Eugenius III

Pope from 1145. Born Bernardo Pignatelli of Pisa, he was a Cistercian monk at Clairvaux and subsequently abbot of SS. Vincent and Anastasius at Rome. Bernard of Clairvaux dedicated De Consideratione to him and preached the Second Crusade over his Bulla cruciata (1145/6). Though dejected over the crusade’s failure he would not participate in the wave of anti-Byzantine bias sponsored by Roger of Sicily and Louis VII of France, wanting good relations with Conrad III and his successor Frederick Barbarossa, which the Treaty of Constance (1153) secured for the church. In England Eugenius deposed William of York, supported Theobald of Canterbury even to the extent of not banning King Stephen, and named Nicholas Breakspear (later Adrian IV) cardinal bishop and legate to Scandinavia. He held synods at Paris, Trier (1147), and Cremona (1148), and in Ireland, and a council at Reims (1148) on Gilbert de la Porrée’s heresy and Hildegard’s visions. Reform canons were issued to strengthen the Lateran decrees (1139), and an examination of papal revenues foreshadowed the Liber censuum (1192).