The republican faction elected Giordano Pierleoni, brother of the former Antipope Anacletus II, to the post of senator, and demanded that Lucius relinquish all temporal matters into his hands.

The pope refused and led a small army against the seat of the commune on Capitol.

He was defeated and seriously wounded in this attack, and died on 15 February 1145 in the church of S. Gregorio in clivo scauri.

[1] The cardinals present at Rome quickly assembled in the church of San Cesareo in Palatio and on the very same day unanimously elected to the papacy Bernardo da Pisa,[2] pupil of St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who was abbot of the Cistercian monastery of S. Anastasio alle Tre Fontane near Rome and probably did not belong to the College of Cardinals.

Due to hostility of the Roman people, his consecration took place in the monastery of Farfa on 18 February 1145.