Pope Celestine III

Celestine III
Papacy began 21 March 1191
Papacy ended 8 January 1198
Predecessor Clement III
Successor Innocent III
Personal details
Birth name Giacinto Bobone
Born ca. 1106
Rome, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire
Died 8 January 1198(1198-01-08)
Rome, Papal States, Holy Roman Empire
Other Popes named Celestine

Pope Celestine III (ca. 1106 – 8 January 1198), born Giacinto Bobone,[1] was elected Pope on 21 March 1191 and reigned until his death. He was born into the noble Orsini family in Rome, though he was only a cardinal deacon before becoming Pope.[2] He was ordained a priest on 13 April 1191, ruled the church six years, nine months, and nine days before he died on 8 January 1198. He was buried at the Lateran.

Contents

Cardinal

Considered by the Curia as an expert on Spain, Giacinto conducted two legatine missions to Spain in (1154–55) and (1172–75) as Cardinal Deacon of St.Maria at Cosmedin.[3]

Pope

He crowned the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI on the day after his election in 1191 with a ceremony symbolizing his absolute supremacy, as described by Roger of Hoveden. He subsequently excommunicated the same Henry VI for wrongfully keeping King Richard I of England in prison.[4] He placed Pisa under an interdict, which was lifted by his successor Innocent III in 1198.[5] He condemned King Alfonso IX of León for his marriage to Teresa of Portugal on the grounds of consanguinity. Then, in 1196, he excommunicated Alfonso IX for making peace with the Muslims while making war on Castile. Following the marriage between Alfonso and Berenguela of Castile, Celestine excommunicated Alfonso and placed an interdict over León.[6]

In 1198, he confirmed the statutes of the Teutonic Knights as a military order.[7]

He would have resigned the papacy and recommended a successor (Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, OSB) shortly before his death, but was not allowed to do so by the cardinals.

Notes

  1. ^ The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol.1, Ed. David Luscombe, Jonathan Riley-Smith, (Cambridge University Press, 2004), 417.
  2. ^ The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol.1, 417
  3. ^ The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol.1, 417–418.
  4. ^ Sikes, Thomas Burr, History of the Christian Church, from the first to the fifteenth century, (Eliott Stock, 1885), 187.
  5. ^ Clarke, Peter D., The interdict in the thirteenth century: a question of collective guilt, (Oxford University Press, 2007), 118.
  6. ^ Moore, John Clare, Pope Innocent III (1160/61–1216): to root up and to plant, (Brill Publishers, 2003), 70–71.
  7. ^ Urban, William, The Teutonic Knights, (Greenhill Books, 2003), 12–13.

References

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Preceded by
Clement III		 Pope
1191–98		 Succeeded by
Innocent III
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initial text from the 9th edition (1876) of an old encyclopedia