1261 papal election

Papal election 1261
Dates and location
26 May – 29 August 1261 Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo
Election
Ballots	80
Elected pope
Jacques Pantaléon Name taken: Urban IV
←  1254 1264–65  →

Detail of the loggia of the Papal Palace of Viterbo.

The 1261 papal election (26 May – 29 August) took place after the death of Pope Alexander IV on 25 May and chose Pope Urban IV as his successor. Since Pope Alexander had been resident in Viterbo since the first week of May 1261, the meeting of the cardinals to elect his successor took place in the Episcopal Palace at Viterbo, which was next to the Cathedral of S. Lorenzo. ^[1] The actual date of the beginning of the Electoral Meeting (there were, as yet, no Conclaves) is unknown. If the canon of Pope Boniface III (A.D. 607) were still in effect (and there is no reason to think that it was not), then the Election could not begin until the third day after the Pope's burial. ^[2]

Background

Alexander IV had unwisely continued to pursue the policy of hostility against the Hohenstaufen dynasty which had been begun by Pope Gregory IX. In 1261 the claimant was Conradin, King of Sicily since 1254, but he had been supplanted by his uncle and guardian, Manfred. This was not to the liking of Pope Alexander, who claimed the overlordship of south Italy and Sicily and the guardianship over young Conradin. Immediately on his accession Alexander excommunicated Manfred. Manfred had himself crowned King of Sicily at Palermo on 10 August 1258.

Cardinals, 1261

Pope Alexander IV (1254-1261), sensitive to charges of nepotism made against his predecessor, Innocent IV (Fieschi), had appointed no cardinals at all. ^[3] Two cardinals besides Alexander himself had died since the last election in 1254 (Gil Torres and Guilelmo Fieschi); otherwise the electors were the same.

Elector	Origins	Order	Title	Date of creation	by Pope	Notes
Otto (Eudes or Odo of Chateauroux, Castro Radulfi), O.Cist.	Diocese of Bourges, France	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Tusculum (Frascati)	28 May 1244	Innocent IV	on 8 July 1255 he was appointed to the Committee to judge Joachim de Fiore. [4]
John of Toledo (John Tolet)	English	Cardinal-priest	Bishop of Porto	28 May 1244	Innocent IV	A supporter of Henry III of England; served sixty years in the Roman Curia
Stephanus de Vancsa (Istvan Bancsa)	Hungary	Cardinal-bishop	Bishop of Palestrina	December 1251	Innocent IV	Archbishop of Strigonia (Esztergom) (1243-1254)
Hughes de Saint-Cher, OP	Vienne, Dauphiné	Cardinal-priest	Title of Santa Sabina on the Aventine	28 May 1244	Innocent IV	Legate in Germany, 1253
Riccardo Annibaldi	Roman	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria	1237	Gregory IX	Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica.
Ottaviano degli Ubaldini	Florence	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of Santa Maria in Via Lata	28 May 1244	Innocent IV	Apostolic Legate in the Kingdom of Sicily, from January 1255.
Giovanni Gaetano Orsini	Rome	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of S. Niccolo in Carcere	28 May 1244	Innocent IV	Alexander IV assigned him the tituli of S. Crisogono and S. Maria in Trastevere in commendam on 22 June 1259 [5] future Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280)
Ottobono Fieschi	Genoa	Cardinal-deacon	Deacon of Archpriest of S. Adriano	December 1251	Innocent IV	Archpriest of S. Maria Maggiore. Archdeacon of Reims. [6]

References

1. Cristofori, pp.217-275, and, for the tomb of Alexander IV, pp. 277-285.
2. Liber Pontificalis ('Doings of the Popes'), in Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptorum Vol. 5 (Hannover: Impensiis Bibliopolae Aulici Hanniani, 1844), p. 164 (ed. T. Mommsen)
3. Annales Sancti Justinae Patavini in G. Pertz (Editor), Monumenta Germaniae Historica Scriptorum Volume XIX, p. 181): Iste toto tempore sui regiminis nullum constituit cardinalem; nam cum quidam de cardinalibus edificare Syon in sanguinibus affectaret, quidam vero vellent viros ydoneos promovere, ipse licet haberet plenitudinem potestatis, timore tamen scandali neutram partem voluit exaudire. Sede Vacante of 1261 (Dr. J. P. Adams).
4. B. Hauréau Quelques lettres d' Innocent IV (Paris 1874) (Extrait from Notices et Manuscrits XXIV.2), 48-79.
5. Otto Posse, Analecta Vaticana (Oeniponti: Libraria Academica Wagneriana, 1878), #166.
6. Bourel, Registres d' Alexandre IV, p. 171, no. 562; p. 233, no. 761.

Bibliography

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