Pope Alexander III
pope of the Catholic Church from 1159 to 1181
Pope Alexander III (born Roland of Siena; c. 1100/1105 – 3 August 1181) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death. A native of Siena, Alexander became pope after a contested election, but had to spend much of his pontificate outside Rome while several rivals, supported by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, claimed the papacy. Alexander rejected Byzantine Emperor Manuel I Komnenos' offer to end the East–West Schism, sanctioned the Northern Crusades, and held the Third Council of the Lateran.
QuotesEdit
- We are deeply distressed and greatly worried when we hear that the savage Estonians and other pagans in those parts rise and fight God's faithful and those who labour for the Christian faith and fight the virtue of the Christian name. ... to gird yourselves, armed with celestial weapons and the strength of Apostolic exhortations, to defend the truth of the Christian faith bravely and to expand the Christian faith forcefully.
- Non parum animus noster (11 September 1171 or 1172), quoted in Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and the Baltic Crusades: 1147-1254 (Brill, 2007), p. 59
- Trusting God's mercy and merits of the apostles Peter and Paul, we thus concede to those forcefully and magnanimously fighting these often mentioned pagans one year's remission of sins for which they have made confession and received a penance as we are accustomed to grant those who go to the Lord's Sepulchre. To those who die in this fight we grant remission of all their sins, if they have received a penance.
- Non parum animus noster (11 September 1171 or 1172), quoted in Iben Fonnesberg-Schmidt, The Popes and the Baltic Crusades: 1147-1254 (Brill, 2007), p. 59
