Ballots ? | Dates 13 Dec 1334 – 20 Dec 1334 | |
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Candidates Jean-Raymond de Comminges Location Palais des Papes, Avignon, France Winner Pope Benedict Other Instances Papal conclave - 1799–1800, Papal conclave - 1774–75, Papal conclave - 1769, Papal conclave - 1758, Papal conclave - 1740 | ||
The papal conclave, 1334 (13 December to 20 December) elected Jacques Fournier as Pope Benedict XII to succeed Pope John XXII.
Contents
Cardinals
Twenty-four cardinals attended the Conclave of December, 1334. Their names are listed by Konrad Eubel in Hierarchia catholica.
Politics
An early favorite among the papabile was Cardinal Jean-Raymond de Comminges, Bishop of Porto e Santa Rufina, son of Count Bernard VI of Comminges and Laura de Montfort. The French cardinals, led by Elie de Talleyrand-Périgord, naturally did not want to leave their native France for the plague-infested and unfriendly city of Rome. And since the Orsini faction did want to return to Rome, the Colonna faction chose the exact opposite, and joined the French. A sufficient number of cardinals agreed to support him (2/3, or a minimum of 16 in number), and thus he could have been elected Pope, had he been willing to swear to a condition not to return the papacy to Rome. Understandably, he refused his consent to the election on those terms.