176. Viterbo: The First Conclave

Photo: The Palace of the Popes: courtesy Wikipedia

Last Sunday Pope Benedict was saying Mass at Viterbo, about 60 miles north of Rome and I was watching the transmission while doing the housework. While Holy Communion is being distributed, the commentators usually chat about the area and I heard them say that to force the Cardinals to elect a new Pope the chieftains of the town placed the 15 Cardinals inside the Papal Palace as it is called today, and locked them in, nor would the people let them out until a new pope was elected. Furthermore the town’s people uncovered the roof of the palace to let the Holy Spirit in and speed them on their task.

Quite honestly, right there and then I looked around at my four legged creatures, all reclining on my best blue chair, and said: “Is this a joke?”

Obviously, it was not. Google came to the rescue, and discovered that indeed was the method employed to have Gregory X elected. Tebaldo Visconti, the future pope’s name, was not even among the voters, he was off on a Pilgrimage, so they say, but more likely on a Crusade, of which he was most fond of, with Prince Edward of England. He was not a cardinal or even a priest but the archdeacon of Liège. That too was something which had not registered before- in theory any male baptized Catholic can become pope.

The papal election which eventually led to the nomination of Gregory X as pope lasted in effect 33 months. Mind you the previous pope, Clement IV was not elected in a day or two, either, but in four months. During this period the difficulty in electing a pope was due to the warring French and Italian factions of the church who both wanted someone from their country to be elected.

Also, Rome has not always been the headquarters of the Catholic Church and at this particular moment November of 1268 to September 1^st 1271 the cardinals were gathered not in Rome itself but in Viterbo. It was the desperate desire to have a new pope that led the people of Viterbo to the drastic action of keeping the cardinals under lock and key until a pope was elected. However, I have not been able to find out the exact day they were put under lock and key: what is known is the town people eventually fed the cardinals only on bread and water, further more they uncovered the roof of the palace so as to speed up the election. This process of electing a pope has been used ever since then, though without uncovering the roof top or being fed on bread and water. It became known as the Conclave and remained 

unchanged until Pope Paul VI made some reforms, basically by putting in a bathroom or two.

The present Pope Benedict during his stay in Viterbo told Catholics not to be afraid to go into politics and be witnesses of their faith openly. Indeed, if we take the action of the people at Viterbo as an example of transferral of power we can say that the fate of the Church has been well and truly placed in the hands of the faithful, instead, which finds no objection from me.

Photo: It seems my authority has been delegated without my knowledge and possession of intellectual property on my desk has been taken