Pope Gregory XVI - Election As Pope

Election As Pope

On 2 February 1831, after a sixty-four day conclave, Cappellari was unexpectedly chosen to succeed Pope Pius VIII (1829–30). His election was influenced by the fact that the cardinal considered the most papabile, Giacomo Giustiniani, was vetoed by King Ferdinand VII of Spain. There then arose a deadlock between the other two major candidates, Emmanuele De Gregorio and Bartolomeo Pacca. To resolve the impasse, the cardinals turned to Cappellari, but it took as many as eighty-three ballots for a sufficient majority to be reached.

At the time of election, Cardinal Cappellari was not yet a bishop: he is the last man so far to be elected Pope prior to his episcopal consecration. He was consecrated as bishop by Bartolomeo Pacca, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Velletri and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, with Pier Francesco Galleffi, Cardinal Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina and sub-dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals, and Tommasso Arezzo, Cardinal Bishop of Sabina, acting as co-consecrators.

The choice of Gregory XVI as his regnal name was influenced by the fact that he had been abbot of San Gregorio monastery on the Coelian Hill for more than twenty years. This was the same abbey from which Pope Gregory the Great had dispatched missionaries to England in 596.