Papal election 1280–81
Dates and location
22 September 1280 – February 22, 1281 Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo
Key officials
Dean	Ordonho Alvares
Protopriest	Anchero Pantaleone
Protodeacon	Giacomo Savelli
Elected pope
Simon de Brion Name taken:Martin IV
← 1277 1285 →

The1280–81 papal election (September 22 – February 22) elected Simon de Brion, who took the namePope Martin IV,^[1] as the successor toPope Nicholas III.

The protracted election is unique due to the violent removal of two cardinals—Matteo Orsini andGiordano Orsini—by the magistrates of Viterbo on the charges that they were "impeding" the election.^[2] Only a decade earlier, the magistrates of Viterbo had intervened in thepapal election, 1268–1271 by removing the roof tiles of thePalazzo dei Papi di Viterbo to speed up another deadlocked contest. The expulsion of the Orsini and the subsequent election of Simon was due to the influence ofCharles I of Naples ("Charles of Anjou").^[3]

The previous meeting of the cardinals, thepapal election, 1277, had dragged on for six months as the six cardinal electors (the fewest in thehistory of the Roman Catholic Church), were evenly divided between the Roman and Angevin factions. The aged Giovanni Gaetano Orsini was electedPope Nicholas III, to the dissatisfaction ofCharles I of Naples (whose interests were supported by the three French cardinals).

Previously,Pope Clement IV had crowned Charles I theKing of Naples and Sicily (previously a papal fief), but had failed to sufficiently stack theCollege of Cardinals with like-minded cardinals. Following Clement's death, thepapal election, 1268–1271, was the longest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church, eventually electing outsider Teobaldo Visconti asPope Gregory X, who concerned his papacy with little more than the advocacy of theCrusades (having been elected whilenot a cardinal on the Crusades). Although Gregory X had issued a papal bullUbi Periculum (1274), mandating the stricture of thepapal conclave to accelerate disputed papal elections, the bull was not in force at the time of this election, having been suspended by Pope Adrian V and revoked byPope John XXI.

From the start of the conclave, the anti-Angevin faction, mostly cardinals created by Nicholas III, who controlled many key positions in the College and included three Orsini cardinals, had consolidated themselves as an unbreakable voting bloc.^[5]

The breakthrough in the deadlock came when Charles I replaced Orso Orsini, thepodestà of Viterbo, withRiccardello Annibaldi, who proceeded to burst into the election and arrest and remove the Orsini cardinals, allowing the pro-Angevin faction and theAldobrandeschi partisans to push through the election of Simon de Brion, the favored candidate of Charles, asPope Martin IV.^[5] Giordano, the leader of the anti-French faction, and his nephew Matteo, were imprisoned, actions that ensured that the new French pope would find no welcome in returning to Rome.^[6] In fact, Martin IV never set foot in Rome during his papacy of forty-nine months.

The imprisonment of the cardinals caused aninterdict to be placed on the city of Viterbo. As a result of the interdict, and of the hostility of the city of Rome to a pontiff favorable to the Angevins, Martin IV was compelled to move the Roman Curia toOrvieto, where he was crowned on March 23, 1281.^[3] Among the first acts of Martin IV were to remove from prominent positions the Orsinicardinal-nephews of his predecessor, Nicholas III, and to replace them with French and pro-French candidates.^[5]

Martin IV remained dependent on Charles throughout his papacy; soon after his coronation, on 29 April he named Charles aRoman Senator and assisted in his attempts to restore theLatin Empire, including through theexcommunication of Byzantine EmperorMichael VIII Palaiologos.^[3] The latter act resulted in the undoing of the fragile union of East and West brokered at theCouncil of Lyons in 1274.^[3] Martin IV's support of Charles continued after theSicilian Vespers, when Martin IV excommunicatedPeter III of Aragon, recently elected by the Sicilians as king, and further declared null his kingship in Aragon and ordered acrusade against him, which resulted in the ensuingWar of the Sicilian Vespers.^[3]

The first seven cardinals appointed by Martin IV were French, but the fact that Martin IV's death coincided with that of Charles I inevitably began to weaken the French influence.^[6]

• R. Sternfeld, "Das Konklave von 1280 und die Wahl Martins IV. (1281),"Mitteilungen des Instituts für Österreichische Geschichtsforschung 21 (1910), pp. 1–53.
• Philippe Levillain, ed.. 2002.The Papacy: An Encyclopedia. Routledge.ISBN 0-415-92228-3.
• Williams, George L. 2004.Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. McFarland.ISBN 0-7864-2071-5.

• 13th-century elections
• 1280
• 1281
• Papal elections
• 13th-century Catholicism
• 1280 in Europe
• Viterbo Papacy
• 1281 in Europe

• Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference
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