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Pope Clement IV

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Pope
Clement IV
Bishop of Rome
Clement IV depicted in a 13th-century fresco
Clement IV depicted in a 13th-century fresco
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 5 February 1265
Papacy ended 29 November 1268
Predecessor Urban IV
Successor Gregory X
Previous posts Bishop of Le Puy-en-Velay (1257–1259)
Archbishop of Narbonne (1259–1261)
Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina (1261–1265)
Major Penitentiary (1263–1265)
Legate to England (1263–1265)
Orders
Consecration 1257
Created cardinal 17 December 1261
by Urban IV
Personal details
Born Gui Foucois
c. 23 November 1190
Saint-Gilles-du-Gard, County of Toulouse, Kingdom of France
Died 29 November 1268 (aged 78)
Viterbo, Papal States
Other popes named Clement

Pope Clement IV (Latin: Clemens IV; c. 23 November 1190 – 29 November 1268), born Gui Foucois (Latin: Guido Falcodius; French: Guy de Foulques or Guy Foulques)[1] and also known as Guy le Gros (French for "Guy the Fat"; Italian: Guido il Grosso), was Bishop of Le Puy (1257–1260), Archbishop of Narbonne (1259–1261), Cardinal of Sabina (1261–1265), and head of the Catholic Church from 5 February 1265 until his death. His election as pope occurred at a conclave held at Perugia that lasted four months while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles I of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France, to carry on the papal war against the Hohenstaufens. Pope Clement was a patron of Thomas Aquinas and of Roger Bacon, encouraging Bacon in the writing of his Opus Majus, which included important treatises on optics and the scientific method.

Life before election

Clement was born in Saint-Gilles-du-Gard in the County of Toulouse, to a lawyer, Pierre Foucois, and his wife Marguerite Ruffi. At the age of nineteen, he enrolled as a soldier to fight the Moors in Spain. He then pursued the study of law in Toulouse, Bourges and Orleans, becoming a noted advocate in Paris. In the latter capacity he acted as secretary to King Louis IX, to whose influence he was chiefly indebted for his elevation to the cardinalate. He married the daughter of Simon de Malbois and had two daughters. Upon the death of his wife, he followed his father's example and gave up secular life for the Church.[2]

His rise was rapid. Ordained in the abbey of Saint-Magloire, Paris, he became pastor of Saint-Gilles in 1255. In 1257, he was appointed Bishop of Le Puy; in 1259, he was appointed Archbishop of Narbonne; and in December 1261, he became the first cardinal created by Pope Urban IV, for the See of Sabina.[3] He was the papal legate in England between 1262 and 1264.[2] He was named a cardinal (grand penitentiary) in 1263.[4]

Pontificate

In this period, the See of Rome was engaged in a conflict with Manfred, King of Sicily, the illegitimate son and designated heir of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, but whom papal loyalists, the Guelfs, called "the usurper of Naples". Clement IV, who was in France at the time of his election, was compelled to enter Italy in disguise. He immediately took steps to ally himself with Charles of Anjou, his erstwhile patron's brother and the impecunious French claimant to the Neapolitan throne. Charles was willing to recognize the Pope as his feudal overlord (a bone of contention with the Hohenstaufens) and was crowned by cardinals in Rome, where Clement IV, permanently established at Viterbo, dared not venture, since the anti-papal Ghibelline party was so firmly in control there.[2]

Then, fortified with papal money and supplies, Charles marched into Naples. Having defeated and slain Manfred in the great Battle of Benevento, Charles established himself firmly in the kingdom of Sicily at the conclusive Battle of Tagliacozzo, in which Conradin, the last of the house of Hohenstaufen, was taken prisoner. Clement IV is said to have disapproved of the cruelties committed by his protégé, but the statement by Gregorovius that Clement IV became an accomplice by refusing to intercede for the unfortunate Conradin whom Charles had beheaded in the marketplace of Naples seems contentious. However, Gregorovius may be basing this conclusion on the position of Urban IV's predecessors, Innocent IV and Alexander IV, who were Conradin's official guardians.[5]

Acts

In 1264, Clement IV renewed the prohibition of the Talmud promulgated by Gregory IX, who had it publicly burnt in France and in Italy. Though Clement did not condemn to death at the stake those who harboured copies of it,[6] and, responding to a denunciation of the Talmud by Pablo Christiani,[7] he ordered that the Jews of the Crown of Aragon submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation.[8]

In February 1265 Clement summoned Thomas Aquinas to Rome to serve as papal theologian.[9] It was during this period that Aquinas also served as regent master for the Dominicans at Rome.[10] With the arrival of Aquinas the existing studium conventuale at Santa Sabina, which had been founded in 1222, was transformed into the Order's first studium provinciale featuring the study of philosophy (studia philosophiae) as prescribed by Aquinas and others at the chapter of Valenciennes in 1259, an intermediate school between the studium conventuale and the studium generale. This studium was the forerunner of the 16th century College of Saint Thomas at Santa Maria sopra Minerva and the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum. In 1266, after the Battle of Benevento, Pope Clement IV conceded for gratitude his coat of arms to the Guelph Party of Florence as official approval to their supremacy and therefore they could take power in many of the other northern Italian cities. In 1267–68 Clement engaged in correspondence with the Mongol Ilkhanate ruler Abaqa. The latter proposed a Franco-Mongol alliance between his forces, those of the West, and the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaeologos (Abaqa's father-in-law). Pope Clement welcomed Abaqa's proposal in a non-committal manner, but did inform him of an upcoming Crusade. In 1267, Pope Clement IV and King James I of Aragon sent an ambassador to the Mongol ruler Abaqa in the person of Jayme Alaric de Perpignan.[11] In his 1267 letter written from Viterbo, the Pope wrote:

The kings of France and Navarre, taking to heart the situation in the Holy Land, and decorated with the Holy Cross, are readying themselves to attack the enemies of the Cross. You wrote to us that you wished to join your father-in-law (the Greek emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos) to assist the Latins. We abundantly praise you for this, but we cannot tell you yet, before having asked to the rulers, what road they are planning to follow. We will transmit to them your advice, so as to enlighten their deliberations, and will inform your Magnificence, through a secure message, of what will have been decided.[12]

Although Clement's successors continued to engage in diplomatic contacts with the Mongols for the rest of the century, they were never able to coordinate an actual alliance.[13]

Death and burial

On 29 November 1268 Clement IV died and was buried at the Dominican convent, Santa Maria in Gradi, just outside Viterbo, where he resided throughout his pontificate.[14][15] In 1885, his remains were transferred to the church, San Francesco alla Rocca, in Viterbo.[16] Owing to irreconcilable divisions among the cardinals, the papal throne remained vacant for nearly three years.

Clement IV's private character was praised by contemporaries for his asceticism, and he is especially commended for his indisposition to promote and enrich his own relatives. He also ordered the Franciscan scholar Roger Bacon to write the Opus Majus, which is addressed to him.

See also

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Clement IV — (GUIDO LE GROS).

Born at Saint-Gilles on the Rhone, 23 November, year unknown; elected at Perugia 5 February, 1265; d. at Viterbo, 29 November, 1268. After the death of Urban IV (2 October, 1264), the cardinals, assembled in conclave at Perugia, discussed for four monthe the momentous question whether the Church should continue the war to the end against the House of Hohenstaufen by calling in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of St. Louis of France, or find some other means of securing the independence of the papacy. No other solution offering itself, the only possible course was to unite upon the Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina, by birth a Frenchman and a subject of Charles. Guido Le Gros was of noble extraction. When his mother died, his father, the knight Foulquois, entered a Carthusian monastery where he ended a saintly life. Guido married, and for a short time wielded the spear and the sword. Then devoting himself to the study of law under the able direction of the famous Durandus, he gained a national reputation as an advocate. St. Louis, who entertained a great respect and affection for him, took him into his cabinet and made him one of his trusted councillors. His wife died, leaving him two daughters, whereupon he imitated his father to the extent that he gave up worldly concerns and took Holy orders.

His rise in the Church was rapid; 1256, he was Bishop of Puy; 1259, Archbishop of Narbonne; December, 1261, Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina. He was the first cardinal created by Urban IV (Babel, Hierarchia Catholica, 7). He was in France, returning from an important legation to England, when he received an urgent message from the cardinals demanding his immediate presence in Perugia. Not until he entered the conclave, was he informed that the unanimous vote of the Sacred College had confided into his hands the destinies of the Catholic Church. He was astonished; for only a man of his large experience could fully realize the responsibility of him whose judgment, at this critical juncture, must irrevocably shape the course of Italian and ecclesiastical history for centuries to come. His prayers and tears failing to move the cardinals, he reluctantly accepted the heavy burden, was crowned at Viterbo, 22 February, and, to honour the saint of his birthday, assumed the name of Clement IV. His contemporaries are unanimous and enthusiastic in extolling his exemplary piety and rigorously ascetic life. He had a remarkable aversion to nepotism. His first act was to forbid any of his relatives to come to the Curia, or to attempt to derive any sort of temporal advantage from his elevation. Suitors for the hands of his daughters were admonished that their prospective brides were "children not of the pope, but of Guido Grossus", and that their dowers should be extremely modest. The two ladies preferred the seclusion of the convent.

The Neapolitan question occupied, almost exclusively, the thoughts of Clement IV during his short pontificate of 3 years, 9 months, and 25 days, which, however, witnessed the two decisive battles of Benevento and Tagliacozzo (1268), and the execution of Conradin. The negotiations with Charles of Anjou had progressed so far under the reign of Urban IV that it is difficult to see how the pope could now well draw back, even were he so inclined. But Clement had no intention of doing so. The power of Manfred and the insecurity of the Holy See were increasing daily. Clement had already, as cardinal, taken an active part in the negotiations with Charles and now exerted himself to the utmost in order to supply the ambitious but needy adventurer with troops and money. Papal legates and mendicant friars appeared upon the scene, preaching a formal crusade, with the amplest indulgences and most lavish promises. Soldiers were obtained in abundance among the warlike chivalry of France; the great difficulty was to find money with which to equip and maintain the army. The clergy and people failed to detect a crusade in what they deemed a personal quarrel of the pope, a "war hard by the Lateran, and not with Saracens nor with Jews" (Dante, Inf., canto xxvii); though, in reality, Saracens, implanted in Italy by Frederick II, made up the main strength of Manfred's army. Although reduced at times to utter destitution, and forced to pledge everything of value and to borrow at exorbitant rates, the pope did not despair; the expedition arrived, and from the military point of view achieved a brilliant success.

Charles, preceding his army, came to Rome by sea, and upon the conclusion of a treaty, by which the liberties of the Church and the overlordship of the Holy See seemed to be most firmly secured, he received the investiture of his new kingdom. On 6 January, 1266, he was solemnly crowned in St. Peter's; not, as he had wished, by the pope, who took up his residence in Viterbo and never saw Rome, but by cardinals designated for the purpose. On 22 February was fought the battle of Benevento, in which Charles was completely victorious; Manfred was found among the slain. Naples opened her gates and the Angevin dynasty was established. Though a good general, Charles had many weaknesses of character that made him a very different ruler from his saintly brother. He was harsh, cruel, grasping, and tyrannical. Clement was kept busy reminding him of the terms of his treaty, reproving his excesses and those of his officials, and warning him that he was gaining the enmity of his subjects. Nevertheless, when a little later, young Conradin, disregarding papal censure and anathemas, advanced to the conquest of what he deemed his birthright, Clement remained faithful to Charles and prophesied that the gallant youth, received by the Ghibelline party everywhere, even in Rome, with unbounded enthusiasm, "was being led like a lamb to the slaughter", and that "his glory would vanish like smoke", a prophecy only too literally fulfilled when, after the fatal day of Tagliacozzo (23 August, 1268), Conradin fell into Charles' merciless hands and was beheaded (29 October) on the market-place of Naples. The fable that Pope Clement advised the execution of the unfortunate prince by saying "The death or life of Conradin means the life or death of Charles", is of a later date, and opposed to the truth. Even the statement of Gregorovius that Clement became an accomplice by refusing to intercede for Conradin, is equally groundless; for it has been shown conclusively, not only that he pleaded for his life and besought St. Louis to add the weight of his influence with his brother, but, moreover, that he sternly reproved Charles for his cruel deed when it was perpetrated. Clement followed "the last of the Hohenstaufen" to the grave just one month later, leaving the papacy in a much better condition than when he received the keys of St. Peter. He was buried in the church of the Dominicans at Viterbo. Owing to divergent views among the cardinals, the papal throne remained vacant for nearly three years. In 1268, Clement canonized St. Hedwig of Poland (d. 1243).

JORDAN, Le registres de Clément IV (Paris, 1893, sqq.); Life and Letters in MANSI, XIV, 325; HEIDEMANN, Papst Klemens IV. (Mü, 1903, pt. 1); HEFELE, Concilieng. VI, 1-265; HERGENRÖTHER -KIRSCH, Kirchengesch., 4th ed. (Freiburg, 1904), II, 566; PRIEST, Hist. de la Conquéte de Naples par Charles d'Anjou (Paris, 1841); BRAYDA, La risponsabilitá di Clemente IV e di Carlo X d'Anjou nella morte di Corradino di Soevia (Naples, 1900).

References

  1. Back to citation "Clemens ⟨Papa, IV.⟩", Personal Names of the Middle Ages, p. 129.
  2. Back to citation occurrence 2.0 Back to citation occurrence 2.1 Back to citation occurrence 2.2 Loughlin, James. "Pope Clement IV." The Catholic Encyclopedia Archived April 17, 2016, at the Wayback Machine Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 2 January 2016
  3. Back to citation Rockwell, William Walker (1911). "Clement s.v. Clement IV". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 6 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 483.
  4. Back to citation "Miranda, Salvador. "Foucois, Gui", Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church". Archived from the original on May 20, 2013. Retrieved January 2, 2016.
  5. Back to citation P. Touron, "Alexandre IV contre Manfred," Le Moyen Âge 69 (1963), pp. 391–99.
  6. Back to citation As reported, for example in Arsene Damestetter, The Talmud, 1897:94.
  7. Back to citation Shlomo Simonsohn, The Apostolic See and the Jews (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) 1991:311.
  8. Back to citation Popper, William (1889). The Censorship of Hebrew Books. Knickerbocker Press. pp. 13–14.
  9. Back to citation A Biographical Study of the Angelic Doctor, by Placid Conway, O.P., Longmans, Green and Co., 1911, Part III: Evening, Chapter VI - His Writings: Second Period, "Saint Thomas Aquinas, by Placid Conway, OP". Archived from the original on May 1, 2013. Retrieved February 5, 2013. Accessed October 27, 2012
  10. Back to citation Acta Capitulorum Provincialium, Provinciae Romanae Ordinis Praedicatorum, 1265, n. 12, in Corpus Thomisticum, http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/a65.html Accessed 4-8-2011
  11. Back to citation Runciman, p. 330–331
  12. Back to citation Quoted in Grousset, p. 644
  13. Back to citation "Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam". Atwood, "Western Europe and the Mongol Empire" Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p. 583
  14. Back to citation Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins, 2000), 218.
  15. Back to citation Beullens, Pieter (2022). The Friar and the Philosopher: William of Moerbeke and the Rise of Aristotle’s Science in Medieval Europe. Routledge. p. 92. ISBN 978-1032305219.
  16. Back to citation Richard P. McBrien, 218.

Bibliography

  • Runciman, Steven (1958). The Sicilian Vespers. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-43774-5.
  • Grousset, René (2006). Histoire des croisades et du royaume franc de Jérusalem: 1131–1187, l'équilibre. Perrin.
  • Runciman, Steven (1951). A history of the Crusades (1st ed.). Cambridge [Eng.]: Cambridge University Press.
  • Jean Dunbabin, Charles I of Anjou: Power, Kingship and State-Making in Thirteenth-Century Europe (Addison Wesley Longman 1998; London-New York: Routledge 2014).
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