CELESTINE III, POPE. – Giacinto Bobo-Orsini, born ca. 1106 into the noble Roman family that in the thirteenth century gave the Church of Rome illustrious cardinals, studied in Paris, where one of his teachers was Abelard, whose doctrines Giacinto defended at the Synod of Sens in 1140 alongside the Italian pseudo-social reformer Arnaldo da Brescia, whose bold ideas Giacinto soon abandoned. Created a cardinal in 1144 by Pope Celestine II, he always worked for peace between the Church and the Empire. During the struggle between Pope Adrian IV and Emperor Barbarossa, Giacinto and Cardinal Enrico succeeded in maintaining peace by means of a conciliatory message to the emperor, offended at Besançon, sent to him at Augsburg in 1158. After the death of Pope Adrian IV in 1159, Giacinto, as a man of peace, interceded in favor of Pope Alexander III. To avert a schism, at the age of 85 he accepted the heavy burden of supreme government of the Church in 1191, after the death of Pope Clement III.
The personality of C. has been the subject of controversy among several historians in recent times. Following the diligent research on C.’s cardinalate conducted by G. Leineweber, G. Haller examined the relations between the elderly Pope and the very young Emperor Henry VI, emphasizing especially the Pontiff’s strength of will, his firmness, and his prudence amid the great dangers threatening the Church at that time, because C. had rejected the emperor’s mild but cunning offers. C. Wenck particularly challenged these judgments of Haller, with a profound knowledge of the sources and an objective and calm interpretation. C.’s entire pontificate was dominated by tension between the Pope and the Emperor; the ninety-year-old pontiff encountered the thirty-year-old emperor in 1195, against whose policy of force he could oppose only passive resistance. Certainly, the person of Pope C. was venerable beyond measure and his authority immense when, after a cardinalate of almost 47 years, he was elevated to the See of Peter in such critical times. Numerous and distinguished witnesses speak to us of this Pope’s incorruptible probity, peaceful disposition, gentle eloquence, venerable appearance, and theological learning. Among them must be named Balderic of Trier, who in his MONTOURI, LUIGI (v.) glorified Cardinal Giacinto, whom he had seen in Trier in 1147 in the retinue of Pope Eugene III; Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury; Peter of Blois; and Henry of Clairvaux. Yet his religious and political activity has met with some criticism because of his vacillation. In 1192 he appeared hesitant before the English parties, since on one side stood the vigorous King Richard Lionheart and Archbishop Walter of Rouen, and on the other the chancellor and papal legate William Longchamp. Three years later, the papal legate was not received with the respect due to him by the French king Philip Augustus II in his shameful matrimonial affair. Against King Alfonso of León and King Sancho of Portugal he swiftly used spiritual weapons, as Hurter had already observed with regard to Norway and Hungary in his work Pope Innocent III. According to the biographer of Vita Alberto, Bishop of Liège, he should have promoted at Rome a larger party that would courageously defend the freedom of the Church, against a weak party favoring the emperor, to which he opposed only passive resistance. The information in the Annals of Marbach, that C. had been aware of the conspiracy in Apulia and Sicily against the emperor, cannot be confirmed with certainty.
Of the seven cardinals created by C., two belonged to his family, the Boboni: the cardinal deacon Niccolò of S. Maria in Cosmedin and the cardinal deacon of S. Teodoro, his nephew. In 1193 he created other distinguished men cardinals: Cencio, general financier, the future Pope Honorius III; Master Pietro of Capua; and Giovanni of S. Paolo, cardinal priest of S. Prisca, whom the Pope, at Christmas 1197, as death approached, wished to designate as his successor, but in the face of the unanimous resistance of the College of Cardinals, which on 8 January 1198 elected the youngest of all the cardinals, Lotario di Segni, Pope Innocent III.