CELESTINE III, Pope. - Giacinto Bobo-Orsini, b. ca. 1106 from the noble Roman family that in the 13th century gave illustrious cardinals to the Church of Rome, 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 Arnold of Brescia, whose bold ideas Giacinto soon abandoned. Created cardinal in 1144 by Pope Celestine II, he always worked for peace between the Church and the Empire. In the struggle between Pope Adrian IV and the Emperor Barbarossa, Giacinto and Card. Henry managed to maintain 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 he accepted, at the age of 85, the grave burden of the supreme government of the Church, in 1191, after the death of Pope Clement III.
The personality of C. has been the subject of controversy in recent times among various historians. After the diligent research on C.'s cardinalate done by G. Leineweber, G. Haller dealt with the relations between the aged Pope and the very young emperor Henry VI, emphasizing especially the Pontiff's strength of will, his firmness and prudence in the great dangers threatening the Church of that time, because C. had rejected the bland but astute offers of the emperor. C. Wenck particularly contradicted these judgments of Haller, with a profound knowledge of the sources and an objective and calm interpretation. The whole pontificate of C. was dominated by the tension between the Pope and the Emperor; the ninety-year-old pontiff met the thirty-year-old emperor (in 1195), to whose policy of force he could simply oppose a passive resistance. Certainly the person of Pope C. was venerable beyond words and his authority very great, 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 the incorruptible probity, the peaceful disposition, the gentle eloquence, the venerable appearance, the theological learning of this Pope. Among these should be named Balderic of Trier, who in his biography of Archbishop Albero of Montreuil (v.) glorified Card. Giacinto, whom he had seen in 1147 at Trier in the retinue of Pope Eugene III; Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury; Peter of Blois; Henry of Clairvaux. But his religious-political action meets with some criticism because of his vacillation. In 1192 he appeared wavering in the face of the English parties, because there was on one side the vigorous King Richard Lionheart and Archbishop Walter of Rouen, and on the other the chancellor and pontifical legate William Longchamp. Three years later, the pontifical legate was not received with the due respect by the French king Philip Augustus II, in his ugly matrimonial affair. Against King Alfonso of León and King Sancho of Portugal he swiftly used the spiritual weapons, which, as regards Norway and Hungary, Hurter has already observed in his work Pope Innocent III. According to the biographer of Vita Albert, bishop of Liège, he should have favored at Rome a larger party that would courageously defend the liberty of the Church, against a weak party favoring the emperor, to which he opposed only a passive resistance. The report of the Annals of Marbach, that C. had been aware of the conspiracy in Apulia and Sicily against the emperor, cannot be confirmed with certainty.
Among the seven cardinals created by C. two were of his family of 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 Peter of Capua, and John of S. Paolo, cardinal priest of S. Prisca, whom the Pope, at Christmas of 1197, as death approached, wished to designate as successor, but against the unanimous resistance of the college of cardinals, which on 8 Jan. 1198 elected the youngest of all the cardinals, Lotario of Segni, Pope Innocent III.