Clement was born inSaint-Gilles-du-Gard in theCounty of Toulouse, to a successful lawyer, Pierre Foucois, and his wife Marguerite Ruffi. At the age of nineteen, he enrolled as a soldier to fight the Moors in Spain. He then pursued the study of law in Toulouse, Bourges and Orleans, becoming a noted advocate in Paris. In the latter capacity he acted as secretary toKing Louis IX, to whose influence he was chiefly indebted for his elevation to the cardinalate. He married the daughter of Simon de Malbois and had two daughters. Upon the death of his wife, he followed his father's example and gave up secular life for the Church.[2]
In this period, theSee of Rome was engaged in a conflict withManfred, King of Sicily, the illegitimate son and designated heir ofHoly Roman EmperorFrederick II of Hohenstaufen, but whom papal loyalists, theGuelfs, called "the usurper ofNaples". Clement IV, who was in France at the time of hiselection, was compelled to enterItaly in disguise. He immediately took steps to ally himself with Charles of Anjou, his erstwhile patron's brother and the impecunious French claimant to the Neapolitan throne. Charles was willing to recognize the Pope as hisfeudal overlord (a bone of contention with the Hohenstaufens) and was crowned by cardinals inRome, where Clement IV, permanently established atViterbo, dared not venture, since the anti-papalGhibelline party was so firmly in control there.[2]
Then, fortified with papal money and supplies, Charles marched into Naples. Having defeated and slain Manfred in the greatBattle of Benevento, Charles established himself firmly in the kingdom ofSicily at the conclusiveBattle of Tagliacozzo, in whichConradin, the last of the house ofHohenstaufen, was taken prisoner. Clement IV is said to have disapproved of the cruelties committed by his protégé, but the statement byGregorovius that Clement IV became an accomplice by refusing to intercede for the unfortunate Conradin whom Charles had beheaded in the marketplace of Naples seems contentious. However, Gregorovius may be basing this conclusion on the position of Urban IV's predecessors, Innocent IV and Alexander IV, who were Conradin's official guardians.[5]
Collection of writings by Clemens, published in Paris between 1893 and 1945[6]
In 1264, Clement IV renewed the prohibition of theTalmud promulgated byGregory IX, who had it publicly burnt in France and in Italy. Though Clement did not condemn to death at the stake those who harboured copies of it,[7] and, responding to a denunciation of the Talmud byPablo Christiani,[8] he ordered that the Jews of theCrown of Aragon submit their books to Dominican censors for expurgation.[9]
In February 1265 Clement summonedThomas Aquinas to Rome to serve as papal theologian.[10] It was during this period that Aquinas also served asregent master for the Dominicans at Rome.[11] With the arrival of Aquinas the existingstudium conventuale atSanta Sabina, which had been founded in 1222, was transformed into the Order's firststudium provinciale featuring the study of philosophy (studia philosophiae) as prescribed by Aquinas and others at the chapter ofValenciennes in 1259, an intermediate school between thestudium conventuale and thestudium generale. Thisstudium was the forerunner of the 16th century College of Saint Thomas atSanta Maria sopra Minerva and thePontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas,Angelicum. In 1266, after theBattle of Benevento, Pope Clement IV conceded for gratitude his coat of arms to theGuelph Party ofFlorence as official approval to their supremacy and therefore they could take power in many of the other northern Italian cities. In 1267–68 Clement engaged in correspondence with the MongolIlkhanate rulerAbaqa. The latter proposed aFranco-Mongol alliance between his forces, those of the West, and theByzantine emperorMichael VIII Palaeologos (Abaqa's father-in-law). Pope Clement welcomed Abaqa's proposal in a non-committal manner, but did inform him of an upcoming Crusade. In 1267, Pope Clement IV and KingJames I of Aragon sent an ambassador to the Mongol ruler Abaqa in the person ofJayme Alaric de Perpignan.[12] In his 1267 letter written from Viterbo, the Pope wrote:
The kings of France andNavarre, taking to heart the situation in theHoly Land, and decorated with theHoly Cross, are readying themselves to attack the enemies of the Cross. You wrote to us that you wished to join your father-in-law (the Greek emperorMichael VIII Palaiologos) to assist the Latins. We abundantly praise you for this, but we cannot tell you yet, before having asked to the rulers, what road they are planning to follow. We will transmit to them your advice, so as to enlighten their deliberations, and will inform your Magnificence, through a secure message, of what will have been decided.[13]
Although Clement's successors continued to engage in diplomatic contacts with the Mongols for the rest of the century, they were never able to coordinate an actual alliance.[14]
Clement IV's private character was praised by contemporaries for his asceticism, and he is especially commended for his indisposition to promote and enrich his own relatives. He also ordered the Franciscan scholarRoger Bacon to write theOpus Majus, which is addressed to him.
^As reported, for example in Arsene Damestetter,The Talmud, 1897:94.
^Shlomo Simonsohn,The Apostolic See and the Jews (Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies) 1991:311.
^Popper, William (1889).The Censorship of Hebrew Books. Knickerbocker Press. pp. 13–14..
^A Biographical Study of the Angelic Doctor, by Placid Conway, O.P., Longmans, Green and Co., 1911, Part III: Evening, Chapter VI - His Writings: Second Period,"Saint Thomas Aquinas, by Placid Conway, OP". Archived fromthe original on May 1, 2013. RetrievedFebruary 5, 2013. Accessed October 27, 2012
^Acta Capitulorum Provincialium, Provinciae Romanae Ordinis Praedicatorum, 1265, n. 12, in Corpus Thomisticum,http://www.corpusthomisticum.org/a65.html Accessed 4-8-2011
^"Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam". Atwood, "Western Europe and the Mongol Empire"Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire, p. 583
^Richard P. McBrien,Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins, 2000), 218.
^Beullens, Pieter (2022).The Friar and the Philosopher: William of Moerbeke and the Rise of Aristotle’s Science in Medieval Europe. Routledge. p. 92.ISBN978-1032305219.
Jean Dunbabin,Charles I of Anjou: Power, Kingship and State-Making in Thirteenth-Century Europe (Addison Wesley Longman 1998; London-New York: Routledge 2014).
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