Papstwahl 1198

The papal election of January 8, 1198 was convoked after the death of Pope Celestine III; it ended with the election of Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, who took the name Innocent III. In this election for the first time the new pope was elected per scrutinium.

A fragment of the Septizodium, where the election was held.

Death of Celestine III

Pope Celestine III had been elected to the papacy in 1191 at the age of 85. In spite of his very advanced age, his pontificate lasted almost seven years. On Christmas Day, 1197 the 91-year-old Pope expressed the wish to abdicate the papacy on condition that his close collaborator Cardinal Giovanni di San Paolo would be elected the new pope. The cardinals rejected the suggestion as inconsistent with the rule that papal elections must be free ones. Shortly thereafter, on January 8, 1198, Celestine III died and the cardinals present at his deathbed immediately started proceedings for the election of his successor.

List of participants

At the death of Celestine III there were 29 cardinals in the Sacred College. However, no more than 21 were present at Rome:

Elector	Cardinalatial title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Ottaviano di Paoli	Bishop of Ostia e Velletri	December 18, 1182	Lucius III	He consecrated new pope to the priesthood and episcopate
Pietro Gallocia	Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina	1188	Clement III
Soffredo	Priest of S. Prassede	December 18, 1182	Lucius III
Pietro Diana	Priest of S. Cecilia	March 16, 1185	Lucius III
Giordano di Ceccano, O.Cist.	Priest of S. Pudenziana	March 12, 1188	Clement III
Giovanni da Viterbo	Priest of S. Clemente and bishop of Viterbo e Toscanella	May 1189	Clement III
Guido Papareschi	Priest of S. Maria in Trastevere	September 22, 1190	Clement III
Giovanni di Salerno, O.S.B.Cas.	Priest of S. Stefano in Monte Celio	September 22, 1190	Clement III	Elected Pope but declined
Cinzio Cenci	Priest of S. Lorenzo in Lucina	September 22, 1190	Clement III
Ugo Bobone	Priest of SS. Silvestro e Martino	September 22, 1190	Clement III	Archpriest of the Vatican Basilica
Giovanni di San Paolo	Priest of S. Prisca	February 20, 1193	Celestine III	Celestine III tried to designate him as his successor
Graziano da Pisa	Deacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano	March 4, 1178	Alexander III	Protodeacon; he crowned the new pope
Gerardo Allucingoli	Deacon of S. Adriano	December 18, 1182	Lucius III	Cardinal-nephew
Gregorio de San Apostolo	Deacon of S. Maria in Portico	March 12, 1188	Clement III
Gregorio Crescenzi	Deacon of S. Maria in Aquiro	March 12, 1188	Clement III
Gregorio Carelli	Deacon of S. Giorgio in Velabro	September 22, 1190	Clement III
Lotario dei Conti di Segni	Deacon of SS. Sergio e Bacco	September 22, 1190	Clement III	Cardinal-nephew; elected Pope Innocent III
Gregorio Boboni	Deacon of S. Angelo in Pescheria	September 22, 1190	Clement III
Niccolò Scolari	Deacon of S. Maria in Cosmedin	September 22, 1190	Clement III	Cardinal-nephew
Bobo	Deacon of S. Teodoro	February 20, 1193	Celestine III	Cardinal-nephew
Cencio	Deacon of S. Lucia in Silice and Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church	February 20, 1193	Celestine III	Acting papal chancellor; future Pope Honorius III (1216-1227); possibly of Savelli family

Four electors were created by Celestine III, five by Lucius III, one by Alexander III and the remaining thirteen by Clement III.

Absentees

At least eight cardinals were absent:

Elector	Cardinalatial title	Elevated	Elevator	Notes
Konrad von Wittelsbach	Bishop of Sabina and Archbishop of Mainz	December 18, 1165	Alexander III	Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals; papal legate in the Holy Land; external cardinal
Guillaume aux Blanches Mains	Priest of S. Sabina and Archbishop of Reims	March 1179	Alexander III	Protopriest; Minister of State of the Kingdom of France; external cardinal
Ruggiero di San Severino	Priest of S. Eusebio and Archbishop of Benevento	Circa 1178-1180	Alexander III	External cardinal
Pandolfo da Lucca	Priest of SS. XII Apostoli	December 18, 1182	Lucius III	Papal legate in Tuscany
Adelardo Cattaneo	S.R.E. cardinalis and bishop of Verona	March 16, 1185	Lucius III	Resigned the titular church of S. Marcello after the election to the see of Verona in 1188; external cardinal
Bernardo, C.R.S.F.	Priest of S. Pietro in Vincoli	March 12, 1188	Clement III	Papal legate in Tuscany and Lombardy
Roffredo dell'Isola, O.S.B.Cas.	Priest of SS. Marcellino e Pietro	1188	Clement III	Abbot of Montecassino; ; external cardinal
Peter of Capua	Deacon of S. Maria in Via Lata	February 20, 1193	Celestine III	He was legate in Bohemia and Poland in 1197. At the death of Celestine III he had already finished this mission but was unable to reach Rome before the election

Election of Pope Innocent III

Pope Innocent III

On the same day that Celestine III had died the cardinals assembled in Septizonium in the voluntary enclosure. For the first time the electors voted by scrutiny (per scrutinium). Some cardinals were elected scrutineers; they counted the votes, recorded the result and announced it to the rest of the Sacred College. In the first scrutiny Cardinal Giovanni di Salerno received the greatest number of votes (ten), but declared that he would not accept the election to the pontificate. In the second scrutiny the cardinals united their votes in favor of 37-year-old Cardinal Lotario dei Conti di Segni, deacon of SS. Sergio e Bacco, who was the youngest of all the cardinals. He accepted his election and took the name Innocent III, maybe as a reference to his predecessor Innocent II (1130-1143), who had succeeded in asserting the Papacy's authority over the emperor (in contrast with Celestine III's recent policy). .

On February 22, 1198 the new pope was ordained to the priesthood and consecrated to the episcopate by Cardinal Ottaviano di Paoli, bishop of Ostia e Velletri, and solemnly crowned by Cardinal Graziano da Pisa, protodeacon of SS. Cosma e Damiano.

Sources

• Konrad Eubel: Hierarchia Catholica Medii Aevi. I. Jahrgang. Münster 1913 (Latein, stanford.edu). 
• Thomas Greenwood: Cathedra Petri. XII, XIII. William Macintosh, London 1865 (google.com). 
• Philipp Jaffé: Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita Ecclesia ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Veit et Socius, Berlin 1851 (Latein, archive.org). 
• Werner Maleczek: Papst und Kardinalskolleg von 1191 bis 1216. M. Schöbel, Vienna 1984. 
• Salvador Miranda: Consistory of September 1190 (III). In: The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church. Abgerufen im 1. Januar 1 
• Vorlage:Cite encyclopedia
• Ambrogio Piazzoni: Historia wyboru papieży. Wydawnictwo M, Kraków 2003, ISBN 83-7221-648-7 (polnisch). 
• Damian J Smith: Innocent III and the Crown of Aragon. Ashgate Publishing, Aldershot 2004, ISBN 0-7546-3492-2 (google.com). 
• Julien Théry-Astruc, "Introduction", in Innocent III et le Midi (Cahiers de Fanjeaux, 50), Toulouse, Privat, 2015, p.11-35.