The 1549–50 papal conclave (29 November – 7 February) convened after the death of Pope Paul III and eventually elected Cardinal Giovanni Ciocchi as Pope Julius III. It was the second-longest papal conclave of the 16th century, and, at the time, the largest papal conclave in history in terms of the number of cardinal electors.Baumgartner, 1985, p. 301. The cardinal electors (who at one point totaled 51) were roughly divided between the factions of Henry II of France, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and Alessandro Farnese, the cardinal-nephew of Paul III.
Noted for the extensive interference of European powers, the conclave was to determine whether and on what terms the Council of Trent would reconvene (supported by Charles V and opposed by Henry II) and the fate of the Duchies of Parma and Piacenza (claimed by both Charles V and the House of Farnese).Baumgartner, 1985, p. 302. Although the conclave nearly elected Reginald Pole, the late arrival of additional French cardinals pushed the conclave back into deadlock,Baumgartner, 1985, pp. 306–308. and eventually Giovanni del Monte was elected Pope Julius III as a compromise candidate.
The French hoped that Julius III would be hostile to the interests of the Holy Roman Empire. Nevertheless, tensions between him and the French boiled over when he reconvened the Council of Trent in November 1550, culminating in the threat of schism in August 1551 and the brief War of Parma fought between French troops allied with Ottavio Farnese and a papal-imperial army.Baumgartner, 1985, pp. 313–314. French prelates did not attend the 1551–1552 sessions of the Council of Trent and were slow to accept its reforms; because Henry II would not allow any French cardinals to reside in Rome, many missed the election of Pope Marcellus II, arriving in Rome just in time to elect Marcellus II's successor, Pope Paul IV, after Marcellus II's brief reign.Baumgartner, 1985, p. 314.
Cardinal-electors Pope Paul III had enlarged the College of Cardinals to an unprecedented 54, and the length of the conclave allowed many of the foreign cardinals to arrive, bringing the number of cardinal electors at one point to 51, although two died and several fell ill during the conclave, reducing their number to 44 by the final scrutiny (ballot).
According to the tally of Cardinal Charles de Lorraine-Guise in his letter to Henry II, once the twelve participating French cardinals reached Rome, 23 cardinals were aligned in the French faction, 22 in the Imperial faction, and four neutral; thus Guise judged it impossible for either faction to garner the necessary two-thirds simply by persuading neutral cardinals.Baumgartner, 1985, p. 304. In addition, eleven Italian cardinals that Guise counted among the French faction were only likely to vote for a fellow Italian, making the three favorites of Henry II—Louis de Bourbon de Vendôme, Jean de Lorraine, and Georges d'Amboise infeasible. The non-French cardinal protector of France, Ippolito II d'Este, would then have been the choice of Henry II;Baumgartner, 1985, p. 305. Catherine de' Medici preferred her cousin Giovanni Salviati, who was unacceptable to Charles V and the Farnese.
In contrast, Charles V favored Juan Álvarez de Toledo followed by Reginald Pole, and found unacceptable all of the French cardinals as well as Salviati, Nicolò Ridolfi, and the two prelates responsible for the transfer of the Council of Trent to Bologna (Giovanni Maria Ciocchi del Monte and Marcello Cervini degli Spannochi). A second imperial faction, led by Ercole Gonzaga and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, that opposed Charles's preferred candidates, supported the candidacy of Gonzaga and Salviati.
Elector Nationality Order Title Elevated Elevator NotesGiovanni Domenico de CupisRoman(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Ostia e Velletri1517, July 1Leo XDean of the College of CardinalsGiovanni SalviatiFlorentine(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Porto e Santa Rufina1517, July 1Leo XSub-Dean of the College of CardinalsUncle of Catherine de' MediciPhilippe de la ChambreFrenchCardinal-bishopO.S.B., bishop of Frascati1533, November 7Clement VIIGian Pietro CarafaNeapolitan(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Sabina, archbishop of Naples1536, December 22Paul IIIFuture Pope Paul IVGiovanni Maria Ciocchi del MonteRomanCardinal-bishopBishop of Palestrina1536, December 22Paul IIIElected Pope Julius IIIEnnio FilonardiRoman(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Albano1536, December 22Paul IIIDied December 19, 1549Innocenzo CiboFlorentineCardinal-deaconAdministrator of Marseille, France1517, July 1Leo XPrimus diaconus, Cardinal-nephewWithdrew January 23 with tertian feverLouis de Bourbon de VendômeFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Laon, administrator of Sens, France1517, July 1Leo XNicolò RidolfiFlorentine(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Vicenza1517, July 1Leo XDied January 31/February 1, 1550, Cardinal-nephewFrancesco PisaniVenetian,Cardinal-bishopBishop of Padua1517, July 1Leo XJean de LorraineFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Metz, Lorraine, administrator of Narbonne, Agen, and Nantes, France1518, May 28Leo XNiccolò GaddiFlorentine1527, May 3Clement VIIErcole GonzagaMantuan(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Mantua1527, May 3Clement VIIGirolamo DoriaGenoeseAdministrator of Tarragona1529, JanuaryClement VIIFrançois de TournonFrenchCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Auch, France1530, March 9Clement VIIOdet de Coligny de ChâtillonFrenchAdministrator of Beauvais, and Toulouse, France.1533, November 7Clement VIIAlessandro FarneseValentanoCardinal-bishopAdministrator of Avignon and Tours, France; Viseu, Portugal; and Monreale, Sicily1534, December 18Paul IIICamerlengo, Cardinal-nephewGuido Ascanio SforzaRomanCardinal-bishopBishop of Parma1534, December 18Paul IIIJean du BellayFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Paris, administrator of Bordeaux, France1535, May 21Paul IIIRodolfo Pio di CarpiCarpi(pro-Imperial)1536, December 22Paul IIIReginald PoleEnglish(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopPapal legate 1536, December 22Paul IIINiccolò CaetaniNeapolitan1536, December 22published March 13, 1538Paul IIIJuan Álvarez de ToledoSpanish(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopO.P., bishop of Burgos, Spain1538, December 20Paul IIIBrother of Pedro de Toledo, viceroy of Charles V to NaplesRobert de LenoncourtFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Châlons sur Marne, France1538, December 20Paul IIIIppolito II d'EsteFerrara(pro-French)Cardinal-bishopArchbishop of Milan; administrator of Lyon, France; administrator of Autun, France1538, December 20published March 5, 1539Paul IIIMember of the court of Francis I of FranceAntoine Sanguin de MeudonFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Orléans, France1539, December 19Paul IIIMarcello Cervini degli SpannochiCardinal-bishopBishop of Gubbio1539, December 19Paul IIIFuture Pope Marcellus IIGiacomo SavelliRoman1539, December 19Paul IIIMiguel da SilvaPortugueseCardinal-bishopBishop of Massa Marittima1539, December 19published December 2, 1541Paul IIIGiovanni MoroneMilanese(pro-Imperial)1542, June 2Paul IIIMarcello CrescenziRomanAdministrator of Conza1542, June 2Paul IIICristoforo MadruzzoImperialCardinal-bishopBishop of Trent, Tyrol, bishop of Brixen, Austria1542, June 2published January 7, 1545Paul IIIFrancisco Mendoza de BobadillaSpanish(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Coria, Spain1544, December 19Paul IIIBartolomé de la Cueva y ToledoSpanish(pro-Imperial)1544, December 19Paul IIIGeorges d'ArmagnacFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Rodez, administrator of Tours, France1544, December 19Paul IIIOtto Truchess von WaldburgImperialCardinal-bishopBishop of Augsburg, Germany1544, December 19Paul IIIAndrea CornaroVenetianCardinal-bishopBishop of Brescia1544, December 19Paul IIIFrancesco SfondratiMilanese(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Cremona1544, December 19Paul IIIFederico CesiRoman1544, December 19Paul IIIDurante de DurantiCardinal-bishopBishop of Cassano1544, December 19Paul IIIGirolamo Recanati CapodiferroRomanSaint-Jean de Maurienne, Savoy1544, December 19Paul IIITiberio CrispoRomanAdministrator of Amalfi1544, December 19Paul IIICardinal-nephewPedro Pacheco de VillenaSpanish(pro-Imperial)Cardinal-bishopBishop of Jaén, Spain1545, December 16Paul IIIGeorges d'AmboiseFrenchCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Rouen, France1545, December 16Paul IIIRanuccio FarneseCardinal-bishopGrand penitentiary, archbishop of Ravenna1545, December 16Paul IIICardinal-nephewCharles de Lorraine-GuiseFrenchCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Reims, France1547, July 27Paul IIIGiulio Feltre della RovereAdministrator of Urbino1547, July 27published January 9, 1548Paul IIICharles II de Bourbon-VendômeFrenchCardinal-bishopBishop of Saintes, France1548, January 9Paul IIIGirolamo VeralloRomanCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Rossano, bishop of Capaccio1549, April 8Paul IIIGiovanni Angelo MediciMilaneseCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Ragusa, Dalmatia1549, April 8Paul IIIFuture Pope Pius IVBernardino MaffeiRomanCardinal-bishopArchbishop of Chieti1549, April 8Paul III
Absent were three cardinals, the Frenchmen Claude de Longwy de Givry, Bishop of Poitiers, and Jacques d'Annebaut, Bishop of Lisieux, and Henrique de Portugal, Archbishop of Evora.
Notes:
Procedure The rules of the conclave, as laid out in Ubi periculum and codified into canon law were nominally observed, but also blatantly disregarded, especially with respect to the rules prohibiting communication with the outside world. Some unauthorized persons are known to have been present in the conclave, leaving through the small door left open (). Portuguese Cardinal Miguel de Silva, irked by the presence of ambassadors from both Charles V and Henry II, complained to Dean de Cupis that the conclave was "more open than closed" (). By January 14, with the arrival of Louis de Bourbon, there were approximately 400 people in the conclave, only 48 of whom were cardinals—including the brothers of some cardinals, the representatives of secular rulers, and those whose only purpose was to inform the outside world on the proceedings.Setton, 1984, p. 517-518.
On November 27, the twelve cardinals who had arrived in Rome by then, joined the twenty-nine who had been in Rome at the death of Paul III in drawing lots of the assignment of cells during the conclave; however, those who were already ill were given preferential cell placement without having to draw lots. The conclavists decided to proceed with "closed" ballots () on December 3, having read and sworn to adhere to the bull of Pope Julius II against simoniacal election, , and Pope Gregory X's bull establishing the conclave, Ubi periculum on December 1.Setton, 1984, p. 509. On January 31, a reform committee—composed of Carafa, Bourbon, Pacheco, Waldburg, de Silva, and Pole—decided on thirteen new rules: limiting each cardinal to three conclavists, preventing cardinals from enlarging or switching assigned cells, prohibiting private meetings of more than three cardinals, banning eating together or sharing food, and confining the cardinals to their cells between 10:30 p.m. and dawn; physicians and barbers were each limited to three Italians, and one each of France, Germany, and Spain.Setton 1984, pp. 518–519.
Balloting