Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118) appointed him as archbishop of Cyprus, but Nicholas abdicated the see in c. 1110.
He spent the next 37 years in the Monastery of Saints Cosmas and Damian in the Kosmidion suburb of Constantinople.
His election however caused considerable controversy: its canonical validity was called in question since he had voluntarily resigned from his previous see.
Eventually, Nicholas IV was forced to resign as patriarch and died in 1152.
He wrote a number of theological works, amongst them a treatise refuting the Filioque addressed to Alexios I, and a vivid poetic defence of his first abdication.