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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 February 2016
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.
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
7 Maleczek, W., Papst und Kardinalskolleg von uai bis 1216 (Vienna, 1984), p. 274.Google Scholar
8 For a full discussion of the changing role of the cardinalate in relation to the papacy in the Middle Ages, see Wilks, Sovereignty; Robinson, I. S., The Papacy 1073—1198: Continuity and innovation (Cambridge, 1990)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Wood, D., Clement VI: the Pontificate and Ideas of an Avignon Pope (Cambridge, 1989), pp. 101–2.Google Scholar
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
10 Gesta Innocentii Papae III, PL 214, xvii-ccxxviii [hereafter Gaia] Gesta references refer to the numbered sections in the text. Lefèvre, Y., ‘Innocent III et son temps vus de Rome: étude sur la bibliographie anonyme de ce Pape’, Mélanges d’Archeologie et d’Histoire de l’École Française de Rome, 61 (Paris, 1949), pp. 242–5Google Scholar; Bolton, B. M., ‘Too important to neglect; the Gesta Innocentii PP III, in Essays in Honour of John Taylor (London, 1991) [forthcoming].Google Scholar
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.
14 Maccarrone, M., ‘Innocenzo III prima del pontificato’, ASRSP, 9 (1942), pp. 1—78, at p. 75.Google Scholar
15 Maccarrone, ‘Prima del pontificato’, pp. 1—78.
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
18 Translated in Tierney, B., The Crisis of Church and State 1050—1300 (New Jersey, 1964), p. 42.Google Scholar
19 For a full bibliography on the development of the College of Cardinals, Robinson, The Papacy, p. 33, n. 1.
20 Vita Paschalis, in Liber Pontificalis, 3 vols, ed. L. Duchesne (Paris, 1955—7), 2, p. 296 [hereafter LP], ‘Ob hoc patres cardinales et episcopi, diaconi primoresque Urbis, primiscrinii et scribae regionarii in ecclesia sane ri Clementis conveniunt.’
21 Stroll, M., The Jewish Pope, Ideology and Politics in the Papal Schism of 1130 (Leiden, New York, Copenhagen, and Cologne, 1987).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
22 Tierney, Crisis of Church and Slate, p. 113.
23 Partner, P., The Lands of St Peter (London, 1972), pp. 159—229CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Waley, D., The Papal Stale in the Thirteenth Century (London, 1961), pp. 1—29.Google Scholar
24 Gesta VIII, col. xxi.
25 Regestum Innocenta III Papae super negotio Romani Imperii, ed. F. Kempf (Rome, 1947) and W. Holtzmann (Bonn, 1948) [hereafter RM].
26 Tillmann, Pope Innocent III, p. 103.
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
34 Sayers, J. E., Papal Government and England during the Pontificate of Honorius III (1216—1227) (Cambridge, 1984).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
35 Robinson, The Papacy, p. 58, n. 86.
36 Radulfi de Dicelo Decani Lundoniensis, Opera Historica, 2 vols, ed. W. Stubbs, RS 68 (1876). For a brief biography see Gransden, Historical Writing in England, p. 230—6.
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.
46 Sear, F., Roman Architecture (London, 1982), p. 2$6Google Scholar; Krautheimer, R., Rome: Profile of a City 312—1308 (Princeton, 1980), p. 323.Google Scholar
47 Maccarrone, ‘Prima del pontificato’, p. 71.
48 Gesta V, ‘… ac populi, qui inferius exspectabant.’
49 Battoli, R., ‘La diaconia di S Lucia Settizonio’, ASRSP, 50 (1927), pp. 59—73.Google Scholar
50 Stroll, The Jewish Pope, pp. 82—90.
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.
74 Howden, 3, p. 40, p. 101.
75 Richter, M., Giraldas Cambrensis: The Growth of the Welsh Nation (Aberystwyth, 1972).Google Scholar
76 Howden, 4, p. 103.
77 Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, 8 vols, ed. J. S. Brewer et al, RS 21 (1861—91), I, De rebus a segeslis, p. 119.
78 Maleczek, Papsl unaKardinalskolleg, p. 73; Gesta, 46; PL 214, 91.
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.
103 Translated in Cheney, C. R. and Semple, W. H., eds, Selected Letters of Pope Innocent III Concerning England (1198—1216) = Nelson’s Medieval Texts (London, 1953), p. 83.Google Scholar
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105 See Pennington, K., ‘The legal education of Innocent III’, Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law, 4 (1974), pp. 70–7Google Scholar for the suggestion that he did not study law.
106 Kurtner, S. and Garcia, A. Garcia y, ‘A new eyewitness account of the Fourth Lateran Council’, Traditio, 20 (1964), pp. 115–78, esp. p. 125.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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108 Ibid., p. 339.
109 Stroll, The Jewish Pope, pp. 121—35.
110 Gesta V.
111 Ibid.
112 Gesta VII; Maccarrone, M., ‘La “Cathedra Sancri Petri” nel Medioevo da Simblo a reliquia’, RSCI, 39 (1985). pp. 349—447.Google Scholar
113 Maleczek, Papst una Kardinalskolleg, p. 354.
114 Gesta V.
