SEDE VACANTE

February 6, 1740—August 17 , 1740

Card . Albani

ANNIBALE CARDINAL ALBANI (1682-1751), was born at Urbino on August 15, 1682. His uncle became Pope Clement XI in 1700 (dying on March 19, 1721). Annibale was created Cardinal Deacon on December 23, 1711, being appointed to the Deaconry of S. Eustachio on March 2, 1712. He became Archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica in 1712, where he had long been a Canon, and was promoted to be Cardinal Priest of S. Clemente in March, 1722; for this post he was finally ordained a priest in October of the same year. He was appointed Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church on March 29, 1719, a post he held until 1747. He became bishop of Sabina on July 24, 1730, and was translated to Porto and Sta. Rufina in 1743. From 1719 he was director of the English hospital of St. John in Jerusalem.

The Treasurer General of the Holy Roman Church and Prefect of the Castel Saint' Angelo was Monsignor Mario Bolognetti.

The Marshal of the Holy Roman Church was Prince Augusto Chigi.

---

Pope Clement XII Corsini had been blind since 1732, and was often bedridden. Government was in the hands of his nephew, Neri Maria Card. Corsini, who was not particularly competent. The papacy managed to offend the Emperor Charles VI, Philip V of Spain, and Naples. The Conclave of 1740, therefore, was a long and contentious one. There were 68 cardinals at the death of Clement XII, though four of them died during the Sede Vacante.

At the opening of the Conclave, on February 18, 1740, there were thirty-two cardinals in attendance. Cardinal Ottoboni sang the Mass of the Holy Spirit in St. Peter's (De Brosses, Lettre LI, p. 417). The 'Zelanti' were led by Cardinals Ruffo and Petra. (Cardinal Ruffo's conclavist was Father Giovanni Angelo Braschi, the future pope Pius VI.) Cardinal Del Giudici was the head of the Imperial interest. The early favorite was Cardinal Ottoboni, the Dean of the Sacred College (nephew of Pope Alexander VIII), but his death on February 28 ended his chances.

At the end of May there were 55 cardinals in the conclave, of whom 44 were Italians. Cardinals Cenci and Giambattista Altieri died in June. Two others, Cardinals Lorenzo Altieri and Leandro di Porzia, left the Conclave because of illness. By the first of July a group of twenty-one voters, including both Spanish and French interests, led by Cardinal Corsini, coalesced around Cardinal Pompeio Aldovrandi. But Cardinal Albani, the Camerlengo, led another faction of around twenty votes, which pressed for Cardinal Giacomo de Lanfredini. Perhaps as many as fifteen voters put forward Cardinal Pier Marcello Corradini, but his age (82) was against him, and ultimately he was vetoed by the Spanish King.

After more weeks of inconclusive balloting in the heat of the Roman summer, with masses in Roman churches 'for the election of a Pope', and a three-day service to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Conclave, one of the electors, Cardinal Troiano Aquaviva di Aragon, proposed his old friend Cardinal Lambertini, the archbishop of Bologna. Fifty-one cardinals participated in the final ballot on August 17; fifty voted for Lambertini, while he voted for Aldovrandi.. The election of Prospero Lorenzo Cardinal Lambertini (Pope Benedict XIV) came as a surprise, it is said. He was crowned in the Vatican Basilica on August 22, 1740, and on April 30, 1741 he took possession of the Lateran Basilica.