Die Konklavereform Gregors XV. (1621/22). Wertekonflikte, symbolische Inszenierung und Verfahrenswandel im posttridentinischen Papsttum (review)

Since the early-fifteenth century the call had been heard for “reform in head and members” in the Church. This valuable, clearly written volume calls our attention to a reform in the head that has been nearly completely overlooked in the literature of early-modern Catholic Reform. Pope Gregory XV, shortly after his election, issued on December 17, 1621, the bull Aeterni Patris Filius that was followed by a Caeremoniale in electione Summi Romani Pontificis observandum the next April 22. The two documents represented a complete reform of the procedure and ceremony for the election of a pope, brought to completion a long campaign for this reform, and led to the first truly secret and so (as the author argues) truly free papal election—that of Pope Urban VIII in 1623. The papal action represented a triumph of an ethic of conscience and commitment to the common good over one characterized by pietas or loyalty to one’s family, patron, or place of origin that was widely accepted in early-modern Rome, where cardinals often voted in gratitude for past benefits or in anticipation of future ones. To support his argument, the author draws heavily on a rarely used source—the diaries of the papal masters of ceremonies now found in copies in the Archivio dei Maestri delle Cerimonie Pontifice (sic) as well as in other Roman archives.

The author observes at the start how little research has been devoted to the procedure and ceremonies of a papal election as opposed to its politics. A sixteenth-century author, the Augustinian hermit Onofrio Panvinio, wrote in an unpublished manuscript of eighteen different methods that had been employed to choose a pope starting with Jesus’s installation of Peter. Crucial in the development was the determination of Pope Alexander III in 1179 that the cardinals alone would elect a pope—so defining their basic function— and that a two-thirds majority would be necessary. But nothing was prescribed about the method of election. The conclave was introduced in 1274, and oral and written scrutinies were conducted, but they were not secret. Gradually there evolved a procedure that became a method of election first employed in the election of Leo X in 1513, election by adoration. One group or faction of cardinals, after negotiations, would gather around a candidate even in the middle of the night, recognize him as pope, and kiss him in the hope of attracting two-thirds of their number to join them. No one wanted to be the last to jump on the bandwagon of the winner lest he lose any chance for advancement. This adoration then became the actual process of selection with the later scrutiny becoming a formality. Most elections were held in this manner into the early-seventeenth century with the election of Paul V Borghese in 1605 as particularly raucous and even tumultuous.

Many calls for reform were raised in the course of the century by the so-called zelanti who wanted a truly secret election where each cardinal could vote his conscience for the best candidate rather than under pressure from patron or faction. This was the way the Holy Spirit operated, not through the sometimes chaotic process of the election by adoration as their opponents argued. The author analyzes at length four influential papers drawn up in favor of reform that eventually won the day—two by Jesuit Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, one dating from shortly after the election of Paul V and another from a later date; one from 1617 from the Milanese Cardinal Federico Borromeo; and a fourth from 1621 by Benedetto Giustiniani, a prominent Jesuit canonist in Rome. In addition, advocates of the reform were Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, papal nephew under Gregory XV, and Francesco Ingoli, a major figure in the Curia who also played a significant role in...