User:Ashylou04/Pope Clement III

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Pope Clement III was the pope from 1187-1191. Successor to Pope Gregory VIII.

Pope Clement III, born Paolo di Giovanni de Scolari, in Rome and elected pope in 1187.[1] Clement was the second pope from Rome after Innocent III, and on May 31, 1888 Clement returned the papacy to Rome.[2] Clement was elected pope during a time of agitation in Rome between the Romans and the papacy, Clement helped to fix the issues between the Romans and the Papacy, something that was helped him due to being Roman.

AGITATION IN ROME-

In Rome during the twelfth century, Pope Lucius III in 1181, even though it was traditional, decided to not give Romans the beneficia, which helped spur the conflict and agitation romans felt towards the Papacy.[3]

Clement III was born into the Scolari family, a family growing in power during in Rome in the twelfth century.[4] Italy in the twelfth century was becoming increasingly diverse in the populations of who was living in the cities.[5] There were nobles, craftsmen, artisans, peasants, and shopkeepers all living in the same city, and these new nobles were being created by the commune, who kept creating knights. These communes were little governments in a big government that were gaining power throughout Italy.[6] Since the Scolari family were growing in power in this economy and environment, their influence would be able to reach and would be able to combine their feudal institutions tied to their land and family to grow the power and strength of the Papacy as well as grow his family’s name and power.[7]

ELECTION AS POPE.

The election of Clement as Pope happened on December 19, 1187 two days after Pope Gregory VII passed away.[8] Two months earlier, the cardinals had rejected the then Paul Scolari Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina’s to become Pope due to his poor health.[9] 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 Theobald of Ostia on hand for when Clement died.[10]

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.[11]

The election of the Romans into the Papacy was happening in Italy during a time of conflict between the papacy and the Romans, who were becoming stronger and more powerful without following the bishops of their cities and were becoming economically independent.[12]

PAPACY

Clement was around 50 years old when he was elected as the Pope.

As the pope, Clement made a treaty with the Romans, seen by some historians as being turbulent and eager.[13] Clement was the successor of Pope Urban III, who while Pope was fighting with Frederick Barbarossa of Sicily, who was attempting to take over Rome and turn the Papacy into one of his vassals.[14]

CREATED CARDINALS

As a Roman Pope elected by Roman Cardinals, Clement elected many Cardinals who also happened to be Roman as well, bringing the total number of cardinals at his death to a grand total of thirty-one.[15] This number of cardinals had not been seen since 1159 under Hadrian IV.[16]

[1] Chris Wickham, Medieval Rome: Stability & Crisis of a City, 900-1150 (Oxford: Oxford

University Press, 2015), 291.

[2] Wickham, Medieval Rome, 34.

Ian S. Robinson, The Papacy 1073-1198.( Cambridge University Press, 1990,1993), 5.

[3] Robinson, The Papacy, 5.

[4] Robinson, The Papacy, 32

[5] Trevor Dean and Daniel Waley, The Italian City-Republics (United Kingdom: Pearson Education Limited, 2010), 12.

[6] Dean and Waley, The Italian City-Republics, 12, 23-24, 31.

[7] Robinson, The Papacy, 32.

[8] Robinson, The Papacy, 506.

[9] Robinson, The Papacy, 506.

[10] Robinson, The Papacy, 32.

[11] Robinson, The Papacy, 87.

[12] Dean and Waley, The Italian City-Republics, 13, 23-24.

[13] Barry William Francis, Papal Monarchy from St. Gregory the Great to Boniface VIII (560-1303) (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons), 285.

[14] Francis, Papal Monarchy, 285.

[15] Robinson, The Papacy, 88.

[16] Robinson, The Papacy, 89.