Innocent IV

Innocent IV (1200?-1254), pope (1243-1254), who asserted the universal dominion of the papacy by deposing his chief opponent, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. Born Sinibaldo Fieschi in Genoa, Italy, he studied law at Parma and Bologna. He was consecrated bishop of Albenga in 1225, and in 1227 he was made a cardinal.

On his election to the papacy, Innocent took up the struggle against Frederick II, who sought to establish absolute imperial authority. After ineffectual negotiations with Frederick, the pope, feeling unsafe in Rome, fled to France. There he called the First Council of Lyons (1245), at which Frederick was condemned again (he had earlier been excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX) and then declared deposed. Innocent then advised the German princes to elect a new emperor, and he lent his support first to Henry Raspe, landgrave of Thüringen, and later to William II of Holland. Frederick's death in 1250 allowed Innocent to return triumphantly to Rome, but a struggle against Frederick's son Conrad IV ensued, and the conflict remained unresolved at the time of Innocent's death.