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Pope Anastasius IV

Pope Anastasius IV

?–1154 CE · Rome

Born Corrado at Rome, Anastasius IV was an aged cardinal who had long served the curia, including as vicar in Rome during Eugene III's absences. Elected in 1153, his short reign offered a reconciliation that had eluded his predecessors: he resolved a disputed appointment to the archbishopric of Magdeburg and reached an accommodation that eased tensions with Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, while relations with the still-restless Roman commune remained delicate. He was a patron of building works, restoring the Pantheon and his family residence. Dying after barely more than a year, he was buried in a porphyry sarcophagus once associated with Helena.

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Stop 0 of 11153–1154Born

RomeרומאItaly

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Rome in this era

Between the 8th and 15th centuries Rome was the seat of the popes and capital of the Papal States, which grew from the Frankish king Pepin's grant of 756; Charlemagne was crowned emperor in St Peter's in 800. The city shrank far below its ancient size, and from 1309 to 1377 the popes resided at Avignon before returning to Rome.

About Rome

Rome, on the Tiber in central Italy, grew from an Iron Age settlement into the capital of the Roman Republic and then of an empire that by the 1st century CE ruled the whole Mediterranean. Its Jewish community, attested from the 2nd century BCE, is among the oldest in Europe. Christian tradition holds that the apostles Peter and Paul died there, and the city became the seat of the popes. After the Western Empire ended in 476 it passed to Gothic kings, to Byzantium and then to papal rule as capital of the Papal States, until it became the capital of unified Italy in 1871. Vatican City, independent since 1929, lies within it.

In Rome at the same time

Pope Gregory VIII, Pope Adrian IV

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In the same place & time

Sages whose lives overlapped with Pope Anastasius IV’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 and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Pope Anastasius IV’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.

Works

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