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Date of birth unknown; elected 19 December, 1187; d. 27
March, 1191. During the short space (1181-1198) which
separated the glorious pontificates of Alexander III and
Innocent III, no less than five pontiffs occupied in
rapid succession the papal chair. They were all veterans
trained in the school of Alexander, and needed only
their earlier youthful vigour and length of reign to
gain lasting renown in an age of great events. Gregory
VIII, after a pontificate of two months, died on 17
December, 1187, at Pisa, whither he had gone to expedite
the preparations for the recovery of Jerusalem; he was
succeeded two days later by the Cardinal-Bishop of
Palestrina, Paolo Scolari, a Roman by birth. The choice
was particularly acceptable to the Romans; for he was
the first native of their city who was elevated to the
papacy since their rebellion in the days of Arnold of
Brescia, and his well-known mildness and love of peace
turned their thoughts towards a reconciliation, more
necessary to them than to the pope. Overtures led to the
conclusion of a formal treaty, by which the papal
sovereignty and the municipal liberties were equally
secured; and in the following February Clement made his
entry into the city amid the boundless enthusiasm of a
population which never seemed to have learned the art of
living either with or without the pope.
Seated in the Lateran, Pope Clement turned his
attention to the gigantic task of massing the forces of
Christendom against the Saracens. He was the organizer
of the Third Crusade; and if that imposing expedition
produced insignificant results, the blame nowise
attaches to him. He dispatched legates to the different
courts, who laboured to restore harmony among the
belligerent monarchs and princes, and to divert their
energy towards the reconquest of the Holy Sepulchre.
Fired by the example of the Emperor Barbarossa and of
the Kings of France and England, a countless host of
Christian warriors took the road which led them to
Palestine and death. At the time of Clement's death,
just before the capture of Acre, the prospects,
notwithstanding the drowning of Barbarossa and the
return of Philip Augustus, still seemed bright enough.
The death of the pope's chief vassal, William II of
Sicily, precipitated another unfortunate quarrel between
the Holy See and the Hohenstaufen. Henry VI, the son and
successor of Barbarossa, claimed the kingdom by right of
his wife Constanza, the only legitimate survivor of the
House of Roger. The pope, whose independence was at an
end, if the empire and the Two Sicilies were held by the
same monarch, as well as the Italians who detested the
rule of a foreigner, determined upon resistance, and
when the Sicilians proclaimed Tancred of Lecce, a brave
but illegitimate scion of the family of Roger, as king,
the pope gave him the investiture. Henry advanced into
Italy with a strong army to enforce his claim; an
opportune death reserved the continuation of the contest
to Clement's successor, Celestine III. By a wise
moderation Clement succeeded in quieting the
disturbances caused by contested elections in the
Dioceses of Trier in Germany and St. Andrews in
Scotland. He also delivered the Scottish Church from the
jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of York and declared it
directly subject to the Holy See. Clement canonized Otto
of Bamberg, the Apostle of Pomerania (d. 1139), and
Stephen of Thiers in Auvergne, founder of the Hermits of
Grammont (d. 1124).
JAMES F. LOUGHLIN
Transcribed by Chris Cobb
The Catholic
Encyclopedia, Volume IV
Copyright © 1908 by Robert Appleton Company
Nihil Obstat. Remy Lafort, Censor
Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New
York
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