PIETRO di CAPUA. — Cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata in 1192, then priest of S. Marcello in 1201. In 1192 he was entrusted with a mission to Poland, Bohemia, and Silesia to promote the work of reform, and held a council at Lenczig to regulate the celibacy of the clergy and promote among the laity the concept of the sanctity of Marriage through its celebration in the Church (Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1178).
On his return he was imprisoned near Piacenza by the marquis Guglielmo Pallavicino, for which reason the city was placed under interdict by the pope. In 1198 he was sent to France to settle the disputes provoked by King Filippo Augusto on account of his divorce from his wife Ingeburga, sister of Canuto III, king of Denmark (Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1219); at the same time he also dealt with the affairs of the new Crusade, and at the Synod of Vernon in 1199 succeeded in concluding a truce between King Filippo Augusto and Riccardo Cuor di Leone, king of England, which, however, did not last. He presided over other councils in France until 1201 to attend to these affairs (Hefele-Leclercq, V, 1126-28) and to ecclesiastical discipline. In 1203 P. informed Innocenzo III of the pact of Zara concluded by the Crusaders for the expedition against Constantinople; he was at S. Giovanni d'Acri in 1203; in 1204 he presided over a council at Antioch for negotiations with the Armenians, and in the autumn embarked with Goffredo Gaetani for Constantinople. In 1211 negotiations were undertaken for him to become its patriarch.