Innocent II, né Gregory Papareschi (d. September 24, 1143), was Pope from 1130-1143, was probably one of the clergy in personal attendance on the antipopeClement III (Guibert of Ravenna). By Paschal II he was created cardinal-deacon. In this capacity, he accompanied Pope Gelasius II when driven into France; and by Pope Callixtus II, he was appointed on various important missions, such as on that to Worms for concluding the peace accord with the emperor in 1122 (see Concordat of Worms), and on that to France in 1123.
On February 14, 1130, he was hurriedly chosen to succeed Honorius II; soon afterwards an opposition asserted itself which issued in the counter-election of Pietro Pierleoni as Pope Anacletus II. Unable to maintain his position in Rome, Innocent took ship for Pisa, and thence sailed by Genoa to France, where the influence of Bernard of Clairvaux readily secured his cordial recognition by the clergy and the court; in October of the same year he was duly acknowledged by Lothar II of Germany and his bishops at the synod of Würzburg. In January 1131, he had also a favourable interview with Henry I of England; and in August 1132 Lothar undertook an expedition to Italy for the double purpose of being crowned by the pope, and of setting aside the antipope. The coronation ultimately took place in the Lateran church (June 4, 1133), but otherwise the expedition proved abortive. A second expedition by Lothar in 1136 was not more decisive in its results, and the protracted struggle between the rival pontiffs was terminated only by the death of Anacletus on January 25, 1138.
By the Second Lateran council of 1139, at which Roger II of Sicily, Innocent's most uncompromising foe, was excommunicated, peace was at last restored to the church. The remaining years of this pope's life were almost as barren of permanent results as the first had been; his efforts to undo the mischief wrought in Rome by the long schism were almost entirely neutralized by a struggle with the town of Tivoli in which he became involved, and by a quarrel with Louis VII of France, in the course of which that kingdom was laid under an interdict. Innocent died September 24, 1143 and was succeeded by Celestine II. The doctrinal questions in which he was called on to decide were those connected with the opinions of Pierre Abélard and Arnold of Brescia.
Innocent's exposition of his theory concerning the relation between the papacy and the empire was accepted by many princes, as is apparent from the sudden increase of Otto's adherents subsequent to the issue of the decretal.
Innocent, reversing his decision, declared in favour of Philip in 1207, and sent the Cardinals Ugolino of Ostia and Leo of Santa Croce to Germany with instructions to endeavour to induce Otto to renounce his claims to the throne and with powers to free Philip from the ban.
Innocent summoned those monks of Canterbury who were in Rome to proceed to a new election and recommended to their choice Stephen Langton, an Englishman, whom the pope had called to Rome from the rectorship of the University of Paris, in order to create him cardinal.
In the East, InnocentII curbed the pretension to independence on the part of William, Patriarch of Jerusalem and of Raoul, Patriarch of Antioch (Hergenröther, II, 410).
InnocentII is said to have given him dispensation from his vows, though others claim that this is a calumny spread by the enemies of the pope (Damberger, "Weltgeschichte ", VIII, 202).
InnocentII is praised by all, especially by St. Bernard, as a man of irreproachable character.
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