NICHOLAS
57
NICHOLAS
efforts of Rudolf of Habsburg to receive the imperial
crown at the hands of the new pope were not success-
ful. His failure was partly due to the estrangement
consequent upon the attitude assumed by the pope
in the question of the Sicilian surrrssion. As feudal
suzerain of tli<'
kingdom, NichnI: i >
annulled t li ■■
treaty, conclude 1
in 1288 through
the mediation of
Edward I of Eng-
land, which con-
firmed James of
A r agon in the
possession of the
island. He lent
his support to the
rival claims of the
House of Anjou
and crowned
Charles II King of
Sicily and Naples
at Rieti, 29 May,
12S9, after the lat-
ter had expressly
acknowledged the
suzerainty of the
Apostolic See and
promised not to accept any municipal dignity in the
States of the Church. The action of the pope did not
end the armed struggle for the possession of Sicily nor
did it secure the kingdom permanently to the House
of Anjou. Rudolf of Habsburg also failed to obtain
from the pope the repeal of the authorization, granted
the French king, to levy tithes in cert 'in (;ittii;iii ijis-
triots for the pro.secution of the war: '! use
NrCHOLA8 IV
Benozzo Gozzoli, Church of S. Francesco, Alontefalco
maintenance of the Greek Rite was granted only in so
far as papal authority did not consider it opposed to
unity of faith; those of the clergy opposed to reunion
were reciuired to obtain absolution of the incurred
censures from the Roman envoj's. These were more
rigorous conditions than had been imposed by his pre-
decessors, but the failure of the negotiations for re-
union can hardly be attributed to them, for the Greek
nation was strongly opposed to submission to Rome
and the emperor pursued temporal advantages under
cover of desire for ecclesia.stical harmony. At the
request of Abaga, Khan of the Tatars, the pope sent
him in 1278 five Franciscan missionaries who were to
preach the Gospel first in Persia and then in China.
They encountered considerable obstacles in the former
country and it was not imtil the pontificate of Nicho-
las IV that their preaching produced appreciable re-
sults. The realization of the pope's desire for the
organization of a Crusade was frustrated by the dis-
tracted state of European politics. On 14 August,
1279, he is.sued the constitution "Exiit qui seminat",
which is still fundamental for the interpretation of the
Rule of St. I'"rancis and in which he approved the
stricter observance of poverty (see Fr.^ncis, Rdlb op
S-4IXT). While the Vatican had been occupied from
time to time by some of his predecessors, Nicholas III
established there the papal residence, remodelled and
enlarged the palace, and secured in its neiglibourhood
landed property, subsequently transformed into the
Vatican gardens. He lies buried in the Chapel of St.
Nicholas, built by him in St. Peter's. He was an ec-
clesiastically-minded pontiff of great diplomatic abihty
and, if we except his acts of nepotism, of unblemished
Gat. Les Registres de Nicolas III (Paris. 189S-19CM): Pott- bast, Regesln P.mtif. Roman.. 11 (Berlin, 1S75), 1719-.56; Savio, Niccolb III 111 I , ./'.i (--'■-'m ., -ir. XV-XVI (Rome, 1894-0); Demski. /ly ' >. /// \i ui^tiT. 1903); Sternpeld, ZJcr
Kardinal J.'l • ' I J 1 1-77) (Berlin, 1905): MiRBT
in T/ic AVir N' .'...;■-//. I ■';;." , .' .nr -/w, s. v.
N. A. Weber.
Nicholas IV, Pope (GiROLA-MoM.A.sci),b. at Ascoli in the March of Ancona; d. in Rome, 4 April, 1292. He was of humble extraction, and at an early age entered the Franciscan Order. In 1272 he was sent as a dele- gate to Constantinople to invite the participation of the Greeks in the Second Council of Lyons. Two years later he suc- ceeded St. Bonaventure in the gen- eralship of his order. While he « as on a mission to France to promod' the restoration of peace between that country and Castile, he was created cardinal-priest with the titlr of Santa Pudenziana (1278) and in 1281 Martin IV appointed him Bish- AK5IS OF op of Palestrina. After the death
Nicholas IV of Honorius IV (3 April, 12S7), the conclave held at Rome was for a time hopelessly divided in its selection of a successor. When fever hail carried off six of the electors, the others, with the sole exception of Girolamo, left Rome. It was not until the following year that they reassembled and on 15 February, 1288^ unanimously elected him to the papacy. Obedience and a second election however (22 February) were alone capable of overcoming his reluctance to accept the supreme pontificate. He was the first Franciscan pope, and in loving reniein- brance of Nicholas III he assumed the name of Nicho- las IV.
The reign of the new pope was not characterized by sufficient independence. The undue influence exer- •' ■ ■ ' Nichoi-as IV
cised at Rome by the Colonna is especially noteworthy m. .m irv .>iaj<.r ». Rome
and was so apparent even during his lifetime that ofAragon. When he appointed his son Albert to suc- Roinan wits represented him encased in a column— ceedLadislaus IV of Hungary (31 August, 1290), Nich- the distinctive mark of the Colonna familv— out of olas claimed the realm as a papal hcf and conferred it which only his tiara-covered head emerged. The upon Charles Martcl, son of Charles II of Naples.
