One French appointee, Erhard de Lessines (Lesigny), son of Guillaume, Marshal of Champagne, died on July 18, 1278, of dysentery.

At the same time, the Pope demanded that King Charles resign his position as Rector of Tuscany, which allowed him to dominate Rome from both north and south.

[16] King Charles had been granted the Senatorship of Rome for a period of ten years by Clement IV, and the end of the term was coming on September 16, 1278.

[17] On July 18, 1278, after consultation with the Cardinals, Nicholas had issued a bull, Fundamenta militantis, instituting the rule that emperors, kings, princes, marquises, dukes, counts, and barons were ineligible for the office of Senator of Rome, and others were eligible for one-year terms only.

Instead, they voted to invest Signor Giovanni Gaetano Orsini (not the Pope) with the powers and privileges of the Senatorship for the term of his life, inviting him to name a Senator for Rome.

He immediately arranged peace in Florence and the Romandiola (Romagna) [21] On November 7, Nicholas sent a letter to Cardinal Latino, commending his positive achievements in so short a time, even without the specific Instructions that the Pope had intended to send him.

On November 16, the Pope expressed his satisfaction that Guido de Montefeltro (the leader of the Ghibellines in the Romandiola) had been brought to obey his commands, but he conveyed as well the bad news that the Apostolic Camera (Treasury) was almost empty, and various expenses, including the payment of troops would have to be handled according to verbal instructions to be sent to Cardinal Latino through Giovanni Capucci, Canon of S. Maria Transtiberim.

Fra Salimbene tells us in his chronicle that Latino, in this campaign to pacify factional strife, issued a tough ordinance on female dress, banning long trains and requiring all women to veil their faces when they went out.

At some point during the reign of Nicholas III, Cardinal Latino was Auditor causarum in a case involving the Augustinian canons of the church at Wiborg in the Diocese of Ripen (Ribe) in Denmark.

Cardinal Malabranca's uncle, Pope Nicholas III, died on August 22, 1280, at his castle of Soriano, in the hills to the east of Viterbo.

In Rome, as soon as the news of pope's death arrived, a coup-d-état against the Orsini government was led by Riccardo Annibaldi, whose forces were friendly to King Charles of Sicily.

He had been the papal Legate in France for many years, and was the person principally responsible for having negotiating the bringing of Charles of Anjou to Italy in the first place, and making him King of Sicily.

Immediately upon his election, and even before his coronation, Martin IV sent Cardinals Latino Malabranca and Godefridus of Alatri to Rome, as 'angels of peace', to try to compose the differences among the various Roman factions; the People were to pay attention to their exhortations and warnings.

Cardinal Latino was present in Consistory (assistentibus...) at Orvieto on May 24, 1281, when Pope Martin issued an invitation to Rudolf King of the Romans to revise their treaty, given the fact that some of the conditions specified in the agreement made with Nicholas III had not been met.

[47] King Charles, who had long been involved with his barons over the operations of his administrative system, again met with serious trouble with the Sicilian Vespers, which began in Palermo on March 29, 1282, and resulted in the loss of the entire island of Sicily to Pedro of Aragon by the end of the year.

[51] On September 17, 1285, he subscribed the Bull "Justitia et Pax" of Pope Honorius IV, the Constitution for the good order of the Kingdom of Sicily.

On February 17, 1286, Pope Honorius confirmed the election of Archbishop John le Romain of York, and authorized Cardinal Latino Malabranca to consecrate him in St. Peter's Basilica, and invest him with the pallium.

[55] Honorius IV died on Holy Thursday, April 3, 1287, at his palace at Santa Sabina, and was buried in S. Peter's next to Nicholas III.

[57] On June 12, 1288, Pope Nicholas granted to Cardinal Latino Malabranca, de gratia speciali, all of the income which came to the Papacy from the city and territory of Segni for the term of his life.

[59] On September 27, 1288, Cardinal Latino was given the mandate to correct and reform the Monastery of S. Angelo de Fontanellis near Todi, which belonged to the Vallombrosian monks.

Pope Nicholas IV died in Rome on Holy Saturday, April 4, 1292, in the Patriarchal residence at the Liberian Basilica (Santa Maria Maggiore), in the fifth year of his reign.

[66] They were divided into two opposing groups, one led by Matteo Rosso Orsini, which sought a new pope who would be compliant to the wishes of King Charles II of Sicily, the other by Giacopo Colonna.

[67] Cardinal Latino, as Ordine Pontificum primus (in the words of Giacopo Caetani Stefaneschi), undertook the expected task of summoning the Conclave.

Anarchy prevailed until Easter of 1293, when an effort to achieve a truce by compromise brought Agapito Colonna and Orso Orsini to the Senatorial office.

It was not until October that order was restored in Rome, and two neutral citizens, Petrus Stefaneschi (the Subdeacon's father) and Oddo di S. Eustachio, were elected Senators.

At some point, without plan and unexpectedly, remarks were made about the Benedictine Brother Pietro da Morrone, and the attention of everyone, as though divinely inspired, was directed to a consideration of him.

The notice of Brother Peter's election, bearing the date of July 11, 1294, was carried to him by the Archbishop of Lyons (Beraldus de Got), the bishops of Orvieto (Francesco Monaldeschi) and Portuensis (Oporto?

The official Nuntii had a good deal of trouble locating Peter in his mountain hermitage, for when he heard of their approach and their purpose, he is said to have fled farther into the wilderness.

The actual date of his acceptance of the Papal office is not recorded, though on August 17, he signed a document at Aquila with the note suscepti a nobis apostolatus officii anno 1.

He was buried in the Church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva in Rome; in 1630 the Minister General of the Dominicans transferred his remains and those of Cardinal Matteo Orsini from the Sacristy, where they had originally been placed, to new tombs near the High Altar, behind the statue of the Risen Christ.