Pope Honorius III

Cencio Savelli reigned as Honorius III from 1216 to 1227, and his pontificate is defined by a crusade that failed and two religious orders that changed the church. He had been papal chamberlain and had compiled the Liber Censuum, a register of everything owed to the papacy, which tells you what kind of administrator he was. He had also been tutor to the young Frederick II, which shaped everything that followed: he spent his reign urging his former pupil to go on crusade and being put off with promises, and left the reckoning to his successor Gregory IX. He inherited the Fifth Crusade from Innocent III and pushed it hard. It went to Egypt, took Damietta, refused a Sultan's offer of Jerusalem in exchange for withdrawal, marched on Cairo at the wrong season and was trapped by the Nile flood, and surrendered everything it had gained. His lasting acts were quieter. He gave formal approval to the Dominicans in 1216 and confirmed the Franciscan rule in 1223, recognising two orders of preachers who owned nothing at a moment when the church badly needed them. He crowned Frederick emperor in 1220 and Peter of Courtenay Latin emperor of Constantinople. He also authorised the teaching of canon law at Paris and supported the young universities. He also approved the Carmelites and confirmed the rule of the Trinitarians. The Liber Censuum he compiled before becoming pope remains one of the most important sources for the finances and landholdings of the medieval papacy. He died in 1227 with Frederick's crusade still unfulfilled.

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