d. 1153 · Pope (1145–1153)
Pope Eugenius III
Cistercian monk and pupil of Bernard of Clairvaux who became pope; after the fall of Edessa he proclaimed the Second Crusade with the bull Quantum praedecessores in 1145.
BIOGRAPHICAL DOSSIER
Life and historical role
Life and political setting
Bernardo of Pisa became a monk under Bernard at Clairvaux and was elected pope in 1145 while abbot of Tre Fontane near Rome. Because of the commune movement in Rome he spent much of his pontificate outside the city, especially in France.
Role in the Crusades
After Imad al-Din Zengi took Edessa in 1144, he issued the bull Quantum praedecessores, addressed to Louis VII, on 1 December 1145; it systematically defined crusader privileges such as remission of sins and protection of families and property. With the bull reissued in 1146 he entrusted preaching of the crusade to Bernard. He later approved the campaigns in Spain and against the Wends in the Baltic with the same status.
Historical significance and source problems
Quantum praedecessores became the model for later crusade bulls. The failure of the Second Crusade also affected Eugenius's reputation. He died in 1153. The text of the bull and the accounts of Odo of Deuil and Otto of Freising are the main sources.
Biographical information is linked to the sources shown on the page and to the connected event records. Disputed dates are given as approximate, gaps are not filled by conjecture, and later literary or visual depictions are not treated as contemporary portraits.