Papal conclave, 1903

The Papal conclave of 1903 was caused by the death of the 93-year-old Pope Leo XIII, who at that stage was the second-longest reigning pope in history. (Pope John Paul II (r. 1978–2005) passed Leo a century later.)

It saw the election of Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto as Pope Pius X.

Background

In 1903, the 25-year pontificate of the liberal diplomat Leo XIII came to an end. For 56 years. the papacy had been led by just two men, Leo and his predecessor, Pius IX. While Pius had been a conservative reactionary, Leo had been seen as a liberal, certainly by the standards of 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.

With Leo XIII's death, Luigi Oreglia di Santo Stefano was the last surviving cardinal elevated by Pius IX. As such, he was the only elector in the 1903 conclave with previous experience of electing a pope.

Favoured candidate vetoed by Francis Joseph of Austria

Papal conclave, 2005

The Papal conclave of 2005 was convened as a result of the death of Pope John Paul II on 2 April 2005. After his death, the cardinals who were in Rome met and set a date for the beginning of the conclave to elect his successor. The conclave began on 18 April 2005 and ended the following day after four ballots. Eligible members of the College of Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, those who were younger than 80 years of age at the time of the death of Pope John Paul II, met and elected Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as the new Pope. After accepting his election, he took the name Benedict XVI.

Papal election process for 2005

Presiding over the conclave was the Dean of the College of Cardinals, Cardinal Ratzinger from Germany. Given that Ratzinger himself was elected Pope, the duty of asking if he would accept the election and what name he would adopt (duties normally performed by the Dean) fell, in accordance with the Apostolic Constitution Universi Dominici gregis, to the vice-dean Angelo Sodano.

Papal conclave, 1829

The papal conclave to elect a successor to Pope Leo XII after his death on February 10, 1829 began on February 24, 1829.

It took a long time for the conclave to elect a new pope due to conflict between secular governments concerning who should be elected. Cardinal Emmanuele De Gregorio was the proposed candidate of the pro-French faction and the zelanti (conservative cardinals), whilst Bartolomeo Pacca was proposed by the more moderate cardinals but was not accepted by the French government of the Bourbon Restoration period. At the time, France was governed by Charles X and Prime Minister Jean Baptiste Gay, vicomte de Martignac. Pacca was also seen by many in the conclave as being too gentle to be an effective Pope.

Description

The conclave did not move rapidly. The arrival of Giuseppe Albani caused the votes to center on Francesco Saverio Castiglioni. With the supporters of both De Gregorio and of Pacca unable to secure enough votes to elect their candidate to the papacy, Castiglioni came to be seen as a suitable compromise candidate. Castiglioni had been close to election in the 1823 conclave as the representative of the politicanti (moderate cardinals) and had all the qualifications to become Pope, though he had the problem of being in very poor health, but was not elected at the last conclave when the zelanti Cardinals came to realize that he was quite close to Cardinal Ercole Consalvi. Consalvi however was already dead by the time of the 1829 conclave having died during the pontificate of Pope Leo XII.