“Conclave” The film may have introduced the moviegoers of the spectacular ritual and drama of a modern conclaveBut the periodic vote to elect a new pope has been held for centuries and has created a whole kind of historic trivia.
Here are some facts on past conclaves, derived from historical studies, notably “elect the pope at the start of modern Italy, 1450-1700” and interviews with experts like Elena Canadiano, archaeologist at Viterbo’s Palazzo Dei Papi (Palais des Papes).
The longest conclave in history
In the 13th century, it took almost three years – 1,006 days to be exact – to choose the successor of Pope Clement IV, which makes it the longest conclave in the history of the Catholic Church. It is also from there that the term conclave comes from – “under the lock and the key”, because the cardinals who met in Viterbo, north of Rome, took so long that the frustrated citizens of the city locked them in the room.
The secret vote which elected Pope Grégoire X lasted from November 1268 to September 1271. It was the first example of a papal election by “compromise”, after a long struggle between supporters of two main medieval geopolitical factions – the faithful to the papacy and those who support the Saint -Roman Empire.
Rule “ one meal a day ”
Gregory X was only elected after the residents of Viterbo tore the roof of the building where the prelates remained and limited their meals to bread and water to put them pressure to reach a conclusion. Hoping to avoid a rehearsal, Gregory X decreed in 1274 that the cardinals would only obtain “a meal per day” that if the conclave extended beyond three days, and that “bread, water and wine” if it went beyond eight. This restriction was abandoned.
The shortest conclave of all time
Before 1274, there were times when a pope was elected the same day as the death of his predecessor. After that, however, the church decided to wait at least 10 days before the first vote. Later, it was extended to 15 days to give all the cardinals time to go to Rome. The quickest conclave observing the 10 -day waiting rule seems to have been the election in 1503 of Pope Julius II, which was elected in a few hours, according to the historian of the Vatican Ambrogio Piazzoni. More recently, Pope Francis was elected in 2013 during the fifth ballot, Benedict XVI won the fourth and Pope Pius XII in 2005 won the third in 1939.
The first conclave of the Sistine Chapel
The first conclave held under the ceiling of frescoes by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel was in 1492. Since 1878, the world renowned chapel has become the place of all conclaves. “Everything is conducive to a conscience of the presence of God, at the sight of which each person will be judged one day,” wrote St. John Paul II in his 1996 document regulating the Conclave, “Universi Dominici Gregis”. The cardinals sleep at a short distance in the Domus Santa Marta hotel nearby or in a nearby residence.
Alternative locations
Most of the conclaves took place in Rome, some taking place outside the Vatican walls. Four took place in the Pauline chapel of the papal residence at the Palais de Quirinale, while a thirty others took place in the Saint-Jean-Llereran basilica, Santa Maria Sopra Minerva or other places in Rome. 15 times, they took place outside Rome and the Vatican, notably in Viterbo, Pérugia, Arezzo and Venice in Italy, and Konstanz, Germany and Lyon, France.
Alternative popes, or downgrades
Between 1378-1417, called historians like Western schism, there were rival applicants for the Pope. Schism has produced several papal contenders, so-called antipopes, dividing the Catholic Church for almost 40 years. The most important antipopes in Western schism were Clement VII, Benoît XIII, Alexander V and John XXIII. Schism was finally resolved by the Council of Constance in 1417, which led to the election of Martin V, a universally accepted pontiff.
A challenge to personal hygiene
The cloistered nature of the conclave posed another challenge for cardinals: staying healthy. Before the construction of the Domus Santa Marta guest house in 1996, the cardinals were sleeping on beds in rooms related to the Sistine Chapel. Conclaves in the 16th and 17th centuries were described as “disgusting” and “bad odors”, with concern about disease epidemics, in particular in summer, according to historian Miles Pattenden. “Cardinals must simply have a more regular and comfortable lifestyle because they were old men, many of whom with a fairly advanced disease,” wrote Pattenden. The closed space and the lack of ventilation have further aggravated these problems. Some of the voters have left the conclave sick, often seriously.
Initially, the papal elections were not as secret, but the concerns concerning political interference climbed during Viterbo’s longest conclave. Gregory X decreed that cardinal voters should be locked in isolation, “cum clave” (with a key), until a new pope is chosen. The goal was to create a completely isolated environment where cardinals could focus on their task, guided by the will of God, without any political interference or distraction. Over the centuries, various popes have changed and strengthened the rules surrounding the conclave, stressing the importance of secrecy.
The youngest pope, the oldest pope
Pope John XII was only 18 years old when he was elected in 955. The oldest popes were Pope Celestine III (elected in 1191) and Celestine V (elected in 1294) which were both almost 85 years old. Benedict XVI was 78 years old when he was elected in 2005.
A non-cardinal pope and a non-Italian pope
It is not necessary for a pope to be cardinal, but this has been the case for centuries. The last time a pope was elected who was not cardinal was Urban VI in 1378. He was a monk and archbishop of Bari. While the Italians experienced a workforce on the papacy over the centuries, there have been many exceptions outside of John Paul II (Polish in 1978) and Benoît XVI (German in 2005) and Francis (Argentinian in 2013). Alexandre VI, elected in 1492, was Spanish; Gregory III, elected in 731, was Syrian; Adrian VI, elected in 1522, was from the Netherlands.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press