Pandulph(Us)

Pandulph(us)

a Roman cardinal, flourished in the first half of the 13th century. He was an- Italian by birth, and is spoken of as a man of consummate ability. Pandulph was high in the confidence of pope Innocent III, and was employed by the pontiff as legate to king John of England to bring about a reconciliation of that unhappy monarch with irresistible Rome. The successful termination of Pandulph's mission has been spoken of in our article JOHN SEE JOHN (q.v.). Of Pandulph's general personal history but little is accessible. Milman says that he was not cardinal at all (Hist. of Lat. Ch. v. 35, foot-note 2), but there is evidence to the contrary. The schismatic pope Anacletus II in 1230 made Pandulph cardinal-deacon of S. Cosmas and Damianus (comp. Wattenbach, Deutschland's Geschichtsquellen, p. 447). In 1225 Pandulph had been made bishop of Norwich by the king at the request of pope Honorius. Pandulph died about the middle of the century. He wrote the biographies of several pontiffs, among them-Gelasius II, Calixtus II, and Honorius II. As he was himself a party to the history of which he wrote in these works Pandulph's labor cannot be too highly estimated. He was moreover a man of great ability, and wielded a powerful pen. His imagination was lively, his eye appreciated beauty, and his heart was kindly disposed towards any of the men whom the Roman priesthood called to preside over their spiritual dominion, and he was therefore well fitted for the task he mapped out for himself. See Piper, Monum. Theol. p. 445, 446; Milman, Hist. of Lat. Ch. v. 25-26, 35- 36, 41, 50, 53, 316; Riddle, Hist. of the Papacy, 2:215-217.