Pope Alexander III, born Roland, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 7 September 1159 until his death in 1181.
The Third Council of the Lateran met in Rome in March 1179. Pope Alexander III presided and 302 bishops attended. The Catholic Church regards it as the eleventh ecumenical council.
Pope Lucius III, born Ubaldo Allucingoli, reigned from 1 September 1181 to his death in 1185. Born of an aristocratic family of Lucca, prior to being elected pope, he had a long career as a papal diplomat. His papacy was marked by conflicts with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I, his exile from Rome and the initial preparations for the Third Crusade.
Anacletus II, born Pietro Pierleoni, was an antipope who ruled in opposition to Pope Innocent II from 1130 until his death in 1138. After the death of Pope Honorius II, the college of cardinals was divided over his successor. Unusually, the election was entrusted to eight cardinals, who elected Papareschi. A larger body of cardinals then elected Pierleoni, which led to a major schism in the Roman Catholic Church. Anacletus had the support of most Romans, including the Frangipani family, and Innocent was forced to flee to France. North of the Alps, Innocent gained the crucial support of the major religious orders, in particular Bernard of Clairvaux's Cistercians, the Abbot of Cluny Peter the Venerable; and Norbert of Xanten, the Archbishop of Magdeburg who established the Premonstratensians and held a high rank in the court of the German Emperor Lothar III.
Callixtus III was an antipope from September 1168 until his resignation in August 1178. He was the third antipope elected in opposition to Pope Alexander III during the latter's struggle with the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.
Victor IV was elected as a Ghibelline antipope in 1159, following the death of Pope Adrian IV and the election of Alexander III. His election was supported by the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa. He took the name Victor IV, not accounting for Antipope Victor IV of 1138, whose holding of the papal office was deemed illegitimate.
Galdino della Sala, Galdinus or Galdimus, was a Roman Catholic saint from Milan in northern Italy. He was a cardinal elevated in 1165 and he also served as Archbishop of Milan from 1166 to his death in 1176. He was a staunch supporter both of Pope Alexander III, and of Milan and its neighbours in Lombardy, in their joint and parallel struggles against the Antipope Victor IV, supported by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.
Antipope Paschal III was a 12th-century clergyman who, from 1164 to 1168, was the second antipope to challenge the reign of Pope Alexander III. He had previously served as Cardinal of St. Maria.
Dominium mundi is an idea of universal dominion developed in the Middle Ages. Inspired by the memory of the Roman Empire, dominium mundi implied the recognition of one supreme authority, which generated a prolonged political and spiritual struggle between imperial and ecclesiastical power. This struggle can be said to have begun with the Investiture Controversy, and was mainly embodied by the Holy Roman Empire and Catholic Church, which elevated the emperor and Pope, respectively, to the status of supreme ruler. The idea of universal dominion divided Italy into the warring faction of Guelphs and Ghibellines. Guelphs supported the Church, while the Ghibellines supported the Empire. After two hundred years of division during the 12th and 13th centuries, neither one of the powers had prevailed, due to their mutual dependency and the rise of the powerful and practically independent reigns of Church and the State. The idea of dominium mundi did not reappear in its original form, despite the fact that both universal powers subsisted.
Conrad of Wittelsbach was the Archbishop of Mainz and Archchancellor of Germany from 20 June 1161 to 1165 and again from 1183 to his death. He was also a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
Gregorio della Suburra was an Italian cardinal, created by Pope Innocent II in 1140 as priest of the title of S. Maria in Trastevere. He was nephew of Pope Anastasius IV, who promoted him to suburbicarian see of Sabina in September 1154. After the double papal election in September 1159 he supported the obedience of Pope Alexander III. He became Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals in 1159, after the deposition of Cardinal Icmar of Tusculum, who had consecrated Antipope Victor IV (1159-1164) and joined his obedience. He was papal vicar at Rome in 1160. His name appears for the last time in the papal bull dated 20 September 1162.
Imar, O.S.B. Cluny was a French Benedictine abbot, who served as a bishop and cardinal.
The 1159 papal election following the death of Pope Adrian IV resulted in a double papal election. A majority of the cardinals elected Cardinal Rolando of Siena as Pope Alexander III, but a minority refused to recognize him and elected their own candidate Ottaviano de Monticelli, who took the name Victor IV, creating a schism that lasted until 1178.
The 1143 papal election followed the death of Pope Innocent II and resulted in the election of Pope Celestine II.
The 1181 papal election followed the death of Pope Alexander III and resulted in the election of Pope Lucius III. This was the first papal election celebrated in accordance with the decree Licet de evitanda discordia, promulgated in the Third Lateran Council in 1179, which established that the pope is elected by a majority of two thirds votes.
An incomplete list of events in 1179 in Italy:
With a long history as a vantage point for anti-popes forces threatening Rome, Viterbo became a papal city in 1243. During the later thirteenth century, the ancient Italian city of Viterbo was the site of five papal elections and the residence of seven popes and their Curias, and it remains the location of four papal tombs. These popes resided in the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo alongside the Viterbo Cathedral intermittently for two decades, from 1257 to 1281; as a result, the papal palace in Viterbo, with that in Orvieto, are the most extensive thirteenth-century papal palaces to have survived.
Guala da Telgate was a bishop of the Roman Catholic diocese of Bergamo.
Ardicio de Rivoltela was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a native of Piadena (Platina), in the diocese of Cremona in Lombardy. The appellation "de Rivoltela" is mentioned only once, and its significance is unclear.
Joannes Anagninus was a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He was a native of Anagni, and belonged to the family of the Counts of Anagni, the same family which produced Pope Innocent III. His colleagues called him, and he called himself "Joannes Anagninus". In 1191, he subscribed himself Joannes comes Anagninus, episcopus cardinalis Praenestinus. He was successively cardinal deacon of S. Maria in Portico, cardinal priest of S. Marco, and cardinal bishop of Palestrina.
