Clement
III, had made him cardinal before he was thirty, but under Celestine
III he kept in the background, disliked by the Pope, and himself
suspicious of the timid and temporizing old man. But on Celestine's
death on January 8, 1198, Lothaire, though still only thirty-seven
years of age, was at once hailed as his most fitting successor, as the
strong man who could win for the Church all the advantages that she
might hope to gain from the death of Henry VI. Nor did Innocent's
pontificate belie the promise of his early career.

Innocent III possessed a majestic and noble appearance, an unblemished
private character, popular manners, a disposition prone to sudden fits
of anger and melancholy, and a fierce and indomitable will. He brought
to his exalted position the clearly formulated theories of the
canonists as to the nature of the papal power, as well as the
overweening ambition, the high courage, the keen intelligence and the
perseverance and energy necessary to turn the theories of the schools
into matters of every-day importance.

His enunciations of the papal doctrine put claims that Hildebrand
himself had hardly ventured to advance, in the clearest and most
definite light. The Pope was no mere successor of Peter, the
vicegerent of man. "The Roman pontiff," he wrote, "is the vicar, not
of man, but of God himself." "The Lord gave Peter the rule not only of
the Universal Church, but also the rule of the whole world." "The Lord
Jesus Christ has set up one ruler over all things as his universal
vicar, and as all things in heaven, earth, and hell bow the knee to
Christ, so should all obey Christ's vicar, that there be one flock and
one shepherd." "No king can reign rightly unless he devoutly serve
Christ's vicar." "Princes have power in earth, priests have also power
in heaven. Princes reign over the body, priests over the soul. As much
as the soul is worthier than the body, so much worthier is the
priesthood than the monarchy." "The Sacerdotium is the sun, the Regnum
the moon. Kings rule over their respective kingdoms, but Peter rules
over the whole earth. The Sacerdotium came by divine creation, the
Regnum by man's cunning."

In these unrestricted claims to rule over church and state alike we
seem to be back again in the anarchy of the eleventh century. And it
was not against the feeble feudal princes of the days of Hildebrand
that Innocent III had to contend, but against strong national kings,
like Philip of Fran