High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Pope Nicholas IV (September 30, 1227 – April 4, 1292), born Girolamo Masci, was Pope from February 22, 1288 to April 4, 1292. A Franciscan friar, he had been legate to the Greeks under Pope Gregory X (1271–76) in 1272, succeeded Bonaventure as Minister General of his religious order in 1274, was made Cardinal Priest of Santa Prassede and Latin Patriarch of Constantinople by Pope Nicholas III (1277–80), Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina by Pope Martin IV (1281–85), and succeeded Pope Honorius IV (1285–87) after a ten-months` vacancy in the papacy.