Clement III

Paolo Scolari was chosen two days after Gregory VIII died, and his chief qualification was that he was a Roman with relatives in the commune. Since 1143 the city had governed itself and the popes had lived at Velletri, Anagni, Viterbo, Verona, anywhere but the Lateran. Clement negotiated for five months and in May 1188 signed a concordat that ended it.

The terms were a frank division. The commune kept its Senate and its self-government, but the senators would swear fealty to the pope, who resumed his sovereignty over the city, the coinage and the papal estates; in exchange he paid compensation for property destroyed in the fighting, funded the city's war against Tusculum, and agreed to reside in Rome. In 1191 Tusculum, the fortress town that had bred a line of tenth-century popes, was destroyed at Roman insistence, which was the ugly price of the settlement.

With Rome secure, Clement turned to the crusade Gregory VIII had called. He preached it across Europe, sent legates to make peace between Henry II of England and Philip Augustus of France so that both could go, took Frederick Barbarossa's army as far as its departure in May 1189, and levied the tax known as the Saladin tithe. He also freed the Scottish church from the claims of York, declaring it subject to Rome alone.

He died in March 1191 with the kings still at sea, and with the German emperor's heir marching on Rome to demand a coronation.