Clement III
Paolo Scolari · 1187 – 1191
Negotiated Rome's return to papal control after decades of communal rule and helped organize the Third Crusade.
Paolo Scolari was a Roman, the first in decades to hold the papal office. He negotiated a settlement with the Roman senate that allowed the pope to return to the city after years of exile. He also played a key role in launching the Third Crusade, writing to the rulers of England, France, and Germany to organize an expedition to recover Jerusalem after its fall to Saladin. He established new dioceses in Scandinavia and the Baltic, extending the Church's reach into northern Europe. He died in 1191.
Coming Home
Clement III did something no pope had managed in decades: he came back to Rome. The city's commune had expelled the papacy, and Clement negotiated a deal that brought it back. It was a diplomatic achievement, not a military one, and it restored the papacy to the city that had always been its home.