IMC 2011: Sessions

The pontificate of Innocent II has long been regarded as a watershed in the history of the papacy. The schism occasioned by the election of a rival pope, Anacletus II, kept Innocent out of Rome for seven years. For Rome this was the beginning of a long period of marginalization as the traditional organs of local power were superseded by the college of cardinals and the consistory. For the Church Innocent's triumph was also that of the new religious orders of canons and the Cistercians, who had supported him from the outset. The Second Lateran Council, called to celebrate his victory, was an important stage in the consolidation of papal power in the 12th century. The schism had sent Innocent into exile in France and the Empire, reinforcing the development of the papal curia as an international organ of government, reflected in his involvement in the Iberian primacy dispute and the condemnation of Abelard. Yet Innocent's success led to a return to Rome, where he had to confront the realities of papal power locally; in art he exaggerated while his pragmatism in politics revealed the true picture. adopted pragmatism.