Who he was
Simon de Brie was a canon and treasurer of St Martin's at Tours, became Chancellor of France under St Louis IX in 1260, and was made a cardinal by Urban IV. As papal legate in France he negotiated the offer of Sicily to Charles of Anjou and held reforming synods, notably at Bourges in 1276. He was elected at Viterbo in February 1281, largely through the influence of Charles of Anjou, and, unable to go to Rome, was crowned at Orvieto. He died at Perugia in March 1285.
What he is remembered for
He relied heavily on Charles of Anjou, and his excommunication of the Byzantine emperor ended the union with the Greek Church agreed at Lyons in 1274. After the Sicilian Vespers (1282) he tried in vain to win Sicily back for the French. He is numbered Martin IV although only the second pope of that name, because two popes Marinus were once counted as Martins.
Sources
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