|
|
Dictionary definition: Urban IV
- Article from:
- The Oxford Dictionary of Popes
- Author:
Copyright© The Oxford Dictionary of Popes 1996, originally published by Oxford University Press 1996. (Hide copyright information)
|
Urban IV
(29 Aug. 1261–2 Oct. 1264). As
Alexander IV
failed to create any, there were only eight cardinals when he died, and the meagre conclave meeting at Viterbo debated vainly for three months. Eventually they elected an outsider, Jacques Pantaléon, patriarch of Jerusalem, who was visiting the curia on business of the Holy Land. Born son of a shoemaker
c.
1200 at Troyes, he studied at Paris and
c.
1245 became canon of Laon and then archdeacon of Liège, and as such attended the first council of Lyons in 1245.
Innocent IV
, who noticed him there, sent him in 1247 as legate to Poland, Prussia, and Pomerania. In 1252 he became bishop of Verdun, and in 1255 Alexander IV ...