Pope Celestine III (1191-1198)

The dean of popes: forty-seven years a cardinal, elected at eighty-five

Before being a pontificate, Celestine III is first of all a record of curial longevity. Created cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in 1144, he kept that title for forty-seven years — one of the longest cardinal careers in history — before being raised to the Chair of Peter in his eighty-fifth year.^[14][15] None of the great affairs of the century was foreign to him: the schism, the legations to Spain, the conflicts with the Empire, the schools of Paris.

This singularity is not an anecdote. It explains both the diplomatic wisdom his best historians credit him with and the sometimes excessive caution of his government. A man of eighty-five, direct witness to half a century of struggles, had neither the energy nor the time of a young reformer; he governed as a wise old man, sparing in his thunderbolts.

The pope of marital firmness and imperial restraint

The second trait that sets him apart is a moral contrast. Where Christian marriage is concerned, Celestine III proves inflexible: he stands up to the king of France, defends a humiliated foreign queen, lays an interdict on a king of León. Where the Empire is concerned, he temporizes, retreats, negotiates, and lets Henry VI impose his law on pontifical Sicily and on England held captive through Richard.^[16][17]

Should we see in this the weakness of old age, or the calculated patience of a diplomat who knew the Church was militarily defenseless before the Hohenstaufen? The question, as we shall see, still divides historians.

The first Orsini on the Chair of Peter

Finally, Celestine III inaugurates a lineage. From the Roman family of the Bobone, he is regarded as the first pope of the Orsini stock, which would later give the Church other pontiffs and many cardinals.^[18][19] His election marks the entry of a great Roman clan into the history of the medieval papacy, at a moment when the City itself, organized as an insurgent commune, fiercely contested the temporal power of the popes.

The Roman of the Bobone, ancestors of the Orsini

Giacinto was born in Rome, around 1105-1106, into the family of the Bobone, in the district of the Arcula.^[20] This kinship is the matrix of the future Orsini, one of the two or three greatest clans of the Roman nobility. Sources are sparing about his youth; but they agree on one decisive point: this son of the urban nobility received a first-rate intellectual formation, which led him to the schools of Paris, the bubbling centre of twelfth-century theology.

The student in Paris and friend of Peter Abelard

Around 1138, Giacinto was in Paris, where he followed the teaching of the most brilliant and most contested master of his time: Peter Abelard.^[21] The New Catholic Encyclopedia presents him without qualification as “Abelard's fellow student at Paris c. 1138, and his staunch defender against St. Bernard at the Council of Sens.”^[22] This attachment to Abelard — like that of Celestine II, also a pupil of the master — would make him a man open to the restless minds of his century, without ever sharing the censured errors.

The defender of Abelard at the Council of Sens

The Council of Sens (1140 or 1141) was the great doctrinal trial of the century: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux had several propositions drawn from Abelard's writings on the Trinity and on grace condemned there. On the eve of the debate, Bernard had won over most prelates to his cause; the next day, Abelard, seeing himself already judged, refused to plead and appealed to the pope.^[23]

It is here that the young Hyacinth Bobone, then cleric of the Roman Curia and present at Sens, comes into play. Sources present him as Abelard's supporter within the Curia; the documentation gathered by Abaelard.de presents the appeal to Rome — which Geoffrey of Auxerre describes as a desperate gesture — as a deliberately prepared action, probably suggested by Hyacinth himself.^[24] Tradition even reports that the future pope opposed, at Sens, Bernard's severity toward the old master.^[25][26]

“[Hyacinth was] Abelard's fellow student at Paris c. 1138, and his staunch defender against St. Bernard at the Council of Sens.” — New Catholic Encyclopedia, “Celestine III, Pope”^[27]

Esteeming a master without sharing his errors

The point deserves the nuance called for by the Catholic compass. That the future Celestine III defended Abelard as a man and as a friend, that he judged Bernard too harsh in his procedure, in no way makes him an accomplice to the condemned theses. Saint Bernard was right on the substance of doctrine: certain propositions of Abelard concerning the Trinity and grace were genuinely erroneous, and their condemnation was confirmed by Pope Innocent II, who struck Abelard on 16 July 1141 with excommunication and perpetual silence, ordering his books to be burned.^[28]

Bernard's grievance — that Abelard would introduce into his books “profane novelties of words and senses” — situated the doctrinal stakes of Sens: in Bernard's eyes, the master promised his hearers understanding of the most sublime truths, yet hidden in the very bosom of faith.^[29]

Once pope, Hyacinth never rehabilitated the censured theses of Sens. His case illustrates a permanent distinction in the Church: one can esteem a mind, plead for gentleness in procedure and for a man's honour, without abdicating the judgment of faith. Abelard himself, reconciled with Bernard through Peter the Venerable, died at peace within the Church.

Cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin (1144)

Back in the Roman orbit, Giacinto was created cardinal-deacon of Santa Maria in Cosmedin in 1144 — either on 13 February 1144 by Celestine II, or, according to another tradition, on 22 December 1144 by Lucius II.^[30][31] He was to keep this title for forty-seven years, until his election to the sovereign pontificate.^[32] This exceptional stability made him, over the decades, one of the most experienced men in the Sacred College, witness to nine successive pontificates, from Lucius II to Clement III,^[33] and a permanent cog in pontifical diplomacy.

Legate to Spain and expert on Iberian affairs

It was in Spain that Cardinal Hyacinth acquired his European stature. He carried out two great legations there: the first around 1154-1156, the second from 1172 to 1174, marked by the preaching of the Reconquista crusade, the collection of the census owed to Rome, and the settlement of the affairs of the Christian kingdoms.^[34][35] These long and difficult missions earned him in the Curia the reputation of an unrivalled expert on Iberian affairs — an asset that would weigh in his election.

The Order of Santiago and the crusade in the Peninsula

One of the most lasting fruits of his legations was his role in the birth of the Spanish military orders. It was Cardinal Hyacinth, legate of Alexander III, who in 1171 gave its first rule to the Order of Santiago (Saint James of the Sword), before that order was recognized as a religious order by the bull of Alexander III of 5 July 1175.^[36] By supporting these knights dedicated to the defense of pilgrims and to the struggle against the Almohads, the future Celestine III placed himself within the great effort of Christendom for the Reconquista — a commitment he would continue as pope.

The death of Clement III and the conclave

When Clement III dies at the end of March 1191, the Roman situation is tense: the commune of Rome contests the pope's temporal administration of the City, and the King of the Romans Henry VI, son of Frederick Barbarossa, is already descending on Italy to have himself crowned emperor and to claim the Sicilian inheritance of his wife Constance of Hauteville. In this perilous conjuncture, the cardinals placed their choice on the oldest and most experienced among them: Giacinto Bobone, elected on 30 March 1191.^[37][38]

Far from being the mere compromise candidate he has sometimes been described as, the old cardinal brought to the throne an unparalleled diplomatic experience; recent studies see in him a true statesman, not a stopgap.^[39][40]

A deacon elected pope: ordination and consecration in two days

One canonical peculiarity struck contemporaries: upon election, Giacinto was still only a deacon. He therefore had to be advanced through all the orders in a few days. He was ordained priest on 13 April 1191, Holy Saturday, then consecrated bishop and crowned pope on 14 April, Easter Day.^[41][42] The choice of these two great liturgical dates was not accidental: it inscribed the advent of the new pontiff within the Paschal mystery, at the very moment when the Empire was knocking at the gates of Rome.

The imperial coronation of 15 April 1191

On 15 April 1191, that is the day after his own consecration, Celestine III anointed and crowned, in St Peter's Basilica, Henry VI as Holy Roman Emperor, and his wife Constance as empress.^[43][44] The act was of immense scope: it consecrated the power of the Hohenstaufen at the precise moment when Henry was preparing to unite under a single crown the Empire in the north and the Norman Kingdom of Sicily in the south — squeezing the Papal States in a pincer.

Tusculum razed: the shadow on the picture

But this coronation came at a terrible price, which remains the darkest stain on the pontificate. The Romans refused to let the solemnities proceed until the pope and the emperor had helped them satisfy their old hatred against the neighbouring city of Tusculum. The English chronicler Roger of Howden reports that the Romans begged Celestine, even before the imperial coronation, to obtain from the emperor the restitution of the town; Henry, once crowned, handed it over to the pope the next day, and the pope delivered it to the Romans on the third day: on 17 April 1191, Tusculum was razed by the pope and the Romans, with the consent of Celestine III and Henry VI, so that not one stone remained upon another.^[45][46]

That the pope let a Christian city be handed over to obtain the peace for his coronation is a painful episode that history cannot gloss over: it reveals the narrow margin of manoeuvre of a pontiff caught between the insurgent Roman commune and imperial pressure.

The Sicilian question

The coronation had settled nothing. Henry VI claimed the Kingdom of Sicily in the name of Constance, heiress of the Norman kings; yet that kingdom was a fief of the Holy See. The pope had recognized Tancred of Lecce as king; the emperor, after a first unsuccessful campaign in 1191 — during which Constance herself was for a time captured, then freed thanks to pontifical intervention^[47] — returned upon Tancred's death and conquered Sicily by force in 1194.^[48][49] Henry “denied that Sicily was a vassal of the pope” and refused to restore the full Papal States that had been promised.^[50] Celestine III, militarily powerless, could only protest.

The captivity of Richard the Lionheart

The affair that most tarnishes the old pope's reputation was the captivity of Richard I of England. On his way back from the Third Crusade, the crusader king Richard the Lionheart was captured in Austria at the end of 1192, then handed over to Henry VI, who held him prisoner for a colossal ransom.^[51][52] Yet a crusader enjoyed the protection of the Church: his person and his goods were sacred. To keep Richard captive was therefore, in canon law, a manifest sacrilege.

Celestine III excommunicated the accomplices and perpetrators of the capture, and tried to have the ransom restored; but he was slow and cautious in threatening Henry VI himself with excommunication, and ultimately did not dare to strike the emperor with anathema.^[53][54] The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the College of Cardinals opposed an open break with the emperor.^[55]

Firmness or weakness? The historians' debate

This behavior fed a severe judgment. The Catholic Encyclopedia acknowledges that the old pope's patience astonished his contemporaries, and that a younger pontiff would not have tolerated imperial arrogance for so long:

“The aged Celestine astonished many by his longanimity in dealing with the young and violent Henry VI.” — Catholic Encyclopedia, “Pope Celestine III”, 1908^[56]

Criticism is long-standing. But modern historiography corrects this image. The Encyclopædia Britannica sees less a senile weakness than a deliberate policy of moderation:

“Celestine's conciliatory and temporizing policy toward Henry was probably caused not by senile weakness... but rather by moderation and patience.” — Encyclopædia Britannica, “Celestine III”^[57]

The truth probably lies in this tension: disarmed before the military power of the Hohenstaufen, aware that excommunicating a victorious emperor could precipitate a schism or an invasion, the old pope chose to play for time rather than risk all at once. Recent research, far from reducing him to a weakling, stresses his diplomatic skill and his role as a reformer, and refuses to regard him as the mere plaything of Henry VI.^[58][59] The premature death of Henry VI, in September 1197, would moreover vindicate his patience: the Empire was to sink into crisis, leaving Innocent III a free hand.

If Celestine III yielded to force, he never yielded to kings on the ground where the medieval papacy was most unshakeable: the defense of the indissolubility of Christian marriage. There his true firmness bursts forth.

“What God has joined together, let no man separate.” — Gospel according to Saint Matthew 19:6

Ingeborg of Denmark versus Philip Augustus

The most famous case is that of Ingeborg of Denmark. In 1193, the king of France Philip II Augustus married the Danish princess, then repudiated her on the very morrow of the wedding, out of an aversion as sudden as it was inexplicable, and had a compliant annulment pronounced by obliging bishops. Ingeborg, alone and a foreigner, appealed to Rome. Celestine III took her defense and vigorously upheld the validity of the marriage, refusing the king of France the divorce he demanded.^[60][61] The struggle would continue under Innocent III, who would lay France under interdict to force Philip to take back his lawful wife — but it was Celestine III who first held the line.

Alfonso IX of León and the interdict

The same firmness in the Iberian Peninsula, which he knew so well. King Alfonso IX of León had contracted with Theresa of Portugal a union prohibited on grounds of consanguinity; Celestine III condemned it and placed León under interdict.^[62] When the same king then allied himself with the Almohad caliphate against Christian Castile, the old pope protested with the same rigour. As for Alfonso's second marriage, to Berengaria of Castile in December 1197, contracted only a few weeks before the death of Celestine III (8 January 1198): the sanctions that struck it — excommunication, interdict, then annulment in 1204 — belong to his successor Innocent III, not to Celestine III.^[63] There again, the old expert on Iberian affairs did not hesitate to bring the full rigour of canon law to bear against a king.

Four saints raised to the altars

Beyond high politics, Celestine III also exercised the ordinary pastoral office of the pope. He is credited with four solemn canonizations:^[64][65]

These choices sketch a portrait of the model of holiness honoured by the papacy at the end of the twelfth century: pastoral bishops and reforming abbots, men of order and prayer, guarantors of ecclesiastical discipline after the great quarrels. The canonization of John Gualbert, founder of the congregation of Vallombrosa, honoured in particular the monastic reform impulse and the struggle against simony that had marked the previous century.

The protection of the military orders

Faithful to the spirit of his Spanish legations, Celestine III supported the military orders born in the age of the crusades. On 21 December 1196, he issued a bull taking the order under his protection and ranking the hospital of Acre among the possessions of the German hospital^[66], a young German hospitaller order from the Holy Land. He likewise favoured the great orders of the crusade and the Reconquista — Temple, Hospital, Santiago — continuing the role he had played, as cardinal-legate, in the birth of the Spanish knighthoods.^[67][68] Under his pontificate, the Church thus confirms its patronage of the monk-soldiers dedicated to the defense of pilgrims and of Christian frontiers.

The crusade and the Empire's delay

The old pope did not forget the Holy Land. He encouraged the German crusade led by Henry VI in 1195-1197, hoping both to serve Jerusalem and to divert the emperor's conquering energy toward the East.^[69] The expedition was cut short by Henry VI's sudden death in September 1197; but it shows a Celestine III concerned to the last with the great cause of his time, the deliverance of the Holy Places.

The rejected abdication plan

The final episode is one of the most singular in pontifical history. Feeling death approaching, and aware of the dangers posed by the Empire, the very old Celestine III proposed to renounce the pontificate to allow the immediate election of his successor — he wished to see Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, a Benedictine, chosen. The cardinals forbade him to do so, refusing both the abdication and the imposed designation of a successor.^[70][71]

The gesture is rich in teaching: it attests that as early as the twelfth century, the idea of a papal resignation was conceivable and discussed — well before the famous case of Celestine V in 1294, and even more so of Benedict XVI in 2013. But it also shows the resistance of the Sacred College to any attempt by a pope to pre-empt the choice of his successor: the freedom of the election had to remain intact.

Death and the succession of Innocent III

Celestine III died in Rome on 8 January 1198, at about ninety-two years old, and was buried in the Lateran Basilica.^[72][73] On the same day, or almost, the cardinals elected the young and fiery Lothar of Segni, who took the name Innocent III. The contrast was striking: the patience of a ninety-two-year-old old man was succeeded by the energy of a thirty-seven-year-old man, under whom the medieval papacy would reach its apex. Many conflicts left pending by Celestine — Ingeborg, Sicily, the Papal States — would be taken up and brought to completion by his formidable successor.

The reign of Celestine III condenses the tensions of the papacy on the eve of its apogee. It shows first a militarily vulnerable Church: faced with the Hohenstaufen uniting Empire and Sicily, the Holy See has only the spiritual weapon left, and an aged pope hesitates to brandish it against a victorious emperor. It then shows the fragility of Rome itself, where the insurgent commune imposes on the pope, as the price of a coronation, the sack of Tusculum.

But it also reveals a doctrinal constancy that never wavered. On marriage, Celestine III stands up to Philip Augustus as to Alfonso IX, defends the repudiated queen and the indissolubility of the bond, preparing the ground for Innocent III. On faith, the old friend of Abelard never touched the sentence of Sens. And his abdication plan, refused by the cardinals, recalls that the pontifical charge, however heavy, is not transmitted like a private inheritance.

It finally reveals a spiritual truth that Ignispedia is pleased to highlight: the value of a pastor is not measured by the brilliance of his temporal victories. “There are varieties of ministries, but the same Lord” (1 Cor 12:5). Old Celestine, who governed the Church at an age when most fall silent, was neither a great conqueror nor a great legislator; but he kept the faith, defended the weak against the powerful on the ground of marriage, and held the helm in the storm until relief came. “I have kept the faith” (2 Tim 4:7): this word of the Apostle could sum up the discreet merit of a pontificate without dazzling glory, but without betrayal.

The solid core of this pontificate is firm and consistent: Giacinto Bobone, a cardinal for forty-seven years, was elected a very old pope in 1191, crowned Henry VI, let Tusculum be razed, defended the laws of marriage against Philip Augustus and Alfonso IX, temporized before the Empire in the affair of Richard the Lionheart, canonized four saints, wished to abdicate and died on 8 January 1198, succeeded by Innocent III. These facts are attested by the reference works — Catholic Encyclopedia, New Catholic Encyclopedia, Encyclopædia Britannica — and by cardinal prosopographies.^{[74][75][76][77]}

A few points remain disputed, especially for his youth and dates. The table below summarizes the main divergences between sources.

The great modern scholarly synthesis is the collective volume John Doran and Damian J. Smith (eds.), Pope Celestine III (1191-1198): Diplomat and Pastor (Ashgate, 2008), whose opening chapter by Anne Duggan, “Hyacinth Bobone: Diplomat and Pope”, renews the image of a long-underestimated pontiff.^[78][79] For the acts, the bull subscriptions collected by prosopographies (Catholic-Hierarchy) provide the most reliable chronological framework.^[80]

• Pope Clement III — immediate predecessor, who restored peace between the papacy and the commune of Rome.
• Pope Innocent III — successor, under whom the medieval papacy reaches its apogee; he takes up matters left pending (Ingeborg, Sicily).
• Pope Celestine II (1143-1144) — another pupil of Peter Abelard to reach the throne, not to be confused with Celestine III.
• Pope Saint Celestine I (422-432) — first pope of this name, judge of the Nestorian crisis.
• Saint Celestine V (1215-1296) — the pope of the great resignation of 1294, a gesture foreshadowed by Celestine III in 1198.
• The Council of Ephesus (431) — council presided over by the legates of Pope Celestine I, to situate the series of Popes Celestine.