INNOCENT III, ANTIPOPE

Pontificate: Sept. 29, 1179 to Jan. 1180. Known as Lando of Sezze (also Landus Sitinus), he was born into a Lombard family and became cardinal deacon of St. Angelo under antipope victor iv (1159–64), the first of three imperial antipopes backed by frederick i barba rossa (1152–90) during the schism of 1159–78 (cf. Paschal III, 1164–68 and Callistus III, 1168–78). Lando was proclaimed antipope and took the name Innocent III some 13 months after Callistus had submitted to Pope Alexander III (1159–81). Since he was elected by only a few schismatic cardinals, and without the consent of the emperor, his reign is generally not considered so much a part of the schism as an anomalous episode following it.

Prominent among Innocent's supporters were relatives of Victor IV, including the latter's brother, a knight who provided protection for Innocent in a fortified castle near Palombara. Alexander sent Cardinal Hugo of the powerful and wealthy Pierleoni family to negotiate with the knight, who exchanged Innocent for a handsome fee. The antipope was seized and imprisoned in the Holy Trinity monastery at La Cava (near Salerno), a favored place in which to confine 12th-century antipopes (cf. Theodoric, 1100, and Gregory VII 1118–21). It is assumed that he remained there until his death, but no more is known of him.

Bibliography: l. duchesne, ed. Liber Pontificalis (Paris 1886–92; repr. 1955–57) 2.450. p. jaffÉ, Regesta pontificum Romanorum (Leipzig 1885–88; repr. Graz 1956) 2.431. f. x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts (Munich 1954–59) 3.272, 608ff. j. n. d. kelly, The Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York, 1986) 180. c. morris, The Papal Monarchy: The Western Church from 1050–1250 (Oxford 1989). g. schwaiger, Lexikon des Mittelalters (Munich 1991) 5.434. r. aubert, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1995) 25.1259.

[p. m. savage]