HONORIUS III, POPE

Pontificate: July 18, 1216 to March 18, 1227. He was from Rome, and his original name was Cencius. According to a later tradition, which is without contemporary foundation, he was a member of the Savelli family. He was probably born in the 1150s. This date supports the view that he was elderly when elected pope. He had been a canon of Santa Maria Maggiore and chamberlain under Popes Clement III and Celestine III. He was named cardinal-deacon of S. Lucia in Orthea before March 4, 1193 and raised to cardinal priest of Saints John and Paul in early 1200 by Pope Innocent III. His most important achievement prior to his pontificate was his compilation of the Liber Censuum Romane Ecclesie, a work which provided a detailed statement of the rights and patrimony of the Apostolic See. He was clearly in the mainstream of twelfth-century popes, who worked to establish and strengthen the position of the papacy in Rome. There is some evidence that he did not agree fully with his predecessor, Innocent III, but his differences seem to have been partly a matter of style. He generally refrained from broad statements regarding papal policy toward secular rulers, though he vigorously defended the interests of the church. He seems, however, to have sought cooperation and worked to promote good relations with secular powers. Some historians have viewed this as a policy of weakness.

Innocent III had died at a critical moment, with the Fourth Lateran Council recently completed and a new crusade already in the late planning stages. This crusade had recruited the youthful and recently-elected emperor Frederick II, whom Innocent had supported for the crown. Since it was supposed to begin in 1217, Honorius quickly reaffirmed the date of departure and vigorously supported efforts to collect the crusade tax levied on the clergy at the Fourth Lateran Council, so that momentum would not slip away after Innocent's death. The difficulties, however, were considerable, since, among other factors, Frederick could not depart while his opponents were still in the field. The problem of the crusade would remain central to Honorius's pontificate.

In order to understand the political role of Honorius, it is essential to view it in relationship to his crusade policies. The conflict between the English and French monarchies required intensive negotiations, not only to resolve differences between these rulers but also to ensure the succession to the English throne for the nine-year-old Henry III. Innocent III had been quite unpopular at the French court, because of his support for Queen Ingeborg of Denmark, whom Philip II, Augustus, wanted to divorce. Honorius lost no time in trying to build better relations with Philip, while giving strong support to Henry against his barons and Philip's son, the later Louis VIII. In this case, the results of his irenic policy were a major success, as the large number of English participants in the Fifth Crusade bear witness. On the French side, he altered Innocent's belated efforts to heal the wounds caused by the Albigensian Crusade by lending his support to Louis VIII against the nobility of the Midi, thus promoting the interests of the French crown. Still, the monarchy remained less supportive of the crusade and more concerned with protecting its rights.

Many historians have had a negative view of his pontificate because of the failure of his efforts to induce Frederick II to go on crusade, and later the disastrous loss of Damietta in Egypt by the crusaders. What has not been sufficiently understood is the genuine commitment that Frederick himself made to the crusade, but it was complicated by the complexities of his position as emperor and king of Sicily. Impelled by an extremely strong sense of his rights, which was fed by his advisors, Frederick was unwilling to depart on a crusade until he had arranged settlements in Germany as well as Italy. The patience of Honorius, which he himself said had brought criticism down upon him, may have been excessive, but he was working against conditions that were most unfavorable.

Honorius worked hard to continue the reform program of the Fourth Lateran Council. He was especially concerned about the reform of preaching. Like his predecessor and almost unique among the popes of his time, he authored a collection of sermons de tempore and de sanctis, which he sent, so far as we know, to the Dominicans in the Bologna, the Cistercians at Citeaux, and the Archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore, which contained his views on preaching. He was, in fact, vaguely critical of the sermons of his predecessor, a point made more specific by his direct revisions of some parts of Innocent's sermons. His letter accompanying the sermons, which he sent to the Dominicans in Bologna, is of especial value both for his recognition of the order and for his active role in promoting its work.

Honorius also played a significant role in the foundation of the Franciscans. Because of problems in earlier Franciscan historiography, his efforts on behalf of the order have been neglected. His letters, however, give witness to his support for St. Francis of Assisi, and it seems unlikely that Francis would have received papal recognition of his rule, regula bullata so quickly without that support, since some in the curia were critical of Francis. In spite of the opposition, on Nov. 29, 1223, Honorius issued the bull Solet annuere, which gave formal approval to Franciscan rule. Honorius worked closely with Hugolino, cardinal bishop of Ostia, a devoted supporter of Francis, whom he appointed as the first cardinal protector of the order, in taking concrete steps to protect the Franciscans and to encourage their spread. Perhaps even more than the Dominicans, the Franciscans were active in the reform of the laity and so transformed their role in the church. This culminated in papal recognition of their Third Order in 1289.

The promulgation of Compilatio Quinta (Novae Causarum May 2, 1226) places this pope in the forefront, along with his predecessor, in the effort to influence the direction of the teaching of canon law in the schools. That work had been going on for more than a half century. It was quite clear that the canon law was an effective instrument in many aspects of reform. Law as an instrument of papal policy thus received a further impetus from this pope.

Bibliography: h. schulz, Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie eds., j. j. herzog and a. hauck 8:318–323, excellent for bibliography to 1900. f. gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages, tr. a. hamilton, 8 v. in 13 (London 1894–1902) v.5.1. h. k. mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages from 590 to 1304 (London 1902–32), 13:1–164. j. clausen, Papst Honorius III (Bonn 1895); h. x. arquilliÈre, Dictionnaire de thélogie catholique, ed. a. vacant, et al. (Paris 1903–50), 7.1: 135–138. m. michaud, Dictionnaire de droit canonique, ed. r. naz, 233–53. r. naz, ibid., 1239–41. a. fliche and v. martin, eds., Historie de l'élise depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours (Paris 1935–), 10, 291–304. s. kuttner, Repertorium der Kanonistik (Rome 1931), 382–385. a. m. stickler, Historia iuris canonici: v. 1, Historia fontium (Turin 1950), 235–236. j. haller, Das Papsttum (2d. rev. ed. Stuttgart 1950–53), 4:1–46. f. x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 20. Jahrhunderts (Munich 1956), 3:390–411. p. mikat, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirke, eds. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65), 5: 476–477. j. sayers, Papal Government and England during the Pontificate of Honorius III (Cambridge 1984). w. maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191–1212 (Vienna 1984), 111–113. j. m. powell, Anatomy of a Crusade, 1213–1221 (Philadelphia 1986).

[j. m. powell]