Pope Innocent II

He once said that it was better to steal from the rich than to slay the poor with usury.

Pope Innocent II in 1139 condemned usury and said that it was better to steal from the rich as well.

He said, he quote, he condemned the insatiable rapacity of usurers.

Thomas Aquinas once wrote the Summa Theologica in 1485 that, quote, the usurer violates the law of the just price by taking back more than he originally handed over, end quote.

It's Innocent the...?

Innocent II.

II, to hand the tiara to Innocent II, who's sitting on the throne in the Lateran Basilica, and to kiss his foot and do obeisance to him.

It took Bernard, St. Bernard of Clairvaux 48 hours to make that happen.

Unfortunately, Anacletus II died, um, never having been removed, corrected, never having repented, anything like that.

There he lived a year, a perfect model of all the virtues to that house of saints, till Pope Gregory VII commanded him, in virtue of holy obedience, to resume his pastoral charge.

He earnestly solicited Pope Innocent II for leave to resign his bishopric that he might die in solitude, but was never able to obtain his request.

God was pleased to purify his soul by a lingering illness before he called him to himself.

Some time before his death, he lost his memory for everything but his prayers.

He closed his penitential course on the 1st of April in 1132, wanting only two months of being 80 years old, of which he had been 52 years bishop.

Miracles attested the sanctity of his happy death, and he was canonized by Innocent II in 1134.

Reflection.

Let us learn from the example of the saints to shun the tumult of the world as much as our circumstances will allow, and give ourselves up to the exercises of holy solitude, prayer, and pious reading.

The Roman church saw the destructive power of the crossbow and took a firm stand against it.

In 1139, Pope Innocent II created an embargo known as the Anathema.

This stated that the use of crossbows against Christians opposed the will of God, and all soldiers were forbidden to use it.

The longbow was also used with deadly effectiveness against mail.