Copyright © 2012 by Jon M. Sweeney All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Image Books, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York. www.crownpublishing.com IMAGE and the Image colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Sweeney, Jon M., 1967– The Pope who quit : a true medieval tale of mystery, death, and salvation / Jon M. Sweeney.— 1st ed. Includes bibliographical references. 1. Celestine V, Pope, 1215–1296. 2. Popes—Biography. 3. Papacy—History—To 1309. I. Title. BX1252.S94 2011 282.092—dc22 [B] 2011014808 eISBN: 978-0-38553188-7 Cover design by Rebecca Lown Cover art: © Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, NY v3.1 In memory of Violet “San Romani” Grundman 1916–2010 CONTENTS Cover Title Page Copyright Dedication Time Line of Events PROLOGUE INTRODUCTION PART I WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENED 1 A LETTER THAT CHANGED JUST ABOUT EVERYTHING 2 THE BIZARRE PAPAL ELECTION OF 1292–94 3 A MOST UNLIKELY DECISION 4 SPREADING THE NEWS 5 THEY CAME TO TAKE HIM AWAY PART II PETER OF MORRONE, 1209–93 6 NOW I WILL TELL YOU OF MY LIFE 7 I BECAME A MAN WHEN I BECAME A MONK 8 A HERMIT LOVES HIS CAVE 9 THE HUNDRED-METER FAST 10 WALKING TO LYON PART III TURBULENT TIMES 11 OBSESSED WITH SALVATION 12 RIDING ON AN ASS 13 THE COLORFUL KINGS OF NAPLES AND SICILY 14 FIFTEEN DISASTROUS WEEKS 15 AWKWARDNESS IN ROBES PART IV THE PASSION AND THE PITY, 1294–96 16 I, PETER CELESTINE, AM GOING AWAY 17 THE NEW ADVENT OF FRIAR PETER 18 MURDERED BY A POPE 19 THE WORLD IS FALLING APART 20 IS SAINT ENOUGH? Notes Acknowledgments TIME LINE OF KEY EVENTS . 1209–10 Peter Angelerio is born in a small village in Molise, the most CA remote region of Italy. 1230 After spending three years as a monk at Santa Maria of Faifula, Peter leaves to become a hermit in the mountains. 1231–44 He founds a new religious order on and around Mount Morrone, in the Abruzzo region of southern Italy; this order will become known as the Celestine Hermits half a century later. . 1240– . 1290 Little is known about Peter’s daily doings for these CA CA nearly fifty years. 1281 Benedict Gaetani is made a cardinal by Pope Martin IV. A 1292 Pope Nicholas IV dies in Rome. Twelve cardinals assemble to PRIL elect the next pope. They remain stalemated for twenty-seven months. M 1294 Charles II, king of Naples, offers a list of names to the ARCH cardinals. These are rejected. J 1294 The cardinals reassemble in Perugia. Peter writes a letter of UNE apocalyptic foreboding to Latino Malabranca Orsini, dean of the Sacred College. J 5, 1294 Malabranca receives Peter’s letter and is inspired to offer up ULY the hermit’s name as the next supreme pontiff. A 29, 1294 Peter takes the angelic name Celestine V and is crowned UGUST in the basilica of Santa Maria of Collemaggio in L’Aquila.1 He remains within the Kingdom of Naples throughout his papacy at the urging of Charles II. N 1294 Celestine creates a wooden hut in the papal apartments in OVEMBER Castle Nuovo, preferring to live humbly in the midst of splendor. He attempts, but fails, to put a triad of cardinals in charge of most papal duties. D 13, 1294 Celestine abdicates with Cardinal Gaetani’s help. ECEMBER C E 1294 Gaetani is elected Pope Boniface VIII. HRISTMAS VE C 1294 Boniface VIII orders Peter Celestine found and HRISTMASTIDE imprisoned. M 19, 1296 Peter dies in Castle Fumone, near Anagni. AY . 1310–12 In his elaborate allegory of the afterlife, Dante places Peter, CA not in Hell itself, but just outside its gates. M 5, 1313 Clement V canonizes Saint Celestine V from the new papal ARCH home in Avignon, France. No man save One, since Adam, has been wholly good. Not one has been wholly bad. —FREDERICK ROLFE PROLOGUE Toward the close of the Middle Ages, in 1285, there lived three men whose lives would intersect and forever change history. Each was a man of power. Each was stubborn. Each was skilled at the life and work to which he seemed destined from birth. The most important of the three and the central figure of this book is Peter Morrone. His surname comes from the mountain that he called home for most of his life. Peter was a monk and the founder of a religious order, and depending on whom you talk to, he was also a reformer, an instigator, a prophet, a coward, a fool, and a saint. He was very much a man swept up in history, and practically overnight he would be transformed from a humble hermit into Pope Celestine V, the most powerful man in the Catholic Church. He would also become the only man in history to walk away from his job, vacating the chair of St. Peter before he died. If Peter Morrone lived today in the mountains outside of Rome or Los Angeles or New Delhi he might be a celebrity guru. From early in his life he was a man with a mountain, or montagna, and made his casa di montagna. If he’d lived in the twenty-first century, talks to his fellow monks might be smuggled out of his enclave as digital audio files, soon to be packaged and sold by a big New York concern. He would emerge every now and then to speak privately with world leaders, who would also seek him out for personal counsel and, perhaps, photo opportunities. Peter was this sort of figure in his day. But history rarely revolves around a single individual, and the story of Peter Morrone-cum-Celestine V is no exception. Although fellow monks and supporters would move in and out of Peter’s rather long life, there are two men in particular whose power and ambition would directly affect the life of this complex hermit, and, by extension, their actions would influence the world.