Here's a pic of Celestine's skull.
Saturday, October 21, 2017
Boniface vs. Celestine: A Murder Mystery?
As we talked about, Pope Celestine V resigned five months after becoming the pope due to "deficiencies of physical strength" and a "longing for the tranquility of the former life", and Pope Boniface VIII succeeded him. Boniface wasn't the nicest guy...by any means. In fact, he believed that the Pope had ultimate authority and even released a decree that said "every human creature is subject to the Roman pontiff." Humble. He did all kinds of crazy things like sending mercenaries to destroy castles and taking land away from families. Up there with his crazy stunts is probably his wild goose chase to imprison his predecessor, Celestine. Boniface thought issues would arise if there were two popes so he declared that Celestine be captured. Celestine heard about this and was able to escape imprisonment for 9 months before finally getting caught. He eventually died less than a year later in the castle he was held in. Throughout history, people have speculated that perhaps Boniface himself killed Celestine. Even more interesting is that Celestine's skull has a deep hole in it due to blunt force trauma, possibly from a nail lodged into his head. This long debate was put to rest a few years ago when a doctor took a look at Celestine's skill and declared that the hole in his skull was created postmortem, probably during one of his reburials. So, no, Celestine was not killed by a sharp nail to the skull, the conspiracy regarding his death (a murder?) is still very much alive.
Here's a pic of Celestine's skull.
Here's a pic of Celestine's skull.
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1 comment:
It's always helpful to know the historical background behind literary pieces. That decree you mentioned was released in 1302 and was called the Unam Sanctam. As you said, Boniface VIII was basically telling everyone that there was no salvation outside of the Church, and that everyone was subject to the Roman pontiff. Part of the reason he released the decree was that Edward I of England and Philip the Fair of France were putting heavy taxes on the clergy in the 1290s. After Boniface's stunt, and because of a few more continued feuds between the two, Philip the Fair attacked him, Boniface excommunicated Philip, Philip arrested Boniface, and Boniface subsequently died a month later after being released (and also severely beaten). The College of Cardinals then elected a new pope who was supposed to be subservient to Philip at resided in France at Avignon. This led to a period known as the Babylonian Captivity (of the Papacy) (think Clement V), during which the popes didn't reside in Rome any longer, lost much of their prestige, and were mostly regarded as "tools" of France.
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