Clement III Born into a wealthy Roman family, Paolo Scolari was cardinal bishop of Praeneste when he was elected pope in 1187. He took the name Clement, and he made peace with Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. Clement returned the papacy to Rome; his predecessors had been in exile for 16 years because of communards. He also regained the Papal States and made the church in Scotland accountable to Rome, rather than to York. In 1189, he preached the Third Crusade, during which the crusaders recaptured Jerusalem. Clement died in 1191, the year the crusade ended.
12th-century Catholic pope Not to be confused with Antipope Clement III.Pope Clement III (Latin: Clemens III; 1130 – 20 March 1191), born Paulino (or Paolo) Scolari, was the head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 December 1187 to his death.
Cardinal
A Roman by birth, Pope Alexander III appointed him in succession archpriest of the patriarchal Liberian Basilica, cardinal-deacon of Sergio e Bacco, and finally cardinal bishop of Palestrina in December 1180.
Pope
Shortly after his accession at the conclusion of the papal election 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 magistrates, while the nomination of the governor of the city remained in the hands of the pope. On 31 May 1188 he concluded a treaty with the Romans which removed long standing difficulties, thus returning the papacy to Rome.
Clement also inherited a depleted college of cardinals, consisting of no more than twenty cardinals. He orchestrated three series of promotions (March 1188, May 1189 and October 1190) that resulted in over thirty new cardinals.
He pushed King Henry II of England and King Philip II of France to undertake the Third Crusade. In April 1189, Clement made peace with the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.
He settled a controversy with King William I of Scotland concerning the choice of the archbishop of St Andrews, and on 13 March 1188 removed the Scottish church from the legatine jurisdiction of the Archbishop of York, thus making it independent of all save Rome.
In spite of agreeing to crown Henry VI as Holy Roman Emperor, Clement III angered him by bestowing Sicily on Tancred, son of Roger III, Duke of Apulia. The crisis was acute when the Pope died in the latter part of March 1191.
