name of" the Accomplished,'' because, as his Italian con- temporaries alleged, " in him met all the graces of the handsomest clerks in the world." Cajetanus was a man likewise of great ability, of irreproachable morals, and of vast ambition. The last proved his strong enemy, and attached an infamous stain to his name. He is known in history as a Nepotist (see Dante's Inferno, xix, GO, 95). Previous to his elevation to the papacy, which occurred Nov. 25, 1277, he had played no unim- portant part in ecclesiastical affairs. In the papal chair he distinguished himself especially by his activity against the schismatics and heathens. He sent legates to Michael Palajologus, and missionaries to the Tartars. He com- pelled Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, to resign his offices of vicar of the empire and governor of Rome, and with it to relinquish the supreme power which that title gave him in the city, and caused himself to be elected senator, thereby advancing the interests of the papa- cy ; but he intrusted the discharge of the office to his relatives, and thus deprived the state of faithful and trustworthy officers, his relatives seeking simply to en- rich themselves. Under pope Nicholas Ill's rule the power of the Romish see was further greatlv increased, by his inducing the new Roman emperor, Rudolph of Hapsburg, to restore to it a number of its former posses- sions which the emperors had at various times wrested from Rome. (See Fontainni, Del Dominio Tem]iorale della Santa Chiesa, and his controversy with Muratori on the subject.) Pope Nicholas III was laboring to se- cure the union with the Greek Church resolved on at the Council of Lyons in 1274, when he died, August 22,. 1280. A treatise entitled De electione dif/nitatum is attributed to him. He embellished Rome consider- abh', and built a splendid palace near the church of St. Peter. See two short biographies in Muratori, 7?e- }'inn Ital. Scripto7-es,\o]. iii, pt. i, p. GOG sq. ; also Leo, Gesch. der ital. Staaten, iv, 027 sq.; Baronius, Annales Ecdesiastici, xxii, 43G ; Bower, Hist, of the Popes (see Index in vol. vii); Riddle, ///«/. of Papacrj, ii, 233 sq. ; Milman, hist, of Latin Christianity, vi, 135 sq. ; Hefele, Conciliengesch. vi, 141 sq., 101 sq., 179, 188; Wetzer u. Welte (R. C), Kirchen-Lexikon, vii, 583-585. (J. H. W.) Nicholas IV, Pope (originally Jerome), was born of lowly estate at Ascoli, in the Papal States. At an early age he joined the Franciscans, and became general of the order in 1274. He was made cardinal by Nicho- las III, and in 1288 was elected pope three times before he decided on accepting the office. He upheld the pre- tensions of Charles II of Anjou to the crown of Sicily against Alphonso of Aragon, and crowned the former. In a meeting of the nobilitv called by his legates at Tarascon in 1289 it was decided that Alphonso should renounce his claims on Sicily, and not recognise his brother James, who actually reigned there ; and in ex- change Alphonso was to be released from the ban pro- nounced against him, and Aragon declared a fief of the see of Rome. James, however, having succeeded his brother on the throne of Aragon, refused to recog- nise the acts of the assembly of Tarascon, and thereupon the ever-ready but now almost powerless bolt of excom- munication was hurled against him by the pope. The part which Nicholas played in this whole transaction is dishonorable and discreditable to Romanism, which has never censured it. Not only did he unjustly visit James with the ban of excommunication, but unrighteously absolved Charles from a promise he had made, and which he, more honorable in thought than his ecclesi- astical friends, regarded as binding, and was prevented from performing only by the pope's direct command. King Edward of England and Alphonso of Aragon had arranged terms for the release of Charles, then their captive. Within one year Charles was bound by it to procure peace between France and Aragon, and, if not successful, he solemnly swore to return to his captivity. Tiie pope not only crowned Charles king without refer- ence to the result of the mission he had sworn to per- form, but when Charles of Valois refused to relinquish his
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pretensions to Aragon, and kin<^ Philip to surrender the cities which he had seized in that kingdom, and Charles of Anjou believed himself bound to return to his captors, the pope interfered, and issued a decree against his re- turn. '• This was as monstrous an exercise of the absolv- ing power," says Milman justly, "as had ever been ad- vanced in the face of Christendom : it struck at the root of all chivalrous honor, at the faith of all treaties. It de- clared, in fact, that no treatj"^ was to be maintained with any one engaged in what the Holy See considered an unjust war; that is, a war contrary to her interests. . . . It declared that all obligations entered into by a person in captivity were null and void, even though oaths had been interchanged and liostages given for their jjerform- ance" (^Hisf. oj' Latin Chris/iaiiifi/, vi, 175). Ptolemais, the last possession of the Christians in Palestine, having fallen into the hands of the jMohammedans, Nicholas IV sought actively, but in vain, to organize a crusade. He also sought to obtain the aid of the Moguls in that undertaking, and sent them missionaries of his order for that purpose, among them John of Monte Corvino (q. v.). Pope Nicholas IV died April 4, ]2[)2, bewailing tlie tu- mults of the time and the failure of Europe to relieve the Christians in the East. He wrote commentaries on the Scriptures and on the Abagister Sentenc, and is- sued several bulls in favor of the Franciscans. See Vita Nicolai PapcB IV, ab Ilieronijino Ruheo cnmposito, etc. (Pisa, 1761, 8vo); and the biography in Muratori, Re- 7-um Italicarum Scriptores, iii, 612; Wetzer u. Welte (R. C), Kirchen-Lexikon, vii, 584, 585; Milman, Hist, of Latin Ckristirmitij, vi, 173 sq. ; Hefele, Conciliencjesch. vi, 1 10, 190 sii., 233 sq., 239. (J. H. W.)