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The Election of Innocent III

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2016

Maria L. Taylor
Maria L. Taylor*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary and Westfìeld College, University of London
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Extract

The English chronicler, Roger of Howden, gives a particularly interesting contemporary insight into events in Rome in the last months of the pontificate of the sick and ailing nonagenarian Celestine III (1191-8). If he is to be believed, we have a description of the attempt by a wily old pope to extend his influence beyond the grave. The man he wanted to succeed him was John of S. Paolo, Cardinal Priest of S. Prisca whom ‘he loved for his wisdom, sanctity and justice beyond all the other cardinals.’ As proof of this love and respect, he had already allowed him to act in his own place, undertaking every duty save that of consecrating bishops. In an extraordinary offer, according to Roger of Howden, Celestine even went so far as to express his willingness to abdicate so that the cardinals could appoint John of S. Paolo before his death. All the cardinals, however, ‘with one voice, made answer that they would not be willing to elect him on such conditions and alleged that it was a thing unheard of for the Supreme Pontiff to abdicate.’ In attempting this, Celestine was making a far-reaching claim for papal sovereignty, prefiguring the later suggestion of Augustinus Triumphus, in the early fourteenth century, that the pope had a right to choose his own successor. It was unthinkable that the College of Cardinals in the last years of the twelfth century would so relinquish their right to vote. Any such designation by Celestine would have represented a direct challenge to the position of the cardinals as electors of the pope.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 9: The Church and Sovereignty c.590-1918 , 1991 , pp. 97 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1991 

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References

1 Roger of Howden, Chronica, 4 vols, ed. W. Stubbs, RS 51 (1871) [hereafter Howden].

2 For a full analysis of the identity and reliability of Roger of Howden, see Barlow, F., ‘Roger of Howden’, EHR., 65 (1950), pp. 352–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stenton, D. M., ‘Roger of Howden and “Benedict”‘, EHR, 68 (1953), pp. 574–82CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gransden, A., Historical Writing in England c.550-c.1307 (London, 1974), pp. 219–30.Google Scholar

3 Howden, 4, p. 32, ‘de cujus sapiencia, sanctitate, etjustiria plurimum confidebat’.

4 Ibid., 4, p. 32.

5 Ibid., p. 32, ‘Sed omnes cardinales una voce responderunt, quod ilium conditionaliter non eligerent; dicentes. quod inauditum erat quod summus pontifex se deponeret’

6 Wilks, Michael, The Problem of Sovereignty in the Later Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1963), pp. 467–9.Google Scholar

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9 From the vast range of literature, the following are particularly useful: Luchaire, A., Innocent III, 6 vols (Paris, 1904—8)Google Scholar; Tillmann, H., Papst Innocenz’III (Göttingen, 1954)Google Scholar, now available as Pope Innocent III, tr.Sax, W., Europe in the Middle Ages = Select Studies, 12 (North Holland, 1980)Google Scholar; Maccarrone, M., Studi su Innocenzo III = Italia Sacra, 17 (Padua, 1972)Google Scholar; Cheney, C. R., Pope Innocent III and England = Päpste una Papsttum, 9 (Stuttgart, 1976)Google Scholar; Imkamp, W., Das Kirchenbild Innocenz’III (1198—1216) = Päpste und Papsttum, 22 (Stuttgart, 1983).Google Scholar

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11 PL 214—17. See also Die Register Innocenz’III, 1, Pontifikatsjahr 1198—1199, ed. O. Hageneder and A. Haidacher (Graz, Vienna, and Cologne, 1964—8) and 2, Pontifikatsjahr 1199—1200, ed. O. Hageneder, W. Maleczek, and A. Strnad (Rome and Vienna, 1979) [hereafter Register]; and Potthast In particular, see Register I, 1, pp. 3—5; PL 214, col. 1; Potthast, 1, pp. 33—4, and Register 1, 11, pp. 18—20; PL 214, col. 9; Potthast, 18.

12 Chronica Romanorum ac de rebus in Apulia gestis (781—1228) auctore ignoto monacho Cistercensi, ed. A. Gaudenzi in Società Napoletana di Saneia Patria, I, Cronache (Naples, 1888), pp. 32—7.

13 Vita Alberti Episcopi Leodiensis, MGH.SS, 25, pp. 135—68.

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16 Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg. With thanks to Thomas Etzel for his translation of the prosopographies of the members of the College of Cardinals at the death of Celestine III.

17 Herde, P., ‘Election and abdication of die pope: practice and doctrine in the thirteenth century’. Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Mediaeval Canon Law: Berkeley 28 July-2 August, 1980, ed. Kuttner, S. and Pennington, K. (Vatican City, 1985), pp. 411–36.Google Scholar

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27 Maccarrone, Sinai, pp. 9—22.

28 Vita Alberti, p. 145.

29 Maleczek, Papsl und Kardinalskolleg, p. 264.

30 Ibid., p. 263.

31 Howden, 4, p. 32, ‘et sic erat schisma inter illos.’

32 Annales Romani in LP, 2, p. 349.

33 Ordo Romanus XII, in Le Liber Censuum de l’Église Romaine, ed. P. Fabre and L. Duchesne, 3 vols (Paris, 1905—10), I, p. 292, and in PL 78, cols 1063—1106, esp. 1097—1100. For a guide toa modern-day papal election see Burns, C., The Election of a Pope (London, 1981).Google Scholar

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37 Diceto, 2, p. 89; Robinson, The Papacy, pp. 88—9.

38 Gesta VII; PL 214, 9; Potthast, 18.

39 Chronicle of che Anonymous Monk of S. Maria de Ferraria, p. 33, MCXCVIl, ‘Innocentius… eodem die elcctus.’

40 Chronicle of Fossanova, RIS, 7, p. 883,’XVII Kal Februarii Celestinus papa obiit Eodem die Lotarius Diaconus Cardinalis electus est.’

41 Howden,4, p. 41.

42 Gesta V, ‘… ad Septa Sous monasterii Clivisauri ut liberius et securius ibi possent de successoris electione tractare …’.

43 Register I, 1, p. 4.

44 Gesta V.

45 Maccarrone, ‘Prima del pontificato’, p. 71.

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51 Innocent also mentions this Mass in honour of the Holy Spirit, Register I, 1, p. 4, ‘Cumque missarum sollemnpnibus in honore sancri Spiritus celebraos’; PL 214, 1; Potthast, 1.

52 Gesta V.

53 Register I, 1, p. 4,’… requisite fuissent omnium voluntates’; PL 214, 1; Potthast, 1.

54 Register, 1,11, p. 19, ‘tanta fuit inter fratres nostras super ponrificis subsrirutione concordia, ut … omnes universaliter unum saperent et idem singulariter postularem’; PL 214, 9; Potthast, 18.

55 Howden, 4, p. 41.

56 Howden, 4, pp. 32—3.

57 Ibid., 4, pp. 174—5-

58 Tillmann, Pope Innocent III, p. 9, n. 11, and Maieczek, PapstimdKardinalskolleg, p. 354.

59 Register 1, 15, pp. 25—7; PL 214, 15; Porthast, 21.

60 PL 215, 124; Potthast, 2566; Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg. p. 119; Maleczek, W., Petrus Capuanas (Vienna, 1988), p. 93.Google Scholar

61 Nothing is addressed to him in Celestine ‘s letters—see Jaffé—nor in Innocent’s Registers.

62 Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg, p. 93.

63 Gesta V.

64 Howden, 4, p. 41, ‘feria sexta’.

65 Maccarrone, ‘Prima del pontificato’, p. 73.

66 Howden, 4, p. 41, ‘… juvenem triginta annorum, vel paulo amplius’.

67 For information on identity and reliability of Roger of Howden, see n. 2 above.

68 Compare Howden, 4, pp. 42—3 and Register I, 1, pp. 3—5; PL 214, 1; Potthast, 1.

69 Howden, 3, p. 101.

70 Howden, 3, pp. 129—33.

71 Cesia Regis Henrici secundi Benedicti Abbatis, known as Benedict of Peterborough, 2 vols, ed. W.Stubbs, RS 49 (1867).

72 Howden, 2, pp. 28—9 and ‘Benedict’, 1, p. 24.

73 Howden, 3, p. 193 and ‘Benedict’, 2, p. 246.

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79 Maleczek, Papst una Kardinalskolleg, p. 88.

80 Ibid., p. 82.

81 Ibid., pp. 95—6; PL 215, 974.

82 Ibid., p. 263.

83 Ibid., p. 333.

84 Sayeis, Papal Gouemmenl, p. 4.

85 Ibid., p. 24.

86 Maleczek, Papsl und Kardinalskolleg, pp. 112—13.

87 Sayers, Honorius III, pp. 15—16.

88 Gesta V, ‘propter honestatem morum et scientiam litterarum’.

89 Chronicle of the Anonymous Monk of S. Maria de Ferraria, p. 33, MCXCVII,’etate juvenis sed sensu et moribus senes, litterarum scienria predirus et ingenio providus.’

90 Maccarrone, ‘Prima del pontificato’, p. 74.

91 Ibid., p. 75.

92 Maleczek, Papsl und Kardinalskolleg, p. 354.

93 Tillmann, Pope Innocent III, pp. 13—14, n. 51.

94 Chronhon B. Iterii Armani Monasterii S Marcialis, ed. H. Duplès-Agier, Société de l’Histoire de France (Paris, 1874), pp. 30—129, esp. p. 62; Tillmann, Pope Innocent III, pp. 13—14, n. 51.

95 Register I, 359, pp. 540—1; PL 214, 336; Potthast, 405.

96 Gesta VI.

97 Register 1, I, p. 4; PL 214, 1; Potthast, 1.

98 Register 1, 1, p. 4; ‘omnium volutantates, ad insufficientiam nostram oculos extenderunt, humano forsan extimantes arbitrio in sacculo Beniamin sciphum argenteum invenire’; PL 214, 1; Potthast, 1.

99 Gesta V, ‘flentem, ejulantem et renitentem…’.

100 The Historical Works of Gervase of Canterbury, 2 vols, ed. W. Stubbs, RS 73 (1879—80), 1, p. 550.

101 Gesta V.

102 PL 215, 955; Potthast, 2859.

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110 Gesta V.

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113 Maleczek, Papst una Kardinalskolleg, p. 354.

114 Gesta V.