Pope Celestine II has governed the Church…

Pope Celestine II has governed the Church for only five months and thirteen days from his election until his death on March 8, 1144.

The principal act of his papacy has been the absolution of Louis VII of France at the request of the penitent monarch, and the removal of the interdict under which France has lain for three years.

His successor, Gherardo Caccianemici dal Orso, had become a canon in his native Bologna, then cardinal priest of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, later treasurer of the Roman Church, papal legate in Germany for Pope Honorius II (1124–30), and eventually for Pope Innocent II (1130–43).

It must be ascribed chiefly to his exertions that Lothair III made two expeditions to Italy for the purpose of protecting Pope Innocent II against the antipope Anacletus II (1130–38).

Innocent II had appointed him papal chancellor and librarian.

Orso assumes papacy on March 12 as Lucius II.

Giordano (or Jordan) Pierleoni is the son of the Consul Pier Leoni and therefore brother of Antipope Anacletus II and leader of the Commune of Rome, which the the democratic element had established in late autumn 1143, setting up a Senate in emulation of the Roman Republic and in opposition to the higher nobility and the papacy.

The fifty six senators, comprising four elected representatives from each of the fourteen districts of ancient Rome, and the first real senators since the seventh century, have elected as patrician Pierleoni, because the title of consul had long ago taken on noble connotations.

According to Gregorovius, Giordano was a "maverick" in the great Pierleoni family, for he continued to oppose the papacy after Anacletus' death, when the rest of his clan had returned to support of Rome.