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For a time he was canon at the church of Santa Maria Maggiore, then he became papal chamberlain in 1188 and Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Lucia in Silice in 1193. Under Pope Clement III and Pope Celestine III he was treasurer of the Roman Church. Celestine III made him a cardinal deacon before Mar. 5, 1193.
In 1197 he became tutor of the future Emperor Frederick II, who had been given as ward to Pope Innocent III by the Empress-widow Constantia.
Innocent III raised him to the rank of a cardinal priest before Mar. 13, 1198; and under Pope Innocent III he became Cardinal-Priest of Santi Giovanni et Paolo.
On 18 July, 1216, nineteen cardinals assembled at Perugia (where Innocent had died two days previously) with the purpose of electing a new pope. The troublous 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 Gregory IX) and Guido of Praeneste 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 24 July, was crowned at Rome 31 August, and took possession of the Lateran 3 September. 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.
Like his famous predecessor Innocent III, he had set his mind on the achievement of two great things, the recovery of the Holy Land in the Fifth Crusade and a spiritual reform of the entire Church; but quite in contrast with him he sought these achievements by kindness and indulgence rather than by force and severity.
The crusade was endorsed by the Lateran Council of 1215, and he started preparations for the crusade to begin in 1217. To procure the means necessary for this colossal undertaking, the pope and the cardinals were to contribute the tenth part, and all other ecclesiastics the twentieth part, of their income for three years. Though the money thus collected was considerable, it was by no means sufficient for a general crusade as planned by Honorius III.
Far-reaching prospects seemed to open before him when he crowned Pierre de Courtenay (Apr., 1217) as Latin Emperor of Constantinople; but the new emperor was captured on his eastward journey and died in confinement.
Honorius III was aware that there was only one man in Europe who could bring about the recovery of the Holy Land, and that man was his former pupil Frederick II of Germany. Like many other rulers, Frederick II had taken an oath to embark for the Holy Land in 1217. But Frederick hung back, and Honorius repeatedly put off the date for the beginning of the expedition.
In April 1220, Frederick was elected emperor, and on Nov. 22, 1220 he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome.
In spite of the insistence of Honorius, Frederick still delayed, and the Egyptian campaign failed miserably with the loss of DamiettaDamietta is a port in Dumyat, Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea at the Nile delta, about 200 kilometres north of Cairo. In ancient Egypt the city was known as Tamiat, but it became less important in the Hellenic period after the construction of Alexandria. (Sept. 8, 1221).
Most rulers of Europe were engaged in wars of their own and could not leave their country for any length of time. Andrew II of HungaryAndrew II ( 1175- 1235) (Hungarian II. Andras Slovak Ondrej II was a son of Bela III of Hungary and succeeded his nephew, the infant Ladislaus III, in 1205. No other king of Hungary, perhaps, was so mischievous to his country. Valiant, enterprising, pious and, somewhat later, a fleet of crusaders from the region along the Lower Rhine finally departed for the Holy Land, took Damietta and a few other places in Egypt; but lack of unity among the Christians, also rivalry between the leaders and the papal legateA Papal legate is a representative of the Pope to the nations. He is empowered on the matters of unity of the catholic faith and for the settlement of ecclesiastical matters. The legate is appointed directly by the Pope, hence a legate is usually sent to Pelagius , resulted in failure.
June 24, 1225, was finally fixed as the date for the departure of Frederick; and Honorius brought about his marriage with IsabellaYolande of Brienne ( 1212 1228), also known as Yolanda or Isabella II inherited the Kingdom of Jerusalem as an infant in 1212. She was the daughter of John of Brienne and Maria of Montferrat. Because John did not have a direct claim on the throne, Yolande, heiress of the kingdom of JerusalemThe Kingdom of Jerusalem was a short-lived country established in the 12th century by the First Crusade. Foundation and Early History The kingdom came into being with the Crusader capture of Jerusalem in 1099. Godfrey of Bouillon refused, however, to take, with a view to binding him closer to the plan. But the treaty of San Germano in July 1225 permitted a further delay of two years.
Frederick now made serious preparations for the crusade. In the midst of it, however, Honorius died on Mar. 18, 1227 without seeing the achievement of his hopes. It was left to his successor Gregory IX to insist upon their accomplishment.
But Honorius really had too large a task; besides the liberation of the holy land, he felt bound to forward the repression of heresy in the south of France, the war for the faith in the Spanish peninsula, the planting of Christianity in the lands along the BalticBaltic can refer to: The Baltic Sea Council of the Baltic Sea States an intergovernmental organization Baltic sea countries countries with access to the Baltic Sea The term Baltic countries is sometimes used more or less synonymously for Northern Europe (, and the maintenance of the impossible Latin empire in Constantinople.
Of these duties the rooting out of heresy lay nearest to Honorius's heart. In the south of France he carried on Innocent's work, confirming Simon de MontfortSimon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester also Simon IV de Montfort ( 1160 June 25, 1218) was a French nobleman who took part in the Fourth Crusade ( 1202 1204) and was a prominent leader of the Albigensian Crusade. He died at the siege of Toulouse in 1218 in the possession of the lands of Raymond of Toulouse and succeeding, as Innocent had not, in drawing the royal house of France into the conflict.
The most widely important event of this period was the siege and capture of AvignonThis article is about the city in France, for the Municipality in Quebec, see Avignon Regional County Municipality, Quebec. Avignon (pronounced [avin^O~] in SAMPA, Provencal: Avignoun is a commune in southern France with some 88,300 inhabitants in the cit. Both Honorius and Louis VIII turned a deaf ear to Frederick's assertion of the claims of the empire to that town.