The Mistery of Belicena Villca
That of the Colonna was a family of Roman nobles who for several centuries had a lot of weight in the Government of Rome and in the Catholic Church . They owned a series of Manors in the mountainous region that goes from Rome to Naples , so that almost all roads to southern Italy passed through their lands . In those days , there were two Colonna Cardinals : the old Jacopo , Giacomo Colonna , patron of the Order of the Spiritual Franciscans , and his nephew , Pietro Colonna . Pietro ' s older brother , Giovanni Colonna , in the same period , was Senator and Governor of Rome . It is idle to say that this family constituted a powerful Clan , which formed a party with other Lords , Knights and Bishops ; such a party was confronted , with great force , against the second important Clan , that of the Orsini , who were decidedly Guelphs and were controlled by the Golen . Both groups dominated the rest of Cardinals who were to decide in the papal election ; until then , the positions were tied , with the Colonna opting to lock all attempts of the Golen and propose , in turn , members of their own Clan .
But the Catholic Church was at that time , an organization spread across the entire Orb , possessor of thousands of Churches and vassal Manors that channeled towards Rome large sums of money and valuable merchandise ; its administration could not be adrift for long . Therefore , after two years and three months of discussions , the situation became sufficiently unsustainable to demand the election without further delay . So , seeing that no agreement was going to emerge to appoint any of the present Cardinals as Pope , it is agreed to designate a non-Cardinal . The two groups think of a front man , a weak Pope whose will can be directed in secret . And so , on July 5 , 1294 , the votes were unanimous , all opting for Pietro di Murrone , an eighty-five-yearold hermit Saint who lived in retirement in a cave in the Abruzzi .
The Spiritual Franciscans , led by Jacopo Colonna , had resumed the ancient monastic tradition inspired by the Rule of Saint Francis and in the apocalyptic vision of Gioacchino da Fiore . Thirty years earlier , Pietro was the guide of various communities of Spiritual Franciscans , but , not satisfied even with the extreme rigor of the Order , he founded his own , which would later be remembered as the " Order of the Celestinians ". However , despite Celestinian monasteries spread continuously across the region of the Abruzzi and southern Italy , Pietro had retired to a cave on Mount Murrone to dedicate himself to the contemplative life ; he was in that retreat when he had news of his appointment to the post of Pope : he doubted the convenience of accepting but was convinced by Charles II the Lame , son of Charles de Anjou , who , released from the Catalan prison , then reigned in Naples . Finally , Pietro accepted the papal investiture and took the name of Celestine V : the entire Christendom greeted with joy the enthronement of the Saint , from whom they expected to put a stop to the materialism and immorality reigning in the ecclesiastical hierarchy and open the Church to a spiritual reform . It is therefore understood that for the Colonna , and for Philip IV , that election had the flavor of triumph .
But Pietro di Murrone lacked all the instruction and knowledge necessary to administer an institution the size of the Catholic Church ; his only government experience came from leading small communities of Friars . Besides , the Saint was not interested in those worldly affairs but in questions of practical religion : the evangelization , the prayer , the salvation of the Soul . This way , he delegated to the Cardinals , and to a group of legist Bishops , the temporal questions , forming a corrupt and interested environment that in four months plunged the Church into a great economic disorder .
The Golen , of course , also hoped to control Pietro di Murrone ; they trusted above all in the King of Naples , whom Pietro professed special affection : they supposed that Charles II would not support the intrigues of his cousin Philip the Fair and would continue the Guelph policy of Charles de Anjou ; with the help from the King , it would be easy to get the Pope to sanction the measures proposed by them . And they had , in addition , a surprising secret : a Cardinal , Benedetto Gaetani , from a Ghibelline family and openly enlisted in the cause of France , was one of their own . This Golen , Doctor in Canon Law , Theologian
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