ABSTRACT
In an age of significant administrative advances, scribes sought to imitate the practices of the papal chancery and the formulae of documents underwent a transformation. Although good relations between the papacy and the rulers of the eastern Iberian Peninsula had been cultivated since the ninth century, this alliance had never been stronger. Based on devotion to St Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and on the practical benefits of papal protection, kings and counts had participated in the liturgical, legal, and spiritual reform of the Church and the two powers, spiritual and temporal, became united in the common goal of the war against Islam. Peter was religiously devout, legislated severely against heresy, and gave donations without much sign of favouritism to the various churches and orders in his kingdom. Political success for King Peter, as for any king, was ultimately weighed in terms of land. At the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Innocent was little troubled by affairs within Aragon.
