Pope Benedict XVI announced his resignation today. The news stories all remark on the unusual nature of his decision: Benedict will be the first pope since Celestine V to resign voluntarily, for his own reasons -- as opposed to resignation as part of a brokered deal to end a schism.
"Celestine V" doesn't trip off my tongue as a household name, despite my one-time study of medieval history. So I looked him up.
Pietro of Morrone was a thirteenth century monk and hermit. Following the death of Pope Nicholas IV in 1292, the College of Cardinals appeared to be in no rush to choose a successor. In fact, after two years, the Holy See still remained vacant, the cardinals unable to choose between favorites of competing Italian families.
Actually, it was a small college. Only eleven cardinals were entitled to vote. (At present, 118 of the 209 cardinals are entitled to vote for a new pope, under rules adopted in 1970 that require a voting cardinal to be under the age of 80.) It was the last time that the cardinals were allowed to roam about freely before a pope was elected. Since that time, they've been kept locked up in a "papal conclave" (cum clave = "with a key") in the Vatican until they reach a decision. In subsequent conclaves, strict rules were enforced, limiting the amount of food permitted the cardinals after a reasonable time had passed without a new pope being chosen.
Pietro, already well known for his sanctity, lost his patience after two years. He sent the eleven cardinals a letter warning them of divine vengeance if they didn't get their act together. The cardinals responded by unanimously choosing Pietro himself as the new pope. Clearly appalled by this unexpected development, Pietro tried to resist his election, even fleeing physically. Finally, however, he was persuaded to accept the office. He was coronated in 1294, taking "Celestine V" as his name.
The papacy at the time was a political force, contending with competing secular powers and suffering from influence from within by corrupt Italian families. Celestine, famed for a holy life as a hermit, had neither the skill nor the stomach to manage the worldly affairs of the Church as it then existed. He abdicated after serving as pope for a mere five months, stating his reasons as "the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience, the deficiencies of his own physical strength, his ignorance, the perverseness of the people, his longing for the tranquility of his former life."
Who could blame him?
His successor, Boniface VIII, having encouraged Clementine in his decision to abdicate, had Pietro (né Clementine) seized and imprisoned as soon as he had assumed Pietro's former office. The former pope spent ten months in captivity until he died. His death has been attributed to "infected air," but some historians believe he was murdered on orders from Boniface.
As a consolation prize, I suppose -- although actually as a result of political pressure from French forces who had opposed the by-then-deceased Boniface VIII -- Celestine V was canonized in 1313 by Pope Clement V.
Unlike Celestine V, Benedict XVI did not simply throw up his hands and withdraw from an uncongenially active life. Benedict has served to the best of his abilities, and by his own lights, in an office for which his temperament -- that of a scholar -- may not have particularly suited him. He is resigning now, only when the frailities of old age are catching up with him. Luckily, we live in a more civil age than that in which the hermit Pietro found himself. We can rest confident that Benedict will be neither imprisoned nor done away with by his successor.
Instead, as do most of us, I wish him peace and enjoyment in his studies throughout his remaining years.
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