Lucius III, Pope

LUCIUS III, Pope. - Ubaldo Allucingoli of Lucca, died at Verona on 25 November 1185. A Cistercian, received into the Order by St. Bernard of Clairvaux himself. Created cardinal of Sts. John and Paul in 1141 by Innocent II, he was from 1159 bishop of Ostia and Velletri. The popes, especially Alexander III, entrusted him with various political and religious missions. On the death of Alexander III he was elected pope (1 September 1181) at Velletri and crowned there on 6 September. After a brief stay in Rome (November 1181-March 1182), L. III had to leave it forever because of the rebellion of the Romans, to whom he had refused to pay the sum demanded for swearing allegiance to him, and because of the question of Tusculum, which the pope wished to preserve from total destruction.

He subsequently resided at Velletri, Anagni, Segni, Veroli and Albano, because with the death of Christian, archbishop of Mainz and chancellor of the Empire, he lost the strong support that would have brought him back to Rome. In the summer of 1184, L. III, passing through Lucca, Bologna and Modena (recognition of the body of St. Geminianus), reached Verona on 22 July, where he met with Frederick Barbarossa, to discuss the great religious and political problems. The meeting, which had the character of a synod, dragged on for three months, but L. III did not obtain the help he hoped for against the Romans, nor did he reach a happy solution regarding the possessions of Countess Matilda of Canossa. He refused to crown as emperor the son of Barbarossa, Henry VI, and opposed the latter's marriage to Constance, heiress of the Norman kingdom of the Two Sicilies. L. III found Frederick in agreement only on the severe measures of repression against the heretics, who had become bold and numerous in northern Italy, sanctioned on 4 November 1184 with the constitution Ad abolendam, which laid down rules for the searching out and punishment of heretics. Shortly afterwards the aged Pontiff died.

Francesco Pascolini