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Pope Innocent II

Pope Innocent II

?–1143 CE · Rome

Gregorio Papareschi, a Roman of the Papareschi family, was elected Innocent II in 1130 by part of the cardinals, while another faction chose Anacletus II, producing an eight-year schism that divided Europe. Backed decisively by Bernard of Clairvaux, whose advocacy swayed kings and bishops, Innocent ultimately prevailed after Anacletus's death. He convened the Second Lateran Council in 1139, which annulled his rival's acts and issued reform canons. His reign also saw conflict with the Norman king Roger II of Sicily, who briefly captured him. The schism revealed how reform-era electoral rules could still fracture under aristocratic and ideological rivalry.

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Stop 0 of 11116–1130Born

RomeרומאItaly

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About Rome

# Rome In the late eleventh and twelfth centuries, Rome lay within the Papal States, the territorial domain of the Catholic Church, though its temporal glory as an empire had long faded. The city sprawled across its famous hills along the Tiber River, a landscape of crumbling ancient monuments, medieval fortifications, and Romanesque churches that dominated the skyline. The Jewish community of Rome was among Europe's most ancient, tracing roots to the second century BCE, and it flourished in a precarious but resilient position under papal authority; while confined to restricted quarters and subject to discriminatory laws, Roman Jews maintained a sophisticated intellectual and commercial life, with Hebrew scholarship and biblical commentary flourishing despite—or perhaps because of—the community's isolation. The Jewish quarter itself, densely packed and vibrant, became a center of learning where skilled scribes copied manuscripts and rabbinical discussions drew on centuries of local tradition. What made Rome extraordinary for Torah study was not merely its learned scholars but the tangible presence of antiquity itself: the community lived amid the ruins of pagan temples and Roman law, giving their interpretations of Jewish law a unique resonance, as if they were rebuilding Jewish civilization in the very streets where Roman power had once reigned supreme.

In Rome at the same time

Pope Gregory VIII, Pope Celestine II, Pope Honorius II, Pope Callixtus II, Pope Gelasius II

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