Paul of Segni

Paul of Segni was an Italian nobleman and Franciscan friar who served as the bishop of Tripoli in the Levant from 1261 until 1285 and as a papal legate to the kingdoms of Germany and Sicily in 1279–1280. He was the most prominent churchman from the east at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274. After 1275, he was involved in a dispute with the bishop of Tortosa that took him to Rome. He spent his last five years in Italy. Family Paul was born into the Roman noble family of the counts of Segni and owned land in the Papal State. He was a friar of the Franciscan Order and an associate (confrater) of the Order of the Temple. His sister, Lucia, was the wife of Prince Bohemond V of Antioch and mother of Bohemond VI. Tripoli It was through the influence of his sister and nephew that Paul was appointed bishop sometime before October 1261. He succeeded Opizo, who is last mentioned in July 1259 and probably died around the time of the Mongol invasion of 1260. Opizo had excommunicated Bohemond VI, but Pope Urban IV granted Paul wide latitude in dealing with his nephew while the case was sub judice. Paul's influence brought many Roman knights into Bohemond's service. In 1274, Paul led a delegation from the East to attend the Second Council of Lyon. Guillaume de Beaujeu, the Grand Master of the Temple, was part of the delegation. He shared the presidency of the council with two other Franciscans: Bonaventure and Eudes Rigaud.