The Church and the Empire: Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304Medley, D. J. (Dudley Julius)
Religion
The Church and the Empire: Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 1003 to A.D. 1304
Medley, D. J. (Dudley Julius)
Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500
But we have already seen that Innocent was not always successful, and
that most of his successes were won only after a prolonged contest.
Their matrimonial irregularities brought him into conflict with nearly
all the Christian Kings of Spain, and the kingdom of Leon was struck
by an interdict which was not removed for five years. It was a more
serious matter for the future that the papal acts for the first time
roused the opposition of the people in more than one instance; while
it is right to notice that Innocent often got acknowledgment of his
claim to adjudicate by accepting what had already been done. But
despite some notable failures, he did meet with considerable success;
and since he got so much, it is not surprising that he aimed at more.
Perhaps the greatest disappointment of his life was the failure of the
Fourth Crusade. Innocent found some compensation in the great victory
won by the united chivalry of Spain and France over the Almohades on
the field of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212. But he is responsible for
inventing a new kind of crusade--that of Christians against
Christians--in the undoubtedly papal duty of dealing with the
Albigensian heretics; and it is, in modern eyes at least, a small
condonation that he encouraged the founder of the Dominicans and
received Francis of Assisi with sympathy.
[Sidenote: The Fourth Lateran Council.]
Innocent's pontificate ended in a blaze of glory. After the settlement
of the strife in Germany he called together a Council which is
distinguished as the Fourth Lateran or the Twelfth OEcumenical
Council. It met in 1215, and was composed of more than two thousand
persons, including envoys from all the chief nations of Europe. Its
resolutions were embodied in seventy canons dealing with a vast
variety of subjects in the endeavour to bring about a drastic
reformation of the Church. This is perhaps Innocent's most solid claim
to the name of a great ruler. But it only serves to emphasise the
wholly external nature of his rule. And subsequent ages have
recognised this limitation to his claims for honour in that, while
they have freely accorded to him the name of a great man and a great
Pope, if not the greatest of the pontiffs, the Church has never added
his name to the rôle of Christian saints.
CHAPTER X
THE PAPAL POWER IN THE CHURCH
[Sidenote: The basis of papal claims.]
The interest of the period with which we are dealing is largely
concerned with the attempted definition of the relations between
Church and State. The peculiar form of mediaeval thought resolved this
into a struggle of the papal power to make itself supreme over all
temporal rulers. But scarcely less important or interesting is the
concomitant effort of the Papacy to gather up into itself the whole
immediate authority of the Church.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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