Pope Clement III (; 1130 – 20 March 1191), was the head of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and ruler of the
Papal States
The Papal States ( ; ; ), officially the State of the Church, were a conglomeration of territories on the Italian peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope from 756 to 1870. They were among the major states of Italy from the 8th c ...
from 19 December 1187 to his death in 1191. He ended the conflict between the Papacy and the city of Rome, by allowing the election of magistrates, which reinstalled the Papacy back in the city after a six-year exile. Clement, faced with a deplete college of cardinals, created thirty-one cardinals over three years, the most since
Hadrian IV. He died 20 March 1191 and was quickly replaced by
Celestine III.
Family
Paolo Scolari was born in 1130 in Rome, at the ''
Rione
A (; : , ) is an administrative division of Italy, roughly equivalent to a township or municipality. It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions () and provinces (). The can also have the title of ().
Formed a ...
'' of the
Pigna, into a family of high social level but not noble, son of Giovanni and of his consort Maria and according to some scholars related to the mother of
Pope Innocent III
Pope Innocent III (; born Lotario dei Conti di Segni; 22 February 1161 – 16 July 1216) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1198 until his death on 16 July 1216.
Pope Innocent was one of the most power ...
.
Pope Alexander III
Pope Alexander III (c. 1100/1105 – 30 August 1181), born Roland (), was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181.
A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a Papal election, ...
appointed him archpriest of the patriarchal
Liberian Basilica
Santa Maria Maggiore (), also known as the Basilica of Saint Mary Major or the Basilica of Saint Mary the Great, is one of the four major papal basilicas and one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome. The largest Marian church in Rome, it is ...
, cardinal-deacon of Sergio e Bacco, and finally
cardinal bishop of Palestrina in December 1180.
Election
Paolo was elected as the new Pope on December 19, 1187, two days after the death of
Gregory VIII. He was the cardinals' second choice, but their first choice, cardinal
Theobald Theobald is a Germanic dithematic name, composed from the elements '' theod-'' "people" and ''bald'' "bold". The name arrived in England with the Normans.
The name occurs in many spelling variations, including Theudebald, Diepold, Theobalt, Ty ...
of
Ostia, refused the papal throne. Clement was the second Roman pope since
Innocent II
Pope Innocent II (; died 24 September 1143), born Gregorio Papareschi, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 14 February 1130 to his death in 1143. His election as Pope was controversial, and the first eight years o ...
.
Two months before being elected pope, Paolo Scolari had been rejected as a papal candidate by the cardinals due to being in poor health. Even during his office as pope his health was a cause of concern. An instance of his poor health was six months after he was elected in June 1188 the cardinals thought Clement was going to die and had pope-elect Cardinal Bishop Teobald of Ostia on hand for when Clement died. Though Clement was old and ill, he was still elected as pope and could have something to do with the small number of cardinals, only eight Cardinals and three of them having been known Romans, at the election of Clement. The electors of Clement may have been aiming for the possibility of returning the curia to Rome, which would in fact happen during his time as pope.
Papacy
Shortly after his accession at the conclusion of the
papal election
A conclave is a gathering of the College of Cardinals convened to appoint the pope of the Catholic Church. Catholics consider the pope to be the apostolic successor of Saint Peter and the earthly head of the Catholic Church.
Concerns around po ...
of December 1187, Clement succeeded in allaying the conflict which had existed for half a century between the popes and the citizens of Rome, with an agreement by which the citizens were allowed to elect their
magistrate
The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
s, while the nomination of the governor of the city remained in the hands of the pope. In March 1188 Clement III had agreed that the Roman Church would reimburse numerous Roman citizens who have not received any ''beneficia'' since Pope Lucius III, a probable cause of the conflict between the pope and Romans. On 31 May 1188 he concluded a treaty with the Romans which removed long standing difficulties, thus returning the papacy to Rome. Clement wrote a letter to Archbishop of Toledo, Gonzalo Perez, where he bemoaned the power conflicts and political division among Spain's Christian population. The pope emphasized in this letter that the Christian war in Spain, the Reconquista, against Muslims was comparable to the Crusades in the Holy Land and urged for effective unity and the formation of a powerful army to combat them.
Clement also inherited a depleted
college of cardinals
The College of Cardinals (), also called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. there are cardinals, of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Appointed by the pope, ...
, consisting of no more than twenty cardinals. He orchestrated three series of promotions (March 1188, May 1189 and October 1190) that resulted in thirty-one cardinals. This number of cardinals had not been seen since 1159, under
Hadrian IV. During Clement's papacy, the majority of cardinals were Romans, possibly due to Clement III being Roman as well and wanting to fill the Church with Romans.
Actions
Clement sent the Archbishop of Tyre, Josias, to persuade King
Henry II of England
Henry II () was King of England
The monarchy of the United Kingdom, commonly referred to as the British monarchy, is the form of government used by the United Kingdom by which a hereditary monarch reigns as the head of state, with the ...
and King
Philip II of France
Philip II (21 August 1165 – 14 July 1223), also known as Philip Augustus (), was King of France from 1180 to 1223. His predecessors had been known as kings of the Franks (Latin: ''rex Francorum''), but from 1190 onward, Philip became the firs ...
to undertake the
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade (1189–1192) was an attempt led by King Philip II of France, King Richard I of England and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa to reconquer the Holy Land following the capture of Jerusalem by the Ayyubid sultan Saladin in 1187. F ...
.
The relationship of Romans and Sicily had been turbulent and the Romans were increasingly becoming mad at the pope before 1188 which had led to two rival factions in the college of cardinals, with one faction becoming closer to forming an alliance with the king of Sicily, and the other side wanting reconciliation with the emperor.
In April 1189, Clement ended the conflict with
Frederick I Barbarossa
Frederick Barbarossa (December 1122 – 10 June 1190), also known as Frederick I (; ), was the Holy Roman Emperor from 1155 until his death in 1190. He was elected King of Germany in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt on 4 March 1152 and crowned in Aa ...
. In spite of agreeing to crown
Henry VI as
Holy Roman Emperor
The Holy Roman Emperor, originally and officially the Emperor of the Romans (disambiguation), Emperor of the Romans (; ) during the Middle Ages, and also known as the Roman-German Emperor since the early modern period (; ), was the ruler and h ...
, Clement III angered him by bestowing
Sicily
Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...
on
Tancred, son of
Roger III, Duke of Apulia. The crisis was acute when the Pope died in the latter part of March 1191.
Clement, after Alexander III prohibited supplying military information and material to Muslims, had a series of decretals increased the banned items people would be allowed to trade and called for an embargo with the Islamic world.
Clement settled a controversy with King
William I of Scotland
William the Lion (), sometimes styled William I (; ) and also known by the nickname ; e.g. Annals of Ulster, s.a. 1214.6; Annals of Loch Cé, s.a. 1213.10. ( 1142 – 4 December 1214), reigned as King of Alba from 1165 to 1214. His almost 49 ...
concerning the choice of the
archbishop
In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
of
St Andrews
St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...
, and on 13 March 1188 removed the
Scottish church from the legatine jurisdiction of the
Archbishop of York
The archbishop of York is a senior bishop in the Church of England, second only to the archbishop of Canterbury. The archbishop is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of York and the metropolitan bishop of the province of York, which covers the ...
, thus making it independent of all save Rome.
[Blair, D. Oswald Hunter, ''History of the Catholic Church of Scotland'', (Willian Blackwood and Sons, 1887), 329.]
Death
Clement died on 10 April 1191, Celestine III who was 85, was elected the day of Clements death unanimously. Celestine was not involved with either of the sides or factions that were the 'imperialists' nor the 'Sicilians'.
See also
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List of popes
This chronological list of the popes of the Catholic Church corresponds to that given in the under the heading "" (The Roman Supreme Pontiffs), excluding those that are explicitly indicated as antipopes. Published every year by the Roman Curia ...
*
Cardinals created by Clement III
References
Sources
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Attribution:
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Clement 03
Popes
Italian popes
Cardinal-bishops of Palestrina
Cardinals created by Pope Alexander III
12th-century Italian cardinals
1130 births
1191 deaths
12th-century popes
12th-century Italian Roman Catholic bishops
Burials at the Archbasilica of Saint John Lateran