Pope Honorius IV
(Giacomo Savelli)
Born at Rome about 1210; died at Rome, 3 April, 1287. He belonged to
the rich and influential family of the Savelli and was a
grandnephew of
Honorius III.
Very little is known of his life
before he ascended the papal throne. He studied at the University
of Paris, during which time he held a prebend and a canonry at the
cathedral of Châlons-sur-Marne. Later he obtained the benefice of
rector at the church of Berton, in the Diocese of Norwich. In 1261
he was created Cardinal-Deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin by Martin
IV, who also appointed him papal prefect in Tuscany and captain of
the papal army. By order of Clement IV he and three other
cardinals invested Charles of Anjou as King of Sicily at Rome on 28
July, 1265. He was one of the six cardinals who elected Gregory X
by compromise at Viterbo on 1 Sept., 1271. In 1274 he accompanied
Gregory X to the Fourteenth General Council at Lyons, and in July,
1276, he was one of the three cardinals whom Adrian V sent to
Viterbo with instructions to treat with King Rudolf I of Hapsburg
concerning his imperial coronation at Rome and his future relations
towards Charles of Anjou, King of Sicily. The death of Adrian V in
the following month rendered fruitless the negotiations with
Rudolf. Nothing further is known of the cardinal's doings until,
nine years later, he was elected pope.
Martin IV died 28 March, 1285, at Perugia, and three days after his
death fifteen out of the eighteen cardinals who then composed the
Sacred College had a preliminary consultation at the episcopal
residence at Perugia, and appointed the following day, 2 April,
1285, for the election of the new pope. The election took place
without the conclave, which had been prescribed by Gregory X, but
suspended by John XXI. At the first vote taken, Giacomo Savelli
was unanimously elected and took the name of Honorius IV. His
election was one of the speediest in the history of the papacy.
The reason for this great haste may be found in the Sicilian
complications, which did not allow any interregnum, and especially
in the fact that the cardinals wished to avoid the unjustifiable
interference which occurred at the election of the preceding pope,
when Charles of Anjou induced the inhabitants of Viterbo to
imprison two cousins of the deceased Nicholas III, in order to
effect the election of a pope of French nationality. On 19 May,
1285, the new pontiff was ordained priest by Cardinal Malabranca
Orsini of Ostia, and the following day he was consecrated bishop
and crowned pope in the basilica of St. Peter at Rome. Honorius IV
was already advanced in age and so severely affected with the gout
that he could neither stand nor walk. When saying Mass he was
obliged to sit on a stool and at the Elevation his hands had to be
raised by a mechanical contrivance.
Sicilian affairs required the immediate attention of the pope. By
throwing off the rule of Charles of Anjou and taking Pedro III of
Aragon as their king without the consent and approval of the pope,
the Sicilians had practically denied his suzerainty over Sicily.
The awful massacre of 31 March, 1282, known as the Sicilian
Vespers, had precluded every possibility of coming to an amicable
understanding with Martin IV, a Frenchman who owed the tiara to
Charles of Anjou. Pope Martin demanded unconditional submission to
Charles of Anjou and the Apostolic See and, when this was refused,
put Sicily and Pedro III under the ban, deprived Pedro of the
Kingdom of Aragon, and gave it to Charles of Valois, the son of
King Philip III of France. He, moreover, assisted Charles of Anjou
in his attempts to recover Sicily by force of arms. The Sicilians
not only repulsed the attacks of Charles of Anjou but also captured
his son Charles of Salerno. On 6 January, 1285, Charles of Anjou
died, leaving his captive son Charles of Salerno as his natural
successor. Such were the conditions in Sicily when Honorius IV
ascended the papal throne. The Sicilians cherished the hope that
the new pontiff would take a different stand from that of his
predecessor in the Sicilian question, but their hopes were only
partly realized. He was indeed less impulsive and more peaceably
inclined than Martin IV, but he did not renounce the claims of the
Church and of the House of Anjou upon the Sicilian crown. Neither
did he set aside the severe ecclesiastical punishments imposed upon
Sicily or restore to Pedro III the Kingdom of Aragon which Martin
IV had transferred to Charles of Valois. On the other hand, he did
not approve of the tyrannical government to which the Sicilians had
been subject under Charles of Anjou. This is evident from his wise
legislation as embodied in his constitution of 17 September, 1285
("Constitutio super ordinatione regni Siciliae" in "Bullarium
Romanum", Turin, IV, 70-80). In this constitution he inculcates
that no government can prosper which is not founded on justice and
peace, and he passes forty-five ordinances intended chiefly to
protect the people of Sicily against their king and his officials.
In case of any violation of these ordinances by the king or his
officials, the people were free to appeal to the Apostolic See for
redress. The king, moreover, was bound to observe the ordinances
contained in this constitution under pain of excommunication.
Martin IV had allowed King Philip III of France to tax the clergy
in France, and in a few dioceses of Germany, one-tenth of their
revenues for the space of four years. The money thus collected was
to be used for waging war against Pedro III with the purpose of
conquering Aragon for Charles of Valois. Honorius IV approved this
action of his predecessor. When Edward I of England requested him
to use his influence to put an end to the war, he answered that
Pedro III deserved to be punished and that Philip III should not be
kept from reaping the fruits of a war which he had undertaken in
the service and at the instance of the Church. The death of Pedro
III on 11 November, 1285, somewhat changed the Sicilian situation.
His two sons Alfonso and James succeeded him, the former as King of
Aragon, the latter as King of Sicily. Honorius IV, of course,
acknowledged neither the one nor the other. On 11 April, 1286, he
solemnly excommunicated King James of Sicily and the bishops who
had taken part in his coronation at Palermo on 2 February, 1286;
but 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 of Astura by fire. Charles of
Salerno, the lawful King of Sicily, 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 of Aragon and his
heirs. Honorius IV, however, who was asked for his approval,
refused to listen to such an unprincipled act, which surrendered
the rights of the Church and of the House of Anjou to refractory
rebels. He 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 and its self-imposed king, his
relations towards Alfonso of Aragon became less hostile. Through
the efforts of King Edward I of England, negotiations for peace
were begun by Honorius IV and King Alfonso. 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.
Rome and the States of the Church enjoyed a period of tranquillity
during the pontificate 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
Guido of Montefeltro, who for many years had successfully resisted
the papal troops. The authority of the pope was now recognized
throughout the papal territory, which then comprised the Exarchate
of Ravenna, the March of Ancona, the Duchy of Spoleto, the County
of Bertinoro, the Mathildian lands, and the Pentapolis, viz. the
cities of Rimini, Pesaro, Fano, Sinigaglia, and Ancona. The Romans
were greatly elated at the election of Honorius IV, for he was a
citizen of Rome and a brother of Pandulf, who had during the
preceding summer been elected one of the two annual senators of
Rome. The continuous disturbances in Rome during the pontificate
of Martin V had not allowed that pope to reside 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 the Vatican, but in the autumn of 1285 he removed to the
magnificent palace which he had just erected on the Aventine. With
Northern Italy Honorius IV had few dealings beyond those that were
of a purely ecclesiastical character. On 16 March, 1286, he
removed the interdict which had been imprudently placed upon Venice
by Martin IV because that city had refused to equip a fleet for the
service of Charles of Anjou in his war against Pedro III of Aragon.
At Florence and Bergamo he brought about the abolition of some
newly-made laws that were hostile to the Church and the clergy.
The relations between Honorius IV and the German King Rudolf of
Hapsburg were most cordial. The negotiations for Rudolf's imperial
coronation which had been begun during the pontificate of Adrian V
(1276) and continued during that of Nicholas III (1277-1280) were
entirely suspended during the pontificate of Martin IV (1281-1285)
who had little love for the Germans. Immediately upon the
accession of Honorius IV these negotiations were resumed and the
feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, 2 February, 1287,
was determined as the day on which Rudolf should be crowned emperor
in the Basilica of St. Peter at Rome. The pope requested the
German prelates to contribute a share of their revenues to cover
the expenses of his journey to Rome. He even sent Cardinal John of
Tusculum, the only one who received the purple during the
pontificate of Honorius, as legate to Germany, Sweden, Russia, and
the other countries of the north to hasten the king's Italian
expedition, but Rudolf's war with Count Eberhard of Wurtemberg and
other dissensions in Germany prevented his departure. The same
legate presided at the national council of Würzburg, which began
its sessions on 16 March, 1287. The decrees which were passed at
this council are practically the same as those of the general
council of Lyons in 1274.
The two great mendicant orders which at that time exerted great
influence, both as pastors of the faithful and as professors at the
great seats of learning in Europe, received many new privileges
from Honorius IV. He also approved the privileges of the
Carmelites and the Augustinian hermits and permitted the former to
exchange their striped habit for a white one. He was especially
devoted to the Williamites, an order founded by St. William, Duke
of Aquitaine (d. 1156), and added numerous privileges to those
which they had already received from Alexander IV and Urban IV.
Besides turning over to them some deserted Benedictine monasteries,
he presented them with the monastery of St. Paul at Albano, which
he himself had founded and richly endowed when he was still
cardinal. On 11 March, 1286, he condemned the sect of the
Apostolics
or false apostles, which had been
started by a certain Gerard Segarelli at Parma in 1260. At the
University of Paris he advocated the erection of chairs for the
Oriental languages in order to give an opportunity of studying
these languages to those who intended to labour for the conversion
of the Musselmans and the reunion of the schismatic churches in the
East.
PROU, Les Registres d'Honorius IV, recueil des bulles de ce pape, publiees ou analysees d'apres le manuscrit original des archives du Vatican (Paris, 1887-89); PAWLICKI, Papst Honorius IV., eine Monographie (Munster, 1896); REDLICH, Regesta Imperii, Die Regesten des Kaiserreichs unter Rudolph, Adolph, Albrecht, Heinrich VII. 1273-1313 (Innsbruck, 1898).
MICHAEL OTT
Transcribed by Herman F. Holbrook
"Prayer was made without ceasing by the Church unto God for Peter."
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII
Copyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton Company
Online Edition Copyright © 1999 by Kevin Knight
Nihil Obstat, June 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor
Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York