Unlike kings or emperors, whose tenuous regimes have historically all too often been tragically (at least for them) been cut short by incensed mobs, the position of the Pope by definition exerts infallibility and absolute moral authority. It is a lifetime post, and yet not all have found it to their liking – at least three resigned in the middle ages, with one soon changing his mind and ascending to the post once more. Then there was the long, strange case of Celestine V.

On this day, December 24, in 1294, a replacement Pope for Celestine V was elected. Celestine himself spent just eight months as the head of the Church before leaving due to what he called “the desire for humility, for a purer life, for a stainless conscience,” as well as the “ignorance” and “perverseness” of his subjects.

The newly elected replacement, Pope Boniface VIII, was not about to let that happen. Boniface forced his predecessor to remain with him in Naples, ignoring pleadings for a quiet life. Celestine managed an escape, evading his pursuers for several months before he was arrested by Boniface’s orders. Celestine was returned and imprisoned, never to see freedom again.