Pope Innocent IV (Genoa, 1180/90 – Naples, December 7, 1254), born Sinibaldo de Fieschi, Pope from 1243 to 1254, belonged to the feudal nobility of Liguria, the Fieschi, counts of Lavagna. Educated at Parma and Bologna, he passed for one of the best canonists of his time.

He had for his immediate predecessor Pope Celestine IV (1241), who however, was Pope for eighteen days only, and therefore the events of Innocent IV's pontificate practically link themselves on to those of the reign of Pope Gregory IX (1227–41). It was on occasion of Innocent IV's election (June 25, 1243) that Frederick II is said to have remarked that he had lost the friendship of a cardinal and gained the enmity of a Pope; the letter which he wrote, however, expressed in respectful terms the hope that an amicable settlement of the differences between the empire and the papacy might be reached. The negotiation which shortly afterwards began with this objective proved abortive; Frederick II being unable to make the absolute submission to the Pope's demands which was required of him.

Finding his position in Rome insecure, Innocent IV secretly withdrew in the summer of 1244 to Genoa, and thence to Lyon, where he summoned a general council which met in 1245 and deposed Frederick II. The agitation caused by this act throughout Europe terminated only with Frederick II's death in December 1250, which permitted the Pope to return, first to Perugia, and afterwards in 1253 to Rome.

The remainder of his life was largely directed to schemes for compassing the overthrow of Manfred, the natural son of Frederick II, whom the towns and the nobility had for the most part received as his father's successor. It was on a sick bed at Naples that Innocent IV heard of Manfred's victory at Foggia, and the tidings are said to have precipitated his death on December 7, 1254.

His learning gave to the world an Apparatus in quinque libros decretalium. But he also issued the papal bull Ad exstirpanda acknowledging the right of the state to punish heretics after they were convicted of heresy.

He was succeeded by Pope Alexander IV (1254–61), and was the uncle of Adrian V (1276).

References

• Catholic Encyclopedia: "Pope Innocent IV"

Popes | Natives of Genoa | Year of birth missing | 1254 deaths | Italian popes

Inocenc IV. | Pave Innocent 4. | Innozenz IV. (Papst) | Inocencio IV | Innocent IV | Inocencio IV | 교황 인노첸시오 4세 | Papa Innocenzo IV | Paus Innocentius IV | Innocent IV | Innocenty IV | Papa Inocêncio IV | Иннокентий IV (папа римский) | Innocentius IV | Innocentius IV | Інокентій IV | 諾森四世