In Roman Catholicism, the expression zelanti has been applied to conservative members of the clergy and their lay supporters since the thirteenth century. Its specific connotations have shifted with each reapplication of the label. The Latinate term applies to those who show zeal.
In its original thirteenth-century application the zelanti were those members of the Franciscan Order who opposed any changes or relaxation to the Rule formulated by St. Francis of Assisi in 1221 and 1223. In consequence of St. Francis's severe requirements concerning the practice of poverty, his followers divided into two branches, the Zelanti, or Spirituals, and the Relaxati, known later as the Conventuals. The origin of the Fraticelli and the cause of their growth within and without the Franciscan Order must be sought in the history of the zelanti or "Spirituals".
In the eighteenth century the zelanti were the supporters of the Jesuits in the long controversy that led the suppression of the Jesuits in 1767–73. At the Papal conclave of 1774-1775 the College of Cardinals was generally divided into two blocs: curial, pro-Jesuit zelanti and political, temporizing faction, anti-Jesuit. Among the zelanti were the Italian curial cardinals who opposed secular influences on the Church. The second faction included crown-cardinals of the Catholic courts. These two blocs were in no way homogeneous. Zelanti were divided into moderate and radical factions.
During the papacy of Pius VII the zelanti were more radically reactionary than the politicani and wanted a highly centralised Church with vehement opposition to the secularising reforms that had resulted in France from the Revolution, which liberals were intent on spreading to the Papal States. The politicani, though not liberal, were much more moderate and favoured a conciliatory approach to dealing with the problems new ideologies and the incipient Industrial Revolution were creating in the early nineteenth century. The zelanti and the moderates featured in the Papal conclave of 1823 and the Papal conclave of 1829.
Pope Clement XIV, born Giovanni Vincenzo Antonio Ganganelli, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 19 May 1769 to his death in September 1774. At the time of his election, he was the only Franciscan friar in the College of Cardinals, having been a member of OFM Conventual. He is the most recent pope to take the pontifical name of "Clement" upon his election.
Pope Pius VI was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 15 February 1775 to his death in August 1799.
The Fraticelli or Spiritual Franciscans opposed changes to the rule of Saint Francis of Assisi, especially with regard to poverty, and regarded the wealth of the Church as scandalous, and that of individual churchmen as invalidating their status. The Fraticelli were declared heretical in 1296 by Boniface VIII.
Apostolic poverty is a Christian doctrine professed in the thirteenth century by the newly formed religious orders, known as the mendicant orders, in direct response to calls for reform in the Roman Catholic Church. In this, these orders attempted to live their lives without ownership of lands or accumulation of money, following the precepts given to the seventy disciples in the Gospel of Luke (10:1-24), and succeeding to varying degrees. The ascetic Pope Paschal II's solution of the Investiture Controversy in his radical Concordat of 1111 with the Emperor, repudiated by the cardinals, was that the ecclesiastics of Germany should surrender to the imperial crown their fiefs and secular offices. Paschal proved to be the last of the Gregorianist popes.
The papal conclave held from 2 to 6 February 1922 saw Cardinal Achille Ratti elected to succeed Benedict XV, who had died on 22 January 1922. It took fourteen ballots for the 53 of the 60 cardinals assembled in the Sistine Chapel to elect a new pope. Ratti took the name Pius XI and immediately revived the traditional public blessing from the balcony, Urbi et Orbi, which his predecessors had eschewed since the loss of Rome to the Italian state in 1870.
The papal conclave that followed the death of Pius VI on 29 August 1799 lasted from 30 November 1799 to 14 March 1800 and led to the selection of Cardinal Barnaba Chiaramonti, who took the name Pius VII. This conclave was held in Venice and was the last to take place outside Rome. This period was marked by uncertainty for the papacy and the Roman Catholic Church following the invasion of the Papal States and abduction of Pius VI under the French Directory.
The papal conclave held from 24 February to 31 March 1829 to elect a successor to the recently deceased Leo XII resulted in the accession of Cardinal Francesco Castiglioni, who took the name Pius VIII.
The papal conclave held from 2 to 28 September 1823 ended with the election of Annibale della Genga to succeed the death recently deceased Pius VII as pope. Della Genga took the name Leo XII.
The Squadrone Volante was a 17th-century group of independent and liberal cardinals within the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church. It attempted to influence the outcome of a number of papal conclaves.
The 1268–71 papal election, following the death of Pope Clement IV, was the longest papal election in the history of the Catholic Church. This was due primarily to political infighting between the cardinals. The election of Teobaldo Visconti as Pope Gregory X was the first example of a papal election by "compromise", that is, by the appointment of a committee of six cardinals agreed to by the other remaining ten. The election occurred more than a year after the magistrates of Viterbo locked the cardinals in, reduced their rations to bread and water, and removed the roof of the Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo where the election took place.
The 1758 papal conclave, convoked after the death of Pope Benedict XIV, elected Cardinal Carlo Rezzonico of Venice, who took the name Clement XIII.
The 1721 papal conclave, convoked after the death of Pope Clement XI, elected Cardinal Michelangelo de' Conti, who took the name of Innocent XIII.
The 1774–75 papal conclave, was convoked after the death of Pope Clement XIV and ended with the election of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Braschi, who took the name of Pius VI.
The papal conclave held from 1 May 1314 to 7 August 1316 in the apostolic palace of Carpentras and then the Dominican house in Lyon was one of the longest conclaves in the history of the Roman Catholic Church and the first conclave of the Avignon Papacy. The length of the conclave was due to the division of the cardinals into three factions: Italian, Gascon, and French/Provençal.
The 1769 papal conclave, was convoked after the death of Pope Clement XIII. It elected as his successor Cardinal Lorenzo Ganganelli, who took the name Clement XIV.
The 1689 papal conclave was convened after the death of Pope Innocent XI. It led to the election of Cardinal Pietro Vito Ottoboni as Pope Alexander VIII. The conclave saw previous factions join together because they lacked numerical strength, and saw the rise of the zelanti as a political force in the election of the next pope. Ottoboni was eventually unanimously elected with the consent of the secular monarchs, becoming the first Venetian in over 200 years to be elected pope.
The 1700 papal conclave was convened following the death of Pope Innocent XII. It ended in the election of Cardinal Giovanni Albani as Pope Clement XI. The conclave saw a rise in the dominance of the zelanti faction College of Cardinals. It remained deadlocked for a month until the death of the childless Charles II of Spain. The cardinal electors anticipated that his death without a clear heir would cause a political crisis, and moved to elect a pope that was seen as non-partisan.
The 1691 papal conclave was convened on the death of Pope Alexander VIII and ended with the election of Cardinal Antonio Pignatelli as Pope Innocent XII. It lasted for five months, from 12 February to 12 July 1691. The conclave became deadlocked after Catholic monarchs opposed the election of Gregorio Barbarigo, who some members of the College of Cardinals also viewed as too strict. The conclave only ended in July when cardinals started to become ill from the heat, and after French cardinals agreed to vote for Pignatelli despite him coming from Spanish-controlled Naples.
The 1724 papal conclave was called upon the death of Pope Innocent XIII. It began on 20 March 1724 and ended on 28 May that year with the election of Cardinal Vincenzo Maria Orsini, a Dominican friar, as Pope Benedict XIII. The conclave was made of largely the same electors that had elected Innocent in 1721, and the same factions dominated it. Multiple attempts were made to elect candidates acceptable to the various Catholic monarchies at the time, but none were successful until May. Benedict resisted his election for two days before being convinced to accept it.
The 1730 papal conclave elected Pope Clement XII as the successor to Pope Benedict XIII.
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