The Deeds of Pope Innocent III

[Papal Concerns with the Churches]

[Papal Concerns with the Churches] CXXVI. But when he found the monastery of St. Martin de Monte in an extreme situation, so that hardly three monks remained there, with its possessions entirely lost or mortgaged at heavy interest, the Pontiff, intending mercifully to reform it, paid a thousand pounds to redeem its possessions and wrote to the Abbot and convent of Pontigny , which is one of the first four special monasteries of the Cistercian Order, that they should receive the church of St. Martin as a special daughter and send an abbot and a community of monks and conversi to it, that they might reform it with a willing mind. Therefore, when they arrived, the Lord Pope blessed the Abbot. So that the religious life might flourish in that place, he granted and donated to them the church of the Holy Savior, which is situated near Orele, with all its incomes and possessions, by far, indeed, greater and better than its other possessions, assisting the brothers in those things needed for cultivating the estates and constructing buildings and granting magnificent privileges to that place. CXXVII. Meanwhile, a report arrived from the Archbishop of Lund, whom he had appointed as legate for the conversion of the pagans, that the whole of Livonia had been converted to the Christian faith, and no one remained there who had not accepted the sacrament of baptism, and the neighboring peoples were, for the most part, ready for this. Moreover, when great dissention broke out among the citizens, both major and lesser, of Todi, so that the more noble, having left the city, were attacking the popolo,229 and as a result of this dissension many dangers now arose, namely, fires, murders, plundering, thefts, the slaughter of people, mutilations of limbs, devastation of grain fields, the destruction of houses, and even with many mediators they [Papal Concerns with the Churches] 235 229. Term used to refer to nonnoble citizens, but broadly to the popular parties of the communes, composed of lesser nobles, merchants, and craftsmen. Often allied to the church. could not reach peace, the Lord Pope, having summoned and received corporal oaths from both parties that they would keep his mandate, composed and strengthened a true peace between them, the form of which he ordered drawn up by a public hand in writing and he sanctioned it to be preserved in the future in perpetual law. During this same period he discussed and settled a case involving the Archbishop of Ravenna and the Commune of Faenza concerning the fortified village of Luci Aureoli and Sanctus Potitus, judging that their church belonged to Ravenna. Still, the Archbishop was laboring in such penury that he did not even have pontifical garb, and the Lord Pope, sorry for him, gave him a chasuble, tunic, and dalmatic of the best red velvet beautifully decorated with gold embroidery and pomegranates , and an amice, alb, girdle, and stoles. Moreover, desiring to visit in person the patrimony of the Apostolic See located in those lands, the Pontiff came to Montefiascone, where he made a continuing stay of twelve days, receiving there the liege homage of the Count Palatine, Aldebrandinus. Afterward he went to Tuscania and stayed eight days in that city, and he went to Corneto, where he ordered a new palace to be built at St. Nicholas for himself, requiring likewise and demanding the rights which had been invaded by others. From there he set out through Vetralla to Sutri, where he stayed for three days, and he solemnly dedicated the cathedral church, and so he finally returned to the city. CXXVIII. Through Gregory, cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Aquiro,230 the legate he sent to Hungary, he made peace between King Emeric and his brother, Duke Andrew, whose conflict was devastating almost the entire Kingdom of Hungary. Through Martin, Prior of Camaldoli, a provident and honest man, he restored the treaty of peace between the Milanese and the Pavians, who had now divided into parties and whose ancient rivalry among 236 The Deeds of Pope Innocent III 230. Gregory de Crescentio was cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Aquiro from 1188 to 1200. See Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216, 90–92. the cities of Lombardy was producing a nursery of dissension from which very often great expense and risks for persons occurred. He worked very intensely for six months for this peace. He sent...