ABSTRACT
Born in Genoa sometime between 1180 and 1190, Sinibaldo Fieschi first studied law at Parma before continuing his legal studies—possibly at Bologna—and was awarded a degree in law. His pontificate as Innocent IV (1243–54) witnessed the removal of the pope and the Curia from Rome to France for seven years and the convening of the first General Council of Lyon in 1245, at which Emperor Frederick II was excommunicated in absentia, introducing a prolonged struggle. But Innocent IV’s pontificate was equally noteworthy in terms of his refinement of policies on crusade and the papal-sponsored mission to the Mongols, as well as his own legal works. Innocent IV wrote over an extended period an extremely influential commentary on the Liber extra, the Apparatus in quinque libros decretalium, completed c. 1250–51, the transmission of which was both immediate and long enduring. Innocent also continued the tradition of being a lawmaking pope and prepared three collections of his own decretals, collectively known as the Novelle. Although Innocent IV’s pontificate has often been characterized as one that subordinated spiritual matters to political concerns, his pontificate and legal commentaries profoundly shaped both ecclesiastical law and administration, offering a justification for papal authority and jurisdiction, even over non-Christians, that surpassed the ecclesiological visions of his predecessor and namesake, Innocent III, and patron, Gregory IX.
