Innocent III's Registers and Letters
The image on the left is taken from the papal registers Codex Reg.
Vat. 5 of the Vatican Archives, which is the seventh year of Innocent's pontificate (Click here for larger image). The letter in the middle of
the page with the capital "R" initial is dated 30 November 1204-February 1205
and has next to it in the margin a drawing of the Hungarian Crown and a young
boy. The letter was from the Regent of Hungary, Andrea, the duke of Dalmatia and
Croatia and written to Innocent. It must have been of special importance to
Innocent, since the registers contain few letters that were written to Innocent by other
correspondents.
Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) reorganized the papal curia. As the result, the
production and preservation of papal correspondence became regular and orderly.
Consequently, we have a series of registers containing his letters from the first days of
his pontificate until his death, with only a few volumes having been lost over the
centuries. Innocent's registers contain several thousand letters but by no means all
of them. Since not all letters were entered into the papal registers, it is often
difficult to know why some very important letters were omitted and other letters of
trivial importance were included.
I have translated letters that illustrate the themes of the course:
Letters
on the Issues of Church and State
Letters on
Marriage and Women
A Consilium sent to the Crusaders at Zara