CLEMENT IV, Pope. - Guido Fulcodi, b. at St-Gilles near Nîmes in Provence at the beginning of the 13th century, was in the service of the king of France precisely at the moment when the latter was extending his authority into the south. After the death of his wife, by whom he had had two daughters, he became a priest and rapidly rose through the various grades of the ecclesiastical hierarchy: bishop of Puy in 1257, archbishop of Narbonne in 1259, cardinal-bishop of Sabina on 17 Dec. 1261, carrying out important curial assignments. On his return from a legation in England he learned that the Conclave, assembled after the death of Urban IV and sitting for four months in Perugia, had elected him pontiff (5 Feb. 1265); he accepted the appointment and called himself C. IV. He entered Italy at once in secret and on 20 Feb. was at Perugia. He soon resumed the negotiations with Charles of Anjou that had been begun by his predecessor in order to bring down the power of Manfred, king of Sicily, who, having made himself head of the Ghibelline party, aimed to dominate Italian politics, following in the footsteps of his father Frederick II. Charles descended into Italy and was invested with the kingdom in the Lateran on 29 May by C., with whom he concluded a solemn pact. C. had the crusade preached against Manfred, and the victory of Benevento on 27 Feb. 1266 marked the end of the Hohenstaufen, who was killed there.

The disputes between the Pope and Charles of Anjou were frequent, on account of the latter's exaggerated financial demands, the harshness of his government and his cruelty toward the last heir of the Hohenstaufen, the young Conradin (v.), son of Conrad IV, emperor. Of the more properly religious activity of the Pontiff one may recall the measures taken against Philip of Savoy, who had been appointed archbishop of Lyon while he did not have the sacred Orders, and the decree by which the benefices of those who died where the Curia resided were reserved to the pope.

C. died on 29 Nov. 1268 at Viterbo, and there followed a vacancy of almost three years.

Bibliography3 works

BIBL.: A. Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum, II, Berlin 1874, pp. 1532-1650; E. Jordan, Les registres de Clément IV, Paris 1893; P. Balan, Storia d'Italia, IV, Modena 1895, p. 57 ff. For his life before becoming pontiff see J. Heidemann, Papst Clemens IV. Das Vorleben des Papstes und sein Legationregister, (Kirchengeschichtliche Studien, 6), Münster 1903. For the history of his Italian policy: E. Jordan, Les origines de la domination angéenne en Italie, Paris 1909, passim (see index). R. Morghien, Il tramonto della potenza nueva, Milan 1937, pp. 98, 228. On curial centralization: J. Rocquain, La cour de Rome et l'esprit de la Réforme avant Luther, II, Paris 1895, pp. 171-210.

Paolo Brezzi

@incollection{ec3_clemente_iv_papa, author = {Brezzi, Paolo}, title = {Clemente IV, papa}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {III}, pages = {1817}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/clemente-iv-papa} }

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Clement IV, Pope

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