Saint Celestine IV

Pope Celestine IV (Latin: Caelestinus IV; c. 1180/1187 − 10 November 1241), born Goffredo da Castiglione or Goffredo Castiglioni, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 25 October 1241 to his death on 10 November 1241. Born in Milan, Goffredo or Godfrey is often referred to as son of a sister of Pope Urban III, but this claim is without foundation. Nothing is known of his early life until he became chancellor of the church of Milan (perhaps as early as 1219, certainly in 1223–27). Pope Gregory IX made him a cardinal on 18 September 1227 with the diocese and benefice of San Marco, and in 1228–29 sent him as legate in Lombardy and Tuscany, where the cities and communes had generally remained true to the Hohenstaufen emperor, Frederick II. He was dispatched in an attempt to bring these territories around to the papal side, but without success. In 1238, he was made cardinal bishop of Sabina. The papal election of 1241, which elevated Celestine to the papal throne, was held under stringent conditions that hastened his death. The papal curia was disunited over the violent struggle to bring the Emperor and King of Sicily, Frederick II, to heel. One group of cardinals favored the ambitious schemes of the Gregorian Reform and aimed to humble Frederick as a papal vassal. Frederick, however, controlled as his unwilling guests in Tivoli two cardinals whom he had captured at sea, and in Rome, Cardinal Giovanni Colonna was his ally, largely because the curia was in the hands of the archenemy of the Colonna family, the senator Matteo Rosso Orsini. The latter held the consistory captive under the control of his guards in the ramshackle palace of the Septizodium, where rain leaked through the roof of their chamber, mingled with the urine of Orsini's guards on the rooftiles. One of the cardinals, the Englishman Robert of Somercotes, fell ill and died.