Pope Anastasius IV (born ca. 1073, died 3 December 1154), born Corrado Demetri della Suburra, was Pope from 1153 to 1154.

Early life

He was a Roman, son of Benedictus de Suburra, probably of the family of Demetri, and became a secular clerk. He was created cardinal-priest of S. Pudenziana by Pope Paschal II no later than in 1114. In 1127 or 1128 Pope Honorius II promoted him to the suburbicarian see of Sabina He had taken part in the double papal election, 1130, had been one of the most determined opponents of antipope Anacletus II (1130–38) and, when Pope Innocent II (1130–43) fled to France, had been left behind as his vicar in Italy. At the time of his election to the papacy in July 1153 he was dean of the College of Cardinals and probably the oldest member of that body.

Pontificate

During his short pontificate he played the part of a peacemaker; he came to terms with the Emperor Frederick I in the vexed question of the appointment to the see of Magdeburg and closed the long quarrel, which had raged through four pontificates, about the appointment of William Fitzherbert (d. 1154) – commonly known as St William of York – to the see of York, by sending him the pallium, in spite of the continued opposition of the powerful Cistercian order. Pope Anastasius IV died on 3 December 1154, and was succeeded by Cardinal Nicholas of Albano as Pope Adrian IV (1154–59).

Notes

Bibliography

Hans Walter Klewitz, Reformpapsttum und Kardinalskolleg, Darmstadt 1957, p. 128 no. 31 and p. 220

Johannes M. Brixius, Die Mitglieder des Kardinalkollegiums von 1130-1181, Berlin 1912

Ian Stuart Robinson, The Papacy 1073-1198. Continuity and Innovation, Cambridge University Press 1990

Philipp Jaffé, Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita Ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII, Berlin 1851