ALEXANDER III. (Orlando Bandinelli), pope from 1159 to
1181, was a Siennese, and as a teacher of canon law in Bologna
composed the
Stroma or the
Summa Magistri Rolandi, one
of the earliest commentaries on the
Decretum Gratiani. In
October 1150 Eugenius III. created him cardinal deacon SS.
Cosmae and Damiani; later he became cardinal priest of St
Mark's. Probably about this time he composed his
Sentences,
based on the
Introductio ad theologiam of
Abelard. In
1153 he became papal chancellor, and was the leader of the
cardinals opposed to
Frederick Barbarossa. On the 7th of
September 1159 he was chosen the successor of Adrian IV.,
a minority of the cardinals, however, electing the cardinal
priest Octavian, who assumed the name of Victor IV. This
antipope, and his successors Paschal III. (1164-1168) and
Calixtus III. (1168-1178), had the imperial support; but after
the defeat of Legnano, Barbarossa finally (in the peace of
Venice, 1177) recognized Alexander as pope. On the 12th
of March 1178 Alexander returned to Rome, which he had been
compelled to leave twice, namely, from 1162 until the 23rd of
November 1165, and again in 1167. The first period he spent
in France, the latter chiefly in Gaeta, Benevento, Anagni and
Venice. In March 1179 Alexander held the third Lateran synod,
a brilliant assemblage, reckoned by the Roman church as the
eleventh oecumenical council; its acts embody several of the
pope's proposals for the betterment of the condition of the
church, among them the present law requiring that no one
may be elected pope without the votes of two-thirds of the
cardinals. This synod marks the summit of Alexander's
power. Besides checkmating Barbarossa, he had humbled
Henry II. of England in the affair of Thomas Becket, he
had confirmed the right of Alphonso I. of Portugal to the
crown, and even as a fugitive had enjoyed the favour and
protection of Louis VII. of France. Nevertheless, soon after
the close of the synod the Roman republic forced Alexander
to leave the city, which he never re-entered; and on the 29th
of September 1179 some nobles set up the antipope Innocent
III. By the judicious use of money, however, Alexander
got him into his power, so that he was deposed in January
1180. In 1181 Alexander excommunicated William the Lion of
Scotland and put the kingdom under the interdict. The great
pope died at Civita Castellana on the 30th of August 1181.
See
Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, 3rd ed., i. 340-344
Wetzer
and Welte, Kirchenlexikon, 2nd ed., 1481.
The most elaborate
biography is H. Reuter, Geschichte Alexanders III. und der Kirche
seiner Zeit (3 vols., 2nd ed., Leipzig, 1860). (W. W. R.*)
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