(1160?–1216). The medieval church in Western Europe reached the height of its authority during the reign of Innocent III. Had he succeeded in a complete reformation of the church, it is possible that the Reformation of the 16th century might have been avoided, or at least forestalled.
Born Lothair of Segni in 1160 or 1161, he was educated in Rome, Paris, and Bologna. In 1190 Pope Clement III named Lothair a cardinal deacon in the church, though he was not yet a priest. When Pope Celestine III died on Jan. 8, 1198, Lothair was immediately elected pope, taking the name Innocent III.
The medieval popes had accumulated a great deal of political influence in the affairs of Europe, and Innocent was determined to exercise it. In this he was not altogether successful. He did manage to assert his control over the city of Rome and to consolidate the power of the church in the Papal States of central Italy. He did not succeed in gaining political control over the Holy Roman Empire. In his last years Innocent deposed the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire and helped his ward, Frederick II, obtain the throne because of his promises never to threaten the power of the papacy—promises Frederick broke after Innocent’s death (see Frederick II). Nor was he able to end the strife between King Philip II of France and King John of England.
Within the church Innocent sought to instill the virtues of poverty and humaneness in the clergy and was instrumental in founding the mendicant orders of Dominicans and Franciscans. The Fourth Lateran Council, in 1215, proclaimed the dogma of transubstantiation (the changing of the bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper into the body and blood of Christ), bound all Roman Catholics to confession at least once a year, and instituted other reforms among clergy and laity. In addition, Innocent inspired the Fourth Crusade, which, against his wishes, conquered Constantinople and set up a Latin Empire (see Byzantine Empire). His decision to extinguish the Albigensian heresy in France had the result of opening the way for the later Inquisition (see Inquisition).
It was while Innocent III was making preparations for a crusade to conquer the Holy Land that he was stricken with a fever. He died, probably of malaria, on July 16, 1216, in the city of Perugia.