When the unloved Pope Paul IV died in August 1559, the conclave of cardinals that met to choose his successor was short on holiness. Each of the 47 clerics present swore an oath calling on Christ to witness “that my vote is given to the one who before God I think should be elected”. The leeway in the wording was abused in the name of three competing factions – Spanish, French and Italian – and proceedings came to a standstill. The conclave lasted 16 weeks before Giovanni Angelo Medici was elected as Pius IV, by which time one cardinal had died, the rule that the cardinals should have no communication with outsiders was in tatters, and the Holy Spirit had gone missing.
One cardinal, Ippolito d’Este, left a detailed account of proceedings and the Renaissance scholar Mary Hollingsworth uses it as the basis for her rich, full history of the politicking and personalities of the conclave. She weaves into her telling everything from the opposing factions and bargaining to the food eaten and the furniture brought into the Sistine Chapel for the duration. It makes for a fascinating narrative of the intermingling of secular and religious power.
By Michael Prodger
Head of Zeus, 320pp, £25
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