Who he was
Lotario, son of Count Trasimund of Segni and nephew of Clement III, studied theology at Paris and law at Bologna and became one of the great jurists of his day. Made a cardinal by Clement III, he lived in retirement under Celestine III, writing a treatise on the misery of the human condition. He was elected on the day Celestine died, aged only thirty-seven.
What he is remembered for
Under him the medieval papacy reached the height of its power: he was guardian of the boy Frederick II, ruled on the disputed German crown, and laid England under interdict until King John submitted and held his kingdom as a fief of the Holy See. He called the Fourth Crusade, which against his protests was turned on Zara and Constantinople, and the campaign against the Albigensians. He encouraged St Francis and St Dominic, built the hospital of Santo Spirito in Rome, and held the great Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
Sources
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