SEDE VACANTE

Celestine V was crowned in the city of Aquila in the Church of Santa Maria di Colle Maggio on the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (August 29).
It was expected that the Pope would return immediately to Rome, but Charles II, King of Naples, influenced Celestine to take up residence in his kingdom. According to the Anonymous of Paris ms. 5375, et sic de mense octobri tota curia romana iter arripuit Neapolitanum. The Pope took up residence in Naples (November 5, 1294), where he lived in the Castel Nuovo.
It became apparent immediately upon Celestine assuming the papal tiara that the job was wrong for the man, and the man was wrong for the job. Cardinals began to complain, and (in Ptolemy's words) stimulatur ab aliquibus Cardinalibus, quod papatu cedat. Celestine longed to return to his solitary life, and actually had a facsimile of his hut on Monte Morrone built in the papal apartments of the Castel Nuovo in Naples. He summoned advisors and legal experts, and asked for opinions as to whether he could resign the Papacy. They provided him with examples of earlier pontiffs who had resigned.

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