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Pope Alexander III

Pope Alexander III

?–1181 CE · Siena

A Sienese cardinal and skilled diplomat, Alexander III led one of the longest and most consequential pontificates of the era. His disputed 1159 election triggered a schism, with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa backing a succession of antipopes; Alexander, often in exile, anchored resistance through the Lombard League's victory at Legnano, sealed by the Peace of Venice in 1177. He clashed with Henry II of England over Thomas Becket, whom he canonized in 1173. At the Third Lateran Council (1179) he decreed that papal elections require a two-thirds majority of cardinals, a rule of lasting importance, and advanced canon law and church reform across Latin Christendom.

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SienaItaly

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About Siena

Siena, a city in Tuscany, central Italy. It was the home of Catherine of Siena, the 14th-century Dominican mystic and Doctor of the Church, and the birthplace of several popes including the Piccolomini Pius II and Pius III.

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Alexander III’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.

In the same tradition

Pope Gregory VIII, Pope Adrian IV

The world in their lifetime

Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Pope Alexander III’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

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