Emotions, Gender, and Authority at the Curia of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216)

The project ‘Emotions, Gender, and Authority at the Curia of Pope Innocent III (1198–1216)’ examines emotional rhetoric in papal letters, sermons, and biography produced by the curia of Pope Innocent III. The aim of the project is to determine how the papacy used emotional language to shore up an exclusively masculine authority, at a time of crisis and renewal within the Latin Church. It concentrates in particular on how the curia used expressions of sorrow, anger, and emotive pastoral imagery in instances when the pope faced, or may have faced, challenges to his authority.