What was Pope Innocent III's response to the Children's crusade led by Stephan of Cloyes?

Question

In 1212, two groups involving children embarked on crusades to the Holy Land. They are generally lumped together and known as the Children's Cruade. They were not true crusades in the sense that the pope did not call for a crusade and nor did he sanction it (or them).

One group (from Germany) was led by a shepherd called Nicholas. They had been inspired, according to History Guide, by an earlier group from France. When they arrived in Rome, they were told by Pope Innocent III to return home.

The earlier group, also led by a shepherd, Stephan of Cloyes, got to Marseilles where they boarded ships under false pretenses - they were sold into slavery. They had been advised by the French King Philip II to return home.

According to Brittanica.com, the participants of at least one of these groups took the Crusader's vow, and this vow was recognized as valid by the church, but it is not clear whether this recognition was at the time of the crusade or at some later point.

I can't find any reference to any response of the Pope to this first group. Was there any, or did the pope just react to the second group (from Germany) because they turned up in the Papal States? Also, did the church take any action to prevent further groups of 'unofficial' crusades involving children?

Answer 1

I think there is a good reason we can't find Pope Innocent III's response...it appears there was none and it's questionable if he had the opportunity to make one.

From all accounts I can find, the generally accepted number for the First Childrens crusade is in the range of 30'000 (Low end about 15k, one Christian site has 300k on it). The timeline on this Crusade is quite short (June 1212 to Dec-ish 1212). Stephen of Cloyes leads the group of children to Marseilles and by that time his numbers have dwindled (food and children attempting to return home). Upon reaching Marseilles, Stephen expected the ocean to part and reveal the path to Jerusalem...when it didn't, another portion of the remaining children turned on him and attempted the return home. We can almost call this point the conclusion of the Childrens crusade...I'm unsure on the remaining number at this point, but they were able to fit onto 7 ships in total which leads me to believe the numbers involved were under 1000 at this point.

It's possible Pope Innocent III wasn't aware of this Children's Crusade until after it 'mostly' disbanded after the sea failed to part for them. The only reason he was able to make a statement to the second group was because they appeared on his door step before their numbers started to decline. Communication in Medieval times wasn't quick after all.

Kinda hate posted a non-answer answer, but all research points to there being no statement to the point where it's questionable if Pope Innocent III knew of the French Childrens Crusade until afterwards.

Edit:

I think the argument can be made that the Pope here never considered the 2 children's campaigns as separate 'crusades' and rebuking the 1 was rebuking them both (therefore he didn't need to rebuke the French campaign individually). When he refers to the childrens crusade afterwards as "These children put us to shame. They rush to recover the Holy Land while we sleep." he seems to be referring to them collectively, and if that's true it's a reasonable assumption he felt the one response dealt with both.