URBAN IV, POPE

Pontificate: Aug. 29, 1261, to Oct. 2, 1264; b. Jacques Pantaléon, Troyes, France, c. 1200; d. Perugia, Italy. Although the son of a cobbler, he rose rapidly from priest and canon at Lyons, to bishop of Verdun (1253) and patriarch of Jerusalem (1255), to pope, being crowned at Viterbo. Participation at the Council of Lyons (1245), service as papal legate in Germany and Eastern Europe, as well as years spent in the Near East, gave him broad insight into political affairs. An able administrator, he reformed and strengthened his government in the Papal States. He reinforced the College of Cardinals by appointing new members, including six Frenchmen. Anarchy and wars in Rome forced him to reside at Viterbo and Orvieto. To arrest the growth in power of King Manfred of Naples and the allied Ghibelline party in Tuscany and Lombardy, which he held dangerous for the Church, Urban turned to France to find a candidate for the "vacant" Sicilian throne. King louis ix refused the crown for himself and his sons, but did not object when Urban approached his brother, Charles of Anjou and Provence. Negotiations dragged on inconclusively and were even interrupted by attempts to come to terms with Manfred until he and the Ghibellines prepared a military offensive. Then the pope made all the concessions Charles requested. Although Urban died before the treaty was ratified, clement iv saw the project through. Urban's two Oriental plans, namely, the restoration of the Latin states on the Bosporus and in the Balkans, and the reunion with the Eastern Church, canceled each other. Moreover, for the latter an agreement with Emperor michael viii Palaeologus would have been necessary, but Charles of Anjou, who wanted the empire for himself, would never have consented to this. Urban introduced the feast of corpus christi.

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[h. wieruszowski]