The 1198 papal election (held 8 January) was convoked after the death of Pope Celestine III; it ended with the election of Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, who took the name Innocent III. In this election for the first time the new pope was elected per scrutinium.[2]
Pope Celestine III had been elected to the papacy in 1191 at the age of 85. In spite of his very advanced age, his pontificate lasted almost seven years.
A little before Christmas 1197, the 91-year-old Pope began to feel ill, and summoned all the cardinals to a meeting in his presence, announcing that they should discuss the matter of electing his successor. He stated that he was willing to abdicate the papacy on condition that his close collaborator, Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo, would be elected the new pope. Cardinal Giovanni, the cardinal-priest of S. Prisca, had been conducting all of the pope's business for him, except the consecration of bishops.[3] The cardinals unanimously rejected the pope's suggestion, saying that they would not elect him with that condition, and that it was unheard of for a pope to depose himself.[4] In fact, Cardinal Octavianus, the Bishop of Ostia, was working to become pope, as were Cardinal Petrus of Porto, Cardinal Giordano of S. Pudenziana, and Cardinal Graziano of Ss. Cosma e Damiano.[5]
Two weeks later, on 8 January 1198, Celestine III died, and on the same day the cardinals started proceedings for the election of his successor.
List of participants
At the death of Celestine III there were 29 cardinals in the Sacred College.[6] However, no more than 21 were present at Rome:[7]
He was legate in Bohemia and Poland in 1197. At the death of Celestine III he had already finished this mission but was unable to reach Rome before the election
Election of Pope Innocent III
A fragment of the Septizodium as it looked in the 16th century
On the same day that Celestine III died, some of the cardinals assembled at the Sapta Solis monasterii Cliviscauri,[8] which is taken by scholars to be the Septizodium, or possibly in the nearby church of Santa Lucia in Septisolio.[1] Others accompanied the body of the dead pope to its funeral in the Lateran Basilica. Following the return of the cardinals from the funeral, they assembled in voluntary enclosure,[9] as reported by pope Innocent himself on a letter on January 9.[10] This may have been done to guarantee safety and freedom in the election, given the presence and influence of the Germans in Italy.[11]
Not for the first time (secundum morem), the electors voted by scrutiny (per scrutinium). Some cardinals were elected scrutineers; they counted the votes, recorded the result and announced it to the rest of the Sacred College.[12] In the first scrutiny Cardinal Giovanni di Salerno received the greatest number of votes (ten), but declared that he would not accept the election to the pontificate.[13]Ottaviano di Paoli also received three votes, but declared his own preference for Lotario.[14] In the second scrutiny the cardinals united their votes[15] in favor of 37-year-old Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, deacon of SS. Sergio e Bacco, who was the youngest of all the cardinals.[16] He accepted his election and took the name Innocent III. The name was possibly chosen for him by cardinal Graziano da Pisa, as a means to supplant the memory of Antipope Innocent III.[14][17]
↑ "Sed omnes cardinales una voce responderunt, quod illum conditionaliter non eligerent, dkicentes, quod inauditum erat, quod summus Pontifex se deponeret." T. Greenwood, p. 358
↑ Karl Holder, Die Designation der Nachfolger durch die Päpste(in German) (Freiburg i. B.: B. Veith 1892), pp. 67-70.
↑ Number according to W. Maleczek, p. 241. K. Eubel, p. 3, note 1; and T. Greenwood, p. 358, give the number of only 28, but Eubel omitted Ruggiero of S. Eusebio, and Greenwood does not provide the list at all
↑ Reconstruction is based on the biographical data of the cardinals in: W. Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216, Wien 1984. This author, p. 354, suggests even the lower number of electors (19 or 20), but without indicating which cardinals were absent. T. Greenwood, p. 358, says that at least five out of twenty eight cardinals were absent
↑ "Gesta Innocentii III Papae", in Patrologiae Latinae Tomus CCXIV (Paris: Garnier 1890), p. xix: "Defuncto igitur Coelestino, cum quidam cardinalium se contulisset ad Septa Solis monasterii Clivisauri, ut liberius et securius ibi possent de successoris electione tractare, ipse cum quibusdam aliis apud basilicam Constantinianam voluit decessoris excequiis interisse."
↑ For this reason, some authors[who?] consider this election as the first papal conclave (A. Piazzoni, p. 176, note 2), but the formal procedures of the conclave would not be developed until the papal election, 1268–1271, and were first implemented in the papal conclave, January 1276
↑ A. Piazzoni, p. 177. Piazzoni cites for this statement two anonymous contemporary sources: Oratio pro eligendo pontifice and Gesta Innocentii papae. "Gesta Innocentii III Papae", in Patrologiae Latinae Tomus CCXIV (Paris: Garnier 1890), p. xix: "Et, exhortatione praemissa, examinatores fuerunt secundum morem electi, qui, sigillatim votis omnium perscrutatis, et in scriptis redactis, examinationem factam retulerunt ad fratres...."
↑ Another possibility is that he chose the name himself, maybe as a reference to his predecessor Innocent II (1130–1143), who, in contrast with Celestine III's recent policy, had succeeded in asserting the papacy's authority over the emperor. Théry, Julien (2015). "Introduction". In D. Le Blévec; M. Fournié; J. Théry-Astruc (eds.). Innocent III et le Midi. Cahiers de Fanjeaux. Vol.50. pp.11–35, at 13-14.
Ott, Michael (1910). "Pope Innocent III". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.VIII. Robert Appleton Company.
Piazzoni, Ambrogio (2003). Historia wyboru papieży (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo M. ISBN83-7221-648-7.
Piazzoni, Ambrogio M. (2003). Storia delle elezioni pontificie Atti, documenti segreti, cronache del tempo e curiosità svelano i retroscena delle quasi trecento elezioni papali dalle origini della Chiesa ai giorni nostri(in Italian) Asti: Piemme. ISBN8838465398.
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