Pro tempore, No. 15, 2020.
Professional paper
The Evolution of Pope Innocent III's Representation of the Greek Christian Church from 1198 to 1205
Elvira Tamus
Abstract
Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) was active in supporting the Fourth Crusade (1202-1204), recovering the Great Schism between Eastern and Western Christianity, and reforming the Roman Catholic Church during his pontificate. In April 1204, the crusade ended in the Sack of Constantinople instead of the original aim of conquering Egypt and Jerusalem. This paper investigates Innocent III’s politics towards the Greek Church by analyzing how he portrayed the Greek Christians and the deeds of the Latin crusaders in his public and private letters. The paper argues that the papal rhetoric changed considerably in the course of the Fourth Crusade as a consequence of Innocent’s efforts to keep the events under his control or at least to maintain his role as the leader of the crusade. Nonetheless, the paper demonstrates that the language used by the pope was different according to the addressed audience – Innocent expressed his concerns regarding the ramifications of the divergence to his legates, while depicting the military actions committed against Greeks in his encyclical letters as a divine punishment for their disobedience to and separation from Rome.
Keywords
Innocent III; papal politics; papal rhetoric; Greek Christian Church; Fourth Crusade; Sack of Constantinople
Hrčak ID:
279052
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2020.
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