The Whole World to Govern

On January 8, 1198, the very same day that Pope Celestine III died, the College of Cardinals elected the young and energetic Lothar of Segni as the bishop of Rome. He took the name Innocent III (1198–1216). Lothar came well prepared to the papal throne. Early in his ecclesiastical career he had spent years studying liberal arts and theology in Paris. After that, he probably studied canon law in Bologna. In 1189 or 1190, Clement III elevated him to the status of cardinal deacon, and he later became cardinal priest of Saint Pudentiana. During these years, showing his education and keen mind, Lothar penned a number of influential theological tracts, including The Misery of the Human Condition, which reflected on the turmoil and troubles people face in the world, and The Sacred Mysteries of the Altar, a commentary on the mass and sacraments. In a sermon delivered after his election, Innocent stressed the themes of papal primacy and the pope’s universal responsibilities, invoking what became one of his favorite biblical passages, Jeremiah 1: 10, “I have set you this day over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root up and pull down, to waste and to destroy, and to build and to plant.” Echoing Bernard of Clairvaux, the new pope — who first began to use the title “Vicar of Christ” with regularity — proclaimed that the Lord had given to the papacy not just the Church, but the “whole world to govern.”