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Pope Alexander IV

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Alexander IV's signature
Pope
Alexander IV
Bishop of Rome
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 12 December 1254
Papacy ended 25 May 1261
Predecessor Innocent IV
Successor Urban IV
Previous posts Cardinal-Deacon of Sant'Eustachio (1227–1232)
Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia (1232–1254)
Orders
Consecration March 1235
Created cardinal 18 September 1227
by Gregory IX
Personal details
Born Rinaldo di Jenne
c. 1185 or 1199
Jenne, Papal States
Died 25 May 1261 (aged approximately 62–76)
Viterbo, Papal States
Other popes named Alexander

Pope Alexander IV (Italian: Alessandro IV; c. 1185 or 1199 – 25 May 1261), born Rinaldo di Jenne, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 12 December 1254 to his death in 1261. In 1255, Alexander IV canonized Saint Clare of Assisi, founder of the religious order for women called the Poor Clares.[1]

Early career

He was born as Rinaldo di Jenne in Jenne[2] (now in the Province of Rome). On his mother's side, he was a member of the house Conti di Segni, the counts of Segni, like Pope Innocent III and Pope Gregory IX. His uncle Gregory IX made him cardinal deacon and Protector of the Order of Franciscans in 1227, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church from 1227 until 1231 and Bishop of Ostia in 1231 (or 1232). On the death of Pope Innocent IV, in 1254, he was elected pope at Naples on 12 December 1254.

Pontificate

Alexander's pontificate was signalled by efforts to reunite the Eastern Orthodox churches with the Catholic Church, by the establishment of the Inquisition in France, by favours shown to the mendicant orders, and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Mongols after the second Mongol raid against Poland in 1259.

On 26 September 1255, Alexander IV canonized Saint Clare of Assisi, founder of the religious order for women called the Poor Clares.[3] On 29 October 1255, in the papal bull Benigna Operatio, Alexander declared "his own knowledge" of the stigmata attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi.[4][5]

In 1256, Alexander IV condemned theories of Joachim of Fiore,[6] a millenarian prophet who had died in 1202 and whose ideas were taken up by the Fraticelli strand of the Franciscan Order. On the basis of his interpretation of the Book of Revelation, Joachim had postulated that 1260 would see the beginning of a Third Age, an age governed by the Holy Spirit, in which the hierarchy of the Church would become unnecessary - an idea which was obviously unwelcome to the Pope. In the event, 1260 – still in Alexander IV's lifetime – came and went with no such Third Age materializing, but Joachim's ideas would in later centuries be taken up by the Cult of the Holy Spirit which had a major impact in Portugal and its colonies.

The pontiff also, on 27 September 1258, declared in the bull Quod super nonnullis that "divination or sorcery" was not to be investigated by Inquisitors of the Church, who were tasked with investigating heresy. Crimes involving magic should be left to local authorities unless they had "knowledge of manifest heresy to be involved", wherein "manifest heresy" included "praying at the altars of idols, to offer sacrifices, to consult demons, [or] to elicit responses from them". At this period in Church history, the use of magic was not seen as inherently heretical, but rather rooted in superstition or erroneous beliefs.[7]

Sicily

On 14 May 1254,[8] shortly before his death, Innocent IV had granted Sicily, a papal fiefdom, to Edmund, second son of King Henry III of England. Alexander confirmed the grant on 9 April 1255,[9] in return for 2,000 troy ounces (62 kg) of gold per annum, the service of 300 knights for three months when required, and 135,541 marks (about 32 tonnes of silver) to reimburse the pope for the money he had expended attempting to oust Manfred from Sicily.[10] Henry's unsuccessful attempts to persuade his subjects to pay the taxes required to meet Alexander's demands were one of the factors in the conflict between the king and parliament which culminated in the Second Barons' War.[11] In 1256, when relations between the two men were strained, Alexander firmly rejected Henry's choice of Archbishop of Dublin. On 12 April 1261, shortly before his death, Alexander issued a papal bull for King Henry that absolved him and the magnates of his realm from the oaths taken in the Provisions of Oxford, which was instrumental in the War.[12]

Alexander IV succeeded Innocent IV as guardian of Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufens, promising him protection; but in less than three weeks he conspired against him and bitterly opposed Conradin's uncle Manfred.[13] Alexander IV threatened excommunication and interdict against the party of Manfred without effect. Nor could he enlist the kings of England and Norway in a crusade against the Hohenstaufens. Rome itself became too Ghibelline for the Pope, who withdrew to Viterbo, where he died on 25 May 1261.[14] He was buried in Viterbo Cathedral, but his tomb was destroyed during sixteenth-century renovations.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

File:Catholic Encyclopedia - Arms of Alexander IV.png
Arms of Alexander IV

Pope Alexander IV, 1254–61 (Rinaldo Conti), of the house of Segni, which had already given two illustrious sons to the Papacy, Innocent III and Gregory IX, date of birth uncertain; d. 25 May, 1261, at Viterbo. He was created Cardinal-Deacon, in 1227, by his uncle Gregory IX, and four years later Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia. Gregory also bequeathed to him his solicitude for the Franciscan Order, which he had so well befriended. On the death of Innocent IV, at Naples, 7 December, 1254, the aged Cardinal was unanimously chosen to succeed him. We may well believe his protestation that he yielded very reluctantly to the importunities of the Sacred College. Matthew of Paris has depicted him as "kind and religious, assiduous in prayer and strict in abstinence, but easily led away by the whispering of flatterers, and inclined to listen to the wicked suggestions of avaricious persons". The "flatterers" and "avaricious persons" referred to were those who induced the new Pontiff to continue Innocent's policy of a war of extermination against the progeny of Frederick II. now reduced to the infant Conradin in Germany and the formidable Manfred in Apulia. Many an historian at the present day agrees with the shrewd chronicler, that it would have been far more statesmanlike and might have averted the disasters that were in destiny for the Church, the Empire, and Italy, had Alexander firmly espoused the cause of Conradin. Deterred by the precedent of the infant Frederick, the "viper" that the Roman Church had nourished to become its destroyer, and persuaded that iniquity was hereditary, in the whole brood of the Hohenstaufens, he continued Innocent's dubious policy of calling in French or English Beelzebubs to cast out the German Lucifers. On 25 March, 1255, he fulminated an excommunication against Manfred and a few days afterwards concluded a treaty with the envoys of Henry III of England by which he made over the vassal kingdom of the Two Sicilies to Edmund of Lancaster, Henry's second son. In the contest for the German crown which followed on the death of William of Holland (1256) the Pope supported the claims of Richard of Cornwall against Alfonso of Castile. The pecuniary assistance which these measures brought him was dearly bought by the embitterment of the English clergy and people against the exactions of the Roman See. Manfred's power grew from day to day. In August, 1258, in consequence of a rumour spread by himself, that Conradin had died in Germany, the usurper was crowned king in Palermo and became the acknowledged head of the Ghibelline party in Italy. Alexander lived to see the victor of Montaperti (1260) supreme ruler of Central as well as Southern Italy. In the north of Italy he was more successful, for his crusaders finally crushed the odious tyrant Ezzelino. In Rome, which was under the rule of hostile magistrates and in alliance with Manfred, the papal authority was all but forgotten. Meanwhile the Pope was making futile efforts to unite the powers of the Christian world against the threatening invasion of the Tartars. The crusading spirit had departed. The unity of Christendom was a thing of the past. Whether the result would have been different had a great statesman occupied the Papal Chair during these seven critical years, we can only surmise. Alexander IV ruled the spiritual affairs of the Church with dignity and prudence. As Pope, he continued to show great favour to the children of St. Francis. One of his first official acts was to canonize St. Clare. In a diploma he asserted the truth of the impression of the stigmata. St. Bonaventure informs us that the Pope affirmed in a sermon that he had seen them. In the violent controversies excited at the University of Paris by William of St. Amour, Alexander IV took the friars under his protection. He died, deeply afflicted by the sense of his powerlessness to stem the evils of the age.

Potthast, Regesta RR. Pontif., II, 1286 sqq.; Bourel de la Ronciere, Les Registres d'Alex. IV (Paris, 1896); Raynaldus Ann. Eccl. ad an. 1254, sqq.; Hergenröther-Kirsch, Kirschengeschichte (Freiburg, 1904), II, 575, 576; Artaud de Montor, Hist. of the Roman Pontiffs (New York, 1807). I 429–435.

References

  1. Back to citation A. Tomassetti (ed.), Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio (Turin 1858), pp. 620–624, no. XX.
  2. Back to citation A. Coulon (ed.), Les Registres d' Alexandre IV Tome 3, fascicle 7 (Paris 1953), p. 137, no. 3246 (9 September 1260). Division of the castle of Jenna between two of Alexander's nephews.
  3. Back to citation A. Tomassetti (ed.), Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio (Turin 1858), pp. 620–624, no. XX.
  4. Back to citation A. Tomassetti (ed.), Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio (Turin 1858), pp. 626–627, no. XXII.
  5. Back to citation Knox-Little, W.J. (1897). St. Francis of Assisi: His Times, Life and Work: Lectures Delivered in Substance in the Ladye Chapel of Worcester Cathedral in the Lent of 1896. London: Isbister. OCLC 228784312.
  6. Back to citation Maria Santos Montez (2007), p. 170
  7. Back to citation Davies, Owen (2009). Grimoires: a history of magic books. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0199204519. OCLC 244766270; A. Tomassetti (ed.), Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio (Turin 1858), pp. 663–666, no. XLVI; Bailey, Michael D. (2010). Battling demons: witchcraft, heresy, and reform in the late Middle Ages. Pennsylvania State University Press. pp. 35. ISBN 978-0271022260. OCLC 652466611.
  8. Back to citation August Potthast, Regesta pontificum Romanorum II (Berlin 1875), no. 15364. Thomas Rymer, Foedera, Conventiones, Literae et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae et alios... I. 1, edition tertia (Hagae Comitis: apud Joannem Neaulme 1745), p. 181.
  9. Back to citation Potthast, ii. nos. 15784–5. Rymer I.1, p. 196.
  10. Back to citation Rymer, Foedera, I.i. 316–318, Simon Lloyd, Edmund Crouchback, Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004 Archived 2022-04-05 at the Wayback Machine. Rymer I. 2, pp. 12–13: a letter of King Henry to Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi de Molaria, Cardinal Deacon of Sant' Angelo.
  11. Back to citation J. R. Maddicott, The Origins of the English Parliament, 924–1327, Oxford University press, 2010, p. 235
  12. Back to citation Thomas Rymer, Foedera, Conventiones, Literae et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae et alios... I. 2, edition tertia (Hagae Comitis: apud Joannem Neaulme 1745), pp. 62–63. Harding, Alan. England in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 290.
  13. Back to citation P. Touron, "Alexandre IV contre Manfred," Le Moyen Âge 69 (1963), pp. 391–399.
  14. Back to citation Mann, Horace Kinder. The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages: Alexander IV to Gregory X, 1254-1276. Vol. 15. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. p. 45. Archived from the original on 2025-12-04. Retrieved 2025-07-17.

Bibliography

  • Nicolaus de Curbio, OFM, "Vita Innocentii Papae IV," Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores Tomus Tertius (Mediolani 1723) pp. 592–592e.
  • Bernardus Guidonis, "Vita Alexandri Papae IV," Ludovico Antonio Muratori, Rerum Italicarum Scriptores Tomus Tertius (Mediolani 1723) pp. 592–593.
  • Alexis François Artaud de Montor, Histoire des souverains Pontifes Romains Tome III (Paris 1851), pp. 1–11.
  • Augustinus Theiner (Editor), Caesaris S. R. E. Cardinalis Baronii, Od. Raynaldi et Jac. Laderchii Annales Ecclesiastici Tomus Vigesimus Primus 1229–1256 (Barri-Ducis: Ludovicus Guerin 1870).
  • August Karst, Geschichte Manfreds vom Tode Friedrichs II. bis zu seiner Krönung (1250–1258) (Berlin: E. Ebering 1897) [Historische Studien, Heft VI.].
  • Bourel de la Roncière, Charles, ed. (1895). Les Registres d'Alexandre IV. Vol. 1. Paris: Thorin. Archived from the original on 2025-10-08. Retrieved 2025-02-06.
  • F. Gregorovius, History of Rome in the Middle Ages, Volume V. 2, 2nd ed., revised (London: George Bell, 1906) Book X, Chapter 1, pp. 335–358.
  • F. Tenckhoff, Papst Alexander IV. (Paderborn 1907).
  • S. Andreotta, "La famiglia di Alessandro IV e l'abbazia di Subiaco," Atti e Memorie della Società Tiburtina di Storia ed Arte 35 (1962) 63–126; 36 (1963) 5–87.
  • de Lama, Ildefonso Rodríguez (1976). La documentación pontificia de Alejandro IV (1254–1261) (in Spanish). Rome: Instituto Español de Historia Eclesiástica. ISBN 978-8473590471.
  • Raoul Manselli, "Alessandro IV Archived 2015-12-08 at the Wayback Machine," Dizionario dei Papi (2000).
  • Richard, Jean (1999). The Crusades: c. 1071 – c. 1291. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-62566-1.
  • Harding, Alan (1993). England in the Thirteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521316125.
  • Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Alexander IV". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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