Global Information1254 papal election information
| Papal election 1254 | |
|---|---|
| Dates and location | |
| 11–12 December 1254 Naples | |
| Elected pope | |
| Raynaldus de' Conti Name taken: Alexander IV | |
The 1254 papal election (11–12 December) took place following the death of Pope Innocent IV and ended with the choice of Raynaldus de' Conti, who took the name Pope Alexander IV. The election was held in Naples, in the former palazzo of Pietro della Vigna, and required only one day.
Innocent IV (Fieschi), who was elected on 25 June 1243, after a vacancy that had lasted more than nineteen months, undertook as his most important task the destruction of Frederick II, who had been excommunicated by his predecessor Gregory IX (Ugo dei Conti di Segni) on 20 March 1239, and by numerous other cardinals and bishops. He was compelled to flee from Rome on 7 June 1244; he reached Genoa on 7 July, suffering from a fever and dysentery. There he remained until October, 1244, when he crossed the Alps, reaching Lyons at the end of November. There he remained, living in exile, until the middle of April 1251. He held a church council at Lyons in 1245, with some 150 bishops, a disappointing number, and issued an order deposing Frederick from the Imperial throne, and his son Conrad as well.[1] Louis IX of France attempted to mediate a peace, but was unsuccessful. Both parties wanted blood. There was even an assassination attempt against the life of Frederick, led by Tibaldo Francesco, a former Podestà of Parma, who had been promised the Crown of Sicily (Only the Pope can invest a person with the fief of Sicily). When Frederick discovered the plot, 150 people were executed. In May, 1246, a new King of the Romans was elected in opposition to Frederick with the active support of the Pope, Henry Raspe Landgraf of Thurungia. Henry managed to defeat Conrad in battle at Nidda in August 1246, but death prevented him from following up on his success. A new emperor, William of Holland, was likewise elected, in October 1247, but he was defeated by Conrad in 1250. Frederick's best friend, Peter de la Vigne, was accused of attempting to assassinate Frederick through poison; he was tried and blinded, but before he could be confined for life (or worse), he committed suicide (1249). Frederick insisted that the moving force behind the plot had been the Pope. While campaigning in Italy, Frederick died of dysentery on 13 December 1250.[2] He left the crown of Sicily, his initial inheritance, to his son Conrad IV, and, failing him, to his son Henry; or, if Henry was unavailable, in the last event to his legitimized son Manfred. Pope Innocent was impelled to eject the Hohenstaufen, and offered the rule to Richard of Cornwall, the brother of King Henry III of England, both before and after the death of Conrad, and then to Charles d'Anjou, the brother of Louis IX of France.
Next April, Innocent began his homeward journey, by sea from Marseille to Genoa; he spent the summer in Lombardy, and arrived in Bologna in mid-October, 1251.[3] He reached Perugia at the beginning of November, 1251, where he resided until the end of April, 1253, when he moved to Assisi. He left Assisi at the beginning of October, 1253, and finally reached Rome by 12 October. He stayed at the Lateran, until the end of April, 1254, when he returned to Assisi for the rest of the spring. He travelled next to Anagni, arriving by 2 June, where he stayed until 8 October, when he made a visit to Montecassino, Capua and Naples. He died in Naples on 7 December 1254.
But Innocent IV had not returned to Italy in 1251, to enjoy the peace and happiness consequent on the death of the Church's great enemy. The Church had been seriously damaged during the war between Frederick and Gregory IX and then Frederick and Innocent IV. Already in 1246, if Matthew of Paris is to be believed,[4] there was a confrontation between Innocent and Cardinal Johannes Toletanus, who was defending the English who were refusing to pay the Pope's exorbitant tax demands, even under threat of interdict. Toletanus wrote:
May God forgive you your wrath, Lord, if I may speak frankly, you should try to control your wild temper, since the times are so bad. The Holy Land has difficulties; the Greek Church is moving away from us; Frederick, who is equal to or more powerful than any Christian prince, opposes us. You and we, who are the support of the Church, are driven from the seat of the papacy, from Rome, and even from Italy. Hungary, with its great territory, awaits its destruction at the hands of the Turk. Germany is torn with civil war. Spain is raging to the length of cutting out the tongues of bishops. France, already impoverished by us, is conspiring against us. England, frequently troubled by our injuries, now at length wounded by our blows and injured by our spurs, like Balaam's ass speaks and protests and complains that its burden is intolerable and that its injury is beyond remedy. We, like the Jews, hated by all, provoke all to hate us.
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages Volume 5, part 1 (London 1906), pp. 244-255. Charles Joseph Hefele, Histoire des conciles (French translation by H. Leclerq, from the second revised German edition) Volume V, part 2 (Paris 1913), pp. 1612-1694.
- ^ Ferdinand Gregorovius, History of the City of Rome in the Middle Ages Volume 5, part 1 (London 1906), pp. 255-272.
- ^ Zeller, pp. 11-16.
- ^ Matthew of Paris, Chronica majora, Volume IV, p. 579 (ed. H. Luard). Aiden Gasquet, Henry III and the Church (London 1905), p. 268. The Pope had demanded a subsidy of half of the annual income of each ecclesiastical person and institution in England. King Henry forbade the bishops to consent.