Jacques Pantaléon (Troyes, Ca 1195 - Perugia, October 2nd, 1264), wire of a cobbler of Troyes, becomes pope under the name of Urbain IV - “ Jerusalem Companiæ ” in the Prophétie of Saint Malachie.

He is clerk with the cathedral towards 1195, priest and preacher towards 1215, attached to the bishop of Laon in 1216, Doctor of Divinity in 1220.

He is canon and archdeacon of Laon in 1238, then of Liege in 1241; chaplain of the pope; Apostolic nuncio in Prussia and Poland in 1247; bishop of Verdun in 1253, then patriarch of Jerusalem in 1255.

He is elected pope on August 29th 1261. He is the first French pope since Sylvestre II (the Gerbert scientist) and Urbain II. Prevented from gaining Rome by the Gibelins of Manfred Ier of Sicily, it takes deliberately the party guelfe and offers the Couronne of Sicily to Saint Louis, which refuses, then with Charles of Anjou, in favor from which it preaches the Croisade against Manfred.

In 1264, it will found the Festival of the universal Church which will become the Corpus Christi. This festival already had been celebrated with Liege under the name of “the Blessed Sacrament” in 1246.

See also: Corpus Christi

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