1903 papal conclave
Papal conclave July–August 1903 | |
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Dates and location | |
31 July – 4 August 1903 Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto Name taken: Pius X | |
The
Background
The
Of the 64 cardinals, 62 participated,
Balloting
When the cardinals assembled in the Sistine Chapel, attention focused on Cardinal Secretary of State Mariano Rampolla, though cardinals from the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires preferred a candidate more closely aligned with their interests, which meant relatively hostile to France and republicanism and less supportive of the social justice advocacy of Leo XIII. They were persuaded that their first choice, Serafino Vannutelli, who had been a Vatican diplomat in Vienna, was not electable and settled on Girolamo Maria Gotti instead.
After a first day without balloting, the cardinals voted once each morning and once each afternoon. The first ballots were taken on the second day of the conclave, and that afternoon's ballot had 29 votes for Rampolla, 16 for Gotti, and 10 for
The afternoon tested the remaining sympathy for Rampolla, who gained a single vote, while Sarto had 24 and Gotti fell to 3. The precise impact of the Emperor's intervention is difficult to assess, since Rampolla continued to have strong support for several ballots. Yet one contemporaneous assessment held that "After calm reflection, those who had voted for Rampolla up to this time had to consider that an election against the expressed wish of the Emperor of Austria would at once place the new Pope in a most unpleasant position."[7] The fifth ballot on the morning on the fourth day (3 August) showed Sarto leading with 27, Rampolla down to 24, and Gotti at 6, with a few still scattered. Sarto then announced that the cardinals should vote for someone else, that he did not have what was required of a pope. The movement toward Sarto continued in the afternoon: Sarto 35, Rampolla 16, Gotti 7. On the morning of 4 August, on the seventh ballot, the conclave elected Sarto with 50 votes, leaving 10 for Rampolla and 2 for Gotti.[8][9]
Before he was officially announced to the crowds, a priest got an inside tip that Sarto had been elected.[10] He climbed up to a spot where he could be seen by the crowd, and then open and closed two fingers to represent a pair of scissors.[10] This was understood by some to mean that Sarto, which means "tailor" in Italian, had been elected.[10]
Sarto took the name Pius X. Following the practice of his two immediate predecessors since the 1870 invasion of Rome, Pius X gave his first Urbi et Orbi blessing on a balcony facing into St. Peter's Basilica rather than facing the crowds outside, a symbolic representation of his opposition to Italian rule of Rome and his demand for a return of the Papal States to his authority.
End of the veto
On 20 January 1904, less than six months after his election, Pius X issued the apostolic constitution Commissum Nobis[5] which prohibited the exercise of the jus exclusivae. Where previous popes had issued rules restricting outside influence on the cardinal electors, Pius used more thorough and detailed language, prohibiting not only the assertion of the right to veto but even the expression of "a simple desire" to that effect. He set automatic excommunication as the penalty for violating his strictures. He also required conclave participants to swear an oath to abide by these rules and not allow any influence by "lay powers of any grade or order".
Data
- Dates of conclave: July 31 - August 4, 1903
- Location: Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace
- Absent:
- Archbishop of Palermo(Italy) was too ill to travel
- Archbishop of Sydney in Australiawas unable to reach Rome in time to participate
Duration | 4 days |
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Number of ballots | 7 |
Electors | 64 |
Absent | 2 |
Present | 62 |
Africa | 0 |
Latin America | 0 |
North America | 1 |
Asia | 0 |
Europe | 61 |
Oceania | 0 |
Mid-East | 0 |
Italians | 36 |
Veto used | by Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria against Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro |
DECEASED POPE | LEO XIII (1878–1903) |
NEW POPE | PIUS X (1903–1914) |
- Present:[1][11]
- Cardinal-Bishop of Albano(Italy)
- Andrea Aiuti, Apostolic Nuncio emeritus to Portugal (Italy)
- Bishop of Verona(Italy)
- Archbishop of Ferrara(Italy)
- Archbishop of Capua(Italy)
- Giovanni Battista Casali del Drago (Italy)
- Bishop of Barcelona(Spain)
- Francesco di Paola Cassetta, titular Patriarch of Nicomedia (Italy)
- Felice Cavagnis, Pro-Secretary of the Roman Curia (Italy)
- Congregation of the Council(Italy)
- Archbishop of Lyon(France)
- Congregation of Rites(Italy)
- Francesco Salesio Della Volpe, Prefect of the Apostolic Chamber (Italy)
- Angelo Di Pietro, titular Archbishop of Nazianzus (Italy)
- Archbishop of Milan(Italy)
- Domenico Ferrata, titular Archbishop of Thessalonica (Italy)
- Anton Hubert Fischer, Archbishop of Cologne (Germany)
- Archbishop of Catania(Italy)
- Casimiro Gennari, titular Archbishop of Naupactus (Italy)
- Archbishop of Baltimore(United States of America)
- Archbishop of Mechelen(Belgium)
- Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith(Italy)
- Anton Joseph Gruscha, Archbishop of Vienna(Austria-Hungary)
- Sebastián Herrero y Espinosa de los Monteros, Valencia (Spain)
- Archbishop of Salzburg(Austria-Hungary)
- Archbishop of Breslau(Germany)
- Archbishop of Rennes(France)
- Archbishop of Reims(France)
- Archbishop of Bordeaux(France)
- Archbishop of Armagh(United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland)
- Luigi Macchi (Italy)
- Bishop of Ancona and Numana(Italy)
- Archbishop of Santiago de Compostela(Spain)
- Sebastiano Martinelli, titular Archbishop of Ephesus, curial official (Italy)
- Archbishop Emeritus of Toulouse(France)
- Cardinal-Bishop of Sabina(Italy)
- José Sebastião de Almeida Neto, Patriarch of Lisbon (Portugal)
- Latin Patriarch of Constantinople(Italy)
- Bishop of Autun(France)
- Raffaele Pierotti, Theologian of the Pontifical Household (Italy)
- Archbishop of Reggio Calabria(Italy)
- Archbishop of Naples(Italy)
- Jan Maurycy Pawel Puzyna de Kosielsko, Prince-Bishop of Kraków(Austria-Hungary)
- Mariano Rampolla, Cardinal Secretary of State (Italy)
- Archbishop Emeritus of Ferrara(Italy)
- Archbishop of Ravenna(Italy)
- Archbishop of Paris(France)
- Archbishop of Turin(Italy)
- Archbishop of Toledo(Spain)
- Alessandro Sanminiatelli Zabarella, titular Patriarch of Tyana (Italy)
- Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, Patriarch of Venice (Italy)
- Congregation of Studies(Italy)
- Archivist of the Holy Roman Church(Italy)
- Archbishop of Prague(Austria-Hungary)
- Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano. Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals (Italy)
- Congregation of the Index(Germany)
- Archbishop of Bologna(Italy)
- Apostolic Nuncio to Austria-Hungary(Italy)
- Congregation of Rites(Italy)
- Cardinal-Bishop of Porto-Santa Rufina, Prefect of the Congregation of Ceremonies(Italy)
- Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina(Italy)
- Archbishop of Esztergom(Austria-Hungary)
- José Calassanç Vives y Tuto(Spain)
- Cardinals by country (participating):
- Unified Kingdom of Italy - 38
- French Republic - 7
- Austro-Hungarian Empire - 5
- Kingdom of Spain - 5
- German Empire - 3
- Kingdom of Belgium - 1
- United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland - 1
- Kingdom of Portugal - 1
- United States of America - 1
- Total - 62
Notes
- ^ Three leading Catholic heads of state claimed the jus exclusivae: the King of France, the King of Spain, and the Holy Roman Emperor. The Emperor never explained his reasons, but it was likely provoked by Rampolla's policies as Secretary of State, especially his attempt to seek a rapprochement with the anticlerical government of the French Third Republic as Secretary of State. The Italian government, which had no veto, also resented the policies of Rampolla, a southern Italian, toward their government dominated by northern Italian interests.[5][6]
References
- ^ ISBN 0-7391-0114-5.
- ^ a b "Sixty-Two Cardinals in Rome for Conclave" (PDF). New York Times. 30 July 1903. Retrieved 15 November 2017.
- ISBN 0-7391-0114-5.
- ^ Barrett, David V. (2 June 2014). "Ballot sheets from 1903 conclave to be sold at auction". Catholic Herald. Archived from the original on 25 June 2016. Retrieved 16 November 2017.
- ^ a b Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Right of Exclusion". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved 15 November 2017
- ISBN 9781461601814. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- ^ Schmidlin, Josef; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. pp. 188. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- ^ Pham, John-Peter (2004). Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- ^ Schmidlin, Josef; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. pp. 186ff. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- ^ a b c Callahan, William R. (August 31, 1948). "Boston Pilgrims Recall Personal Contacts with Late Pope Pius X". The Boston Globe. p. 18. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
- ^ Schmidlin, Josef; de Waal, Anton (1904). Life of His Holiness Pope Pius X. Benziger Brothers. pp. 151ff. Retrieved 17 November 2017.
- Additional sources