MARTIN IV  . (Simon Mompitie de Brion), pope from the 22nd of February 1281 to the 28th of March 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 chancellor of France by Louis IX. in 126o and cardinal-priest of Sta Cecilia by Urban IV. in 1261 . As papal legate in France he held several synods for the reformation of the clergy and conducted the negotiations for the assumption of the crown of Sicily by Charles of Anjou . It was through the latter's influence that 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 the 23rd of March 1281 . Peaceful and unassuming, he relied completely on Charles of Anjou, and showed little ability as pope . 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 (Mar . 31, 1282) he employed all the spiritual and material resources at his command 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 . (C . H . HA.) His registers have been published in the Bibliotheque des ecoles francaises d'Athenes et de Rome (Paris, 1901) . 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—1902); 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 dell' anno 1282, ed. by G. di Marzo (Palermo, 1882) .