The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections by Michael Walsh Read Free Book Online

in Rome. He seems to have been consecrated immediately, even though the Liber Pontificalis says firmly that before he became pope the see had been vacant three months and ten days. The most likely explanation is that his pontificate was dated from the time imperial approval arrived, even though he did not wait for it.
    And then Gregory was elected. Pelagius had died on 8 February 590 of the plague which, among all the city’s other misfortunes, was now rife among what remained of the population of Rome. The choice of Gregory was unanimous; the only voice against it was apparently his own. He came from a wealthy family which had already produced two popes (cf. above p. 22). He had been prefect of the city, then given it all up to convert his family house into a monastery, and become a monk. He was, therefore, the first monk to be made pope. He had protested at being made a deacon. Now he wrote a letter to the emperor in Constantinople which, instead of informing him of the decision of the Roman church and people, asked him to reject their choice and allow Gregory to return to his monastery on the Caelian Hill. His brother Palatinus, who was prefect of the city, intercepted the letter and substituted one simply announcing the election. In far-o ff Constantinople the Emperor Maurice gave his approval. Gregory, the pope who sent mission- aries to England to convert the pagan Anglo-Saxons, was conse- crated Bishop of Rome on 3 September.
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    Gregory and Leo I are the only two popes to be called “the Great.” But that is the judgment of history, rather than of their con- temporaries. The people of Rome who had elected him so readily turned against Gregory in the closing years of his pontificate as cri- sis followed crisis in their city. Moreover the clergy were unhappy because Gregory seemed to be employing monks to run the papal o ffi ces rather than the priests of the city. The choice of Sabinian as his successor, in the middle of a major famine, reflected their dis- contents. Although the Bishop of Rome was by now e ff ectively the governor of the city in civil as well as religious matters, the emperor in far-o ff Constantinople still claimed jurisdiction, and it was important for Rome to maintain good relations with the imperial authorities. Sabinian had been Gregory’s representative in Constantinople but the two had fallen out over policy toward the East, Sabinian being the more sympathetic toward imperial aspirations regarding Italy. He was also what would now be called a diocesan priest rather than a monk. He was, in other words, a striking contrast to Gregory. But he, too, incurred the anger of the mob when, in the continuing famine, he chose to sell grain rather than give it away. When he died, he was so disliked that his funeral procession had to steer clear of the city itself.
    So just as there had been a reaction against Gregory, the election of Boniface III seems to have been a reaction against Sabinian. There was a long gap between the death of the pope and Boniface’s consecration, only a few days short of a year, which suggests that the election was controversial. Boniface, whose pontificate after his consecration lasted only ten months, held a synod in which the ban on canvassing – and the o ff ering of bribes – was once again enacted. What is more, the clergy agreed that discussion about the succes- sion was not to take place until three days after a papal death. At that point there was to be a meeting of the clergy and of what looks like the upper echelons of Roman society, when a vote would be taken. Clearly the notion that all the people of the city had a say in choosing a pope had by this time (607) already disappeared.
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    Boniface III was followed by Boniface IV, who had been Gregory I’s treasurer and was very much in the mold of his old master – so much so that he, too, turned his family home into a monastery and once again gave prominence in his administration