ALEXANDER IV. (Rinaldo), pope from 1254 to 1261, was, like
Innocent III. and Gregory IX., a member of the family of the
counts of Segni. His uncle Gregory IX. made him cardinal deacon
in 1227 and cardinal bishop of Ostia in 1231. On the death of
Innocent IV. he was elected pope at Naples on the 12th of December
1254. He is described as a stout man, kindly, cheerful, but
of no great brilliancy. He succeeded Innocent IV. as guardian
of Conradin, the last of the Hohenstaufen, promising him
his benevolent protection; but in less than a fortnight he
conspired against him and bitterly opposed Conradin's uncle
Manfred. Alexander fulminated with excommunication and interdict
against the party of Manfred, but in vain; nor could he enlist
the kings of England and Norway in a crusade against the
Hohenstaufen. Rome itself became too Ghibelline for the pope,
who withdrew to Viterbo, where he died on the 25th of May
1261. His pontificate was signalized by efforts to unite
the Greek and Latin churches, by the establishment of the
Inquisition in France, by favours shown to the mendicant orders,
and by an attempt to organize a crusade against the Tatars.
The registers of Alexander IV. are published by Bourel de la
Ronciere and others in the Bibliotheque des Ecoles francaises
d'Athenes et de Rome, Paris, 1895 ff. (W. W. R.*)
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