The Rise and Fall of Celestine V

Berenger Saunière, the central figure in the mystery of Rennes-le-Chateau, supposedly obtained copies of three paintings in Paris in 1892. The first two paintings, by Nicolas Poussin and David Teniers the Younger, respectively, have been analyzed in many books and online sites.

 

The third painting Sauniere copied was a Portrait of Pope Celestine V, by an unknown artist. In The Tomb of God, Andrews and Schellenberger finally identified such a painting by an anonymous artist in the records of the Louvre. They were surprised to find this portrait. The story of Pope Celestine V is one of the shortest and most pathetic in the history of the Popes, and they wondered which famous artist would have gone to the time and effort to paint his portrait.

In most cases the analysis of these paintings has focused on geometrical shapes and proportions in the paintings. However it's possible that the characters in the paintings, and the story the paintings tell, are just as important as the geometry.

So who exactly was Pope Celestine V and why might Sauniere have been interested in him?

Born around 1215 CE and raised in humble surroundings, Pietro di Murrone became a Benedictine monk at age 17 and eventually entered the priesthood. He loved the solitude of wild places and became a hermit in the wilderness of Monte Murone and later Monte Majella in Italy.

 

He strove to emulate the simple spiritual life of John the Baptist. He sought inconvenience and discomfort, believing that suffering brings one closer to God, and his self-destructive acts were legendary.

 

Other monks were drawn to Pietro and wanted to emulate his ascetic practices. In fact, the more he tried to retreat, the simpler he tried to make his life, the more people sought him out for his wisdom. A religious community formed around him at Mount Majella, and in 1264 this community was recognized as a new order by Pope Urban IV. The order eventually grew to include 36 monasteries housing over 600 monks, under the Superior-generalship of humble Pietro of Murone. The order was later to be name the Order of the Celestine Monks.

 

In 1292, after the death of Pope Nicholas IV, the cardinals met to elect a new pope and reached a stalemate. At that time the officers of the Church were as much political as they were spiritual, and the cardinals were split into two polarized factions, each one aligned with a powerful (Italian) dynasty. The Church was without a Pope for more than two years while each faction blocked the nominees of the other.

 

In the midst of the stalemate Cardinal Orsini announced that the pious hermit Pietro di Murrone had sent a letter prophesizing that if a new pope was not chosen soon then God would severely punish the Church.

 

Pietro's humility and piety were renowned. Perhaps in desperation, one of the cardinals nominated Pietro himself as the next Pope and rest of the conclave quickly approved .

 

Pietro di Murrone didn't learn of his new position of power until two cardinals made the pilgrimage to Monte Majella to inform him. Naturally he refused the honor. He was over 80 years old and he had no desire to leave his beloved wilderness. In fact Pietro tried to flee so he wouldn't have to assume the office:

 

"He was indeed alarmed beyond measure at the news; and finding all the reasons he could allege for his declining the charge ineffectual, betook himself to flight in company with Robert, one of his monks, but was intercepted. He would gladly have engaged Robert still to attend him, but the good monk excused himself by an answer worthy of a disciple of the saint: 'Compel me not,' says he, 'to throw myself upon your thorns. I am the companion of your flight, not of your exaltation.' " 1

 

The cardinals pressed him to accept, and over the next few weeks important people -- including two Kings -- trekked to his doorstep to convince him to accept.

 

Finally Pietro relented. King Charles V of Naples urged him to come to the city of Aquila, in the kingdom of Naples, to be crowned. Pietro traveled from his mountain hermitage to Aquila with an entourage of Kings and Princes, Cardinals and Bishops. He rode donkeyback amidst royal carriages, knights and chargers. He was consecrated and crowned Pope Celestine V in the cathedral at Aquila on July 5, 1294.

 

The Cardinals and the Kings must have thought that the naïve hermit would be an easy puppet, but they probably didn't think he'd crumble as quickly as he did. Spiritual strength alone could not see Pietro through the challenges of a running politically-charged enterprise like the Church.

 

He still yearned for a hermit's life. He had a small cell built from wood planks within the palace so he'd have a simple place of refuge among the finery.

 

As the Catholic Encyclopedia says, "It is wonderful how many serious mistakes the simple old man crowded into five short months." 2 His first misstep was following King Charles to Naples. That made him seem like a tool of the King. It turned most of the Cardinals in Rome against him.

 

Within weeks of assuming the office of Pope, Celestine V was ready to abdicate. However such an act was unprecedented. Some cardinals implored him to stay while others tried hard to convince him to leave. By some accounts trickery was used:

 

"The ambitious Cardinal Gaetani is said to have aroused his superstitious terror at nights by the blowing of trumpets and by mysterious spirit-voices, as though heaven itself were bidding him resign an office for which he had proved himself unworthy."3

 

At last Celestine V awoke to the fact that as Pope he could influence changes in Church law. He put forward a rule that would allow Popes to abdicate. Debate on the rule was lengthy, and turned on the fact that as the supreme authority in God's Church on Earth, who could a Pope that wanted to step down turn to for approval? Eventually the rule was approved by none other than Cardinal Gaetani, based on the fact that as the supreme Earthly authority the Pope should be able to decide for himself.

 

Celestine V quickly decided for himself and abdicated.

 

The Cardinals reconvened and elected Cardinal Gaetani as the new Pope. He took the name Boniface VIII. One of Boniface's VIII's first acts was to send guards after Pietro di Murrone, who was still in transit back to his home. The new Pope feared that his enemies could oppose him with Pietro di Murrone's help, challenging Pope Boniface VIII's legitimacy.

 

Details are thin, but it appears that the 80-year-old ex-Pope was a hard man to capture and hold. He repeatedly eluded his pursuit, hiding from the guards for weeks in the wilderness. Eventually they captured him:

 

"Twice the old man was arrested and detained by the Pope's agents. Twice he escaped from his captors, but his second escape, a flight by sea, was thwarted by a shipwreck. Recaptured on the Italian coast, Morrone was imprisoned in a dank, narrow cell in the fortress of Fumone at Ferrentino, where he died miserably after ten months of suffering." 4

 

Though the guards abused and insulted Pietro during his captivity, he endured it with stoicism and grace:

 

"He sent word to Boniface, by two cardinals who came to see him, that he was content with his condition, and desired no other. He used to say, with wonderful tranquillity: 'I desired nothing in the world but a cell; and a cell they have given me.' " 5

 

His piety served him well at the end. Still, his is a tragic story of the destruction of a purely spiritual individual by the political machine of the Church.

 

What is the significance of the story of Celestine V to the mystery at Rennes, or to the Maranatha puzzle? A few possibilities emerge:

• He was sainted in 1313 by Pope Clement V.
• He might represent a purely spiritual hermitic (hermetic?) path within the Catholic Church.
• He is said to have commended and favored the Knights Hospitallers.
• He is mentioned in Dante's Inferno when the Prince of the Pharisees says,
  
  "I can open and close Heaven as you know, with the two Keys, that my predecessor, Celestine, did not prize." 6

Two Keys, eh? More on that to come.

__________

Footnotes:

 

1. Butler, Rev. Alban, The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (1864)
2. Loughlin, James F., The Catholic Encyclopedia, "Pope St. Celestine V"
3. Gregorovius, Ferdinand and Seton-Watson, R. W., The Tombs of the Popes (Westminster, 1903), p. 57
4. Rubinstein, Richard, Aristotle's Children (New York: 2003), p. 241
5. Butler, Rev. Alban, The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints (1864)
6. Dante, The Inferno, "Canto XXVII:58-136 Guido’s history"