ABSTRACT
In 1202, Count William of Montpellier presented Innocent III with an unusual though not unprecedented request. He asked the pope to dispense his illegitimate children, not so that they could enter orders, but so that they could inherit his property. Innocent had previously granted a similar request from the king of France Philip Augustus. In William's case, however, he refused to act. The decretal in which he set out the reasons for this refusal, Per venerabilem, has been a source of controversy ever since.1
