Eugene III(1200 — 1153)
Eugene III
6 min read
Pope from 1145 to 1153, Eugene III was the first Cistercian to rise to the papacy. A disciple of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, he preached the Second Crusade and sought to reform the Church by strengthening papal authority.
Key Facts
- Elected pope on February 15, 1145, the first Cistercian pope in history
- Issued the bull Quantum praedecessores (1145) calling for the Second Crusade
- Worked closely with Saint Bernard of Clairvaux to preach the Crusade
- Co-authored the treatise De consideratione with Saint Bernard, a guide to papal governance
- Died on July 8, 1153; beatified in 1872 by Pope Pius IX
Works & Achievements
The first official document calling for the Second Crusade, addressed to the Christian princes of Europe. This bull is one of the founding texts of papal crusading policy in the twelfth century.
A papal document organizing the Wendish Crusade in Northern Europe, allowing German knights to fight the Slavic peoples rather than journey to the Holy Land.
A collection of letters and decretals addressed to the sovereigns, bishops, and monasteries of Europe, bearing witness to the breadth of papal action and the development of canon law.
A major diplomatic agreement between the papacy and the Empire laying the groundwork for cooperation to restore papal authority in Rome in the face of Arnold of Brescia.
Anecdotes
Elected pope in 1145, Bernardo Pignatelli was so surprised by his election that he had to be convinced by his fellow monks to accept the charge. His mentor Bernard of Clairvaux, though proud of him, wrote with a touch of irony that he had sent “a monk, not a bishop” to lead Christendom.
Eugene III was never able to settle permanently in Rome: the republican commune led by Arnold of Brescia controlled the city and had driven him out. He thus spent most of his pontificate in exile in France and central Italy, governing the Church from his wanderings — which earned him the nickname “the wandering pope.”
It was Eugene III who officially launched the Second Crusade in 1145 with the bull *Quantum praedecessores*, but it was his mentor Bernard of Clairvaux who, through his extraordinary eloquence, convinced the crowds at Vézelay in 1146. King Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany took the cross — but the crusade ended in disaster before Damascus in 1148.
Concerned for his own salvation and that of the Church, Eugene III asked Bernard of Clairvaux to write him a spiritual guide for sovereign pontiffs. Bernard then composed the *De Consideratione*, a treatise in five books advising him not to let himself be overwhelmed by judicial and political affairs at the expense of his inner life.
Primary Sources
Quantopere praedecessores nostri Romani pontifices pro liberatione orientalis Ecclesiae laboraverint, vos, fratres carissimi, ex traditionibus patrum didicistis et ex historiis inde conscriptis frequenter audistis.
Considera ergo primum quid sis, deinde quid officii tui sit... Non hoc dico ut te retraham a cura pastorali, sed ut non absorberi sinas.
Mandamus et in virtute Spiritus Sancti praecipimus ut pro defensione orientalis Ecclesiae et liberatione Terrae Sanctae omnes qui voto se obligaverunt iter arripiant.
Inter sedem apostolicam et regem Romanorum pax et concordia reformata est, ita ut ecclesiae libertates serventur et imperium suis iuribus gaudeat.
Key Places
Official residence of the popes, from which Eugene III was frequently expelled by Arnold of Brescia's republican commune. The Lateran was the symbolic center of Western Christendom.
Cistercian monastery founded by Bernard of Clairvaux where Eugene III received his spiritual formation. It was here that he became Bernard's disciple before being sent as abbot to Rome.
Burgundian town where Bernard of Clairvaux preached the Second Crusade in 1146 before an immense crowd, at the call of Eugene III. A symbolic point of departure for the crusading venture.
Town near Rome where Eugene III frequently resided in exile and where he died on July 8, 1153. He is buried in the Cathedral of San Lorenzo.
Town in central Italy where the 1153 treaty between Eugene III and Frederick Barbarossa was signed, laying the groundwork for the restoration of papal authority in Rome.