in 1288, on the death of archbishop bernardus, the chapter met and conducted several ballots to choose his successor. they were unsuccessful in coalescing around a candidate, and therefore appointed a committee of four canons to choose the next archbishop. the four members, nicolinus de camilla, jacobus de voragine, thedisius fieschi, and ottobono spinola, were unable to come to an agreement, and therefore resigned the choice to the pope. on 4 june 1288, pope nicholas iv appointed as administrator of the diocese of genoa the current latin patriarch of antioch, obizzo fieschi, a nephew of pope innocent iv, who had been driven out of his own diocese by the saracens ("propter agarenorum perfidiam"). in 1292, opizzo fieschi resigned, and pope nicholas appointed jacobus de varagine to the archbishopric of genoa.