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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow 268.: Innocent III Grants the Use of the Mitre to the Abbot of Marseilles, 1204. - A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age

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Collection: Primary Sources
Subject Area: History

268.: Innocent III Grants the Use of the Mitre to the Abbot of Marseilles, 1204. - Oliver J. Thatcher, A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age [1905]

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A Source Book for Mediaeval History. Selected Documents Illustrating the History of Europe in the Middle Age, ed. Oliver J. Thatcher and Edgar Holmes McNeal (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1905).

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268.

Innocent III Grants the Use of the Mitre to the Abbot of Marseilles, 1204.

The mitre was the headdress which bishops wore on important occasions. Like the pallium it was conferred on them by the pope and symbolized their high spiritual authority. Occasionally the pope granted its use to some abbot whom he wished especially to honor. Hence we have the expression, “a mitred abbot.”

Innocent etc. . . . to the abbot of Marseilles. . . . Because your monastery has always kept the true faith and been ardently devoted to the Roman church we have thought that we ought to honor you personally in every way possible. In order therefore that you may be more zealously devoted to your divine duties, we have determined to grant you the use of the mitre.