Editing Pope Nicholas IV (section)

==Pontificate==

===Papal conclave===
After the death of [[Pope Honorius IV]] on 3 April 1287, [[Papal election, 1287-1288|a conclave]] was held in Rome, at the papal palace next to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill, where Pope Honorius had died.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.csun.edu/~hcfll004/SV1287.html| title = Sede Vacante and Conclave of 1287-1288 (Dr. J. P. Adams).}}</ref> This was in accordance with the Constitution ''[[Ubi periculum]]'' of Pope Gregory X. At the beginning, in April, there were thirteen cardinals in Rome; three cardinals—Gerardo Bianchi, Giovanni Boccamati, and Jean Cholet—did not attend at all. The Sacred College was for a time hopelessly divided in its selection of a successor. When six of the electors died during the year 1287 (Ancher Pantaleon, Geoffrey de Bar, Hugh of Evesham, Giordano Orsini, Comes de Casanate, and Goffredo of Alatri—some, at least, carried off by fever), the others, with the sole exception of Jerome Masci, left the conclave and returned to their homes. It was not until the following year that they reassembled. The electors at that time were seven in number: Jerome Masci, along with Latino Malabranca, Bentivenga de Bentivengis, Bernard de Languissel, Matteo Rosso Orsini, Giacomo Colonna, and Benedetto Caetani. On 15 February 1288, the survivors unanimously elected Jerome Masci, to the papacy on the first scrutiny. It is said that the cardinals were impressed by his steadfastness in remaining at the papal palace, but there is no real documentation as to their motives. As he admitted in his electoral manifesto, Cardinal Masci was extremely reluctant to accept,<ref>''Judicia Dei abyssus''  in  A. Theiner, ''Caesaris S.R.E. Card. Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici'' 23 (Bar-le-Duc 1871), under the year 1288, § 5; p. 25; V. Langlois, ''Registres de Nicolas IV'' I, pp. 1-3 no. 1 (February 23, 1288).</ref> and indeed he persisted in his refusal for an entire week. Finally, on 22 February, he gave in and agreed.<ref>This is the story told by [[Heinrich of Rebdorf]], in  Marquardi Freheri, ''Rerum Germanicarum Scriptores'' editio tertia (curante Burcardo Gotthelffio Struvio) Tomus Primus (Argentorati: sumptibus Ioannis Reinholdi Dulsseckerii 1717), p. 605.</ref> He became the first [[Franciscan]] pope and chose the name Nicholas IV in remembrance of Nicholas III, who had made him a cardinal.<ref name=Weber/>

===New cardinals===

Given the considerable losses to the numbers of the Sacred College in 1286 and 1287, it is not surprising that Nicholas IV quickly proceeded to fill vacancies. What is surprising is that he did not even reach the number of cardinals who were alive under Honorius IV, let alone exceed it.  On 16 May 1288, he named six new cardinals: Bernardus Calliensis, Bishop of Osimo (who died in 1291), Hugues Aiscelin (Seguin) de Billon, OP, of the diocese of Clermont in the Auvergne;<ref>Hugues Aiscelin was Master of the Sacred Palaces, appointed either by Martin IV or Honorius IV:  J. Catalano, ''De magistro sacri palatii apostolici'' (Rome 1751), pp. 62-63.</ref> Matthew of Aquasparta in Tuscany, minister general of the Franciscans since 1287; Pietro Peregrosso of Milan, the vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church; Napoleone Orsini; and Pietro Colonna.<ref>Conradus Eubel, ''Hierarchia catholica medii aevi'' I, editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 11.</ref>

Nicholas IV issued an important constitution on 18 July 1289, which granted to the [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|cardinal]]s one-half of all income accruing to the [[Holy See]] and a share in the financial management, thereby paving the way for that independence of the [[College of Cardinals]] which, in the following century, was to be of detriment to the papacy.

===Actions===
{{further|Rabban Bar Sauma|Franco-Mongol alliance|Europeans in Medieval China#Diplomatic missions to Europe}}
In regard to the question of the Sicilian succession, as feudal suzerain of the kingdom, Nicholas annulled the treaty, concluded in 1288 through the mediation of [[Edward I of England]], which confirmed [[James II of Aragon]] in the possession of the island of [[Sicily]].  This treaty had not properly seen to papal interests. In May 1289 he crowned [[Charles II of Naples|Charles II]] as [[king of Sicily]] after the latter had expressly recognized papal [[suzerainty]], and in February 1291 concluded a treaty with Kings [[Alfonso III of Aragon]] and [[Philip IV of France]] looking toward the expulsion of James from Sicily.<ref name=Weber/>

In 1288 Nicholas met with the Nestorian Christian [[Rabban Bar Sauma]] from China.

In August 1290 he granted the status of ''[[studium generale]]'' to the [[University of Coimbra|university]] that King [[Denis of Portugal]] has just founded a few months earlier in the city of [[Lisbon]].<ref>''The Papacy and the Rise of the Universities'', Gaines Post, ''Education and Society in the Middle Ages and Renaissance'', Vol. 54, ed. William J. Courtney, Jurgen Miethke, Frank Rexroth and Jacques Verger, (Brill, 2017), 188.</ref>

The loss of [[Akko|Acre]] in 1291 stirred Nicholas IV to renewed enthusiasm for a [[crusade]].  He sent missionaries, among them the Franciscan [[John of Monte Corvino]],<ref name=McBrien/> to labour among the [[Bulgaria]]ns, [[Ethiopia]]ns, [[Mongols]], [[Tatars]] and [[China|Chinese]].