1523 papal conclave

Last updated
Papal conclave
October–November 1523
Dates and location
1 October – 19 November 1523
Apostolic Palace, Papal States
Key officials
DeanBernardino López de Carvajal y Sande
Camerlengo Francesco Armellini Pantalassi de' Medici
Protodeacon Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici
Election
Candidates Alessandro Farnese, Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici
Elected pope
Giulio di Giuliano de' Medici
Name taken: Clement VII
Sebastiano del Piombo - Portrait of Pope Clement VII (ca. 1526).jpg
←  1521–22
1534  →

The 1523 papal conclave elected Cardinal Giulio de' Medici as Pope Clement VII to succeed Pope Adrian VI. According to conclave historian Baumgartner, the conclave was the "last conclave of the Renaissance". [1]

Contents

Background

Adrian VI experienced ill health during the final months of his life, inspiring the cardinals to begin politicking. [2] Francis I of France had just dispatched a large army into northern Italy in 1522, and expecting to leverage this force to effect the election of French cardinal Jean de Lorraine, or more likely a pro-French Italian cardinal such as Niccolò Fieschi. [2] However, his army experienced a major defeat at the Battle of Bicocca prior to the conclave. [2] In any case, the three French cardinals were ordered by Francis I to rush to Rome. [2]

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, strengthened by the Battle of Bicocca, supported Giulio de' Medici, an advocate for imperial policy within the College. [2] Henry VIII of England would have preferred the election of Thomas Wolsey, but was in no position to effect it; Henry VIII sent two letters—one supporting Medici, the other supporting Wolsey—which were to be distributed to the College in that order. [3] The odds against the election finishing before October were given at 60 to 100. [4] The odds were given as 80 to 100 against the conclave finishing in November, and those who took them lost heavily. [4]

The papabile

Gambling on papal elections occurred, and the bookmakers favored Farnese, followed by Medici. [5] Conclave secrecy was non-existent due to the ambassadors who "reported daily" on the balloting and living conditions. [5] Similarly, the law of the conclave requiring the reduction of rations was not followed. [5]

Proceedings

Medici was housed under Perugino's Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter--considered an omen of his election. Pietro Perugino 034.jpg
Medici was housed under Perugino's Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter —considered an omen of his election.

The conclave opened on October 1, with thirty-two cardinals in attendance. [6] Nine cardinals were absent. [7] Baumgartner apparently believes that the only cardinal created by Adrian VI (a fellow Dutchman) [8] was absent, but all the conclave attendance lists show him as participating. Cardinal Giulio de' Medici had sixteen or seventeen supporters; Cardinal Pompeo Colonna had the second most. [9] The "anti-Imperial/anti-Medici" cardinals successfully demanded that the first scrutiny be delayed until the French Cardinals, who were known to be on the way, arrived. On October 6, they appeared, raising the number of electors to thirty-five. [10] Medici drew the lot to have his cell under Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter , a portrait seen as an omen of election as Julius II had been housed underneath it as well. [5] The remark demonstrates incidentally that the voting was taking place in the Chapel of S. Nicolas and the sleeping quarters were in the Sistine Chapel.

Fieschi was the candidate of the French and received eleven votes; Carvajal (the stalking horse of the Imperial party) received twelve. [5] Both parties switched their support in the next scrutiny with Gianmaria del Monte coming within one vote of election following an accessus. [5] Medici had previously agreed to support del Monte as the final vote, but broke his word and did not come forward. [5]

After the conclave reached its tenth day, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey allegedly received twenty-two votes, although he never received more [5] —conclave mythology of the most unlikely sort. [11] By October 13, the Imperial party started voting for Medici, with the French supporting Farnese. [5] Medici's supporters remained disciplined into November, while the French faction began to crack. [4] Colonna (who despised Medici despite his close ties to Charles V) held a block of four votes against Medici. [4] However, on October 18, when the French faction proposed the candidacy of Orsini (the Colonna family and Orsini family being rivals), Colonna was impelled to throw his support to Medici, giving him twenty votes. [4]

On November 10, Cardinal Ivrea (Ferrero) finally entered the Conclave, having been released from captivity.

Cardinal Giulio de' Medici easily reached the requisite twenty-seven by accessus and took the name Clement VII. [4]

Notes

  1. ↑ Baumgartner, 2003, p. 101.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Baumgartner, 2003, p. 98.
  3. ↑ Baumgartner, 2003, pp. 98-99.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Baumgartner, 2003, p. 100.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Baumgartner, 2003, p. 99.
  6. ↑ Marino Sanuto, I diarii di Marino Sanuto Volume XXXV (Venezia 1892), cols,. 61-62, provides a list of the cardinals who entered conclave on the first of October, from a dispatch of the Venetian Ambassador in Rome: Santa Croce (Carvajal), Volterra (Soderini), Fieschi, Farnese, del Monte, Ancona; De Grassis, Pucci, Medici, Piccolomini, Trani, Della Valle, Cavaillon (Pallavicini), Como (Trivulzi), Colonna, Giacobazzi, Campeggio, Ponzetto, Silvio da Cortona, Armellino. Egidio Canisio, Aracoeli (Numai), Vich, Enckevoirt; Cornaro, Gonzaga, Cibo, Orsini, De Cesis, Caesarino, Salviati, Ridolfi, Rangoni, Trivulzi, and Pisani. Absent, but arriving eventually, were: Auch (Castelnau), Ivrea of Savoy (Bonifacio Ferrero), Lorraine, and Vendôme. Absent were: Crucense (Gurcense: Lang of Salzburg, Archbishop of Gurk), Eboracense (Wolsey), Minerva da Caieta (Cajetan), Magonza (Mainz: Albrecht of Brandenburg), Legre (Liège: Eberhard von der Mark), and Alfonso de Portugal. Three French Cardinals, Auch. Vendôme and Lorraine, entered the Conclave on October 6 (Sanuto, 77).
  7. ↑ The list provided by Foscari (in Sanuto, loc. cit.) gives the absentees as: Crucense (Lang of Salzburg), Eboracense (Wolsey), Minerva da Caieta (Cajetan), Magonza (Mainz: Albrecht of Brandenburg), Legre (Liège: Eberhard von der Mark), and the fratillo of the King of Portugal (Alfonso de Portugal).
  8. ↑ Willem van Enckenvoirt of Urecht: Lorenzo Cardella, Memorie storiche de' cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa Tomo Quarto (Roma: Pagliarini 1793), 79-80.
  9. ↑ Sanuto, columns 223-224, provides a list of all the Cardinals in attendance and their factional allegiances.
  10. ↑ Sanuto, 61-62: Marco Foscari writes on the 5th of October, 1521, "Gionse li a Roma il secretario dil cardinal Aus francese [that would be Auch] con lettere al collegio di cardinali, soe e di Vendono e Lorena; etiam Cardinali, come erano zonti a Piombino. Poi, a hore 24, si have aviso esser zonti a Civitavecchia, et pregavano li cardinali li volesseno aspectar. Si dice il cardinale Ivrea, che vien per terra, e in camino tre Fiorenza e Siena." Another letter, written on the 6th, is summarized by Sanuto, "Come li 3 cardinali francesi, Aus, Vandomo, et Loreno erano quel zorno a hore 15 zonte in Roma, et intrati in conclavo con li spironi in piedi subito
  11. ↑ Ethelred L. Taunton, Thomas Wolsey: Legate and Reformer (London 1902), 146-147, states that Wolsey received no votes at all. His name is never mentioned in the reports to the Emperor by the Duke of Sessa. Moreover, John Clerk, Bishop of Bath, and Thomas Hannibal, English Ambassadors in Rome, told Wolsey he had no chance and why: "We must shewe your Grace the worst. Many of owr cortyers and also Cardynalles cannot abyde the heryng that any one absent shold be chosyn, for feare of translatyng the See, and other sondry inconvenyentes, whiche ded ensue by the last election; whiche obstakyll we have movyd to your 3 foren [amyd] fryndes, to here there opynyons; who answeryd us quod in [hac] tam recenti plaga suffred by the long absence of the late Elect, your Graces absence semyd to be a great obstakyll: notwithstondyng they sayd that if ther shold be suche discention in the Conclave, so that the cowd not agre upon no man preesent (the lyke wherof was at the last election), then shuld they be fayne to condescend and chose absentem, and wold as lytll regarde the inconvenyentes affore expressyd now, the they dyd at the last election. And fynally, as farre as we can perceyve, the Cardinall of Medices hath a great hope for hymself, and is advised by his fryndes to attempt the fortune for hymself, and so intendith to doo. Next hymself he wyll do for your Grace all that he can, accordyng unto his promes." State Papers, Published under the Authority of Her Majesty's Commission Volume VI, King Henry VIII Part V (1849), p. 176.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pompeo Colonna</span> Italian noble (1479–1532)

Pompeo Colonna was an Italian noble, condottiero, politician, and cardinal. At the culmination of his career he was Viceroy of the Kingdom of Naples (1530–1532) for the Emperor Charles V. Born in Rome, he was the son of Girolamo Colonna, whose father Antonio was second Prince of Salerno; and Vittoria Conti, of the Conti de Poli. His family belonged to the highest rank of nobility both of the City of Rome and of the Kingdom of Naples. Pompeo and his family were hereditary supporters of the Holy Roman Empire (Ghibbelines), and they spent their careers fighting their hereditary enemies, the Orsini family, and defending and expanding their family territories and interests. He played a significant, if sometimes disruptive, role in the Conclaves of 1521 and 1523 on behalf of the Imperial interest. His family commitments and his conclave activities brought Pompeo into conflict with the second Medici pope, Clement VII, whose election he vigorously opposed, and made him a leading figure in the attempted overthrow of Pope Clement and the Sack of Rome in 1527.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crown-cardinal</span> Title conferred upon a particular Cardinal by a Catholic monarch

A crown-cardinal was a cardinal protector of a Roman Catholic nation, nominated or funded by a Catholic monarch to serve as their representative within the College of Cardinals and, on occasion, to exercise the right claimed by some monarchs to veto a candidate for election to the papacy. More generally, the term may refer to any cardinal significant as a secular statesman or elevated at the request of a monarch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1268–1271 papal election</span>

The 1268–71 papal election, following the death of Pope Clement IV, was the longest papal election in the history of the Catholic Church. This was due primarily to political infighting between the cardinals. The election of Teobaldo Visconti as Pope Gregory X was the first example of a papal election by "compromise", that is, by the appointment of a committee of six cardinals agreed to by the other remaining ten. The election occurred more than a year after the magistrates of Viterbo locked the cardinals in, reduced their rations to bread and water, and removed the roof of the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo where the election took place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1549–1550 papal conclave</span> Election of Pope Julius III

The 1549–50 papal conclave, convened after the death of Pope Paul III and eventually elected Cardinal Giovanni del Monte as Pope Julius III. It was the second-longest papal conclave of the 16th century, and, at the time, the largest papal conclave in history in terms of the number of cardinal electors. The cardinal electors were roughly divided between the factions of Henry II of France, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Alessandro Farnese, the cardinal-nephew of Paul III.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agostino Trivulzio</span> Italian cardinal

Agostino Trivulzio was an Italian Cardinal and papal legate. He was from a noble family in Milan, the eighth child of Giovanni Trivulzio di Borgomanero, a Councillor of the Dukes of Milan, and Angela Martinengo of Brescia, and was the nephew of Cardinal Gianantonio Trivulzio (1500–1508). Another uncle, Cardinal Antonio's brother Teodoro, was Governor of La Palice, of Genoa, of Milan, and a Marshal of France. Giovanni and Angela had a daughter named Damigella or Domtilla who was famous for her learning. Cardinal Agostino Trivulzio had a nephew named Giovanni, who married Laura Gonzaga.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1572 papal conclave</span> Papal conclave convoked after the death of Pius V

The 1572 papal conclave, convoked after the death of Pope Pius V, elected Cardinal Ugo Boncompagni, who took the name Gregory XIII.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1292–1294 papal election</span> 1290s papal election

The 1292–94 papal election, was the last papal election which did not take the form of a papal conclave. After the death of Pope Nicholas IV on 4 April 1292, the eleven surviving cardinals deliberated for more than two years before electing the third of six non-cardinals to be elected pope during the Late Middle Ages: Pietro da Morrone, who took the name Pope Celestine V.

The 1241 papal election saw the election of Cardinal Goffredo da Castiglione as Pope Celestine IV. The election took place during the first of many protracted sede vacantes of the Middle Ages, and like many of them was characterized by disputes between popes and the Holy Roman Emperor. Specifically, the election took place during the war between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Lombard League and deceased pontiff, Pope Gregory IX, with Italy divided between pro-Papal and pro-Imperial factions known as the Guelphs and Ghibellines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1314–1316 papal conclave</span>

The papal conclave held from 1 May 1314 to 7 August 1316 in the apostolic palace of Carpentras and then the Dominican house in Lyon was one of the longest conclaves in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and the first conclave of the Avignon Papacy. The length of the conclave was due to the division of the cardinals into three factions: Italian, Gascon, and French/Provençal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1458 papal conclave</span> Election

The 1458 papal conclave, convened after the death of Pope Callixtus III, elected as his successor Cardinal Enea Silvio Piccolomini who took the name Pius II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1455 papal conclave</span>

The 1455 papal conclave elected Cardinal Alfons Borja Pope Callixtus III following the death of Pope Nicholas V. The conclave was the first in the Apostolic Palace, the site of all but five papal conclaves thereafter. The conclave was also the first to feature accessus voting, derived from a practice of the Roman Senate, where a cardinal could change their vote after an unsuccessful scrutiny to any cardinal already receiving votes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1471 papal conclave</span>

The 1471 papal conclave elected Pope Sixtus IV following the death of Pope Paul II. With the exception of the conclaves of the Western Schism, this conclave was the first since 1305 to feature a working, two-thirds majority of Italians within the College of Cardinals, in no small part because of the absence of six non-Italian cardinals. This was in part due to the unexpectedness of the death of Paul II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1303 papal conclave</span> 1303 papal conclave that elected Pope Benedict XI

In the 1303 papal conclave, Benedict XI was elected to succeed Boniface VIII as pope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">September 1503 papal conclave</span>

The September 1503 papal conclave elected Pope Pius III to succeed Pope Alexander VI. Due to the Italian Wars, the College of Cardinals was surrounded by three potentially hostile armies, loyal to Louis XII of France, Ferdinand II of Aragon, and Cesare Borgia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1521–1522 papal conclave</span>

The 1521–22 papal conclave elected Pope Adrian VI to succeed Pope Leo X. The conclave was marked by the early candidacies of cardinal-nephew Giulio de'Medici and Alessandro Farnese, although the Colonna and other cardinals blocked their election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1585 papal conclave</span>

The 1585 papal conclave, convoked after the death of Pope Gregory XIII, elected Cardinal Felice Peretti Montalto (O.F.M.Conv), who took the name Sixtus V. Forty-two of the sixty cardinals participated in the conclave. The absence of thirty percent of the cardinalate makes this conclave one of the most sparsely attended in the history of the modern Roman Catholic Church. Fourteen of Gregory XIII's thirty cardinals failed to attend, a startlingly high number.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1724 papal conclave</span> Conclave

The 1724 papal conclave was called upon the death of Pope Innocent XIII. It began on 20 March 1724 and ended on 28 May that year with the election of Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini, a Dominican friar, as Pope Benedict XIII. The conclave was made of largely the same electors that had elected Innocent in 1721 and the same factions dominated it. Multiple attempts were made to elect candidates that would be acceptable to the various Catholic monarchies at the time, but none were successful until May. Benedict resisted his own election for two days before being convinced to accept it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1565–1566 papal conclave</span> 18 day-election of Pope Pius V following the death of Pope Pius IV

The 1565–66 papal conclave was convened on the death of Pope Pius IV and ended in the election of Pope Pius V.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1559 papal conclave</span> 1559 election of Pope Pius IV following the death of Pope Paul IV

The 1559 papal conclave was convened on the death of Pope Paul IV and elected Pope Pius IV as his successor. Due to interference from secular rulers and the cardinals' disregard for their supposed isolation from the outside world, it was the longest conclave of the 16th century.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giambattista Orsini</span>

Giambattista Orsini was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal. He served as papal legate to the Marches of Ancona.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.