Editing Pope Nicholas IV (section)

===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.