Pope Innocent III Quotes & Sayings

Every cleric must obey the Pope, even if he commands what is evil; for no one may judge the Pope. — Pope Innocent III

Anyone who attempts to construe a personal view of God which conflicts with church dogma must be burned without pity. — Pope Innocent III

The Pope should not flatter himself about his power nor should he rashly glory in his honor and high estate, because the less he is judged by man, the more he is judged by God. Still the less can the Roman Pontiff glory because he can be judged by men, or rather, can be shown to be already judged, if for example he should wither away into heresy; because he who does not believe is already judged, In such a case it should be said of him: 'If salt should lose its savor, it is good for nothing but to be cast out and trampled under foot by men.' — Pope Innocent III

If it shall be necessary, through sentences of excommunication against their persons and of interdict against their lands, all backsliding being put an end to, they compel them to fulfil their vows. — Pope Innocent III

We believe that the Greeks have been punished through [the Crusades] by the just judgement of God: these Greeks who have striven to rend the Seamless Robe of Jesus Christ ... Those who would not join Noah in his ark perished justly in the deluge; and these have justly suffered famine and hunger who would not receive as their shepherd the blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles. — Pope Innocent III

This [Magna Carta] has been forced from the King. It constitutes an insult to the Holy See, a serious weakening of the royal power, a disgrace to the English nation, a danger to all Christendom, since this civil war obstructs the crusade. Therefore?we condemn the charter and forbid the King to keep it, or the barons and their supporters to make him do so, on pain of excommunication. — Pope Innocent III

Crucifiers of Christ ought to be held in continual subjection. — Pope Innocent III

God forbid that all children, of whom daily so great a multitude die, would perish, but that also for these, the merciful God, who wishes no one to perish, has procured some remedy unto salvation ... — Pope Innocent III

The universal Church of the faithful is one outside of which none is saved. — Pope Innocent III

By heart we believe and by mouth confess the one Church, not of heretics but the Holy Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic Church outside which we believe that no one is saved. — Pope Innocent III

The mysteries of the faith are not to [be] explained rashly to anyone. Usually in fact, they cannot be understood by everyone but only by those who are qualified to understand them with informed intelligence. The depth of the divine Scriptures is such that not only the illiterate and uninitiated have difficulty understanding them, but also the educated and the gifted. — Pope Innocent III

Not to oppose erroneous doctrine is to approve of it, and not to defend at all true doctrine is to suppress it. — Pope Innocent III

So much must I live for others, that almost I am a stranger to myself. — Pope Innocent III

Kill them all, for God knows His own. — Pope Innocent III

The Jews' guilt of the crucifixion of Jesus consigned them to perpetual servitude, and, like Cain, they are to be wanderers and fugitives. The Jews will not dare to raise their necks, bowed under the yoke of perpetual slavery, against the reverence of the Christian faith. — Pope Innocent III