Pope Eugenius iii was elected in 1145, a former canon and vicedominus of Pisa who had become a Cistercian monk at Clairvaux in 1138 before being sent to Rome to become abbot of the new house at Tre Fontane. This collection of studies offers new perspectives on a pope who has traditionally been seen as being unprepared to lead the Church, who relied, in the opinion of John of Salisbury, too much on his own judgement or else continued to be dominated by his spiritual father, Bernard of Clairvaux, to whom he was seen as devolving the organisation and conduct of the Second Crusade. The essays in the volume reveal a much more dynamic pontiff with a significant role in the development of papal judicial practice (Anne Duggan); a pope negotiating matters of theological orthodoxy in the case of Gilbert of Poitiers (Christoph Egger); and one taking a multi-faceted and innovative approach to crusading both in terms of the Second Crusade (Jonathan Phillips) and the extension of crusading privileges in the Baltics (Fonnesberg-Schmidt). Although some essays suggest that Eugenius remained a reactive rather than proactive figure, as in the disputed election at York where he was influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux (Emilia Jamroziak), his relationships with the Capetians and the Church in France (Anne Duggan and Pascal Montaubin), in Spain (Damian Smith) and with Rome and the Romans (John Doran) show him exercising diplomatic skill and authority – where possible – over national Churches and the commune in Rome. His skill, moreover, as Brenda Bolton argues, at handling the affairs of the papal patrimony made him the true father of the Papal States. As the first Cistercian pope, Eugenius was unsurprisingly interested in monastic affairs and two essays by Stuart Morgan and Clare Oglesby examine his involvement with his own congregation, revealing a subtle shift in the relationship of English Cistercian houses with episcopal authority and his considered approach to other reforming congregations such as the Gilbertines and the decision to absorb the community founded by Stephen of Obazine. Andrew Jotischky problematises the assumption that Eugenius sided with monastic petitions complaining about encroachment of rights and privileges (which account for a third of the letters emanating from his chancery) because he was a monk by revealing that his judgements rested on the quality of the evidence presented. As a whole, the volume provides an important corrective on a pivotal pope, who despite the press of business and the failure of the Second Crusade, made a significant contribution to the extension of papal authority and the centralisation of the Church.