Pope Urban Iii
POPE URBAN III. (Uberto Crivelli), pope from the 25th of November 1185 to the 20th of October 1187, was a Milanese, and had been made cardinal-priest of St Lorenzo in Damaso and archbishop of Milan by Lucius III., whom he succeeded. His family had suffered greatly at the hands of Frederick I., and he now took up vigorously his predecessor's quarrels with the emperor, including the standing dispute about the territories of the Countess Matilda. His opposition to the pretensions of the Roman senate to govern the Papal States, moreover, compelled him to remain in exile through his pontificate. He suspended the patriarch of Aquileia for crowning the emperor's son, Henry, king of Italy (January 1186), in violation' of his own rights as archbishop of Milan; and only the entreaties of the citizens of Verona, where he was stopping, prevented him from excommunicating Frederick. In 1187 he exhorted the Christian kings to renewed endeavours in the Holy Land, and the fall of Jerusalem on the and of October is said to have caused his death. He died at Ferrara and was succeeded by Gregory VIII. His letters are in J. P. Migne, Patrol. Lat., vol. 202.
See J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche von Gregor VII. bis Innocenz III. (Bonn, 1893); Jaff-Wattenbach, Regesta pontif. Roman. (1885-88) ; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 4, trans, by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1896); P. SchefferBoichorst, Friedrichs I. letzter Streit mit der Curie (Berlin, 1866) ; W. Meyer, " Zum Streite Kaiser Friedrichs I. mit Papst Urban III.," in Forschungen zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. 19 (1879).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
