Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1185 - 1187 AD
Once again a pope was elected without disorder. On the very day of Lucius' death, December 25,1185, the cardinals at Verona unanimously elected Humbert Crivelli, the archbishop of Milan.
Humbert Crivelli was a native of Milan. He is known first as archdeacon of Bourges in France. He became a close friend and admirer of St. Thomas Becket who said of him: "One more loyal to . . . the Church could not possibly be found." At once eloquent and business-like, Humbert rose to be cardinal-priest in 1183, and archbishop of Milan in January 1185. In December of the same year he was chosen pope. He took the name Urban III.
Urban's brief pontificate was much taken up with quarrels with the Emperor Frederick and his son Prince Henry. Indeed, Urban has been accused of being anti-imperialist because his relatives had suffered when Frederick had captured Milan in the old war. But such a supposition is quite unnecessary to explain Urban's policy. If it was somewhat unyielding, it was no different from that of most of the popes of this period.
Urban III, like Lucius, had little desire to see Prince Henry marry Constance, the heiress to the Norman dominions in South Italy and Sicily. But since nothing could be done to prevent it, the Pope sent legates to assist at the ceremony. He did, however, refuse to crown Henry co-emperor. Frederick, without the Pope's consent, proclaimed his son Caesar and had him crowned King of Italy at Aquileia. Urban's answer was to suspend the bishops who had taken part in the coronation.
The Pope, on his part, irritated Frederick considerably by intervening in the disputed Trier episcopal election, to consecrate Volmar the anti- imperialist candidate.
Frederick left Italy to his son Henry, who proceeded to make life miserable for the Pope, even going so far as to cut off the nose of some poor papal official. Meanwhile, Frederick summoned the German bishops to meet at Geilenhausen, and the assembled bishops obligingly sent Urban a letter asking him to come to terms with their imperial master. This annoyed Pope Urban because he felt that in opposing Frederick he was upholding the cause of the German bishops.
The Pope decided to excommunicate Frederick, but the people of Verona pleaded that they belonged to the Emperor and that such a blow launched in their city might bring dire consequences. Urban thereupon left for Venice, but at Ferrara dysentery struck him down. His last days were saddened by fear for the Holy City of Jerusalem. On July 7 the knighthood of the crusading kingdom had been almost wiped out by Saladin, in the dust and heat of the disastrous day at Hattin. Indeed Jerusalem had fallen on October 2, but the bad news had not yet reached Urban when he died October 20, 1187. He is buried in Ferrara Cathedral.
