INNOCENT IV. (Sinibaldo de Fies•hi. Count of Lavagna). Pope 1243-54. Ile was born at Genoa, of a distinguished family, and was elected at Anagni by the cardinals N•lio had tied from Rome, then occupied by the Emperor Frederick II. His first and most difficult task was to com pose the strife which had long raged between this brilliant and vigorous prince and the lloly See. Terms of peace were agreed to iu 1244. the Imperial commissioner being l'eter de Vines (q.v.), afterwards an antipope; but Frederick in terpreted them in a sense of his own and attempt ed to seize the person of Innocent. who escaped to Genoa and thence to Lyons. To this city he summoned a general council in 1245 to deal with the questions at issue. (See Lyons, COUN CILS OF.) Innocent was unable to return to Italy until after Frederick's death, arriving in Rome in 1253. The conflict still continuing, lie excommunicated the new Emperor, Conrad IV., on
Maundy Thursday of 1254. Conrad died six weeks later: the power of the l:hibellines de clined, and peace revisited Italy. Manfred. the natural son of Frederick. then took up arms again at the head of a Moorish army and inllieted a severe defeat on the Papal forces on Deeem ber 2d. Five days later Innocent died at Naples. He was considered a man of great. learning and did much to advance the universities of Paris and Bologna. Ile wrote a commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX.. which was first printed at Strassburg in 1477. Consult: Masetti, I pon icfici Onorio Ill., Gregorio I.C. ed Innocentc IV. a Ironic dell' Imperatore Federico 11. (Rome, 1884) ; Berger, Les reqistres d'I nnocent 1884) ; Weber. Der Kampf zwischen Papst Inno. cenz IV. und Kaiser Friedrieh 11. bis zur Plucht des Papstes nark Lyon (Berlin, 1900).