ABSTRACT
Innocent III launched no less than three major crusades before his premature death in 1216, instituting a systematized approach to recruitment and funding. In fact, much of the research on Innocent emphasizes his high estimate of papal power and the resulting steps he took to endow the papacy with real administrative and legal clout, working from the top downwards. Yet his papacy was also permeated with calls for reform from below. One such reform party was the Peter the Chanter's school. Although John Baldwin has placed Innocent among the Chanter's disciples, the demands placed upon him as head of the church could sometimes conflict with his own reforming ideals, and with the more untempered idealism of the men he chose to implement his vision.1 This paper will pose several questions. Was Innocent primarily a reformer or a pragmatist in the matter of the crusades? Were Innocent's agents simply part of the papal apparatus, or were their missions sometimes contradictory to papal policy? How much freedom was Innocent allowing his appointees leading up to the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), and how did he react when his legates' and preachers' plans were challenged?
