THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Celestine V. (Pietro di Murrhone): Pope 1294. He was born about 1215 in the Abruzzi; d. at Fumone, near Anagni, May 19, 1296. At twenty he entered the Benedictine order, and lived for years in retirement first on the Murrhone, then on the Majella, where numerous followers gathered around him (see Celestines). After the death of Nicholas IV (Apr. 4, 1292), dissensions among the cardinals hindered an election, until in March, 1294, Charles II. of Naples, who needed a pope to support his designs on Sicily, took up the matter. Since there was no hope of agreeing on a cardinal, Latinus, the head of the Angevin party in the sacred college, drew his attention to the hermit of the Abruzzi, whose sanctity was universally revered; and Pietro was elected on July 5. His unfitness for high affairs of state was equally well known; the various leaders hoped to rule through him. But the remarkable choice can only be fully explained by a study of the mystical reform movement represented by Joachim of Fiore (q. v.), which had spread so widely among a section of the Franciscan order. Their prominent men favored the election of Pietro enthusiastically, flocked to his coronation, and renewed their old relations with him by a formal embassy. The new pope sanctioned their observance of the rule of the order in its strictest form, and took them under his special protection, allowing them to be known by the name which he had assumed as pope. Meantime Charles was preparing to use his candidate for his own purposes; he surrounded him with Sicilian counselors, and brought him to Aquila, where he had him crowned in the presence of only three cardinals. The king's influence, however, finally induced the others to appear one by one, the last being Benedetto Gaetani, Celestine's successor as Boniface VIII., and the coronation ceremony was repeated. Celestine's whole interest was given to the promotion of monasticism; in other things he was merely a tool in the hands of Charles, who got him to create twelve Angevin cardinals, confirm his treaty with Aragon, and supply large sums of money for the Sicilian war. The strict regulation of Gregory X. for the conclave was reenacted, that Charles might have the next election also securely in his hands, and in October the curia was removed to Naples. Both the cardinals and the pope were discontented with the state of affairs, and the latter began to think of abdication, that he might be able to give himself once more wholly to his ascetic practises. The tiling was without precedent, and offered great constitutional difficulties, which, when Celestine's resolve was seen to be fixed, were as far as possible removed by the legal wisdom of Gaetani, and the abdication took place on Dec. 13. While Dante speaks scornfully of the pope '• who made the great refusal," others lauded the act highly — Petrarch among them, who regarded it as an example of humility entitling the poor hermit to rank above the apostles and many other saints. Gaetani was later accused of having brought about the abdication by guile in order to secure his own advancement. The charge is not justified, but he undoubtedly had his eye on the tiara in view. After lie had attained it, he wished to keep his prede-
cessor with him in Rome, lest he should be used as a tool by the opposition; but the ascetic fled, and was finally taken and imprisoned in the mountain castle of Fumone, where he died the next year. He was canonized by Clement V.
(Hans Schulz.)
Bibliography: The older documents are collected in ASB, May, iv. 419-498, cf. Muratori, Scriptores, III. i. 613-641. Consult: A. Potthast, Regesta pontificum Romanorum., ii. 1915-22, Berlin, 1875; Don Josaphet, Der heilige Papst Coelestin V., Fulda, 1894; F. Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Rom, v. 490 sqq., Stuttgart, 1892, Eng. transl., v. 523-534, London, 1898; Bower, Popes, iii. 40-43.
CELESTINES: A name borne by two monastic societies which owe their origin to Pope Celestine V. (q.v.). (1) The Benedictine Celestines, known also as Moronites and Murrhonites, were originally composed of men who were members of the Benedictine order, but lived as hermits on Monte Majella in the Abruzzi from about 1258, under the guidance of the future pope Celestine, who gave them a severer rule and obtained papal confirmation for the congregation from Urban IV., probably in 1264, though the alleged bull of this year, as well as another of Gregory X. from 1274, is of doubtful genuineness. The early history of the congregation is, in fact, frequently open to critical objection; as, for example, the statement that it already had sixteen houses in 1274, when its founder is said to have gone to the general council at Lyons and attracted great attention as a wonder-worker. After about 1290, the mother house seems to have been at Monte Murrhone near Sulmona. On the founder's elevation to the papacy in 1294, he attempted by rich grants of indulgences and other privileges to give it a commanding position in the Benedictine monastic family; indeed, he aspired to reform the mother house of the whole order at Monte Cassino on the principles of his congregation. But the brevity of his pontificate prevented the execution of his plans. The congregation, however, continued to grow, until in Italy it had at the beginning of the eighteenth century ninety-six houses. Its rule, which in some points, especially as to fasting, surpasses the original Benedictine rule in strictness, was revised by Urban VIII. in 1629. The French province never got beyond twenty-one houses. In Bohemia and Lusatia the congregation had some famous seats, as at Prague, Konigstein, and Oybin near Zittau, the last of which was founded by Charles IV. in 1366 and suppressed in the sixteenth century. — (2) The Franciscan Celestines (Poveri eremiti di Celestino), called also Fraticelli, were a congregation within the Franciscan order, founded in 1294, on an impulse given by Celestine V., by two of the " spiritual " sections of the order, Pietro da Macerato (Liberato) and Pietro da Fossombrone (Angelo Claremo, d. 1357). It existed down to about 1340 in nearly all its original strength as a congregation of the Minorites. See Francis, Saint, of Assisi, and the Franciscan Order.
(O. ZocklerI".)
Bibliography: For (1) llelyot, Ordres monastiques, v. 51 xqq., vi. 180-191; Heimbucher, Ordenund Kuntiregationen, i. 134-136 (gives the later literature); Currier, Religiou* Orders, p. 147; KL, iii. C82-5S4. For (2) Felice Tocco,