Innocent III

the greatest of the name, born in Arragon; succeeded Celestine III.; extended the territorial power of the Church, and made nearly all Christen dom subject to its sway; e ayed the recovery of Palestine, and promoted a crusade against the Albigenses; excommunicated Otto IV., emperor of Germany; put England under an interdict, and deposed King John; was zealous for the purity as well as supremacy of the Church, and countenanced every movement that contributed to enhance its influence and stereotype its beliefs as well as its forms of worship, transubstantiation among the one and auricular confe ion among the other; though harsh, and even cruel, to those whom he conceived to be the enemies of the faith, he was personally a man of blamele life, and did much to reform the morals of the clergy.