Benedict XV changed international law

6 September 1914. Benedict XV, Giacomo Della Chiesa of Genoa, was elected with an exact two-thirds majority of the votes. As it was not permitted to vote for oneself, his ballot paper had to be verified by means of the personal motto written on the outside. The election took the public and the Curia by surprise, so much so that none of the papal robes prepared, as was customary, were small enough for the newly elected Pope, who was of a very slight build. His stern condemnation of the war, which had begun just a few weeks earlier and which the Pope described as ‘horrendous carnage’ and ‘pointless slaughter’, was consistently accompanied by support for prisoners of war and the families of the fallen on both sides. Benedict’s repeated appeals – in 1917 he proposed a programme for peace based on justice rather than military victory – were more widely praised than heeded, but his diplomatic efforts contributed to the emergence of an innovative vision of international law, which also encompassed a new definition of personal and civil rights, what we now call ‘human rights’.

7 September 1159. Alessandro III, Rolando Bandinelli of Siena, a proponent of an anti-imperial policy, was elected. A small group of cardinals favourable to Frederick I Barbarossa, however, elected Ottaviano da Monticello, who took the name Victor IV. Thus began a schism that lasted more than twenty years (involving three further antipopes: Paschal III, Callistus III and Innocent III), during which Alexander was forced to live for the most part away from Rome. These were the years of Barbarossa’s attempt to control the papacy, of resistance from the Italian communes, of the League of Lombard Cities, of the Battle of Legnano and, finally, of the Peace of Venice. Once the situation had calmed down, in 1179 Alexander III convened the Third Lateran Council in Rome, attended by over three hundred bishops and numerous abbots and experts, totalling nearly a thousand people. The first document approved concerned papal elections, with the aim of ensuring they were free from external influence and of preventing disputes and uncertainty. In order to ‘avoid discord’ (as the document is titled), the right to elect the Pope—reserved solely for cardinals—was reaffirmed, and the requirement for a two-thirds majority was established; these rules remain in force to this day.

8 September 701. Sergius I, born in Palermo and of Syrian origin, died. His election had taken place against a turbulent backdrop following the death of Conon, when two factions had elected the archdeacon Paschal and the presbyter Theodore. The former, to secure the position, had promised one hundred pounds of gold to Giovanni Platino, the exarch of Ravenna and the Byzantine emperor’s representative in Italy. However, the majority of the clergy elected Sergio. Teodoro accepted the election, but Pasquale did not; he summoned the exarch to Rome. The exarch arrived in the city unannounced and, realising that Sergio enjoyed the support of the vast majority, gave his consent to his election. But he demanded from Sergio the gold that Pasquale had promised him!