Pope Innocent IV

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Innocent IV
Image:Innocent IV - Council of Lyon - 002r detail.jpg
Birth name	Sinibaldo de Fieschi
Papacy began	June 28, 1243
Papacy ended	December 7, 1254
Predecessor	Celestine IV
Successor	Alexander IV
Born	ca. 1180/90 Manarola, Italy
Died	December 7, 1254 Naples, Italy
Other Popes named Innocent

Pope Innocent IV (c. 1195 – December 7, 1254), born Sinibaldo Fieschi was Pope from 1243 to 1254.

[edit] Biography

Born in Manarola, he belonged to a feudal family of Liguria, the Fieschi, counts of Lavagna. He was 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).

Innocent IV was elected unanimously at the conclave in Anagni (June 25, 1243). Frederick II, who had been excommunicated by Innocent's predecessor, 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. The main point of dispute were the reinstatement of the Papal rights in Lombardy

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. The council did not see the presence of delegats from the whole Europe, the bishops present being mostly Spanish and French. Frederick II's position was defended by Taddeo of Suessa, who was however unable to prevent his deposition on July 17. 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, where he remained in 1251-1253, and afterwards 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. Innocent aimed to incorporate the whole Kingdom of Sicily into the Papal States, but his lack the necessary economical and political power: therefore, after a failed agreement with Charles of Anjou, he invested that kingdom to Edmund, the nine year old son of Henry III of England (May 14, 1254). In the same year he excommunicated the other Frederick II's son, Conrad IV, King of Germany, but the latter died a few days after the investiture of Edmund. Innocent therefore moved to Anagni to wait for Manfred's reaction to the event, especially as Conrad's heir, Conradin, had been entrusted to the Papal tutorage by the King's testament. Mnafred submitted, although probably only to gain time and counter the menace from Edmund, and received the title of Papal vicar for southern Italy. Innocent could therefore live a period in which he was the effective sovereign of most of the peninsula, and on October 27 1254 he celebrated the feat by entering the city of Naples.

However, Manfred had not lost his time and organized a resistance, supported by his faithful Saracen troops, setting riots against the new authority. It was on a sick bed at Naples that Innocent IV heard of Manfred's victory at Foggia against the Papal forces: the tidings are said to have precipitated his death on December 7, 1254, in Naples.

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). Innocent was also the uncle of Adrian V (1276).