306 THE GLORY OF CHRISTENDOM

THE NEMESIS OF POWER 307

From the example of his own career, [he] showed them the emptiness of this life, and the need we have of
fixing our thoughts on the next. God, he said, had given him high birth, riches, learning, and exceptional
beauty of person. How little did they avail him now, he asked; and, baring his breast, he showed his body,
all wasted away like that of Lazarus just risen from the grave. s
The next pontificate was even shorter. The new Pope was Ottobuoni Fieschi, the Papal legate to England who
brought peace and a considerable measure of forgiveness after the bitter civil war between Henry III and Prince
Edward, and Simon de Montfort the younger and his followers. Cardinal Fieschi was elected after an eight-day
conclave during which the cardinals were tightly confined by order of the French prince Charles, now King of
Naples and Sicily and also Senator of Rome. Fieschi took the name Hadrian V. But he was in very poor health and
died less than forty days after his election, without ever having been consecrated 6
Both these Popes had been cardinals, and neither in their very short pontificates had appointed any new
cardinals, so the size of the College was reduced to nine when the third conclave in the year 1276 assembled late in
August. Five of the nine were Italians and three were French. The other was Portuguese: Peter Julian, a physician
and the son of a physician, and also a teacher of logic. Consciousness of nationality was already strong in the
College of Cardinals (it was to get much stronger) and the initial ballots showed Italians and Frenchmen tending to
vote only for persons of their own nationality. Six votes were required to elect a Pope, and by September 15 all
agreed to compromise on Peter Julian, who took the name John XXL
Within a week of officially notifying Christendom of his election, Pope
Ibid., XVII, 21-22.
b
lbid., XVII, 23-30. For Ottobuoni Fieschi and the struggle between the King and Crown Prince of England and de
Montfort, see Chapter Seven, above.
7 Mann, Popes in the Middle Ages, XVII, 32-41. The numbering of Popes named John is the result of a double
error. In one of the darkest periods in the history of the Papacy, the late tenth century, even contemporary historians
and chroniclers became confused as new popes appeared and disappeared every few months. Some of them recorded
a Pope John, son of Robert, following antipope Boniface VII in 9,85, calling him John XV. But there was no such
person; the actual successor of Boniface VII was John, son of Leo, actually John XV but sometimes called John
XVI. To compound the confusion, the next man named John claiming to be Pope (997-998) was actually an antipope,
but he was included in the numbering of the legitimate Popes named John. The Pope John who ruled from 1024 to
1032 usually referred to himself, and is usually referred to as John XIX, but when Peter Julian became Pope, he or
his staff apparently accepted both the mythical John XV and the antipope John as legitimate, and therefore skipped
XX and went to XXI. It is the most confusing situation in the history of Papal nomenclature. For a good summary of
it, see The Catholic Encyclopedia (1910), VIII, 427-430.
John XXI sent John of Vercelli, master of the Dominicans, and Jerome of Ascoli, a leading Franciscan later to
become Pope Nicholas IV, on a peacemaking mission to France. In Castile Prince Fernando de la Cerda, the eldest
son and heir of King Alfonso X, had suddenly died the year before. Fernando's widow was the sister of King Philip
III of France and insisted that her two small sons by Fernando should become the heirs to the throne, but Alfonso's
second son Sancho the Fierce was demanding that he should be the heir, and had much support. Philip III was
threatening war on behalf of his nephews. Probably because of the persuasion of the two distinguished Papal legates,
Philip did not attack Castile at that time .8
John XXI also sent an embassy to Constantinople, with instructions to press Byzantine Emperor Michael
Palaeologus to complete the Church reunion with hints that otherwise the Pope might withdraw recognition of his
imperial title .9
But this Pope wished to continue his acad8mic pursuits along with all the activities required by his high
position. Finding that the pressure of business and visitors made this very difficult, he added a new chamber to the
Papal palace to serve as a secluded study. On May 14, 1277 its roof collapsed while the Pope was in it, and he died
six days later from the injuries he had received from the falling timbers.' ° He had been Pope just eight months, and
like his two predecessors had made no cardinal appointments.
The smallest conclave in the history of the College of Cardinals followed, with just seven cardinals present:
four Italians and three Frenchmen. Five votes were required to elect a Pope. It was a situation made for deadlock,
and deadlock followed, for six months. It appears to have been resolved only by the death of one of the French
cardinals. This left four Italian and two French cardinals, giving the Italians the necessary two-thirds, and in
November an Italian cardinal was elected: Giovanni Gaetano Orsini, a member of one of the leading families of
Rome, who took the name Nicholas III and was consecrated and crowned the day after Christmas."
 B
Mann, Popes in the Middle Ages, XVII, 46-47; Joseph F. O'Callaghan, A History of Medieval Spain (Ithaca NY,
1975), pp. 376-377; J. N. Hillgarth, The Spanish Kingdoms, 1250-1516, Volume I (Oxford, 1976), p. 310.
9
Joseph Gill, Byzantium and the Papacy, 1198-1400 (New Brunswick NJ, 1979), pp. 165-166.
1°
Mann, Popes in the Middle Ages, XVII, 54.

"Ibid., XVII, 59-61, 70. Mann provides all the data needed for an explanation of what happened at the conclave of
1277, but does not draw full conclusions from it. Available evidence indicates that the four Italian cardinals were
present throughout the conclave, along with two French cardinals. The French cardinal Simon de Brion (later Pope
Martin IV) seems to have been absent throughout. The other French cardinal, Bernard of St. Martin, is known to
have died some time during the year 1277, though the month is not known. If he were present when the conclave
assembled (presumably in early June, since Pope John XXI died May 20), so long as he lived he would have