Urban Iv
Urban Iv [1]
pope from A.D. 1261 to 1264, named Jacob Pantaleon, the son of a shoemaker at Troves, studied at Paris and became canon of Troyes, and afterwards bishop of Liege. Innocent IV sent him as legate to Germany, and Alexander IV nominated him patriarch of Jerusalem. His brief pontificate was disturbed by political agitations growing out of his determination to destroy the influence of the Sicilian king Manfred in the affairs of Italy, and his interference with the disputed succession of the German throne. He appointed fourteen cardinals to serve as counselors, forbade the election of Conradin, the last representative of the house of Hohenstaufen, to the German throne, under pain of excommunication, and cited Richard of Cornwallis and Alfred of Castile, the competitors for that throne, to Rome, that they might await his decision. He also dispatched a cardinal-legate to England to assert the authority of the papacy in the administration of that country; and he summoned Manfred before his tribunal, and when that king disregarded the summons, transferred his kingdom t duke Charles of Anjou. Maufred, however, resisted, and subjugated by force of arms a larger portion of the States of the Church. Urban was compelled to flee for safety to Orvieto, and afterwards to Perugia, where he died. Oct. 2,1264. He is notable for having brought about a general observance of the Feast of Corpus Christi. His literary remains include; besides a number of bulls, a small collection of Epistolce. See Mansi, Concil. 23:1076 sq.; Gieseler, p. 166 sq.; and Herzog, Real- Encyklop. s.v.
