Pope Clement III

. Clement III, real name Paolo Scolari (* in Rome, † March 25, 1191 ), was from December 19, 1187 to Pope. Before his pontificate, he held the offices of the Pontifical subdeacon, the archpriest of Santa Maria Maggiore and from 1181 to 1187 the Cardinal Bishop of Preneste. Pope Clement III. was buried in S. Giovanni in Laterano. With the great fire in 1308 his tomb was lost. The Roman Clement III. was the first pope since 1144 thanks to a contract to return to the Senate of the city and related financial commitments to Rome and reside there relatively undisturbed from 1188. Still in 1188 he sent two cardinal legate to Palermo to demand of King William II allegiance to the Kingdom of Sicily, which was since 1130 a papal fief. By the oath of the king regulated by the Concordat of Benevento from 1156 legal bases between the papal curia and the Norman rulers were confirmed. In 1189, Clemens joined with the Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, the Treaty of Strasbourg, which regulated the complete return of the Papal States.

Even as Frederick I Barbarossa was on the Third Crusade, died in November 1189, King William II in Palermo. Since he left no legitimate heirs, his aunt Constance was the last legitimate heir of the Kingdom of Sicily. She was with the German heir Henry VI since January 1186. married. This threatened the papal fief Sicily to fall at the future emperor. This was Clement III. avoid at all costs and therefore supported the usurpation of the Sicilian throne by Count Tancred of Lecce, an illegitimate grandson of the first Norman King Roger II This offended the Pope against the force in Sicily inheritance and also against the Concordat of 1156th The bruised heirs Konstanze and Henry fought since the coup by the end of the usurpation and entry into the Sicilian heritage on the basis of that very law agreements from the Concordat of Benevento.

The by Clement III. with Frederick Barbarossa agreed imperial coronation of Henry VI. and Constance came to Barbarossa's death on the Crusade ( June 1190 ) because of the armor of Henry VI. not materialize more against Tancred and the death of the Pope in March 1191. It was the first official act of Clement's successor, Celestine III. , Who took the imperial coronation on April 15, 1191.

Clement III. had in 1188 agreed with the Romans the destruction of Rome adjacent municipality Tusculum. Since the conquest Tusculums was the Romans until the spring of 1191 did not succeed, the case has been the subject of negotiations for the imperial coronation of Henry VI. The Tusculans had called the kingdom for help, and King Henry VI. had let then move until further troops into the city. Due to the agreements between the Curia and the Romans in the year 1188 and after the Romans had an uninterrupted imperial coronation of Henry and Constance assured the imperial troops were withdrawn from the city and taken Tusculum few days later by the Romans, destroyed, and finally is the Pope.