Storia delle elezioni pontificie (review)

Pope John Paul II has had one of the longest pontificates in the history of the Church. His longevity has encouraged scholars to reflect on all aspects of the oldest institution in Western culture. As the pontificate of Pope John Paul II draws to a close, cognoscenti romani, journalists, and scholars have speculated about what the new pope's nationality, linguistic background, status in the hierarchy, and age might be.

Ambrogio Piazzoni is the Vice Prefect of the Vatican Library. His office is only a few short steps from the Sistine Chapel, where the next election will be held. It will not surprise us then when he writes at the beginning of this splendid history of the papal election that his subject is "from time to time a story as intriguing as a detective novel, dramatic as a tragedy, amusing as a comedy, enchanting as poetry, interesting as a travel journal, and passionate as an adventure story." He has not exaggerated the appeal of his book. The story of how the popes have been elected over the centuries provides us with much to reflect upon and stimulation for all our emotions. The evolution of the rules governing the election also provides us with a roadmap that charts the course of the Church's constitutional development over 2000 years.

Jesus bestowed on Peter a primacy among the apostles, and in one way or another, all the other pre-Reformation Christian communities accepted Peter's and Rome's special position. The first twelve popes on the lists compiled in the second century were not Latin or Roman. We have no information how they were selected. Pope Victor I (189-198) was an African and the first Latin pope. It is an assumption, but a good one, that the Roman clergy and people began to play a role in papal elections about the time of his election. The evidence for this assumption is the story with which Piazzoni begins his history of the election: the controversy surrounding the election of Pope Callistus (217-222). Callistus was a man whose life was extraordinary. He was a slave of a Christian. When he was freed, his former master opened a bank for him. The bank failed, Callistus absconded, and Roman Christians were outraged. His life did not end in simple financial ruin. Afterwards he worked on a treadmill, was charged with brawling in a synagogue on the sabbath, and was condemned to the mines in Sardinia. Pope Victor would not give him a place in the Roman church, but his successor, Pope Zephyrinus (ca. 198-217), appointed him deacon and gave him control of the lower clergy. When Zephyrinus died, he was elected pope. A rival, Hippolytus, also had himself elected by other Romans. It was the first of many schisms in the Church. The schism was caused by political and religious rivalries in the city of Rome but also by no clear rules about how the bishop of Rome should be elected.

Although the College of Cardinals became the electoral body and the primary source of popes in modern times, in the early centuries bishops were excluded from being considered for the papal office. The reason was simple. A bishop was married to his church and could not be translated to another see. That is the reason why Augustine, Ambrose, and other Fathers of the Church never became popes. The popes of the first centuries were deacons in the Roman church or important figures in papal entourages. In spite of the canonical prohibition against translating bishops, Marinus of Caere (882-884) was the first bishop to be elected pope. His election was contested on various grounds including objections that he was already a bishop. Pope John X (914-928) was the last bishop to become pope whose election was contested. The norms governing papal elections changed, and all subsequent bishops who became popes were accepted as legitimate without question.

The next significant development in papal elections was the electoral decree of Pope Nicholas...