

Clement the Third was a Roman whose father was John (Ioanne), surnamed Scolari. When he noted that Christian affairs in Asia were becoming more precarious from day to day, he exhorted the Christians by a general call to place the sign of the cross of salvation upon their garments, and to take it into their hearts, urging them to take arms against the infidels for the glory of eternal blessedness. This exhortation moved the Roman emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, Philip of France, Richard the king of England, and Otto, the duke of Burgundy, who were followed by a countless number of archbishops, bishops, and other princes; as well as the Venetians and Pisans, and those from Friesland and Dacia with a great naval force, William of Sicily freed the seas of the infidels and pirates, and forwarded grain from Apuleia and Sicily. Those princes fought manfully in Asia, but with varying fortunes. Clement, however, devoted himself to the establishment of order and the correcting of clerical and spiritual matters; and through his earnestness he corrected various acts of misconduct and immorality. He also built the monastery of Saint Lawrence (Laurentii) outside the walls, restored the foundation of the Lateran, and ornamented the church with spiral work. He died in the third year and fifth month of his pontificate, and was buried in the Lateran Basilica.[Clement III, (Paolo Scolari), pope from 1187 to 1191, a Roman, cardinal bishop of Palestrina, was chosen pope in 1187. In 1188 he settled a controversy with William of Scotland concerning the choice of the archbishop of St. Andrews; and he removed the Scottish church from the legatine jurisdiction of the bishop of York, thus making it independent of all save Rome. Clement strenuously promoted the crusade, a movement which tended most unexpectedly to avert the antagonism of the emperor Frederick, who, forgetting his controversy with the pope, went to Asia with a large army in 1189; and there he met his death in 1191. The kings of France and England had joined this crusade, and Clement made a compact with the Romans in 1188, by which he settled the differences that had existed for fifty years between that people and the papal see, and thus took one great step toward the full possession of Rome by the pontiffs. He annoyed Henry VI of Germany by bestowing the crown of Sicily on Tancred, a natural son of Roger, duke of Apuleia, who was the eldest son of Roger, first king of Sicily. This greatly angered Henry, for the death of William II, king of Sicily, in 1189, appeared to promise great advantages to the imperial house, William, having given his father’s sister Constantia in marriage to Henry, the emperor’s eldest son, having also declared her his heiress, and having caused her, with her husband, to receive homage in a general assembly. But the Sicilians were unwilling to submit to foreign rule. Henry was at a distance, and the pope was not pleased that such measures had been adopted with regard to the Sicilian succession without his approval; and there were many who did not wish the kingdom to pass to the Swabian house, and particularly not to a prince so hostile to the papacy as the young king Henry.]

Pope Celestine the Third, a Roman whose father Peter was surnamed Bobone (Bubonis), was previously called Giacinto, a cardinal. He was an aged man, rich in virtue, and was elected pope after Clement. In his pontificate there was a remarkable decline in the open hostility that the Sicilians had shown against his predecessors; for he determined to silence it. He was a good man. He crowned King Henry (Heinricum), mentioned below, as emperor. While he lived he employed all his zeal for the recovery of Jerusalem and the Holy Land. He gave the city of Viterbo[Viterbo is the provincial capital and Episcopal see of the district of Lazio (Latium), Italy, fifty-four miles by rail to the northwest of Rome. The cathedral, a fine basilica, of the 12th century, has a Gothic campanile in black and white stone. Here Pope Adrian IV (Nicholas Breakspear) compelled the emperor Frederick I to hold his stirrup as his vassal. The city was fortified by the Lombard king Desiderius, and is the center of the territory of the “patrimony of Peter,” which the Countess Matilda of Tuscany gave to the papal see in the 12th century. In the 13th century it became a favorite papal residence.] its name; and there he founded an episcopal church. He died in the sixth year, seventh month, and eleventh day of his pontificate, and was buried in the Basilica of Peter, mourned by all good people out of sadness and desire.

Celestine III (Giacinto Bobone), pope from 1191 to 1198, was formerly cardinal deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. It seemed as if the possibility of deliverance from the danger which threatened the papacy had only appeared like a vision to Clement III, in order to make his successor Celestine III all the more sensible of the nearness of impending ruin. Henry VI, who succeeded to the empire after the death of his father Frederick, hastened to Italy in 1191 and compelled the pope to crown him.

After the death of Tancred in 1193, his heir, who was but a minor, and unable to continue the struggle with the emperor, Henry caused himself to be crowned king of Sicily without asking the pope’s consent. Nor could the pope restrain him from harsh measures toward the adherents of the late king, and others, who opposed his pretensions. On the whole, Henry VI, during his short reign, was more formidable to the pope than his father had been. He forbade appeals to Rome throughout Italy, under the penalty of imprisonment; and he maintained his right of decision in disputed elections to bishoprics. Henry VI died in the prime of manhood in 1197, and Celestine followed him in 1198. This premature death of the emperor, coinciding with that of the aged and feeble Pontius, delivered the papal see from one of the most critical situations in which it had ever been placed. During his pontificate, Prince John of England and his barons refused to recognize the papal legate, the bishop of Ely, and Richard I had been set free before the dilatory pope had put Leopold of Austria under the ban. Celestine III was succeeded by Innocent III, then a man only 37 years of age.

Saladin, king of Egypt, being a powerful man and strict in all things, was elected king upon the death of Nureddin (Noradino), the king of the Saracens; and he reigned 16 years. Soon after accepting the sovereignty, he made war against the king of Egypt, took him prisoner and had him put do death. He made war throughout Egypt and Syria, and subjugated them to his authority. With a mighty army he robbed and murdered man and beast in the kingdom of Jerusalem; however, before that time he had been twice defeated by Baldwin (Baldvino) the king, as previously stated. Afterwardds he conducted an expedition against Emmanuel (Emanuelem), the Greek king, whom he defeated and killed. This victory made him so proud and haughty that with a powerful force he proceeded against the Christians at Jerusalem and (as above stated) captured this Holy City, which had been under Christian kings for eighty-eight years since King Godfrey (Gothefridum). And before he entered the Temple of Solomon, he caused it to be washed with rose-water and cleansed of its evil spirits. He lacked nothing except the name of a Christian to make him the subject of the greatest veneration. When about to die he prescribed that his corpse on its way to the grave should be preceded by a black cloth suspended from a lance, and that a herald should go before, crying, I, the master of all Asia, bring but this little piece of cloth, although I was so rich and mighty that no one was my equal.

Saladin (Salah-ed-din Yussuf ibn Ayub), whose name means “Honoring the Faith,” was sultan of Egypt and Syria and founder of a dynasty. He was born at Tikrit, on the Tigris, in 1138. His father, a Kurd, was a governor at Tikrit under the Seljuks. He entered the service of Nur-ed-din, and was made grand-vizier of the Fatimite caliph, whom in 1171 he overthrew, constituting himself sovereign of Egypt. When Nur-ed-din died in 1174, Saladin began his conquests of Syria, and proclaimed himself sultan of Egypt and Syria, reduced Mesopotamia, and received the homage of the Seljuk princes of Asia Minor. By 1186, Saladin had subdued the last independent vassal, and now the Latin kingdom was enclosed on every side by a hostile empire.

In 1187, a four years’ truce was broken by the brilliant brigand Raynald of Chatillon, and thus began Saladin’s third period of conquest, the first having been the conquest of Egypt, and the second, the annexation of Syria. In May he cut to pieces a small body of Templars and Hospitallers at Tiberias, and on July 4th inflicted a crushing defeat upon the united Christian army at Hittin. He then overran Palestine and besieged and took the city of Jerusalem as a crown to his victories. Before entering the city he purified it, and showed chivalrous clemency to the Christian inhabitants. Saladin died at Damascus on March 4th, 1193, and was mourned by the whole East.

Alpais (Alpaidis), the holy woman of Cudot, at this time was famous. She lived many years without bodily sustenance. She was born of peasants, and was a herder of cattle. She was lean of body, and her innards were starved; but her countenance was as beautiful and full as if she had soared in an abundance of pleasure. She was often elevated to ecstasy through angelic guidance. Although born and reared in the country, her speech was wonderfully intelligent, and her words prudent.[Alpais (also spelled Alpaida, Alpaidis, and Alphais) of Cudot (d. 1211), is venerated by the Catholic Church. Born into a peasant family of Cudot, in the diocese of Sens, she came down with leprosy at a young age. It is said that she denied herself food, and for a long time her only nourishment was the Eucharist.]