Abstract
Innocent III in a spirit of humility quoted these words as the text of his sermon given at his consecration. The words of this simple discourse epitomize well the life of the man who uttered them, a man at whose deeds a contemporary sovereign admiringly exclaimed; "that apostolic Pope Innocent was the best of Popes. For a hundred years before the time that I am writing this book, there had not been so good a Pope in all the Church of Rome; for he was a good clerk in that sound learning that a Pope should have; and he had a good natural sense and a great knowledge of this world."