GUGLIELMO da MODENA. - Cardinal of the Curia and papal diplomat to various royal families, b. about 1184 in Piedmont, d. 31 March 1251 at Lyons. A member of the Carthusian Order, he entered the papal Chancery in 1209 and was vice-chancellor in the years 1220-22; from 1222 to 1234 bishop of Modena, in 1244 he was appointed cardinal bishop of Sabina.
His diplomatic activity was carried out particularly in the Baltic provinces. In 1225-26 he attended to the condition of the Church in Estonia and Lithuania, and at Easter 1226 he convened a provincial synod at Riga. In the following years he pursued intense apostolic activity in Denmark, Prussia, Poland, and Pomerania. In 1247 he crowned Hakon, king of Norway.
The pious cardinal was a staunch defender and promoter of the missionary ideal; for this reason he showed great sympathy toward the two mendicant and missionary Orders, the Dominican and the Franciscan.