Pope Alexander III

Born in Siena by Ranuccio Bandinelli^[1], he obtained a doctorate in canon law in Bologna. Contrary to what has long been claimed by historiography, magisterium Rolandus, a canonist from Bologna, is no longer identifiable with Rolando Bandinelli^[2].

Regular canon in Pisa and then in San Giovanni in Laterano^[3], in October 1150 Pope Eugene III appointed him cardinal deacon of the SS. Cosmas and Damian; he later became cardinal priest of San Marco. In 1153 he became Chancellor of the Church of Rome. In 1157 he was sent to Besançon to ask Frederick Barbarossa to release Bishop Esquilo of Lund, who, returning home from Rome, had been robbed and imprisoned by imperial knights. Bandinelli gave the emperor a letter signed by the pope, in which Hadrian IV recalled all the favors granted to the emperor.

In this circumstance the Bandinelli, to confirm papal superiority over the emperor, spoke the phrase:

According to tradition, on 18 November 1179 consecrated the cornerstone of Siena Cathedral^[4].

Papal elections

During his period of Cardinal Rolando Bandinelli participated in three papal elections:

• Papal Election of 1153, which elected Pope Anastasio IV
• Papal Election of 1154, which elected Pope Adrian IV
• Papal Election of 1159, which gave rise to a dual election: that of the same Bandinelli who took the name of Alexander III, and that of Cardinal Ottaviano de' Monticelli, who took the name of Vittore IV, considered then antipope.

On September 7, 1159 the cardinal electors chose it by a large majority as successor to Pope Adrian IV; a minority of cardinals instead elected Cardinal Ottaviano of the Eighth Crescents, who assumed the name Victor IV.

Hunted by the city of Rome, who wanted to be a free commune, Alexander III fled into the lower Lazio. His consecration took place in 1160 at Ninfa, a city bordering the Kingdom of Sicily (established in 1130 by Ruggero II d'Altavilla). After he communicated his consecration to the main dioceses, he threw the excommunication against the emperor and Victor IV.^[5]. He subsequently moved to France, where he lived from 1162 until 23 November 1165; he took refuge for a period on the Gallinara Island of Albenga, where he was protected by the Benedictine monks who had a seat there, for this reason he subsequently gave the monastery autonomy and placed it under the protection of the Holy See^[6]. In 1167 he was back in Italy, first in Gaeta, then in Benevento, Anagni and finally Venice.

Victor IV appetizer, and his successors Pasquale III (1164-1168) and Callisto III (1168-1178), enjoyed imperial support. Alexander joined the Communes, fighting against Federico Barbarossa, because these, disobeying the Worms agreements (1122), aimed at a policy of intervention and dominance also on the Church.
The battle of Legnano (1176) marked the final defeat of the German emperor. With the peace of Venice in 1177 Frederick reconciled with the pope. The Emperor submitted himself to the will of Alexander III and promised to recognize the Worms Treaty, as it concerned the relations between the Empire and the Papacy. As a counterpart, the pontiff summoned him the excommunication.

After the peace of Venice Alexander III recognizes the independence of the Republic of Ancona (Comunitas Anconæ), who had resisted Barbarossa with such tenacity in 1173; in exchange the city recognized the pope's right to collect an annual tax. On March 12, 1178 Alexander finally returned to Rome.

In March 1179 Alexander held the third Lateran Council, enumerated by the Church as the eleventh ecumenical council. His acts welcome several of the Pope's proposals for improving the conditions of the Church, among them the norm - still in force - which requires that no one can be elected pope without the vote of at least two thirds of cardinals. This decree first established a true election from the ancient age according to the principle of majority, instead of the acclamations that had determined until then access to the throne of popes, kings and emperors^[7].

This synod marks the summit of Alexander's power. In addition to putting the Barbarossa in his pocket (respecting the episode of Canossa), he humiliated Henry II of England on the case of Thomas Becket, confirmed the independence of the kingdom of Portugal under King Alfonso I of Portugal through the Manifestis Probatum of 1179 (with which the protection of the Treaty of Zamora was confirmed in 1143) and, during the years of exile, enjoyed favour and France VII.
He also outlaws the albiges. In 1181 Alexander disconnected William I of Scotland and placed his kingdom under the roof as a result of the failure to accept, by the ruler, the new bishop of St. Andrews. He was a promoter, among other things, of the superiority of the papal authority over the whole Christianity and the same emperor ('plenitudo potestatis'); line already adopted in the past by Gregory VII.

In 1170 Alexander III decreed that it was excommunicated who had not paid tenth in advance in the territories of the Patrimonium Sancti Petri. The tithe concerned, for example, mills, fishing farms, hay, wool, bees and had to be paid before the proceeds deriving from the sale of the product^[8].

In 1179, shortly after the closure of the Lateran Concilius, the Roman republic forced Alexander to leave the city, in which he no longer returned; and on 29 September 1179, some nobles established the Antipapaan Innocent III. Through a careful use of his enormous wealth, however, Alexander managed to hold it in his power, so much that he obtained the deposition in 1180.

Alexander III died in Civita Castellana, on August 30, 1181.