Pope Innocent IV
Pope|English name=Innocent IV|image=
|birth_name=Sinibaldo de Fieschi|term_start=
June 28,
1243|term_end=
December 7,
1254|predecessor=
Celestine IV|successor=
Alexander IV|birth_date=
ca. 1180/
90|birthplace=
Genoa,
Italy |dead=dead|death_date=
December 7,
1254|deathplace=
Naples,
Italy|other=Innocent}}
Pope Innocent IV (
Genoa, 1180/90 –
Naples,
December 7,
1254), born
Sinibaldo de Fieschi,
Pope from
1243 to
1254, belonged to the feudal nobility of
Liguria, the
Fieschi, counts of Lavagna. Educated at
Parma and
Bologna, he passed for one of the best
canonists of his time.
He had for his immediate predecessor
Pope Celestine IV (1241), who however, was Pope for eighteen days only, and therefore the events of Innocent IV's pontificate practically link themselves on to those of the reign of
Pope Gregory IX (1227–41). It was on occasion of Innocent IV's election (
June 25,
1243) that
Frederick II is said to have remarked that he had lost the friendship of a cardinal and gained the enmity of a Pope; the letter which he wrote, however, expressed in respectful terms the hope that an amicable settlement of the differences between the empire and the papacy might be reached. The negotiation which shortly afterwards began with this objective proved abortive; Frederick II being unable to make the absolute submission to the Pope's demands which was required of him.
Finding his position in Rome insecure, Innocent IV secretly withdrew in the summer of
1244 to
Genoa, and thence to
Lyon, where he summoned a general council which met in
1245 and deposed Frederick II. The agitation caused by this act throughout Europe terminated only with Frederick II's death in December
1250, which permitted the Pope to return, first to
Perugia, and afterwards in
1253 to
Rome.
The remainder of his life was largely directed to schemes for compassing the overthrow of
Manfred, the natural son of Frederick II, whom the towns and the nobility had for the most part received as his father's successor. It was on a sick bed at
Naples that Innocent IV heard of Manfred's victory at
Foggia, and the tidings are said to have precipitated his death on December 7, 1254.
His learning gave to the world an
Apparatus in quinque libros decretalium. But he also issued the papal bull
Ad exstirpanda acknowledging the right of the state to punish heretics after they were convicted of
heresy.
He was succeeded by
Pope Alexander IV (1254–61), and was the uncle of
Adrian V (1276).
*
Catholic Encyclopedia: "Pope Innocent IV"
Original text from the 9th edition (1880) of an unnamed encyclopedia.
