24
July 1216 A.D. Honorarius
III Installed in Rome—Dubbed the “Great Pacificator.”
Graves,
Dan. “Honorarius III Became the Great
Pacificator.” Christianity.com. Apr 2007. http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1201-1500/honorius-iii-became-the-great-pacificator-11629821.html. Accessed 13 May 2014.
Cencio Savelli became pope with reluctance. Already
in his sixties, he must have sighed at the burden he was called to shoulder.
Yet he had many years of able administration behind him and his pontificate
revealed him to be, by and large, a wise and peaceable man. He took the name
Honorius III at his consecration on this day July 24, 1216. This took place at Perugia. Others would give him
another name: the Great Pacificator. His eleven-year reign would see some of
the church's most significant developments.
To Honorius belongs the honor of approving the
rules of three great orders: The Carmelites, the Dominicans and the
Franciscans. The university, a phenomenon unknown outside Christendom, began to
take shape in the Middle Ages. Honorius granted privileges to two which were
destined to become forces of new learning: the universities of Paris and
Bologna.
"Blessed are the peacemakers," said
Christ. Honorius made peace. He appointed worthy legates to oversee the
minority of Henry III of England and kept France from warring on the island
nation. He helped arrange peace for several European nations. Bohemia, France,
Greece, Hungary Scandinavia and Spain had reason to be grateful for his role in
this.
Two things he longed for: the spiritual renewal of
the church and the recovery of the Holy Land. To accomplish the latter he arranged
the fifth crusade. It quickly captured the Egyptian port of Damietta. Sultan El
Kamil offered Jerusalem in exchange for the port. Then Honorius made a
regrettable blunder. He refused the offer. His armies were soundly trounced
when Frederick II failed to appear according to promise. Another error, related
to his goal of spiritual renewal, was his authorization of the inquisition
against the Albigenses. They were brutalized. Innocent III had begun the
process of suppressing these heretics and Honorius continued it.
A man of erudition, he penned biographies of popes
Celestine III and Gregory VII and a number of other works of historical
interest. These include tax lists, collections of decretals (a decretal is a
papal letter giving an authoritative decision on canon law) and more. His
decretals are considered the first official canon law because he issued them
under a bull.
Honorius may have been old when he ascended the
papal throne, but he ruled more vigorously than many a younger man. Because he
was personally gracious he did not create the kind of antagonism less tactful
pontiffs had occasioned. Thus he died greatly beloved and respected. Although
he is remembered for setting into motion the atrocities against the Albigenses,
he was also remembered for acts of personal kindness, such as buying grain for
the poor of Rome during a famine when the merchants withheld corn to raise the
price. His death came on March 18, 1227.
Bibliography:
1. Brusher, J. Popes Through the
Ages. Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand, 1964.
2. Montor, Chevalier Artaud de.
Lives and Times of the Popes. New York: Catholic Publication Society of
America, 1911.
3. Ott, Michael. "Honorius
III." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton, 1914.
4. Various encyclopedia and internet
articles.
Last updated April, 2007.
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