The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections (17 page)

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uncle and nephew, or two brothers-in-law to be cardinals at the same time. In
Cum Secundum Apostolum
of 15 December 1558 he also forbade, under the severest penalties, anyone even discussing the outcome of the next papal election while the incumbent was still alive – at least without his knowing of it and giving permission. As is frequently the way with conclaves, the man chosen next, the Milanese Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Medici, was a very differ- ent character from his predecessor. He was affable and, while still a reformer, not a rigorist in the manner of Paul IV. As a young man he had fathered children, and though of undoubted ability, he owed his rise in ecclesiastical circles more to the fact that his brother had married an Orsini, sister to Paul III’s daughter-in-law.

He was elected on Christmas Day 1559, after a conclave which had dragged on from 5 September.

The problems with the conclave were the same as ever, one of them being the large number of cardinals. There were fifty-six of them altogether, though some were absent; four (two of them non- attenders) died in the course of the conclave, and two left early when the election of Medici was already assured. There was the usual conflict between the cardinals supporting Spain – of which, after the death of Charles, Philip II was now king – and those representing France. There was also a third group, however, made up largely of cardinals created by the late pope, who associated themselves with the three Carafa cardinals. It was Ranuccio Farnese, Archbishop of Ravenna, who succeeded in breaking the stalemate by putting forward Cardinal Medici – who was, it should be said, only a very distant relation, or no relation at all, of the Medicis of Florence. He took the name Pius IV and was crowned on 6 January 1560.

Along with the other electors, Medici had agreed in the conclave to reconvene the Council of Trent. This was one of the issues in dispute between the pro-Spanish, who wanted the council, and the pro-French and the Imperial parties (the emperor was Ferdinand I), who wanted a new council entirely, in the hope that it would

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broker a settlement with the Protestants. Pius fulfilled his pre- election oath and reconvened the council in January 1562, a decade or so after it had been suspended. He brought it to a proper con- clusion in December 1563, confirmed its decrees, and set up mech- anisms for their interpretation and application. They were crucial for the reform of the Church, but as far as this book is concerned, they also had important things to say about cardinals.

The Council of Trent insisted that cardinals, if they had charge of dioceses, should reside in them, just as the council instructed all bishops to do. In Session 24 it went on to say:

the holy council decrees that each and every requirement estab- lished by it already for the appointment of bishops in regard to their life, learning and other qualities, should also be observed in the creation of cardinals of the holy Roman Church, even if they are deacons, all of whom the pope will choose from all Christian nations, as far as reasonably possible.

It added that it expected the pope to choose only the very best to be his closest advisers. What it did not say, however, was what both the Emperor Ferdinand and the French wanted it to say, that the number of cardinals would be reduced to twenty-four as the Council of Basel had instructed.

Pius IV also made a number of decisions of his own. He laid down that, should a pope die in the course of a council, the right of electing his successor fell to the cardinals and not to the council. He insisted that the pope had no authority to appoint an assistant with right of succession to the throne. He also declared, in
In eligendis
of 9 October 1562, getting all the cardinals to sign their agreement, that only a limited amount of money should be assigned to a deceased pope’s funeral and the expenses of the conclave, and that the conclave was not responsible for the late pontiff’s debts. He also determined that the cells in which the cardinals lived in the course of a conclave – they were no longer in

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a dormitory, their beds cut off from each other only by curtains – would be distributed by lot. More importantly, Pius tried to limit the influence of the great powers by banning anyone from entering the conclave, though ambassadors could still come as far as the entrance and make statements. The privacy of the conclave was enhanced: the walls were to be checked on a daily basis, and even food was to be inspected lest anyone should try to hide a message between the fish and the meat.

It took a nineteen-day conclave, 20 December 1565 to 7 January 1566, to elect a successor to Pius IV. There were seventy potential electors, a number not surpassed until the middle of the twentieth century, though eighteen cardinals did not attend, one died in the course of the conclave, and two had to withdraw on grounds of ill health. The conclave was dominated by the future saint, Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan and an ardent reformer. He succeeded in preventing the choice of one man, Giovanni Ricci, whom he thought unsuitable, although Ricci was backed by the powerful Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, while two of his own preferred candidates were opposed by Farnese. When they eventually chose the Dominican Michele Ghislieri it was because Borromeo and Farnese reached agreement on one of the candi- dates who had the backing of Spain. He was an austere reformer, a great adversary of all forms of heresy, whose career had been built around the Inquisition, and he could be relied upon to implement the reforms instigated by the Council of Trent. Ghislieri chose the name Pius V and was later canonized for the holiness of his life and his devotion to the reform of the Church. He is perhaps better remembered, at least among art historians, for shrouding the private parts displayed on statues and, in Britain, for excommuni- cating Queen Elizabeth I. This latter act was not only a mistake as far as England was concerned, it also alarmed monarchs around Europe, and although he had been chosen with Spanish approval, the domination of the Church in Spain by the Spanish crown was a continual source of tension between that country and the papacy.

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The desire to improve relations between Rome and Madrid after the pontifi of Pius V helped to account for the swift election – only one ballot was taken – of his successor Ugo Bon- compagni, who took the name Gregory XIII. He had been a much appreciated papal legate in Spain, and it was with the backing of Spain that he was chosen on 14 May 1572; the con- clave, which began the previous day, lasted less than twenty-four hours. It was a wise choice. He did indeed improve relations with Spain, as well as much else. He encouraged missionary activity, improved the Church’s central administration, invented the “Gregorian” calendar, beautifi Rome, and began the building of a new papal palace, the Quirinale, which is now the residence of Italy’s president.

Gregory’s successor, Felice Peretti, had accompanied Boncom- pagni during his legation in Spain, and the two had fallen out; hence, during Gregory’s pontificate, he remained effectively in retirement. At the conclave of 21–24 April 1585 all but half the cardinals who had been created by Gregory stayed away – indeed, this election was attended by the smallest percentage of the cardi- nals in modern times. There were, however, still forty-two who were present, and then, once again much influenced by Spain, they voted for someone who knew that country well and was acceptable to the Spanish crown.

It was, in any case, a wise choice. Sixtus V, as Peretti chose to be known, was not only a great patron of the arts and scholarship, he was wholeheartedly dedicated to the reform of the Church. Two important aspects of this commitment to reform affected the cardinals. First of all, in the Constitution
Postquam verus
of 3 December 1586 he insisted that the pope, though he may consult the cardinals, can appoint to the college whomever he thinks appropriate, up to seventy. There were to be members of the religious orders among them, and they were to include learned men, all to be drawn from right across all the nations of Christendom. Relatives were to be kept out, as were any whose

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legitimacy was questionable. There were a number of other provi- sions intended to ensure that the cardinalate should not be abused

– regulations concerning age and suitability, for example – as well as stipulations about how many bishops, priests, and deacons there were to be.

Then, on 22 January 1588, Sixtus issued the even more impor- tant apostolic constitution
Immensa
. Its purpose was to produce a more e
ffi
cient system of government for the Church by setting up a series of “congregations” as they were called, departments of the curia each concerned with a different aspect of Catholic life, though the administration of the papal states also featured prominently in the tasks that each of the fifteen congregations were given to do. Though the titles of the congregations have changed, and the tasks have necessarily altered over time, the structure which Sixtus introduced is essentially that which still survives. Cardinals were allotted to each of these congregations. The establishment of this system had, however, an important effect on the cardinals them- selves. They no longer met in consistories, as a group. Consistories, on the rare occasions when they met, did so only for formal, or ceremonial, purposes. The business which used to be conducted by the cardinals as a unit was now divided out among the congrega- tions, so the cardinals were less able to exercise influence over events as a college.

Sixtus died on 27 August 1590. In less than a year and a half there followed no less than four conclaves, each dominated by the Spain of Philip II. That Spain should have had such influence was not surprising. It was at the time the dominant world power. It was also, as far as the papacy was concerned, an ardent supporter of Church reform, a dedicated opponent of heresy, and a committed foe of the Turks. It was also prepared to subsidize the popes, provided that the right one was chosen. The first of those elected in this period, Giovan Battista Castagna, elected on 15 September 1590 after a week-long conclave, had been nuncio in Spain and a significant influence in preventing a breakdown of relations

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between Pius V and Philip. He took the name Urban VII, but did not live long enough to be crowned; he died of malaria less than a fortnight later.

The next conclave lasted two months, ending on 5 December 1590 with the election of Niccolò Sfondrati as Pope Gregory XIV. This particular election was remarkable for the directness of Spanish intervention. Philip II produced two lists of names. One had fifty names on it: those were the ones the king did not want; the other had seven names of those Philip thought suitable (there were sixty-five cardinals in all, though only fifty-three took part in the election). Sfondrati was among the seven. There was no doubt about his reforming credentials; he counted among his friends two of the most significant figures of the Catholic Reformation, Charles Borromeo and Philip Neri, both one day to be declared saints. He was also ill, and therefore likely to be only a stopgap pope – as several times before, an attractive choice when the electors were deeply divided.

The next election was no different, except that it was short – 27–29 October 1591. Giovanni Antonio Facchinetti, Innocent IX, was among the seven named on Philip’s list of approved car- dinals. But he was even older than his predecessor, and his pontifi lasted only until the end of December. There fol- lowed a twenty-day conclave, 10–30 January 1592. The choice was fi the devout Ippolito Aldobrandini, who was only fi

six and defi not a stopgap. He had not originally been on the Spanish list, but having been a possible candidate in the recent conclaves he had been put on it, though certainly not at the top. Philip’s favored candidate was Giulio Antonio Santorio, but although intellectually outstanding he was not a popular character among the cardinals. None of Philip’s more favored candidates were able to command the necessary majority; Aldobrandini, who took the title of Clement VIII, was therefore a compromise. He made it his primary task to break the depend- ency of the papacy on Spain by bringing about an entente with

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France and then mediating a reconciliation between France and Spain.

It was France rather than Spain which was the major influence in the conclave which lasted from 14 March to 1 April 1605. Among the leading candidates were the Jesuit theologian and controversialist Robert Bellarmine – later to be declared a saint – and the Oratorian Cesare Baronius, a distinguished historian. Neither of these was acceptable to Spain, though Baronius was a candidate favored by France and came within eight votes of being elected. The French and Spanish parties were roughly equally divided, so in the end it was the decision of the Italian group, led by Pietro Aldobrandini, to throw in their hand with the French that tipped the balance in favor of Alessandro Ottaviano de’Medici – that, and a large sum of money spent on the de’Medici candidacy by the French king, whose wife was also a de’Medici. That, even so, it took so long to bring the election to a conclusion reflects both the large number of cardinals – sixty of them – in the conclave and the fact that Aldobrandini’s real candidate was not de’Medici but Cardinal Zacchia.

The new pope took the title Leo XI, but in the course of his installation in the Lateran, he caught a chill and died only a week after his election. So the same group of cardinals met again on 8 May for a conclave which lasted until 16 May when Camillo Borghese became Paul V. Bellarmine and Baronius were again candidates, but the same objections ruled. The French and Spanish parties being neatly balanced, Borghese was chosen because he had managed to steer a neutral course between these two great powers largely by keeping a low profile as a cardinal – though he had represented the papacy in Spain and was in receipt of a Spanish pension. Leo was only fifty-two when elected – an instance of the cardinals, having just endured two conclaves in swift succession, choosing someone who was likely to serve as pope for a consider- able time. He indeed reigned for more than fifteen years, dying on 28 January 1621. One of the factors in the election of Alessandro