Nicholas IV
Girolamo Masci · 1288 – 1292
The first Franciscan pope, he tried to organize a new crusade after the fall of Acre and commissioned the famous mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore.
Girolamo was from Ascoli and entered the Franciscan Order, eventually becoming its minister general. He was the first Franciscan to become pope. His pontificate was dominated by the fall of Acre in 1291, the last major Crusader stronghold in the Holy Land, and his unsuccessful efforts to launch a new crusade in response. He also decreed that the cardinals would share in the revenues of the papal states, a significant financial reform. He commissioned the apse mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, which survive today. He died in 1292.
After Acre
The fall of Acre in 1291 ended two centuries of Crusader presence in the Holy Land. Nicholas IV tried to rally Europe for another expedition, but the political will was gone. The age of the Crusades was effectively over, though it would take the papacy decades to accept that reality.