Pope Honorius IV (bornGiacomo Savelli;c. 1210 — 3 April 1287) was head of theCatholic Church and ruler of thePapal States from 2 April 1285 to his death on 3 April 1287. His election followed the death ofPope Martin IV and was notable for its speed; he was chosen unanimously on the first ballot. Honorius IV's papacy occurred during a tumultuous period marked bypolitical strife and conflict in Sicily, where he sought to navigate complex relationships with various rulers while maintaining papal authority. During his pontificate he continued to pursue the pro-French political policy of his predecessor. He is the most recent pope to take thepontifical name "Honorius" upon election, after his grandunclePope Honorius III.
In 1274 he accompanied Gregory X to theCouncil of Lyon, where it was established that only fourmendicant orders were to be tolerated:Dominicans,Franciscans,Augustinians andCarmelites. In July 1276, he was one of the three cardinals whomPope Adrian V sent to Viterbo with instructions to treat with the German King,Rudolf I of Habsburg, concerning his imperial coronation at Rome and his future relations towards Charles of Anjou, whom papal policy supported. The death of Adrian V in the following month rendered the negotiations with Rudolf fruitless.
Savelli becameProtodeacon of the Sacred College in November 1277 and as such, he crowned PopesNicholas III on 26 December 1277 andMartin IV on 23 March 1281.
According toJohn Julius Norwich, he was the last pope to be married before ordination.[5]
When Martin IV died on 28 March 1285, atPerugia, Cardinal Savelli was unanimously elected Pope on 2 April, on the first ballot, and took the name of Honorius IV. He remained at Perugia throughout April,[6] but, once negotiations were completed, he travelled to Rome and took up residence in the family palace next to Santa Sabina on theAventine Hill.[7] He was ordained a priest by Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini on 19 May, and was consecrated a bishop and crowned pope on Trinity Sunday, 20 May inSt. Peter's Basilica.[8] Honorius IV was already advanced in age and so severely affected withgout (or arthritis) that he could neither stand nor walk. When sayingMass he was obliged to sit in a specially constructed chair, and at the elevation of the host his hands had to be raised by a mechanical contrivance.
Sicilian affairs required immediate attention from the new pope. Previously, under Martin IV, the Sicilians had rejected the rule of Charles of Anjou, takingPeter III of Aragon as their king without the consent and approval of the Pope.
The massacre of 31 March 1282 known as theSicilian Vespers had precluded any reconciliation. Martin IV put Sicily and Peter III under aninterdict, deprived Peter III of theCrown of Aragon, and gave it toCharles of Valois, the younger of the sons of KingPhilip III of France, whom he assisted in his attempts to recover Sicily by force of arms. The Sicilians not only repulsed the attacks of the combined French and Papal forces, but also captured theAngevin heir,Charles of Salerno. On 6 January 1285, Charles of Anjou died, leaving his captive son Charles as his natural successor. Honorius IV, more peaceably inclined than Martin IV, did not renounce the Church's support of the House of Anjou, nor did he set aside the severe ecclesiastical punishments imposed upon Sicily.
Honorius did not approve of the tyrannical government the Sicilians had been subject to under Charles of Anjou. This is evident from legislation embodied in his constitution of 17 September 1285 (Constitutio super ordinatione regni Siciliae), in which he stated that no government can prosper that is not founded on justice and peace. He passed forty-five ordinances intended chiefly to protect the people of Sicily against their king and his officials.
The death of Peter III on 11 November 1285 changed the Sicilian situation in that his kingdoms were divided between his two oldest sons:Alfonso III of Aragon, who received thecrown of Aragon, andJames II of Aragon, who succeeded as King of Sicily. Honorius IV acknowledged neither the one nor the other: on 11 April 1286, he solemnlyexcommunicated King James II of Sicily and the bishops who had taken part in his coronation atPalermo on 2 February. Neither the king nor the bishops concerned themselves about the excommunication. The king even sent a hostile fleet to the Roman coast and destroyed the city ofAstura by fire.
Charles of Salerno, the Angevin pretender, who was still held captive by the Sicilians, finally grew tired of his long captivity and signed a contract on 27 February 1287 in which he renounced his claims to the kingdom of Sicily in favour of James II of Aragon and his heirs. Honorius IV, however, declared the contract invalid and forbade all similar agreements for the future.
While Honorius IV was inexorable in the stand he had taken towards Sicily, his relations towards Alfonso III of Aragon became less hostile. Through the efforts of KingEdward I of England, negotiations for peace were begun by Honorius IV and King Alfonso III. The Pope, however, did not live long enough to complete these negotiations, which finally resulted in a peaceful settlement of the Aragonese as well as the Sicilian question in 1302 underPope Boniface VIII.
Rome and thePapal States enjoyed a period of tranquillity during the reign of Honorius IV, the like of which they had not enjoyed for many years. He had the satisfaction of reducing the most powerful and obstinate enemy of papal authority, Count Guy of Montefeltro, who for many years had successfully resisted the papal troops. The authority of the pope was now recognized throughout the Papal States, which then comprised theRavenna, theMarch of Ancona, theDuchy of Spoleto, the County ofBertinoro, the Mathildian lands, and thePentapolis, i.e., the cities ofRimini,Pesaro,Fano,Senigallia, andAncona. Honorius IV was the first pope to employ the great family banking houses of central and northern Italy for the collection of papal dues.
The Romans were greatly elated at the election of Honorius IV, for he was a citizen of Rome and a brother of Pandulf, a senator of Rome. The continuous disturbances in Rome during the pontificate of Martin IV had not allowed that pope to live in Rome, but now the Romans cordially invited Honorius IV to make Rome his permanent residence. During the first few months of his pontificate he lived in theVatican, but in the autumn of 1285 he removed to the magnificent palace he had just erected on theAventine.
In his relations with theHoly Roman Empire, where no more danger was to be apprehended since the fall of theHohenstaufen dynasty, Martin followed the moderate course taken by Gregory X.Rudolf I of Germany sent Bishop Henry of Basel to Rome to request coronation. Honorius IV appointed the envoy Archbishop ofMainz, fixed a date for the coronation, and sent CardinalJohn of Tusculum to Germany to assist Rudolf I's cause. But general opposition showed itself to the papal interference; acouncil at Würzburg (16–18 March 1287) protested energetically, and Rudolf I had to protect the legate from personal violence, so that both his plans and the Pope's failed.
Honorius IV inherited plans for anothercrusade, but confined himself to collecting thetithes imposed by theCouncil of Lyon, arranging with the great banking houses ofFlorence,Siena, andPistoia to act as his agents.
The two largest religious orders received many new privileges from Honorius IV, documented in hisRegesta. He often appointed them to special missions and to bishoprics, and gave them exclusive charge of theInquisition.
He also approved the privileges of theCarmelites and theAugustinian hermits and permitted the former to exchange their striped habit for a white one. He was especially devoted to the order founded byWilliam X of Aquitaine and added numerous privileges to those they had already received fromAlexander IV andUrban IV. Besides turning over to them some desertedBenedictine monasteries, he presented them with the monastery ofSt. Paul at Albano, which he himself had founded and richly endowed when he was still cardinal.
Salimbene, the chronicler ofParma, asserted that Honorius IV was a foe to the religious orders. This may reflect the fact that he opposed theApostolic Brethren, an order embracing evangelical poverty that had been started byGerard Segarelli at Parma in 1260. On 11 March 1286 he issued a bull condemning them as heretics.
At theUniversity of Paris he advocated the establishment of chairs for Eastern languages to teach these languages to those who would labour for the conversion of theMuslims and the reunion of theschismatic churches in the East.
The Mongol rulerArghun sent an embassy and a letter to Pope Honorius IV in 1285, a Latin translation of which is preserved in theVatican. It mentions the links to Christianity of Arghun's family, and proposes a combined military conquest of Muslim lands:
"As the land of the Muslims, that is, Syria and Egypt, is placed between us and you, we will encircle and strangle ("estrengebimus") it. We will send our messengers to ask you to send an army to Egypt, so that us on one side, and you on the other, we can, with good warriors, take it over. Let us know through secure messengers when you would like this to happen. We will chase theSaracens, with the help of the Lord, the Pope, and the Great Khan."
— Extract from the 1285 letter from Arghun to Honorius IV, Vatican Archives[9]
Honorius IV was hardly capable of acting on this invasion and could not muster the military support necessary to achieve this plan.
^Norwich, John Julius,Absolute Monarchs, London: 2011, page 196, footnote
^Augustus Potthast,Regesta pontificum Romanorum II (Berlin 1875), 1795-1796.
^Maria Floriani Squarciapino, "Aventino pagano e cristiano. La zona di Santa Sabina e del palazzo Savelli,"Scavi e ricerche archeologiche degli anni 1976-1979 2 (1985), 257-259. Pierre-Yves Le Pogam, "Cantieri e residenze dei papi nella seconda meta del XIII secolo. Il caso del castello Savelli sull'Aventino,"Domus et splendida palatia. Residenze papali e cardinalizie a Roma fra XII e XV secolo. Atti della giornata di studi... 23 novembre 2002 (ed. Alessio Monciatti) (Pisa 2004), 77-87.
F. Gregorovius,History of Rome in the Middle Ages, Volume V.2 second edition, revised (London: George Bell, 1906) 491–515.
Grousset, René (1935).Histoire des Croisades III, 1188-1291 (in French). Editions Perrin.ISBN978-2-262-02569-4.{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)
Venditelli, Marco, "Onorio IV,"Enciclopedia dei papi (Roma 2000) I, pp. 449–455.
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