Pope Honorius III

“ Honorius IV. (Jacopo Savelli) , pope from the 2nd of April 1285 to the 3rd of April 1287, a member of a prominent Roman family and grand-nephew of Honorius III., had studied at the university of Paris, been made cardinal-deacon of Sta Maria in Cosmedin, and succeeded Martin IV. Though aged and so crippled that he could not stand alone he displayed remarkable energy as pope. He maintained peace in the states of the Church and friendly relations with Rudolph of Habsburg, and his policy in the Sicilian question was more liberal than that of his predecessor. ”

“ Have they therefore hidden it? Truth breaks out from all sides, and these things become so much the more evident, as they are the more studiously put out of sight.” [5]
With such an array of proof no conservative historian, it would seem, can question the fact that Honorius, the Pope of Rome, was condemned and anathematized as a heretic by the Sixth Ecumenical Council. ”

“ Some very subtle Greeks formerly consulted Pope Honorius I., to know whether Jesus, when He was in the world, had one will or two, when He would sleep or watch, eat or repair to the water-closet, walk or sit.
"What signifies it to you?" answered the very wise bishop of Rome, Honorius. "He has certainly at present the will for you to be well-disposed people—that should satisfy you; He has no will for you to be babbling sophists, to fight continually for the bishop's mitre and the ass's shadow. ”

“ The German bishops, however, elected Honorius II., who had the support of the barons. Thus the city was split into two camps and a deadly civil war ensued, terminating, despite the vigorous resistance of the nobility, in the defeat of Honorius II. But the nobles persevered in the contest and were the real masters of Rome. By conferring the patriciate on the emperor, as their feudal chief, they hoped to organize themselves under the prefect, who now, with greatly increased authority, presided over both the civil and criminal courts in the absence of the pope's representative. ”

“ Francis, accompanied by Peter Cataneo and Angelo da Rieti, started along the road to Perugia where Innocent III, had but lately died and the pious Honorius been immediately elected as his successor. It was in the early summer of 1216 that the little band of friars were led into the presence of the Pope in the old Canonica, but not for the first time did St. Francis find himself in the presence of Rome's sovereign, gaining his cause now as before through the great love that made his words and actions seem inspired. ”

“ Honorius still lived his idle life at Ravenna, and the Bishop—or, as the Romans called him, Papa, father, or Pope—came back and helped them to put matters into order again. Alaric had left no son, but his wife's brother Ataulf became leader of the Goths. At Rome he had made prisoner Theodosius' daughter Placidia, and he married her; but he did not choose to rule at Rome, because, as he said, his Goths would never bear a quiet life in a city. So he promised to protect the empire for Honorius, and led his tribe away from Italy to Spain, which they conquered, and began a kingdom there. ”

“ Honorius IV was chosen pope on 2 April, and Sandford was glad to smooth matters by resigning all claims to the archbishopric. On 17 April, at the request of Edward I, Honorius confirmed his earlier preferments and allowed him to enjoy the benefits of the suspected bull (Cal. Papal Letters, i. 479) . To avoid long journeys, expense, and discord, the pope ordered Sandford as dean and the five canons then at Rome to elect an archbishop. ”

“ Another learned writer, P. Sirmond, in a letter to Holstein, expressed himself with still more remarkable frankness:—
"It appears to me not so astonishing," said Sirmond, "that the Greek Monothelites should attempt to identify Honorius with their error, as it seems extraordinary that the Romans themselves, in the newly elected Pope's Profession of Faith, should have branded the name of Honorius together with the authors of heretical ideas, such as Sergius, etc., for having given encouragement to the depraved assertions of heretics. ”

“ In 1868 he published an essay on the subject of 'The Condemnation of Pope Honorius.' This was in effect a vigorous attack on the doctrine of papal infallibility, which was now definitely propounded at Rome ”

“ Pope Honorius built a church under his name in Rome about the year 630. It occurs in all Martyrologies, and the high veneration which the Church paid early to his memory is a sufficient testimony of his eminent sanctity and apostolic spirit.
The virtue of the saints was true and heroic, because humble, and proof against all trials. That of the heathen philosophers was lame, and generally false and counterfeit, whence Tertullian calls the latter, Traders in fame. “Where is now the similitude,” says he, “between a philosopher and a Christian? ”

“ But even then, Hefele is constrained by his historic insight to recognise that the Sixth Ecumenical Council thought much more seriously of Honorius's errors than Hefele himself does; especially as controlled by the Vatican Council. After recalling the association of Honorius with Sergius and others, and the exact language of the condemnation, Hefele says:—
"From all this it cannot be doubtful in what sense Pope Honorius was anathematised by the Sixth Ecumenical Council, and it is equally beyond doubt that the Council judged much more severely respecting him than we have done." ”

“ I am but too well apprised of the strength of prejudice; but, strong as it is, it can never be proof against plain matter of fact. For who can believe, for instance, in the Pope’s Infallibility, who can help looking upon such an article of belief as the grossest affront that ever was offered to human understanding, when he reads of a Liberius admitting and signing the Arian creed, or confession of faith, declared heretical by all his Successors; of an Honorius condemned by the Fathers of the sixth Oecumenical Council, as an organ of the devil, for holding the heresy of the Monothelites ”

“ He rendered valuable assistance to Pope Alexander II. in his struggle with the anti-pope, Honorius II.; and having served the papacy as legate to France and to Florence, he was allowed to resign his bishopric in 1067. After a period of retirement at Fonte Avellana, he proceeded in 1069 as papal legate to Germany, and persuaded the emperor Henry IV. to give up his intention of divorcing his wife Bertha. ”

“ The Popes themselves, Rome, and the whole West had let themselves be fooled by the cunning Greeks into condemning [pg 457] an innocent and orthodox Pope as a heretic, and the letters of Pope Leo ii. must also be forgeries. In short these reasoners were caught in the meshes of their own net, and when in 1660 Lucas Holstein got the Roman Liber Diurnus printed—an excellent edition of which Rozière lately brought out in Paris—the whole impression was suppressed, for it contained the old form of oath which expressly attested the condemnation of Honorius. ”

“ He became the physician of Pope Honorius IV., himself one of the most liberal and broadly educated of men, and as the result of the confidence awakened by his occupancy of this honorable position, he secured an immense success in practice and made an enormous fortune. ”

“ He was the first pope to employ the great banking houses in northern Italy for the collection of papal dues. He died at Rome and was succeeded by Nicholas IV.
See M. Bouquet, Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France, new ed., vols. 20-22 (Paris, 1894) , for the chief sources; A. Potthast, Regesta pontif. Roman, vol. 2 (Berlin, 1875) ; M. Prou, “Les registres d’Honorius IV.” in Bibliothèque des écoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (Paris, 1888) ; B. Pawlicki, Papst Honorius IV. (Münster, 1896) ; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. ”

“ But it is equally plain that in the first Pope-King the cares of earthly [Pg 100] dominion enfeebled the sense of spiritual duty and at times warped his character. It needed a great man to pass without scathe through such a transformation. Hadrian I. was not a great man.
FOOTNOTES:
[113] So the successor of Honorius, Leo II., wrote to the Emperor. Ep., iii.
[114] Stephen I., who was chosen at the death of Zachary, died before consecration, and some historians decline to insert him in the series. ”

“ The century opened with one of the greatest of the Popes on the throne, Innocent III, and it closed with the most misunderstood of Popes, who is in spite of this one of the worthiest successors of Peter, Boniface VIII. During the century there had been such men as Honorius IV, the Patron of Learning, Gregory IX, to whom Canon Law owes so much, and John XXI, who had been famous as a scientist before becoming Pope. There are such scholars as St. Thomas of Aquin, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, St. ”

“ They render justice not so much for truth's sake as for a price.... The Roman pontiff himself becomes burdensome to all, and almost intolerable." Honorius III in 1226 acknowledged to the English bishops that this greed was a long-standing scandal and disgrace, but he ascribed it to the poverty of Rome, and proposed that in order to remove the difficulty two stalls should be given to him for nomination in every cathedral and collegiate chapter. ”

“ One of the main objects in convoking the great Council of Lateran, in 1215, was the correction of the prevailing vices of the clergy, and it adopted numerous canons looking to the suppression of the chief abuses, but in vain. Those abuses were too deeply rooted, and four years later Honorius III., in an Encyclical addressed to all the prelates of Christendom, says that he has waited to see the result. He finds the evils of the Church increasing rather than diminishing. The ministers of the altar, worse than beasts wallowing in their dung, glory in their sins, as in Sodom. ”

“ Honorius dies before the heresy is presented for acceptance in Rome in the imperial Ecthesis. Ten Popes succeeding Honorius, in spite of the temporal distress which surrounds them, oppose to the utmost the Byzantine heresy and despotism [pg 191] in the midst of whom one gloriously lays down his life and is martyred by the eastern emperor as guilty of high treason. ”

“ Beust in Vienna, Hohenlohe in Munich, Ollivier in Paris, were not tranquil like the priest in Rome. Sooner or later they would all be engulfed in the stormy sea of revolution—all but the Church and the Pope. The Syllabus would abide for ever, and with it the Canons of the Vatican Council.... The Pope has proved by facts that he knows how to govern better than any other sovereign. We defy any emperor whatever to govern a country fourteen years as Pope Pius IX has governed Rome. ”

“ He already knew what the Nuncio had come to tell him, but, once for all, he would never accept the Pope as his judge in an affair concerning himself and the English nation. "The Pope may excommunicate me," he said. "I care not a fig for his excommunication. Let him do as he wills at Rome. I will do here as I will. ... I take the Pope to be a worthy man on the whole, but ever since the last war he has been so afraid of the Emperor that he dares not act against his wishes." ”

“ But the Greeks paid no heed to the hint. His successor Leo II. could not do otherwise than homologate the Eastern leaders’ condemnation of heresy, even that of Honorius, hard though this must have been to him. On the other hand, the biographies of the popes from Honorius to Agatho in the Roman Liber pontificalis (§ 90, 6) help themselves out of this dilemma again by preserving a dead silence about any active or passive interference of Honorius in the Monothelite controversy. ”

“ The Papacy has lost all its political power. The ten kings have shaken p. 27off his government, and there is not one left that submits to his authority.
But more than that. The Pope of Rome used to be king over a considerable portion of Italy. But he is now deposed. The States of the Church are incorporated with united Italy, and the Pope is king no more. They have taken away his dominion. His sovereignty is at an end; it has received its death-blow, and shall we not acknowledge that the consuming process is begun?
But further still. The Church of Rome used to have vast estates. ”

“ Hohenstaufens, and their trips to Rome were mere money-getting excursions. They sold privileges and honours, imposed what taxes they could collect, and sneaked back to Germany. Obviously there was no hope from Emperors. Then rose the cry for the return of the Papacy. Every Italian, however he might hate or despise the Popes, felt proud that the Papacy was an Italian institution, and believed that every Pope, good or bad, should live in Rome and sit on his throne at St. Peter's. Sentiment grew strong, especially among the women; Petrarch thundered, St. Catherine of Siena pleaded. ”

“ Under a wise regent a nation may wait in patience for their child ruler to mature. Unfortunately, Honorius, as he grew up, belied any promise of manliness he had ever shown, languidly refusing to continue his boyish sports of riding or archery, and taking no interest save in some cocks and hens that it was his daily pleasure to feed himself. He had no affection or reverence for Rome, and finally settled in Ravenna on the Adriatic as the safest fortress in his dominions. ”

“ But Providence interposed, and these miserable dupes of Romish priests received a check, which, if followed up, will have a salutary effect in future. But, I pray you, be on your guard; watch the movements of Papists among you: have no confidence in them; have as little as possible to do with them. Trust them in nothing which may either directly or indirectly involve their religion. I most solemnly appeal to our national and state legislatures, to exclude them from every office of honor, profit, or trust, while they have any connection whatever, spiritual or temporal, with the Pope of Rome. ”