Pope Martin IV

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Pope Martin IV

Pope Martin IV (between 1210 and 1220 – March 28, 1285), born Simon de Brion, held the papacy from February 21, 1281 until his death.

Simon de Brion, son of Jean, sieur de Brion, was born at the château of Meinpicien in the province of Touraine

Touraine

The Touraine is a provinces of France of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, the Touraine was divided between the d?partement in Frances of Indre-et-Loire, Loir-et-Cher and Indre....
, France

France

France , officially the French Republic , is a country whose Metropolitan France is located in Western Europe and that also comprises various Overseas departments and territories of France....
, in the decade following 1210. The seigneurial family de Brion, who took their name from Brion near Joigny

Joigny

Joigny is a town and Communes of France of the Yonne Departments of France in France. It is located on the banks of the Yonne River....
, flourished in the Brie française.

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Touraine

France

Joigny

Joigny is a town and Communes of France of the Yonne Departments of France in France. It is located on the banks of the Yonne River....
, flourished in the Brie française. He spent time at the University of Paris

University of Paris

The historic University of Paris first appeared in the 12th century. In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous university . The university is often referred to as the Sorbonne or La Sorbonne after the collegiate institution founded about 1257 by Robert de Sorbon....
, then reportedly studied law at Padua and Bologna. Through papal favour he received a canonry at St-Quentin, which he enjoyed in 1238, and spent a period 1248-1259 as a canon

Canon (priest)

A canon is a priest who is a member of certain bodies of the Christianity clergy subject to an ecclesiastical rule .Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergyhouse or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct or close of a cathedral and ordering his life according to the orders or rules of the church....
of the cathedral chapter in Rouen

Rouen

Rouen is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital of the Haute-Normandie r?gion in France....
, finally as archdeacon. At the same time he was appointed treasurer of the church of St. Martin in Tours by Louis IX

Louis IX of France

Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was List of French monarchs from 1226 to his death. He was also Counts of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet and the son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile....
, an office he held until he was elected pope in 1281. In 1259, just as he disappears from the documents at Rouen, he was appointed to the council of the king, who made him keeper of the great seal, chancellor of France, one of the great officers in the household of the king.

In December 1261, the new French pope Urban IV

Pope Urban IV

Pope Urban IV , born Jacques Pantal?on, was Pope, from 1261 to 1264. He was not a Cardinal , and there have been several Popes since him who have not been Cardinals, including Urban V and Urban VI....
made him cardinal-priest

Cardinal (Catholicism)

A cardinal is a senior Ecclesiology official, usually a Bishop , of the Catholic Church. They are collectively known as the College of Cardinals, which as a body elects a new pope....
, with the titulus
Titulus

In Christian archeology, a titulus is one of a set number of churches of Rome#Ancient churches built round the edges of the city of Rome, which were ascribed to patrons, whose names often identified them:...
of the church of St. Cecilia. This entailed Simon de Brion's residence in Rome.

He returned to France as a legate

Papal legate

A Papal Legate ? from the Latin, authentic Roman title Legatus ? is a personal representative of the Pope to Foreign nations, or to some part of the Catholic Church....
for Urban IV and also for his successor Pope Clement IV

Pope Clement IV

Pope Clement IV , born Gui Faucoi called in later life le Gros , was elected Pope February 5, 1265, in a Papal conclave held at Perugia that took four months, while cardinals argued over whether to call in Charles of Anjou, the youngest brother of Louis IX of France , to carry on the papal war against the last of the house of Hohe...
, in 1264-1269 and again in 1274-1279, under Pope Gregory X

Pope Gregory X

Pope Gregory X , born Tebaldo Visconti, was Pope from 1271 to 1276. He was elected by the papal election, 1268?1271, the longest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church....
. In the negotiations for papal support for the assumption of the crown of Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is an Autonomous regions with special statute of Italy. Of all the regions of Italy, Sicily covers the largest land area at 25,708 km? and currently has just over five million inhabitants....
by Charles of Anjou, he became deeply politically entwined. As legate he presided over several synod

Synod

A synod is a council of a Ecclesia , usually a Christianity church, convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. An ecumenical council is so named because it is a synod of the whole church ...
s on reform, the most important of which was held at Bourges

Bourges

Bourges is a commune in France in central France on the Y?vre river. It is the capital of the Departments of France of Cher and also was the capital of the former provinces of France of Berry ....
in September, 1276.

Six months after the death of Pope Nicholas III

Pope Nicholas III

Pope Nicholas III , born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, Pope from November 25, 1277 to his death in 1280, was a Roman nobleman who had served under eight Popes, been made cardinal-deacon of St....
in 1280, Charles of Anjou intervened in the papal conclave at Viterbo

Viterbo

Viterbo is an ancient city and comune in the Latium region of central Italy, the capital of the province of Viterbo. It is approximately 100 kilometers north of Rome on the Via Cassia, and it is surrounded by the Monti Cimini and Monti Volsini....
by imprisoning two influential Italian cardinals, on the grounds that they were interfering with the election. Without their opposition, Simon de Brie was unanimously elected to the papacy, taking the name Martin IV, on February 22, 1281.

Viterbo was placed under interdict

Interdict (Roman Catholic Church)

In the Roman Catholic Church, the word interdict usually refers to an ecclesiastical penalty. Interdicts may be real, local or personal....
for the imprisonment of the cardinals, and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital city of Italy and Lazio, and is Italy's largest and most populous city, with 2,724,347 residents in an urban area of some ....
was not at all inclined to accept a hated Frenchman as Pope, so Martin IV was crowned instead at Orvieto

Orvieto

Orvieto is a city in southwestern Umbria, Italy situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The site of the city is among the most dramatic in Europe, rising above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are completed by defensive walls built of the same stone....
, on March 23, 1281.

Dependent on Charles of Anjou in nearly everything, the new Pope quickly appointed him to the position of Roman Senator. At the insistence of Charles, Martin IV excommunicated

Excommunication

Excommunication is a religious censure used to deprive or suspend membership in a religious community. The word literally means putting [someone] out of full communion....
the Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

Byzantine Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are conventional names used to describe the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages, centered on its capital of Constantinople....
Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus (1261-1282), who stood in the way of Charles' plans to restore the Latin Empire of the East that had been established in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade

Fourth Crusade

The Fourth Crusade was originally designed to conquer Islam Jerusalem by means of an invasion through Egypt. Instead, in April 1204, the Crusaders of Western Europe invaded and conquered the Christianity city of Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire....
. He thus broke the tenuous union which had been reached between the Greek and the Latin Churches at the Second Council of Lyons in 1274, and further compromise was rendered impossible.

In 1282, Charles was overthrown in the violent massacre known as the Sicilian Vespers

Sicilian Vespers

The Sicilian Vespers is the name given to a rebellion in Sicily in 1282 against the rule of the Angevin king Charles I of Naples, who had taken control of the island with Papacy support in 1266....
. The Sicilians had elected Peter III of Aragon

Peter III of Aragon

Peter the Great was the King of Aragon of Kingdom of Valencia and of Majorca , and Sovereign Count of Barcelona from 1276 to his death. He conquered Kingdom of Sicily and became King of Sicily in 1282....
(1276-1285) as their King and sought papal confirmation in vain, though they were willing to reconfirm Sicily as a vassal

Vassal

A vassal in the terminology that both preceded and accompanied the feudal of medieval Europe, is one who enters into mutual obligations with a monarch, usually of military support and mutual protection, in exchange for certain guarantees, which came to include the terrain held as a fiefdom....
state of the Papacy; Martin IV used all the spiritual and material resources at his command against the Aragonese, trying to preserve Sicily for the House of Anjou. He excommunicated Peter III, declared his kingdom of Aragon forfeit, and ordered a crusade against him

Aragonese Crusade

The Aragonese Crusade or Crusade of Arag?n, a part of the larger War of the Sicilian Vespers, was declared by Pope Martin IV against the King of Arag?n, Peter III of Aragon, in 1284 and 1285....
, but it was all in vain.

With the death of his protector Charles d'Anjou, Martin was unable to remain at Rome. Pope Martin IV died at Perugia

Perugia

Perugia is the capital city of the region of Umbria in central Italy, near the Tiber river, and the capital of the province of Perugia. The city symbol is the griffin, which can be seen in the form of plaques and statues on buildings around the city....
on March 28, 1285.

Among the seven cardinals created by Martin IV was Benedetto Gaetano, who afterwards ascended the papal throne as the famous Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII

Pope Boniface VIII , born Benedetto Caetani, was Pope of the Roman Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303....
(1294-1303).

In the Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy

The Divine Comedy , written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature....
, Dante

Dante Alighieri

Durante degli Alighieri , commonly known as Dante Alighieri, was a Florence poet of the Middle Ages. His Magnum opus, the Divine Comedy , is often considered the greatest literary work composed in the Italian language and a masterpiece of world literature....
sees Martin IV in Purgatory

Purgatory

Purgatory is the condition or process of purification or temporary punishment in which the souls of those who die in a state of grace are made ready for heaven....
, where the reader is reminded of the former pontiff's fondness for eels and wine.