The 1241 papal election (21 September to 25 October)Gregorovius is in error, giving 1 November as the date of the Election of Celestine IV; he was following the Annals of Piacenza and the Chronicle of Mailros. See the list of contemporary sources on the matter in August Potthast, Regesta pontificum Romanorum I, p. 940. saw the election of Cardinal Goffredo Castiglioni as Pope Celestine IV. The election took place during the first of many protracted sede vacantes of the Middle Ages, and like many of them was characterized by disputes between popes and the Holy Roman Emperor. Specifically, the election took place during the war between Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor and the Lombard League and deceased pontiff, Pope Gregory IX, with Italy divided between pro-Papal and pro-Imperial factions known as the Guelphs and Ghibellines.
During the sede vacante, Frederick II surrounded Rome with his armies, blocking the arrival of some cardinal electors known to be hostile to his interests. Unable to reach a consensus, the cardinals were locked in a monastery called the Septasolium (corrupted in both medieval and modern narratives into Septizodium) by the Roman civic officials, eventually settling on one of their oldest and most feeble members. The conditions within the building were believed to have contributed to the death of one of the papabile and even to the death of Celestine IV soon after the election. Following Celestine IV's death, the war on the peninsula resumed and the cardinals dispersed for over a year and a half before coming together in Anagni to elect Pope Innocent IV.
The forced sequestration of the cardinals during the election was historically significant, and—along with other papal elections of the 13th century—contributed to the development of the papal conclave.
Context
The papacy of Pope Gregory IX (1227–1241) and the kingship of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor took place at a time when centuries-old disputes between the popes and emperors were coming to a head. Frederick II had dedicated troops, but not his own leadership, to the failed Fifth Crusade, to the dismay of the church; following his marriage to Isabella II of Jerusalem, he took up the Sixth Crusade but later abandoned it and returned to Italy, for a variety of political, economic, and military reasons. This served as a pretext for his excommunication by Gregory IX, and thinly veiled skirmishes between supporters of the pope and emperor (Guelphs and Ghibellines, respectively) throughout the Italian peninsula, particularly in Lombardy. Before his death, Gregory IX had called for a synod to denounce Frederick II, and the emperor had gone to great lengths to disrupt the gathering, including the imprisonment of captured prelates and cardinals.
The conclave took place under the threat of the surrounding army of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor—before he pulled back to Apulia: Frederick II's retreat was meant to show that the Emperor "had made war with Gregory IX, and not with the Church"Gregorovius, 1906, p. 218.—who had been at odds with Gregory IX and then Celestine IV. Two cardinals had been sent to England (Oddo de Monferrato) and France (Giacomo da Pecorara, OCist.), in order to rally bishops and other prelates to attend Pope Gregory's Council. Since Frederick and his army held the Lombard plain and Tuscany, travelers would have to take the sea route. A navy was assembled by the two cardinals at Nice and Genoa, and despite warnings from the Genoese, they insisted on setting sail. They were met by Frederick's fleet off the tiny island of Giglio on 3 May 1241. They were sent to imprisonment in the Kingdom of Naples. The election took place in the Saepta Solis ('enclosure of the Sun') near the Clivus Scauri, an ancient complex that had been turned into a monastery.The Cardinals were not put in the Septizodium, a third-century nymphaeum which was mostly in ruins in 1241, and which never had any rooms attached to it. The New Topographical Dictionary of Ancient Rome (ed. L. Richardson) (Baltimore 1992), pp. 349-350, makes it clear that the Septizodium was only an elaborate water feature, without rooms or roof; "the upper storeys can have been accessible only by ladders, and there is no sign of a building of any sort behind this façade." A clue as to what is meant is given by a signature of the newly created Cardinal Silvius, ca. 1130: Silvius diac. S. Luciae iuxta Heligabalum: J. Watterich, Pontificum Romanorum Vitae II, 185. Heliogabalus, the early-third-century Roman Emperor, had built the Precinct of the Sun (Saepta Solis) not far from the Septizodium, at the foot of a street called the Clivus Scauri. It was in the Saepta Solis, or Septasolium, where the election took place. In 1152 a cardinal signs himself Radulfus, diaconus card. Sanctae Luciae in Septa solis; and in 1201 Leo sce. Lucie ad septa solis diac. card. See: The Septasolium (Saepta Solis) The cardinals were confined by Senator Matteo Rosso Orsini, the father of Giovanni Caetano Orsini (Pope Nicholas III),Augustin Demski, Papst Nikolaus III, Eine Monographie (Münster 1903), pp. 2-5. Richard Sternfeld, Der Kardinal Johann Gaetan Orsini (Papst Nikolaus III.) 1244-1277 (Berlin: E. Ebering 1905), pp. 1-7. who had been appointed to his office by Pope Gregory IX.Ryccardus de S. Germano, a contemporary writer, says: Eodem mense Augusti iussu imperatoris vastatores de regno aput Insulam pontis solarati et aput Sanctum Iohannem de Incarico, ut intrent Campaniam congregantur. Cardinales qui in Urbe ad papae electionem convenerant, per senatorem et Romanos apud Septisolium includuntur, ut ad creandum papam inviti procedant. "In that same month of August, while, by order of the Emperor, the destroyers from his kingdom, at Insula of Pons Solaris and at S. Giovanni de Incarico, were assembled so that they could enter Campania. The cardinals, who had assembled in Rome for the papal election, were closed up by the Senator and the Romans at the Septasolium, that, even unwillingly, they might proceed to electing a pope." For an evaluation of Ryccardus, see Karla Mallette, The Kingdom of Sicily, 1100-1250: A Literary History (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), esp. p. 45-54. The conditions of the election were reported—by a contemporary author hostile to the Orsini—to have been stressful, with the urine of Orsini's guards on the rooftop leaking into the election chamber along with the rain.Abulafia, 1988, p. 350. This depends on the account published by K. Hampe in 1913 The actual forced confinement to the Saepta Solis took place only for the last two weeks of the conclave. It is even alleged that the citizens of Rome, angered by rumors that a non-Cardinal would be elected, threatened to dig up the corpse of Pope Gregory IX and place it in the Saepta Solis with the cardinals. A different account states that Orsini himself threatened to have the corpse exhumed and displayed publicly in full papal regalia.Rotberg, 2001, p. 58.
Cardinal electors According to different accounts, the College of Cardinals on the death of Gregory IX numbered between 12 and 14 cardinals.The number of fourteen is given by Salvador Miranda Papal election of 1241 and K. Eubel, Hierarchia Catholica, vol. I, p. 6. Eubel's list of cardinals who actually carried out the Election (i.e. were present at the end of the Conclave) contains thirteen names, but omits Robert Somercote, who died before the election was completed; it also includes Peter of Capua, Deacon of S. Giorgio, whose participation is uncertain. The number of 12 or 13 appears from the prosopography of the cardinals of that time by A. Paravicini Bagliani (Cardinali di curia e "familiae" cardinalizie. Dal 1227 al 1254, 2 vols., Padova 1972), who excludes Cardinal Peter of Capua. This discrepancy appears to be a matter of the difference between 'cardinals alive at the death of Gregory IX' and 'cardinals who cast a vote in the final scrutiny'. The number of cardinal electors who actually voted in the final scrutiny was only 10.Kington-Oliphant, 1862, p. 303. At the time of Gregory IX's death, most of the cardinal electors who took part in the election were already present in Rome, and the two cardinals held prisoner by Frederick II were already captive in Naples. The two cardinals had been apprehended at sea aboard captured Genoese galleys,Williams, 1908, p. 511. while traveling to a general council that Gregory IX had called for Easter 1241 to denounce Frederick II.Baumgartner, 2003, p. 35.Ullmann and Garnett, 2006, p. 259. Cardinal Colonna, however, was on one of his country estates near Palestrina when the Pope died. He had had a nasty fight with Gregory IX, and withdrew from the Curia. On his estate he had been holding consultations with the Emperor Frederick. When Gregory died, the Emperor, who was with his army at Grottaferrata, gave permission (licentia) for all cardinals outside Rome to return.Ryccardus de S. Germano, p. 381, lines 29-30: Imperator ipse apud Criptam ferratam ponit castra sua, et in exterioribus Urbem divastat, et tunc de Gregorio papa quod obierit Romae 21 Augusti, pro certo accepit, de cuius licentia cardinales omnes qui extra Urbem fuerant, pro electione papae facienda ad Urbem redeunt. Gasquet, 1905, p. 199.
Elector Origins Order Title Date of creation by Pope NotesRaynalo dei Conti di Jenne JenneA. Paravacini-Bagliani, Cardinali di Curia e 'familiae' cardializie dal 1227 al 1254 I (Padua, 1972), pp. 41-53.Cardinal-bishopBishop of Ostia e Velletri18 September 1227Gregory IX future Pope Alexander IVRomano Bonaventura RomanCardinal-bishopBishop of Porto e Santa Rufina1216Innocent IIINot to be confused with the contemporary Saint BonaventureGoffredo Castiglioni MilanCardinal-bishopBishop of Sabina18 September 1227Gregory IXElected Pope Celestine IVStefano de Normandis dei Conti RomanCardinal-priestTitle of S. Maria in Trastevere1216Innocent IIIArchpriest of the Vatican Basilica; nephew of Innocent IIIGiovanni Colonna RomanCardinal-priestTitle of S. Prassede18 February 1212Innocent IIIThe first Colonna cardinalSinibaldo FieschiLavagna, GenoaCardinal-priestTitle of S. Lorenzo in Lucina18 September 1227Gregory IXFuture Pope Innocent IVRainiero Capocci, O.Cist.TodiCardinal-deaconDeacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin1216Innocent IIIProtodeacon of the Sacred College of CardinalsGil TorresSpanishCardinal-deaconDeacon of Ss. Cosma e DamianoDecember, 1216Honorius IIIRiccardo Annibaldi RomanCardinal-deaconDeacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria1237Gregory IXRector of Campagna and Marittima; nephew of Cardinal Rinaldo Conti de SegniRobert Somercotes EnglishCardinal-deaconDeacon of S. Eustachio1238Gregory IXDied during the sede vacante on 26 September 1241
Absent cardinals