Toynbee "Innocenzio_1"
Innocent III (Giovanni Lotario de' Conti), born at Anagni 1161; elected pope (in succession to Celestine III) in 1198, at the age of 37, died at Perugia, July 16, 1216.

Thomas Aquinas (in the Heaven of the Sun) mentions Innocent III in connexion with his first sanction (in 1209) of the order of St. Francis, [Par. xi. 92] [Francesco_2]. Since he was a noted canonist, some think he, and not Innocent IV, is the Innocentius mentioned among the Decretalists, Epist. xi. 16 [Decretaliste]:

Apart from his other claims to fame as a sovereign and statesman of remarkable breadth of view, unity of purpose, and boldness of action, Innocent deserves notice as a canonist . . . His decisions in canon law are characterized by a learning and an acuteness which have made him an important authority. The decretals of the first three years of his pontificate were collected by Rainer of Pomposi, and afterwards Bernardus Compostellaltus undertook the editing of those of the first nine years, which appeared in a collection known as the Compilatio Romana. This, however, contained some spurious documents, which were eliminated from the Compilatio tertia, brought down by Petrus Callivacinus to the twelfth year, and sent to the university of Bologna. The Compilatio quarta, published shortly after his death, contains the bulls and briefs of the closing six years. (Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.)

[For his works, see PL, 214-217.]

©Oxford University Press 1968. From A Dictionary of Proper Names and Notable Matters in the Works of Dante by Paget Toynbee (1968) by permission of Oxford University Press