the Hohen-staufen. Urban created a substantial French bloc in the College of Cardinals
and renewed his ties with Louis IX of France. Although the king refused to campaign
against Manfred, the illegitimate son of Frederick II, he permitted Urban to approach a
younger brother, Charles of Anjou. This was the first step toward Angevin domination of
the papacy. Urban’s successor, Clement IV, would support Charles’s wars against the
Hohenstaufen with all of the papacy’s resources. Urban neglected the affairs of the Holy
Roman Empire; but he negotiated with Emperor Michael VIII Paleologus, who had
recaptured Constantinople from the Latins, for recognition of the Roman primacy. Urban,
who had been exposed to the feast of Corpus Christi in the north, attempted to extend the
feast to the entire western church, thus reaffirming the doctrine of transubstantiation; and
the name of Thomas Aquinas is associated with the office for that feast, which only later
became universally popular, and only later would the story of a miracle at Bolsena be
used to explain Urban’s effort.
Thomas M.Izbicki
[See also: LOUIS IX]
Rodríguez de Lama, Ildefonso, ed. La documentación pontificia de Urbano IV(1261–1264). Roma:
Instituto Español de Historia Ecclesiástica, 1981.
Hampe, Karl. Urban IV und Manfred, 1261–64. Heidelberg: Winter, 1905.
Rubin, Miri. Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Medieval Culture. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1991.
URBAN V
(r. 1362–70). Pope. When Pope Innocent VI died in 1362, the dominant Limousin party
in the College of Cardinals became divided and could not elect a pope from within its
own ranks. At last, Guillaume de Grimoard, abbot of Saint-Victor, Marseille, was chosen,
although he was absent on a mission in Italy. Upon his return to Avignon, the new
Roman pontiff, who chose to reign as Urban V, adopted an austere life within the papal
palace. Urban was especially concerned with the welfare of the universities, founding two
colleges at the University of Montpellier. Praised for combining love of learning and zeal
for reform with generosity, he was, however, imprudent about money and inclined to
appeasement, even of the Milanese tyrant Bernabò Visconti and of the mercenaries who
terrorized France. In 1367, having concluded that the work of Cardinal Albornoz to
pacify the papal states could be consummated only by returning the papacy to Rome,
Urban left part of the curia in Avignon and departed for Rome with the rest. Although the
pope regretted leaving the peace and quiet of Avignon for the perils of Rome, he
completed his journey. In the Eternal City, he crowned Charles IV of Luxembourg Holy
Roman Emperor; and he received the Byzantine Emperor John V Paleologus, who sought
aid against the Turkish threat. In 1370, Urban returned to Avignon, where he died in an
odor of sanctity. He was beatified by Pius IX in 1870.
Thomas M.Izbicki
[See also: AVIGNON PAPACY]
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1780