Pope Nicholas IV took which position from 1281 to 1288?
Pope Nicholas IV Pope Nicholas IV ( ; 30 September 1227 – 4 April 1292 ) , born Girolamo Masci , was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 22 February 1288 to his death . He was the first Franciscan to be elected pope . Early life . Jerome Masci ( Girolamo Masci ) was born on 30 September 1227 at Lisciano , near Ascoli Piceno . He was a pious , peace-loving man whose goals as a Franciscan friar were to protect the Church , promote the crusades , and root out heresy . According to Heinrich of Rebdorf , he was a Doctor of Theology . As a Franciscan friar , he had been elected the Orders superior ( minister ) for Dalmatia during the Franciscan general chapter held at Pisa in 1272 . Pope Gregory X ( 1271-1276 ) , was sending a legate to the Byzantine emperor , Michael VIII Palaiologos , in 1272 , to invite the participation of Byzantine prelates in the Second Council of Lyons . The popes ambition was to achieve a reunion of Eastern and Western Christendom . St Bonaventure , then minister general of the Order of Friars Minor ( Franciscans ) , was asked to select four Franciscans to accompany the legation as nuncios . He chose Friar Jerome Masci as one of the four . When Bonaventure died suddenly during the fifth session of the Orders General Chapter at Lyons on 15 July 1274 , Friar Jerome Masci was elected to succeed him as the Franciscan minister general , even though he was absent at the time , only then returning with the Byzantine delegates from the embassy to Constantinople . Jerome was the associate of John of Vercelli , master general of the Dominican Order , when the latter was sent by Pope Nicholas III ( Giovanni Caetani Orsini ) on 15 October 1277 , to arrange a peace between Philip IV of France and Alfonso III of Aragon . Jerome and John of Vercelli were again appointed to the same task on 4 April 1278 . At the same time , Jerome was ordered to continue for the time being as the Franciscan Minister General . In 1278 Jerome was made cardinal priest by Pope Nicholas III , and at some point after 16 May 1279 was assigned the titular church of Santa Pudenziana . Even after his appointment as a cardinal , he was allowed to remain as minister general of the Franciscans until the next general chapter . In the event , however , he was unable to attend the chapter for reasons of ill health , as a letter of apology of Pope Nicholas III , written in May 1279 , indicates . On 12 April 1281 he was promoted to cardinal bishop of Palestrina by Pope Martin IV . Pontificate . Papal conclave . After the death of Pope Honorius IV on 3 April 1287 , a conclave was held in Rome , at the papal palace next to Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill , where Pope Honorius had died . This was in accordance with the Constitution Ubi Periculum of Pope Gregory X . At the beginning , in April , there were thirteen cardinals in Rome ; three cardinals—Gerardo Bianchi , Giovanni Boccamati , and Jean Cholet—did not attend at all . The Sacred College was for a time hopelessly divided in its selection of a successor . When six of the electors died during the year 1287 ( Ancher Pantaleon , Geoffrey de Bar , Hugh of Evesham , Giordano Orsini , Comes de Casanate , and Goffredo of Alatri—some , at least , carried off by fever ) , the others , with the sole exception of Jerome Masci , left the conclave and returned to their homes . It was not until the following year that they reassembled . The electors at that time were seven in number : Jerome Masci , along with Latino Malabranca , Bentivenga de Bentivengis , Bernard de Languissel , Matteo Rosso Orsini , Giacomo Colonna , and Benedetto Caetani . On 15 February 1288 , the survivors unanimously elected Jerome Masci , to the papacy on the first scrutiny . It is said that the cardinals were impressed by his steadfastness in remaining at the papal palace , but there is no real documentation as to their motives . As he admitted in his electoral manifesto , Cardinal Masci was extremely reluctant to accept , and indeed he persisted in his refusal for an entire week . Finally , on 22 February , he gave in and agreed . He became the first Franciscan pope and chose the name Nicholas IV in remembrance of Nicholas III , who had made him a cardinal . New cardinals . Given the considerable losses to the numbers of the Sacred College in 1286 and 1287 , it is not surprising that Nicholas IV quickly proceeded to fill vacancies . What is surprising is that he did not even reach the number of cardinals who were alive under Honorius IV , let alone exceed it . On 16 May 1288 , he named six new cardinals : Bernardus Calliensis , Bishop of Osimo ( who died in 1291 ) , Hugues Aiscelin ( Seguin ) de Billon , OP , of the diocese of Clermont in the Auvergne ; Matthew of Aquasparta in Tuscany , minister general of the Franciscans since 1287 ; Pietro Peregrosso of Milan , the vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church ; Napoleone Orsini ; and Pietro Colonna . Nicholas IV issued an important constitution on 18 July 1289 , which granted to the cardinals one-half of all income accruing to the Holy See and a share in the financial management , thereby paving the way for that independence of the College of Cardinals which , in the following century , was to be of detriment to the papacy . Actions . In regard to the question of the Sicilian succession , as feudal suzerain of the kingdom , Nicholas annulled the treaty , concluded in 1288 through the mediation of Edward I of England , which confirmed James II of Aragon in the possession of the island of Sicily . This treaty had not properly seen to papal interests . In May 1289 he crowned Charles II as king of Sicily after the latter had expressly recognized papal suzerainty , and in February 1291 concluded a treaty with Kings Alfonso III of Aragon and Philip IV of France looking toward the expulsion of James from Sicily . In 1288 Nicholas met with the Nestorian Christian Rabban Bar Sauma from China . In August 1290 he granted the status of studium generale to the university that King Denis of Portugal has just founded a few months earlier in the city of Lisbon . The loss of Acre in 1291 stirred Nicholas IV to renewed enthusiasm for a crusade . He sent missionaries , among them the Franciscan John of Monte Corvino , to labour among the Bulgarians , Ethiopians , Mongols , Tatars and Chinese . Death . Nicholas IV died in Rome on 4 April 1292 , in the palace which he had built next to the Liberian Basilica ( S . Maria Maggiore ) . He was buried in the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore . His epitaph reads : Here lies Nicolas IV son of St . Francis ( Hic requiescit / Nicolaus PP Quartus / Filius Beati Francisci ) . Taxatio . The 1291–92 Taxatio he initiated , which was a detailed valuation for ecclesiastical taxation of English and Welsh parish churches and prebends , remains an important source document for the medieval period . An edition was reprinted by the Record Commission in 1802 as Taxatio Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae Auctoritate .