NICHOLAS IV. (Girolamo Masci), pope from Feb. 22, 1288, to April 4, 1292, a native of Ascoli and a Franciscan monk, succeeded St. Bonaventura as general of his order in 1274, was made cardinal-priest of Sta. Prassede and Latin patriarch of Con stantinople by Nicholas III., cardinal-bishop of Palestrina by Martin IV., and succeeded Honorius IV. after a ten-months' vacancy in the papacy. He was a pious, peace-loving monk with no ambition save for the church, the crusades and the extirpation of heresy. He steered a middle course between the factions at Rome, and sought a settlement of the Sicilian question. In May 1289 he crowned Charles II. king of Naples and Sicily after the latter had expressly recognized papal suzerainty, and in February 1291 concluded a treaty with Alphonso III. of Aragon and Philip IV. of France looking toward the expulsion of James of Aragon from Sicily. The loss of Ptolemais in 1291 stirred the pope to renewed enthusiasm for a crusade. He sent the celebrated Francis can missionary, John of Monte Corvino (q.v.), with some com panions to labour among the Tatars and Chinese. He issued an important constitution on July 18, 1289, which granted to the cardinals one-half of all income accruing to the Roman see and a share in the financial management, and thereby paved the way for that independence of the college of cardinals which, in the following century, was to be of detriment to the papacy. Nicholas
was succeeded by Celestine V.
See "Les Registres de Nicolas IV.," ed. by Ernest Langlois in Bibliotheque des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome (Paris, 1886 1893) ; A. Potthast, Regesta pontif. Roman. VOL 2 (Berlin, 1875) ; F. Gregorovius, Rome in the Middle Ages, vol. 5, trans. by Mrs.
G. W. Hamilton (London, 1900-1902) ; 0. Schiff, "Studien zur Ge schichte Papst Nikolaus IV." in Historische Studien (1897) ; W. Norden, Das Papsttum u. Byzanz (Berlin, 1903) ; R. Rohricht, Ge schichte des Konigreichs Jerusalem (Innsbruck, 1898) ; J. B. Sagmiiller, Die Thatigkeit u. Stellung der Kardindle bis Papst Bonifaz VIII. (Freiburg-i.-B., 1896) ; J. P. Kirsch, "Die Finanzverwaltung des Kardinalkollegiums im 13. u. 14. Jahrhunderte" in Kirchengeschicht liche Studien (1895). See also the Catholic Encyclopaedia (s.v.).