Papal election, 1268–1271

The papal election from November 1268 to September 1, 1271, following the death of Pope Clement IV, was the longest papal election in the history of the Roman Catholic Church. The election of Tebaldo Visconti as Pope Gregory X was the first example of a papal election by "Compromise. The election was effected by 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 legendarily removed the roof of the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo.

As a result of the length of the election, during which three of the twenty cardinal-electors died and one resigned, Gregory X promulgated the apostolic constitution, Ubi periculum, on July 7, 1274 (or 16), during the Second Council of Lyon, establishing the papal conclave, whose rules were based on the tactics employed against the cardinals in Viterbo. The election itself is sometimes viewed as the first conclave.

Cardinal electors

The dynamic of the conclave was divided between the French Angevin cardinals, mostly created by Pope Urban IV, who were amenable to an invasion of Italy by Charles of Anjou, and the non-French mostly Italian cardinals whose numbers were just sufficient to prevent a French pope from being elected. Clement IV's crowning of Charles of Anjou as King of Naples and Sicily, previously a papal fief, had cemented the influence of the French monarchy in the Italian peninsula and created an intense division within the College of Cardinals between those who opposed and supported French influence, and by extension: ultramontanism. Conradin, the last ruler of the House of Hohenstaufen had been beheaded in Naples just a month before the death of Clement IV.

Some sources say there were only nineteen cardinal electors; others eighteen or seventeen. In any event, after August 11, 1270, there were only sixteen remaining cardinal electors.

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Elector	Nationality	Order	Title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Odo of Châteauroux, O.Cist.	French	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Frascati	1244, May 28	Innocent IV	Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals; Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church
Stefan Vancza†	Hungarian	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Palestrina	1251, December	Innocent IV	Died on July 9, 1270, first Hungarian cardinal
John of Toledo, O.Cist.	English	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina	1244, May 28	Innocent IV
Henry of Segusio	French	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Ostia and Velletri	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Resigned and departed on June 8, 1270
Simone Paltineri (or Paltinieri)	Paduan	Cardinal-priest	Titulus Ss. Silvestro e Martino ai Monti	1261, December 17	Urban IV	Committee member; Cardinal primoprete
Simon Monpitie de Brie	French	Cardinal-priest	Titulus S. Cecilia	1261, December 17	Urban IV	Future Pope Martin IV
Anchero Pantaleone	French	Cardinal-priest	Titulus S. Prassede	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Cardinal-nephew
Guillaume de Bray	French	Cardinal-priest	Titulus S. Marco	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Camerlengo of the Sacred College of Cardinals
Guy de Bourgogne (or Guido), O.Cist.	French	Cardinal-priest	Titulus S. Lorenzo in Lucina	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Committee member
Annibale Annibaldeschi de Molaria, O.P.	Roman	Cardinal-priest	Titulus Ss. XII Apostoli	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Treated with Philip III of France and Charles I of Naples
Riccardo Annibaldeschi di Molaria, O.S.B.	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria	1237	Gregory IX	Committee member Nephew of Pope Alexander IV; Protodeacon
Ottaviano Ubaldini	Florentine	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata	1244, May 28	Innocent IV	Committee member
Giovanni Gaetano Orsini	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Nicola in Carcere	1244, May 28	Innocent IV	Committee member Future Pope Nicholas III
Ottobono Fieschi dei Conti di Lavagna	Genoese	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Adriano	1251, December	Innocent IV	Future Pope Adrian V, Cardinal-nephew
Uberto Coconati dei Conti d'Elci	Sienese	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Eustachio	1261, December 17	Urban IV
Giacomo Savelli	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin	1261, December 17	Urban IV	Committee member Future Pope Honorius IV
Goffredo (Geoffroy) da Alatri	Neapolitan	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro	1261, December 17	Urban IV
Giordano dei Conti Pironti da Terracina†	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of Ss. Cosma e Damiano	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Died in October 1269, Vice-chancellor
Matteo Orsini Rosso	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Maria in Portico	1262, May 22	Urban IV	Nephew of Pope Nicholas III

† denotes a cardinal elector who died during the election.

Absentee cardinals

Elector	Nationality	Order	Title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Raoul Grosparmi† (Rodolphe de Chevriêres)	French	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Albano	1261, December 17	Urban IV	He accompanied king Louis IX of France in his crusade in Tunisia and died there on August 11, 1270
Bernard Ayglerius, O.S.B.	French	Unknown (priest or deacon)	unknown title	1265 or 1268	Clement IV	Clement IV's only cardinal creation Some scholars doubt whether he was created cardinal

Procedure

The cardinals began the election by meeting and voting once a day in the Viterbo Cathedral before returning to their respective residences; tradition dictated that the election should take place in the Cathedral of the city where the previous pope died, if the late pontiff had died outside Rome. After two months, the cardinals nearly elected Philip Benizi, general of the Servite Order, who had come to Viterbo to admonish the cardinals, but fled to prevent his election. Charles of Anjou was in Viterbo for the entirety of the election; Philip III of France visited the city in March 1271.

In late 1269, after several months of deadlock during which the cardinals had met only intermittently, Ranieri Gatti, the Prefect of Viterbo, and Albertus de Montebono, the Podesta, ordered (some sources say, at the urging of Saint Bonaventure) the cardinals sequestered in the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo until a new pope was elected. On June 8, 1270, the cardinals addressed a Diploma to the two magistrates asking that Enrico Bartolomei de Susa, Cardinal-Bishop of Ostia, be dismissed from the "Palatio discooperto" ("the uncovered Palace") owing to his ill health and his having already renounced his right to vote. Some sources say that a makeshift roof was reassembled after the cardinals threatened to put the entire city of Viterbo under interdict.

Nationality of Cardinal Electors

Country	Number of Electors
France†	7
Rome†	6
England, Florence, Genoa, Hungary†, Naples, Padua, Siena	1
† one cardinal died before final scrutiny

According to the account of Onofrio Panvinio, Cardinal John of Toledo suggested that the roof be removed ("Let us uncover the Room, else the Holy Ghost will never get at us"—the first recorded reference to the notion that the Holy Spirit should guide cardinal electors), which the two magistrates readily obliged. Other sources say it was Charles of Anjou who orchestrated the reduction of the diet of the cardinals to bread and water and removal the roof of the Papal Palace.

The Committee

Under pressure from Philip III of France and other rulers, on September 1, 1271, the cardinals agreed to cede their authority to a committee of six, drawn equally from the French and Italian cardinals, which chose Tebaldo Visconti, a non-cardinal, who was currently in Acre with the retinue of Edward, Prince of Wales (the eldest-son of Henry III of England) as papal legate to the Ninth Crusade. Having been informed of his election, Visconti departed on November 19, 1271 and reached Viterbo on February 12, 1272, where he took the name Gregory X, entered Rome on March 13, 1272 and was crowned on March 27, 1272. During the final leg of his journey, from Brindisi on January 11, 1272, Visconti was accompanied by Charles of Anjou.

Legacy

The techniques employed against the dilatory cardinals in Viterbo formed the basis for the canonical laws of papal conclaves as laid out in the apostolic constitution, Ubi periculum, of Pope Gregory X, promulgated during the Second Council of Lyon on July 7, 1274 (or 16). Popular accounts of the conclave, as early as those of French historian Georges Goyau, neglect to mention the political intrigue of Charles of Anjou or his nephew, Philip III of France, as the masterminds of the hardships employed by the "citizens of Viterbo."

Designed both to accelerate future elections and reduce outside interference, the rules of Ubi periculum provide for the cardinal electors to be secluded for the entirety of the conclave, including having their meals passed through a small opening, and for their rations to be reduced to a single meal at the end of three days, or bread and water (with a little wine) after eight days. Cardinals also do not collect from the Apostolic Camera any payments they might otherwise receive during the conclave.

The stringent rules of Ubi periculum were used in the conclaves that elected Pope Innocent V (January 1276) and Pope Adrian V (July 1276), lasting one and nine days respectively. However, at the urgings of the College, the newly-elected Adrian V suspended the constitution on July 12, 1276—indicating that he wished to revise it—and died on August 18, without having promulgated a revised version.

Therefore, the election of Pope John XXI (August-September 1276) did not follow Ubi periculum, and—once elected—John XXI promulgated a bull, Licet felicis recordationis, formally revoking Ubi periculum. The next five papal elections—1277 (Pope Nicholas III), 1280—1281 (Pope Martin IV), 1285 (Pope Honorius IV), 1287—1288 (Pope Nicholas IV), and 1292—1294 (Pope Celestine V)—occurred sans conclave, often at great length. Celestine V, whose election took two years and three months, reinstated the conclave with a series of three decrees, and his successor, Pope Boniface VIII restored the conclave into the Code of Canon Law.

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