Pope Honorius Iii
POPE HONORIUS III (Cencio Savelli), pope from the 18th of July 1216 to the 18th of March 1227, a highly-educated and pious Roman, successively canon of Sta Maria Maggiore, cardinaldeacon of Sta Lucia in Silice, vice-chancellor, chamberlain and cardinal-priest of Sti Giovanni e Paolo, was the successor of Innocent III. He made peace with Frederick II., in accordance with which the emperor was crowned with his wife Constance in St Peter's on the 22nd of November 1220, and swore to accord full liberty to the church and to undertake a crusade. Honorius was eager to carry out the decrees of the Lateran Council of 1215 against the Albigenses and to further the crusade proclaimed by his predecessor. He crowned Peter of Courtenay emperor of Byzantium in April 1217; espoused the cause of the young Henry III. of England against the barons; accepted the Isle of Man as a perpetual fief; arbitrated differences between Philip II. of France and James of Aragon; and made special ecclesiastical regulations for the Scandinavian countries. He sanctioned the Dominican order (22nd of November 1216), making St Dominic papal major-domo in 1218; approved the Franciscan order by bull of the 2gth of November 1223; and authorized many of the tertiary orders. He maintained, on the whole, a tranquil rule at Rome; but Frederick II.'s refusal to interrupt his reforms in Sicily in order to go on the crusade gave the pope much trouble. Honorius died in 1227, before the emperor had fulfilled his oath, and was succeeded by Gregory IX.
Honorius III. left many writings which have been collected and published by Abb<5 Horoy in the Medii aevi bibliotheca patristica, vols. i.-ii. (Paris, 1879-1883). Among them are five books of decretals, compiled about 1226; a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis; a life of Gregory VII.; a coronation form; and a large number of sermons. His most important work is the Liber censuum Romanae ecclesiae, written in 1192 and containing a record of the income of the Roman Church and of its relations with secular authorities. The last named is admirably edited by P. Fabre in Bibliotheque des ecoles françaises d'Athenes et de Rome (Paris, 1892). The letters of Honorius are in F. Liverani, Spicilegium Liberianum (1863). There are good Regesta in Latin and Italian, edited by P. Pressutti (Rome, 1888, etc.).
See J. Clausen, Papst Honorius III. (1895) ' p - T. Masetti 7 Pontefici Onorio III. ed Innocenzo IV. a fronte dell' Imperatore Federico II. nel secolo XIII. (1884); F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 5, trans, by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900- 1902); K. J. von Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vol. 5, 2nd ed.; H. H. Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. 5 (London, 1899); T. Frantz, Der grosse Kampf zwischen Kaisertum u. Papsttum zu'rZeit des Hohenstaufen Friedrich II. (Berlin, 1903); W. Norden Das Papsttum u. Byzanz (Berlin, 1903); M. Tangl, Die papstlichen Kanzleiordungen von 1200-1500 (Innsbruck, 1894); Caillemer, Le Pape Honorius III. et le droit civil (Lyons, 1881) ; F. Vernet, Etudes sur les sermons d' Honorius III. (Lyons, 1888). There is an excellent article, with exhaustive bibliography, by H. Schulz in Hauck's Realencyklopddie, 3rd edition. (C. H. HA.)
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
