unlucky King John to accept a certain archbishop for England; and when
John refused, England was laid under an "interdict," that is, no
church services could be held there, not even to shrive the dying or
bury the dead. For a while John was scornful, but at length his
accumulating troubles forced him to kneel submissively to the Pope,
surrender his crown, and receive it back as a vassal of the papacy
under obligation to pay heavy tribute. By the same weapon of an
interdict Innocent forced the mighty Philip Augustus to take back a
wife whom he had divorced without papal consent. And in Germany
Innocent twice secured the creation of an emperor of his own choice,
the second being the child, Frederick II, who had been brought up
under the Pope's own guardianship.

Among other spectacular features of his reign Innocent founded the
Inquisition, and thus formally divorced the Church from its earlier
preaching of universal peace and love. Moreover, he attempted a
diversion of the tremendous, wasted power of the crusades. He wanted
holy wars fought nearer home, and preached a crusade against John of
England. The mere threat brought John to his knees; and Innocent then
turned his newfound weapon against the heretics of southern France,
the Albigenses. These unfortunate people, having a certain religious
firmness wholly incomprehensible to John, refused submission.

The crusade against them became an actual and awful reality. In the
name of Christ, men devastated a Christian country. The spirit of
persecution thus aroused became rampant in religion and remained so
for over half a thousand years. Rebels against the Church accepted its
most evil teaching, and in their brief periods of power became
torturers and executioners in their turn.