NICH 
as houfes, books, and other conveniences of that nature, 
the property of which, in conformity with the appoint¬ 
ment of Innocent IV. was to refide in the church of Rome. 
Nor did he flop here; but prohibited, under the fevered 
penalties, all private explications of this new law, led 
they fhould excite difputes, and furnilh matter of conten¬ 
tion ; and he referved the power of interpreting it to him- 
felf alone, and to his fucceffors in the pontificate. 
NIC'HOLAS IV. (Pope), formerly known by the name 
of Jerome of Afcoli, was defcended from parents in hum¬ 
ble life, and born at the town whence he took his furname, 
iituated in the Marche of Ancona. He entered at an early 
age into the order of Minorites ; and acquired fuch repu¬ 
tation by his learning and exemplary life, that he was 
raifed to the pod of general of the fraternity. Before he 
attained this honour, pope Gregory X. fent him on a 
million to Condantinople, for the purpofe of endeavour¬ 
ing to bring about an union between the Greek and Latin 
churches; and from thence into Tartary, to promote the 
converfion of infidels. Afterwards he was created cardi¬ 
nal by pope Nicholas III. and by Martin IV. he was pre¬ 
ferred to the fee of Paledrina. Upon the death of Ho- 
norius IV. in the year 1287, the unanimous voice of the 
conclave was given in favour of the bilhop of Paledrina, 
who twice declined the papal dignity; but was compelled, 
after being eleded a third time, to accept of it. At his 
coronation, out of gratitude to Nicholas III. who had 
created him a member of the facred college, he took the 
name of Nicholas IV. • 
Soon after his election, he interel’ced himfelf with great 
zeal in the caufe of Charles prince of Salerno, who was 
kept prifoner by Alphonfus king of Arragon ; and he 
fent legates to that monarch, to treat about the prince’s 
liberty, and alfo to fummon Alphonfus to appear at Rome 
within a limited time. In the mean while Charles, im¬ 
patient at his confinement, figned a treaty by which he 
obtained his freedom upon hard terms, and, after vifiting 
his dominions in Provence, returned into Italy. Hearing 
that the pope was at Rieti, he repaired thither in the year 
1289, and laid before his holinefs the terms on which he 
had been permitted to quit Arragon. Thefe terms Ni¬ 
cholas pronounced null; abfolved Charles from his oath 
to obferve them ; and crowned him, with great folemnity, 
king of Apulia and Sicily. In the year 1290, under the 
mediation of the pope, peace was concluded between the 
kings of France and Arragon; by one article of which 
Alphonfus agreed to lend no afliftance to his brother 
James, who had ufurped the kingdom of Sicily, and to 
recall all the Arragonefe in his fervice. This peace was 
broken in the following year, upon the death of Alphonfus, 
when James fucceeded him on the throne of Arragon, 
and refufed to give his ratification to the treaty which his 
brother had concluded. At length, in 1292, Nicholas, 
finding that he paid no regard to his repeated admoni¬ 
tions to furrender the ifland of Sicily to Charles, folemnly 
excommunicated him three feveral times, and all the Si¬ 
cilians who adhered to him. 
This pope, befides maintaining the pretenfions and pri¬ 
vileges of the church with the moll refolute zeal and ob- 
ftlnateperfeverance, difpatched nuncios and miflionaries to 
propagate the catholic faith among the Sclavonians, the 
Tartars, the Armenians, and other eallern nations, and 
he addreffed letters in defence of it to the emperor of 
Ethiopia. The objed, however, which of all others chiefly 
occupied his thoughts and laborious efforts, was the defpe- 
rate ffate of the Chriltians in the Eaft, who were now re¬ 
duced to the greateft extremities of mifery and weaknefs. 
In 1289, the city of Tripoli being taken by thefultan of 
Babylon, and the inhabitants either put to the fword or 
carried into captivity, he raifed four thoufand foot and 
five hundred horfe at his own expenfe, and hired twenty 
galleys of the Venetians to tranfport them into the Eaft. 
In 1291, the fultan of Egypt, having taken by ilorm the 
city of Ptolemais, levelled it with the ground, and cruelly 
mafiacred all the Chriftians who fell into his hands; which 
Vol.XVII. No. ii6i. 
O L A S. 57 
fo alarmed the inhabitants of Tyre, Sidon,and the other 
cities in Syria, that, leaving them a prey to the enemy, 
they tranfported themfelves to the illand of Cyprus. 
Thus was the Holy Land irrecoverably loft, nothing being 
left to the Chriftians in the Eaft, after fuch an immenfe 
wafte of treafure and blood, but this ifland and Armenia 
the Lefs. Nicholas left nothing in his power unat¬ 
tempted to repair thofe Ioffes, and he endeavoured to fet on 
foot a general crufade. All his efforts, however, were em¬ 
ployed in vain ; and he felt fuch extreme mortification at 
the lofs of Paleftine, and his inability to unite the Chrif- 
tian princes in a league for its recovery, that it greatly 
contributed to haften his death, which took place in 
April 1292, when he had prefided over the Roman church 
four years and between one and two months. 
Very high commendations are bellowed by the writers 
of the time, on this pope, for humility, good-nature, and 
contempt of all worldly grandeur. As he was a man of 
great learning himfelf, he encouraged it in others, em¬ 
ploying, and rewarding with uncommon generofity, fuch 
as excelled in any branch of literature. He expended 
large fums in ornamenting Rome with feveral ftately build¬ 
ings, in widening the llreets, in building new churches, 
and in repairing others. On a magnificent maufoleum 
which pope Sixtus V. ereded to his memory, it is recorded 
in his praife, that “ Men of probity and men of learning 
were his only relations.” 
NIC'HOLAS V. (Pope), originally known by the 
name of Thomas of Sarzana, was the fon of a poor phy- 
fician at Sarzana, a fmall town on the borders of Tufcany 
and the republic of Genoa, whence he derived his fur- 
name. As he early difcovered promifing talents and a 
love for learning, he attraded the notice of cardinal Ni¬ 
cholas Albergati, who took him under his protection, and 
fupplied him with the expenfes neceffary for purfuing his 
ftudies at the univerfity of Bologna. Here he applied to 
the different branches of academical learning with extra¬ 
ordinary diligence and fuccefs ; and acquired the charac¬ 
ter of being one of the moll learned divines and able dif- 
putants of his time. Being introduced to the court of 
pope Eugenius IV. he recommended himfelf to the good 
opinion and elteem of that pontiff, who employed him in 
all the difputes between the Latins and the Greeks at the 
councils of Ferrara and of Florence. On thefe occafions 
he acquitted himfelf with very high reputation as a fcho- 
lar, divine, and man of prudence ; and his merits were re¬ 
warded, in the year 144-5, by his promotion to the bi- 
fliopric of Bologna. In 1446, he was lent, by pope Eu¬ 
genius, together with John de Carvajal bilhop of Placen¬ 
tia, to the diet held at Frankfort, in order to perfuade the 
German princes to terminate the fchifm which had long 
broken the unity of the church, by acknowledging that 
pontiff; and fo well fatisfied was the pope with his con- 
dud and that of his coadjutor on this occafion, that, on 
their return to Rome in the fame year, they were both 
promoted to the purple. Our cardinals had been mem¬ 
bers of the facred college little more than two months, 
when, by the death of Eugenius, a vacancy took place in 
theapoftolic fee. On the 6th of March, 1447, all the car¬ 
dinals who were at Rome entered into the conclave for 
the eledion of a fucceffor ; and on the fame day, with 
one confent, raifed cardinal de Sarzana to that dignity. 
The coronation of the new pope took place on the nine¬ 
teenth of the fame month, when he affumed the name of 
Nicholas, out of gratitude to his benefador, cardinal Ni¬ 
cholas Albergati. 
Before the death of Eugenius IV. a growing difpofition 
was fpreading among the Chriftian Hates and princes, to 
terminate the fchifm in the church that originated in the 
difputes between that pontiff' and the council of Bafil, 
which fet up a rival pope in oppofition to him, in the per- 
fon of Amadeus duke of Savoy, who took the title of 
Felix V. For fuch a crifis there was need of a pontiff of 
Nicholas’s charader for learning and prudence, and who 
was equally efteemed for his probity and peaceable difpo- 
Q fition. 
