Pope Innocent III: A Savior of Christianity

Pope Innocent III to many people is a savior of Christianity. He is thought of very highly because he was one of the most influential and powerful popes of the Middle Ages. Pope Innocent III not only made a mark on everyday citizens of his reign, but especially so to the Roman Catholics. The election of Pope innocent III happened to him at the age of thirty-seven on 8 January 1198, his real name was Lothar of Segni. Many popes before him had let the Christian values slip through their fingers, ultimately leaving no hope of salvation because of the corruption that was occurring in the Church and values being forgotten at every new pope. Pope Innocent III was the first pope to name himself the ‘Vicar of Peter’ to then name himself ‘Vicar of Christ’ as he was convinced as pope he was “Christ’s Vicar on Earth, charged with the duty of wielding the spiritual sword, so as to uphold religion, justice, and mortality everywhere.” Pope Innocent was doing such a good job that it only took him a few years to restore hope and respect of the Roman people.

Pope Innocent’s ultimate concerns were to fetch back the faith of Christ, because religious values were decreasing and the hope of salvation rested on his shoulders. His duty as Pope was to fix the downfall of the Church and by doing so he did not need to change much, but simply reinforce religious values. During his reign he accomplished many things, one accomplishment was bringing papacy to new heights, making it a more powerful than it had ever been. Pope Innocent III was in many ways an opportunist and he used opportunity on many occasions to better his authority and power among the people and papacy. This would be a very important tactic used at the time of Henry VI death in 1197, leavi...

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