Biography - Pope Celestine IV - The Papal Library
Celestine IV1241 Geoffrey Castiglioni Celestine IV, originally Geoffrey Castiglioni, canon and chancellor of Milan, his native city, was created cardinal-priest of Saint Mark and Bishop of Sabina by Gregory IX. That pontiff named him legate a latere in Tuscany, in Lombardy, and then to the Emperor Frederic II, when he was at Monte Cassino. Celestine was elected pope at the place called Sette Soli, by only ten cardinals. The senator and princes of Rome had confined them there, that the election might be the more speedy. Weakened by age and by grief, he survived his election only seventeen days, had not time to publish a single bull, and died on the 5th of October, 1241, unconsecrated. He was interred in the Vatican. The Holy See remained vacant one year, eight months, and seventeen days. The cardinals were dispersed, and Frederic kept most of them in prison. This biographical data is from The Lives and Times of the Popes by The Chevalier Artaud De Montor. Published by The Catholic Publication Society of New York in ten volumes in 1911. The pictures, included in the volumes, were reproduced from Effigies Pontificum Romanorum Dominici Basae.