and this was granted in 1263 or 1264 by Pope Urban IV,
who incorporated the Celestines into the order of Saint
Benedict. To ensure the stability of the new congrega-
tion, Pietro went to Lyon and obtained a confi rmation
from Pope Gregory X in 1275.
By the 1290s, Pietro had founded or effectively
controlled dozens of monasteries, mainly in the central
part of the Italian peninsula. In 1293 he established the
seat of the order at the new abbey of Santo Spirito del
Morrone, near Sulmona; he himself lived in a hermitage
on a mountainside overlooking the monastery.
This move occurred during an interregnum follow-
ing the death of Pope Nicholas IV (4 April 1292) when
the cardinals, divided between the Orsini and Colonna
factions, could not agree on a new pope. Charles II of
Anjou and others exerted pressure to help break the
impasse, and on 5 July 1294, in Perugia, Pietro—by then
an octogenarian—was unexpectedly and unanimously
elected pope. Although Pietro was known to some
important clerics and secular leaders, he was probably
selected not for his qualities or potential qualities as a
leader but rather as a compromise candidate whose reign
was not expected to be long.
Pietro was crowned Pope Celestine V in L’Aquila, the
main city of Abruzzo, on 29 August 1294; he established
an unusual indulgence that granted complete absolution
to those who visited, under certain conditions, the church
where he was crowned. Celestine appointed twelve
new cardinals, gave the Franciscan Spirituals protec-
tion within the Pauperes Eremite Domini Celestini,
and granted many favors to his monastic congregation;
but it soon became apparent that he had little talent or
inclination for his new tasks. When the Curia moved to
Naples in November, Celestine considered renouncing
the papacy and returning to his life as a hermit; he did so
on 13 December 1294, after consultations with Cardinal
Benedetto Caetani—who was elected Pope Boniface
VIII eleven days later. Boniface, fearing that Pietro
(as Celestine was now called again) might retract the
abdication, sent emissaries to bring Pietro to him. Pietro
was arrested trying to fl ee to Greece and was brought
to Fumone, where he was confi ned until he died on 19
May 1296. Under pressure from the French king Philip
the Fair, Pope Clement V canonized Pietro on 5 May
1313 in Avignon.
Celestine has been identifi ed with Dante’s colui
che fece per viltade il gran rifi uto, “the one who made
through cowardice the great refusal” (Inferno 3.59–60),
but it is not certain that this was Dante’s intention.
See also Boniface VIII, Pope; Clement V, Pope; Dante
Alighieri
Further Reading
Analecta Bollandiana, 16, 1897, pp. 365–487.
Frugoni, Arsenio. Celestiniana. Studi Storici, 6–7. Rome: Istituto
Storico Italiano per il Medio Evo, 1954. (Reprint, 1991.)
Herde, Peter. Cölestin V. ( 1294 ) (Peter vom Morrone), der Engel-
papst. Päpste und Papsttum, 16. Stuttgart: Anton Hiersemann,
1981.
——. “Celestine V.” In The Papacy: An Encyclopedia, ed.
Philippe Levallain. New York: Routledge, 2002, Vol. 1, pp.
279–283.
Seppelt, Franz Xaver. Monumenta Coelestiniana: Quellen zur
Geschichte des Papstes Coelestin V. Quellen und Forschun-
gen aus dem Gebiete der Geschichte. Paderborn: Ferdinand
Schoningh, 1921.
George FerzocoCHARLEMAGNE (747–814)
Charles the Great (magnus, whence the French “Char-
lemagne”), King of the Franks (768–814) and emperor
of the West (800–814) was born in 747 to Pippin (Pépin)
III and his wife, Bertha, daughter of the powerful Count
Caribert of Laon. Pippin, mayor of the palace of the
Franks, named his son after his own father, the redoubt-
able Charles Martel (d. 742). In 751 when Charles was
still a boy, Pippin became king after deposing Childeric
III (743–751), the last member of the Merovingian dy-
nasty established by Clovis (481–511). The legitimacy
of the new dynasty was bolstered when Pope Stephen
II (also III, 752–757) came to Francia to bless Bertrada
(Bertha) and in the name of Saint Peter anoint Pippin
and his sons Charles and Carloman as “patricians of
the Romans.” The pope forbade the Franks from choos-
ing anyone as king other than a Carolingian (from the
Latin Carolus, Charles). This dynastic change and the
relationship binding the political and military power
of the Carolingian family to the spiritual power of the
papacy were revolutionary events. Pippin III proved to
be a resourceful and energetic king whose conquest of
Aquitaine, two successful expeditions against the Lom-
bards, and promotion of religious reform demonstrated
the potential and direction of the new dynasty.
During his long reign Charles more fully realized and
amplifi ed Pippin’s initiatives. So spectacular was his
achievement that his posthumous reputation assumed
legendary proportions. Einhard (ca. 770–840), who grew
up at Charles’s court, in his valuable Life of Charles bor-
rowed language from Suetonius’s Lives of the Caesars
(second-century c.e.) to add rhetorical luster appropriate
to his subject. In later centuries crusading and romance
legends inspired by Charles’s memory enriched medi-
eval vernacular literature. In the twentieth century his
memory served to advance the prospects of a united
Europe. Since 1949, the citizens of Aachen, Germany,
have annually awarded the International Charlemagne
Prize (Karl-pries) to individuals whose activities further
“the creation of a United States of Europe.” In his own
time, Charles grappled with the implications of a new
style of kingship, faced the challenges of conquest,CELESTINE V, POPE