Annibaldi (Annibaldeschi) della Molara, Riccardo degli

ANNIBALDI (ANNIBALDESCHI) della MOLARA, RICCARDO degli. - He was created cardinal with the title of St. Angelo by Gregory IX, his great-uncle, in 1237 or 1239. He was appointed, perhaps by Innocent IV, archpriest of the Vatican basilica, then archdeacon of the Roman Church, and in that capacity he crowned Pope Clement IV in 1265. In 1248 he became rector of the Campagna and of the Marittima. On the commission of Innocent IV he is said to have gathered under the rule of St. Augustine the numerous hermits scattered throughout Tuscany: the regulation he drew up for this purpose, to fix the customs of the professed, the novices and the conversi, was confirmed by Alexander IV, his uncle, with a bull issued at Anagni on 22 July 1255 (Potthast, n. 16334), and in March 1257 he was appointed protector of the Order by the same Pope. The most important political affairs of the Church were entrusted to him: in 1252 he went to Florence to establish peace between the factions that divided Tuscany; he was chosen by Clement IV to be part of the embassy that conferred on Charles I the investiture of the kingdom of Naples; he was one of the six cardinals to whom the opposing parties referred, by compromise, the papal election; he was charged by Gregory IX with settling the conflict between the churches of Viterbo that were disputing the remains of Clement IV; the judgment of a contested election to the bishopric of Antwerp was entrusted to him by Innocent V. He died perhaps in the summer of 1276 and was buried in the basilica of St. Peter. He was a close friend of St. Thomas Aquinas, with whom he also had ties of kinship, since a niece of the saint had married an Annibaldi of Ceccano.