His Holiness, Innocent III
      Always one of my very favorite pontiffs, Innocent III is often cited as the representation of the peak of papal power and Christian influence. During his six years on the papal throne, virtually all of Europe was united under the Christian religion, the Catholic Church was triumphant and even the secular powers, almost to a man, recognized the Papacy as the source of their legitimacy and the Pope as their feudal lord. Pope Innocent III encouraged this and is remembered as a champion of the "Papal monarchy", that the Church is not seperate from the rest of the world, but an integral part of it, resting at the top of the earthly heirarchy as the Kingdom of God represented among men.
       Innocent III was born Lotario of the Conti family, an Italian dynasty which ultimately gave the Church 13 popes, in 1160 or 61 in Anagni. He had served previously as a deacon and cardinal before his election to the Throne of Peter on January 8, 1198 at the age of 37. Witnesses said that during the conclave three doves were flying around the room. When Innocent was elected, the whitest of the three flew down to perch on his shoulder, a sure sign of the Holy Spirit's favor. The new pope also had the good fortune to be the successor of Pope Celestine III, who had already gone head to head with the Holy Roman Emperor and emerged victorious.
       The new Pope was compassionate, yet firm in dealing with others. He was impeccably honest, virtuous and highly moral. As part of his monarchial view of the Papacy, he began his reign by ending the rivalry among the Roman elite, subordinating all of them to the Holy See and bringing greater unity and strength to the Papal States. He asserted his power of the first secular power of Christendom when he crowned Otto of Brunswick Holy Roman Emperor only to excommunicate and depose him after he invaded Sicily, which Innocent III ruled as regent on behalf of Frederick II. Innocent most famously used his position to enforce moral government in England where he placed the kingdom under an interdict and excommunicated the infamous King John.
       Pope Innocent III, although most remembered for his political actions, was a great pontiff in every way. He championed many causes that are near and dear to my heart. He wrote about how the true Christian should turn away from the wicked world, about the sanctity of the altar and the great reverence reserved for the Church. He encouraged the growth of the Order of Friars Minor founded by St Francis of Assisi and in 1208 called for a crusade against the Albigensian heretics. Innocent made many of his greatest contributions through the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215. This council produced extraordinary documents on the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist, the dangers of heresy and, one of my favorites, a document which emphasized the role secular authorities must play in supporting the Church and combating heresy throughout Christendom.
      Through all of his actions, Innocent III embodied to the greatest extent exactly what Christendom was supposed to be. The Church above all else, Christ as the center of society, focus on the spiritual rather than the temporal and a society in which God was given supremacy in all things, even in government; which is why the Vicar of Christ acted as the lord of all the kings and princes of Europe. When political leaders began to ignore or defy the papacy in these issues, God could truly say to the Pope, as He said to His pontiff Samuel, "They have not rejected you, they have rejected Me".
       Pope Innocent III died of fever in Perugia on July 16, 1216. His accomplishments had been great and his reign remains an inspiration to all. However, in the years after his death, the influence of the Church began to slowly decline. It seems likely it shall not recover that same exalted position
that it had under Pope Innocent III until Christ returns in His glory to restore all things anew in His Kingdom that will have no end.
"We are the successor of the prince of the Apostles, but we are not his vicar, not the vicar of any man or Apostle, but the vicar of Jesus Christ himself."
-Pope Innocent III on the papacy as a "spiritual monarchy"
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