Editing Pope Martin IV (section)

==Conclave of 1280–1281==
{{Main|Papal election, 1280–81}}
[[File:Viterbo06.jpg|thumb|left|The Cathedral and Episcopal Palace, Viterbo]]
[[Pope Nicholas III]] (Giovanni Caetano Orsini) died at Castro Soriano in the diocese of Viterbo on 22 August 1280 of an apoplectic stroke which had left him without speech.<ref>Bernardus Guidonis, "Vita Nicolai III" in Ludovico Muratori, ''Rerum Italicarum Scriptores''  III. 1 (Milan 1733), p. 606-607.</ref> A story was circulated nonetheless that he had been poisoned. At the time of his death on 22 August 1280, there were thirteen cardinals.<ref>Conrad Eubel, ''Hierarchia catholica medii aevi''  I editio altera (Monasterii 1913), p. 10 note 3.</ref> This would be the fifth Conclave in five years.  King Charles had taken the trouble to make friends with the Annibaldi faction, led by Riccardo Annibaldi, who were enemies of the Orsini and who had been driven out of Rome in street fighting following the death of Nicholas III.<ref>Gregorovius, Volume V, part 2, pp. 491–492.</ref> They had taken refuge in Viterbo, and now, by coincidence, they were present and entrenched and ready to make trouble on behalf of Charles I and themselves.  Annibaldi led a coup in Viterbo, which drove out the governor of the city, Orso Orsini, the dead pope's nephew. The Angevins thereupon dominated the Conclave, in which the regulations of Gregory X were still in abeyance. But the Conclave still required a two-thirds vote to elect a pope, in according with the Constitution of Alexander III, which was still in effect.  Neither the Orsini faction nor the French faction had sufficient votes to elect, but each had sufficient votes to block an election.  The stalemate continued throughout the winter. On 2 February 1281, the Feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a mob broke into the Episcopal palace, where the Conclave was in progress, and abducted two of the cardinals, Matteo Rosso Orsini and Giordano Orsini (the late pope's brother).<ref>Giovanni Villani, ''Cronica'' Book VII, chapter 58 (ed. Dragomanni) Tome I (Firenze 1844), pp. 391–392.</ref> Without their opposition, Simon de Brion was unanimously elected to the papacy on 22 February 1281, taking the name Martin IV,<ref>Popes [[Pope Marinus I|Marinus I]] and [[Pope Marinus II|Marinus II]], by an old error of the papal chancery, were counted as "Martins" II and III. (''Encyclopædia Britannica'' 1911, ''s.v.'', "Brie")</ref>

For the third time in fifteen years Viterbo had hosted a papal conclave.  And for the third time there were disorders which had threatened the validity of the election and the lives of the participants. Viterbo was placed under the ban of excommunication and of the [[Interdict (Catholic canon law)|interdict]] for the imprisonment of the cardinals.  It was not possible, therefore, for the Coronation to take place in Viterbo. But [[Rome]] was not at all inclined to accept a hated Frenchman as Pope.  Martin IV sent two cardinals, Latino Orsini and Goffredo da Alatri, to Rome with a letter, proposing that he be crowned in Rome on Quadragesima Sunday.<ref>Theiner, ''Caesaris S.R.E. Card. Baronii Annales Ecclesiastici''  22, under the year 1280, § 5, pp. 483–484.  Gregorovius, Volume V, part 2, pp. 493–495.</ref> The Romans positively refused to allow the Coronation to take place in Rome.  But they did hold a public meeting, and elected Giovanni Caetani Orsini in his purely personal capacity as their Senator, and authorized him to appoint anyone he chose as his substitute. So Martin IV was crowned instead at [[Orvieto]] on 23 March 1281.<ref>Bernardus Guidonis, "Vita Martini IV" in Ludovico Muratori, ''Rerum Italicarum Scriptores'' III. 1 (Milan 1733), p. 608.</ref> He never visited Rome during his Pontificate.  Instead he immediately sent his Vicar, Peter of Lavagna, to Rome. But on 30 April 1281, Pope Martin handed the senatorial power over to King Charles for the rest of his reign.<ref>Gregorovius, Volume V, part 2, p. 494.</ref>