The Papal Conclaves

Since 1600, whenever a Pope dies, the Cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church convene in Rome to elect a successor. The Papal Conclave is an event like no other. Highly secret and conducted behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, it happens about eight times every century. It is an event that has evolved over the centuries and is always filled with high drama: cardinals meeting en masse in their scarlet robes, throngs of the faithful standing watch in St. Peter's Square, the black or white smoke billowing from the chimney signalling the election of a new Pontiff Since secrecy was not heavily invoked until the twentieth century, there is a vast store of rich material to work from and Fred Baumgartner uses it to its utmost detailing the bickering and blatant politicking that goes on behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel in this important and timely book.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

Prominent Catholic historian Walsh takes readers through the history of conclaves past, highlighting the vendettas, feuds, and poltical intrigues that have colored the selection of a new pontiff.

Here is a fascinating behind-the-scenes account of history in the making-- the election in 2013 of Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio, the first Latin American pope, the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope to choose the name Francis. The author, a friend the Pope, now reveals what actually happed inside the secret conclave.

The preface begins: "Never before, since a bishop's See was first established in Rome, whether by St. Peter or another, has the world at the period of the election of one Pope had so long a time in which to forget the election of his predecessor. St. Peter is said by tradition to have been bishop at Rome for twenty-five years. And no Pope of all the two hundred and sixty who occupied the See between his death and the election of Pius IX. ever reigned so long as Peter, the longest reign having been that of Pius VI., who died in 1799, after an incumbency of twenty-four years and eight months."The election of a Pope has not always been a smooth process and there has been much intrigued. Let us consider the self-appointment of John XII: "Clement proceeded to fill the Sacred College with French cardinals, whose scandalous quarrels and grossly simoniacal proceedings caused, at his death in 1314, an interregnum of two years, five months, and seventeen days. Two Conclaves were held during this time, one in Carpentras and one in Lyons; at the last of which, a "compromise" having at length been agreed to, and the French Cardinal Jacopo d'Euse having been intrusted with the nomination of the Pope, and the cardinals having bound themselves, as is the essential condition of an election by "compromise," to accept his nominee as the legitimate Pope, he forthwith declared "Ego sum Papa!" "I am the Pope," and was elected accordingly." There have been other scandals in the history of the election of the Pope, but the Catholic Church has survived them all.

The Pope is dead. Behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel, one hundred and twenty Cardinals from all over the globe will cast their votes in the world’s most secretive election. They are holy men. But they have ambition. And they have rivals. Over the next seventy-two hours one of them will become the most powerful spiritual figure on earth.