April 1555 conclave


The April 1555 papal conclave was convoked after the death of Pope Julius III. The cardinals at the conclave generally grouped themselves into three major factions, according to their alignment with the French House of Valois, the Habsburgs, or Italian states that remained independent of both major Catholic powers. After preparing a conclave capitulation that compelled whichever cardinal was elected pope to maintain neutrality in European wars, cardinals from the Holy Roman Empire joined in supporting the French faction's candidate, Cardinal Marcello Cervini. Cervini was elected Julius's successor, and chose to maintain his baptismal name as his papal name, becoming consecrated as Marcellus II.

List of participants

Pope Julius III died on March 23, 1555. Thirty-seven out of fifty-seven cardinals participated in the election of his successor:
Fifteen electors were created by Julius III, twenty by Pope Paul III, one by Pope Clement VII and one by Leo X.

Absentee cardinals

Twenty cardinals were absent:
Thirteen were created by Paul III, four by Clement VII, two by Julius III and one by Leo X.

Divisions in the Sacred College

College of Cardinals was divided into three parties:French party – the adherents of the king Henry II of France. Their leader was Charles de Lorraine-Guise.Habsburg party – cardinals aligned with Emperor Charles V. Their leader was Cardinal Juan Álvarez de Toledo.Italian party – group of Italian cardinals headed by Alessandro Farnese, Cardinal-nephew of Paul III, with no direct connections with main Catholic powers: Habsburg Empire or France.

The election of Pope Marcellus II

The Cardinals present in Rome entered the conclave on April 5. Initially, they prepared and subscribed the conclave capitulation, which obliged the newly elected pope to maintain neutrality in the European conflicts and forbade him to conduct wars against Christian princes. In spite of the existing divisions, cardinals quickly achieved consensus. On April 9 at 11 p.m. they elected by acclamation Cardinal Marcello Cervini. He was proposed by the French faction, but also obtained the support of the Imperial cardinals despite the express wishes of Charles V against Cervini's election.
On April 10 in the morning a formal scrutiny took place to confirm the election. Cervini received all votes except of his own, which he gave to Gian Pietro Carafa. He retained his baptismal name, adding to it only an ordinal number. On that same day, he was consecrated bishop of Rome by Cardinal Gian Pietro Carafa, bishop of Ostia e Velletri and Dean of the College of Cardinals, and crowned by Cardinal Francesco Pisani, Protodeacon of S. Marco.