The Dominican scholar accused of heresy who became the first conclave pope
In 1264 critics branded 108 statements in Pierre de Tarentaise's theology commentary heretical, and Thomas Aquinas was assigned to defend them. Twelve years later his fellow cardinals chose him unanimously on the first ballot. As Innocent V he was the first Dominican pope and the first chosen in a papal conclave, yet he lasted only five months.
His birthplace is disputed. The usual view puts it near Moûtiers in the County of Savoy around 1225, but others argue for La Salle in the Aosta Valley, and some French scholars favour places called Tarantaise in Burgundy or the Loire. Around 1240 he joined the Dominicans at Lyons, moved to their Paris house in 1255, earned a master's degree in theology and won fame as a preacher.
From 1259 to 1264 he held one of the two Paris professorships reserved for Dominicans. That year he sat at the order's general chapter at Valenciennes beside Albert the Great and Aquinas, helping draft a programme of studies that made philosophy a preparation for theology in Dominican houses. When his patron Humbert of Romans died and a new master general took over, academic rivals pounced on his commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences. He stepped back from teaching, yet was promptly elected head of the French Dominican province, and returned to his chair once Aquinas's rebuttal circulated.
Gregory X named him Archbishop of Lyons in 1272, though he may never have been consecrated, and made him cardinal-bishop of Ostia in 1273. At the Second Council of Lyons he preached at the funeral of Cardinal Bonaventure before the pope and the assembled fathers.
Elected on 21 January 1276 and crowned in Rome a month later, he leaned heavily towards Charles I of Naples, letting him keep the senatorship of Rome while telling Rudolf, King of the Romans, to stay out of Italy. He brokered peace between Genoa and Naples, signed on 18 June, and tried to pursue reunion with the Byzantine Church through envoys to Michael VIII. He died on 22 June; the grand Lateran tomb Charles built him was lost to fires in the fourteenth century. He also wrote on philosophy, theology and canon law, and Leo XIII beatified him in 1898.
Source: Pope Innocent V
