Cardinal Gasparri and Benito Mussolini

	AG SEDE VACANTE MDCCCCXXII MISTRUZZI The Ombrellone, with crossed keys connected by cords.
	PETRVS•CARD•GASPARRI• •S•R•E•CAMERARIVS The Arms of Pietro Cardinal Gasparri, Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (1916-1934), crossed keys and archepiscopal cross behind, surmounted by a Cardinal's Hat with fifteen tassels on each side. Mazio-Jencius, 923..

PIETRO CARDINAL GASPARRI (1852-1934) was born at Capovallazza di Ussita, the ninth child of shepherds (or sheep ranchers). He was educated at the Minor Seminary in Nepi and at the Pontifical Roman Seminary. He did advanced studies at the Athenaeum S. Apollinaire, taking doctorates in Philosophy, Theology and Canon and Civil Laws. Ordained in 1877, he became private secretary to Card. Teodolfo Mertel, who was Prefect of the Tribunal of the Signature of Justice at the time. He served for two years as professor at the Pontifical Roman Seminary and at the Athenaeum of the Propaganda Fidei. From 1879 to 1898 he taught Canon Law at theInstitut Catholique in Paris. He was appointed Papal Chamberlain Supernumerary in 1889. In 1898 he was named Archbishop of Caesarea Maritima, and was sent as Apostolic Delegate to Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia. In 1901 he returned to Rome to the Secretariat of State, as Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Extraordinary Ecclesiastical Affairs (the Papal Foreign Office), becoming its Prefect in 1925. He was named Secretary of the Commission for the Codification of Canon Law in 1904, a project that occupied his attention until its completion in 1917. He was named Cardinal Priest of S. Bernardo alle Terme in 1907. On October 13, 1914 he became Secretary of State of His Holiness (a post he held until February 7, 1930) and, on December 4, 1916,Camerlengo of the Holy Roman Church (a post he held until his death, on November 18, 1934). He participated in the Conclave of 1914 and presided over that of 1922.

Gasparri was the principal negotiator and signatory of the Lateran Pacts (February 11, 1929), which established the Vatican City State and regulated relations with the Kingdom of Italy. This treaty restored sovereignty to the Pope, and thus coinage resumed.

The Deanof the Sacred College of Cardinals was CardinalVincenzo Vannutelli.

	AG SEDE VACANTE PASINATI The arms of Richard Saenz de Samper on the Cross of the Knights of St. John of Jersualem, surmounted by an Archbishop's hat with twelve tassels on each side.
	RICHARDVS | DE SAMPER | SAC(cri) • PAL(atii) •AP(osto)LICI | PRAEFECTVS | ET CONCLAVIS | GVBERNATOR | MCMXXII Richard de Samper, Prefect of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces (1921-1926), et Governor of the Conclave, 1922. Mint: Pasinati, Roma Mazio-Jencius, —..

Riccardo Saenz de Samper y Campuzano (1873-1954) was born in Bogota, Colombia. Having served in the army as a Lieutenant of Artillery, he was sent to Paris as Secretary of the Columbian legation. He entered the clerical state in 1895 and spent the years 1896 to 1899 in Rome at the Academy for Noble Ecclesiastics (the training school for Papal diplomats). He was sent to Mexico during 1902 and 1903. On his return to Rome he was made Privy Chamberlain to Pius X, and later interim Maestro di Camera. In 1911 he was named Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Ceremonies. He became Maestro di Camera in 1914, and was promoted Majordomo and Prefect of the Sacred Apostolic Palaces in 1921. He wasGovernor of the Conclave of 1922. The office of Majordomo was abolished in 1926 (briefly revived 1958-68), and he held the title Majordomo Emeritus until his death.

	AG PASINATI The arms of Prince Ludovico Chigi.
	LVDOVICVS | PRINCEPS | CHISIVS S(anctae) • R(omanae) • E(cclesiae • | MARESCHALLVS | PERPETVVS | MCMXXII Prince Ludovico Chigi, Hereditary Marshal of the Holy Roman Church, 1922. Mint: Pasinati, Roma Mazio-Jencius, 924.

Prince Ludovico ChigiAlbano della Rovere (July 10, 1866-November 14, 1951), son of Prince Mario and Antoinette, Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn, was 76th Grand Master of the Sovereign and Military Order of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John on Jerusalem (Knights of Malta) from 1931-1951. In 1893 he married Donna Anna Aldobrandini, Princess of Sarsina; they had three children, Sigismondo, Petro and Laura. Prince Ludovico wasMarshal of the Holy Roman Church at both the conclave of 1922 and that of 1939.

	AG LVD•CHIGI•ALBANI•M•MAG•LXXVI•ORD•S•JOANN•HIER• Bust of Prince Ludovico Chigi Albani, 76th Grand Master of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem.
	EQVITES•S•JOANNIS•HIER•ROMAM•CONVENIVNT (in field:) AN•JVB| MCMXXXIV The Arms of the Sovereign Order of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, surmounted by a crown and draped with the grand collar of the order; on the occasion of their general assembly in Rome in 1934.

Benedict XV gave evidence, on January 5, 1922, that he was suffering from a cold. On January 12, it was noticed that he was feverish and suffering from a heavy cough. On the 18th he was unable to get out of bed. During the night of the 19th/20th, his condition became much worse. On the 21st, he became delirious, and at 6 a.m. on January 22, he was dead.

The Cardinals

Pope Benedict XV had appointed thirty-two cardinals in five creations, four of whom died during his pontificate. Of the sixty-five cardinals eligible to vote in 1914, thirty-two had died before the beginning of the Conclave of 1922. The total number of cardinal electors at the Conclave of 1922 was therefore sixty. Seven Cardinals were unable to attend, three of them arriving too late to vote and four of them excusing themselves because of illness or distance.

Five of the cardinals in attendance had been appointed by Leo XIII.

Conclave

The Conclave of 1922 was the longest of the 20th century. It began on February 2 with the Mass of the Holy Spirit, celebrated by Cardinal Vincenzo Vannutelli, Dean of the Sacred College. Fifty-two of the fifty-three cardinals in Rome were in attendance; Cardinal Niccolo Marini was ill with influenza. Three North American cardinals arrived too late to participate in the election. The Archbishop of Naples excused himself on the grounds of age, and the Archbishop of Rio di Janiero on the basis of distance.

Election

A private tally of votes given during the Conclave was kept by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Friedrich-Gustav Piffl. The tally was not published in his lifetime, but was found among his papers after his death. They were published in 1963 inThe Tablet [J. Noonan,Power to Dissolve (1972), 407]. Piffl's notes indicated the largest number of votes received by a candidate at any given ballot (there were fifteen candidates). Cardinal Ratti received 42 out of 53 votes. His principal competitors were Pietro Gasparri, Pierre de la Fontaine, and Rafael Merry del Val.

Achille Cardinal Ratti (right), Archbishop of Milan since June 13, 1921, was elected on February 6, on the 14th ballot. He was the holder of three doctorates from the Pontifical Gregorian University. He had been a seminary professor at Padua (1882-1888) and had worked at the Ambrosian Library in Milan (1888-1911). In 1911 he moved to the Vatican Library, and became its prefect in 1914. In 1918 Pope Benedict XV sent him as Apostolic Visitor to Poland (1918-1921), and made him Archbishop of Lepanto. In June, 1921, he was appointed Archbishop of Milan, as a means of extricating him from an impossible political situation in Poland. On his election he had held the post for less than eight months.

He was crowned in the Sistine Chapel, still believing the popes to be "Prisoners of the Vatican" and unwilling to have the ceremony take place on the balcony of the Vatican Basilica..

Bibliography

Francis A. Burkle-Young,Papal Elections in the Age of Transition, 1878-1922 (Lanham MD: Lexington Books 2000).  Francis A. Burkle-Young,Passing the Keys: Modern Cardinals, Conclaves, and the Election of the Next Pope (Lanham MD: Madison Books 1999) 16-17.

© 2007 John Paul Adams, CSUN
john.p.adams@csun.edu