Conclave 1513

Coat of arms of the Cardinal Chamberlain during the Sedis vacancy

Portrait of Pope Julius II by Raphael

Pope Leo X.

The conclave of 1513 was the election meeting of the Cardinals after the death of Pope Julius II. And lasted of 4 March 1513 to March 9, 1513. His choice was after 5 days of Giovanni de 'Medici, the Pope Leo X called . According to other sources, he was elected on March 11th.

history

The college of cardinals had 35 members at the beginning of the conclave, but 5 of them had been excommunicated. Another 5 cardinals were not in Rome at the time of the conclave , so that the conclave had 25 participants.

The Cardinals of the Conclave by Nationality:

Italians: 19 cardinals
Spaniards: 2 cardinals
French: 1 cardinal
Swiss: 1 cardinal
Hungary: 1 cardinal
English: 1 cardinal

The conclave, which can be proven to be free of simony , had three candidates, Cardinals Grimani, de'Medici and Carretto, whom the ambassador of Venice described as papabile . They were said to have had a blameless life. The second floor of the Vatican Palace was chosen as the place of conclave, although the elections took place in the Sistine Chapel . The 30 cells were allotted to the cardinals by lot, each of these cells being the size of a prison or hospital cell. Only the Cardinals della Rovere and de'Medici received better accommodation because they were in poor health.

Besides the cardinals, each of whom had two conclavists , there were 55 other people in the conclave. Paris de Grassis and Blasius de Martinellis served as masters of ceremonies, and they also kept the key to the conclave.

After negotiating an election surrender in the first few days, the bull Cum tam divino was read on the fourth day . At that time already divided into two camps, there was the group of the "older" and the "younger". But already in the first few hours the group of the younger cardinals prevailed and elected Cardinal de'Medici.

Since it was normally customary at a conclave to vote in the first round of a candidate who should be honored for his merits but otherwise would not be seriously considered, this also happened in 1513. In this conclave, however, the curiosity arose that about half of all cardinals in the first round of voting had the same candidate in mind, making it almost the most unlikely of the cardinals to become pope.