Birthplace
Genoa
Pope from
25 June 1243
Pope until
7 December 1254
Died
7 December 1254
Who he was
Sinibaldo Fieschi, of the family of the Counts of Lavagna, taught canon law at Bologna and was made a cardinal and vice-chancellor under Gregory IX. After a vacancy of more than a year and a half he was elected at Anagni in June 1243.
What he is remembered for
Peace talks with Frederick II failed, and in 1244 he slipped away to Genoa and then to Lyons, where at the Council of Lyons in 1245 he declared the emperor deposed. He approved the rule of the Poor Clares in 1253, canonised St Edmund of Canterbury and St Stanislaus of Kraków, and wrote a commentary on the Decretals long held to be the best. He died at Naples.
Sources
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