Papal conclave July–August 1903 | |
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Dates and location | |
31 July – 4 August 1903 Sistine Chapel, Apostolic Palace, Rome | |
Key officials | |
Dean | Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano |
Sub-dean | Serafino Vannutelli |
Camerlengo | Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano |
Protopriest | José Sebastião Neto |
Protodeacon | Luigi Macchi |
Election | |
Vetoed | Mariano Rampolla |
Ballots | 7 |
Elected pope | |
Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto Name taken: Pius X | |
The papal conclave held from 31 July to 4 August 1903 saw the election of Cardinal Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto to become pope in succession to Leo XIII, who had died on 20 July after a 25-year-long pontificate. Some 62 cardinals participated in the balloting. Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria asserted the right claimed by certain Catholic rulers to veto a candidate for the papacy, blocking the election of the leading candidate, Cardinal Secretary of State Mariano Rampolla. Sarto was elected on the seventh ballot and took the name Pius X.
The pontificate of Leo XIII came to an end on 20 July 1903 after 25 years, longer than any previous elected pope, except his predecessor Pius IX; together, they had reigned 57 years. While Pius had been a conservative reactionary, Leo had been seen as a liberal, certainly in comparison with his predecessor. As cardinals gathered, the key question was whether a pope would be chosen who would continue Leo's policies or return to the style of papacy of Pius IX.
Of the 64 cardinals, 62 participated, [1] the largest number to enter a conclave up until that time. [2] Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano was the only elector with previous experience of electing a pope. [3] Health prevented Michelangelo Celesia of Palermo from traveling and Patrick Francis Moran of Sydney was not expected before August 20. [2] The conclave included James Gibbons of Baltimore, who was the first American cardinal to participate in a papal conclave.
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 Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto, and others scattered. [4] Some of the Germans thought that Gotti's appeal was limited and decided to support Sarto as their best alternative to Rampolla, who otherwise appeared likely to win the two-thirds vote required, which was 42. As the cardinals were completing their third set of ballots on the morning of 2 August, Cardinal Jan Puzyna de Kosielsko, the Prince-Bishop of Kraków and a subject of Austria-Hungary, acting on instructions from Franz Joseph, Emperor of Austria, exercised the Emperor's right of jus exclusivae , that is, to veto one candidate. [note 1] At first there were objections and some cardinals wanted to ignore the Emperor's communication. Then Rampolla called it "an affront to the dignity of the Sacred College" but withdrew himself from consideration saying that "with regard to my humble person, I declare that nothing could be more honorable, nothing more agreeable could have happened." Nevertheless the third ballot showed no change in support for Rampolla, still with 29 votes, while the next two candidates had switched positions, with 21 for Sarto and 9 for Gotti. Several cardinals later wrote of their disgust at the Emperor's intervention, one writing that it left a "great, painful impression on all".
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.
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".
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) |
Pope Pius X was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of Catholic doctrine, and for promoting liturgical reforms and Thomist scholastic theology. He initiated the preparation of the 1917 Code of Canon Law, the first comprehensive and systemic work of its kind, which would ultimately be promulgated by his successor. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Papabile is an unofficial Italian term first coined by Vaticanologists and now used internationally in many languages to describe a Catholic man, in practice always a cardinal, who is thought a likely or possible candidate to be elected pope.
Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro was an Italian Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, and the last man to have his candidacy for papal election vetoed through jus exclusivae by a Catholic monarch.
Prince Jan Duklan Maurycy Paweł Puzyna de Kosielsko was a Polish Roman Catholic Cardinal who was auxiliary bishop of Lwów from 1886 to 1895, and the bishop of Kraków from 1895 until his death in 1911. Named a Cardinal in 1901, he was known for his conservative views and authoritarianism.
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Vincenzo Vannutelli was an Italian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He spent his career in the foreign service of the Holy See and was made a cardinal in 1890.
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Serafino Vannutelli was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal and official of the Roman Curia where he held several of the highest administrative posts. Made a cardinal in 1887, he was named a cardinal-bishop in 1893 and elected dean of the College of Cardinals in 1915 and he died shortly after. He was thought a possible candidate for the papacy in 1903.
Jus exclusivae was the right claimed by several Catholic monarchs of Europe to veto a candidate for the papacy. Although never formally recognized by the Catholic Church, the monarchs of France, Spain and Austria claimed this right at various times, making known to a papal conclave, through a crown-cardinal, that the monarch deemed a particular candidate for the papacy objectionable.
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Gennaro Granito Pignatelli di Belmonte was an Italian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and a prominent member of the Roman Curia.
Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano was a cardinal of the Catholic Church in the late nineteenth century. He was Bishop of Ostia e Velletri and Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals from 1896 until his death.
Girolamo Maria Gotti, OCD, sometimes erroneously called Giuseppe Gotti, was a friar of the Discalced Carmelite Order, who served in various offices of the Holy See as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church.
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