Innocent IV summary

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Below is the article summary. For the full article, see Innocent IV.

Innocent IV, orig. Sinibaldo Fieschi, (born 12th century, Genoa—died Dec. 7, 1254, Naples), Pope (1243–54). His clash with Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II formed an important chapter in the conflict between papacy and empire. Frederick wanted the newly elected pope to lift his excommunication, but Innocent interrupted the negotiations and fled Rome for France (1244); he later condemned Frederick and urged the election of a new emperor. Concerned with the evangelization of the East, he persuaded Louis IX to lead a Crusade and sent a mission to the Mongols. He returned to Rome in 1253 and gave the Sicilian throne to Edmund, son of Henry III of England, but the papal army was defeated by Manfred, Frederick’s son, in 1254.

Christianity Summary

Christianity, major religion stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century ce. It has become the largest of the world’s religions and, geographically, the most widely diffused of all faiths. It has a constituency of

papacy Summary

Papacy, the office and jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, the pope (Latin papa, from Greek pappas, “father”), who presides over the Holy See (the central government) of the Roman Catholic Church. The term pope was originally applied to all the bishops in the West and also used to describe the

canon law Summary

Canon law, body of laws made within certain Christian churches (Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, independent churches of Eastern Christianity, and the Anglican Communion) by lawful ecclesiastical authority for the government both of the whole church and parts thereof and of the behaviour and

ecumenism Summary

Ecumenism, movement or tendency toward worldwide Christian unity or cooperation. The term, of recent origin, emphasizes what is viewed as the universality of the Christian faith and unity among churches. The ecumenical movement seeks to recover the apostolic sense of the early church for unity in