Alexander III

Roger of Hoveden records that in 1162 Pope Alexander came into France, driven from his see by the emperor Frederick, and that the kings of France and England received him as the true pope; the next year he held a council at Tours and excommunicated his rival (Roger of Hoveden, Chronicle 1162–1163). In 1170, at the complaint of Thomas Becket, he punished the bishops who had crowned the king’s son (Roger of Hoveden, Chronicle 1170), and in 1172 his legates took the oath of Henry II of England at Avranches (Roger of Hoveden, Chronicle 1172).

In March 1179 he held a general council at the Lateran, whose last canon condemns the Cathars and their protectors (Third Lateran Council, introduction and canon 27). Walter Map saw followers of Peter Waldo petition him there for leave to preach (Walter Map, De nugis curialium 1.31), and the Chronicle of Laon says that he embraced Waldo, approved his vow of poverty and restricted his preaching (Chronicle of Laon 1178 (MGH SS 26, p. 449)).

In the timeline

Waldo and the Poor of Lyon

A rich citizen of Lyon gives away his wealth and begins to preach with his followers in voluntary poverty. The pope approves the poverty and restricts the preaching; when they preach on, they are condemned. The early accounts used here all come from critics of the movement.

The Third Lateran Council

Alexander III holds a general council at the Lateran at the end of a papal schism. It requires two thirds of the cardinals to elect a pope, orders a schoolmaster for every cathedral, and calls the faithful to arms against heretics and mercenary bands.

Alexander III

In the timeline

Primary sources

Chronicle

Canons of the Third Lateran Council

De nugis curialium (Courtiers’ Trifles)

Chronicle of Laon