Cardinals asked hermit to become pope

The hermit was appalled by the appointment. “Who am I to take up such a heavy
burden, so much power?” he said. “I cannot save myself, how can I save the
whole world?”

Despite deep misgivings, he reluctantly agreed to travel to Perugia, Umbria,
where he was crowned Celestine V.

But he hated the role so much that he abdicated after just five months and
nine days.

He remains the only Pope in history to step down from the office voluntarily.

Things went from bad to worse for ex-pontiff – he was locked up by his
successor, Pope Boniface VIII, and died in 1296.

The holy man’s selection as the next Pope was part of murky machinations by
Charles II of Anjou to regain Sicily from the Aragonese – for which he
needed a compliant pontiff.

It was also influenced by a vision experienced by a powerful Vatican cardinal.

Del Morrone’s decision to abdicate was scathingly referred to by Dante in his
Inferno, in the lines “I saw and I knew the soul of him, who cowardly made
the great refusal.”

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