Note 74 — Chapter XII · THE RENAISSANCE

As a matter of fact, Celestine V. hardly deserves this sentence. It was not cowardice but native humility, the consciousness of the temptations of power, physical weakness, and the hermit’s longing for tranquillity that impelled the Pope to resign after five months and eight days’ pontificate. Commentators had hitherto agreed in applying the above passage to Celestine V., but recent opinion rejects the traditional interpretation. However that may be, the point which concerns us is that Dante censures a pope.