1.
Antipope Clement III
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Guibert or Wibert of Ravenna was an Italian prelate, archbishop of Ravenna, who was elected pope in 1080 in opposition to Pope Gregory VII. This led to the known as the Investiture Controversy. He is considered an anti-pope by the Roman Catholic Church and he was born into the noble family of the Correggio, probably between 1020 and 1030. He had family connections to the Margraves of Canossa, a cleric, he was appointed to the Imperial chancellorship for Italy by the Empress Agnes in 1058, which position he held until 1063. And, although Pope Alexander II was reluctant to confirm this appointment, he was persuaded by Hildebrand to do so, Guibert then took an oath of allegiance to the pope and his successors and was installed at Ravenna in 1073. Shortly after Pope Alexander II died Hildebrand was proclaimed the next pope, having attended Gregorys first Lenten Synods, Guibert refused to attend the next, the Lenten Synod of 1075, although he was bound by oath to obey the summons to attend. Guibert was unsympathetic to Gregorys opposition to the Imperial Court, which Guibert had served as Chancellor of Italy, by his absence Guibert demonstrated his opposition to Gregory VII, who now suspended him for his refusal to attend the synod. It was in same year that Emperor Henry IV began his open war on Gregory. At the synod of Worms in January 1076, a resolution was adopted deposing Gregory, among these must have been Guibert, for he shared in the sentence of excommunication and interdiction which Gregory VII pronounced against the guilty Transpadine bishops at the Lenten Synod of 1076. In response to the action of Henrys 1076 Synod of Worms against Gregory, Gregory excommunicated Henry IV. During the next four years, the Emperor and the Pope reconciled but then quarreled again, Henry recognized Guibert as pope, swearing that he would lead him to Rome, and there receive from his hands the imperial crown. With Rudolph of Swabia, leader of the nobles, having fallen mortally wounded at the Battle of Mersburg in 1080. In 1081, he marched on Rome, but failed to force his way into the city, which he finally accomplished only in 1084. Gregory took refuge in Castel SantAngelo, and refused to entertain Henrys overtures, Gregory, however, insisted as a necessary preliminary that Henry should appear before a council and do penance. The Emperor, while pretending to submit to terms, tried hard to prevent the meeting of the bishops. A small number however assembled, and, in accordance with their wishes, john Lateran as Clement III, and on 31 March Guibert crowned Henry IV as Emperor at St. Peters. Pope Gregory was liberated, but the people were incensed by the excesses of his Norman allies, and he was compelled to leave Rome. Disappointed and sorrowing he withdrew to Monte Cassino, and later to the castle of Salerno by the sea, in 1084, three days before his death he withdrew all the censures of excommunication that he had pronounced, except those against the two chief offenders Henry and Guibert
2.
Pope Gregory VIII
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Pope Gregory VIII, born Alberto di Morra, reigned from 21 October to his death in 1187. Alberto di Morra was born about 1105 in Benevento, Italy and his father was the nobleman Sartorius di Morra. He became an early in life, either as a Cistercian in Laon. Alberto later joined a new order, the Premonstratensian or Norbertine order. He was a canon at St. Martins Abbey in Laon and he later became a professor of canon law in Bologna. In 1156, Pope Adrian IV made him cardinal-deacon of SantAdriano, as a papal legate of Pope Alexander III, he was sent to teach canon law throughout Europe in the 1160s, and was sent to Portugal to crown Afonso II. He also brought an offer of reconciliation in 1163 to Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, Alexander also sent him to England to investigate the murder of Thomas Becket, and he absolved King Henry II of England of the murder during the Council of Avranches. From 1177-1179, Alberto also served as a legate in Italy and it was in this position that di Morra. In his honor, the cursus was called stylus gregorianus and these two documents were very influential in shaping the rhetoric used in papal documents. Shortly before his election to the papacy, Alberto founded a monastery in his hometown of Benevento, on 21 October 1187, the day after the death of Pope Urban III, Alberto di Morra was elected pope and took the name Gregory VIII in honor of Pope Gregory VII. He was consecrated on 25 October and his previous dealings with Frederick Barbarossa put the church back in a friendly relationship with the Holy Roman Emperor. In response to the defeat of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem at the Battle of Hattin, Gregory travelled to Pisa in order to end Pisan hostilities with Genoa so that both seaports and naval fleets could join together for the crusade. On the way to Pisa, he stopped at Lucca and ordered Antipope Victor IVs body to be removed from his tomb, Gregory died in Pisa on 17 December 1187 of a fever after holding the papacy for only 57 days. He was buried in the Duomo in Pisa and he was succeeded by Pope Clement III. According to Joseph S. Brusher, His pontificate though brief was glorious, Brusher, Joseph S. Popes through the Ages. Delaney, John J. and James E. Tobin, giesebrecht, Wilhelm von & Simson, Bernhard von, Geschichte der deutschen Kaiserzeit, VI, Leipzig, Duncker & Humblot, available at the Internet Archive here, Volume VI. New York, Robert Appleton Company,1909, premonstratenisans/Norbertines A Look at out Way of Life. The International Website for the Order of Premontre
3.
Pope Celestine III
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Pope Celestine III, born Giacinto Bobone, reigned from 30 March or 10 April 1191 to his death in 1198. He was born into the noble Orsini family in Rome and served as a Cardinal-Deacon prior to becoming pope and he was ordained as a priest on 13 April 1191 and he ruled the church for six years, nine months, and nine days before he died aged 92. He was buried at the Lateran, considered by the Roman Curia as an expert on Spain, Bobone conducted two legatine missions to Spain in and as the Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin. He subsequently nearly excommunicated the same Henry VI for wrongfully keeping King Richard I of England in prison and he placed Pisa under an interdict, which was lifted by his successor Innocent III in 1198. He condemned King Alfonso IX of León for his marriage to Theresa of Portugal on the grounds of consanguinity, then, in 1196, he excommunicated him for making peace with the Muslims while making war on Castile. Following his marriage with Berengaria of Castile, Celestine excommunicated Alfonso, in 1198, he confirmed the statutes of the Teutonic Knights as a military order. He would have resigned the papacy and recommended a successor shortly before his death, the interdict in the thirteenth century, a question of collective guilt, Oxford University Press,2007. Gregorovius, Ferdinand, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages Volume IV, part 2, moore, John Clare, Pope Innocent III, to root up and to plant, BRILL,2003. The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages Volume X, sikes, Thomas Burr, History of the Christian Church, from the first to the fifteenth century, Eliott Stock,1885. The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol.1, Ed, david Luscombe, Jonathan Riley-Smith, Cambridge University Press,2004. Urban, William, The Teutonic Knights, Greenhill Books,2003, Pope Celestine III, Diplomat and Pastor, ed. Damian J. Smith, John Doran, Ashgate Publishing,2008. Initial text from the 9th edition of an old encyclopedia
4.
Pope Alexander III
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Pope Alexander III, born Roland of Siena, was Pope from 7 September 1159 to his death in 1181. He also laid the stone for the Notre-Dame de Paris. Pope Alexander III was born in Siena, from 14th century he is referred to as a member of the aristocratic family of Bandinelli, although this has not been proven. Noonan and Rudolf Weigand have shown this to be another Rolandus and he probably studied at Bologna, where Robert of Torigni notes that he taught theology. In October 1150, Pope Eugene III created him Cardinal-Deacon of Santi Cosma e Damiano, later he became Cardinal-Priest of St Mark. In 1153, he became chancellor and was the leader of the cardinals opposed to German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa. He negotiated the Treaty of Benevento, which restored peaceful relations between Rome and the Kingdom of Sicily, on 7 September 1159, he was chosen the successor of Pope Adrian IV. A minority of the cardinals, however, elected the cardinal priest Octavian and this meant that Alexanders legitimacy was gaining strength, as soon proved by the fact that other monarchs, such as the king of France and King Henry II of England, recognized his authority. Because of imperial strength in Italy, Alexander was forced to reside outside of Rome for a part of his pontificate. The first period he spent in France, the latter chiefly in Gaeta, Benevento, Anagni, Alexander III was the first pope known to have paid direct attention to missionary activities east of the Baltic Sea. The latter appointed a Benedictine monk Fulco as a bishop in Estonia, in 1171, Alexander became the first pope to address the situation of the Church in Finland, with Finns allegedly harassing priests and only relying on God in time of war. Besides checkmating Barbarossa, Alexander humbled King Henry II of England for the murder of Thomas Becket in 1170, to whom he was unusually close and this was the second English saint canonized by Alexander, the first being Edward the Confessor in 1161. Nonetheless, he confirmed the position of Henry as Lord of Ireland in 1172, even as a fugitive, Alexander enjoyed the favour and protection of Louis VII of France. In March 1179, Alexander III held the Third Council of the Lateran, one of the most important mediaeval church councils, the rule was altered slightly in 1996, but was restored in 2007. This synod marked the summit of Alexander IIIs power, by the judicious use of money, however, Alexander III got him into his power, so that he was deposed in January 1180. In 1181, Alexander III excommunicated King William I of Scotland and he died at Civita Castellana on 30 August 1181. Herbermann, Charles, ed. Pope Alexander III and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Alexander. Myriam Soria Audebert, Pontifical Propaganda during the Schisms, Alexander III to the reconquest of Church Unity, in Convaincre et persuader, poitiers, Université de Poitiers-centre détudes supérieures de civilisation médiévale,2007
5.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
6.
Papal States
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The Papal States, officially the State of the Church, were territories in the Italian Peninsula under the sovereign direct rule of the pope, from the 8th century until 1870. They were among the states of Italy from roughly the 8th century until the Italian Peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia. At their zenith, they covered most of the modern Italian regions of Lazio, Marche, Umbria and Romagna and these holdings were considered to be a manifestation of the temporal power of the pope, as opposed to his ecclesiastical primacy. By 1861, much of the Papal States territory had been conquered by the Kingdom of Italy, only Lazio, including Rome, remained under the Popes temporal control. In 1870, the pope lost Lazio and Rome and had no physical territory at all, Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini ended the crisis between unified Italy and the Vatican by signing the Lateran Treaty, granting the Vatican City State sovereignty. The Papal States were also known as the Papal State, the territories were also referred to variously as the State of the Church, the Pontifical States, the Ecclesiastical States, or the Roman States. For its first 300 years the Catholic Church was persecuted and unrecognized and this system began to change during the reign of the emperor Constantine I, who made Christianity legal within the Roman Empire, and restoring to it any properties that had been confiscated. The Lateran Palace was the first significant new donation to the Church, other donations followed, primarily in mainland Italy but also in the provinces of the Roman Empire. But the Church held all of these lands as a private landowner, the seeds of the Papal States as a sovereign political entity were planted in the 6th century. Beginning In 535, the Byzantine Empire, under emperor Justinian I, launched a reconquest of Italy that took decades and devastated Italys political, just as these wars wound down, the Lombards entered the peninsula from the north and conquered much of the countryside. While the popes remained Byzantine subjects, in practice the Duchy of Rome, nevertheless, the pope and the exarch still worked together to control the rising power of the Lombards in Italy. As Byzantine power weakened, though, the took a ever larger role in defending Rome from the Lombards. In practice, the papal efforts served to focus Lombard aggrandizement on the exarch, a climactic moment in the founding of the Papal States was the agreement over boundaries embodied in the Lombard king Liutprands Donation of Sutri to Pope Gregory II. When the Exarchate of Ravenna finally fell to the Lombards in 751, the popes renewed earlier attempts to secure the support of the Franks. In 751, Pope Zachary had Pepin the Younger crowned king in place of the powerless Merovingian figurehead king Childeric III, zacharys successor, Pope Stephen II, later granted Pepin the title Patrician of the Romans. Pepin led a Frankish army into Italy in 754 and 756, Pepin defeated the Lombards – taking control of northern Italy – and made a gift of the properties formerly constituting the Exarchate of Ravenna to the pope. The cooperation between the papacy and the Carolingian dynasty climaxed in 800, when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Emperor, the precise nature of the relationship between the popes and emperors – and between the Papal States and the Empire – is disputed. Events in the 9th century postponed the conflict, the Holy Roman Empire in its Frankish form collapsed as it was subdivided among Charlemagnes grandchildren
7.
Holy Roman Empire
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The Holy Roman Empire was a multi-ethnic complex of territories in central Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806. On 25 December 800, Pope Leo III crowned the Frankish king Charlemagne as Emperor, reviving the title in Western Europe, more than three centuries after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. The title was revived in 962 when Otto I was crowned emperor, fashioning himself as the successor of Charlemagne, some historians refer to the coronation of Charlemagne as the origin of the empire, while others prefer the coronation of Otto I as its beginning. Scholars generally concur, however, in relating an evolution of the institutions and principles constituting the empire, the office of Holy Roman Emperor was traditionally elective, although frequently controlled by dynasties. Emperor Francis II dissolved the empire on 6 August 1806, after the creation of the Confederation of the Rhine by Napoleon, before 1157, the realm was merely referred to as the Roman Empire. In a decree following the 1512 Diet of Cologne, the name was changed to Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, by the end of the 18th century, the term Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation had fallen out of official use. As Roman power in Gaul declined during the 5th century, local Germanic tribes assumed control, by the middle of the 8th century, however, the Merovingians had been reduced to figureheads, and the Carolingians, led by Charles Martel, had become the de facto rulers. In 751, Martel’s son Pepin became King of the Franks, the Carolingians would maintain a close alliance with the Papacy. In 768 Pepin’s son Charlemagne became King of the Franks and began an expansion of the realm. He eventually incorporated the territories of present-day France, Germany, northern Italy, on Christmas Day of 800, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne emperor, restoring the title in the west for the first time in over three centuries. After the death of Charles the Fat in 888, however, the Carolingian Empire broke apart, according to Regino of Prüm, the parts of the realm spewed forth kinglets, and each part elected a kinglet from its own bowels. After the death of Charles the Fat, those crowned emperor by the pope controlled only territories in Italy, the last such emperor was Berengar I of Italy, who died in 924. Around 900, autonomous stem duchies reemerged in East Francia, on his deathbed, Conrad yielded the crown to his main rival, Henry the Fowler of Saxony, who was elected king at the Diet of Fritzlar in 919. Henry reached a truce with the raiding Magyars, and in 933 he won a first victory against them in the Battle of Riade, Henry died in 936, but his descendants, the Liudolfing dynasty, would continue to rule the Eastern kingdom for roughly a century. Upon Henry the Fowlers death, Otto, his son and designated successor, was elected King in Aachen in 936 and he overcame a series of revolts from an elder brother and from several dukes. After that, the managed to control the appointment of dukes. In 951, Otto came to the aid of Adelaide, the queen of Italy, defeating her enemies, marrying her. In 955, Otto won a victory over the Magyars in the Battle of Lechfeld
8.
Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore
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The Basilica is located at 34 Piazza dellEsquilino, some five blocks southwest of Stazione Termini. Pursuant to the Lateran Treaty of 1929 between the Holy See and Italy, the Basilica is within Italian territory and not the territory of the Vatican City State and they prayed that she might make known to them how they were to dispose of their property in her honour. On 5 August, at the height of the Roman summer, in obedience to a vision of the Virgin Mary which they had the same night, the couple built a basilica in honour of Mary on the very spot which was covered with snow. From the fact that no mention whatever is made of this alleged miracle until a few hundred years later and it would seem that the legend has no historical basis. The legend is first reported only after AD1000 and it may be implied in what the Liber Pontificalis, of the early 13th century, says of Pope Liberius, He built the basilica of his own name near the Macellum of Livia. Its prevalence in the 15th century is shown in the painting of the Miracle of the Snow by Masolino da Panicale. The feast was originally called Dedicatio Sanctae Mariae, and was celebrated only in Rome until inserted for the first time into the General Roman Calendar, with ad Nives added to its name, in 1568. A congregation appointed by Pope Benedict XIV in 1741 proposed that the reading of the legend be struck from the Office, no action was taken on the proposal until 1969, when the reading of the legend was removed and the feast was called In dedicatione Basilicae S. Mariae. The legend is commemorated by dropping white rose petals from the dome during the celebration of the Mass. The earliest building on the site was the Liberian Basilica or Santa Maria Liberiana, Liberiana is still included in some versions of the basilicas formal name, and Liberian Basilica may be used as a contemporary as well as historical name. This building was replaced under Pope Sixtus III by the present structure dedicated to Mary. No Catholic church can be honoured with the title of basilica unless by apostolic grant or from immemorial custom, St. Mary Major is one of the only four that hold the title of major basilica. The other three are the Basilicas of St. John in the Lateran, St. Peters, along with all of the other four Major Basilicas, St. Mary Major is also styled a Papal basilica. St. Mary Major was associated with the Patriarchate of Antioch, Philip Neri on 25 February 1552. It is agreed that the present church was built under Pope Sixtus III, the dedicatory inscription on the triumphal arch, Sixtus Episcopus plebi Dei, is an indication of that Popes role in the construction. The church retains the core of its structure, despite several additional construction projects. Santa Maria Maggiore, one of the first churches built in honour of the Virgin Mary, was erected in the aftermath of the Council of Ephesus of 431. Pope Sixtus III built it to commemorate this decision and these fines enabled the papacy to carry out through the 5th century an ambitious building program, including Santa Maria Maggiore
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Rockwell, William Walker (1911). "Clement III". In Chisholm, Hugh. Encyclopædia Britannica. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the 
