Pope Martin Iv
POPE MARTIN IV. (Simon Mompitie de Brion), pope from the 22nd of February 1281 to the 28th of March 1285, should have been named Martin II. He was born about 1210 in Touraine. He became a priest at Rouen and canon of St Martin's at Tours, and was made chancellor of France by Louis IX. in 1260 and cardinal-priest of Sta Cecilia by Urban IV. in 1261. As papal legate in France he held several synods for the reformation of the clergy and conducted the negotiations for the assumption of the crown of Sicily by Charles of Anjou. It was through the latter's influence that he succeeded Nicholas III., after a six-months' struggle between the French and Italian cardinals. The Romans at first declined to receive him, and he was consecrated at Orvieto on the 23rd of March 1281. Peaceful and unassuming, he relied completely on Charles of Anjou, and showed little ability as pope. His excommunication of the emperor Michael Palaeologus (NoV. 1281), who stood in the way of the French projects against Greece, weakened the union with the Eastern Christians, dating from the Lyons Council of 1274. He unduly favoured his own countrymen, and for three years after the Sicilian Vespers (Mar. 31, 1282) he employed all the spiritual and material resources at his command on behalf of his patron against Peter of Aragon. He was driven from Rome by a popular uprising and died at Perugia. His successor was Honorius IV. (C. H. HA.)
His registers have been published in the Bibliotheque des Scales frangaises d'Athenes et de Rome (Paris, 1901).
See A. Potthast, Regesta pontif. roman., vol. 2 (Berlin, 1875) ; K. J. von Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, Bd. 6, 2nd ed. ; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 5, trans, by Mrs G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900-1902); H. H. Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. 6 (London, 1899); W. Norden, Das Papsttum u. Byzanz (Berlin, 1903) ; E. Choullier, " Recherches sur la vie du pape Martin IV.," in Revue de Champagne, vol. 4 (1878); Processo istorico dell' insurrezione di Sicilia dell' anno 1282, ed. by G. di Marzo (Palermo, 1882).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
