The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections (14 page)

No doubt to ensure that these “capitulations,” as they were called, were observed, they then went on to choose a pope whom they thought they could dominate. They were wrong. Étienne Aubert, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, who called himself Innocent VI,

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might have looked sickly and impressionable, but he proved to be quite the opposite, annulling the capitulations after six months or so in o
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ce and at the same time, in
Sollicitudo pastoralis
, forbid- ding the cardinals to change the regulations governing conclaves.

Innocent died on 12 September 1362; his successor was elect- ed on the 28th of the same month. The conclave, though rela- tively short, was far from straightforward. There were at the time twenty cardinals, all present in Avignon. They were, however, deeply divided – so deeply divided that they did not engage in the usual discussions about candidates. Each one voted his own way – and fi of them voted for the same man, the brother of the late Pope Clement; none of them thought him particularly suitable and, happily for the electors, he turned the job down. At this point they concluded that they were not going to agree on one of their own number and chose instead Guillaume de Grimoard, the devout abbot of the monastery of St. Victor in Marseilles who was at the time in Italy on a papal diplomatic mission. He took the title Urban V. Urban decided to return to Rome and entered the city on 13 October 1367. He did not, how- ever, stay long. The disturbed political situation in Italy, the renewal of hostilities between England and France which he wanted to bring to an end, and the pressure of the many French cardinals persuaded him back to Avignon. He returned there in September 1370, despite the prophecies of Saint Bridget of Sweden foretelling his early death should he do so. He was taken ill in November and died on 19 December. Out of humility he quit the papal palace to spend his last days in his brother’s house and asked to be buried in the monastery of St. Victor. It was Pierre Roger the Younger (he was indeed only 42 when elected) who was chosen to succeed Innocent on 29 December 1370 and who, as Gregory XI, took the curia back to Rome. He solemnly entered the city on 17 January 1377. Just over a year later, on 27 March 1378, he died. The election which followed was one of the most damaging in the entire history of the Church.

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What exactly happened is hard to determine, not because there are no sources, but because the sources are frequently biased against the man who was elected as Urban VI, Bartolomeo Prignano, Archbishop of Bari (and the last non-cardinal to be elected pope), head of the Apostolic Chancery and well known for his e
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ciency and general competence. It might have seemed an excellent choice, except for the fact that, as the cardinals claimed afterward, it was made under duress.

The problem was the Roman populace. The college of cardinals was predominantly French; there were only four Italians. But the Romans did not want to see the bishop of their city go off back to Avignon, which they feared he might do if the choice fell on a French cardinal. As a result, they rioted on the streets, in front of St. Peter’s, even within the walls of the Vatican itself where the conclave was taking place, demanding a Roman pope or, failing that, at least an Italian one. The sixteen electors were terrified; they had chosen Prignano, but as he was not present he could not formally accept. When the mob broke into the conclave, therefore, the cardinals seized one of their number, the aged Roman cardinal Tibaldeschi, and presented him as the new pope. The crowds retreated, apparently satisfied, and went back to the city where they continued their rampage. The cardinals slipped away.

Twelve of them returned next day. They took another vote to confirm the choice of Prignano, who took the title Urban VI. In spite of, or perhaps because of, the uproar the process had not taken long. Urban was elected on 8 April 1378. He was enthroned ten days later. The cardinals, however, swiftly repented of their choice. Again, it depends how the evidence is interpreted. Urban’s supporters point to the fact that he was an austere, conscientious man. They claim that all he was doing was attempting to cut back the pretensions of the college of cardinals and moderate their ostentatious lifestyle. His opponents on the other hand say that, in the course of imposing his reforms, he subjected the cardinals to intolerable abuse and humiliation. One by one the cardinals left

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Rome for Anagni. By the end of June they were all there except for three Italian cardinals. At the beginning of August they demanded that Urban resign; the Italian cardinals called for a general council of the Church. At the end of August all the electors met up at Fondi, where they said Urban was incompetent to be pope and where, on 20 September, they elected Cardinal Robert, son of Amadeus III, Count of Geneva, on the first ballot. It was twelve votes to one, with the abstention of the three Italians. He took the name Clement VII and was crowned at Fondi on 31 October. The following June he returned to Avignon with the cardinals and the curia – practically all the members of the papal court had sided with him against Urban.

There had been antipopes before, but this time the schism did not just divide Rome, it divided Europe as princes took one side or another – either the Roman or the Avignon “obedience,” as they were called. The modern-day papacy not surprisingly recognizes as legitimate the popes of the Roman obedience. It is a moot point. The fact that Urban turned out to be quite mad (in the view of the cardinals who all deserted him) does not in itself demonstrate that he was not the rightful pope. On the other hand the cardinals could, and did, reasonably argue that they had acted under duress, and in the Church’s law a decision taken under duress was not binding. At the same time, it is di
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cult to know whether they would have come up with a different candidate for the papacy, even if they had not been under pressure from the people of Rome. Urban VI died, largely unmourned, on 15 October 1389. In the course of his decade-long pontificate he had created no less than forty-three cardinals, of whom twenty survived him. Of the twenty, however, the irascible and unstable pontiff had deposed four, which left sixteen electors, three of whom were not present in Rome at the pope’s death. And those present wanted a swift election, before their rivals in Avignon heard about the papal demise. As usual, the conclave was divided. There was a Roman party and a Florentine party, but they agreed on the Cardinal of

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Naples, who belonged to neither, was young and good-looking, and easy to get along with; Pietro Tomacelli took the title Boniface

IX. He was crowned on 9 November and promptly restored to their cardinatial status the four who had been deposed by his predecessor.

Over in Avignon, Clement VII survived until 16 September 1394, when he died suddenly, and unexpectedly, of apoplexy; on the 28th of that month the Cardinal Deacon Pedro de Luna was swiftly elected to succeed him. He was ordained priest on 3 Oc- tober, and crowned eight days later. He took the name Benedict

XIII. In all other circumstances the Spanish cardinal (he was born in Aragón) would have been an admirable choice. He was a skilled diplomat – no one had done more around Europe to establish support for Clement VII – and a learned man, a dedicated collec- tor of books. But his position was peculiar. He had certainly de- cided to vote for Prignano even before the conclave in Rome of 1378, so he at least could hardly claim to have been voting under duress. He was, however, only one among the sixteen electors and, good canon lawyer as he was (he had once lectured in the subject), he came to the conclusion that the election of Urban was invalid and belatedly joined the cardinals who had withdrawn from Rome. Benedict XIII’s election had been almost unanimous – there was only one vote against. But before the vote was taken the cardinals had entered into an agreement that whoever was chosen would do his best to end the schism, even if this meant his resignation of the papacy. Pedro de Luna had been reluctant to take the oath, but once elected he believed that he did his best to fulfill it. Unfortu- nately he was so deeply convinced of the legitimacy of his claim to the papacy – that is to say, that he alone was the true pope – that he believed that only he had the right to decide matters. But, as will be seen, that decision was taken out of the hands of any of the claimants. Benedict XIII maintained his claim on the papacy right to his death in the castle at Peñíscola in September 1422, long after

the schism had been resolved without him.

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Not that he did not make attempts. In September 1404 he sent emissaries to Rome, but Boniface would not treat his rival as his equal and claimed, which was in any case true, that he was too ill to enter into negotiations. Boniface IX died on 1 October 1404. The people of Rome blamed Benedict’s representatives and threw them into jail, from which they were released only on the payment of a hefty ransom. The cardinals who gathered in Rome – nine of the twelve – chose Cosma de’Migliorati as pope on 17 October; he was crowned on 11 November, taking the name Innocent VII. As in the conclave that elected Benedict XIII, the cardinals took an oath that the one elected should undertake to end the schism even if it meant giving up his claim to the papacy. But, again like Benedict, Innocent was in no hurry to do so and refused to meet his rival. His pontificate was in any case fairly short – only a couple of weeks longer than two years.

He was followed by a cardinal he had himself created, Angelo Correr, who took the title of Gregory XII. The conclave was rela- tively short – it began on 18 November and Gregory was elected on the 30th of the same month. It was, however, fraught. There was a danger that the king of Naples might intervene if the conclave dragged on; the king was concerned that a unified papacy would entail a strong French influence, something he particularly feared because the cousin of the French king had a claim to Naples. Though there were those among the cardinals who thought that the Avignon pope’s promise that he would abdicate should be put to the test, others who feared unrest in Rome as well as the king of Naples’ interference pressed for a quick vote. Before they could vote, however, the cardinals had to draw up another of their capitulations. Each promised that, if elected, he would abdicate if the Avignon pope agreed to do likewise, and if the two colleges of cardinals, Rome and Avignon, agreed to come together for a common election. On his first evening as pope, Gregory issued a declaration to all and sundry assuring them of his good intentions in the matter of the unification of the Church.

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It did not happen. It was agreed that the two rival popes would meet in 1407. Gregory left Rome in August, accompanied by his cardinals, but never arrived at the agreed site – nor did Benedict

XIII. Gregory’s cardinals, or most of them, gradually became disillusioned by their pontiff and entered into an arrangement with Benedict’s cardinals to call a council of the Church at Pisa. It opened on 25 March 1409 and launched itself into an investigation of the behavior of the two popes. It was a large gathering, larger than many other important councils, although, because it was called by the cardinals and not by a pope, it has never been recog- nized by the papacy as a general council of the Church. Present were twenty-four cardinals, four patriarchs, eighty archbishops, a hundred bishops and the same number of abbots, and representa- tives of many others. When it pronounced sentence against Benedict and Gregory, well over two hundred prelates signed the document, including all of the cardinals. On 5 June both popes were declared to be schismatics and promoters of schism, heretics and perjurers, and therefore deposed.

Consequently there had to be an election. It was agreed that a two-thirds majority from the cardinals of each obedience would be required. The conclave began in the archiepiscopal palace in Pisa on 15 June. The French wanted a French pope and a return to Avignon, but that, it rapidly became clear, would not command the necessary majority. They therefore threw their weight behind the Greek Peter Philarghi (he had been born in Crete of Greek parents), who took the name Alexander V. He was elected on 26 June and consecrated on 7 July. The “Pisan obedience” was thus established, but as neither of the other popes renounced their titles the Church was left with three claimants to the bishopric of Rome. It was important for Alexander V to establish himself in Rome, but he never managed to do so. Rome had been occupied by the king of Naples, who was a supporter of Gregory XII, and it was not captured for Alexander until January 1410. Alexander himself was still in Bologna when he died on the following 3 May. His successor

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was Baldassare Cossa, who took the name John XXIII. Both before and after his election he was one of the most colorful and contro- versial characters ever to be elected pope.

Cossa came from near Naples, from a family that made its money, it seems, from seafaring which was little short of piracy. He has been described as an “unblushing libertine” who seduced two hundred women in Bologna which he conquered, and governed, for Boniface IX. He hacked his way to the papal throne, said a man who had once served as his secretary, with an axe of gold. Certainly it was his money which financed the Council of Pisa, where he was one of the main backers of Peter Philarghi during the conclave. When Philarghi, now Alexander V, wanted to regain control of Rome, he sent Cossa. Though his family had been allies of the king of Naples, who now occupied Rome for Gregory XII, Cossa drove him out, and then returned to Bologna, which he ruled and where Pope Alexander had established his curia. Cossa’s troops surrounded the conclave. After only three days of deliberation, and exactly a fortnight after Alexander’s death, Cossa was elected. None of the seventeen cardinals who took part in the election – five more were absent – complained of being bribed, though that was afterward claimed by others. It was also said afterward that Cossa had called for part of the papal insignia, a stole, and put it around his own shoulders, saying he was placing it on the man most worthy to wear it. He called himself John XXIII.