Innocent XII, 1615-1700, pope (1691-1700), a Neapolitan named Antonio Pignatelli; successor of Alexander VIII. He was frequently employed by his predecessors as a nuncio, and Innocent XI created him cardinal. His election ended a five-month deadlock in the conclave. He showed himself a stern reformer, especially concerning nepotism, which he abolished. He brought Louis XIV over to his point of view on Gallicanism, and he condemned certain of Fénelon's doctrines as quietistic. He was universally loved for his charity and piety. Clement XI succeeded him.

Innocent XI, 1611-89, pope (1676-89), an Italian named Benedetto Odescalchi, b. Como; successor of Clement X. He was elected because of his great saintliness and desire for reform. His election had been opposed by Louis XIV, with whom he had a long, bitter quarrel over Gallicanism, begun in this phase with Louis's collection of the revenues of vacant benefices all over France. The Gallican statement of 1682 brought a papal condemnation; and when Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, perhaps to gain papal favor, Innocent denounced the proceedings (1685). James II of England, Louis's ally, also excited Innocent's displeasure, but there is no proof of the allegation that Innocent supported the Protestant William III in his accession to the English throne. He was succeeded by Alexander VIII. Innocent was beatified in 1956.

Innocent VIII, 1432-92, pope (1484-92), a Genoese named Giovanni Battista Cibo; successor of Sixtus IV. He was made a cardinal in 1473. His close friend, Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (later Pope Julius II), largely directed the papal affairs. Like his predecessors, Innocent wished to stop the Turkish advance, but he succeeded by means other than the crusade he originally planned. Djem, brother and rival of Sultan Beyazid II, was being held captive by Pierre d'Aubusson; the pope saw that if he held over the sultan the threat of supporting Djem's pretensions, Beyazid would come to terms. Beyazid (1490) agreed to leave Europe at peace if the pope kept Djem captive. Innocent VIII was known as a nepotist and was attacked by Savonarola for his worldliness. He was succeeded by Alexander VI.

Innocent VI, d. 1362, pope (1352-62), a Frenchman named Étienne Aubert; successor of Clement VI. He was a well-known jurist and was created cardinal in 1342. He lived at Avignon. He was one of the few reforming popes of his age, doing his best to eliminate venality from church administration. His major quarrel was with Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV over the Golden Bull. Innocent sent Cardinal de Albornoz into Italy to pacify the Papal States and liberated Cola di Rienzi to go with him. He was succeeded by Urban V.

Innocent V, d. 1276, pope (1276), a Savoyard named Peter of Tarentaise; successor of Gregory X. He was a Dominican and studied at Paris under St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Albertus Magnus. He became an eminent theologian and composed a standard commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences. He was archbishop of Lyons (after 1272) and a leader in the council there in 1274. Innocent died five months after his election as pope and was succeeded by Adrian V. He was beatified in 1898.

Innocent IV, d. 1254, pope (1243-54), a Genoese named Sinibaldo Fieschi, a distinguished jurist who studied and later taught law at the Univ. of Bologna; successor of Celestine IV. He was of a noble family. Although he had been regarded as sympathetic to the empire, once pope he quickly took up the papal struggle with Frederick II and the Hohenstaufen. After a futile treaty he felt unsafe in Rome and fled to Lyons, where he convened the Council of Lyons (1245; see Lyons, First Council of). Frederick was condemned again and declared deposed, and Innocent supported Henry Raspe and, later, William II of Holland as pretenders to the imperium. He also tried to get an English or French prince to take Sicily as a fief, but Frederick was too strong. Frederick died as the pope was opening a crusade against him (1250). Innocent did not spare the other Hohenstaufen, Conrad IV and Manfred, but after finding them invincible in Sicily, he recognized Conradin as king of Sicily. Innocent was almost wholly occupied with his quarrel with the Hohenstaufen, and the taxes he levied to continue it made him unpopular with clergy and laity alike. He was succeeded by Alexander IV.

Innocent III, b. 1160 or 1161, d. 1216, pope (1198-1216), an Italian, b. Anagni, named Lotario di Segni; successor of Celestine III. Innocent III was succeeded by Honorius III.

Papacy

Innocent came from an important family, the counts of Segni, to which belonged also Gregory IX and Alexander IV. He was trained as a theologian and perhaps as a jurist, and under Celestine III (his uncle) he became (1190) a cardinal. At the time of his election as pope, Innocent seems already to have formed his ecclesiastico-political doctrine that since things of the spirit take preeminence over things of the body, and since the church rules the spirit and earthly monarchs rule the body, earthly monarchs must be in all things subject to the pope; the doctrine that the sphere of the church was limited had no real place in Innocent's idea. He set out immediately after his election to realize his ideal of the pope as ecclesiastical ruler of the world with some secular political power.

Political Successes

In imperial affairs he was constantly active. He acknowledged as king of Sicily the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II after Frederick's mother, the Empress Constance, had accepted papal suzerainty over Sicily and given up certain ecclesiastical privileges; on Constance's death, Innocent accepted Frederick as his ward, a trust he faithfully executed, as even his enemies admitted. In Germany the dispute between Philip of Swabia and Otto IV was arbitrated by the pope in favor of Otto (1201). Later (1207-8) the pope favored Philip, but after Philip's murder, Innocent crowned Otto (1209) as emperor, only to excommunicate him (1210) and dictate the election of the papal ward, Frederick, as German king (1212). Frederick made elaborate promises (as had Otto) favorable to the Holy See.

Innocent's relations with England proceeded to the same political end, but this was hastened by a purely ecclesiastical quarrel over the election of an archbishop of Canterbury. Innocent set aside the two rival claimants and procured the election of Stephen Langton; King John, enraged at what he felt was unwarrantable interference by the pope and at the obduracy of the clergy in opposing the demands of the king, persecuted the church. As a result the pope laid England under the interdict, excommunicated John (1209), and even considered deposing him. The people and the barons supported the church, and John had to submit; he received England and Ireland in fief from the pope, promising annual tribute to the Holy See. Subsequently the pope stood by John after the barons coerced him into granting the Magna Carta, for Innocent declared it null as a forcibly exacted promise and also as a vassal's promise made without his overlord's knowledge. Pandulf became Innocent's legate in England.

Innocent was also the virtual overlord of Christian Spain, Scandinavia, Hungary, and the Latin East. Philip II of France remained independent of Innocent politically. On the moral question of Philip's divorce, however, Innocent forced the king to bow to the canon law.

Political Failures

The great failures of Innocent's policy were the Fourth Crusade (see Crusades) and the conduct of Italy. That crusade, proclaimed and blessed by Innocent, never went to the Holy Land, but attacked instead Christians on the island of Zara and in the Byzantine Empire. Innocent excommunicated the disobedient crusaders, but later accepted the fait accompli and tried to spread the Latin rite over the Latin Empire of Constantinople; in spite of a new Latin patriarchate, these efforts were futile, and the schism of East and West was only exacerbated.

In Italy, Innocent reclaimed the Patrimony of St. Peter (see Papal States), the duchy of Spoleto, the March of Ancona, and the Ravenna district; he was recognized as temporal overlord by Tuscany, but northern Italian cities were unruly and maintained their independence throughout Innocent's pontificate. Innocent initiated the Albigensian mission and the Albigensian Crusade (see under Albigenses); when he heard of the misbehavior of the crusaders of Simon de Montfort, he protested in vain. He supported the Teutonic Knights in the incursions along the Baltic.

Influence on the Church

Amid all his political activity Innocent was most energetic in the administration of the church. In this direction the triumph of his pontificate was the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), one of the greatest of councils. His was the original impetus behind St. Dominic's mission, and he provided the first approbation of the institute of St. Francis. Innocent's interest in law was ever active; thus as pope he constantly held court, with a good name for impartiality. He wrote extensively; his tract De contemptu mundi [on the contempt of this world] was widely read in the Middle Ages. Innocent's theories of the papal monarchy had a profound effect on the development of the papacy.

Innocent II, d. 1143, pope (1130-43), a Roman named Gregorio Papareschi; successor of Honorius II. He was created cardinal by Paschal II. On the death of Honorius II, a faction of the cardinals elected him pope. However, the others elected Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni as Anacletus II, and Innocent had to leave Rome. He was soon recognized in France at the instance of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and in 1131, Holy Roman Emperor Lothair II, England, and Spain submitted to him. Roger II of Sicily adhered to Anacletus. In 1137, Lothair attacked Rome, but Anacletus retained part of the city. On Anacletus' death (1138), an antipope Victor IV was elected, but he soon resigned. Innocent convened the Second Lateran Council (1139). Innocent, at the behest of St. Bernard, condemned the teachings of Peter Abelard and of Arnold of Brescia. He was succeeded by Celestine II.

Innocent I, Saint, d. 417, pope (401-17), an Italian; successor of St. Anastasius I. A powerful champion of papal supremacy in the entire Church, he upheld St. John Chrysostom and condemned Pelagius. His 36 surviving decretal letters are an important source for canon law. He vainly tried to prevent the sack of Rome in 410 by the Visigoths under Alaric I. St. Innocent was succeeded by St. Zosimus. Feast: July 28.

orig. Sinibaldo Fieschi

(born 12th century, Genoa—died Dec. 7, 1254, Naples) Pope (1243–54). His clash with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II formed an important chapter in the conflict between papacy and empire. Frederick wanted the newly elected pope to lift his excommunication, but Innocent interrupted the negotiations and fled Rome for France (1244); he later condemned Frederick and urged the election of a new emperor. Concerned with the evangelization of the East, he persuaded Louis IX to lead a Crusade and sent a mission to the Mongols. He returned to Rome in 1253 and gave the Sicilian throne to Edmund, son of Henry III of England, but the papal army was defeated by Manfred, Frederick's son, in 1254.

Learn more about Innocent IV with a free trial on Britannica.com.

orig. Lothar of Segni

(born 1160/61, Gavignano Castle, Campagna di Roma, Papal States—died July 16, 1216, Perugia) Pope (1198–1216). Innocent, who was trained in both theology and law, brought the medieval papacy to the height of its prestige and power. He crowned Otto IV as Holy Roman emperor, but Otto's determination to unite Germany and Sicily angered him, and in 1212 he gave his support to the Hohenstaufen candidate, Frederick II. After Innocent excommunicated King John of England for refusing to recognize Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury, John was obliged to submit and to declare England a fief of the Holy See (1213). Innocent launched the Fourth Crusade, which captured Constantinople, and the Albigensian Crusade, which attempted to suppress heresy in southern France. He approved the Mendicant orders founded by St. Dominic and St. Francis of Assisi, and he convoked the fourth Lateran Council, which promulgated the doctrine of transubstantiation and endorsed annual confession for all Christians.

Learn more about Innocent III with a free trial on Britannica.com.