Papal Magisterium - BY TOPICS


Pope Blessed Urban II


Pope Blessed Urban II was born Otho of Lagery about 1042 to a knightly family in Champagne, France. He studied at Reims where he later became canon and archdeacon. He was sent to Rome as one of the monks asked for by Gregory VII, and he was of great assistance to Gregory in the difficult task of reforming the Church. He continued to serve under Gregory's successor, Victor III. After Victor's death Otho was unanimously elected to succeed him and in 1088 took the title of Urban II.
It was a difficult task which confronted the new pope. The antipope, Guibert, was in power in Rome, supported by Henry of Germany, and Urban's allies were engaged in civil war. His first entry into Rome was in November of 1088. In the autumn of 1089 seventy bishops met him in synod at Melfi, where decrees against simony and clerical marriage were promulgated. In December he turned back to Rome, but Guibert was again in power. It was five more years before Urban could return. He entered the Lateran in time for the Paschal solemnity in 1094, and sat for the first time on the papal throne six years after his election at Terracina.
Urban summoned the most famous of his councils, that at Clermont in Auvergne, in November, 1095. It was here that he called for a Crusade to aid the Eastern emperor, Alexius I, against the Seljuk-Turks, who were menacing the Empire of Constantinople. Urban's reception in France had been most enthusiastic, and enthusiasm for the Crusade had spread as the pope journeyed on from Italy. When he returned to Rome he again found Guibert on the throne, but Guibert fled in the presence of the crusading army which had accompanied Urban. A council was held in the Lateran in 1097, but it was not until August, 1098 that he was able to enjoy a brief period of repose after a life of incessant activity and fierce strife.
In October, 1098, the pope held a council at Bari with the intention of reconciling the Greeks and Latins on the question of the filioque. In November Urban returned to Rome for the last time. He held his last council here in April, 1099, once more raising his eloquent voice on behalf of the Crusades, and many responded to his call. On 15 July, 1099, Jerusalem fell before the attack of the crusaders, but Urban died on July 29, 1099, and did not live to hear the news. His remains could not be buried in the Lateran because of Guibert's followers who were still in the city, but were conveyed to the crypt of St. Peter's where they were interred close to the tomb of Adrian I. There seems to have been a cult of Urban II from the time of his death, though the feast (29 July) has never been extended to the Universal Church. The formal act of beatification did not take place till the pontificate of Leo XIII. The cause was introduced in 1878, and after it had gone through the various stages the decision was given by Leo XIII on 14 July, 1881.




Pope Benedict XII


Jacques Fournier, the son of a baker, became Pope Benedict XII on December 20, 1334. He had been a Cistercian monk, then bishop, then cardinal, before rising to the office of pope.
Benedict was a highly moral and just man, opposing all forms of nepotism. He concentrated his efforts on eliminating the abuses of his predecessors, securing a general peace, and reform within the Church. Unfortunately, a general peace was impossible due to threats and strife among several European kings. His efforts to reconcile the Greek Orthodox Church were also unsuccessful.
Benedict built the huge and magnificent papal castle at Avignon, which dwarfs the nearby cathedral church. The contrast typifies the Avignon epoch; "the recession of the ecclesiastical element and the predominance of the worldly, warrior-prince forces."




Pope Benedict XIV


Pope Benedict XIV, born Prospero Lambertini in 1675, served as pope from 1740 until his death in 1758. When the cardinals had difficulty selecting a successor to Clement XII, he is reputed to have said, "If you want a saint, choose Gotti; a statesman, Aldobrandini; if you want an honest man, elect me!" Lambertini thereupon found himself elected pope.
As Pope, he declared that the baptism of the children without their parents' consent was valid, but illicit. He reasoned that it was unwise to baptize children who would be likely to lose their faith as soon as they reached the age of reason.
Benedict approved the formation of two new religious orders, the Redemptorists and Passionists. He also began the investigation of whether the Jesuits should be suppressed. Pope Benedict XIV died after a long illness.




Pope Benedict XV


Pope Benedict XV, born Giocomo della Chiesa in 1854, served as Pope from 1914 until his death in 1922. Peace and the relief of human suffering caused by World War I were this pontiff's primary concerns.
Benedict canonized three saints, among them Joan of Arc, the Maid of Orleans. St. Joan had been burned as a heretic in 1431 by a politically motivated ecclesiastical court.
Three years after Benedict was elevated to the chair of St. Peter a new code of canon law was published. This code, enacted in 1917, would be in effect until the revision under John Paul II in 1983.
Benedict died in 1922, having struggled mightily to bring about peace in Europe, and aid those displaced by World War I.



Pope Boniface VIII


Born in 1235, Pope Boniface VIII took his place on the Chair of Peter in 1294. He served as pope until his death in 1303. His pontificate was marked by his quarrel with King Philip the Fair of France over the question of royal taxation of the French church.
In 1302 Boniface issued the bull Unam Sanctum, declaring that secular authority was subject to spiritual authority. Unam Sanctum contains the following infallible statement: "Furthermore, we declare, we proclaim, we define that it is absolutely necessary for salvation that every human creature be subject to the Roman Pontiff.
Agents of the French king tried to kidnap Boniface in 1303. They were unable to escape with the aged man, but the maltreatment the Pope suffered at their hands led to his death a month later on October 11, 1303.





Pope Clement V


Pope Clement V took office on June 5, 1305 and ruled until his death on April 20, 1314. He surprised the Church by calling the cardinals to Lyons for his coronation instead of to Rome. He did not leave France during the whole of his pontificate and began the seventy year papal absence from Rome.
During his papacy Clement supported Philip the Fair in his campaign to exterminate the Templars but opposed him on a choice for the successor of King Albert of the Hapsburgs, crowning Henry VII as emperor in Rome in 1312 instead of a French prince. Clement founded the universities of Perugia and Orleans.
Clement's policy of nepotism was frightening; he made five relatives cardinals and several others bishops. He died in Roquemare a month after the Grand Master of the Templars order had been burned at the stake.





Pope Clement XI


On November 23, 1700, Gian Francesco Albani became Pope Clement XI. He was reverent and well educated, and played a leading part in the learned academy of Queen Christine in Rome. He opposed nepotism and was generous to the poor even with his own private fortune.
Clement was caught in the middle of the War of the Spanish Succession, trying to mediate between the French, Austrian, English, and Dutch. This position was complicated by other political maneuvers, finally resulting in a war between the Pope and the emperor. Clement could not stand against the forces of the emperor and made peace on January 15, 1709. This loss resulted in ecclesiastical reprisals by Philip V which beset the Pope many other problems.
Clement was also saddled with dogmatic disputes with Jansenism. He was very active in the missionary field, and in the social sphere, introduced the idea of correction of prisoners instead of punishment. He was a patron of science and archaeology.




Pope Clement XIII


Carlo Rezzonico, born on March 7, 1693, was elected to the office of pope on July 6, 1758 and served the church in that capacity until his death on February 2, 1769 from a heart attack. He had studied law and theology in Padua and entered the curia after his ordination. He was noted for his devotion to duty, his piety, and his goodness.
During his pontificate Clement XIII faced a number of difficult problems within the church. One great problem was the Jesuit situation. Many factions hated the order and it had been persecuted and even dissolved, banned, or expelled in several countries. Finally, the publication of a work by a suffragen bishop attacking the pope's supreme authority started controversies throughout Europe.
A famine struck during Clement's pontificate and he sent aid to its victims. He appointed Winckelmann as commissioner for ancient monuments, enabling him to write a History of Ancient Art, which made him the founder of the science of archaeology. In 1756 Clement gave his approbation to the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was extended to the whole Church by Pius IX in 1856.




Pope Clement XIV


Clement XIV was born Lorenzo Ganganelli on October 31, 1705, the son of a doctor. He entered the Franciscan order at 18, and later was advisor to Pope Benedict XIV. He became pope on May 19, 1769 and ruled until September 22, 1774.
Clement XIII made him a cardinal, partly because he favored the Jesuits. When Ganganelli found this favor would make it impossible to become pope, he switched his allegiances. Under pressure from the Bourbon powers, Clement issued the notorius papal brief Dominus ac Redemptor on July 21, 1773. The last general of the Jesuit order, Lorenzo Ricci, died imprisoned, in 1775, without a verdict or proof of guilt while an "examining magistrate" filled his own pockets with the estates of the Jesuits.
Clement was an unpopular pope, flattered only by the enemies of the Jesuits. His actions were conditioned by ambition and fear and he was always engaged in some secret activity. Politically, he was under the thumb of the Bourbon monarchies.




Pope St. Damasus I


Pope St. Damasus I was born about 304, apparently in Rome, and died on December 11, 384. His father, Antonius, was probably a Spaniard and his mother was Laurentia. He was elected pope in October, 366, by a large majority, but a number of over-zealous adherents of the deceased Liberius rejected him. They chose the deacon Ursinus (or Ursicinus), had the latter irregularly consecrated, and resorted to conspiracies, violence, and bloodshed in an unsuccessful attempt to seat him in the Chair of Peter.
Damasus defended with vigour the Catholic Faith in a time of dire and varied perils. He condemned Apollinarianism and Macedonianism. In the matter of the Meletian Schism at Antioch, Damasus sympathized with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy. He sustained the appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House, and lived to welcome the famous edict of Theodosius I, "De fide Catholica", which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was supreme head. It was Damasus who induced St. Jerome to undertake his famous revision of the earlier Latin versions of the Bible. He proclaimed an important canon of the New Testament.
When Illyricum was detached from the Western Empire in 379, Damasus appointed a vicar Apostolic, Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica. This was the origin of the important papal vicariate long attached to that see. The primacy of the Apostolic See was strenuously maintained by this pope. On this subject, he asserted that the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Roman Church was based, not on the decrees of councils, but on the very words of Jesus Christ. The increased prestige of the early papal decretals, habitually attributed to the reign of Siricius (384-99), probably belongs to the reign of Damasus. This development of the papal office, especially in the West, brought with it a great increase of external grandeur which the Emperor Valentinian addressed in an edict to the pope, forbidding ecclesiastics and monks (later also bishops and nuns) to pursue widows and orphans in the hope of obtaining from them gifts and legacies. The pope caused the law to be observed strictly.




Pope St. Gregory I (the Great)


Gregory was born in Rome in 540 to Gordianus, a wealthy patrician and Silvia who is honoured as a saint. Besides his mother, two of Gregory's aunts have been canonised. He was considered the best in all Rome in grammar, rhetoric and dialectic and it seems certain also that he must have gone through a course of legal studies. His rank and prospects pointed him for a public career.
He has exercised in many respects a momentous influence on the doctrine, the organization, and the discipline of the Catholic Church. If no account were taken of his work, the evolution of the form of medieval Christianity would be almost inexplicable. The modern Catholic system is a legitimate development of medieval Catholicism, and so Gregory may be termed its Father. Almost all the leading principles of the later Catholicism are found, at any rate in germ, in Gregory the Great. Gregory was made a Doctor of the Church and he was important for summing up the teaching of the earlier Fathers and consolidating it into a harmonious whole. It was because of this that his writings became a textbook of the Middle Ages. Achievements so varied have won for Gregory the title of "the Great".
In about the year 573, when little more than thirty years old, he was prefect of the city of Rome. After long prayer and inward struggle Gregory decided to abandon everything and become a monk. For about three years Gregory lived in retirement in the monastery of St. Andrew. His great austerities during this time probably caused the weak health from which he constantly suffered in later life. In 578, the pope ordained him as one of the seven deacons of Rome. He served for six years as the pope's ambassador to the Emperor Tiberius at Byzantium and soon after his return became abbot of St. Andrew's. He was the chief adviser and assistant of Pelagius II. In 590 Pope Pelagius II died. The clergy and people of Rome, without any hesitation, elected Gregory. He was consecrated pope on September 3, 590.
As pope Gregory still lived with monastic simplicity. One of his first acts was to banish all the lay attendants, pages, etc., from the Lateran palace, and substitute clerics in their place. In July, 595, Gregory held his first synod in St. Peter's and six decrees dealing with ecclesiastical discipline were passed. In his dealings with the Churches of the West, Gregory acted invariably on the assumption that all were subject to the jurisdiction of the Roman See. His dealings with the Oriental Churches, Gregory claimed for the Apostolic See, and for himself as pope, a primacy not of honor, but of supreme authority over the Church Universal. At the same time the pope was most careful not to interfere with the canonical rights of the other patriarchs and bishops. With the other Oriental patriarchs his relations were most cordial, as appears from his letters to the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria.
Gregory soon had to deal with the Lombards and his great desire now was to secure a lasting peace with them. After several attempts an official peace was established in 599. This peace lasted two years, but in 601 the war broke out again. Two years later a peace was made with the Lombards which endured until after Gregory's death. The end came on 12 March, 604, His body was laid to rest in front of the sacristy in the portico of St. Peter's Basilica. His canonization by popular acclamation followed at once and survived a reaction against his memory which seems to have occurred soon afterwards.




Pope Gregory IX


Born Ugolino, Count of Segni, Pope Gregory IX served as pope from March 19, 1227 to August 22, 1241. He was a friend of St. Francis of Assisi and canonized him on July 16, 1228.
Much of the papacy of Gregory IX was marked by discord with Frederick II of Sicily, who had vowed he would lead a fifth crusade, but kept putting it off. He was excommunicated as agreed upon, but finally went on the crusade and reconciled himself with the Church. While Frederick was on the crusade Gregory invaded Sicily after the Pontifical State had been attacked. Frederick attacked Lombardy and the League of Cities, surrounding the Pontifical State and sparking a new rising. He was again excommunicated in 1239, and in answer, seized 100 prelates on their way to a council summoned in Rome in 1241, making the council impossible. Frederick was planning a march on Rome when Gregory IX died.
Before Gregory's death the Mongols were finally driven out of Europe at the Battle of Liegnitz. In 1231 Gregory organized the Inquisition, which he turned over to the Dominicans. In 1234 he commanded the earliest form of the Codex Juris Canonici to the drawn up.




Pope Gregory X


Three years after the death of Pope Clement IV, Tebaldo Visconti became Pope Gregory X on September 1, 1271 and served until January 10, 1276. It was the longest interregnum since 307 AD. Gregory was an archdeacon of Liege, but was in the Holy Land at the time of his election.
He entered Rome on March 14, 1272 and gave decisive support to Rudolf of Hapsburg as king to replace the fallen Hohenstaufen family. The fourteenth General Council was summoned to Lyons in 1274. Gregory's main thought for the council was the new union with the Eastern Church. He enacted new regulations for the conclave, hoping to avoid another long interregnum, but the regulations, though milder, were based on the "conclave" held before the election of Celestine IV, and aroused bitter opposition among the cardinals.
Gregory was not a great intellectual, but he was a noble priest whose thoughts were for peace and reconciliation. After his death he was mourned by all except Charles I of Anjou, and was canonized in 1713.




Pope Gregory XVI


Pope Gregory XVI, born Mauro Cappelari in 1765, became pope in 1831 and served until his death in 1846. Gregory opposed all forms of liberalism, steadfastly supporting legitimate governments while working to suppress rebellions.
On the day after his election a revolt broke out in the Papal States, and Gregory was forced to ask the Austrians for help. The revolt was crushed in less than a month. The European powers were nonetheless alarmed at the extent of the uprising, and they called upon Gregory to reform the clerical government, and give the laity a share of the responsibility.



Pope Honorius III


Born at Rome, date of birth unknown; died at Rome, 18 March, 1227. For a time he was canon at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, then he became papal chamberlain in 1188 and Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Lucia in Silice in 1193. Under Pope Innocent III he became Cardinal- Priest of Santi Giovanni et Paolo and, in 1197, tutor of the future Emperor Frederick II, who had been given as ward to Innocent III by the Empress-widow Constantia. On 18 July, 1216, nineteen cardinals assembled at Perugia (where Innocent had died two days previously) with the purpose of electing a new pope. The troublous state of affairs in Italy, the threatening attitude of the Tatars, and the fear of a schism, induced the cardinals to agree to an election by compromise. Cardinals Ugolino of Ostia (afterwards Gregory IX) and Guido of Praeneste were empowered to appoint the new pope. Their choice fell upon Cencio Savelli, who accepted the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Honorius III. He was consecrated at Perugia 24 July, was crowned at Rome 31 August, and took possession of the Lateran 3 September. The Roman people were greatly elated at the election, for Honorius III was himself a Roman and by his extreme kindness had endeared himself to the hearts of all.
Though already far advanced in age, his pontificate was one of strenuous activity. Like his famous predecessor Innocent III, he had set his mind on the achievement of two great things, the recovery of the Holy Land and a spiritual reform of the entire Church; but quite in contrast with him he sought these achievements by kindness and indulgence rather than by force and severity. Immediately upon his accession to the papal throne he sent letters to the ecclesiastical and the temporal rulers of Europe in which he admonishes and encourages them to continue in their preparation for the general crusade which, as had been provided at the Lateran Council of 1215, was to be undertaken in 1217. To procure the means necessary for this colossal undertaking, the pope and the cardinals were to contribute the tenth part, and all other ecclesiastics the twentieth part, of their income for three years. The bishops under the supervision of the papal legates in the various countries were entrusted with the collection of these moneys. Honorius III ordered the crusade to be preached in all the churches of Christendom. Though the money thus collected was considerable, it was by no means sufficient for a general crusade as planned by Honorius III. Moreover, in preaching the crusade the great mistake was made of trying to gather as many crusaders as possible, without considering whether they were fit for war.
The result was that cripples, old men, women, also robbers, thieves, adventurers, and others composed a great part of the crusaders. In some instances the uselessness of such soldiers was not thought of until they had been transported to distant seaports at public expense. Most rulers of Europe were engaged in wars of their own and could not leave their country for any length of time. Andrew II of Hungary and, somewhat later, a fleet of crusaders from the region along the Lower Rhine finally departed for the Holy Land, took Damietta and a few other places in Egypt; but lack of unity among the Christians, also rivalry between the leaders and the papal legate Pelagius, to some extent perhaps also the incompetency of the latter, resulted in failure.
Honorius III was aware that there was only one man in Europe who could bring about the recovery of the Holy Land, and that man was his former pupil Frederick II of Germany. Like many other rulers, Frederick II had taken an oath to embark for the Holy Land in 1217. As long as his rival Otto IV was living, the pope did not urge him to fulfil his oath; when, however, his rival had died on 19 May, 1218, Honorius III insisted that he embark as soon as possible and Frederick promised to set sail for the Holy Land on 24 June, 1219. He then obtained permission to postpone his departure repeatedly, first till 29 September, 1219, then successively till 21 March, 1220, 1 May, 1220, August, 1221, June, 1225, and finally, at the meeting of the pope and the emperor at San Germano on 25 July, 1225, till August, 1227. It must not be ascribed merely to weakness on the part of Honorius III that he allowed one postponement after the other.
He knew that without the co-operation of the emperor a successful crusade was impossible and feared that by using harsh measures he would cause a complete break with the emperor and indefinitely destroy the possibility of a crusade. For the same reason he yielded to the emperor in many things which under different circumstances he would have strenuously opposed. Thus he reluctantly approved the election of Frederick's son Henry as King of the Romans, which practically united the Sicilian kingdom and the empire in one person; a union which by its very nature was detrimental to the papacy and which Honorius III had every reason to oppose. Hoping to hasten the departure of Frederick for the Holy Land, he crowned him emperor at Rome on 22 November, 1220. Finally, however, seeing that his extreme indulgence was only abused by the emperor for selfish purposes, he had recourse to severer measures. The emperor's encroachment upon the papal rights in the appointment of bishops in Apulia, and his unworthy treatment of King John of Jerusalem, whom Honorius III had appointed governor over part of the papal patrimony, brought the tension between the pope and the emperor to its height; but the rupture between the emperor and the papacy did not take place until Honorius III had died.
Though the general crusade planned by Honorius III was never realized, he deserved the gratitude of the world as the great pacificator of his age. Knowing that the crusade was impossible as long as the Christian princes were at war with one another, he began his pontificate by striving to establish peace throughout Europe. In Italy there was scarcely a city or province at peace with its neighbour. Rome itself rebelled against the rule of Honorius, so that in June, 1219, he found it advisable to leave the city. He went first to Rieti, then to Viterbo, returning to Rome in September, 1220, after the Romans were reconciled to him through the intervention of Frederick II, then on his way to Rome to be crowned emperor. In the war that followed between the Conti and the Savelli, the Romans sided with the Conti, and the pope, being of the family of the Savelli, was again forced to flee to Rieti in June, 1225. He returned to Rome in January, 1226, after Angelo di Benincasa, a friend of Honorius III, was elected senator of Rome. Through his legate Ugolino (afterwards Gregory IX) Honorius effected the reconciliation of Pisa and Genoa in 1217, Milan and Cremona in 1218, Bologna and Pistoia in 1219, and through his notary Pandulf he prevailed upon the Duchy of Spoleto to become papal territory, and upon the cities of Perugia, Assisi, Foligno, Nocera, and Terni, to restore what had formerly belonged to the pope.
In England the authority of the pope was paramount ever since that country had become a fief of the Apostolic See under Innocent III. The cruel King John had died on 16 October, 1216, leaving his ten- year-old son Henry III as successor. The cruelty and faithlessness of King John may have justified the English barons in rebelling against him and offering the English crown to Louis, the son of King Philip of France, but now it became their duty to be loyal to the lawful king, Henry III. Honorius III ordered Gualo, his legate in England, to urge the recalcitrant barons to return to their natural allegiance and gave him power to excommunicate all who continued to adhere to Prince Louis of France. On 19 January, 1217, he wrote to William, Earl of Pembroke, who was the young king's guardian and the regent of England, to prepare for war against Prince Louis and the faithless English barons. It was due to the severe measures taken against the barons by the papal legate that peace was finally restored and that Henry III was acknowledged the undisputed King of England on 11 September, 1217. After the death of Pembroke in May, 1219, the regency of England was nominally in the hands of the king's ministers; actually, however, England was ruled by Honorius III through Pandulf, who had meanwhile succeeded Gualo as papal legate in England. The influence of Honorius III continued to be paramount in England during his entire pontificate, for Henry III was still in his minority, and he as well as the barons and the people acknowledged the pope as the suzerain of the kingdom.
The untiring activity of Honorius III in the interests of justice and peace was felt throughout the Christian world. In Bohemia he safeguarded the rights of the Church against the encroachments of King Ottocar, through his legate Gregorius de Crescentio in 1223. In Hungary he protected King Andrew II against his rebellious son Bela IV by threatening the latter with excommunication. For Denmark he effected in 1224 the liberation of its King Waldemar from the captivity in which he was held by Count Henry of Schwerin. In Sweden he protected the rights of the Church against the encroachments of King John, and urged celibacy upon the clergy. For the Latin Empire in the Orient he crowned Peter of Courtenay as Emperor of Constantinople, in Rome on 12 April, 1217, and protected his successor Robert and King Demetrius of Thessalonica against Theodore Comnenus. In Cyprus he abated the quarrels between the Greeks and the Latins. In Spain he effected a lasting peace Between King Ferdinand III and Alfonso IX of Leon, undertook a crusade against the Moors (1218-1219), and protected the boy-king Jaime of Aragon against Counts Sancho and Fernando. In Portugal he defended Archbishop Estevao Suarez against the excommunicated King Alfonso II (1220-1223). In France he induced King Louis VIII to undertake a crusade against the Albigenses in 1226. He also assisted Bishop Christian of Prussia in the conversion of the pagan Prussians, and at the bishop's suggestion called upon the ecclesiastical provinces of Mainz, Magdeburg, Cologne, Salzburg, Gnesen, Lund, Bremen, Trier, and Camin in 1222 to prepare a crusade against them.
Honorius III was also a liberal patron of the two great mendicant orders and bestowed numerous privileges upon them. He approved the Rule of St. Dominic in his Bull "Religiosam vitam", dated 22 December, 1216, and that of St. Francis in his Bull "Solet annuere", dated 29 November, 1223. Many authorities maintain that Honorius III had granted the famous Portiuncula indulgence to St. Francis as early as 1216, others hold [Kirsch in "Theologische Quartalschrift", LXXXVIII (Tubingen, 1906), fasc. 1 and 2] that this indulgence is of later origin and that the indulgence which Honorius granted to St. Francis is essentially different from the so-called Portiuncula indulgence. On 30 January, 1226, he approved the Carmelite Order in his Bull "Ut vivendi normam". He also approved the religious congregation "Val des Ecoliers" (Vallis scholarium, Valley of scholars), which had been founded by four pious professors of theology at the University of Paris. The Bull of approbation "Exhibita nobis" is dated 7 March, 1219. The congregation was united with that of St. Genevieve by Innocent X in 1646. It is remarkable that four out the six or seven saints that were canonized by Honorius III were English or Irish. On 17 May, 1218, he canonized William, Archbishop of Bourges (d. 1209); on 18 February, 1220, Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln (d. 1200); on 21 January, 1224, William, Abbot of Roschild in Denmark (d. 1203); on 18 March, 1226, William, Archbishop of York (d. 1154).
He also appointed a committee to investigate the alleged miracles of the Cistercian abbot, St. Maurice of Cornoet (d. 1191). The latter was never formally canonized, but his cult dates back to the pontificate of Honorius III. His feast is celebrated by the Cistercians on 13 October. Honorius III probably canonized also St. Raynerius, Bishop of Forconium, now Aquila, in Italy (d. 1077). Being a man of learning, Honorius insisted that the clergy should receive a thorough training, especially in theology. In the case of a certain Hugh whom the chapter of Chartres had elected bishop, he withheld his approbation because the bishop-elect did not possess sufficient knowledge, "quum pateretur in litteratura defectum", as the pope states in a letter dated 8 January, 1219 (Horoy, loc. cit infra, III, 92). Another bishop he even deprived of his office on account of illiteracy (Raynaldus, ad annum 1221). He bestowed various privileges upon the Universities of Paris and Bologna, the two greatest seats of learning during those times. In order to facilitate the study of theology in dioceses that were distant from the great centres of learning, he ordered in his Bull "Super specula Domini" that some talented young men should be sent to a recognized theological school to study theology with the purpose of teaching it afterwards in their own dioceses.
Honorius III acquired some fame as an author. His letters, many of which are of great historical value, and his other literary productions, were collected and edited by Horoy in "Medii aevi bibliotheca patristica", series I (5 vols., Paris, 1879-83). While he was papal chamberlain (whence his general appellation of Cencius Camerarius) he compiled the "Liber censuum Romanae ecclesiae", perhaps the most valuable source for the history of papal economics during the Middle Ages. It comprises a list of the revenues of the Apostolic See, a record of donations received, privileges granted, and contracts made with cities and rulers. It was begun under Clement III and completed in 1192 under Celestine III. Muratori inserted it in his "Antiquitates Italicae medii aevi", V (Milan, 1739-43), 851-908. A new edition was prepared for the "Bibliotheque des ecoles francaises d'Athene et de Rome" by Fabre and Duchesne, fasc. i (Paris, 1889), fasc. ii and iii (1902), fasc. iv (1903). The original manuscript of the "Liber Censuum", which is still in existence (Vaticanus, 8486), concludes with a catalogue of the Roman pontiffs and the emperors from St. Peter to Celestine III in 1101. It was edited separately by Weiland in "Archiv der Gesellschaft fur altere deutsche Geschichtskunde", XII (Hanover, 1874), 60-77. Honorius III wrote also a life of Celestine III (Horoy, loc. cit., I, 567-592); a life of Gregory VII (ibid., I, 568-586); an "Ordo Romanus", which is a sort of ceremonial containing the rites of the Church for various occasions (ibid., I, 35-94, and Mabillon, in "Museum Italicum", II, 167-220); and 34 sermons (Horoy, I, 593-976). His collection of decretals known as "Compilatio quinta" has been treated under DECRETALS.



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