Pope St Peter Celestine V (1215-96) the pope who resigned
The
image shows Pope Benedict XVI visiting the remains of Pope St Peter
Celestine V on a visit to the earthquake town of Sulmona in 2009.
A hermit
Peter
Celestine V is interesting because he is the only pope so far in history
to have resigned.
Although an ascetical and holy man, he allowed
himself to be drawn into the papacy, for which he was totally unsuited.
When he had created a lot of confusion, he decided to resign.
A hermit
Peter of Morrone was born in the
Abruzzi, the eleventh child of a peasant family. Intelligent, devout and
austere, he became a hermit in the mountains in the diocese of
Benevento when he was seventeen. Later he was ordained a priest and went
back to being a hermit.
He was often asked for guidance and spiritual
direction and in the end agreed to become the abbot of a monastery of
hermits at Monte Morrone, near Sulmona in the Abruzzo mountains. Here he
lived for forty years founding his own order of the Celestines in 1274.
They did not get this name till after their founder had became
pope. They continued in France up until the 17th century when they were
dissolved.
Acclaimed pope
In 1284, when deadlock delayed the
outcome of a papal election in succession to Pope Nicholas IV, Peter of
Morrone spoke out, threatening divine vengeance on the cardinals
gathered in Perugia, if they did not elect a pope quickly.
In
frustration, the aged dean of the college of cardinals cried out: "In
the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I elect Brother Peter of
Morrone".
Before they could think better of it, the cardinals had
quickly ratified this decision, but Peter declined and tried to take
flight.
However, accompanied by a deputation of cardinals and by the
kings of Naples and of Hungary, he was finally prevailed upon to accept.
He was consecrated bishop and crowned pope at Aquila taking the name of
Celestine V.
Confusion
He was an unfortunate choice. King
Charles II of Naples immediately manipulated him into bestowing
benefices - sometimes the same ones twice or even three times over -
naming cardinals and giving away church treasures.
Things soon got into a
very confused mess and after five months Celestine decided to resign.
He asked the cardinals to pardon his mistakes and elect his successor.
His successor Boniface VIII
After a lot
of argument ensued about whether this was possible or not. An
experienced canonist and diplomat Benedetto Gaetani persuaded the
cardinals that it was indeed possible and the cardinals then elected
him.
Gaetani took the name Boniface VIII and became a proponent of a
strong papacy. In this he came into a major conflict with King Philip IV
of France.
He wrote the famous Bull Unam sanctam declaring
that both spiritual and temporal power were under the pope's
jurisdiction, and that kings were subordinate to the power of the
Church.
Celestine imprisoned and dies
Celestine was not
allowed to remain in solitude or to go to Rome. Boniface imprisoned him
in the castle of Fumone, near Anagni, where after ten months he died.
Judgments differ about him: Dante has him outside (but not inside) the
gates of hell and calls him Colui che fece per viltade il gran rifiuto (= "He who by his cowardice made the grand refusal") (Inferno,
III, 59).
Others argue that his abdication showed a rare freedom and
fortitude. Not every holy man makes a success of his life.
Circumstances of his canonisation
A network
of political circumstances affected the process of the canonisation of
St Peter Celestine and these are worth noting.
Pope Boniface VIII, his
successor came into conflict with King Philip IV of France, who wanted
to tax his clergy half their annual income.
Boniface responded with
three papal bulls: Clericis laicos (1296) threatening excommunication on anyone who tried it; Ausculta, fili (1301) saying the pope was set over kings and kingdoms; and Unam sanctam (1302)
declaring more specifically that kings were subordinate to the power of
the Church and that both spiritual and temporal power were under the
pope's jurisdiction.
This struggle dragged on for quite a few years and
Philip's agents were probably involved in some "roughing up" that led up
to Boniface's death in 1303.
French revenge on Pope Boniface VIII
The next
pope died after a few months, but the second next pope was a French
cardinal and archbishop of Bourdeaux, Raymond Bertrand de Got, who took
the name of Clement V (1305-14). He selected Lyon as the place of his
coronation.
Afterwards he moved the papal court first to Poitiers and
then to Avignon, where it remained for the next seventy years. Pope
Clement V came under pressure from King Philip to summon a council to
declare his predecessor Boniface VIII a heretic and a sodomite.
Pope
Clement had the wisdom to resist this. However, he did agree to canonise
Boniface's predecessor, Pope Celestine V, whom Boniface had imprisoned,
but he defused it somewhat by canonising him under his monastic name
Peter, and not his pontifical name Celestine, and designating him a
"confessor", whereas Philip wanted him designated a "martyr", implying
that Boniface had murdered him.
One need not be surprised that even the
canonisation process is not entirely outside the ambit of political
influence!