Sede Vacante 1590

ENRICO CARDINAL CAETANI (1550-1599), of a distinguished Roman family, was born on August 6, 1550, nephew of Cardinal Niccolò Caetani. He obtained a doctorate in canon and civil law from the University of PerugiaHe was Patriarch of Alexandria (1585), and had served as Legate in Bologna (1585-87), and Nuncio to France and to Poland. He was created Cardinal by Sixtus V on December 18, 1585, and was sent to France as Legatus a latere (1589-1590) to deal with the crisis over the struggle for the French throne Henri (IV) de Bourbon had been excommunicated in 1585 (and again in 1591). Despite instructions from the Pope to maintain a balance among the competing interests, which included Philip II of Spain (who was proposing his son as a candidate), Caetani joined the Duc de Mayenne and the Holy League in proclaiming the Cardinal de Lorraine as King Charles X. Unfortunately, the Duc was defeated at the Battle of Ivry, and the Cardinal died shortly thereafter (1589). With Henri de Bourbon besieging Paris, Caetani was recalled to Rome. He was named Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church on October 26, 1587, and presided over the Interregna of 1590, that of 1591, and that of 1592. He died on December 13, 1599. The Dean of the Sacred College was Giovanni Cardinal Serbelloni.

The Governor of the conclaves was Msgr.Ottavio Bandini, the Prefect of the Borgo. He was born in Florence (October 25, 1558), and educated at Florence, Paris, Salamanca and Pisa (where he obtained a law degree). He served as a lawyer and administrator in the Papal States from 1572. He became Archbishop of Fermo in 1595, and was named Cardinal priest of S. Sabina on June 21, 1596. In 1621 he was promoted to be Cardinal Bishop of Palestrina, which he exchanged for Porto and Santa Rufina in 1624. He became Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals and Bishop of Ostia on September 7, 1626. He died in Rome on September 7, 1626. He participated in the two Conclaves of 1605, and those of 1621 and 1623.

Pope Sixtus V (Peretti) died on August 27, 1590 of malarial fever, exacerbated by repeated angry discussions with the Spanish Ambassador, the Count-Duke of Olivares. His subjects rioted, and tore down the statue of their master which had been erected on the Capitoline. The Conclave opened on September 7, with fifty-three cardinals participating. On the sixth day, some of the cardinals attempted to place the tiara on the head of Marcantonio Colonna, Cardinal-Bishop of Palestrina, but they did not succeed. In the afternoon of September 15, first by acclamation and then by a scrutiny. Giambattista Cardinal Castagna, the governor of Bologna and Consultor of the Holy Roman Inquisition, was elected. Urban VII died of malarial fever on September 27, without having been crowned and without having been installed in the Lateran Basilica.

The second Interregnum lasted from September 27 to December 5, a period of two months and seven days. Urban II had created no cardinals, and therefore the Sacred College was substantially the same (except for the death of Cardinal Cornaro). Fifty-two of the sixty-five cardinals entered conclave on October 8. Cardinal Montalto (nephew of Pope Sixtus V) began to promote the candidacy of Scipio Cardinal Gonzaga, but the latter firmly discouraged him. Late in the afternoon of December 5, Cardinal Sfondrati was elected with 54 votes of the cardinals. Gregory XIV (Sfondrati) was crowned on December 8, and took possession of the Lateran on December 13. He died on October 16, 1591.

For details of the conclaves of 1590, see Giuseppe de Novaes, Elementi della storia de' sommi pontefici da San Pietro sino al ... Pio Papa VII third edition, Volume 8 (Roma 1822) 229-233; and 235-236. L. Ranke, History of the Popes. Their Church and State II (tr. E. Fowler) (New York 1901),Book VI, section 4, pp.151-157; Alexis François Artaud de Montor, Histoire de pontifes V (Paris 1851), pp. 11-16, and pp. 17-19. For the first conclave: G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica Vol. 86 (Venezia 1847) p. 39 (repeating the information in Novaes)..