Dec 19, 2009
Article abstract: At a period of crisis in the Catholic church, Pope Innocent III succeeded in affirming the power of his office against challenges from powerful lay rulers and from the Albigensian heresy, and in so doing became the most powerful pope of the Middle Ages. In addition, through sweeping ecclesiastical reform, he attempted to mute the arguments of the critics of an increasingly venal, poorly educated, and self-indulgent clergy.
The future Pope Innocent III was born Lothario of Segni at Anagni, in the Roman Campagna, the son of...
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