SEDE VACANTE 1774-1775

(September 22, 1774—February 15, 1775)

Fabrizio Cardinal Serbelloni was the Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals and Cardinal Bishop of Ostia.

The Prefect of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces (Majordomo) and Governor of the Conclave was Msgr. Giovanni Archinto (1736-1799), the nephew of Cardinal Alberico Archinto (1756-1766) and of Vitaliano Borromeo (1766-1793).  Doctor in utroque iure (Rome, La Sapienza).  He was appointed titular Archbishop of Philippi, in order to carry out the office of Nuncio in Tuscany (1766-1769). He was named a cardinal on April 15, 1776.

The Governor of Rome and of the Borgo was Msgr. Giovanni Potenziani.

	Æ 28mm SEDE VA | CANTE Shield with coat of arms of Msgr. Giovanni Potenziani, upon a cross of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, surmounted by clerical hat, with six tassels on each side (signifying episcopal status)
	Inscription: IOANNES | POTENTIANI | VRBIS ET CIV • LEON | PRAEF • | VICE CAMERAR • | ANNO | MDCCLXXIV "Giovanni Potenziani, Prefect of the City (of Rome) and the Leonine City, Vice Chamberlain. The Year 1774.

 

The Masters of Ceremonies were:  Msgr. Giuseppe Dini, Canon of S. Maria in Via Lata, Secretary of the SC Cerimoniale;  Msgr. Francesco Gaetano Diversini, Beneficiato di S. Pietro in Vaticano; Msgr. Giovanni Lucca, Privy Chamberlain to His Holiness; Msgr. Giovanni Battista Valeriani, Beneficiato di S. Pietro; Ab. Giovanni Battista Lizzani, Beneficiato di S. Maria Maggiore; and Ab. Marcello Amici, Beneficiato di S. Pietro.  

Msgr. Diversini died as Praefectus Caeremoniis on March 31, 1776 at the age of 91;  his memorial inscription is in S. Barbara de' Librarii:   V. Forcella, Inscrizioni delle chiese di Roma  VII, p. 400, no. 822].

 

Death of Pope Clement XIV (Ganganelli)

Pope Clement XIV had been ill on and off during most of his pontificate (extensively detailed by the French Ambassador in Rome, Cardinal de Bernis, in his dispatches to the French Foreign Ministers, Aiguillon. the Duc de Choiseul, and the Comte de Vergennes). The Pope was under constant extraordinary stress because of the Jesuit issue, deliberately imposed on him by both sides. He was subject to severe depressions, and he imagined that his life was in danger (which was no paranoid delusion), and that he was a target for assassination by poison. Cardinal Bernis noticed a change for the worse in the pope's health in an audience of August 16, which he confirmed on August 24 and 28. On September 7, Clement seemed to be in remission, and even proposed a vacation for himself at Castel Gandolfo. On the 8th he presided at ceremonies at S. Maria del Popolo, celebrating the Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and seemed fatigued. Nonetheless, he still planned to leave for Castel Gandolfo on Monday the 12th.  He did not look at all well, as Msgr. Giorgio D'Adda, Prefect of the Signature of Justice, noted in a letter of September 10 with some alarm:

Il Papa parte Lunedi [Monday, September 12]  per la Villeggiatura di Castel Gandolfo, mà si trova molto mal ridotto, e se l'aria della Campagna non lo ristabilisce guaj à noi, mentre nelli tempi presenti sarebbe fatale una Sede vacante.

Clement had contracted a remittant fever. On the evening of the 19th he had a blood-letting, and another the next morning [Cardinal Bernis to the Comte de Vergennes, September 20, 1774].  The Pope's principal physician was Dr. Natale Saliceti, of the Istituto anatomica e chiurgico, and lecturer at the Sapienza; the Pope's private physician was Monsignor Pasquale Adinolfi, supernumerary lecturer in Medicine at the Sapienza.   Cardinal Malvazzi, the papal Datary, who lived in the Apostolic Palace, was able to force his way in to see the Pope on September 20, and intimated to His Holiness that it would be appropriate and necessary for him to receive the Viaticum.  The ceremony was carried out that evening [Bernis to Vergennes, September 21, 1774].  Afterwards a struggle developed with the Pope over the issue of revealing the names of the eleven cardinals who had been created in the Consistory of April 26, 1773, but who were still reserved by the Pope in petto.  Cardinal Malvezzi, the Datary, the Spanish Minister Florida Blanca, and Cardinal de Bernis pressed hard for the names to be announced, and apparently the Pope agreed to do so.  Witnesses were needed, and so Cardinals Pallavicini (the Secretary of State), Simone, and Negroni (the Secretary of Briefs) were summoned, but the Pope seemed to have changed his mind (or to have been misunderstood in the first place).  Malvezzi and the Pope's confessor, tried to insist, but were rejected.  No revelations were forthcoming.  [Bernis to Durini, September 21, 1774; Carayon no. CLXXVI, pp. 275-276].  Bernis and his associates, of course, were attempting to increase the number of votes at the disposal of the Bourbon Crowns for the imminent Conclave.  An alternative story is concocted by Artaud de Montor, which places the blame on Fr. Bontempi, the Confessor, who sans doute revealed his scruples concerning some of the men who had been named in petto, and persuaded the Pope not to reveal their names while Malvezzi was out of the room, summoning witnesses [Montor VIII, p. 42].

On Wednesday, the 21st, at 7 p.m, Clement received Extreme Unction, in the presence of the Cardinals and the heads of the religious orders [one of whom, Fr. Francesco Saverio Vasquez del Peru, the Prior General of the Order of St. Augustine, recorded the event:  Rousseau, p. 406], and the next morning, Thursday, September 22, 1774, at 8:00 a.m. he died. He was 69 years of age.

In a letter of October 8, 1774 [Calvi, p. 372],  Msgr. Giorgio D'Adda, Prefect of the Signature of Justice, remarked to his brother:

Da Francia pure erano venuti avvisi al Papa che si guardasse: insomma non si è veduta morte tanto costantemente minacciata come questa, ed una quale nè li balsami, nè la pece, e nepur il gesso ha potuto rimediare, staccandosi la testa dal collo, e le dita dalle mani, e li piedi dalle gambe al solo toccarlo, e tutto ciò in meno di 24 hore.   Il Medico Saliceti hon ha voluto dichiararlo veleno, mà ha admesso potersi anche al veleno attribuire quelli segni; li altri Professori però che hanno assistito alla sezione del Cadavere quasi tutti sono stati concordi in giudicarlo veleno, e li Ministri per tale lo hanno caratterizzato nelle loro Relazioni alle Corti.

The examination at the enbalming indicated—in the midst of rumors, asservations and denials—that the Pope had been poisoned.  When they tried to remove his ring, the finger came off along with it.  The hairs and nails fell off.  Rapid decomposition of the corpse made a public viewing of the face and hands impossible. In their report the doctors (who had refused to carry out a formal autopsy) were circumspect enough to call the alarming variety of symptoms "universal gangrene" [Rousseau, p. 409].  Cardinal de Bernis wrote to the French Minister Vergennes that he believed that the Pope had been poisoned, though he later retracted that view. Nonetheless, the Courts of Versailles, Madrid and Naples professed to believe the story—the same courts which had pressed so hard for the suppression of the Jesuits.    For the French archivist and apologist for Cardinal Bernis, Frédéric Masson, it all comes down to this:  "La preuve que le pape n'a pas été empoisonné en 1774, c'est qu'il ne l'a été ni en 1770, ni en 1771, ni en 1773." (cf. Masson, pp. 286-296)  What profound reasoning!  What an idiot!

On Saturday night the body of the pope was placed in the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican Palace.

 

The Cardinals

An official list of all the cardinals who attended the Conclave with their dapiferi is given as an attachment to the Motu Proprio of Pius VI of April 5, 1775,  Nos Volentes [Andrea Barberi (editor), Bullarii Romani Continuatio  Tomus Quintus (Romae 1842) pp. 42-43;  the editors of that work stupidly chose not to print the much more interesting list of Conclavists attached to the Motu Proprio of April 6, 1775  [no XIV. pp. 28-34].  Grants were made to the dapiferi of 5 Cardinal Bishops (Stoppani having died);  twenty-eight Cardinal Priests (placing Braschi, who was elected Pope, separately at the top of the list. De' Rossi, who died during the Conclave, is also omitted); and ten Cardinal Deacons.

 

Conclave: Factions and Papabili

The Conclave began on Tuesday, October 5, 1774, and lasted 134 days. Twenty-seven cardinals entered into conclave on the first day, though the number later reached forty-three (of whom two died before the Conclave ended successfully). The anti-French faction was led by the sub-Dean of the College, Giovanni Francesco Cardinal Albani, who was the Cardinal Protector of Imperial interests in the Court of Rome. The French agent, Cardinal de Bernis was working with the Spanish ambassador, Florida Blanca (Francisco Antonio Moñino—Spanish Minister in Rome since the summer of 1772), to frustrate the plans of some "enthousiastes" (by which he meant the Zelanti) to produce a quick election; the King of France and his minister, the Comte de Vergennes, wished to avoid at all costs a pope who might reverse the final solution of the Jesuit issue [Montor, 25, a letter from Bernis to Vergennes of October 19]. Florida Blanca stated frankly in a despatch to Marqués Grimaldi on September 29 that his plan was to engage in the "virtual veto" (une exclusion de suffrages) rather than to present candidates (as they had in the Conclave of 1769);  this would wear down the Zelanti through constant wrangling [Rousseau, p. 412].  Florida Blanca was most favorably disposed to Cardinal Pallavicini (as Bernis knew), since Pallavicini had been Nuncio in Madrid and was a friend of Grimaldi.   Cardinal de Bernis did much of the "arranging" that was part of his tactics through personal contacts.  He used his cell as a social center, providing various delicacies sent in from outside to entertain his colleagues, and to sound them out confidentially. He also spent his time searching for someone on the other side who would be reasonable enough to accept the conditions of the Bourbons. He had been interested in Braschi even before the Conclave began, but he was slow in assuring himself that Braschi's Jesuit connections had not made him their partisan. 

It should be noted that the French King Louis XV had died on May 10, 1774, and therefore the officials of the new King Louis XVI (and without du Barry)  had a relatively free hand in conducting French foreign policy.

On the First Scrutiny, on Wednesday October 6, the largest number of votes went to Cardinal Pamfili, sixteen in number.   Next day Cardinal Marcantonio Colonna,whose progress was being assisted by some votes from French adherents, had fourteen votes [Letter of Giorgio D'Adda to his brother, October 8, 1774; Calvi, p. 374]. Bernis put a stop to that candidacy [Montor, 26-27].  On the night of October 12/13, there was unusual activity in the Conclave, including visits to the cells of the creature of Clement XIII by their leader, Cardinal Rezzonico. A plan, which the Zelanti had concocted before the Conclave began, was going to be put into action;  they intended to attempt to elect a pope with the Cardinals then present in the Conclave, before the Ultramontani (who were mostly under the control of the Bourbon courts) could arrive [Florida Blanca to Almada].  The Zelanti had previously been dividing their votes among Colonna, Colonna Palphili, Boschi, Le Lanze and Fantuzzi, but if they concentrated their votes on one person, and if they could agree on one candidate, they might win the Papacy for a friend of the Jesuits before the opposition was in a position to frustrate them. However, in a memorial presented to the College, signed by Bernis on behalf of the French and Cardinal Orsini de Aragona (of Naples) on behalf of the Spanish, they demanded what they termed the traditional right accorded to the great Powers of having the Conclave wait until their cardinals could arrive.  Florida Blanca also protested in the name of the King of Spain. In the letter of October 19, Bernis remarked that the Cardinal delle Lanze was about to arrive from Turin, which would augment the party of the Zelanti [Montor, 32].  He was doing everything he could to ensure that the Conclave did not get down to business until the ultramontane cardinals could arrive.  The same strategy of the Zelanti was tried on November 10/11, and failed again when Bernis and Orsini loudly protested and put their objections in writing.

On October 15, King Charles III of Spain announced that he would exclude no one from being considered for the papacy so long as he had the qualities necessary to govern the Church well, and would not disturb the secular powers in their just rights.  In private, however, he excluded a dozen cardinals:  Borromeo, Buffalini, Buonaccorsi, Calini, Castelli, De Lanze, Giraud, Pamphili, Paracciani, Rossi, Spinola and Torregiani [Masson, 304].

On October 25,  at the Scrutiny,  Cardinal Mario Marefoschi, Prefect of the SC on Rites, had 16 votes, and Cardinal Giuseppe Castelli, Prefect of the SC de Propaganda Fide, had 13 [Giorgio D'Adda to his brother, October 29, 1774].

On October 26, he reports the "mauvaise nouvelle" that Cardinal Migazzi (Archbishop of Vienna) is about to arrive, carrying instructions from the Imperial Court. Migazzi was a friend of the Jesuits, and intimately connected with the "enthousiastes" [Zelanti]. But Bernis was assured by the two Cardinals Albani, Giovanni (Bishop of Porto; Imperial Minister Plenipotentiary in Rome) and his uncle Alessandro, that the instructions would be general in nature and that Vienna would cooperate with Versailles and Madrid. [Montor, 34-35].  Migazzi arrived in Rome on November 19 and entered Conclave on the afternoon of the 23rd. ( Wolfsgruber, 235 )

On November 16, Bernis noted [Bernis to Vergennes, November 16, 1774:  Rousseau, p. 414] that Cardinal Braschi had made an approach to him, and his candidacy was supported by the former Nuncio in Paris, Cardinal Bernardino Giraud, the Archbishop of Ferrara.

By December 8, the number of Cardinals who voted according to the instructions of the Bourbon Courts was above one-third, and therefore they were far less worried about the Zelantes being able to surprise them with a successful election.  He estimated, on the 29th, that the Crowns controlled twenty votes [Florida Blanca to Pombal, December 8, 1774: Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 88, 90]

On Saturday, December 10,  Cardinal de Solí finally arrived in Rome, but since he was ill, he did not enter Conclave until December 21, 1774 [Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 88, 89:  letters of the Conde de Florida Blanca].

On December 24 and 25, the Zelantes put forth the name of Cardinal Braschi, but he did not meet with the approval of the Imperial Ambassador or the Ministers of Spain or Portugal [Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 89:  letter of the Conde de Florida Blanca, December 29, 1774].  Cardinal Migazzi was very concerned about the number of virtual exclusions that had been applied by the Bourbon Courts;  he considered the possibility that the freedom of election was being impeded [Letter to Count Kaunitz, December 24, 1774:  Wahrmund,  Ausschliessungs-recht  p. 327]:

...Die Zelanten setzen noch hinzu, dass in diesen Conclave die mehr ernente Ministres die sachen in solche weege einzuleiten suchen, durch welche nich zwey order drey exclusivas, wie der alte eingeführte gebrauch mit sich bringet, sondern durch die einwendung, dass dieser oder jener Cardinal ihren höffen nicht anständig sey, so viele ausschlissen wollen, bis man endlich und nothwendiger weisse auf den Cardin__ allein kommen müsse, auf welchen sie, Bourbonische Ministres, ihre absichten gerichtet haben, wie nun diese Handlungen mit der Freyheit der wahl sich vereinbahren liessen, gebe man der ganzen unparteyschen welt zur beurtheilung über....

 

Christoph Cardinal Migazzi

 

The Deal

By January 19, it had become obvious and inevitable that negotiations would have to take place between the two parties, the Crowns and the Zelanti, to find a cardinal (probably not from the cardinals of the Crowns) on whom both sides could agree.  Finally Cardinals Castelli and Giovanni Battista Rezzonico, who had the greatest influence among the Zelanti, called on Cardinal de Solis, the closest person the cardinals of the Crowns had to a disinterested supporter of the Church [Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 91:  letter of the Conde de Florida Blanca to the Marques de Pombal, January 19, 1775].  The six candidates of the Zelanti who were pulling the largest number of votes were: Colonna, Pamphili, Torrigiani, Negroni, Casale, and De Simone.  The Colonnas and Torrigiani, however, were completely out of the question, as far as the Crowns were concerned.  On February 2,  Florida Blanca informed the Marques de Pombal that none of the six Zelanti would be acceptable.

The Scrutiny on February 9, 1775 brought Cardinal Serbelloni 7 votes, Bufalini 20, Fantuzzi 16, Conti 13, Malvezzi 11, and Marefoschi 3   [Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 93].

On February 12, 1775, Bernis had a conversation with Cardinal Braschi, and in it he set forth the requirements of the Spaniards: no restoration of the Society of Jesus, revocation or suspension of the bull In Coena Domini (which excommunicated secular rulers who touched Church property or rights), and no agitation over claims to Parma, Piacenza and the Two Sicilies (which were papal fiefs, but which were occupied by the Spaniards without the proper legalities). On the 13th, Bernis and Braschi met again to determine who would fill the important offices in the papal government. On the 14th, Bernis undertook the job of producing a two-thirds majority for the agreeable Braschi. On the 15th of February, Braschi was elected unanimously.  There was, however, a considerable fuss at the Scrutiny.  The scene is described by the Spanish Minister, Florida Blanca [tr. William Coxe, Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon I (London 1813), pp. 406-407]:

A particular circumstance occurred in the scrutiny of the morning, which shews the influence of the king of Spain in the conclave. Almost all the cardinals being assembled in the Sistine chapel for the election, and informed, by my billets, of the disposition of the crowns towards Braschi, they began to deposit their votes open in the chest. When they had thus declared themselves, cardinal de Solis, who had been retarded by accident, entered, and not having received my billet, he refused to give his consent in the name of your majesty to the continuance of the election. Although the other cardinals of the crowns shewed him my billets, they could not convince him; he even protested against their choice. This protest astounded and embarrassed the whole sacred college; without further dispute, the cardinals withdrew their votes from the chest, and made another scrutiny. At the conclusion of the act, however, as they went out of the chapel, my billet reached Solis. Without a moments delay, all the cardinals unanimously concurred in acknowledging and adoring Braschi that very evening, as the successor of St. Peter, and proclaimed the election on the following day.

 

Again, as in 1769, the successful candidate, Giovanni Angelo Braschi (Pius VI), was a person who was not clearly identified with either point of view, and who was ill-equipped to deal with the real threats of the Enlightenment, anti-clericalism, atheism, and republican revolutionary trends.

 

Pope Pius VI was consecrated a bishop on February 22, 1775, by Cardinal Giovanni Francesco Albani, Bishop of Porto, and crowned immediately afterwards, by Cardinal Alessandro Albani, the Cardinal Protodeacon. He took possession of the Lateran Basilica, his cathedral church, on November 30, 1775. [Moroni, 88].  Cardinal Pallavicini was continued in office as Secretary of State; Cardinal Negroni became pro-Datary;  Cardinal Conti became Secretary of Briefs;  the Secretary of Memorials was Cardinal Giovanni Battista Rezzonico [Cardinal Conti to the Marquis de Pombal, February 23, 1775:  Biker (editor),  Collecção dos Negocios de Roma... Additamento a Parte III, p. 93].

On April 14, 1782,  Pius VI conceded to the Emperor of Austria, Joseph II, the privilege of nominating one in every four bishops to Sees in Austrian held Lombardy, with the exception of the Archbishopric of Milan  [A. Galante, Fontes Iuris Canonici selecti (Oeniponti 1906), p. 270 no. 6].

François-Joachim Cardinal de Bernis
Cardinal Bishop of Albano