Papal conclave: Encyclopedia II - Papal conclave - Historical development

Papal conclave - Historical development

The procedures relating to the election of the Pope have undergone almost two millennia of development. Procedures similar to the present system were introduced in 1274 with the Second Council of Lyons.

Papal conclave - Electorate

The earliest bishops were most likely chosen by the founders of their communities. Later, however, this method was replaced in Rome and elsewhere with that of election by the clergy and laity of the community and the bishops of neighbouring dioceses. The true electoral body was the clergy, which did not cast votes, instead selecting the Pope by general consensus or by acclamation (with bishops supervising the process). The candidate would then be submitted to the people for their approbation; Romans typically signified approval (or disapproval) tumultuously. The lack of clarity in the election procedures often resulted in the election of rival Popes or antipopes.

The Lateran Synod held in 769 officially abolished the theoretical suffrage held by the Roman people, though in 862, a Synod of Rome restored it to Roman noblemen. A major change was introduced in 1059, when Nicholas II decreed that the cardinals were to elect a candidate, who would take office after receiving the assent of the clergy and laity. The most senior cardinals, the Cardinal Bishops, were to meet first and discuss the candidates before summoning the Cardinal Priests and Cardinal Deacons for the actual vote. A Synod of the Lateran held in 1139 removed the requirement that the assent of the lower clergy and the laity be obtained.

The cardinals' exclusive right to elect the Pope was questioned during the Papal Schism that began in 1378. After the death of the French-born Pope Gregory XI in that year, Romans rioted to ensure the election of an Italian; the cardinals complied by choosing Pope Urban VI. Later, in the same year, the cardinals moved to Fondi and elected another rival Pope. The Council of Pisa met in 1409 to resolve the conflict, but only managed to elect a third claimant. The conflict was only resolved by the Council of Constance (which met between 1414 and 1418), which received the abdication of one claimant and deposed the two others. The Council then proceeded to elect Pope Martin V, ending the Papal Schism. Since that election, the cardinals have remained the sole electors of Popes. Furthermore, it was declared that no council would have authority over the Pope, and that a papal election could not be undone.

Having fallen to as few as seven members in the 13th century, the College grew until in 1587, Sixtus V limited the cardinalate to 70 members (six Cardinal Bishops, 50 Cardinal Priests, and 14 Cardinal Deacons) but Popes since John XXIII have paid no heed to the guideline. In 1970, Paul VI decreed that cardinals over the age of eighty were ineligible to be part of the electorate, and also increased the limit on the number of cardinal electors to 120. Even this limitation was disregarded by John Paul II. John Paul II also changed the rule so that cardinals that were under eighty on the day the Holy See become vacant but turn eighty before the conclave start still have a vote. Of the Church's current 182 cardinals, 116 are under eighty years of age, and thus qualified to vote on a papal successor.

Papal conclave - Choice of the electors

Originally, lay status did not bar election to the Bishopric of Rome. In 769, the candidate was required to be a clergyman; the requirements later became more stringent, with only cardinals being eligible to be elected. In 1179, the Third Council of the Lateran reversed these requirements, once more allowing laymen to be elected (this does not mean the person elected remains an unordained layman while serving as pope; see acceptance and proclamation below). In 1378, Urban VI became the last Pope who was not a cardinal at the time of his election. There is no requirement that a Bishop of Rome be Italian; the present incumbent, Benedict XVI, is German, and his predecessor, John Paul II, was Polish. Prior to Benedict and John Paul, the last Pope to hail from a nation outside Italy was the Dutchman (ethnically German) Adrian VI, elected in 1522. In the current day, any baptised male, except for a heretic or schismatic can be elected by the College of Cardinals.¹ Women have never been eligible for the papacy; claims that there was a female Pope, including the supposed Pope Joan, are fictitious.

A simple majority sufficed for an election until 1179, when the Third Lateran Council increased the required majority to two-thirds. Cardinals were not allowed to vote for themselves; an elaborate procedure was adopted to ensure secrecy while at the same time preventing cardinals from voting for themselves². In 1945, however, Pius XII dispensed with the procedure, compensating for the change by increasing the requisite majority to two-thirds plus one. In 1996, John Paul II restored the two-thirds majority requirement, but not the prohibition on cardinals voting for themselves. John Paul's constitution allows election by absolute majority if deadlock still prevails seven ballots after the address by the senior Cardinal Bishop.

Electors formerly made choices by three methods: by acclamation, by compromise and by scrutiny. When voting by acclamation, the cardinals would unanimously declare the new Pope quasi afflati Spiritu Sancto (as if inspired by the Holy Spirit). When voting by compromise, the deadlocked College of Cardinals would select a committee of cardinals to conduct an election. When voting by scrutiny, the electors cast secret ballots. The last election by compromise was that of John XXII (1316), and the last election by acclamation was that of Gregory XV (1621). New rules introduced by John Paul II have formally abolished these long-unused systems; now, election is always by ballot.

Papal conclave - Secular influence

For the greater part of its history, the Church has been influenced in the choice of its leaders by powerful monarchs and governments. For example, the Roman Emperors once held considerable sway in the elections of Popes. In 418, Honorius settled a controverted election, upholding Boniface I over the challenger Eulalius. He ordered that in future cases, controverted elections would be settled by fresh elections; the method was never applied before its lapse. After the demise of the Western Roman Empire, clout passed to the Ostrogothic Kings of Italy. In 532, John II formally recognised the right of the Ostrogothic monarchs to ratify elections. By the end of the 530s, the Ostrogothic monarchy was overthrown, and power passed to the Byzantine Emperors (who are known as the Eastern Roman Emperors). A procedure was adopted whereby officials were required to notify the Exarch of Ravenna (who would relay the information to the Byzantine Emperor) upon the death of a Pope before proceeding to the election. Once the electors arrived at a choice, they were required to send a delegation to Constantinople requesting the Emperor's consent, which was necessary before the individual elected could take office. Lengthy delays were caused by the sojourns to and from Constantinople; when Benedict II complained about them, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine IV acquiesced, ending the confirmation of elections by the Emperors. Thereafter, the Emperor was only required to be notified; the requirement was dispensed with by Zacharias and by his successors.

In the 9th century, a new empire—the Holy Roman Empire, which was German, not Italian—came to exert control over the elections of Popes. While the first two Holy Roman Emperors, Charlemagne and Louis, did not interfere with the Church, Lothar claimed that an election could not be conducted except in the presence of imperial ambassadors. In 898, riots forced John IX to recognise the superintendence of the Holy Roman Emperor; the local secular rulers in Rome also continued to exert a great influence, especially during the tenth century period known as the pornocracy.

In 1059, the same papal bull that restricted suffrage to the cardinals also recognised the authority of the Holy Roman Emperor, at the time Henry IV, but only as a "concession" made by the Pope, thus establishing that the Holy Roman Emperor had no authority to intervene in elections except where permitted to do so by papal agreements. Gregory VII was the last to submit to the interference of the Holy Roman Emperors; the breach between him and the Holy Roman Empire caused by the Investiture Controversy led to the abolition of the Emperor's role. In 1119, the Holy Roman Empire acceded to the Concordat of Worms, accepting the papal decision.

From the sixteenth century, certain Catholic nations were allowed to exercise the so-called "right of exclusion" or "veto". By an informal convention, each nation was allowed to veto not more than one papal candidate; any decision made by a nation was conveyed by one of its cardinals. The power of exclusion was, by the same custom, only exercisable by any nation once. Therefore, the nation's cardinals did not announce the use of the power until the very last moment when the candidate in question seemed likely to get elected. No vetoes could be employed after an election. After the Holy Roman Empire was dissolved in 1806, its place was taken by Austria (which was a part of the Empire and whose ruler was also Holy Roman Emperor). Austria became the last nation to exercise the power in 1903, when Cardinal Puzyna de Kosielsko informed the College of Cardinals that Austria opposed the election of Mariano Cardinal Rampolla (who had received 29 out of 60 votes in one ballot). Consequently, the College chose Giuseppe Cardinal Sarto with 55 votes. Cardinal Sarto, who chose the name Pius X, abolished the right of the veto. He declared that any cardinal who communicated his government's veto would suffer excommunication, or expulsion from Church communal life.

Papal conclave - Conclaves

In earlier years, papal elections sometimes suffered prolonged deadlocks. To resolve them, authorities often resorted to the forced seclusion of the cardinal electors. The method was adopted, for example, in 1216 by the city of Perugia and in 1241 by the city of Rome. After the death of Clement IV in 1268, the city of Viterbo was also forced to resort to the seclusion of cardinals in the episcopal palace. When the cardinals still failed to elect a Pope, the city refused to send in any materials except bread and water. As a result, the cardinals soon elected Gregory X, ending an interregnum of almost three years.

To reduce further delays, Gregory X introduced stringent rules relating to the election procedures. Cardinals were to be secluded in a closed area; they were not even accorded separate rooms. No cardinal was allowed to be attended by more than one servant unless ill. Food was to be supplied through a window; after three days of the meeting, the cardinals were to receive only one dish a day; after five days, they were to receive just bread and water. During the conclave, no cardinal was to receive any ecclesiastical revenue.

Gregory X's strict regulations were later abrogated in 1276 by Adrian V, but after he was elected in 1294 following a two-year vacancy, Celestine V restored them. In 1562, Pius IV issued a papal bull that introduced regulations relating to the secrecy of the ballots and other procedural matters. Gregory XV issued two bulls that covered the most minute of details relating to the election; the first, issued in 1621, concerned electoral processes, while the other bull, issued in 1622, fixed the ceremonies to be observed. In 1904, Pius X issued a constitution consolidating almost all of the previous ones, making some changes. Several reforms were instituted by John Paul II in 1996.

The location of the conclaves was not fixed until the fourteenth century. Since the Western Schism, however, elections have always been held in Rome (except in 1800, when Neapolitan troops occupying Rome forced the election to be held in Venice), and normally in the Vatican City (which has, since the Lateran treaties of 1929, been recognised as an independent state). Within Rome and the Vatican City, different locations have been used for the election. Since 1846, when the Quirinal Palace was used, the Sistine Chapel has always served as the location of the election. Popes have often written "election constitutions" fine-tuning the rules for the election of their successors: Pope Pius XII's Vacantis Apostolicae Sedis of 1945 governed the conclave of 1958, Pope John XXIII's Summi Pontificis Electio of 1962 that of 1963, and Pope Paul VI's Romano Pontifici Eligendo of 1975 those of 1978.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Historical development", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki