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Pope Innocent III > 
The young, incomparably brilliant and accomplished, courageous and forceful successor of Saint Peter, Innocent III, who was prevailed upon to accept the sublime burden of the papacy despite his protests that his thirty-seven years of life were a too scant preparation for so grave and exalted a position, is acknowledged by the Church to be one of the greatest of all her Popes. And he is acclaimed, even by those who have set out to make of him a mere political dictator of the world, as one of the greatest historical figures of all time, "both in the grandeur of his aims and the force of character which brought him so near to the attainment of them."
Just as with Pope Saint Gregory the Great, it is almost impossible to keep up with Pope Innocent's activities, their scope is so encompassing and their range so far-flung. We find him at once a tender and holy pastor of souls, a benevolent and generous ruler of the Papal States, a liberal feudal lord of the vast lands and kingdoms held as fiefs by the Holy See. We see him a just judge, a glorious inspirer of Crusades, an encouraging patron of religious orders, an indefatigable missionary, a sincere diplomat, an experienced peacemaker, a patient and uncompromising hunter and punisher of heretics, and an intrepid defender of the life-giving doctrines of the Faith, both through the safeguards of definition in council and by word of mouth in the pulpit. His sermons, delivered in a voice which reached to every corner of Saint Peter's, carried his words to those who were not able to read his books.
Pope Innocent III took very seriously the words of Saint Augustine in the City of God: ". . . if the kings of the earth and all their subjects, if all princes and judges of the earth; if young men and maidens, old and young, every age, and both sexes; if they whom the Baptist addressed, the publicans and the soldiers, were altogether to hearken to and observe the precepts of the Christian religion regarding a just and a virtuous life, then should the republic (the Christian state) adorn the whole earth with its felicity, and attain in life everlasting to the pinnacle of kingly glory."
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