EUGENE
600
EUGENE
(q. v.), who had been condemned by the Council of
1139 to exile from Italy, ventured to return at the
beginning of the new pontificate and threw liimself on
the clemency of the pope. Believing in the sincerity
of his repentance, Eugene absolved him and enjoined
on him as penance fasting and a visit to the tombs of
the Apostles. If the veteran demagogue entered
Rome in a penitential mood, the sight of democracy
based on his own principles soon caused him to revert
to his former self. He placed himself at the head of
the movement, and his incendiary philippics against
the bishops, cardinals, and even the ascetic pontiff
who treated him with extreme lenity, worked his
hearers into such fury that Rome resembled a city
captured by barbarians. The palaces of the cardinals
and of such of the nobility as held with the pope
were razed to the ground; churches and monasteries
were pillaged; St. Peter's church was turned into an
arsenal ; and pious pilgrims were phmdered and mal-
treated.
But the storm was too violent to last. Only an idiot could fail to understand that medieval Rome without the pope had no means of subsistence. A strong party was formed in Rome and the vicinity consisting of the principal families and their adher- ents, in the interests of order and the papacy, and the democrats were induced to listen to words of modera- tion. A treaty was entered into with Eugene by which the Senate was preserved but subject to the papal sovereignty and swearing allegiance to the supreme pontiff. The senators were to be chosen annually by popular election and in a committee of their body the executive power was lodged. The pope and the senate should have separate courts, and an appeal could be made from the decisions of either com't to the other. By virtue of this treaty Eugene made a solemn entrj' into Rome a few days before Cliristmas, and was greeted by the fickle populace with boundless enthusiasm. But the dual system of gov- ernment proved unworkable. The Romans de- manded the destruction of Tivoli. This town had been faithful to Eugene during the rebellion of the Romans and merited his protection. He therefore refused to permit it to be destroyed. The Romans growing more and more turbulent, he retired to Castle S. Angelo, thence to Viterbo, and finally crossed the Alps, early in 114G.
Problems lay before the pope of vastly greater im- portance than the maintenance of order in Rome. The Christian principalities in Palestine and SjTia were threatened with extinction. The fall of Edessa (1144) had aroused consternation throughout the West, and already from Mterbo Eugene had ad- dressed a stirring appeal to the chivalry of Europe to hasten to the defence of the Holy Places. St. Ber- nard was commissioned to preach the Second Crusade, and he acquitted himself of the task with such success that within a couple of years two magnificent armies, commanded by the King of the Romans and the King of France, were on their way to Palestine. That the Second Crusade was a wretched failure cannot be ascribed to the saint or the pope; but it is one of those phenomena so frequentlj^ met with in the history of the papacy, that a pope who was unable to subdue a handful of rebellious subjects could hurl all Europe against the Saracens. Eugene spent three busy and fruitful years in France, intent on the propagation of the Faith, the correction of errors and abuses, and the maintenance of discipline. He sent Cardinal Break- spear (afterwards Adrian IV) as legate to Scandina- via; he entered into relations with the Orientals with the view to reunion ; lie proceeded with vigour against the nascent Manichean heresies. In several synods (Paris, 1147, Trier, 114S), notably in the great Sv-nod of Reims (1148), canons were enacted regarding the dress and conduct of the clergy. To ensure the strict execution of these canons, the bishops who should
neglect to enforce them were threatened with suspen-
sion. Eugene was inexorable in punishing the un-
worthy. He deposed the metropolitans of York and
Mainz, and, for a cause which St. Bernard thought not
sufficiently grave, he withdrew the pallium from the
Archbishop of Reims. But if the saintly pontiff
could at times be severe, this was not his natural dis-
position.
"Never", wrote Ven. Peter of Cluny to St. Bernard, "have I found a truer friend, a sincerer brother, a purer father. His ear is ever ready to hear, his tongue is swift and mighty to advise. Nor does he comport himself as one's superior, but rather as an equal or an inferior. . . I have never made him a request which he has not either granted, or so refused that I could not reasonably complain." On the occa- sion of a visit which he paid to Clairvaux, his former companions discovered to their joy that " he who e.x- ternally shone in the pontifical robes remained in his heart an observant monk".
The prolonged sojourn of the pope in France was of great advantage to the French Church in many waj'S and enhanced the prestige of the papacy. Eugene also encouraged the new intellectual movement to which Peter Lombard had given a strong impulse. With the aid of Cardinal Pullus, his chancellor, who had established the University of Oxford on a lasting basis, he reduced the schools of theology and philos- ophy to better form. He encouraged Gratian in his herculean task of arranging the Decretals, and we owe to him various useful regulations bearing on academic degrees. In the spring of 114S, the pope returned by easy stages to Italy. On 7 July, he met the Italian bishops at Cremona, promulgated the canons of Reims for Italy, and solemnly excommunicated Ar- nold of Brescia, who still reigned over the Roman mob. Eugene, having brought with him considerable financial aid. began to gather his vassals and ad- vanced to Mterbo and thence to Tusculum. Here he was visited by King Louis of France, whom he recon- ciled to his queen, Eleanor. With the assistance of Roger of Sicily, he forced his way into Rome (1149), and celebrated Christmas in the Lateran. His stay was not of long duration. During the next three years the Roman court wandered in exile through the Campagna while both sides looked for the intervention" of Conrad of Germany, offering him the imperial crown. Aroused by the earnest exhortations of St. Bernard, Conrad finally decided to descend into Italy and put an end to the anarchy in Rome. Death over- took him in the midst of his preparations on 15 Feb., 115'2, leaving the task to his more energetic nephew, Frederick Barbarossa. The envoys of Eugene hav- ing concluded with Frederick at Constance, in the spring of 1153, a treaty favourable to the interests of the Church and the empire, the more moderate of the Romans, seeing that the days of democracy were numbered, joined with the nobles in putting down the Arnoldists, and the pontiff was enabled to spend his concluding days in peace.
Eugene is said to have gained the affection of the people liy his affability and generosity. He died at Tivoli, whither he had gone to avoid the summer heats, and was buried in front of the high altar in St. Peter's, Rome. St. Bernard followed him to the grave (20 .A.ug.). "The unassuming but astute pupil of St. Bernard", says Gregorovius,""had always continued to w-ear the coarse'habit of Clairvaux beneath the purple; the stoic virtues of monasticism accompanied him through his stormy career, and invested him with that power of passive resistance which has always remained the most effectual weapon of the popes." St. -Antoninus pronounces Eugene III "one of the greatest and most afflicted of the popes". Pius IX by a decree of 28 Dec, 1872, approved the cult which from time immemorial the Pisans have rendered to their countryman, and ordered him to be honoured
