Pope Innocent II (Latin:Innocentius II; died 24 September 1143), bornGregorio Papareschi, was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. Hiselection aspope was controversial, and the first eight years of his reign were marked by a struggle for recognition against the supporters ofAnacletus II. He reached an understanding with KingLothair III of Germany, who supported him against Anacletus, and whom he crownedHoly Roman emperor. Innocent went on to preside over theSecond Council of the Lateran.
On the evening of 13 February 1130,Pope Honorius II died,[4] and Gregorio was hastily elected as Pope Innocent II by a commission of six cardinals led by papal chancellor Haimeric.[5] He was consecrated on 14 February, the following day.[5] The other cardinals announced that Innocent had not been canonically elected—though the Bull of Nicholas II did not specify whether all the cardinals had to be present for the election to be valid[6]—and choseAnacletus II, a Roman whose family were the enemy of Haimeric's supporters, theFrangipani.[7] Anacletus' mixed group of supporters were powerful enough to take control of Rome while Innocent was forced to flee north.[7]
Anacletus had control of Rome, so Innocent II took ship forPisa, and thence sailed by way ofGenoa to France, where the influence ofBernard of Clairvaux readily secured his cordial recognition by the clergy and the court.[8][9] In October 1130, he was duly acknowledged by KingLothair III of Germany and his bishops at the synod ofWürzburg.[10][11] In January 1131, he also had a favourable interview withHenry I of England at Chartres.[12]
In August 1132, Lothar III undertook an expedition to Italy to set aside Anacletus asantipope and be crowned by Innocent. Anacletus and his supporters being in secure control ofSt. Peter's Basilica, the coronation ultimately took place in theLateran Basilica (4 June 1133), but otherwise the expedition proved abortive. Innocent II invested Lothair as emperor and the territories belonging toMatilda of Tuscany in return for an annuity of 100 pounds of silver paid to the pope.[13] After Lothar's hasty departure from Rome, Innocent fled to Pisa.[14]
In May 1135, Innocent convened thecouncil of Pisa, which was attended by over one hundred clerics and abbots.[15] Innocent II had the council declare Anacletus and his supportersexcommunicated.[15] The second expedition by Lothar III in 1136 was no more decisive in its results, and the protracted struggle between the rival pontiffs was terminated only by the death of Anacletus II on 25 January 1138.
At the Second Lateran council of April 1139, KingRoger II of Sicily, Innocent II's most uncompromising foe, wasexcommunicated.[16] Can. 29 of the Council banned the use of crossbows, as well as slings and bows, against Christians.[17]
On 22 July 1139, atGalluccio, Roger II's sonRoger III of Apulia ambushed the papal troops with a thousand knights and captured Innocent.[18] On 25 July 1139, Innocent was forced to acknowledge the kingship and possessions of Roger with theTreaty of Mignano.[19]
In his papal bullOmne Datum Optimum from March 1139, Innocent II had declared that theKnights Templar—a religious and military organization then twenty-one years old—should in the future be answerable only to the papacy.[20] That same year he sentAlberic of Ostia to examine the conduct of theLatin Patriarch of Antioch establish ties with theArmenian Catholicos.[21][22] The consequent Latin synod in Antioch, attended also by the Armenian CatholicosGregory III, marked the symbolic beginning of Armenian-Latin high-level clerical contacts and according to Armenian sources Innocent sent Gregory a letter of greeting with a staff andpallium.[23] On 25 September 1141 he wrote Catholicos Gregory III another long letter in which he asked him to cooperate with the Church of Rome and end the schism, which was achieved at the end of the century.[24][25]
In 1134, Innocent elevated ascardinal-nephew his nephew,Gregorio Papareschi. He did the same for his brotherPietro Papareschi, whom he made cardinal in 1142. Another nephew, Cinthio Capellus (died 1182), was also a cardinal, raised to the cardinalate in 1158, after Innocent's death.[28]
Aside from the complete rebuilding of the ancient church ofSanta Maria in Trastevere, which boldly features Ionic capitals from former colonnades in theBaths of Caracalla and other richly detailedspolia from Roman monuments,[29] the remaining years of Innocent's life were almost as barren of permanent political results as the first had been. In the Lateran palace, he had a portrait painted depicting Lothar's oath to preserve the privileges of the city of Rome.[30] Innocent's efforts to undo the mischief wrought in Rome by the long schism were almost entirely neutralized by a quarrel with his erstwhile supporter,Louis VII of France over the candidate forarchbishop of Bourges, in the course of which that kingdom was laid under aninterdict to press for the papal candidate,[31] and by a struggle with the town ofTivoli in which he became involved. As a result, Roman factions that wished Tivoli annihilated took up arms against Innocent.
In 1143, as the pope lay dying, theCommune of Rome, to resist papal power, began deliberations that officially reinstated theRoman Senate the following year.[32] The pope was interred in aporphyry sarcophagus that contemporary tradition asserted had been the EmperorHadrian's.
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