MARTIN IV. (Simon Mompitie de Brion), pope from Feb. 22, 1281, to March 28, 1285, should have been named Martin II.
He was born about 1210 in Touraine. He became a priest at Rouen and canon of St. Martin's at Tours, and was made chan cellor of France by Louis IX. in 126o and cardinal-priest of Sta. Cecilia by Urban IV. in 1261. As papal legate in France he con ducted the negotiations for the assumption of the crown of Sicily by Charles of Anjou, through whose influence he succeeded Nicholas III., after a six-months' struggle between the French and Italian cardinals. The Romans at first declined to receive him, and he was consecrated at Orvieto on March 31, 1281. His excommunication of the emperor Michael Palaeologus (Nov. 1281), 'who stood in the way of the French projects against Greece, weakened the union with the Eastern Christians, dating from the Lyons Council of 1274. He unduly favoured his own countrymen, and for three years after the Sicilian Vespers (March 31, 1282) he employed all the resources of the papacy on behalf of his patron against Peter of Aragon. He was driven from Rome
by a popular uprising and died at Perugia. His successor was Honorius IV.
See A. Potthast, Regesta pontif. roman., vol. 2 (Berlin, 1875) ; K. J. von Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, Bd. 6, 2nd ed.; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 5, trans. by Mrs. G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900-02) ; H. H. Milman, Latin Christianity, vol. 6 (London, 1899) ; W. Norden, Das Papsttum u. Byzanz (Berlin, 1903) ; E. Choullier, "Recherches sur la vie du pape Martin IV.," in Revue de Champagne, VOL 4 (1878) Processo istorico dell' insurrezione di Sicilia anno 1282, ed. by G. di Marzo (Palermo, 1882).