Pope Alexander IV

Born Rinaldo dei Conti di Segni, a nephew of Gregory IX, Alexander IV was elevated from Cardinal Bishop of Ostia. His pontificate was dominated by the unresolved struggle with the Hohenstaufen, especially Manfred of Sicily, against whom his efforts largely failed. He promoted the mendicant orders, canonized Clare of Assisi, and defended the friars in their disputes with the secular masters of the University of Paris. A pious but politically ineffective pope, he never managed to enter a rebellious Rome and died at Viterbo, leaving the Italian situation more entangled than he found it.