kept the control of the clergy firmly in his hands.
From the accession of Frederick I (Barbarossa), in 1152, until the death of his grandson, Frederick II, in 1250, the Hohenstaufens were in constant struggle with the papacy. Immediately after the election of the English pope, Adrian IV (1154-1159), Frederick opposed him. Adrian was determined to maintain the supremacy of the papal office, and Frederick to rule in the spirit of a Byzantine despot. Pope Alexander III (1159-1181) was opposed by an anti-pope, Victor, who received the support of Frederick. In a struggle between the emperor and the Lombard cities, Alexander allied himself with the latter; and when Milan was destroyed by the imperial armies, the pope was forced to take refuge in France. Alexander III remained in France from 1162 to 1165. There the fugitive Pope was received with the highest respect. Louis VII and Henry II of England, rivals in everything, vied to do him honor. In 1163 the Pope held a great council at Tours, at which 17 cardinals, 124 bishops and 440 abbots were present, and his title was unanimously asserted by the excommunication of the Anti-pope and all his adherents. But when across the Alps Alexander III found more tangible support. The Archbishop of Reims raised immense sums of money for his necessities, and the Pope could offer the rebellious Romans the only argument which could appeal to them.
With the help of William I, King of Sicily, Alexander III was able to return to Rome, disgusted by the brutality of the Germans, under the Archbishop of Mainz; and on St. Cecilia's day (November 23), 1165, the Pope was received with enthusiasm by Senate and people. Alexander III deposed Frederick for having plundered churches and convents.
But Frederic I's descent into Italy in 1166-1167 again rendered the position of Alexander III untenable. The Roman army was utterly defeated by the Germans in May 1167; and in July the Leonine City was taken and St. Peter's entered by the brutal soldiery of the Emperor. The Pope escaped in the disguise of a pilgrim; Frederic entered into a treaty with the Romans, and installed the Anti-pope. It seemed as though the German cause in Italy had triumphed. But as so often happened pestilence came to save the city and Frederic with the remnants of his fever-stricken army retired to Germany, leaving the city in August, 1167.
Alexander III came into conflict also with Henry II of England, who renewed the old claim, which his father had relinquished, namely, the royal right to restrict clerical immunities. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas a Becket, was so firm in his resistance to the royal policy that he was assassinated by friends of the king (1170). For this the king was forced to do penance before being reconciled with the Church.
In 1177 a reconciliation was effected between the pope and the emperor. The schism caused by the anti-pope was settled by the Eleventh Ecumenical Council (III Lateran) in 1179. Alexander III died in 1181. Despite the fact that he had spent most of his pontificate of twenty-two years as an exile from Rome, he ranks among the greatest of the Popes. Opposed throughout by the Roman Republic and the Emperor, he held his own and maintained the dignity of his office.
Frederick led an immense army, estimated at 100,000 men, on the Third Crusade, but was drowned while in Asia Minor, in 1190. He was succeeded by his son, Henry VI (1190-1197).
Innocent III (1198-1216), a man of extraordinary power, who was elected pope despite his own protest, immediately set about the reformation of the papal court. He succeeded in limiting extravagances and improving the financial system. He aimed to render the Holy See more independent by strengthening the temporal sovereignty; and he required both the prefect of Rome, representing the emperor, and the senators, representing the citizens, to pay homage to the pope. In 1201, Innocent intervened between Philip and Otto, the two claimants to the German throne, and favored Otto; but, after Otto had broken faith and confiscated church property, Innocent pronounced sentence of excommunication against him (1210), and prepared to bestow the crown on Frederick II, the son of Henry VI.
In 1215, Innocent III convoked the Twelfth Ecumenical Council (IV Lateran), the most important council of the Middle Ages. It passed many decrees of reform, imposed the precept of annual communion, defined the doctrine of confession, and, for the first time, made official use of the word "transubstantiation." Innocent called upon France to suppress the Albigensian heresy in the south of France, where the papal legate had been assassinated in 1208. Simon de Montfort responded, and led the French armies in a campaign which turned into a cruel war of conquest.
Frederick II, son of Henry VI, and ward of Innocent III, was crowned emperor in 1220 by Honorius III (1216-1227). He vowed to undertake a crusade but, with first one excuse and then another, kept deferring it for more than twelve years. Pope Gregory IX (1227-1241) threatened the emperor with excommunication for delay in carrying out his vow; and finally did excommunicate him, after he had seized upon the island of Sardinia, a papal fief. Frederick's quarrel with Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) became so serious that in 1245 the Thirteenth Ecumenical Council (I Lyons) tried the case of the pope against the emperor, and decided that the emperor should be deposed and that Germany should choose a new king. A number of the German princes elected a new king; and a crusade was preached against Frederick, who was accused of being at heart an infidel.
Under Gregory X (1271-1276), the Fourteenth Ecumenical Council (II Lyons), in 1274, effected a temporary reunion of the Greeks with the Holy See; but the schism was renewed in 1282. St. Thomas Aquinas died on the way to attend this council, and St. Bonaventure died during its sessions. After the fall of the Hohenstaufens, the emperors gave little trouble to the Church; but French influence over the papacy soon became a source of danger. Martin IV (1281-1285) a Frenchman, and his successor, Honorius IV (1285-1287), vainly tried to restore the French control over Sicily which had fallen into the hands of the Spanish after the revolution begun at the Sicilian Vespers (1282).
In the Unam Sanctam, published by Pope Boniface VIII in 1302, far reaching powers are attributed to the papacy; and this was quite in accord with the view prevalent in the Middle Ages. But this is not intended to be a dogmatic definition valid for all time. The dogmatic definition contained in the Bull is the doctrine necessarily held by every Catholic, namely, that by divine law all men are subject to the jurisdiction of St. Peter and his successors, the Roman Pontiffs.
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