Pope Innocent V (1276)

The first Dominican pope

The fact most often retained about Innocent V is a historical first: he was the first son of Saint Dominic to ascend the throne of Peter.^[18][19] Before him, no member of the Order of Preachers, founded barely half a century earlier (around 1216), had been pope. Others would follow — Benedict XI, and above all the reformer Saint Pius V in the sixteenth century — but Peter of Tarentaise opens the series.

This first is not merely honorary. It says something about the place acquired by the mendicant orders in the thirteenth century. In two generations, Dominicans and Franciscans had won the university chairs, the confessionals of kings, and the confidence of popes. That the Sacred College raised a friar preacher and professor of theology to the summit marks the culmination of this rise.

The "most famous doctor" of Paris, close to Saint Thomas Aquinas

The second feature that distinguishes him is his intellectual stature. Peter of Tarentaise was not a curial canonist or a career diplomat who happened to reach the top: he was a master of the University of Paris, formed at the heart of the great scholastic generation. He taught theology precisely when Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, and Bonaventure were making Paris the capital of Christian thought.^[20][21]

"When only twenty-eight, he was judged capable of teaching theology in the University at the same time as his intimate friend, Saint Thomas Aquinas." — Breviary of the Order of Preachers, lesson of 22 June for Blessed Innocent V^[22]

Dominican tradition remembers him by the Latin epithet doctor famosissimus — "the most famous doctor."^[23] The detail about age in the liturgical lesson just quoted belongs to a hagiographical memory corrected by criticism; the same goes for the expression "intimate friend," which comes from that same lesson of the Dominican breviary and which no critical source establishes to this day. Let us therefore keep to the measure of tradition: Dominican tradition makes him his friend. But the substance is exact: Innocent V was a first-rank theologian before he was pope, and his election placed a scholar at the head of the Church for a few months.

A five-month pontificate in the service of peace and unity

The third feature is paradoxical: Innocent V matters despite the extreme brevity of his reign. Five months and two days — enough to die almost unknown, too little to govern at length. And yet his name remains attached to a clear-sighted policy of pacification, in direct continuity with his predecessor Gregory X.^[24]

"He continued Gregory's efforts to initiate a crusade, reunite the Greek and Roman churches, and pacify Italy's warring states." — Encyclopædia Britannica, entry "Blessed Innocent V"^[25]

Three tasks, inherited from Lyon: the crusade, the union of the Greeks, and Italian peace. Innocent V did not have time to complete them, but he did not abandon them. That is what makes his lightning pontificate a link rather than a parenthesis: he held the course between Gregory X and the long succession of popes at the end of the thirteenth century.

A disputed birthplace: Savoy or Forez?

The future pope's surname — of Tarentaise — points to a place-name, not to a noble family. The most widespread tradition has him born around 1224-1225 in the Tarentaise valley, in Savoy,^[26][27] and some sources specify the village of Champagny.^[28] Another hypothesis, defended by scholars, connects him instead to a place named Tarentaise in Forez (today's Loire department), near a priory dependent on the abbey of Valbenoite.^[29]

The point is not settled, and it must be said plainly: medieval sources are scarce for Peter's childhood, and modern criticism still hesitates between Savoy and Forez — a point summed up in a word by the late list of mottoes attributed to Saint Malachy in the motto Concionator Gallus, "the Gaulish preacher," that is, a preacher of the Gallican world — a list published in 1595 by the Benedictine Arnold Wion and regarded by historians as a pseudepigraphic fabrication, without value as an authentic prophecy.^[30][31]

Entry into the Order of Preachers

On one point, the sources agree: Peter entered the Order of Preachers, founded by Saint Dominic, while still young. The encyclopedic notices say that he received the Dominican habit around the age of sixteen, probably at the convent of Lyon, around 1240.^[32][33] The more hagiographical lesson of the Dominican breviary says that he received it as a child, from the hands of Blessed Jordan of Saxony, the second master of the Order.^[34]

These two accounts are hard to reconcile: Jordan of Saxony died in 1237, and a child received by him would have been very young. The critical chronology, which has Peter entering as an adolescent around 1240, is the stronger one; the breviary narrative belongs to the liturgical embellishment of a saint's life. In any case, the essential fact remains: Peter was an early Dominican, formed in a religious family still young and burning with zeal.

The Paris theologian and the 1259 program of studies

Recognized for his gifts, the young friar was sent to Paris, the center of Western theology, where he joined the Saint-Jacques convent in the mid-1250s.^[35] There he became master of theology in 1259 and held one of the two Dominican chairs at the university, the so-called "French" chair, from 1259 to 1264, then again from 1267 onward.^[36][37]

It was in this exceptional milieu that the event sealing his reputation took place. In 1259, the general chapter of the Order, meeting at Valenciennes, appointed a commission of five friars to write the first program of studies (ratio studiorum) for the Preachers — the text that would shape Dominican intellectual formation for centuries.

"Together with Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Albert the Great, and two other Dominicans he was commissioned by the General Chapter of 1259 to draw up the first plan of studies for the Order." — Dominican Friars, notice on Pope Innocent V^[38]

To sit on this commission beside Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great is enough to place Peter of Tarentaise: he belonged to the front rank of emerging scholasticism. This intellectual proximity to Thomas — his exact contemporary and colleague in the chair, whom Dominican tradition holds to have been his friend — would remain the hallmark of his thought.

The "most famous doctor": his written work

Peter of Tarentaise's work is that of a complete scholastic master, treating philosophy, theology, and canon law.^[39] His chief work is a vast commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences — the required manual of every medieval theologian — printed much later at Toulouse in 1652.^[40][41] He also wrote several tightly argued philosophical treatises, and perhaps a commentary on Saint Paul's epistles: this last attribution remains debated — the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that this commentary, several times published under the name of Nicholas of Gorran (Cologne, 1478), is claimed for Peter of Tarentaise only by some critics.^[42][43][44]

The table below summarizes the main writings attributed to the future pope.

These four short treatises — On the Unity of Form, On the Matter of Heaven, On the Eternity of the World, On Intellect and Will — stand at the heart of the great Parisian debates of the 1260s and 1270s, the very debates stirring Thomas Aquinas and the masters of arts.^[45] Peter of Tarentaise holds a position close to Thomas, without always being identical to him: the history of theology counts him among the first representatives of a Thomism still in formation.

Provincial of France

The man was not only a professor: he was a governor. Around 1264, the Order elected him provincial of France, the largest and most prestigious of its provinces.^[46][47] He held this office from 1264 to 1267, returned to teaching at Paris, and was then reelected provincial in 1269, an office he kept until 1272.^[48][49]

Dominican tradition attributes precise qualities to him in this government:

"His rare prudence, his knowledge of men, his admirable meekness, and his invincible firmness..." — Breviary of the Order of Preachers, lesson of 22 June for Blessed Innocent V^[50]

This blend of meekness and firmness — exactly the virtues of a religious superior — foreshadows the style of his future pontificate: a conciliatory man, but not a weak one.

Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of the Gauls (1272)

In 1272, Pope Gregory X drew Peter of Tarentaise out of the Order and placed him at the head of a great see: he named him archbishop of Lyon — the city where he had probably received the habit — and Primate of the Gauls.^[51][52] The appointment is dated 6 June 1272.^[53]

Lyon was not an ordinary see. An imperial city increasingly drawn into the French orbit, it was then the place chosen by Gregory X for the great council he was preparing. Entrusting this see to a theologian of Peter's stature on the eve of the council was no accident: the pope wanted near him men of doctrine capable of carrying the program of reform and union.

Cardinal-bishop of Ostia and Grand Penitentiary (1273)

A few months later came the next promotion. On 3 June 1273, Gregory X created Peter of Tarentaise cardinal-bishop of Ostia and Velletri — the first of the suburbicarian sees, making its holder the dean of the Sacred College.^[54][55][56] He also received the office of Grand Penitentiary, responsible for the forum of conscience throughout the Church.^[57]

In less than a year, the Dominican professor had thus become one of the leading figures of the curia: dean of the cardinals, bishop of the most eminent suburbicarian see, major penitentiary. Everything prepared him for the role he would play the following year at the council, then at the conclave that raised him to the summit.

The summit of Peter of Tarentaise's pre-pontifical career was his participation in the Second Ecumenical Council of Lyon, convoked by Gregory X and assembled in his archiepiscopal city in 1274. The fourteenth ecumenical council in history, it pursued three goals: union with the Greeks, the crusade, and the reform of the Church.^[58][59]

Union with the Greeks

The council's great act was, on 6 July 1274, the proclamation of the union of the Greek and Latin Churches: the envoys of the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos recognized Roman primacy and the Filioque. Peter of Tarentaise, archbishop of the place and cardinal of Ostia, was one of the leading figures in these proceedings.^[60][61]

"He was one of the outstanding figures at the Council of Lyons where he labored for the restoration of unity between the churches of East and West." — Dominican Friars, notice on Pope Innocent V^[62]

This fragile union would be repudiated at Constantinople a few years later. But it marked Peter permanently: once pope, he would strive, as we shall see, to consolidate it rather than let it collapse.^[63]

The funeral oration for Saint Bonaventure

The council was also struck by mourning. On 15 July 1274, in the middle of the assembly, the great Franciscan theologian Saint Bonaventure, cardinal-bishop of Albano and soul of the council, died. It was Peter of Tarentaise who sang the funeral Mass and delivered the funeral oration before the assembled Fathers.^[64][65]

The image is powerful: the future first Dominican pope paying the last honors to the greatest Franciscan doctor of his time. It speaks of the fraternity of the two great mendicant orders at the height of their golden age, and of the eminent place the future Innocent V already held among the theologians of the Church.

The context: Ubi periculum and the "year of four popes"

On 10 January 1276, Gregory X died at Arezzo while returning to Rome.^[66] His death opened an election of a new kind. At the Council of Lyon, Gregory X had promulgated the constitution Ubi periculum (1274), which invented the conclave: to end interminable vacancies of the see — the vacancy of 1268-1271 had lasted nearly three years — the cardinals were now to be locked in (cum clave, "with a key"), isolated, and subjected to an increasingly strict regime until they reached agreement.^[67][68]

Peter of Tarentaise was therefore the first pope elected under the rules of the conclave.^[69] The election was, moreover, exemplary in its speed — proof that the reform worked. Meeting at Arezzo, the cardinals chose him on 21 January 1276, unanimously and on the first ballot.^[70][71]

The year 1276 would remain in history as a year of short-lived popes: four pontiffs succeeded one another. The table below places them in sequence.

Three popes died in the single year 1276, and a fourth the following year: Innocent V's succession belongs to the almost continual vacancy that struck the papacy at the end of the thirteenth century.

The choice of the name Innocent

Once elected, Peter of Tarentaise took the name Innocent V — the fifth pope of that name, after Innocent III and Innocent IV, who had held the first council of Lyon in 1245.^[72] The sources do not document the precise reason for this choice: no particular intention can therefore be attributed to it.

He was crowned on 22 February 1276 in the Vatican basilica.^[73]

Pacifying Italy: Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Charles of Anjou

Innocent V's first concern was the peace of Italy, torn by the long struggle between Guelphs (supporters of the pope) and Ghibellines (supporters of the Empire). The pope worked to reconcile them and restored peace among the cities, notably between Pisa and Lucca^[74], then between Genoa and Charles of Anjou — a peace negotiated by the pope and sealed by the treaty of 18 June 1276, which also ended the interdict.^[75]

At the heart of this policy stood the formidable Charles I of Anjou, king of Naples and Sicily, brother of Saint Louis and strongman of Italy. On 2 March 1276, Innocent V confirmed his privilege of retaining the senatorship of Rome — the office that made him temporal master of the City.^[76][77] The pope had to deal with this cumbersome prince, whose power weighed on all central Italy.

Rudolf of Habsburg and the imperial crown

The other great dossier was the Empire. Since the election of Rudolf of Habsburg as king of the Romans (1273), the question of his imperial coronation in Rome had been open. Innocent V, in Gregory X's line, proved prudent and demanding: he negotiated the conditions of Rudolf's arrival, pressed him to keep his promises concerning the crusade and the restitution of the Church's possessions in Italy, and tended rather to favor the interests of Charles of Anjou.^[78][79]

"He sought to reconcile Guelphs and Ghibellines in Italy, restored peace between Pisa and Lucca, and served as mediator between Rudolf of Habsburg and Charles of Anjou." — Catholic Encyclopedia, notice "Pope Innocent V"^[80]

To arbitrate between the emperor-elect and the king of Naples, without surrendering himself to either: this was the line of balance, inherited from Gregory X, that Innocent V tried to maintain in a few weeks.

The crusade and the union of the Greeks pursued

Faithful to the program of Lyon, Innocent V kept alive the two great designs of Gregory X. He continued to prepare the crusade for the Holy Land, whose financing and organization had been voted by the council.^[81] And he worked to strengthen the union with the Greeks.

"He endeavoured to consolidate the union of the Greeks with Rome concluded at the Council of Lyons." — Catholic Encyclopedia, notice "Pope Innocent V"^[82]

He prepared the sending of legates toward the East to maintain dialogue with Michael VIII Palaiologos, seeking to give substance to the commitments made at Lyon; death prevented him from bringing this mission to completion.^[83][84] Here too, the brevity of the reign prevented completion; but the course toward unity was maintained.

Death (22 June 1276) and burial at the Lateran

At the beginning of the summer of 1276, a malignant fever carried the pope off in Rome.

"On June 22nd, an attack of malignant fever closed the holy Pontiff's career; he had sat in the Chair of Peter only five months and two days." — Breviary of the Order of Preachers, lesson of 22 June^[85]

Innocent V died on 22 June 1276, after five months of pontificate.^[86][87] He was buried in the Lateran Basilica, cathedral of Rome, in a tomb tradition describes as sumptuous. The fires of 1308 and 1361, which devastated the Lateran, destroyed this monument; only remains of the burial survive today.^[88] His succession immediately opened a new conclave, from which Adrian V emerged.

The tradition of holiness

From his death, the Roman people venerated Peter of Tarentaise as a saint.^[89] The memory of his meekness, learning, and holy life was preserved especially among the Dominicans, who kept the memory of their first pope as a model of a friar preacher raised to the summit without losing anything of the spirit of the Order.

This reputation for holiness was never denied. But, as often with ancient figures, official recognition took centuries.

Beatification by Leo XIII (1898)

On 14 March 1898 Pope Leo XIII confirmed the cult rendered from time immemorial to Peter of Tarentaise: an equipollent beatification, which authorizes liturgical cult without a formal beatification ceremony.^[90][91] His feast was fixed on 22 June, the day of his death.^[92]

Beatification by Leo XIII — himself the great promoter of the Thomistic revival through the encyclical Æterni Patris (1879) — is not incidental: in raising to the altars this theologian close to Saint Thomas, the pope of the late nineteenth century honored both a saint and a school of thought.

Hagiography and history: what criticism has clarified

The life of Innocent V, like that of many medieval figures, has come down to us through two layers: historical sources (acts, chronicles, curial lists) and the later, more pious liturgical tradition of the Dominicans. The two do not always agree. The table below summarizes the main points on which criticism has corrected the legend.

Recognizing these divergences does not diminish the figure: it makes him truer. Innocent V does not need to be made younger by legend. It is enough to see him as history gives him — a learned and gentle Dominican, whom tradition holds to be a friend of Saint Thomas, unexpectedly raised to the throne of Peter and called back to God five months later — to measure the density of a life that the brevity of the pontificate almost erased.

• Pope Gregory X (1271-1276) — immediate predecessor, organizer of the Second Council of Lyon and inventor of the conclave, whose entire policy Innocent V continued.
• Pope Adrian V (1276) — immediate successor, elected in July 1276 and dead after thirty-eight days, without having been consecrated.
• Pope John XXI (1276-1277) — third successor in the "year of four popes," the only pope of Portuguese origin, physician and philosopher.
• The Second Council of Lyon (1274) — the council of the union with the Greeks and of the crusade, where Peter of Tarentaise delivered Saint Bonaventure's funeral oration.
• The First Council of Lyon (1245) — held by Innocent IV, to situate the sequence of the Lyon councils.
• The Summa Theologica of Saint Thomas Aquinas — the work of Peter of Tarentaise's colleague, whom tradition holds to have been his friend, at the heart of the same scholastic generation.
• Pope Innocent III (1198-1216) — the most powerful pope of this name, whose title Peter of Tarentaise took up.