Misplaced Pages

Papal election 1277
Dates and location
30 May – 25 November 1277 Palazzo dei Papi di Viterbo
Key officials
Dean	Bertrand de Saint-Martin
Camerlengo	Guillaume de Bray
Protopriest	Anchero Pantaleone
Protodeacon	Giovanni Gaetano Orsini
Elected pope
Giovanni Gaetano Orsini Name taken: Nicholas III
← September, 12761280–81 →

The 1277 papal election (May 30 – November 25), convened in Viterbo after the death of Pope John XXI, was the smallest papal election since the expansion of suffrage to cardinal-priests and cardinal-deacons, with only seven cardinal electors (following the deaths of three popes who had not created cardinals). Because John XXI had revoked Ubi periculum, the papal bull of Pope Gregory X establishing the papal conclave, with his own bull Licet felicis recordationis, the cardinal electors were able to take their time. After six months of deliberation, the cardinals eventually elected their most senior member Giovanni Gaetano Orsini as Pope Nicholas III. From the end of the election until Nicholas III's first consistory on March 12, 1278, the number of living cardinals—seven—was the lowest in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

Cardinal electors

The seven cardinal electors were evenly divided between three supporters of Charles of Anjou and three cardinals from prominent Roman families, who opposed the interests of Charles in Italy, and there was one uncommitted cardinal.

Absentee cardinal

Procedure

Initially, the cardinals met only once a day for balloting and returned to their respective habitations after the scrutinies. For two months, voting proceeded uneventfully along national lines with the French and Roman cardinals evenly divided.

After six months the impatient magistrates of Viterbo locked the cardinals in the town hall (once elected, Nicholas III moved the papacy back to Rome).

Notes and references

1. ^ Miranda, Salvator. 1998. "Papal elections and conclaves of the 13th Century (1216–1294)." But see correction offered by John Adams Sede Vacante 1277; accessed March 13, 2010; concerning Bertrand de Saint-Martin
2. Medley, D.J. 2004. The Church and the Empire. Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 1-4191-5673-X. p. 171.
3. Pham, John-Peter. 2004. Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517834-3. p. 24.
4. ^ Bower, 1766, p. 307.
5. Cardinal da Alatri, the only non-Roman Italian Cardinal, voted together with French, while Bertrand of Sabina assumed neutral attitude.
6. Smith, Philip. 1885. The History of the Christian Church During the Middle Ages. Harper & Bros. p. 92.

Sources

• Bower, Archibald. 1766. The History of the Popes.
• Konrad Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi, vol. I, Leipzig 1913, p. 9
• J.P. Adams (2016), "SEDE VACANTE 1277", California State University Northridge; retrieved: 2 September 2022.

• Catholicism
• Christianity
• Vatican City

• Definitions from Wiktionary
• Media from Commons
• News from Wikinews
• Quotations from Wikiquote
• Texts from Wikisource
• Textbooks from Wikibooks
• Resources from Wikiversity
• Data from Wikidata

• Papal elections
• 13th-century elections
• 1277
• 13th-century Catholicism
• 1277 in Europe
• Viterbo Papacy