pope, even though they themselves produced two popes
(Innocent IV and later Adrian V) and several cardinals.
After studying canon law at Bologna, he became a no-
table canonist. He joined the Roman curia under Pope
Honorius III in 1226; and under Pope Gregory IX he
was appointed vice-chancellor of the Roman church,
cardinal priest of Saint Lawrence in Lucina, and rector
of the March of Ancona. He succeeded Celestine IV
(whose papacy had lasted less than a month) following
a two-year vacancy during which Emperor Frederick
II Hohenstuafen had prevented the election of a new
pope. Innocent IV’s choice of his papal name refl ected
a desire to continue in the wake of his great predeces-
sor, Innocent III.
The struggle between the papacy and the empire
reached a climax during the pontifi cate of Innocent IV.
In order to escape imperial domination, the pope was
forced in 1244 to fl ee to Lyon, where he came under
the protection of the French king Louis IX and where
he remained until 1251. Innocent called the fi rst general
council of Lyon (the thirteenth general council of the
church) in 1245, to consider and solve several pressing
problems. The sentence of excommunication against
Frederick II was renewed: the charges against Freder-
ick included perjury, suspicion of heresy, and failure to
heed his excommunication. Innocent pressed the princes
of the empire to elect a new king and emperor. Henry
Raspe, landgrave of Thuringia, was elected to replace
the deposed Frederick in May 1246. After Henry Raspe
died in 1247, William, count of Holland, was elected.
Frederick then threatened to capture the pope. Evidence
to implicate Innocent in an attempted assassination of
Frederick in 1246 is inconclusive; but since Frederick
was deemed a tyrant and a heretic, medieval law and
thought would have justifi ed his elimination. His excom-
munication was renewed again in 1248. This struggle
continued after Frederick died (of natural causes) in
1250 and his illegitimate son Manfred became regent
of Sicily.
Innocent IV took an unwavering stand concerning
the temporal political power of the papacy. He affi rmed
that secular power was not ordained by God and was
therefore tyrannical. Pontifi cal power, on the other
hand, represented a culmination not only of religious
sacerdotal government but also of secular imperial
government. These claims did not, in their full extent,
become a generally accepted part of the teaching of the
Catholic church.
Innocent IV was a patron of legal studies and was
himself a canonist. He added several decretals to those
of Gregory IX, and his legal reputation rests for the
most part on his Commentaria in quinque libros decre-
talium, a subtle and sophisticated, although sometimes
obscure, commentary on the Decretales. The unique
feature of this work is that Innocent included some of
his own decretal letters, accompanied by his commen-
tary as a canonist. Because of its intrinsic worth and its
authoritativeness, Innocent was called “father of law”
by later generations of canonists. Innocent strove to
promote learning by protecting students in every way.
He also helped establish schools and universities, such
as the University of Valencia; instituted schools of theol-
ogy and of canon and civil law at Lyon and at Naples;
founded the University of Piacenza; and granted special
privileges to the University of Toulouse.
During his pontifi cate Innocent had to resolve im-
portant issues between factions concerning the internal
life of the church. He favored the secular clergy at the
University of Paris during their struggle with the men-
dicants. In a divisive confl ict between Conventuals and
Spirituals in the Franciscan order, he sided with the
Conventuals: in 1254 he issued the papal bull Ordinem
veterem, according to which Franciscans were allowed
to use money and possessions because the pope himself
assumed ownership of such property.
Contemporary evidence makes it certain that it
was Innocent IV who bestowed on the cardinals their
distinctive red hat, a symbol they have maintained for
centuries. Innocent sent missionaries to the far east to
convert the Mongols, and the Franciscan John of Pian
dei Carpini paid a visit to the court of the great khan in- Innocent’s favors to his family, and particularly
to his nephews, made him famous (or notorious) for
introducing nepotism into church matters. The eventual
victory of the papacy over the empire ended the ambi-
tions of the Hohenstaufen to create a centralized state
by uniting Sicily and northern Italy.
See also Frederick IIFurther Reading
Berger, Elie. Saint Louis et Innocent IV: Étude sur les rapports
de la France et du saint-siège. Paris: Thorin, 1893.
Enciclopedia Cattolica. Florence: Sansoni, 1950.
Mann, Horace K. The Lives of the Popes in the Middle Ages.
London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner; Saint Louis, Mo.,
Herder, 1925.
Melloni, Alberto. Innocenzo IV: La concezione e l’esperienza
della cristianità come regimen unius personae. Prefazione
di Brian Tierney. Genoa: Marietti, 1990.
The New Catholic Encyclopedia, 2nd ed. Detroit, Mich.: Thom-
son-Gale, 2003.
Strayer, Joseph R., ed. Dictionary of the Middle Ages. New York:
Scribner, 1983.
Alessandro VettoriISABEAU OF BAVARIA
(ca. 1370–1435)
Queen of France. Born to Stephen, duke of Bavaria, and
Taddea Visconti, Isabeau married Charles VI of FranceISABEAU OF BAVARIA