CELESTINE
479
CELESTINE
with the young and violent Henry VI who in Germany
surpassed his predecessors in cruelty and oppression
of the churches. The pope was also slow and cautious
in threatening Henry with excommunication for his
imprisonment of King Richard the Lion-Hearted
whom Henry had caused to be seized (1192) by
Duke Leopold of Austria, and delivered to himself,
as Richard was on the way back to England, nor
was the English king set free until he had paid
a great ransom I 6100,000). It was a violation of
the law of nations that a younger and more vig-
orous pope would not have so long tolerated. Only
in 1193 were the duke and his associates ex-
communicated and an attempt made to compel res-
titution of the ransom. Shortly after, on the death
of Tancred (1194) Henry VI again crossed the Alps,
resolved to finally compass the union of the German
t Yown with that of the Two Sicilies. Amid incredible
cruelties he accomplished his purpose, defied the rights
of the pope as overlord of Sicily, deceived the pope
with vain promises of a crusade, and would probably
have hastened by a generation the memorable con-
flict of Rome with his son Frederick II had not death
carried off the cruel and lawless king, 28 Sept., 1197,
in his thirty-sixth year, not, however, before he had
induced the pope to acknowledge the aforesaid infant
Frederick as King of the Two Sicilies. Celestine him-
self soon passed away, in the ninety-second year of
his age. He showed more resolution in dealing with
other princes of Europe, particularly in defence of the
ecclesiastical marriage laws. He induced King Al-
fonso IX of Leon to abandon his project of an incest-
uous union with a Portuguese princess, and defended
with vigour the validity of the marriage of Queen
Ingeburg with Philip Augustus of France, to whom
he refused a divorce, while he declared invalid the
divorce accorded to Philip by the bishops of his king-
dom. A serious crusade was the constant ideal of
Pope Celestine; he confirmed the new military Order
of Teutonic Knights 1 1 191), and favoured greatly the
Knights Templar and the Hospitallers. St. Mafachy
of Armagh. St. Bernward of Hildesheim, St. John
Gualbert, and St. Dbaldus of Gubbio were canonized
by him. (See Henry VI.)
Baronus, Annates EccL. 1191-1198; Manbi, Cnll Cone., XXII, 593; Uffk. Reg. RR. PP.. (1SSS), II. .",77; Mefei.e- K\"ph.kk. ConcUieng., V, 755; Watterich, Vila Ponlificum (Leipzig 1X621. II. 70X-1X; Norgate. England umler the An- gevin King* (London, 1S87); Dcchesne, Liber Ponlif. (Paris, 1892), [1,451; see also the literature on Henri/ 17 in Chevalier, Bio-bihlinaraphie (Paris. 1905). 2076-7S, and the histories of the city of Rome by Von Reumont and by Gregorovius (Eng. tr.).
Thomas J. Shahan.
Celestine IV, Pope (Gofeedo Castiglioni), a native of Milan, nephew of Urban III, and probably a Cistercian: d. 10 November, 1241. He was made car- dinal by Gregory IX and succeeded him, 2.5 October,
1211, at the height of the papal warfare with Em- peror Frederick II. He died after a reign of fifteen days.
Larre am' I I one., XXIII, 1463; Akgei.ati.
171.-,', I. 1. 110; PoiTHADT, l!',l Bom
1874), I, 940.
Thomas .1. Shahak.
Celestink V. Saint. PorE (Pietro Dl Mi/krone), b. 1215, in tie- Neapolitan province of Molise; elected at Perugia •"> July, 1294; consecrated and crowned at Lquiia, 29 August; abdicated at Naples, l.'i Dec, L294; d. in tl.e castle of Fumone, 19 May. 1296. He was of humble parentage, became a Benedictine at the age of seventeen, and was eventually ordained priest at Rome. His love of solitude led him first into the wilderness of Monte Morone in the Abruzzi, whence his surname, and later into the wilder re- cesses of Mt. Majella. He took for his model the Baptist. His hair-cloth was roughened with knots; a chain of iron encompassed his emaciated frame;
he fasted every day except Sunday; each year he
kept four Lents, passing three of them on bread and
water; the entire day and a great part of the night
he consecrated to prayer and labour. As generally
happens in the case of saintly anchorites, Peter's
desire for solitude was not destined to be gratified.
Many kindred spirits gathered about him eager to
imitate his rule of life, and before his death there
were thirty-six monasteries, numbering bill) religious,
bearing his papal name (Ccelestini). The order was
approved, as a branch of the Benedictines, by
Urban IV, in 1264. This congregation of (Bene-
dictine) Celestines must not be confounded with
other (Franciscan) Celestines, extreme Spirituals
whom Pope Celestine permitted (1294) to live as
hermits according to the Rule of St. Francis, but
were pendent of the Franciscan superiors. In grati-
tude they called themselves after the pope (Pauperes
eremitw Domini Celestini), but were dissolved and
dispersed (1302) by Boniface VIII, whose legiti-
macy the Spirituals contested [Heimbucher, Orden
und Kongregationen, (2nd ed. Paderborn, 1907), I,
280; II, 360]. In 1284, Pietro. weary of the cares of
government, appointed a certain Robert as his
vicar and plunged again into the depths of the wilder-
ness. It would be well if some ( 'at holie scholar would
devote some time to a thorough investigation of his
relations to the extreme spiritual party of that age;
for though it is certain thai the pious hermit did
not approve of the heretical tenets held by the
leaders, it is equally true that the fatuities, during
his life and after his death, made copious use of his
name.
In July, 1294, his pious exercises were suddenly interrupted by a scene unparalleled in ecclesiastical history. Three eminent dignitaries, accompanied by an immense multitude of monks and laymen, ascended the mountain, announced (hat Pietro had been chosen pope by unanimous vote of the Sacred College and humbly begged him to accept the honour. Two years and three months had elapsed since the death of Nicholas IV (4 Apr., 1292) without much pros- pect that the conclave at Perugia would unite upon a candidate. Of the twelve Cardinals who composed the Sacred College six were Romans, four Italians and two French. The factious spirit of Guelph and Ghibelline, which was then epidemic in Italy, divided the conclave, as well as the city of Home, into two hostile parties of the ( trsini and the Colotma, neither of which could outvote the other. A personal visit to Perugia, in the spring of 1294, of Charles [I of Naples, who needed the papal authority in order to regain Sicily, only exasperated the affair, hot words being exchanged between the Angevin monarch and
i lardinal Gaetani, at that time the intellectual leader of the Colonna, later, as Pope Boniface VIII, their bitter enemy. When the situation seemed hopeless,
Cardinal Latino Orsini admonished the fathers that God had revealed to a saintly hermit that if the cardinals did not perform their duty within four months, He would visit the Church with severe chastisement. All knew that he referred to Pietro di Murrone. The proposition was seized upon by the exhausted conclave and the election was made
unanimous. Pietro heard of his elevation with tears;
but, after a brief prayer, obeyed what sect 1 tin'
clear voice of God, commanding him to sacrifice his personal inclination on the altar of the public wel- fare, flight Was impossible. eVeD if he colli el] I pi a ted
it; for no sooner did the news of this extraordinary event spread abroad than multitudes (numbered at 200,000) flocked about him. His elevation was pai ticularly welcome to the Spirituals, who saw in il the realization of current prophecies that the reign of the Holy Spirit ruling through the monks was at hand: and they proclaimed him the first legitimate pop. since Constantine's donation of wealth and
to pope
worldly
