ANASTASIUS IV, POPE

Pontificate: July 12, 1153, to Dec. 3, 1154; b. Conrad de Suburra, Rome. As cardinal bishop of Sabina (named probably 1126), he actively supported the election of Innocent II in 1130 and served as his vicar in Rome when that pope was absent in France. Already old and experienced, he was elected pope without opposition on the day of Eugene III's death and consecrated on July 12, 1153. Anastasius was charitable to the Romans during famine, and he built a papal residence near the Pantheon. During his pontificate, william fitzherbert was reinstated and Sweden began to pay peter's pence. When his legate to Germany failed to settle the matter of Frederick I Barbarossa's translation of wichmann from Naumburg to the See of Magdeburg, a move already denounced by Eugene, Anastasius accepted Wichmann and bestowed the pallium on him in Rome. He was criticized for his overly compliant attitude.

Bibliography: Patrologia Latina, ed. j. p. migne (Paris 1878–90) 188:989–1088. p. jaffÉ, Regesta pontificum romanorum ab condita ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum 1198, ed. s. lÖwenfeld (2d ed. Leipzig 1881–88; repr. Graz 1956) 2:89–102. Liber pontificalis, ed. l. duchesne ((Paris 1886–92) 2:388. h. k. mann, The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages from 590 to 1304 (London 1902–32) 9:221–231. j. haller, Das Papsttum (2d rev. ed. Stuttgart 1950–53) 3:116–120. f. x. seppelt, Geschichte der Päpste von den Anfängen bis zur Mitte des 20. Jh. (Munich 1956) 3:212, 606ff. j. laudage, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche (3d ed. Freiburg 1995). j.n.d. kelly, Oxford Dictionary of Popes (New York 1986) 173.

[m. w. baldwin]