Abstract

Disappointed by a series of failures on the part of kings to win back the Holy Land and burdened with a host of other responsibilities at the outset of his pontificate, Pope Innocent III in 1198 turned to another form of crusade management, one which employed the pastoral concerns for ecclesiastical and devotional reform developed at the new schools of Paris. That reform movement consisted of articulate papal letters regularly recorded in registers, trusted ecclesiastical administrators, talented papal legates, and inspired charismatic preachers. He also set about creating a home front for the crusade, one that made it the centre of a new pastoral reform mission that included every Christian, whether an actual crusader or not. This new home front was to be managed by ecclesiastical provinces and their cities and nobles, assisted by papal legates and reform and crusade preachers, and offering new and extensive spiritual privileges. This is the context and the outcome of the tournament at Ecry-sur-Aisne in November, 1198, the assembling of an army by the counts of Champagne/Brie, Blois, and Flanders/Hainaut and their novel financial arrangements with the Venetians. With characteristic attention to detail, Innocent also issued instructions for crusaders who failed to appear. Although no single source includes all of these decisions and Innocent's sustained attention, there is little doubt that Innocent III paid close attention to the crusade from the very beginning of his pontificate.

Keywords: Fourth Crusade, moral reform, Innocent III, papal legates, preachers, privileges, ecclesiastical provinces, plena potestas, pro peccatis exigentibus