of Orsini, and during his reign the young Cardinal remained in
retirement and consoled himself by writing a book on the _Despite of
the World_. Thus he was young, noble, wealthy, and distinguished.
He showed his power of self-control at once by doing nothing to
shorten the canonical time before his consecration as priest and
bishop; while the magnificence of the coronation ceremonies typified
the view which he took of the office and position.

[Sidenote: The condition of Europe.]

The work of Innocent III was European in importance, and he found his
opportunity in the disturbed condition of the time. The rivalry of
Ghibelline and Guelf in Germany and Italy, and the rivalry of the
houses of Capet and Plantagenet in France, forbade any concerted
action on the part of Christendom, whether against pagans on the
eastern frontier of Germany or against Mohammedans in Spain or Syria.
Hungary and Poland were both in a state of ferment; in Spain the
Almohades from Morocco were making serious advances. Saladin's death
might seem to offer a peculiarly favourable chance of recovering for
Christendom what had been so recently lost. But the Empire was
divided; England and France neutralised each other, the Eastern Empire
was weakened by the success of an usurper, the knightly orders were
quarrelling with each other. And this state of disunion was not the
most dangerous feature of the moment. The moral condition of Europe
was seldom worse. Philip of France had repudiated his Danish wife,
Ingebiorg, apparently for no more valid reason than that he liked some
one better; Alfonso of Castile took his own half-sister to wife.
Oriental manners, imported from Palestine or learnt from commercial
intercourse in the Mediterranean, seemed to be invading the furthest
regions of the West. Perhaps to the same influence may be attributed