Papal conclave, 1655

Coat of arms of the Holy See during the sede vacante

Pope Innocent X who died 7 January 1655.

Fabio Chigi who was elected as Pope Alexander VII.

The Papal conclave of 1655 was the papal conclave of Cardinals called on the death of Pope Innocent X. The conclave elected Fabio Chigi, who took office as Alexander VII.

History

At the death of Pope Innocent X, the cardinals of the College once again took to their respective sides in the French-Spanish conflict for control of the Church.

Francesco Barberini once again sided with the Spanish while his brother, Antonio Barberini, again sided with the French. The third Barberini brother, Don Taddeo Barberini (Prince of Palestrina), had died while the three were in exile in France at Pope Innocent X's orders. There they had lived under the protection of Cardinal Mazarin but they returned to Rome after reconciling with the Pamphili and allying with Innocent X's closest advisor, Olimpia Maidalchini. Papal nepotism of the era was so rife that the two Barberini brothers entered the conclave alongside Girolamo Colonna (Taddeo's brother-in-law), Carlo Barberini (Taddeo's son), Rinaldo d'Este (brother of Francesco d'Este; married to Taddeo's daughter) and Camillo Astalli-Pamphili (Donna Olimpia's bumbling nephew).

Despite myriad family connections, the College of Cardinals was fractured into support for dozens of candidates. Giulio Cesare Sacchetti was, as he had been at the 1644 conclave, put forward by the French delegation but his nomination was vetoed by the Spanish.

Though Fabio Chigi was not the Spanish nominee, those cardinals who stood in support of Spain had no particular objection to him. With their candidate excluded, the French delegation, too, found themselves with no real objection to Chigi. Only Olimpia Maidalchini was left to be convinced. Facing a horde of bored, trouble-making young cardinals, the older cardinals aligned to turn Donna Olimpia to their cause and convinced her to withdraw any objection to Chigi.

On 7 April 1655, Fabio Chigi was elected Pope and took the throne as Pope Alexander VII.

Participating cardinals

• Cardinal Dean: Carlo de' Medici
• Sub-dean: Francesco Barberini

• Bernardino Spada
• Giulio Cesare Sacchetti
• Marzio Ginetti
• Luigi Capponi
• Ernst Adalbert von Harrach
• Antonio Barberini
• Girolamo Colonna
• Giovanni Battista Maria Pallotta
• Francesco Maria Brancaccio
• Alessandro Bichi
• Ulderico Carpegna
• Stefano Durazzo
• Marco Antonio Franciotti
• Ascanio Filomarino
• Marco Antonio Bragadin
• Pier Donato Cesi
• Vincenzo Maculani
• Francesco Peretti di Montalto
• Cesare Facchinetti
• Girolamo Grimaldi-Cavalleroni
• Carlo Rossetti
• Francesco Angelo Rapaccioli
• Francesco Adriano Ceva
• Angelo Giori
• Juan de Lugo y de Quiroga
• Domenico Cecchini
• Niccolò Albergati-Ludovisi
• Pier Luigi Carafa (died in conclave, 15 February 1655)
• Alderano Cybo
• Fabrizio Savelli
• Francesco Cherubini
• Camillo Astalli-Pamphili
• Jean François Paul de Gondi
• Fabio Chigi (elected Pope Alexander VII)
• Giovanni Girolamo Lomellini
• Luigi Omodei
• Pietro Vito Ottoboni (later elected Pope Alexander VIII)
• Giacomo Corradi
• Marcello Santacroce
• Baccio Aldobrandini
• Friedrich von Hessen-Darmstadt
• Lorenzo Imperiali
• Giberto Borromeo
• Giovanni Battista Spada
• Prospero Caffarelli
• Francesco Albizzi
• Ottavio Acquaviva d'Aragona
• Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio
• Giulio Gabrielli
• Virginio Orsini
• Rinaldo d'Este
• Vincenzo Costaguti
• Giovanni Stefano Donghi
• Paolo Emilio Rondinini
• Giancarlo de' Medici
• Federico Sforza
• Benedetto Odescalchi (later elected Pope Innocent XI)
• Cristoforo Vidman
• Lorenzo Raggi
• Francesco Maidalchini
• Carlo Barberini
• Carlo Pio
• Carlo Gualterio
• Decio Azzolino

Absent cardinals

• Baltasar Moscoso y Sandoval
• Alfonso de la Cueva-Benavides y Mendoza-Carrillo
• Jules Raymond Mazarin

Sources

• S. Miranda: Papal Conclave, 1655.
• The Triple Crown: An Account of the Papal Conclaves by Valérie Pirie.