A conclave was held from 31 August to 3 September 1914 to elect a new pope in succession to Pius X, who had died on 20 August. Of the 65 members of the College of Cardinals, all but eight attended. On the tenth ballot, the conclave elected Cardinal Giacomo della Chiesa, the archbishop of Bologna. After accepting his election, he took the name Benedict XV.
This was the first conclave to include a cardinal from South America: Cardinal Joaquim Cavalcanti, Archbishop of Rio de Janeiro.
Political context
thumb|Sistine Chapel, the location of the 1914 conclave that elected Benedict XV
Europe was already at war, and the new pope would face the question of maintaining neutrality or assuming moral leadership. Catholic Belgium and France were attacked by Protestant Germany, which was supported by Catholic Austria-Hungary, while Protestant United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (including Catholic Ireland) and Orthodox Russia sided with France.
The conclave brought together cardinals from the combatant nations, including Károly Hornig from Austria-Hungary, Louis Luçon from France, Felix von Hartmann from Germany, and three from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland–Francis Bourne, Michael Logue, and Francis Aidan Gasquet. The Belgian Désiré-Joseph Mercier needed permission from the Emperor of Germany to leave his country.
Despite the fact that some cardinals had found it impossible to reach Rome in time to participate in earlier conclaves, the revised set of rules promulgated by Pius X in the Vacante Sede Apostolica on 25 December 1904 required the cardinals to wait only ten days after the death of the pope before starting a conclave. nor did Louis-Nazaire Bégin of Quebec. Five more were too ill or too frail.
Cardinal Merry del Val was not reappointed as secretary of state by the new pope, but was named secretary of the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (then the head of that dicastery, because the popes themselves retained the office of prefect of the Holy Office, leaving its daily administration to the secretary).
See also
- Cardinal electors for the 1914 conclave