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| Mariano Rampolla del Tindaro: With the Insignia of honors and Grand Cross of the Bailli of the Maltese Order |
Tempora mutantur: at the conclave 110 years ago the Austrian Empire still had a weighty word, because a prompt right of veto followed.
Pope Leo XIII closed his eyes at last on the 20th of July on 1903. Then the choice of a new Pope in the course of a conclave was the order of the day. This began on the 31st of July.
64 Voting Cardinals
The 64 eligible cardinals were: 39 Italians, seven Frenchmen, five Spaniards, including even five from Austria-Hungary, three from Germany. There was one each from Portugal, Belgium, England, the USA and Australia. In Rome there were 62, because Cardinal Patrick Maran from Sydney couldn’t be there at the appointed time. For Pietro Michelangenlo Celesia, Archbishop of Palermo, it wasn’t possible to come for reasons of sickness.
The five Princes of the Church from the Double-Monarchy were Kolos Ferenc Vaszary (Gran Esztergom), Leo Freiherr Skrbensky (Prague), Jan Puzyna (Cracow), Johannes Katschathaler, as the Archbishop of Salzburg Primate of the Germans, and last Anton Grscha, Archbishop of Vienna.
Course of the Election
For a valid election a requirement of two thirds majority (of those present) accounting for 42. On the 1st of Augustin at 10 o’clock in the morning was the first vote. As expected, Cardinal Rampola reaped the most votes (24), in the second round he pulled 29 votes after that.
Now the opponents of Rampolla -- who were in the first line of Austria-Hungary -- sounded the alarm, because Rampolla was a red cape for the Double-Monarchy. Under his aegis the Holy See would turn away from the Archcatholic House of Habsburg and to the French Republic, to which the latter was connected to Czarist Russia, which was at that time oppressing Catholic Poland.
The ius exclusivae
It was time for Vienna to play its trump, the jus exclusivae, namely the right of certain Catholic Princes, to prevent a non-desirable Papal claimant. The exclusion, by which the ius exclusive shortly became known by, belonged to, besides the Emperor of Austria, the King of Spain as well as the French government as the successor of the King of France and Navarre.
It is false to say as it is introduced hither and yon (see Google) that Franz Joseph asserted his privilege (which was fundamentally also due to the Magyars for their fight as athletes of Christ against the Turks) in his quality as King of Hungary. Were this so, then the Monarch would have certainly, as the Prince Primate of Hungary, therefore the Archbishop of Estergom, as the one who delivered the veto.
Cardinal Rampolla can not be chosen
In this consideration Franz Josef I. had assigned Cardinal Puzyna a so-called secretum to carry to Rome , which contained the written veto to be cast against Rampolla. Puzyna cast the veto just before the third session (2nd August), which read:
“Called by the highest commission of this office, I consider it my honor, to convey to the Dean of the Holy College in an official way and let it be conveyed the following: His Apostolic Majesty the Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary intend, to serve his ancient right and privilege, namely to assert a veto against the selection of His Eminence of the Cardinal Lords, Mariano Rampola del Tinder."
Guiseppe Sarto Becomes Pius X
With that Rampolla was out of the running, two days later, Guiseppe Sarto, the Patriarch of Venice, was elected as the new Supreme Head of the Church. He took the name Pius X., Austro-Hungary had asserted itself. Once more the old saying was valid: AEIOU -- Alles Erdreich is Oestereich untertan.
Indeed, Pius X. shortly released the Constitution Commissum Nobis on the 20th of January, 1904. The content was a cold shower for Vienna, because from then on, any worldly power which asserts for consideration the jus exclusivae is threatened with excommunication latae sententiae. With that the ancient privilege declared by Franz Joseph would be in the past.
This article referenced the following:
Erich Körner Lakatos:
Palais des Beaux Arts? Normannen in der Karibik?
Vierzig historische Nischen
Edition Octopust, 2012, 369 Seiten, 17,80 Euro
Münster: Verl.-Haus Monsenstein und Vannerda
978-3-86991-601-9
Palais des Beaux Arts? Normannen in der Karibik?
Vierzig historische Nischen
Edition Octopust, 2012, 369 Seiten, 17,80 Euro
Münster: Verl.-Haus Monsenstein und Vannerda
978-3-86991-601-9
Link to kreuz.net….
