William of Modena

Born in Piedmont and named bishop of Modena in May 1222, William was sent as Papal legate to resolve differences that resulted from the outcome of the Livonian Crusade in Livonia in 1225.

The Prince Bishop Albert and the semi-monastic military Order, the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, the Teutonic crusaders and the Russians, all had claims, which were made more difficult by language barriers.

William soon earned the confidence of all sides, arranging diplomatic compromises on boundaries, overlapping ecclesiastical and territorial jurisdictions, taxes, coinage, and other subjects, but he could not resolve the basic quarrel: who was to be master in Livonia.

William sought to remove Estonia from contention by placing it directly under papal control, appointing his own vice-legate as governor, and by bringing in German knights as vassals.

On 18 March 1234, in the letter Grandis et gravis, Gregory ordered his legate in Germany, William of Modena, to mediate the dispute between the Stedinger and the archbishop Gerhard II of Lippe.

When Celestine IV died after a short reign of sixteen days, the excommunicated Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II, was in possession of the Papal States of the Church around Rome and attempted to intimidate the cardinals into electing a pope to his own liking.

The cardinals fled to Anagni and cast their votes for Sinibaldo de' Fieschi, who ascended to the papal throne as Innocent IV on 25 June 1243, after an interregnum of more than a year and a half.

Two months later he sent emissaries including Peter de Colmieu, Archbishop of Rouen, William of Modena, who had resigned his episcopal office, and Abbot William of St. Facundus as legates to the emperor at Melfi with instructions to ask him to release the prelates whom he had captured while on their way to a council that Gregory IX had intended to hold at Rome and challenge the emperor to make satisfaction for the injuries which he had inflicted upon the Church, which had caused Gregory IX to put him under the ban of excommunication.

Feeling himself hindered in his freedom of action on account of the emperor's military preponderance, and fearing for his personal safety, Innocent decided to flee Sutri in disguise for Civitavecchia and board a fleet provided by the sympathetic Genoese.