1198 papal election

The 1198 papal election (held 8 January) was convoked after the death of Pope Celestine III; it ended with the election of Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, who took the name Innocent III. In this election for the first time the new pope was elected per scrutinium.[2]

Papal election 1198
Dates and location
8 January 1198 Septizodium[1]
Key officials
Dean	Konrad von Wittelsbach
Camerlengo	Cencio
Protopriest	Guillaume aux Blanches Mains
Protodeacon	Graziano da Pisa
Election
Ballots	2
Elected pope
Lotario dei Conti di Segni Name taken: Innocent III

Death of Celestine III

Pope Celestine III had been elected to the papacy in 1191 at the age of 85. In spite of his very advanced age, his pontificate lasted almost seven years. On Christmas Day, 1197 the 91-year-old Pope expressed the wish to abdicate the papacy on condition that his close collaborator Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo would be elected the new pope.[3] The cardinals rejected the suggestion as inconsistent with the rule that papal elections must be free ones.[4] Shortly thereafter, on 8 January 1198, Celestine III died and the cardinals present at his deathbed immediately started proceedings for the election of his successor.

List of participants

At the death of Celestine III there were 29 cardinals in the Sacred College.[5] However, no more than 21 were present at Rome:[6]

Elector	Cardinalatial title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Ottaviano di Paoli	Bishop of Ostia e Velletri	18 December 1182	Lucius III	He consecrated new pope to the priesthood and episcopate
Pietro Gallocia	Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina	1188	Clement III
Soffredo	Priest of S. Prassede	18 December 1182	Lucius III
Pietro Diana	Priest of S. Cecilia	16 March 1185	Lucius III
Giordano di Ceccano, O.Cist.	Priest of S. Pudenziana	12 March 1188	Clement III
Giovanni da Viterbo	Priest of S. Clemente and bishop of Viterbo e Toscanella	May 1189	Clement III
Guido Papareschi	Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere	22 September 1190	Clement III
Giovanni di Salerno, O.S.B.Cas.	Priest of S. Stefano in Monte Celio	22 September 1190	Clement III	Elected Pope but declined
Cinzio Cenci	Priest of S. Lorenzo in Lucina	22 September 1190	Clement III
Ugo Bobone	Priest of SS. Silvestro e Martino	22 September 1190	Clement III	Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica
Giovanni di San Paolo	Priest of S. Prisca	20 February 1193	Celestine III	Celestine III tried to designate him as his successor
Graziano da Pisa	Deacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano	4 March 1178	Alexander III	Protodeacon; he crowned the new pope
Gerardo Allucingoli	Deacon of S. Adriano	18 December 1182	Lucius III	Cardinal-nephew
Gregorio de San Apostolo	Deacon of S. Maria in Portico	12 March 1188	Clement III
Gregorio Crescenzi	Deacon of S. Maria in Aquiro	12 March 1188	Clement III
Gregorio Carelli	Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro	22 September 1190	Clement III
Lotario dei Conti di Segni	Deacon of SS. Sergio e Bacco	22 September 1190	Clement III	Cardinal-nephew; elected Pope Innocent III
Gregorio Boboni	Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria	22 September 1190	Clement III
Niccolò Scolari	Deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin	22 September 1190	Clement III	Cardinal-nephew
Bobo	Deacon of S. Teodoro	20 February 1193	Celestine III	Cardinal-nephew
Cencio	Deacon of S. Lucia in Silice and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church	20 February 1193	Celestine III	Acting papal chancellor; future Pope Honorius III (1216–1227); possibly of Savelli family

Four electors were created by Celestine III, five by Lucius III, one by Alexander III and the remaining thirteen by Clement III.

Absentees

At least eight cardinals were absent:

Elector	Cardinalatial title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Konrad von Wittelsbach	Bishop of Sabina and Archbishop of Mainz	18 December 1165	Alexander III	Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals; papal legate in the Holy Land; external cardinal
Guillaume aux Blanches Mains	Priest of S. Sabina and Archbishop of Reims	March 1179	Alexander III	Protopriest; Minister of State of the Kingdom of France; external cardinal
Ruggiero di San Severino	Priest of S. Eusebio and Archbishop of Benevento	Circa 1178–1180	Alexander III	External cardinal
Pandolfo da Lucca	Priest of SS. XII Apostoli	18 December 1182	Lucius III	Papal legate in Tuscany
Adelardo Cattaneo	S.R.E. cardinalis and bishop of Verona	16 March 1185	Lucius III	Resigned the titular church of S. Marcello after the election to the see of Verona in 1188; external cardinal
Bernardo, C.R.S.F.	Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli	12 March 1188	Clement III	Papal legate in Tuscany and Lombardy
Roffredo dell'Isola, O.S.B.Cas.	Priest of SS. Marcellino e Pietro	1188	Clement III	Abbot of Montecassino; ; external cardinal
Peter of Capua	Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata	20 February 1193	Celestine III	He was legate in Bohemia and Poland in 1197. At the death of Celestine III he had already finished this mission but was unable to reach Rome before the election

Election of Pope Innocent III

A fragment of the Septizodium, where the election was held.

On the same day that Celestine III had died the cardinals assembled in Septizodium[1] in the voluntary enclosure.[7] For the first time the electors voted by scrutiny (per scrutinium). Some cardinals were elected scrutineers; they counted the votes, recorded the result and announced it to the rest of the Sacred College.[8] In the first scrutiny Cardinal Giovanni di Salerno received the greatest number of votes (ten), but declared that he would not accept the election to the pontificate.[9] In the second scrutiny the cardinals united their votes[10] in favor of 37-year-old Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, deacon of SS. Sergio e Bacco, who was the youngest of all the cardinals.[11] He accepted his election and took the name Innocent III, maybe as a reference to his predecessor Innocent II (1130–1143), who had succeeded in asserting the Papacy's authority over the emperor (in contrast with Celestine III's recent policy).[12]

On 22 February 1198 the new pope was ordained to the priesthood and consecrated to the episcopate by Cardinal Ottaviano di Paoli, bishop of Ostia e Velletri, and solemnly crowned by Cardinal Graziano da Pisa, protodeacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano.[11]

Notes

1. Or possibly the Septasolium. There has been confusion about these locations, as described by Dr. J. P. Adams
2. A. Piazzoni, p. 177
3. The Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Innocent III
4. T. Greenwood, p. 358
5. Number according to W. Maleczek, p. 241. K. Eubel, p. 3, note 1; and T. Greenwood, p. 358, give the number of only 28, but Eubel omitted Ruggiero of S. Eusebio, and Greenwood does not provide the list at all
6. Reconstruction is based on the biographical data of the cardinals in: W. Maleczek, Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216, Wien 1984. This author, p. 354, suggests even the lower number of electors (19 or 20), but without indicating which cardinals were absent. T. Greenwood, p. 358, says that at least five out of twenty eight cardinals were absent
7. For this reason, some authors consider this election as the first papal conclave (A. Piazzoni, p. 176, note 2), but the formal procedures of the conclave would not be developed until the papal election, 1268–1271, and were first implemented in the papal conclave, January 1276
8. A. Piazzoni, p. 177. Piazzoni cites for this statement two anonymous contemporary sources: Oratio pro eligendo pontifice and Gesta Innocentii papae. However, according to T. Greenwood, p. 299, there is some evidence suggesting that similar procedure might have been already used in the papal election, 1191, but the source that he cited is brief and ambiguous, and is insufficient to ascertain it.
9. W. Maleczek, p. 108
10. Unanimity of the election: Smith, p. 12
11. S. Miranda Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni.
12. Julien Théry-Astruc, "Introduction", in Innocent III et le Midi (Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 50), Toulouse, Privat, 2015, pp. 13–14

Sources

• Eubel, Konrad (1913). "Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi" (in Latin). I. Münster. Archived from the original on 25 January 2007. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Greenwood, Thomas (1865). Cathedra Petri. XII, XIII. London: William Macintosh.
• Jaffé, Philipp (1851). Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita Ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII (in Latin). Berlin: Veit et Socius.
• Maleczek, Werner (1984). Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216 (in German). Vienna: M. Schöbel.
• Miranda, Salvador. "Consistory of September 1190 (III)". The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church.
• Ott, Michael (1910). "Pope Innocent III". The Catholic Encyclopedia. VIII. Robert Appleton Company.
• Piazzoni, Ambrogio (2003). Historia wyboru papieży (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo M. ISBN 83-7221-648-7.
• Smith, Damian J (2004). Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon. Aldershot: Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 0-7546-3492-2.
• Julien Théry-Astruc, "Introduction", in Innocent III et le Midi (Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 50), Toulouse, Privat, 2015, p.11-35.