Editing Pope Alexander IV (section)

==Pontificate==
Alexander's pontificate was signalled by efforts to reunite the [[Eastern Orthodox]] churches with the [[Catholic Church]], by the establishment of the [[Inquisition]] in France, by favours shown to the [[mendicant order]]s, and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Mongols after [[Second Mongol invasion of Poland|the second Mongol raid against Poland]] in 1259.

On 26 September 1255, Alexander IV canonized Saint [[Clare of Assisi]], founder of the religious order for women called the [[Poor Clares]].<ref>A. Tomassetti (ed.), ''Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio'' (Turin 1858), pp. 620–624, no. XX.</ref> On 29 October 1255, in the [[papal bull]] ''Benigna Operatio'', Alexander declared "his own knowledge" of the [[stigmata]] attributed to Saint [[Francis of Assisi]].<ref>A. Tomassetti (ed.), ''Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio'' (Turin 1858), pp. 626–627, no. XXII.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=St. Francis of Assisi: His Times, Life and Work: Lectures Delivered in Substance in the Ladye Chapel of Worcester Cathedral in the Lent of 1896|last=Knox-Little|first=W.J.|date=1897|publisher=Isbister|location=London|oclc=228784312}}</ref>

In 1256, Alexander IV condemned theories of [[Joachim of Fiore]],<ref>Maria Santos Montez (2007), p. 170</ref> a [[millenarian]] prophet who had died in 1202 and whose ideas were taken up by the [[Fraticelli]] strand of the [[Franciscan|Franciscan Order]]. On the basis of his interpretation of the [[Book of Revelation]], Joachim had postulated that 1260 would see the beginning of a [[Joachim of Fiore#Theory of the three ages|Third Age]], an age governed by the Holy Spirit, in which the hierarchy of the Church would become unnecessary - an idea which was obviously unwelcome to the Pope. In the event, 1260 – still in Alexander IV's lifetime – came and went with no such Third Age materializing, but Joachim's ideas would in later centuries be taken up by the [[Cult of the Holy Spirit]] which had a major impact in [[Portugal]] and its colonies.

The pontiff also, on 27 September 1258, declared in the bull ''Quod super nonnullis'' that "divination or sorcery" was not to be investigated by Inquisitors of the Church, who were tasked with investigating [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]]. Crimes involving magic should be left to local authorities unless they had "knowledge of manifest heresy to be involved", wherein "manifest heresy" included "praying at the altars of idols, to offer sacrifices, to consult demons, [or] to elicit responses from them". At this period in Church history, the use of magic was not seen as inherently heretical, but rather rooted in superstition or erroneous beliefs.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Grimoires : a history of magic books|author=Davies, Owen|date=2009|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0199204519|location=Oxford|page=43|oclc=244766270}}</ref><ref>A. Tomassetti (ed.), ''Bullarum, Diplomatum et Privilegiorum Sanctorum Romanorum Pontificum Taurensis editio'' (Turin 1858), pp. 663–666, no. XLVI.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Battling demons : witchcraft, heresy, and reform in the late Middle Ages.|url=https://archive.org/details/battlingdemonswi00bail|url-access=limited|last=Bailey|first=Michael D.|publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press|year=2010|isbn=978-0271022260|pages=[https://archive.org/details/battlingdemonswi00bail/page/n47 35]|oclc=652466611}}</ref>

===Sicily===
On 14 May 1254,<ref>August Potthast, ''Regesta pontificum Romanorum'' II (Berlin 1875), no. 15364.  Thomas Rymer, ''Foedera, Conventiones, Literae et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae et alios...'' I. 1, edition tertia (Hagae Comitis: apud Joannem Neaulme 1745), p. 181.</ref> shortly before his death, Innocent IV had granted Sicily, a papal fiefdom, to [[Edmund Crouchback|Edmund]], second son of [[King Henry III of England]]. Alexander confirmed the grant on 9 April 1255,<ref>Potthast, ii. nos. 15784–5. Rymer I .1, p. 196.</ref> in return for {{convert|2000|ozt|kg}} of gold per annum, the service of 300 knights for three months when required, and 135,541 [[mark (currency)|marks]] (about 32 tonnes of [[silver]]) to reimburse the pope for the money he had expended attempting to oust [[Manfred, King of Sicily|Manfred]] from Sicily.<ref>Rymer, Foedera, I.i. 316–318, [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/8504?docPos=1 Simon Lloyd, ''Edmund Crouchback'', Oxford Online Dictionary of National Biography, 2004].  Rymer I. 2, pp. 12–13: a letter of King Henry to Cardinal Riccardo Annibaldi de Molaria, Cardinal Deacon of Sant' Angelo.</ref> Henry's unsuccessful attempts to persuade his subjects to pay the taxes required to meet Alexander's demands were one of the factors in the conflict between the king and parliament which culminated in the [[Second Barons' War]].<ref>J. R. Maddicott, ''The Origins of the English Parliament, 924–1327'', Oxford University press, 2010, p. 235</ref> In 1256, when relations between the two men were strained, Alexander firmly rejected Henry's choice of [[Archbishop of Dublin]]. On 12 April 1261, shortly before his death, Alexander issued a papal bull for King Henry that absolved him and the magnates of his realm from the oaths taken in the [[Provisions of Oxford]], which was instrumental in the War.<ref>Thomas Rymer, Foedera, Conventiones, Literae et cujuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae et alios... I. 2, edition tertia (Hagae Comitis: apud Joannem Neaulme 1745), pp. 62–63. {{cite book |last=Harding |first=Alan |title=England in the Thirteenth Century |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=290}}</ref>

Alexander IV succeeded Innocent IV as guardian of [[Conradin]], the last of the [[Hohenstaufen]]s, promising him protection; but in less than three weeks he conspired against him{{clarify|date=September 2021}} and bitterly opposed Conradin's uncle [[Manfred of Sicily|Manfred]].<ref>P. Touron, "Alexandre IV contre Manfred," ''Le Moyen Âge'' 69 (1963), pp. 391–399.</ref> Alexander IV threatened [[excommunication]] and [[Interdict (Catholic canon law)|interdict]] against the party of Manfred without effect. Nor could he enlist the kings of England and Norway in a crusade against the Hohenstaufens. Rome itself became too [[Ghibelline]] for the Pope, who withdrew to [[Viterbo]], where he died in 1261. He was buried in [[Duomo di Viterbo|Viterbo Cathedral]], but [[List of non-extant papal tombs|his tomb]] was destroyed during sixteenth-century renovations.