- Papal conclave, 1878
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The Papal conclave of 1878 resulted from the death of Pope Pius IX in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican on 7 February 1878. The conclave occurred in circumstances different from those of any previous conclave.
Contents
Unique circumstances
The Sistine Chapel, new conclave location now that the Quirinal Palace was no longer available
The unique circumstances were
- the longest reign of any other pope since Saint Peter, meant that Pius IX had had a greater opportunity than any pope in history to shape the College of Cardinals by selecting people who shared his world and religious vision.
- the first conclave in which the person selected would reign as pope but not as sovereign of the Papal States, the latter having been swept away by the unification of Kingdom of Italy in 1870.
- a change of venue, as the previous venue used in most papal conclaves in the 19th century, the former papal residence, the Quirinal Palace, was no longer in papal ownership and was now the palace of Umberto I, King of Italy.
Questions facing the cardinals
When the cardinals assembled, they faced a dilemma. Should they choose a pope who would continue to espouse Pius IX's reactionary religious and political views, and would continue to refuse to accept Italy's Law of Guarantees guaranteeing the pope religious liberty in the Kingdom of Italy? Or should they turn away from the policies of Pius IX and choose a more liberal pope who could work for reconciliation with the King of Italy? Would choosing such a policy be seen as a betrayal of Pius IX, the self-proclaimed "Prisoner in the Vatican"?
Other broader issues included
- Church-state relations in Italy, the Third French Republic, Ireland and the United States
- the heresy Pope Leo XIII later called Americanism
- divisions in the Church caused by the proclamation of Papal Infallibility by the First Vatican Council
- the status of the First Vatican Council, which had been halted after the Italian 'liberation' of Rome but never wound up.
Though not explicitly spelt out, another issue was raised by the length of Pope Pius' reign. Should they elect another young pope who might reign for decades, or should they go for an older man and so a shorter reign?
Conclave
With what many Churchmen believed was the "unstable" and "anti-Catholic" situation in a Rome that was no longer controlled by the Church, some cardinals, notably Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, urged that the conclave be moved outside Rome, perhaps even out of Italy to Spain under the Restoration. However the Camerlengo, Gioachino Pecci, advocated otherwise, with an initial vote among cardinals to move to Spain being overturned in a later vote. The conclave finally assembled in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican on 18 February 1878.
Unusually for conclaves, the voting patterns became public.
Ballot 1 (morning 19 Feb)
On the first ballot, held on the morning of the 19 February the votes were
- Gioachino Pecci 19 votes
- Luigi Bilio 6 votes
- Alessandro Franchi 4 votes
Ballot 2 (afternoon 19 Feb)
- Pecci 26
- Bilio 7
- Franchi 2
Ballot 3 (morning 20 February)
- Pecci 44 - elected
Result, implications, and aftermath
The election of Cardinal Pecci, who took the regnal name of Pope Leo XIII, was a victory for the liberals. Pecci had been an effective bishop whose diocese had moved from the Papal States to the Kingdom of Italy successfully, without Church problems. He was seen as a diplomatic pragmatist with the tact and flexibility opponents of the previous pope believed Pius IX lacked. At 68 Leo was also young enough to do the job without hindrance of health problems, but old enough to offer the prospect of a relatively short reign of ten to fifteen years. Whereas Pius IX was seen as having isolated the Church from international opinion (his locking of Jews into ghettos and treatment of minorities had been condemned by world leaders such as William Ewart Gladstone), Leo was seen as an "internationalist" who could earn back the Vatican some international respect.
Pope Leo came to be seen as embodying a dramatic difference to the papacy of Pope Pius. In one area however they were similar. Though always seemingly in poor health and delicate he reigned for an unexpected 25 years, becoming the third longest-reigning pope in history (until his record was surpassed by Pope John Paul II on March 14, 2004). Far from being a short reigned pope, Leo surprised all by living to the age of 93, dying 20 July 1903, making him the oldest Pope at the time of his passing.
Conclave factfile
Pope Pius IX (1846-1878), whose reactionary policies the cardinals rejected in selecting the liberal Cardinal Pecci- Dates: 18 February - 20 February 1878
- Location: Sistine Chapel in the Vatican
- Arrived late: 2 cardinals
- Paul Cullen, Archbishop of Dublin (Primate of Ireland)
- John McCloskey, Archbishop of New York (United States)
- Unavailable through ill-health:
- Godefroy Brossais-Saint-Marc, Archbishop of Rennes (France)
- Present included : (candidates in bold italics)
- Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso Dean of the College of Cardinals
- Luigi Bilio, Bishop of Sabina
- Friedrich Johannes Jacob Celestin von Schwarzenberg, Prince-Archbishop of Prague (Bohemia, part of Austria-Hungary)
- Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, Camerlengo (Papal Chamberlain), Bishop of Perugia (Italy)
- Lucien-Louis-Joseph-Napoleon Bonaparte
- Alessandro Franchi
- René-François Régnier, Archbishop of Cambrai (France)
- Joseph-Hippolyte Guibert, Archbishop of Paris (France)
- Mieczysław Halka Ledóchowski, Archbishop of Gnesen and Posen, (Poland, part of the Russian Empire).
- Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster (Head of the Catholic Church in England & Wales).
- Victor-Auguste-Isidor Deschamps, Archbishop of Mechelen (Belgium).
- Johann Rudolf Kutschker , Archbishop of Vienna, Austria-Hungary
PAPAL CONCLAVE, 1878 LENGTH OF CONCLAVE 2 days NUMBER OF BALLOTS 3 ELECTORS 64 Absent 3 Present 61 Africa 0 Latin America 0 North America 0 Asia 0 Europe 61 Oceania 0 Mid-East 0 Italians 40 VETO USED? no DECEASED POPE PIUS IX (1846-1878) NEW POPE LEO XIII (1878-1903) Holy See elections Pre-1059 Before 105911th century 12th century 13th century 14th century 15th century 16th century 17th century 18th century 19th century 20th century 21st century External links
Trivia
Given that the 1878 conclave was preceded by the longest papal reign in history and ushered in the third longest reign in history, it is worth noting the four participating cardinals for whom this was not the only conclave in which they participated:
Also participated in 1846 conclave
- Luigi Amat di San Filippo e Sorso
- Fabio Maria Asquini
- Domenico Carafa della Spina di Traetto
Also participated in 1903 conclave
Categories:- 1878 elections
- 1878 elections in Europe
- Papal conclaves
- Pope Pius IX
- 19th-century Roman Catholicism
- 1878 in religion
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