Pope Innocent III and His World by Cushing, Kathleen G.

Pope Innocent III and His World. Edited by John C. Moore. Brookfield, Vt.: Ashgate, 1999. xx + 389 pp. $86.95 cloth.

More than any Roman pontiff apart perhaps from Gregory VII, Innocent III had an immediate, profound, and lasting impact on the church and society of his time. Often seen as a great innovator, theologian, and canon lawyer, Innocent, however, was a contentious figure in his own time and remains so today. The tremendous pastoral leader who convened one of the church's most important councils (the Fourth Lateran in 1215), the sponsor of the Franciscan Order, the pontiff who sought to find a place within the church for marginally deviant religious groups lest they fall into irrevocable heresy, Innocent was also the pope who claimed temporal leadership over Christendom with Per venerabilem and who effectively institutionalized the persecution of heretics with the Albigensian Crusade. In recent times, his theology has been deemed derivative and his ability as a canonist severely called into question. The occasion of the 800th anniversary of his elevation as pope in 1198 provides an opportunity to reassess this complex individual and the state of current scholarship. more