Pope Honorius III |
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Papacy began | 18 July 1216 |
Papacy ended | 18 March 1227 |
Predecessor | Innocent III |
Successor | Gregory IX |
Orders | |
Consecration | 24 July 1218 by Ugolino di Conti |
Created Cardinal | 20 February 1193 by Innocent III |
Personal details | |
Birth name | Cencio Savelli |
Born | 1150 Rome, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire |
Died | 18 March 1227 Rome, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire |
(aged 77)
Previous post |
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Papal styles of Pope Honorius III |
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Reference style | His Holiness |
Spoken style | Your Holiness |
Religious style | Holy Father |
Posthumous style | None |
Pope Honorius III (1150 – 18 March 1227), born as Cencio Savelli, was Pope from 18 July 1216 to his death in 1227.
He was born in Rome as a son of Aimerico, a member of the Roman Savelli family.
For a time canon at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, he later became Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in January 1188 and Cardinal Deacon of Santa Lucia in Silice on 20 February 1193. Under Pope Clement III and Pope Celestine III he was treasurer of the Roman Church, compiling the Liber Censuum, and served as acting Vice-Chancellor of the Holy Roman Church from 1194 until 1198.
In 1197 he became the tutor to the future Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II, who had been given as ward to Pope Innocent III by the Empress-widow Constance of Sicily.
Innocent III raised him to the rank of a Cardinal Priest in 1200, by which he obtained the Titulus of Ss. Ioannis et Pauli. He was dismissed as Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in 1198, but about the same time he assumed the post of Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals.
On 18 July 1216, seventeen cardinals present at the death of Innocent III assembled at Perugia (where Innocent III had died two days previously) with the purpose of electing a new Pope. The troubled state of affairs in Italy, the threatening attitude of the Tatars, and the fear of a schism induced the cardinals to agree to an election by compromise. Cardinals Ugolino of Ostia (afterwards Pope Gregory IX) and Guido Papareschi were empowered to appoint the new Pope. Their choice fell upon Cencio Savelli, who accepted the tiara with reluctance and took the name of Honorius III. He was consecrated at Perugia on 24 July and was crowned at Rome on 31 August. He took possession of the Lateran on 3 September 1216. The Roman people were greatly elated at the election, for Honorius III was himself a Roman and by his extreme kindness had endeared himself to the hearts of all.