The Catholic priest-scholar Johann Peter Kirsch, 1500 years later, described Innocent as a very energetic and highly gifted individual "...who fulfilled admirably the duties of his office".

That such opportunities were numerous and varied is evident from his communications with Victricius of Rouen, Exuperius of Toulouse, Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as how he acted when John Chrysostom appealed to him against Theophilus of Alexandria.

[5][6] The historian Zosimus, in his Historia Nova, suggests that during the sack of Rome in 410 by Alaric I, Innocent I was willing to permit private pagan practices as a temporary measure.

Innocent's portrayal of the church as an institution "where there is protection for all, ... where there is security, where there is a port that resists the waves, where there is a treasure of infinite goods" was quoted by Pope Gregory XVI in correspondence with the French cleric Félicité de La Mennais in 1833.

In 405, Pope Innocent sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, Exsuperius of Toulouse,[9] identical with that of Trent (which took place more than 1000 years later),[10][11][12] except for some uncertainty in the manuscript tradition about whether the letters ascribed to Paul were 14 or only 13, in the latter case possibly implying omission of the Epistle to the Hebrews.