Pope Innocent III (1160/61-1216)

This volume is a reprinting in paperback of the hardback volume published by Brill in 2003. John C. Moore was a distinguished expert on Innocent III and his pontificate before the publication of this volume and his reputation will be enhanced by this thorough and searching scholarly biography of the pope. Anyone who has recommended H. Tillmann's Pope Innocent III (1980) to a student will acknowledge that Moore has rightly recognised the need for ‘a comprehensible and reliable introduction to Pope Innocent III’. In many ways this is precisely what Moore has provided, with the added bonus that he has taken account of the recent work of a vast array of scholars which marked the eighth centenary of the election of 1198. The result is an intriguing book, though one which is not as useful to students as it might have been. Earlier biographies have been thematic and have oversimplified the pontificate. Moore notes the tendency to use the decretals issued by the pope, which often had little impact within his own lifetime, in order to construct a policy which he did not pursue. He explains the complex process by which letters were produced and registered, noting that in many cases there is no proof that the entry in the register reflects the letter which was sent to the recipient. Yet, having noted the risk, Moore ignores his own advice and cites letters throughout the volume as indications of the state of mind of the pope as he sought signs of God's approval for the initiatives of his pontificate

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