
Reginald Cardinal Pole
GUIDO ASCANIO CARDINAL SFORZA (1518-1564) was the son of Bosio Sforza, Conte di Santa Fiora e Cotignola, and Costanza Farnese, the legitimized daughter of Alessandro Farnese (Pope Paul III). He became Cardinal at the age of sixteen on December 18, 1534, in his grandfather's first Consistory. He was named Bishop of Parma (1535-1560), and became Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church in 1537 at the age of 19. It was a post he held until his death on October 6, 1564. He served as Legate of Bologna and the Romagna ( from 1537), and was Papal Legate in Hungary in 1540. He presided over the Interregnum of 1549-50, the two interregna of 1555, and that of 1559.
The Dean of the Sacred College was Giovanni Domenico Cardinal de Cupis (1493-1553) He was the son of Pope Julius II's former mistress, Lucrezia, and thus the half-brother of Felice della Rovere Orsini, Julius' daughter. A cardinal since 1517, he had been participating in conclaves since 1521-1522. He became Dean of the Sacred College in 1537. He was a close friend of St. Ignatius Loyola. [ His stemma at right ]
The security of the Conclave was placed by the Sacred College in the hands of Niccolò Orsini, with five hundred troops in addition to the Swiss Guard. The city itself, and the defense of the Vatican were placed in the care of Orazio Farnese, nephew of the deceased pope and Prefect of the City of Rome, with four thousand soldiers. These special arrangements were made necessary by the revolt of Ascanio Colonna against the papal government.
The Maestro di Ceremonie was Msgr. Giovanni Francesco Firmano. His diary from 1529 to 1565 survives in manuscripts.
Severely depressed by the treachery of his own family and by the fall of Parma to Emperor Charles V, Pope Paul III contracted a fever, which finally took his life. He died on November 10, 1549, aged eighty-one.
There were fifty-four cardinals at the time of the pope's death. A list of the cardinals is given by Onuphrio Panvinio (pp. 416-417).
The Conclave was due to begin on November 9, but the French cardinals requested additional time for their associates to arrive. Fifty-one entered conclave at the opening on December 3, 1549, though two left the conclave due to illness (Filonardi and Ridolfi). Thirty-two votes were needed to elect. Bernardino della Croce had demanded entrance and a vote, having been named by Paul III in a secret consistory, but his claim was rejected (Cartwright, 129-130).
Novaes says that there were three factions, the Imperialists, the French, and the Farnesiani; and that the most likely soggetti papabili were Cardinals Pole, Sfondrati, Carpi and Ridolfi (who died on the night of January 31). The first scrutiny took place on December 4. Reginald Cardinal Pole (Archbishop of Canterbury), the favorite of the Imperial party, received 26 votes, two short of election. An attempt was made that evening to proclaim him "by adoration", but the cardinal himself resisted. Cardinal Carafa, the Grand Inquisitor (since 1542) began to put it about that Cardinal Pole was touched by Lutheranism in an effort to diminish his chances (De Leva, 72-76). In the second scrutiny he received 25, in the third 22 with two accessions, in the fourth 22 with three accessions, in the fifth 23, and in the sixth 21.
The next contestant was Cardinal Juan Alvarez de Toledo (Bishop of Burgos), the father of the Duke of Alba, Viceroy of Naples. He was one of those favored by Charles V and Cosimo II, but he could not get French or Farnese votes. He reached as high as twenty-six votes (De Leva, 77), but could not break through.
On December 12, the five French cardinals finally arrived: de Guise, du Bellay, Vendome, Chastillon and Tournon. In the scrutiny of December 13, Pole got only one more vote (none of them French), and Alvarez 18. French orders were obviously to exculde Pole by their votes. The King of France, Henri II, favored his long-standing personal friend, Cardinal Ippolito d'Este II, but that was an impossibility. The other French choices were Guise, Ridolfi, Salviati and Cervini. (De Leva, 77-78).Cardinal Alessandro Farnese was promoting Cardinal Marcello Cervini, but the Imperial forces blocked him. The French were promoting Giovanni Salviati (Bishop of Porto) and Ridolfo Pio de Carpi. It gradually became apparent that one side would continue to exclude the candidates of the others, and so a compromise began to be sought.
On December 16, Cardinal Filonardo left the conclave because of illness; three days later he was dead. On the 22nd, Cardinal Cervini left, suffering from the quartan fever. Cardinal Ridolfi was carried out and died at his palace on January 31 (De Leva, 89).
On January 15, Cardinal Giovanni Morone, the Bishop of Modena, who had been born in Milan and served as Legate in Bologna from 1542-1548, emerged with 24 votes and two accessions. But this was as far as his candidacy got.
There were really two possibilities, Cervini (who was firmly in favor of Cardinal Pole) and del Monte. Del Monte belonged to the Farnese faction, and was believed to be friendly toward the French; the Imperial party found him obnoxious. Cardinal de Guise, too, had a number of negative observations to make about him, including his temper and his scandalous private life, and did his best to oppose the candidacy.
Nonetheless, on February 7, 1550, in the evening, Cardinal Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte, aged sixty-three, was elected. After the election, Cardinal de Guise was compelled to request the assistance of Cardinal Sforza in making his peace with the new Pope (Cardinalismo, 177)..
Julius III, was crowned on February 22, 1550, by Cardinal Innocenzo Cibò, the Cardinal Protodeacon. He took possession of his cathedral, the Lateran Basilica, on June 24.
A copious list of primary sources is given by Anton Pieper, Die päpstlichen Legaten und Nuntien in Deutschland, Frankreich und Spanien I. Theil (Munster 1897) 1-2.
Onuphrio Panvinio, Epitome Pontificum Romanorum a S. Petro usque ad Paulum IIII gestorum (videlicet) electionisque singulorum & Conclavium compendiaria narratio (Venice: Impensis Iacobi Strada, 1557).
Francesco Maria Cardinal Sforza Pallavicino, S. J., Istoria del Concilio di Trento Book XI, chapter vi [Opere edite ed inedite del Cardinale Sforza Pallavicino, ordinata e pubblicata da Ottavio Gigli, Tomo XIII (Roma 1846) pp. 67-72]. [Gregorio Leti], Il Cardinalismo di Santa Chiesa Parte Terza (1668), 170-178.
Giuseppe de Novaes, Elementi della storia de' Sommi Pontefici third edition Volume 7 (Roma 1822) pp. 61-64. Gaetano Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Volume 15 (Venezia 1842) p. 286; Volume 21 (Venezia 1843), p. 241; Volume 31 (Venezia 1845) p. 164. A. F. Artaud de Montor, Histoire des souverains pontifes Romains Volume IV (Paris 1851), pp. 148-151. L. F. Bungener, History of the Council of Trent (New York: Harper 1855), 203-208. F. Petruccelli della Gattina, Histoire diplomatique des conclaves Second Volume (Paris 1864) 23-64. For the Imperial viewpoint see: Giuseppe de Leva, "La elezione di Papa Giulio III," Rivista storica italiana 1 (1884) 22-38. Giuseppe de Leva, Storia documentata di Carlo V in correlazione all' Italia Volume V (Boklogna 1894) pp. 69-92. G. Constant, "Une rivalité Franco-Allemande en conclave: L' élection de Jules III," Revue hebdomadaire (18 février 1922) 333. F. J. Baumgartner, "Henry II and the Papal Conclave of 1549," Sixteen Century Journal 16. 3 (1985) 301-314.
Martin Haile, The Life of Reginald Pole (New York 1910) 356-364. W. C. Cartwright, On the Constitution of Papal Conclaves (Edinburgh 1878).
John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu