Conclave 1667

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The conclave of 1667 was convened after the death of Pope Alexander VII and ended with the election of Giulio Rospigliosi as Pope Clement IX. The conclave was dominated by factions loyal to the cardinal nephews of Alexander VII and Urban VIII . It saw the continued existence of the Volante Squadrone , which had arisen in the 1665 conclave . The conclave also saw that Spain and France, the two main Catholic powers at the time, supported Rospigliosi's election as pope. Ultimately, Rospigliosi's election was achieved when the French ambassador bribed Flavio Chigi , Alexander's nephew, to aid Rospigliosi. After the conclave, all parties believed that they had chosen the Pope they wanted.

background

After his election, Alexander VII initially opposed nepotism and refused to appoint a cardinal nepot. Members of the college of cardinals urged him to reconsider the appointment of members of his family to positions of power, and he eventually relented, summoning members of his Chigi family to the papal government and appointing a nephew. Relations between the Papal States and France deteriorated under Alexander's reign . France invaded Avignon in 1664 after a confrontation between France's ambassador to the Holy See and papal troops . The French troops left Avignon only after an apology from Alexander. Cardinal Jules Mazarin , the leader of the French government, continued to urge Alexander to appoint more French cardinals, but he didn't. During his pontificate, Alexander appointed 40 new cardinals, 33 of whom were Italian.

Within the college of cardinals, a faction that was not loyal to any of the Catholic monarchies was called Squadrone Volante . It was written during the conclave of 1665. The name, which translates as "flying squadron", was given to them because of the support of candidates they believed had the interests of the papacy in mind, rather than candidates who were already supported by secular monarchs. Christina of Sweden , who renounced the throne and moved to Rome before converting to Catholicism, served as the group's secular supporter and was particularly close to Cardinal Decio Azzolino .

conclave

When the conclave opened, there were 64 eligible voters in attendance. At the moment of Alexander's death, the quorum was at its maximum of 70 members. By the time the conclave opened on June 2, 1667 , two cardinals had died and four had not yet arrived in Rome. Since the 1605 conclave, the quorum had consistently had 60 or more members in the conclave, and space had become a problem. The cardinals debated whether it was appropriate to hold the conclave in the Vatican as there were concerns in previous conclaves about the crush and death of cardinals, but senior cardinals insisted on staying.

Alexander VII himself appointed 34 of the cardinals who were now present. Ten of them did not accept Flavio Chigi, Alexander's cardinal nepot, as their leader, as his lifestyle seemed inappropriate to them. Sixteen cardinals in attendance owed their appointment to Urban VIII and they all agreed to follow the lead of Antonio Barberini , one of Urban's nephews. The conclave was dominated by parties loyal to the cardinal nephews , and voters who surrendered to different monarchs or who were members of the Volante Squadrone split evenly between the two parties under the leadership of the nephew. Eight voters were loyal to France, six to Spain, and the Squadrone Volante consisted of eleven cardinals.

Giulio Rospigliosi was considered the most promising candidate from the beginning of the conclave. It was not opposed by any of the major factions in the Conclave. At first the French tried to hide their support for Rospigliosi and promoted Scipione Pannocchieschi d'Elci as the new Pope so that the Spaniards could support Rospigliosi, who was on good terms with the Spanish government. However, the Spaniards initially preferred Francesco Barberini , another nephew of Urban VIII.

A second serious candidate at the beginning of the conclave was Girolamo Farnese . Farnese, however , was not acceptable to the Squadrone Volante , who saw Rospigliosi and d'Elci as the only possible options. Flavio Chigi promoted d'Elci as a candidate, but he was viewed as too zealous by some voters.

Election of Clemens' XI.

In the ballot on the morning of June 20, 1667 , Rospigliosi received five votes. He had received a maximum of 10 votes in the previous weeks' votes. Between the morning and evening votes, Charles d'Albert d'Ailly , the French ambassador in Rome, promised Flavio Chigi an income from France, whereupon Chigi agreed to persuade his loyal voters to vote for Rospigliosi. That evening Rospigliosi received 61 votes and became Pope Clement IX. elected. He was the last Pope from Tuscany . At the end of the conclave, both France and Spain believed they had succeeded in getting the Pope they wanted through.

Eligible voters

64 cardinals attended the conclave:

  1. Giulio Rospigliosi , Cardinal Secretary of State
  2. Francesco Barberini , Bishop of Ostia and Velletri , Dean of the Holy College
  3. Marzio Ginetti , Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina , Subdean of the Holy College
  4. Antonio Barberini , Bishop of Palestrina
  5. Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta , Bishop of Frascati
  6. Francesco Maria Brancaccio , Bishop of Sabina
  7. Ulderico Carpegna , Bishop of Albano
  8. Ernst Adalbert von Harrach , Archbishop of Prague
  9. Stefano Durazzo
  10. Giulio Gabrielli
  11. Virginio Orsini
  12. Cesare Facchinetti , Bishop of Spoleto
  13. Girolamo Grimaldi-Cavalleroni , Archbishop of Aix
  14. Carlo Rosetti , Bishop of Faenza
  15. Giovanni Stefano Donghi , Bishop of Ferrara
  16. Niccolò Albergati-Ludovisi
  17. Federico Sforza
  18. Benedetto Odescalchi , later Pope Innocent XI.
  19. Alderano Cibo , Bishop of Jesi
  20. Lorenzo Raggi
  21. Jean-François Paul de Gondi
  22. Luigi Omodei
  23. Pietro Ottoboni , later Pope Alexander VIII.
  24. Marcello Santacroce Bishop of Tivoli
  25. Lorenzo Imperiali
  26. Giberto Borromeo
  27. Giovanni Battista Spada
  28. Francesco Albizzi
  29. Ottavio Acquaviva d'Aragona the Younger
  30. Flavio Chigi
  31. Girolamo Buonvisi , Bishop of Lucca and legate in Ferrara
  32. Scipione Pannocchieschi d'Elci
  33. Girolamo Farnese
  34. Antonio Bichi , administrator of Osimo
  35. Pietro Vidoni , Bishop of Lodi
  36. Gregorio Barbarigo , Bishop of Pavia
  37. Girolamo Boncompagni , Archbishop of Bologna
  38. Celio Piccolomini
  39. Carlo Bonelli
  40. Carlo Caraffa della Spina , legate in Bologna
  41. Alfonso Litta , Archbishop of Milan
  42. Neri Corsini
  43. Paluzzo Paluzzi Altieri degli Albertoni , Prefect of Propaganda Fide
  44. Cesare Maria Antonio Rasponi , legate in Urbino
  45. Giannicolò Conti , Bishop of Ancona
  46. Giacomo Filippo Nini
  47. Carlo Roberti de 'Vittori
  48. Giulio Spinola
  49. Innico Caracciolo , Archbishop of Naples
  50. Giovanni Delfino , Patriarch of Aquileia
  51. Rinaldo d'Este
  52. Paolo Emilio Rondinini , Bishop of Assisi
  53. Francesco Maidalchini
  54. Friedrich of Hessen-Darmstadt
  55. Carlo Barberini
  56. Carlo Pio di Savoia
  57. Carlo Gualterio , Bishop of Fermo
  58. Decio Azzolini
  59. Odoardo Vecchiarelli , Bishop of Rieti
  60. Giacomo Franzoni
  61. Francesco Maria Mancini
  62. Angelo Celsi
  63. Paolo Savelli
  64. Louis de Vendôme

When Pope Alexander VII died on May 22, 1667, the College of Cardinals comprised a total of 70 cardinals. With the beginning of the conclave on June 2, 61 cardinals entered the conclave to elect a new head of the church in the Vatican.

The cardinals appeared late for the conclave:

The following four cardinals did not participate in the papal election:

Cardinals Pietro Sforza Pallavicino SJ and Volumnio Bandinelli died on June 5th and had not entered the conclave.

The 64 electors present came from the following pontificate:

literature

  • Frederic J. Baumgartner: Behind Locked Doors. Palgrave Macmillan, 2003, ISBN 0-312-29463-8 .
  • FL Carsten: The New Cambridge Modern History. Volume 5: The Ascendancy of France, 1648-88. CUP Archives, 1961, ISBN 978-0-521-04544-5 .
  • Ludwig von Pastor , Ernst Graf (Ed.): The History of the Popes. Volume 31, Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. (1940) [1891].