ABSTRACT
In the view of contemporaries Innocent III had been no stranger to the supernatural. The Gesta Innocentii Tertii reported that at the time of his elevation three doves had appeared at the site where the cardinals were meeting. After he was named, a white one flew above his head and sat down on his right, a sure sign of divine election.1 At the same time, someone reportedly had a vision that Innocent had married his mother, namely mother church, while there were other revelations that the newly elected pope did not want bandied about.2 When during a drought Innocent was dedicating the cathedral church at Spoleto in late August 1198, the local citizens had searched about for a spot to dig where they could find water. They suddenly saw water issuing forth from beneath a pit which had been covered by a stone and were able to provide for their thirsty horses. In honor of the pope's visit this was called the Fonspapalis3
In an apocryphal story found in Salimbene's Cronica, but without contemporary confirmation, the pope had reportedly been mocked during a sermon by a
*PL 214:xx (6). See Brenda M. Bolton, 'Too Important to Neglect: The Gesta Innocentii PP. IIP, in Church and Chronicle in the Middle Ages, ed. G. A. Loud and I. N. Wood (London, 1991), 87-99, on the value of this source. She argues that the work is based on papal registers, suggests close personal contact with the pope and argues that it is therefore a major source for Innocent's reign. For a recent edition, see David R. Gress-Wright, The 'Gesta Innocentii III': Text, Introduction and Commentary (Bryn Mawr dissertation, 1981).
